Was Jesus Crucified on Good Friday?

JONAH AND JESUS

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights (Jonah 1: 17, NASB).

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12: 40, NIV)

If Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and rose from the dead on Sunday, He was not in the tomb three days and three nights.  So when was Jesus crucified?

BACK TO LEVITICUS

The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, according to Exodus 20: 8.  In addition to the weekly Sabbath, seven Sabbaths fall within the feast days listed in Leviticus 23: 1-44, and they often occur on weekdays.  In the Feast of Unleavened Bread alone, you will find two of these “special” Sabbaths.  Read on.

” ‘The LORD’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.  On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread without yeast.  *ON THE FIRST DAY HOLD A SACRED ASSEMBLY AND DO NO REGULAR WORK.  For seven days present an offering made to the LORD by fire.  AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY HOLD A SACRED ASSEMBLY AND DO NO REGULAR WORK’ “ (Leviticus 23: 5-8, NIV).  [I added all caps for emphasis.]

If Jesus was crucified on Wednesday (Passover) and buried before sundown, He was in the grave Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and rose from the dead on the first day of the week before sunrise.  Thus, He was in the grave three days and three nights.

24 HOUR DAZE

Keep in mind that a day on the Hebrew calendar is from sundown to sundown.  Why?  According to Genesis 1: 5, God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.”  And there was evening, and there was morning–the first day.

If you didn’t learn this in Sunday school, you’re not alone.  Neither did I.  I once heard a devout Christian say, “Leviticus makes me sick.”  Isn’t that sad?  I don’t blame her for saying that.  The truth is that Christians have been conditioned to pay lip service to the Old Testament while ignoring many of its teachings.  Understanding Leviticus is essential to understanding God’s timeline and calendar. He goes by the Hebrew calendar not the Gregorian calendar. His feast days are define appointments.

* The first and the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are Sabbaths.  If the Passover fell on a Wednesday that year, then the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread began at sundown Wednesday.  In between the first day and the seventh day of the Feast was the weekly Sabbath (Friday at sundown through Saturday at  sundown.)  That’s adds up to three Sabbaths during the week of Passover.

For more information about the Resurrection, see “Easter, Eostre, Resurrection Sunday.”