I have been surprised at the number of pastors who equivocate rather than give a straight Biblical answer as to which day of the week Jesus was crucified on, and on anything that might be contentious. Is it that they don't know what the Bible actually says?

One Wednesday proponent works it out in half days like so:

Sunset Wednesday to sunset Thursday = 1 night and 1 day
Sunset Thursday to sunset Friday = 1 night and 1 day
Sunset Friday to sunset Saturday = 1 night and 1 day

Total three nights and three days, and that Jesus arose immediately on sunset on Saturday, so doesn't count Sunday night, (night is the start of the Jewish day) but gives no evidence as to when Jesus arose. It is an assumption to enable discounting Sunday night, but fails as Jesus must have risen on Sunday so at least the night must be counted. John Ch20:v1, Luke 24:v1: "The first day".

Problem1:

Mat 28:1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
Mat 28:2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.
Mat 28:3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
Mat 28:4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
Mat 28:5 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
Mat 28:6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
Mat 28:7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."
Mat 28:8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
Mat 28:9 Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.
Mat 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
Mat 28:11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.
Mat 28:12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money,
Mat 28:13 telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.'
Mat 28:14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble."
Mat 28:15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.
This would make it seem that the two Marys were witnesses to the stone being rolled away, and that Jesus rose after dawn on Sunday. Also the guards were still there, and frightened by the stone being removed, they saw the angel, and the violent earthquake and the stones removal would be terrifying, since it was their job to make sure it wasn't moved and their lives were on the line. Also rising from the dead would entail some sort of work by God, breaking the Sabbath rules, so Jesus would probably not allow it on a Sabbath.

The Guards' Report:

So in this calculation for a Wednesday crucifixion the total is four nights and three days, but if Jesus arose after sunrise before Mary arrived, (how far did she have to walk after dawn?), then four nights and four days. He was still nearby, because he spoke to Mary, so probably had not long risen.

Also three of the Bible references at the top of the page say "on the third day". For a Wednesday crucifixion this would be Thursday, Friday and be raised on the third day:- Saturday the Sabbath, not the fourth day, Sunday. If it was a Saturday resurrection Mary would not have been carrying spices etc to anoint Jesus' body because that would be working on the Sabbath, even just carrying spices etc would be work. But Mary came after the Sabbath, (plural) on the first day of the week.

Problem2:

Cutting and waving palm branches on the Sabbath would have been totally unacceptable to Jesus, as it would be an insult to God's laws on the Sabbath.

If you get around this by saying that Jesus was selected on Sunday the 11th then he was not our Messiah as he was not selected on the 10th when the Torah says to select the lambs, and we are still in our sins. Being very popular on the eleventh doesn't count towards being the Lamb of God.

Problem3:

Wednesday believers have a spare day for no purpose at all, and must believe that Mary refrained, for no apparent reason, from going to the tomb to prepare the body. In is unlikely that she knew that soldiers had been posted at the tomb, because this was done later by the chief Priests and Pharisees late on the day, or early the next day, the 15th, that is during the Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Matthew 27: v62.

End result

Bible teacher David Pawson's ideas

Unlocking the Bible, Resurrection
The heart of Christianity www.davidpawson.org

Jesus wasn't born on the year zero, our calendar is wrong, Herod the Great who tried to kill him when he was born, and killed many of his cousins, in fact a couple of hundred relatives and friends of Jesus were killed when he was born, but Herod the Great died in 4 BC, so I'm afraid the calendar we use in 2013 is at least 4 years wrong.

In a recording detailed above of David Pawson, (renowned Bible teacher), entitled "Resurrection The heart of Christianity" though he mistakenly says the crucifixion was a Wednesday, which makes Palm Sunday a Saturday Sabbath, so you can't cut and wave branches, he makes it nearly fit by equivocation, calculating in Jewish days, sunset to sunset, then switches to Roman days, midnight to midnight, to claim that Jesus had to rise before midnight Saturday [Roman]. to the Jews that is Sunday, to Romans it avoids an extra day, since it was not yet Sunday. So the Jews would say he rose on Sunday [Jewish time].

In the second part David realised that Friday was a free work day when Mary could have gone to the tomb, and thought that she didn't because the guards were on duty.

He had researched and found that in 29AD when Jesus was 33 years old the Passover, the 14th, was on Thursday. ( meaning the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread, celebrated on the 15th. the 14th is the day after the lambs are killed. I listened to his tape again, he uses this to say Jesus was crucified on the Wednesday, apparently thinking that the Passover started with the Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so he assumed that the lambs were killed the day before that, ie Wednesday, but the Passover is the day the lambs are killed, the 14th.) His assumption makes the Passover (which must be on the 14th) Wednesday instead, and therefore the 10th when the lamb must be selected becomes the previous Saturday Sabbath, so Palm Sunday would actually be Saturday the 10th, when the lamb had to be chosen. David did not say anything about having to be selected on the tenth, which would have been Saturday, on his reckoning, if the crucifixion was Wednesday, so has the problems as listed above. Wednesday believers don't concern themselves with having to select the lamb on the 10th.

