Questions
- According to Mark 16:1 and Luke 23:56, how many sabbaths were there in that week? Because I see that there was an annual passover sabbath and weekly sabbath.
- When was the actual resurrection day of Jesus Christ? What day was He crucified? In the book of Matthew 16:21, Jesus Christ was to be in the tomb for three days and three nights. Many believe that He rose on Sunday morning because of the rendering in the book of Mark 16:9. Please I need to be cleared on this.
Answer
The gospel accounts plainly state the Lord died the day before the Sabbath, i.e., Friday (Mark 15:42- 45; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:30-31). That should settle the matter.
Furthermore, there is no doubt Christ was raised on the first day of the week. “Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons” (Mark 16:9).
But the statement the Master made in Matthew 12:40 confuses many. “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” If Jesus was buried Friday afternoon, in the tomb all day the Sabbath, and raised very early on the first day of the week, that’s not three days and three nights.
The problem is a Jewish idiom, a characteristic way of expressing time. The Jews counted any part of a day as a full day. Rehoboam told the leaders of Israel to come back to him “after three days” (2 Chronicles 10:5). “So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had directed, saying, ‘Come back to me the third day’” (2 Chronicles 10:12). To the Jews, “after three days” meant “on the third day.” Queen Esther commanded Mordecai, “‘Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise…’” (Esther 4:16). But on the third day the queen ate a banquet with King Ahasuerus and Haman (Esther 5:1-5). It was exactly 72 hours, three full days, from the time the angel appeared to Cornelius until Peter spoke to him (Acts 10:3, 9, 23-24, 30), but Cornelius called it “four days” (Acts 10:30).
There were seven Jewish Sabbaths, times when no customary work was to be done: the 7th day of each week (Leviticus 23:3), the 15th day of the first month (Leviticus 23:6-7), the first day of the seventh month (Leviticus 23:24-25), the seventh month, the 10th day of the month (Leviticus 23:27,32), the seventh month, the 15th day of the month (Leviticus 23:34-35), the seventh year (Leviticus 25:2-4), and the fiftieth year (Leviticus 25:8-12). The Sabbath after Jesus was crucified was a “high day,” not just an ordinary Sabbath (John 19:31), because it was a Sabbath in two senses, the usual weekly Sabbath and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Lord was crucified on Friday.
