When exactly, on what day of the week, was they crucified? John says that Jesus was crucified on the eve of Easter, while other Evangelists say that Christ was crucified on Easter itself.
It is difficult to say on what day of the week Jesus was crucified. This is one of the difficult questions. There is no doubt that John is saying that Jesus Christ was crucified on the eve of Easter. This was also the day before the Sabbath.
“Because it was Friday, when the Jews were preparing for the Sabbath, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus in it.” (Gospel of John 19:42)
The Jews had different Sabbaths. It was Saturday - the Sabbath Day and other "Saturdays" such as Easter. This is the first source of possible misunderstanding.
The question is: was Saturday the Sabbath, Easter Saturday, or both. I believe that all the evidence tells us that Jesus Christ was crucified on the day before Easter. Matthew confirms this:
“All this happened on the day of preparation. The next day the chief priests and Pharisees came to Pilate" (Matthew 27:62)
Some people interpret the words “day of preparation” to mean that Jesus Christ was crucified on Thursday, not Friday. This is possible because Easter could fall on Friday. In this case, the crucifixion could fall on the day of preparation and on the day before the Sabbath (we are not talking about the Sabbath).
On what day of the week Jesus Christ was crucified—on Thursday or Friday—does not matter to Christianity. What is important is the fact that He was crucified on the eve of Passover and that the Last Supper coincided with the Jewish holiday of Seder. I believe this is very clear, and the biblical writers are unanimous on this.
What day of the week the crucifixion fell on depends on what year Jesus Christ was killed. I'm in China now and writing from memory, so it was either 29 or 30 AD. On the one hand, the day of the week and the year of the crucifixion are not significant for Christianity. However, this time is significant for Christianity, as there is a very strong symbolic (and real) connection to Easter and the Feast of First Fruits. All Evangelists are unanimous that Jesus Christ was crucified on the eve of Easter, on the day of preparation.
By the way, I believe it was most likely a Friday, but my guess is based on the strong traditions of the early church. These traditions go back a long way. And I also believe that Jesus Christ was crucified in 30 AD.
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Why was Jesus Christ crucified? This question may arise from a person who either treats this event only as a historical fact, or who is taking the very first steps towards faith in the Savior. In the first case, the best decision is to try not to satisfy your idle interest, but to wait to see if, over time, a sincere desire to understand this with your mind and heart will appear. In the second case, you need to start searching for the answer to this question, of course, by reading the Bible.
In the process of reading, various personal thoughts on this matter will inevitably arise. This is where some division begins. Some believe that each person has the right to his own reading of the Holy Scriptures and remain with his own opinion, even if it differs radically from the opinions of other people. This is the Protestant position. Orthodoxy, which is still the main Christian denomination in Russia, is based on the reading of the Bible by the Holy Fathers. This also applies to the question: why was Jesus Christ crucified? Therefore, the next right step in trying to understand this topic is to turn to the works of the Holy Fathers.
Don't look for the answer on the Internet
Why does the Orthodox Church recommend this approach? The fact is that any person trying to live a spiritual life necessarily reflects on the meaning of the events associated with the earthly life of Christ, on the meaning of His sermons, and if a person moves in the right direction, then the meaning and hidden subtext of Scripture are gradually revealed to him. But attempts to combine into one knowledge and understanding accumulated by all spiritual people and those trying to be them, gave the usual result: how many people - so many opinions. For every, even the most insignificant issue, so many understandings and assessments were revealed that, as an inevitability, the need arose to analyze and summarize all this information. The result was the following picture: several people necessarily covered the same topic absolutely, almost word for word, in the same way. Having traced the pattern, it was easy to notice that the opinions exactly coincided among a certain kind of people. Usually these were saints, theologians who chose monasticism or simply led a particularly strict life, more attentive than other people to their thoughts and actions. Purity of thoughts and feelings made them open to communication with the Holy Spirit. That is, they all received information from one source.
The discrepancies arose from the fact that, after all, no person is perfect. No one can escape the influence of evil, which will certainly tempt and try to mislead a person. Therefore, in Orthodoxy it is customary to consider as truth the opinion confirmed by the majority of the Holy Fathers. Single assessments that do not coincide with the vision of the majority can be safely attributed to personal conjectures and misconceptions.
