You know how Jesus said that the way people could tell he was the Messiah was that he would stay three days and three nights in the heart of the earth? Remember? They just kept going on about how he was going to be raised on the third day

So he was crucified and died in the early evening of a “preparation day“, which is the day before the Sabbath, the Jewish weekly Sabbath being Saturday… So, on the face of it one might think that he had been crucified and died on a Friday, now known as Good Friday…

But he rose again on Sunday morning before Mary arrived to put more spices and ointments on his body. Friday evening to Saturday evening= 1 night and 1 day. Saturday evening to Sunday morning = I night and a part of a morning. That isn’t three days and three nights to me.

But Jesus was actually killed on Passover which is the start of a seven day long holiday. According to the Old Testment, a day starts at sunset, so, for example, the weekly Jewish Sabbath on a Saturday starts on Friday at sunset. Passover, being an annual Sabbath, can fall on any day of the week. This year Passover is from sunset April 23, 2005 to nightfall May 1, 2005.

Back to the Bible. So Jesus was crucified and died and put in a tomb on the evening of Day #1. The next day Day #2 was a Sabbath and no one did anything. on Day #3 Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, James and Salome went to buy some spices to anoint Jesus’ body. On Day #4 they rested again for it was another Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, a Saturday. On Day #5 they took the spices to the tomb and found that Jesus’ body wasn’t there.

Day#1- Day#2= 1 night & 1 day. Day#2-Day#3= 1 night & 1 day Day#3-Day#4= 1 night & 1 day Day#4-the morning of Day#5= 1 night. Total 4 nights and 3 days.

But Jesus said he’d be in the “heart of the Earth” for three days and three nights. Clearly he had been “resurrected” the evening before the Marys etc arrived.

Now if Day#4 was a Sabbath and Day#5 was the ‘first day of the week’ as it says in the Bible. Then clearly they were Saturday and Sunday. That makes the day he was crucified a Wednesday afternoon.

If we look at a Jewish holiday calculator we find that Passover (Erev Pasach) in the year 31 CE starts on Monday the 24th of March. Hmmm. Remembering that when the Gregorian calendar was introduced and 10 days were “lost” then that really means that Passover started on Thursay the 3rd of April that year. And remembering that a day according to Jewish tradition starts on sunset the day before.

So Wednesday the 2nd of April 31CE was the day Jesus was crucified.

I think we should all have tomorrow today off for the crucifixion. Who’s with me?