Day
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Actual Definition
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Identifying Event for the Day
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Day 7
Last day of the week
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Friday evening after sunset
Saturday evening before sunset
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The Sabbath Day
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Day 1
First day of the week
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Saturday evening after sunset
Sunday evening before sunset
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Saturday evening would have been the next evening following the Sabbath. When the women arrived at the tomb early Sunday morning before sunrise, they found the rock blocking the entrance to the tomb had already been rolled away and that the tomb was empty.
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This is all of the information that we have extracted from the scriptures that pertains to the timeframe surrounding the resurrection of Jesus. When we examined the scriptures that spoke of Jesus’ death, we found that it was about the sixth hour and all of the land was dark for the next three hour, until the ninth hour on the day of his death. We also found that some scholars been referred to the sixth hour as the noon time hour and the ninth hour was referred to as the three o’clock afternoon hour. We found that during this three-hour period where darkness was all over the land, Jesus said, It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said this, we know that he then bowed his head, breathed his last breath, and gave up his spirit. The one thing that we did not find out from the scriptures was the exact day that Jesus died. Since the exact day is not known, we can still use the information that we have extracted from the scriptures to continue with our time line. We know that Jesus died sometime before or around the ninth hour, which has been defined by some scholars as three o’clock in the afternoon. Therefore, let us label this time period Day B before sunset, which means that there was a prior time period, which we will label Day A after sunset.
Day
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Actual Definition
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Identifying Event for the Day
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Unknown Day
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Day A evening after sunset
Day B evening before sunset
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Since the exact day is unknown, we can use the facts that we do know, which is Jesus died sometime before or around the ninth hour. This time period has been defined by some scholars as three o’clock in the afternoon.
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Day 7
Last day of the week
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Friday evening after sunset
Saturday evening before sunset
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The Sabbath Day
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Day 1
First day of the week
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Saturday evening after sunset
Sunday evening before sunset
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Saturday evening would have been the next evening following the Sabbath. When the women arrived at the tomb early Sunday morning before sunrise, they found the rock blocking the entrance to the tomb had already been rolled away and that the tomb was empty.
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This brings us back to Good Friday. According to our favorite source for information, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, this is a religious holiday that is observed primarily by Christians, commemorating the day Jesus was crucified and died at Calvary. Traditionally, this day is celebrated on the Friday, two days before Easter Sunday. It is the pinnacle of the Holy Week, where all Christians observe this day with great humility and reverence. Holy Week is traditionally the week before Easter, and it includes such religious holidays as Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday (a reference to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot), Maundy or Holy Thursday (which commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles), Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. It is a week that commemorates Jesus’ last week of the earthly life with somber reflections on the events preceding his death, such as the ride into Jerusalem, the betrayal by Judas, the Last Supper with his twelve apostles, the arrest, the crucifixion, the death, and the burial in the tomb. For some, the day represents a day of sorrow gently mixed with some joy. For this group, they believe that it is a time to grieve over the sins of mankind and a time to meditate and rejoice because of God’s love by the giving of his only begotten son for the redemption of our sins. But why is Good Friday the pinnacle of Holy Week? Because some scholars claim this is the actual day that Jesus was crucified and died.
There is however, very little, if any information on Good Friday in the Bible. Matter of fact, there are no instruction for the Christians to specifically to honor the death of Jesus on a certain day. But, we found it interesting the many different rituals and customs that have developed of over the years. From churches, celebrating the day with special services to solemn hymns, to prayers of thanksgiving, to messages centered on the sufferings of Jesus for us, to the observance of the Lord’s Supper. I also found it interesting that the early first century Church set aside every Friday as a special day for fasting and prayer. This practice went on until around the fourth century, when the Church began to observe the Friday before Easter as Good Friday, a day that was to be associated with the crucifixion and death of Jesus.
There were several significant events that also took place during the fourth century. The one that first comes to mind was the convening of The First Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.), whom declared Jesus Christ was God and was consubstantial with the Father, whom adopted the original Nicene Creed, and whom recognized the preeminence of the position of the Popes of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch. They also granted the Pope of Jerusalem a position of honor and fixed the date for Easter. With the Nicene Creed established, this conference was also able to establish the doctrine of the Trinity as the belief and practice of the Orthodox Church and any members of Council who did not subscribe to this newly established Nicene Creed was believed to have been exiled. Now if this Council fixed the date for Easter, then I have to wonder how long afterwards did it take for the practice of observing the Friday before Easter as Good Friday to occur? Why was any of this not set before the fourth century? One would think that it would have been simpler to set the date in the beginning. But remember, we found out that the early first century Church set aside every Friday as a special day for fasting and prayer. The Roman Church later adopted the practice of observing Good Friday in the sixth century. We thought this to be very interesting information, the kind worth sharing.
Now in our discussion, we have determined that those who celebrate Good Friday believe this to be the actual day of Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Therefore, let us plug Good Friday into our table for our Unknown Day and see if we can scripturally validate this substitution. By doing this, it would mean that Jesus’ crucifixion and death was a part of Day 6, which would actually begin on Thursday evening after sunset and end on Friday evening before sunset.
Day
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Actual Definition
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Identifying Event for the Day
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Day 6
Good Friday
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Thursday evening after sunset
Friday evening before sunset
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Since the exact day is unknown, we can use the facts that we do know, which is Jesus died sometime before or around the ninth hour. This time period has been defined by some scholars as three o’clock in the afternoon.
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Day 7
Last day of the week
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Friday evening after sunset
Saturday evening before sunset
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The Sabbath Day
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Day 1
First day of the week
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Saturday evening after sunset
Sunday evening before sunset
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Saturday evening would have been the next evening following the Sabbath. When the women arrived at the tomb early Sunday morning before sunrise, they found the rock blocking the entrance to the tomb had already been rolled away and that the tomb was empty.
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Enjoy your blessings - KW
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