It is better to ask a priest about everything related to religion
For a person who has just begun to be interested in such issues, the best solution would be to turn to a priest for help. He will be able to recommend literature that is suitable for a beginner. You can seek such help from the nearest temple or spiritual educational center. In such institutions, priests have the opportunity to devote a sufficient amount of time and attention to the issue. It is more correct to look for the answer to the question “Why was Jesus Christ crucified?” exactly this way. There is simply no clear answer to it, and independent attempts to seek clarification from the Fathers are dangerous, since they wrote mainly for monks.
Christ was not crucified
Any Gospel event has two meanings: obvious and hidden (spiritual). If we look from the point of view of the Savior and Christians, the answer could be this: Christ was not crucified, He voluntarily allowed himself to be crucified for the sins of all mankind - past, present and future. The obvious reason is simple: Christ questioned all the usual views of the Jews on piety and undermined the authority of their priesthood.
The Jews, before the coming of the Messiah, had an excellent knowledge and precise execution of all laws and rules. The Savior's sermons made many people think about the falsity of this view of the relationship with the Creator. In addition, the Jews were waiting for the King promised in the prophecies of the Old Testament. He had to free them from Roman slavery and stand at the head of a new earthly kingdom. The high priests were probably afraid of an open armed uprising of the people against their power and the power of the Roman emperor. Therefore, it was decided that “it is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish” (see chapter 11, verses 47-53). This is why Jesus Christ was crucified.
Good Friday
On what day was Jesus Christ crucified? All four Gospels unanimously state that Jesus was arrested on the night of Thursday to Friday of the week before Easter. He spent the whole night under interrogation. The priests betrayed Jesus into the hands of the governor of the Roman emperor, procurator Pontius Pilate. Wanting to avoid responsibility, he sent the captive to King Herod. But he, not finding anything dangerous for himself in the person of Christ, wanted to see some miracle from a prophet well-known among the people. Because Jesus refused to entertain Herod and his guests, He was brought back to Pilate. On the same day, that is, on Friday, Christ was brutally beaten and, placing the instrument of execution - the Cross - on His shoulders, they took him outside the city and crucified him.
Good Friday, which occurs in the week leading up to Easter, is a day of especially deep sorrow for Christians. In order not to forget what day Jesus Christ was crucified, Orthodox Christians fast every Friday throughout the year. As a sign of compassion for the Savior, they limit themselves in food, try to especially carefully monitor their mood, not swear, and avoid entertainment.
Calvary
Where was Jesus Christ crucified? Turning again to the Gospel, one can be convinced that all four “biographers” of the Savior unanimously point to one place - Golgotha, or This is a hill outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
Another difficult question: who crucified Christ? Would it be correct to answer this way: the centurion Longinus and his colleagues are Roman soldiers. They drove nails into the hands and feet of Christ, Longinus pierced the already cooling Body of the Lord with a spear. But he gave the order. So he crucified the Savior? But Pilate tried in every possible way to persuade the Jewish people to let Jesus go, since he had already been punished, being beaten, and “no guilt” was found in Him worthy of a terrible execution.
The procurator gave the order under pain of losing not only his place, but also, possibly, his life itself. After all, the accusers argued that Christ threatened the power of the Roman emperor. It turns out that the Jewish people crucified their Savior? But the Jews were deceived by the high priests and their false witnesses. So after all, who crucified Christ? The honest answer would be: all these people together executed an innocent person.
Hell, where is your victory?!
It would seem that the high priests had won. Christ accepted a shameful execution, the regiments of angels did not descend from Heaven to remove Him from the cross, the disciples fled. Only his mother, best friend and a few devoted women remained with Him until the end. But this was not the end. The supposed victory of evil was destroyed by the resurrection of Jesus.
At least see
Trying to erase every memory of Christ, the pagans covered Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher with earth. But at the beginning of the 4th century, Queen Helena, Equal to the Apostles, arrived in Jerusalem to find the Cross of the Lord. She tried unsuccessfully for a long time to find out where Jesus Christ was crucified. An old Jew named Judas helped her, telling her that on the site of Golgotha there was now a temple of Venus.
After excavations, three similar crosses were discovered. To find out which of them Christ was crucified on, the crosses were applied one by one to the body of the deceased person. From the touch of the Life-Giving Cross this man came to life. A huge number of Christians wanted to venerate the shrine, so they had to raise the Cross up (erect it) so that people could at least see it from afar. This event occurred in 326. In memory of him, Orthodox Christians celebrate a holiday on September 27, which is called: The Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord.