Messianic Jews: Wednesday

I also believe Yeshua was crucified Nisan 14, which in the year 30 AD was a Wednesday (which fits well with the Talmud description that the lot on Yom Kippur always fell on left for 40 straight years before the destruction of the temple: "Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot ['For the Lord'] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the western most light shine; and the doors of the Hekel [Temple] would open by themselves" (Soncino version, Yoma 39b).

The Talmud passage indicates that the year of the crucifixion was 30 AD because the cloth tied to the Yom Kippur goat no longer turned white indicating that there was now another way - Yeshua is now providing forgiveness for sins, not the sacrifice.

Nisan 14th in the year 30 AD was Wednesday.

Problem 1:

By the time Jesus rose from his death the ceremony was well and truly over. It was not until he rose, and returned to his father, that Jesus was in full authority, bringing forgiveness of sins, and grace, so it was the next year, the year after the crucifixion, that the strap did not change color, because from the beginning of that year, after Jesus went to heaven, Jesus had been forgiving and giving release from sins.

From this calculation it would seem that Jesus was crucified in the year 29. However as mentioned above, David Pawson had researched and found that in 29AD when Jesus was 33 years old the Passover ( meaning the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the day he lambs are killed) was on Thursday, and the 15th, the Feast of Unleavened Bread would be Friday, giving two consecutive Sabbaths. It seems to be common to call the seven day feast "Passover" and call the 14th the day of preparation (for the feast) and virtually ignore Passover and crucifixion. Jews would not want to remember that event. Also I heard recently that Isaiah Ch 52:v13 through to the end of Ch;53 is deliberately ignored in Jewish teaching, so Jews don't get confronted with the predictions about Jesus. Perhaps some Jewish scholar might help in confirming David has it correct, and if the previous year the 14th was Thursday.

This has all the same problems with the Wednesday crucifixion given in the previous section above.

Problem 1:

Problem 2:

If you get around this by selecting Jesus on Palm Sunday the 9th, then he is not selected on the 10th, therefore he is not our "Passover Lamb" and we are still in our sins, and waiting for a Saviour.

End result

Sunset Thursday to sunset Friday 1 night and 1 day.
Sunset Friday to sunset Saturday 1 night and 1 day.
Sunset Saturday to sunrise Sunday 1 night.
Mark Ch. 10:v34:- " -three days later he will rise". At some time on the Sunday. A part is counted as a whole in Jewish thinking making Sunday a night and a day, particularly if Jesus rose after sunrise. The disciples started the practise of worshiping on Sunday, because they knew that was the day of the Resurrection they were celebrating, not Saturday under the law of the 10 Commandments written on stone, by the finger of God, referred to as the "Commandments of death". 2 Corinthians Ch3:7, Romans 7: v10-11

Rise on the third day no problem!

Palm Sunday is the day Jesus was selected as the "lamb of God" to be our saviour.
The only timing we have for the resurrection is that he had risen by the time Mary came to the tomb, and also by then the guards may have left, since Mary does not mention them, but Matthew Ch:11 "While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city" - - so they may have still been there in which case Jesus had probably just risen and the guards were still wondering what to do about the loss of a [dead] prisoner, or the "hurling" away of the stone.

Total is 3 nights and 3 days, (only a part of the third day).

This whole salvation plan had been prepared before creating the earth, as God plans ahead, and was set in set in motion when Adam sinned. Jesus has been waiting for 4000 years for the very hour and minute of his ordeal, as outlined in Isaiah Ch 52:v13 through to the end of Ch;53, and Psalm 22, and other references. God could foresee that if he created an unreliable species such as humans there needed to be a way to select out those who were reliable and would behave in Heaven without having to be monitored. The crucial point is that you have to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and tell him, and then learn about him and how God expects you to behave. You are free from the Ten Commandments as a strict law, but keep them because that is what Jesus wants. Read the Commandments as promises to you, ie. you won't murder because Jesus doesn't wont you to, you won't steal because Jesus doesn't like that, etc. You have to "love your enemies" because Jesus wants them to come to him for salvation, as he is the only source, membership of a church, a brethren group, or your family being strongly Christian, doesn't rub of onto you, you have to make the decision yourself, please do it as eternity is very long and you are an eternal spiritual being, though at present you only see the physical housing and think in your head, and don't feel your spirit.

