2. Jesus was to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matt. 12:38)
3. The Jews used to count their time from sun down on. (about 6PM our time) Instead of having 24 hours, they used 12 hours then started counting again.
4. The Jews 1st hour (6PM our time) to their 12th hour would bring them to 6AM our time.
5. Jesus was put on the cross at the 3rd hour or 9AM our time. (Mark 15:25)
6.There was darkness over the land from the 6th hour to the 9th hour, or from 12 noon to 3PM our time. (Mark 15:33)
7. Jesus died at the 9th hour, or 3PM our time. (Mark 15:34-37)
8. "GOOD FRIDAY" is not found in the Bible! It is an old religious holiday which was invented without Biblical foundation to commemorate the death of Jesus on Friday though Jesus DID NOT DIE ON FRIDAY. JESUS DIED ON WEDNESDAY EVENING. The name "GOOD FRIDAY" is taken from the name "God's Friday."
Sun Down
Christ arose on our Saturday at sun down completing three days and three nights in the grave! Matt. 28:1 reveals that Jesus was already RESURRECTED at the close of the 7th Day Sabbath. Count back three days and three nights from that time and you find that Jesus died and was buried on what would be our Wednesday evening.
The day when Jesus was crucified, we are told "was the preparation", that is, the day of preparation for the passover feast. It was the fourteenth day of Nisan, the first month of the Jewish calendar, when every family in the nation (or two small families together) were to kill the passover lamb and prepare it for eating in the evening. Read the story in Exodus Chapters 12 -18. When Jesus died, the Jewish nation had been observing this annual passover feast for fifteen hundred years. Every year on the fourteenth day of Nisan, whatever the day of the week, each family would kill its passover lamb in mid-afternoon. (The same time every year --- like your birthday, although it's at the same time, it may be a different day --- maybe one year your birthday would be on Monday and the next year it would fall on Tuesday.) After they killed the lamb, the lamb would be roasted whole with fire, and eaten that night with bitter herbs in memory of the passover night when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, and looking forward to the coming Saviour, God's passover lamb, who would deliver all who would trust Him, from the bondage of sin and Satan. (1 Cor. 5:7) The Jewish day began at sundown. At sundown would begin the fifteenth day of Nisan. The Passover Lamb would be eaten, and that evening would begin the seven days feast of unleavened bread.
The approaching fifteenth day of Nisan was a high Sabbath; that is not a weekly Sabbath, Saturday, but an annual Sabbath. For in Exodus 12:14 we are told, "and this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generation; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever." Seven days they were to eat unleavened bread. "And in the first day there will be an Holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done for you." (Exo. 12:16) It was a Sabbath day, that is, a day of rest; an annual sabbath, the Sabbath when the passover lamb would be eaten and when the feast of unleavened bread would begin. Hence the Jewish leaders demanded that Christ and the two thieves should be taken down from the cross.
It becomes clear, then, that Christ Himself did not eat the passover lamb. Jesus ate a certain passover meal with them, as you see from Luke 22:8, 15. But it was simply a preliminary meal of the day of preparation, which began at sundown, the day before Jesus was crucified. In that meal they ate bread and drank wine (grape juice) and did not eat the Passover lamb.
The reason that Jesus did not eat the Passover Lamb was the He Himself was the Passover Lamb, and He had to die at the very time appointed for the slaying of the Passover lambs throughout the nation. For fifteen hundred years all the Jews had been following the clear instructions of the Lord that the Passover lambs should be slain on the fourteenth day of Nisan. How strange it would be if God had sent this prophecy for so many centuries and then had His Son, His Passover Lamb, to die on the wrong day! God forbid! No, that mid-afternoon when Jesus died, it was the very time for the slaying of passover lambs, the time foretold in prophecy, the time observed for fifteen centuries.
That leads me to say further that the fourteenth day of Nisan, when Jesus died, must have been Wednesday afternoon, Many think that Jesus was crucified on Friday, because it is said that the next day was a Sabbath day. But I believe they are mistaken. The Sabbath here mentioned in John 19:31 wasn't the weekly Sabbath on Saturday but the yearly Sabbath.
Jesus Himself had plainly foretold that "as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matt. 12:40
Hence, I believe that Christ died Wednesday afternoon. Some time Wednesday night, allowing for the cleansing of the body, anointing with spices and wrapping in fine linned, and the solemn interment in Joseph's new tomb, Jesus was buried. Then Thursday and Friday and Saturday Jesus was in the grave --- Three days and Three nights --- and then He arose, fulfilling the Scripture to the letter. The only reason men ever believed He was crucified on Friday is because the following day is said to have been a Sabbath. But since it was the annual sabbath, which would come on a different day each year, there is no reason to suppose the crucitixion was not on Wednesday, which fulfilled the Scriptures to the letter.
-Bro. McGath-
Hence, I believe that Christ died Wednesday afternoon. Some time Wednesday night, allowing for the cleansing of the body, anointing with spices and wrapping in fine linned, and the solemn interment in Joseph's new tomb, Jesus was buried. Then Thursday and Friday and Saturday Jesus was in the grave --- Three days and Three nights --- and then He arose, fulfilling the Scripture to the letter. The only reason men ever believed He was crucified on Friday is because the following day is said to have been a Sabbath. But since it was the annual sabbath, which would come on a different day each year, there is no reason to suppose the crucitixion was not on Wednesday, which fulfilled the Scriptures to the letter.
-Bro. McGath-
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