Two interesting thoughts on this topic.
First thought.
I am sure of one thing: my Redeemer lives!
Pastor Miroslav KOMAROV (Lugansk, Ukraine)
At first glance, everything lies on the surface, but once you open the New Testament... Evangelists say - Friday. But then, if Christ was crucified on Friday and laid in the tomb at the last rays of the sun, and he rose again on Sunday early at dawn, then it turns out that He was in the tomb for about 40 hours, i.e. a little over a day and a half. But we are talking about three days and three nights. Christ himself said this: “The Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40). How can such a discrepancy be explained?
If you count Friday evening, full Saturday and the beginning of Sunday, you can call it three days. It really could have been that way. Moreover, the words of Jesus about Himself: “...And on the third day he will rise again” (Matt. 20:19) or the phrase of the disciples returning to Emmaus: “...It is now the third day since these things happened” (Luke 24: 21) - may indicate Friday as the day of death.
But there is one “but” - two instead of three nights. If Christ was crucified on Friday, He could not have been “in the heart of the earth” for three nights. Only two. Of course, if we call the darkness that enveloped Jerusalem for three hours on the day of the execution of Jesus Christ night, then we will have three days and three nights. Maybe so, but I don't believe it. After all, Christ was not in the grave during this terrible sign. Moreover, He was still alive (Matt. 27:45-50). So the version of replacing the missing night with three-hour darkness seems far-fetched.
There is another option, it is suitable for those who are fond of allegorical interpretations. The third night is the period from the death of Christ on the cross until the resurrection of all dead believers. The chain of thought is something like this: believers are the Body of Christ, but believers die, so the resurrection began, but did not end, but will end with the resurrection of all believers, and then the phrase “three nights” will be put to rest.
For myself, I draw an intermediate conclusion. Either the phrase “three days and three nights” should not be taken literally, but should be treated as a kind of phraseological turn of phrase, or Christ was crucified not on Friday, but on Thursday.
What time was Jesus crucified? “It was the third hour, and they crucified Him” (Mark 15:25). But the Gospel of John records the time of Pilate’s trial: “Then was the Friday before Easter, and the sixth hour” (19:14). How could Pilate judge Jesus at six o'clock if Christ was crucified at three? Mark, Luke and Matthew use Greek (Roman?) time, and John uses Hebrew? Jewish counts the hours of the day from dawn, and, accordingly, six hours according to Jewish time is noon for us. And the Greeks count from midnight and from noon, so three o’clock in the afternoon is 15.00 for us (or three o’clock in the morning). And then it turns out that at noon (six o’clock in Hebrew, for John) the trial of Pilate took place, and at 15.00 (three o’clock for Mark) the crucifixion began.
But first, why do Mark, Luke, and Matthew use Greek tense? Well, okay - Mark, and Matthew, who wrote to the Jews? Secondly, even if this is true, i.e. Mark is in Greek and John is in Hebrew, there is still a problem. To see it, you need to ask the question: what time did the sun set? Knowing the length of daylight and the time of sunrise will help you answer. The duration of daylight hours should be close to 12 hours, because, firstly, these are southern latitudes, and, secondly, spring, the vernal equinox, is somewhere nearby. So a day takes exactly half a day, or 12 hours. What time is dawn? It is logical to assume that at six o’clock in the morning “in our opinion”, and then sunset, accordingly, is at 18.00.
Now we need to count. As I already wrote, at 12.00 (six hours in Hebrew for John) the trial of Pilate took place, and at 15.00 (three hours for Mark) the crucifixion began. In three hours, i.e. at 18.00, Jerusalem was plunged into darkness for three hours - until 21.00 (“from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour”; “at the sixth hour the darkness came and continued until the ninth hour,” Mark 15:33). Around this time, at 21.00, Christ gave up his ghost.
If this is so, then there was no miracle with the darkness, the sun just set - that’s all. Yes, and Christ was buried after sunset, i.e. on Easter day. Apparently, this theory is completely unviable and does not stand up to criticism.