We still watch David Pawson in Unlocking the Bible, on TV even though it is all repeats now, as he is a good teacher, but I have left this in because many people take his word as absolute instead of reading the Bible and considering whatever points he has made. I carefully typed out the relevant part of renowned Bible teacher David Pawson's ideas on the days Jesus was crucified and rose again, from his message:- Unlocking the Bible, Resurrection The heart of Christianity www.davidpawson.org

He had researched and found that in 29AD when Jesus was 33 years old the Passover, the 14th, was on Thursday. ( meaning the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is the day the lambs are killed. I listened to his tape again, he uses this to say Jesus was crucified on the Wednesday, apparently thinking that the Passover started with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so he assumed that the lambs were killed the day before that, ie Wednesday, but the Passover starts on the day the lambs are killed, the 14th, it is the defining event that caused them to leave with unleavened bread.) This assumption makes the 14th Wednesday, and the 10th when the lamb must be selected the previous Saturday Sabbath, so Palm Sunday would actually be Saturday the 10th, when the lamb had to be chosen. David did not say anything about having to be selected on the tenth, which would have been Saturday, if the crucifixion was Wednesday, so has the problems as listed above. Wednesday believers don't concern themselves with having to select the lamb on the 10th, never seem to research the rules for Passover. This was broadcast on Shine TV in two parts, this is from the first part.
There is some confusion in that it seems that the Passover itself is virtually ignored, and that day is referred to as the "preparation day" preparing for the following Sabbath, of Unleavened Bread, on the 15th. which may occur on any day of the week, even on the same day as the normal Saturday Sabbath, but this year they were two consecutive Sabbaths.

The following is word for word from David Pawson.
It is rather tedious and his mistakes and my comments in green make it a bit confusing, so I have put it at the end as an optional extra.
Lets get the facts straight and two shocks for you, Jesus did not die on a Friday. I know the church has taught that for hundreds of years but it doesn't fit the facts, and He didn't rise on a Sunday morning. There is another fact that you need to grasp, because there are contradictions (that is a warning that his reasoning doesn't fit the Bible) apparently in the Gospel story, Some of the Gospels say that he was in the tomb for three days and three nights, and you can't fit that in between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, not possibly. Were you ever puzzled when you read that? I hope you were and then other Gospels say that he was alive on the third day.

Now those two statements contradict each other. (I don't see any contradiction, as it is what Jesus said) Why then did the Church develop the tradition that he died on a Friday afternoon, because everybody knows that he had to be buried quickly after he died, he died at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and he was buried before 6 in the evening because the Sabbath day began and he had to be buried before the sabbath, sabbath is a day of rest on which you can't bury people and so they hurried through the funeral, but if only people had read the Bible carefully they would know that that Sabbath was not a Saturday, it was not the weekly Sabbath.

John's Gospel tells us it was a special Sabbath a high Sabbath a special day of rest and holiday and the Jewish Passover feast which could be any day of the week began with one Special Sabbath day of rest and it was that Sabbath ( which must be on the 15th Nisan, the day after preparation day, the 14th on which the lambs are killed) which could have been on any day of the week before which Jesus died at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, so it was not a Friday. Jesus himself said that he would be three days and nights in the tomb, so it couldn't have been Friday.

I will come now to what I believe fits the evidence, he died on the Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock on the day before the Passover (They must be killed ON the day of Passover the 14th Nisan ) and that's highly significant because thousands of lambs had their throats cut at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the day before the Sabbath ( correct, the day before the Sabbath is the 14th, the day the lambs are killed) before the Passover ( often refers in general to the whole eight days of the feast) and he died at exactly that moment which is why the New Testament says our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us.

Now when I say that he didn't rise on the Sunday morning you must remember that the Jewish day began at 6 PM on the previous evening at sunset and so the Jews counted the day from sunset to sunset and therefore the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, was on Saturday which ended at 6PM and the first day of the week began, the first working day of the week began at 6 o'clock on Saturday evening and there is only one fact that will explain the fact and that is that Jesus rose between 6PM and 12 midnight on Saturday evening. For the Jews that was the first day of the week and we know from the story that the women came to the tomb long before daylight the next morning and the tomb was already empty.
See Matthew quoted above. This is equivocation which changes the reference points from Jewish to Roman days to make it seem to fit, as in the following paragraph, in which he correctly says the lambs are killed on the day before the passover Sabbath of Unleavened Bread. Refer to Exodus Ch. 12.

