Jesus' Crucifixion on a Wednesday
Ancient Texts
Rises Saturday Evening
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION ACCORDING TO ANCIENT TEXTS by Blaine Newman (a minister of the Church of God, Seventh Day) In the Christian world today, the predominant view concerning the chronology of Christ's last days, is that He celebrated the Last Supper on Thursday evening, was arrested that same night, crucified on Friday, and rose on Sunday morning. In the early Church, however, one finds evidence of a widespread view that Christ held His Last Supper on Tuesday evening. There is also evidence, to a certain extent, that there were early Christians who believed in a midweek crucifixion and a Saturday....resurrection! To support the theory of a Tuesday night Last Supper tradition, the earliest source where I have found evidence is the "Didascalia Apostolorum," a church order which is supposed to have been composed circa A.D. 200. It states: "For while He was yet with us before He suffered as we were eating the Passover with Him, He said to us, 'Today, in this night, one of you will betray Me' And Judas came with the scribes and with the priests of the people and betrayed our Lord Jesus. And so in the night when the fourth day of the week drew on, betrayed our Lord to them. But they made payment to Judas... on the second day of the week ... For when we had eaten the Passover on the third day of the week at even, we went forth to the Mount of Olives, and in the night they seized our Lord Jesus." 1 By the end of the third century a fast was celebrated on Wednesday (until 3:00 p.m.) to commemorate Christ's arrest. Victorinus, Bishop of Petau (martyred in A.D.304) explains: "Now is manifested the reason of the truth why the fourth day is called the Tetras, why we fast even to the ninth hour ... The man Christ ... was taken prisoner by wicked hands, by a quarternion, on account of the majesty of His works ... therefore, we make a station or a supernumerary fast." 2 Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis (367-403 A.D.), says: "Wednesday and Friday are days of fasting up to the ninth hour because, as Wednesday began the Lord was arrested and on Friday he was crucified." 3 Even though at this time Friday was believed to be the day of the crucifixion, Wednesday was still known as the day of Christ's arrest. The early "Pseudopigraphal Book of Adam and Eve" (composed approximately A.D.400) states the same. It says: "Then the Word of God said to Adam: 'Adam, you have determined in advance the days when sufferings will come upon me when I shall have become flesh; for those days are Wednesday and Friday." 4 (The literal reading is actually the "fourth" instead of "Wednesday" and "the preparation" in place of "Friday.") Another pseudepigraphal work called "The Narrative of Joseph" (originally believed to have been composed in the fourth century, but which copy we have only from the twelfth century) states: "Jesus also was taken on the third day before the Passover, in evening. And on the following day, the fourth day of the week, they brought Him at the ninth hour into the hall of Caiaphas." 5 In most modern liturgical churches today, the reason for the Wednesday fast is largely forgotten, however, the Wednesday, fast is very much alive in Eastern Orthodox Churches. Even today in the Coptic Church the reason for fasting on Wednesday echoes the exact reason why the primitive Christian church fasted on Wednesday. The Coptic Encyclopedia states: "The Coptic Church ordains that Wednesday and Friday be observed as fast days, the former being the day on which Jesus Christ was condemned to be crucified, and the latter being the day on which his crucifixion took place." 6 Though the above quoted references show that a Friday crucifixion was endorsed alongside a Tuesday last supper belief, in the "Acts of Pilate" (a pseudepigraphal work originally composed in the fourth century) a midweek crucifixion seems to be indicated. According to the "Acts of Pilate," Karinus and Leucius, two saints who were supposedly resurrected at the time of Christ's resurrection, were reported to have been told by Christ to stay at Jerusalem for three more days to complete the observation of Passover. 7 One Greek version says: "Thereafter we went unto Jerusalem also and accomplished the Passover." One Latin version states: "For three days only were allowed unto us who rose from the dead, to keep the Passover of the Lord in Jerusalem with our kindred (parents) that are living for a testimony of the resurrection of Christ the Lord. And after three days, when we had kept the Passover of the Lord, all they were caught up in the clouds which had risen with us and were taken over Jordan and were no more seen of my man." 8 Since Christ was killed on the preparation day of the Passover, seven days of unleavened bread followed and then the Passover festival was completed. The statement that only three days were left to accomplish the Passover after Christ's resurrection would indicate that Christ spent a full three days and three nights in the grave, and not only parts of three days. Thus the Acts of Pilate seem to promote a midweek crucifixion. If one assumes the Last Supper took place on a Tuesday evening and Christ was crucified on a Wednesday, then Thursday would have to be a Sabbath day, since the Scriptures state that Christ was crucified on the preparation day before the Sabbath. Luke 23:54 says, "And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on." John 19:31 says, "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away." Rabbi Samuel Lacks states, "The day of preparation (Greek paraskeue) equals Friday or the day before a holiday." 