What if it was the other way around? John, as the writer of the later Gospel (while most likely not living in Jerusalem), used the Greek version of time counting, while Mark and Matthew used the Hebrew version? John in his Gospel speaks about time in the first chapter, describing the meeting of Andrew and another disciple of John the Baptist with Jesus: “They came and saw where he lived and stayed with him that day. It was about ten o'clock." Could this have been Jewish time, i.e. 16.00 in our opinion? It's a stretch. Most likely it was 10 o'clock in the morning, i.e. 10 hours after midnight, in Greek, and the disciples stayed with Jesus all day.
The second time John speaks about time is in the fourth chapter: “Jesus, weary from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about six o'clock" - this is the famous meeting with the Samaritan woman. If in Hebrew, then 12.00 for us, and if in Greek, then six o’clock - either in the morning (which is unlikely) or in the evening, which is very logical, given the disciples, preoccupied with the search for food and surprised by Jesus’ reaction to the food brought.
It seems likely that John used the Greek timekeeping system. This means that Pilate’s trial took place at 6.00 (6.00 is also suitable, but this is impossible), then at 9.00 (three o’clock in Hebrew) - the crucifixion, from 12.00 to 15.00 (from six to nine) - darkness and about 15.00 (nine) - death. Then Jesus' friends have two to three hours to obtain permission before sunset to remove the body from the cross and place it in a nearby tomb. If you don’t pay attention to the early hour of the trial, then everything fits together perfectly without any pretense.
Could Pilate's trial take place at six in the morning, i.e. almost at dawn? Considering the hot climate, in which it is customary to do all important things before the sun gets hot, and also not forgetting how in a hurry the enemies of Jesus, wanting to have time to deal with Him before Easter, I think that it could and did happen.
I will stop halfway if I do not raise the issue of Christ's last Supper with his disciples. It is generally accepted that the Supper was on Thursday. But if Easter is on Saturday, then you need to start celebrating on Friday after sunset, isn’t it? But on Friday Christ was already crucified.
What prompted Christ to start the Passover meal early?
I know three versions:
1. Christ foresaw that He would be crucified on Friday, and invited the disciples a day earlier, disregarding the canons (as He had done earlier regarding the Sabbath).
2. Since Passover fell on Saturday that year (Passover, with its flexible schedule, could fall on any day of the week), the celebration, according to some Jews, could have been moved a day earlier. Why is Saturday bad for celebrating Easter? On Saturday you cannot light a fire, and, according to the canons, it was necessary to burn the lamb bones left over from the evening meal. It turned out that some Jews celebrated from Thursday evening to Friday, while others celebrated from Friday evening to Saturday.
3. There was a difference in the religious calendar between Galilee and Judea regarding the celebration of Passover (something to do with the Essenes). Therefore, the Galileans, namely Jesus and most of the disciples, celebrated in their own way. It is possible that not even on Thursday, but on Wednesday or Tuesday. This point of view is not very widespread, it appeared relatively recently, thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls, but in one of his sermons the current viceroy of the Roman throne, Benedict XVI, voiced exactly it.
I cannot say that I have ironclad confidence on all these issues. But I am sure of one thing: my Redeemer lives! And this is the main thing for me, and the rest are things of limited value.
Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, died for all mankind so that sinners would have the right to forgiveness. He taught people how to live correctly and gathered followers around him. But he was betrayed by the vile Judas Iscariot right after the celebration of Holy Easter, when Jesus gathered everyone for the “Last Supper.”
The student betrayed his Rabbi out of envy and selfish motives, for only 30 pieces of silver, by kissing him - which was a conventional sign for the guards lurking at the entrance. This is where the story of Christ's crucifixion began. Jesus foresaw everything, so he did not offer any resistance to the guards. He knew that this was his fate and he had to go through all the tests in order to ultimately die, and then be resurrected, in order to be reunited with his father. It is not known for certain in what year Jesus Christ was crucified; there are only a few theories put forward by the best minds of mankind.
Jefferson's theory
An unprecedented earthquake and eclipse described in the Holy Scriptures helped American and German scientists determine when Jesus Christ was crucified. The study, published in the International Geology Review, is based on the floor of the Dead Sea, which is located 13 miles from Jerusalem.
The Gospel of Matthew (chapter 27) says: “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and died. And the curtain in the temple was torn exactly in the middle, from top to bottom; the earth shook; and the stones settled..." - which, of course, can be interpreted as an earthquake, from the point of view of science. To analyze the consequences of long-standing geological activity coinciding with the execution of the son of God, geoscientists Marcus Schwab, Jefferson Williams and Achim Broer went to the Dead Sea.
