A . H A R T M A N
B y R E V . L L O Y
T h e question of the day of the week on which Jesus was crucified, and the exact length of time that He spent in Joseph’s tomb, is one that, in recent years, is discussed every Easter-time. A number of very sound, Bible-believing teachers are always found opposing the traditional date, arguing that the Good Friday tradition is wrong and that Jesus really died on Wednesday rather than on Friday. Does the Bible give a clear and definite answer to this question, or must we depend upon human arguments and take our choice between two conflicting human an swers, based upon conflicting interpretations of the Scrip tures? It is the purpose of the present article to show that the Bible does give the answer, an answer which may be proved from the Bible itself, interpreting Scripture by Scripture. Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, and John 19:31 all agree in telling us that the day on which He died was “ the pre paration, that is, the day before the sabbath.” At first thought, that seems to be a conclusive answer to our question, for if the Jewish sabbath came on Saturday, the day before the sabbath must have been Friday. But those who deny that the crucifixion was on Friday point to John 19:14, where the phrase, “ preparation of the pass- over,” occurs. They argue that in this particular case the “ preparation” referred, not to the regular weekly sabbath, but to the special sabbath which marked the beginning of the passover feast, and which, they say, occurred that year on Thursday. In the absence of direct scriptural proof either way, we will not press the argu ment on this point, but will turn to a consideration of the passages which mention the time interval that He was in the grave. Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:22; 18:33; 24:7, 46 and I Corinthians 15:4 (ten pas sages) all agree in telling us that the resurrection would occur, or did occur, “ the third day.” 'In Matthew 27:63 and Mark 8:31 the time is stated as “ after three days.” John tells us that He was speaking of the temple of His
body when He said in John 2:19, “ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” So we have the two expressions, “ the third day” and “ three days,” used at least thirteen times concerning the period His body was in the grave. The two expressions must be synonymous, since they are used interchangeably of the same interval, by the same writers. So we come to the question, “How long is three days?” This question is not so simple as it seems, for what we really mean is: “How long a time interval did the people of first-century Palestine actually have in mind when they used the expressions, ‘after three days,’ ‘the third day,’ ‘three days ago,’ etc.?” The traditional answer is that the Jews, in counting time by days, counted both ends, so the interval from Friday to Sunday would be counted as three days, although we would consider it only two days. Is there Scripture proof of this, or is it just someone’s idea? For the answer, we shall examine Leviticus 19:6, Luke 13:32, 33 and Acts 10. In Leviticus 10:6, we read: “ It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire.” Here we have a clear indication that “ the third day” immediately followed “ the morrow.” In Leviticus 7:16, 17 we have a parallel passage, with a similar enumera tion of days. In Luke 13:32, 33, we have Jesus speaking as follows: “ And he said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Neverthless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” With out discussing the meaning of Jesus’ statement, we simply notice that we have two parallel enumerations of days, and the variation of the wording in the second enumera tion proves clearly that here again, as in Leviticus, “ the third day” immediately followed “ to morrow.” Now let us suppose that Jesus, on the way to the (continued on next page)
APRIL, 1960
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