For the two facts I want to share with you are that Jesus died on a Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock on the day before the passover Sabbath when the passover for the week began, and that he rose again between 6pm and midnight, and the significance of that is that for the Jew that was the first day of the week, what we call Sunday doesn't begin at midnight, for the Jew it begins at sunset the previous day that's because of Genesis One. We think the whole day consists of a morning and the night, the day and the night , the morning and the evening there was evening and morning the first day and from that the Jews to this day reckon the days from sunset to sunset in accordance with the Scriptures, but the Romans on which our calendar is based go from midnight to midnight, and we don't think a day has begun until midnight and will end the following midnight, thats a western habit that we inherited from the Romans.

Now then we come to the crucial thing in your New Testament the Jewish nation was occupied by the Romans and they were in the difficulties of having two calendars or two clocks. If Jesus rose, if he died on Wednesday afternoon and rose on Saturday night after 6pm then every single thing said about the timetable fits perfectly, he was dead 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb, as he said he would be but also he rose on the third day according to the Roman thinking because their thinking was that 6pm to midnight on Saturday was the third day and suddenly everything in the Bible fits perfectly, and I was able to confirm this, another bit of a shock for you.

Jesus wasn't born on the year zero, our calendar is wrong, Herod the Great who tried to kill him when he was born, and killed many of his cousins, in fact a couple of hundred relatives and friends of Jesus were killed when he was born, but Herod the Great died in 4 BC, so I'm afraid the calendar we use in 2013 is at least 4 years wrong.

Now assuming that Jesus was born in 4BC I did a bit of research and found out that in 29AD when he was 33, and put to death, passover began on a Thursday, that first Sabbath was on a Thursday, (No the Sabbath was on the day after, The eight days of Passover starts with the day, commonly called the day of Preparation, which is the Passover when the lambs are killed) and therefore he died on a Wednesday, the day before the passover began when the lambs were killed according to the Book of Exodus at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and suddenly the whole Bible fits.

I'll leave that with you, I'm not going to say your faith stands or falls by what I have just told you. It is very important that Jesus rose on the first day of the week, that's crucial, it's not so important what day he died on, (God is very fussy about the rules and regulations for all the feasts) the important thing is that he died for you, and that is the fact we need to keep hold of. But I am just trying to say "I am dealing with historical facts, not theories, not myths, not legends, and when you look at everything the Bible says about the death and resurrection of Jesus, there are contradictions until you fit it into the kind of timetable that I am giving you. But he arose on the first day of the week, and that began at sunset on Saturday. Some people think he rose just in time for morning worship, thats not so, he was out of that grave long before the sunrise according to your Bible, and that he rose in those 6 hours of the first day of the week on the night before that fits perfectly, and it also fits the phrase "third day" because Thursday, Friday Saturday, Roman thinking, midnight to midnight, makes that crucial period the third day in the Roman timing and the first day of the week in Jewish timing.

I hope you found that interesting, and I'll give you a little chart that I've worked out when you leave this building, so you can go home and check it out in your Bible and see how it all fits together.

The end of the message.

In the second part David realised that Friday was a free work day when Mary could have gone to the tomb, and thought that she didn't because the guards were on duty.

In a recording detailed above of David Pawson, (renowned Bible teacher), entitled "Resurrection The heart of Christianity" though he mistakenly says the crucifixion was a Wednesday, which makes Palm Sunday a Saturday Sabbath, so you can't cut and wave branches, he makes it nearly fit by equivocation, calculating in Jewish days, sunset to sunset, then switches to Roman days, midnight to midnight, to claim that Jesus had to rise before midnight Saturday [Roman]. to the Jews that is Sunday, to Romans it avoids an extra day, since it was not yet Sunday. So the Jews would say he rose on Sunday [Jewish time].

He had researched and found that in 29AD when Jesus was 33 years old the Passover, the 14th, was on Thursday. ( meaning the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is the day after the lambs are killed. I listened to his tape again, he uses this to say Jesus was crucified on the Wednesday, apparently thinking that the Passover started with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so he assumed that the lambs were killed the day before that, ie Wednesday, but the Passover starts on the day the lambs are killed, the 14th.) This assumption makes the 14th Wednesday, and the 10th when the lamb must be selected the previous Saturday Sabbath, so Palm Sunday would actually be Saturday the 10th, when the lamb had to be chosen. David did not say anything about having to be selected on the tenth, which would have been Saturday, if the crucifixion was Wednesday, so has the problems as listed above. Wednesday believers don't concern themselves with having to select the lamb on the 10th.

For the full story of the events of the week of Jesus' crucifixion go to Passover week

A selection of verses to help you through the commitment to salvation.
This is only the start it is a whole of life commitment, some of your
so called friends might not like the change, but you
get new better friends, and the relationship with the
Holy Spirit makes it all worthwhile.

You may be attending a christian church, but you probably need to check that it is on the right track.
Also you need to know how to draw others out of harmful so called "Christian" churches.

Your comments, for or against, or corrections, welcome:
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