Foundations of the theory
Near the beach of Ein Jedi Spa, they studied 3 layers of earth, on the basis of which geologists recognized that the seismic activity that coincided with the execution of Christ was most likely involved in “an earthquake that occurred before or slightly after the crucifixion.” This event was actually taken by the author of the Gospel of Matthew in order to indicate the epic nature of the dramatic moment. According to researchers, the described earthquake occurred around 26-36 years after the birth of Christ, and, apparently, was sufficient to change the layers near Ein Djedi, but clearly not so large-scale to prove that the Bible is talking about German
“The day Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross (Good Friday) is known with great accuracy, but as the year goes by, things get more complicated,” Williams said in an interview.
At the moment, the geologist is busy with an in-depth study of sandstorm deposits in layers of the earth that coincide in time with the beginning of a century of historical earthquakes near Jerusalem.
Date given in the Bible
Based on the Gospel, during the terrible torment and death of Jesus on the cross, an earthquake occurred and the sky turned black. Matthew, Mark and Luke write that the Son of God was executed on the 14th of the month of Nisan, but John indicates the 15th.
After studying the annual deposits near the Dead Sea and comparing these data with the Gospel, scientists came to the conclusion that April 3, 1033 AD can be considered a more accurate date when Jesus Christ was crucified. e. And they explained the darkness, which epically coincided with the mortal sigh of the Son of God, as a sandstorm caused by the activity of lithospheric plates.
Was there an eclipse?
According to the Biblical version, during the crucifixion of Christ, a total eclipse occurred, but did it happen? Since ancient times, scientists have been unable to determine whether it could have happened on the day, month and year when Jesus Christ was crucified.
The following scene is reflected in various artistic creations of great masters - “the crucified Son of God hangs on the cross, his wounds are bleeding, and there is darkness all around - as if an eclipse had hidden the sun.”
The director of the Vatican Observatory, Guy Consolmagno, said in a letter to RNS: “Although it seems incredibly difficult to recreate the exact date of historical phenomena, this is absolutely not the case.”
There are several answers to the question in what year Jesus Christ was crucified, but is there only one correct answer among them?
In three of the four Gospels, there are references to the fact that at the moment of the death of the only son of God, the sky darkened. One of them says: “Now it was about noon, and darkness fell over the land and lasted about three hours, because the light of the sun was gone” - Luke 23:44. And in the new Bible of the American edition this part is translated as: “due to a solar eclipse.” Which does not seem to change the meaning, but according to the Rev. James Kurzinski, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, attempts to explain everything with the help of science are nothing more than “a side effect of life in the modern era.”
Even Newton tried to find out at what time Jesus Christ was crucified and whether an eclipse took place, but the question is still relevant.
The Holy Scripture explains that the execution of the Son of God on the cross fell on the day of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which is celebrated during the full moon in the spring. But for a solar eclipse, it is the new moon phase that is needed! And this is one of the inconsistencies of this theory. Moreover, the darkness that fell on the earth during the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth was too long to be a simple eclipse of the sun, which lasts a couple of minutes. But if it was not complete, then it could well last up to three hours.
Moreover, people of that time had good knowledge of the movements of the moon and the sun, and they could accurately predict such a phenomenon as an eclipse. Therefore, the darkness that appeared during the crucifixion cannot be him.
What if there was a lunar eclipse?
John Dvorak wrote in his book that Easter was just the right phase of the moon for an eclipse, and at that moment it could well have happened.
In search of an answer to the question of what year Jesus Christ was crucified, the date seems to be clear - it is the year 33, the 3rd day of April, but modern scientists do not agree with this theory, putting forward their own. And this is the problem with the lunar theory, because if an eclipse took place, then it should have been noticed in Jerusalem, but there is no mention of this anywhere. Which is strange to say the least. Dvorak suggested that people simply knew about the upcoming eclipse, which for some reason did not happen. In any case, there is no evidence for this theory yet.
Christian theory
Holy Father Kurzynski suggests that the darkness could have come due to unusually dense clouds, although he does not abandon the thought that this is only “a beautiful metaphor used to express the epicness of the moment.”
Believers see this as a manifestation of a miracle revealed by the Lord God himself, so that people would understand what they had done.
