On What Day Was Christ Crucified?

Answer:

We would not take the space to answer this question were not so many agitated over it, and that needlessly. It is assumed from Matthew 12:40 that Jesus was in the grave for three days and three nights; that He was crucified Wednesday and therefore was raised from the dead in the closing hours of the Sabbath day; and therefore, the claim that the first day should be observed because He rose from the dead on that day, falls to the ground.

Out of the study arise these questions:

1. On what day was Christ crucified?
2. With what definiteness are we to understand the term “three days and three nights”? Do they mean seventy-two hours?
3. When do these days begin?
4. On what day did Christ arise?
5. What bearing has the time upon the Sabbath question?

I. On What Day Was Christ Crucified?

On this point, Matthew says nothing. Mark says, “And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath.” Mark 15:42. This understands the word “even” to refer to the closing hours of the day when the sun began to decline. Luke is in harmony with this: “And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on,” and that very Sabbath day, the women rested “according to the commandment.” Luke 23: 54, 56.

John gives us this testimony: “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” John 19:31. That Sabbath day had double dignity; it was a chief day of the Passover and the Sabbath.

All these testimonies would fix the crucifixion on the sixth day—Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Then, as the Sabbath drew on, the body of Jesus was taken down from the cross, hastily wrapped in the linen cloth with myrrh and aloes, and deposited in a rock-hewn tomb immediately adjacent to the place where the crucifixion occurred. John 19:41.

II. The Term “Three Days,” Etc.

Does this expression mean just seventy-two hours, or does it mean part of two days and the whole of one—that is, a part of the first day being counted, the whole of the second of course, and a part of the third? That the latter is the case is evident from the use of the term in the various texts where this very period is referred to. The following list of quotations and citations includes every instance of its occurrence, and there is another term, the “third day,” referring to the same period:

1. “For 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.” Matthew 12:40.
2. “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.” John 2:19-21.
3. “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Mark 8:31.
4. “But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.” Matthew 26:60-61.
5. “And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.” Mark 14:57-58.
6. “And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Matthew 27:40.
7. “And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,” Mark 15:29.
8. “Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.” Matthew 27:63-64.
9. “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” Matthew 16:21.
10. “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” Matthew 20:18-19.
11. “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.” Mark 9:31.
12. “For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.” Luke 18:32-33.
13. “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.” Luke 24:21.
14. “The third day.” Luke 24:46; Matthew 17:22, 23; Mark 10:34; Luke 9:22; 24:7; Acts 10:40; 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4.

We have numbered the above scriptures and citations to make them easier to reference. In No. 1, Jesus refers to the experience of Jonah and applies it to an experience that would come to Himself. The only expression that would confine it to the grave is “heart of the earth,” which we will consider later. No. 2 uses the phrase “in three days,” and that is also used by the enemies of Christ in Nos. 4, 6, and 7, and its more substantial equivalent, “within,” in No. 5. The chief priests and Pharisees, referring to the same thing (No. 8), use “after three days,” and then ask that the sepulcher be made sure “until the third day.”

Jesus uses in No. 3 the expression “after three days;” but in Nos. 10, 11, 12, and 14, He uses “the third day,” showing the latitude of the various terms used. That is still more strongly manifested by No. 13, where the disciples declare at the very close of the first day of the week, “to day is the third day since these things were done.” So also No. 9, and the prophecy in Hosea 6:1, 2.

From a fair comparison of all these passages, we must conclude that “in three days,” “after three days,” “within three days,” “three days,” and until “the third day,” simply mean three days in common terminology, including only a part of the last day, and by a likeness of reasoning, not necessarily the whole of the first day.

III. When Do the Days Begin?

While technically, the beginning would seem to apply to the death of Christ, in the fullest sense, they would cover His betrayal into the hands of His enemies when His death was determined. For as truly as at the crucifixion, the death agony for the world began at His betrayal and was more manifest in the Garden of Gethsemane than on the cross. It was by physical wounds that His blood was shed on Calvary; it was by awful death agony for the sins of the world that it was forced from Him in Gethsemane, where “He poured out His soul unto death.” It was at the very time when Judas was bargaining with the chief priests that Jesus said: “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

“John 12:23, 24. And again: “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour… Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” Verses 27-31. A few hours before this, the broken bread and the blood of the grape manifested the death foreordained by God and purposed of man. A little later, His agonized heart forced from His lips, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death.” Mark 14:34. The death agony was already on. A little later, still, come the band to take Him. To them, He says, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53.

Right here, at this crisis, began the three days and nights when Christ was delivered to death in the hands of His enemies, into the power of the heart of the earth, into the hands of “the rulers of the darkness of this world.” Ephesians 6:12. When He reached that hour, His time had come. No hand, human or divine, earthly or heavenly, could interpose for His rescue. He had yielded all. All that followed was development in the process of putting to death. “The heart of the earth” would refer to the powers of earth, the center of which was the Roman rule, led by “the prince of this world,” Satan. But the third day from the time of His yielding to the powers of earth, He was living above all the powers of darkness.

IV. On What Day Did Christ Rise?

We have (1) the record of the visits to the sepulcher; and (2) positive statement. Here are the passages which speak of the visits:

1. “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” Matthew 28:1.
2. “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.” Mark 16:1-2.
3. “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.” Mark 16:9.
4. “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.” Luke 24:1.
5. “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.” John 20:1.

Only one of these passages speaks of the rising of our Lord. Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 5 all refer to the women’s visit in the early morning of the first day. The context of each passage shows clearly that all save the last refer to the same visit. The particulars in Matthew 28 make it evident that the meeting there recorded was on the early morning of that first day, identical to the other meetings. As Bloomfield and others remark, the Greek phrase rendered “in the end of the Sabbath,” ought to be explained as “after the Sabbath.” The context demands it.

There is, however, another explanation. The original Greek was written without division into chapters, verses, or sentences. Wouldn’t that make the phrase “in the end of the Sabbath” belong to the previous clause at the end of chapter 27? It would then read: “So they [priests, etc.] went [from Pilate], and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch in the end of the sabbath [after the sabbath]. As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” That is in perfect harmony with both Mark and Luke. Greenfield, in his Greek Testament, gives this as an alternative reading.

But Mark 16:9 fixes the resurrection of Christ to the first day of the week. The Interlinear Translation by Hinds and Noble renders, “Now having risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary the Magdalene.” Rotherham’s emphatic translation reads, “Arising early on the first of the week, He was manifested first to Mary the Magdalene;” the Peshito Syriac by Murdock, “And in the morning of the first day of the week, He arose.” See other translations. Surely this ought to be conclusive. The three days would begin Thursday night and close Sunday morning, including all of Friday, all of Sabbath, and part of Sunday.

V. What Bearing Has the Time upon the Sabbath Question?

None whatsoever. Out of the resurrection has grown in God’s plan no other sabbath. No day has been divinely designated to commemorate the event. When God has set apart other days, He has been explicit concerning them. The Passover, the Day of Atonement, and other yearly days of the Jews were enjoined so clearly that there could be no mistake about them. So it was with the seventh-day Sabbath. If the Lord had designed that His resurrection should furnish us with another worship day, He certainly would have made it plain. That His Word is utterly silent is sufficient for the child of God.

On the other hand, He has given us the Sabbath. He has commanded it in straightforward language. It has been confirmed by the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ. What more does the Christian need? “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:14.