9 Since the day of preparation can mean a day before any holy day, the preparation day Christ was crucified on could well have been on a Wednesday and the Passover Sabbath on a weekday (i.e., Thursday). With this scenario, the Passover meal would have been on a Tuesday. According to Leviticus 23:5-8 the fourteenth of the first month is the day of the Passover meal and the day following, the fifteenth, is a Passover Sabbath. It reads, "In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord. Seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein." Therefore the Passover Sabbath could be on a weekday. Christ died on the preparation day at the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) and was buried before sunset. If that day were a Wednesday, then three full days and three full nights later would be Saturday at 3:00 p.m., or just before sunset. (KEITH HUNT---Though Jesus died somewhere around the middle of the afternoon, see my study called "The Hour Jesus Died" - He was not put in the tomb until AFTER the evening had arrived and AFTER the 15th day Sabbath of the Feast on Unleavened Bread had begun. Thus it was an evening burial and an evening resurrection - Saturday evening, three days and three night later. Jesus was the "wave-sheaf" in typology, and the Sadducees (not the Pharisees) cut the wave- sheaf AFTER the weekly Sabbath during the Unleavened Bread feast. It was cut the evening of the first day of the week. Jesus was the first of the first-fruits. The resurrection of Christ was typified then by the cutting of the first of the first-fruits of the barley, to be presented to God in a waving ceremony in the Temple on the morning of the first day of the week. All of this I expound in some detail in the last Gospel chapters of my "New Testament Bible Story", as well as in Pentecost Feast studies) According to this chronology, Christ would have to be resurrected on Saturday after 3:00 p.m., yet before sunset. He would have been resurrected on the Sabbath day. (KEITH HUNT---The full truth of the matter is that Jesus was not put into the heart of the earth, the tomb, until AFTER the evening had started (see my studies on "The NT use of the word 'evening'") and the Sabbath of the 15th day had begun. See the last chapters of the Gospels in "The New Testament Bible Story." The resurrection was a FIRST DAY resurrection as God counts days, evening to evening. Typology all fits - Christ the first of the firs-fruits, resurrected on the first day of the week - we call Saturday evening. Pentecost, celebrated on Sunday, the first day of the week, the Feast of the first ingathering, typology = the saints, as we are called "first-fruits" to God in the book of James. Jesus actually rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, and was NOT raised from the dead until AFTER the Sabbath had ended. Being a first day resurrection it made it relatively easy, over a period of a few hundred years, for the large body of Christians to adopt a Sunday as the Lord's day) This is evidently what some early Christians believed. In the early Christian church there were many who believed that the resurrection of Christ took place on the Sabbath, which is Saturday, the seventh day of the week. (KEITH HUNT---Could well be true, but could well have been counting in Roman time, meaning the evening of Saturday belonged to Saturday. We have at least one recorded fact that this way was counted by some. The Gospel of John - chapter 20:19 "The SAME DAY, AT EVENING, BEING THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK .... JESUS CAME AND STOOD IN THE MIDST OF THEM ..." It is obvious here Roman time is being used - mid-night to mid-night. The CONTEXT tells you clearly this was all happening on the first day of the week) By the fifth century A.D., Easter Sunday celebrations of Christ's resurrection were widespread in Christianity. However, the Church historian Socrates (ca. 440 A.D) in a section of his history entitled, "Differences of usage in regard to Easter," reveals that in the East there were Christians who celebrated Easter on Sabbath instead of Sunday. He stated, "Others in the East kept that feast on the Sabbath indeed." 10 (KEITH HUNT---This could easily be explained if they were using mid-night to mid-night, or Roman time. Then they would be including the evening up to the hour of mid-night as the Sabbath, and knowing Jesus rose in the evening of Saturday night, it would be for them a Sabbath resurrection) Bishop Gregory of Tours (A.D.538-594) tells us that many in France believed Christ arose on the seventh day of the week, even though he himself defended a Sunday resurrection belief. He stated, "Now in our belief the resurrection of the Lord was on the first day, and not on the seventh as many deem." 11 (KEITH HUNT---Again, depending what day recogning they were all using could be the samantic of time. Roman mid-night to mid-night would give you a 7th day resurrection, but sunset to sunset, it would have been a resurrection in the evening of the first day that Jesus rose from the dead. And of course if some by this time were asserting Jesus rose Sunday morning, then certainly it was a first day resurrection) Alexander Ross (A.D.1590-1654) tells us the Armenians believed in a Saturday resurrection, though he disagrees with them. He stated: "The Armenians taught ... that Christ rose from the dead on the Sabbath day, whereas the Scripture tells us plainly that He arose on the third day." 12 Though the belief that Christ rose on the Sabbath has appeared to be long forgotten and abandoned by most Christians today, vestiges of this belief appear to have survived in an indirect way through certain ceremonies in the eastern church. For example, in the Coptic Church, on Holy Saturday "following the ninth hour (i.e., 3:00 p.m.), the divine Liturgy is celebrated." 