“Darkness is a sure sign of God’s judgment!” says evangelist Anne Graham Lotz. Christians firmly believe that Jesus died for all people, taking upon himself what was due to damned sinners.
Anne Lotz also noted other references to extraordinary darkness in the Bible, referring to the darkness that fell over Egypt, described in Exodus. This was one of the 10 disasters brought upon the Egyptians by God to convince Pharaoh to give freedom to the Hebrew slaves. He also predicted that the day would turn into night, and the moon would fill with blood at the hour of the Lord.
She also said: “This is a sign of the absence of God and complete condemnation, and until we get to heaven we will not know the truth.”
Fomenko's theory
Quite popular today is the theory proposed by several scientists from Moscow State University, based on which the history of mankind was completely different, and not as we are used to knowing it; it was more compressed in time. According to it, many historical events and characters were only phantoms (doubles) of others who existed earlier. G. Nosovsky, A. T. Fomenko and their colleagues established completely different dates for such events as the compilation of the star catalog “Algamestes” by Claudius Ptolemy, the construction of the Council of Nicaea, and the year in which Jesus Christ was crucified. And if you believe their theory, you can see a completely different picture of the existence of the world. It goes without saying that the assumptions of Moscow scientists require analysis and clarification, just like everyone else.
Fomenko's innovative calculations
To establish the newest date of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, scientists have invented two ways to find out:
- Using “Sunday calendar conditions”;
- According to astronomical data.
If you believe the first method, then the date of the crucifixion falls on the year 1095 from the Nativity of Christ, but the second indicates the date - 1086.
How was the first date derived? It was obtained in accordance with “calendar conditions” borrowed from the manuscript of Matthew Blastar, a Byzantine chronicler of the 14th century. Here is a fragment of the recording: “The Lord suffered for the salvation of our souls in 5539, when the circle of the sun was 23, the moon was 10, and the Jewish Passover was celebrated on Saturday, March 24. And on the coming Sunday (March 25), Christ was resurrected. The Jewish holiday was celebrated during the equinox on the 14th lunar day (i.e., full moon) from March 21 to April 18, but the current Easter is celebrated on the following Sunday.”
Based on this text, scientists applied the following “resurrection conditions”:
- Circle of the sun 23.
- Circle of the moon 10.
- celebrated on March 24.
- Christ rose again on the 25th, Sunday.
The necessary data was entered into a computer, which, using a specially developed program, produced the date 1095 AD. e. Moreover, the year corresponding to Sunday, which occurred on March 25, was calculated according to the Orthodox Easter.
Why is this theory controversial?
And yet, the year 1095, calculated by scientists as the year of Christ’s resurrection, is not accurately determined. Mainly because it does not coincide with the Gospel “condition of the Resurrection”.
Based on the above, it is obvious that the year 1095, as the date of the crucifixion and resurrection, was determined incorrectly by researchers. Probably because it does not correspond to the most important “condition of the Resurrection,” according to which the full moon fell on the night from Thursday to Friday, when the disciples and Christ ate Easter at the Last Supper, and not at all on Saturday, as the “3rd condition” was determined." innovators." And other “calendar conditions” are not only incorrect, but rather unreliable and easily disputable.
The “astronomical” version put forward by Moscow State University scientists seems to complement the newest date of the crucifixion of Christ, but for some reason it places the execution of Jesus in the year 1086.
How was the second date derived? The Holy Scriptures describe that after the birth of Christ, a new star shone in the sky, showing the wise men coming from the East the way to the “Wonderful Child.” And the time of Jesus’ death is described as follows: “...From the sixth hour darkness covered the whole earth until the ninth” (Matthew 27:45).
It is logical that the disciples meant an eclipse by “darkness,” and given that in 1054 AD. e. a new star lit up, and in 1086 (32 years later), a complete “hiding of the sun” occurred, which happened on February 16, Monday.
But any hypotheses may be wrong, because the chronicles throughout history could be easily falsified. And why do we need this knowledge? You just need to believe in God and not question the biblical data.
Was Jesus crucified on Friday? If so, then how did He spend three days in the tomb, rising from the dead on Sunday?
The Bible does not specifically record what day of the week Jesus was crucified. The two most common opinions are that this happened on Friday or Wednesday. Some, combining the arguments of Friday and Wednesday, call this day Thursday.