13 As early as 400 A.D., both Socrates and Sozomen state that in Egypt there was a Sabbath evening celebration of the communion. I4 In the Nestorian Church in India the communion (Qurbana) is still celebrated to this day at sunset on Holy Saturday in honor of Christ's resurrection. Mar Aprem says, "On Holy Saturday it is stated that Qurbana should be at sunset. Because it is believed that Jesus rose from the tomb at that time." 15 (KEITH HUNT---Ah, now are you noticing we are getting closer to the truth of the matter. Some observing rites at SUNSET of the Sabbath. And a Sabbath EVENING celebration of the communion in Egypt. Ah, some had kept alive the fact that the resurrection of our Lord was AFTER the Sabbath had ended and the evening of the first day of the week had started, though if using mid-night to mid-night recogning for the day, that evening would have been a Sabbath evening. Either way, it is evident SOME were still keeping alive the truth that Jesus was resurrected in the evening) Since Christ died at the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) on the day of preparation, and if this day was a Wednesday, then a full three days and three nights later would bring one to 3:00 p.m., Saturday. Since Christ was buried before sunset, then Christ would have been raised before sunset. The time of Christ's Saturday resurrection would have been between 3:00 p.m. and sunset - no later. (KEITH HUNT---Incorrect reasoning because of incorrect facts of what the Gospels actually tell us. First is the "hour" Jesus died, it's not as clear cut as saying 3 pm. But more important is what is told us in all the accounts in the Gospels, what the Greek tenses used mean, and what "evening" means as used in the NT. I go into some depth on the study of "evening" in the NT and in the last chapters of the Gospels in the "New Testament Bible Story. Jesus was NOT put in the grave until AFTER the Sabbath had BEGUN, and was NOT resurrected until AFTER THE WEEKLY SABBATH HAD ENDED, in the period we call Saturday evening. It was a FIRST DAY resurrection - Jesus was the FIRST of the first-fruits. The saints are first-fruits, represented by the Feast of Pentecost on the first day of the week. All the typology fits like hand in glove) FOOTNOTES 1. "Didascalia Apostolarum," (translated by R. High Connolly), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929,p.181. 2. "The Writing of Quintus Sept. Flor. Tertullianus with the extant works of Victorinus and Commodianus," vol.3, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1895, pp. 388,389. 3. Annie Jaubert, "The Date of the Last Supper," N.Y., Alba House, 1965, p.77. 4. Supra. n.3. p.79. 5. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol.8, Michigan. Wm. B. Eerdmans. 1956, p.468. 6. The Coptic Encyclopedia, Vol.4, N.Y.: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1991, p.1096. 7. Montague Rhodes James, "The Apocryphal Mew Testament." Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1960, pp.142,143. 8. Ibid. 9. Samuel Tobias Lachs, "A Rabbinic Commentary of the New Testament," New Jersey: Ktav Publishing House, Inc. 1987, p.437 10. Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, Vol.2, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdman's, 1952, p.131. 11. Gregory of Tours, "The History of the Franks." Vol.2, (trans. by D.M. Dalton), Oxford: Claendon Press, 1927, p.24. 12. Alexander Ross, "Pansebeia: or A View of All the Religions of the World," London, John Saywell, 1658, p.219. 13. upra, n. 6, p.1252. 14. "The Sabbath in Scripture and History," (ed. Kenneth A. Strand), Washington D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1982, p.171. 15. Mar Aprem, "Sacraments of the Church of the East," India: Mar Narsai Press, 1978, p.112. .............. Entered on this Website February 2008 Note from Keith---- Take the time to study my last chapters of the Gospels in my "New Testament Bible Story" and it will make plain all the circumstances around the death of Jesus, and why He was not taken down from the cross and put in the Tomb until AFTER the Sabbath (15th of the first month) of the Feast of Unleavened Bread had started. Hence Jesus was resurrected three days and three night later, AFTER 6 pm or evening had begun in the time frame we call (using the Roman calendar) Saturday evening. When you understand ALL the typology of Christ being the FIRST-fruits, the wave sheaf of the first harvest, His followers being first-fruits unto God, the Feast of Pentecost being on the FIRST day of the week, then we can fully understand Jesus being raised from the dead Saturday evening, going to be presented to the Father on the morning of the First day of the week, as the wave sheaf was being offered in the Temnple [Sadducees teaching was correct]. Yes, a first day (during the very first hours of the evening of the first day) resurrection for Jesus, made it somewhat easy for Satan the Devil, within the first two hundred years to start deceiving most Christians into accepting a First day Lord's day and a First day Easter Sunday, instead of the 7th Day Sabbath and the Feast of Passover [8 days--- Passover day and Unleavened Bread feast]. As Dr.Samuele Bacchiocchi shows in all his Church History studies the majority of Christians also (within a few hundred years) wanted to "get away from" just about anything that could be called "Jewish." So it was as time went on that the popular "church" emanating from the city of Rome, gained more and more influence over the larger part of Christianity. By the time Constantine gained the throne of Rome in the early 300s A.D. Roman Christianity became the state religion over all the Roman Empire. The word "catholic" means "universal" - so became the Roman Catholic Religion. The secular Empire and the religious Empire was then the Holy Roman Empire of history. Keith Hunt |
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