In Matthew 12:40, Jesus says, “For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” Those who call Friday the day of the crucifixion argue that it is quite reasonable to believe that Jesus remained in the grave for three days, since first-century Jews sometimes considered part of a day to be a whole day. And since Jesus was in the grave for part of Friday, all of Saturday and part of Sunday, this can be considered as a three-day stay in the grave. One of the main arguments for Friday is recorded in Mark 15:42, which notes that Jesus was crucified on “the day before the Sabbath.” If this was a regular, "weekly" Sabbath, then this indicates a crucifixion on Friday. Another argument for Friday refers to verses such as Matthew 16:21 and Luke 9:22, which tell us that Jesus will rise on the third day. Thus, there was no need for Him to remain in the grave for three whole days and three nights. However, while some translations use the phrase “on the third day” in these verses, not all and not everyone agrees that this is the best translation of these texts. Additionally, Mark 8:31 says that Jesus will rise again “in” three days.
The argument for Thursday follows on from the previous one and basically argues that between the funeral of Christ and Sunday morning too many events happened (some as many as twenty of them) to happen starting on Friday evening. They point out that this is especially important since the only full day between Friday and Sunday was Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. An extra day or two eliminates this problem. As proof, Thursday’s defenders cite the following example: “Imagine that you haven’t seen your friend since Monday evening. The next time you saw him was Thursday morning, and then you can say, “I haven’t seen you in three days,” even though technically 60 hours (2.5 days) have passed.” If Jesus was crucified on Thursday, then this example helps explain why this period could be perceived as three days.
Proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion claim that there were two Sabbaths that week. After the first (the one that came on the evening of the crucifixion - Mark 15:42; Luke 23:52-54) the women bought incense - note that they made their purchase after the Sabbath (Mark 16:1). According to this view, this Sabbath was the Passover (see Leviticus 16:29-31; 23:24-32, 39, where holy days that did not necessarily fall on the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, are called Sabbaths). The second Sabbath that week was the regular, “weekly” Sabbath. Note that in Luke 23:56, the women who bought the spices after the first Sabbath returned and prepared them, and then “were left alone on the Sabbath.” This shows that they could not purchase incense after the Sabbath, or prepare it before the Sabbath - unless there were two Sabbaths at that time. From the perspective of the two Sabbath view, if Christ was crucified on Thursday, then Easter should have begun on Thursday after sunset and ended on Friday evening - at the beginning of the usual Saturday. Buying incense after the first Sabbath (Passover) would then mean that they bought it on the second Sabbath and broke the commandment.
Thus, this view notes that the only explanation that does not refute the reports of women and incense, and also supports the literal understanding of the text in Matthew 12:40, is that Christ was crucified on Wednesday. Saturday - the holy day (Easter) - came on Thursday, after which on Friday the women bought incense, returned and prepared it on the same day, rested on the usual Saturday, and on Sunday morning brought these incense to the tomb. Jesus was buried around sunset on Wednesday, which was considered the beginning of Thursday according to the Jewish calendar. Using this method of calculation, we have Thursday night (night 1), Thursday day (day 1), Friday night (night 2), Friday day (day 2), Saturday night (night 3) and Saturday day (day 3). It is not known for certain when Christ was resurrected, but we do know that it happened before sunrise on Sunday (John 20:1 says that Mary Magdalene came “to the tomb early, while it was still dark,” and the stone had already been rolled away from the tomb, then she found Peter and told him that “the Lord was taken away from the tomb”), so He could resurrect even immediately after sunset on Saturday evening, which, according to Jewish calculation, was considered the beginning of the first day of the week.
A possible problem with this view is that the disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus did so “on the same day” as His resurrection (Luke 24:13). The disciples, who did not recognize Him, reported the crucifixion (24:20) and said that “it is now the third day since this happened” (24:21). From Wednesday to Sunday – four days. A possible explanation is that they could be recording from the funeral of Christ on Wednesday evening, when Jewish Thursday began, and from Thursday to Sunday, therefore, there are three days.
In principle, it is not so important to know on what day of the week Christ was crucified. If it were truly necessary, God's Word would clearly communicate it. The important thing is that He died and physically, bodily rose from the dead. No less important is the reason He died—to suffer the punishment that all sinners deserve. And John 3:16 and 3:36 declare that faith in Him leads to eternal life!
