Crucifixion Week

CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING
Day of Week	Thursday	Friday	Saturday*	Sunday*	Monday*	Tuesday*	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Passover eve and days of unleavend bread	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Jewish significance	The first day of Passover starts at sundown	preparation for the regular weekly Sabbath	regular weekly Sabbath	First day of the calendar week			preparation for the special sabbath; Jews asked that bodies be removed	special sabbath: final feast of Passover week⁽¹⁾	preparation for weekly Sabbath	regular weekly Sabbath	First day of the calendar week
Jesus' events⁽⁸⁾	day: preparations⁽⁴⁾ evening: Passover supper⁽⁵⁾; Jesus prays awhile	abused	held	said nothing to Herod	held - friends allowed to gather witnesses for Jesus' defense?	held - friends allowed to gather witnesses for Jesus' defense?	crucified - 9AM death - 3PM taken to be buried	1st day and night	2nd day and night	3rd day and night	Jesus arose about about sunrise
Legal actions	late at night or early AM on Friday, Jesus is taken to Annas⁽⁶⁾ then to Caiaphas	Caiaphas & others question Him unto sun-up⁽⁶⁾, then take Him to Pontius Pilate⁽⁷⁾	The Sabbath causes a pause to allow Jews to rest & worship	taken to Herod, who hopes to see a miracle	taken to Pontius Pilate and held - witnessed lined up for the prosecution?	held - witnesses lined up for the prosecution?	final trial (sentencing) in the morning just before the crucifixion	seal and guards set at the tomb
Others' actions	Peters' denials and disciples scatter	Pilate questions Jesus	Romans pause for Jews sabbath, since no Jewish witnesses could "work" on the Sabbath	festival activities, Pilate tries other criminals, other government business?	festival activities, Pilate tries other criminals, other government business?	festival activities, Pilate tries other criminals, other government business?	After crucifixion, Jesus' is washed, wrapped and prepared for burial⁽²⁾	family & disciples mourned through the night until stone rolled into place at about sunrise Thur			The women discover that Jesus is resurrected

OTHER ACCOUNTINGS FOR WHICH DAY JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED ON

The two major postulations are:

the traditional Good Friday story, because of MARK 15:42, LUKE 23:54, and JOHN 19:31, from which one deduces this is the Friday preparation for the regular weekly Saturday Sabbath, so Jesus was crucified on Friday OR
a revision has it that Jesus was crucifed on Thursday, due to careful calculations someone made as to which day Passover began.

Before discussing these, the following scriptures need to be kept in mind:

MT 12:40 "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."
MK 8:31 "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."
MK 14:58 "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." [figure of speech - Jesus is that temple]
MT 26:61 "And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days." [figure of speech - Jesus is that temple]
MT 27:63 "Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again."
JN 2:19 "Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." [figure of speech - Jesus is that temple]

DISCUSSION

The problem with the first postulation (the traditional Good Friday story) is that this only gives Jesus two full nights and one full day before the resurection, which contradicts all the above verses.
The problem with the second postulation is that while it gives Jesus three full nights, it only provides for two full days before the resurrection, and so also contradicts all the above verses.

So neither of the above two postulations agree with God's Word.

And there is also another problem with this second accounting of when the first day of the Passover must have fallen, and this is that no one can realistically calculate the actual date or day of the week by calculating from today backwards to that era because of these facts:

Passover timing considerations

Taken from several sources:

To ensure that Passover did not start before spring, the tradition in ancient Israel held that the first day of Nisan would not start until the barley was ripe, being the test for the onset of spring. If the barley was not ripe, or various other phenomena indicated that spring was not yet imminent, an intercalary month (Adar II) would be added.
The barley had to be "eared` out" (ripe) in order to have a wave-sheaf offering of the first fruits according to the Law. Jones, Stephen (1996). Secrets of Time. This also presupposes that the cycle is based on the northern hemisphere seasons.
"..., when the fruit had not grown properly, when the winter rains had not stopped, when the roads for Passover pilgrims had not dried up, and when the young pigeons had not become fledged.
The council on intercalation considered the astronomical facts together with the religious requirements of Passover and the natural conditions of the country." - Spier, Arthur (1952). The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar. New York: Behrman House, Inc., p. 1
one of the sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover

Simply put, unless one knew the status of all of the above conditions in the year of Jesus' crucifixion, there is no way to calculate the first day of the Passover in relationship to Resurrection Sunday, the crucifixion day, etc. Add to this the confusion over the Gregorian calender (14-day adjustment), the usual loss of records, not being exactly sure of the year of Jesus' crucifixion, the Roman, Jewish Aramaic calendar anomolies, it is a virtual impossibility to calculate backwards to the day of the week of the Passover. There simply are no records in the Bible, or external records to give us a hint about weather conditions in the spring of the year Christ was crucified, not to mention, the uncertainty of which year it occurred in.

THE "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING"

The "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING" table (above), supported by this website's authors, shows another accounting that seems to align with scripture, and clearly provides a full "three days and three nights" for Jesus to be in the grave before His resurrection about dawn on Sunday morning.

DISCUSSION

Before any study of the Bible, one of the most important prerequisites is to believe what the Bible says. So if the Bible says "three days and three nights", any accounting must align with that. Missing days, or partial days or parital nights is not in agreement with the Bible. Its really that simple, unless of course you do not think God preserved His Word (and why wouldn't He? See God's Word.)

The "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING" table (above) appears to resolve the accounting problem with the "three days and three nights", but it takes some liberty with respects to any gaps in the Biblical accounts. However, it is not uncommon for scholars and students of the Bible to do this to maintain continuity, since all four gospel accounts of the crucifixion week do not include all the details, that is, some have this and some have that. However, none of the four gospel have contradictory accounts, and they all mesh together just fine. Furthermore, not all details are recorded in the Bible, only the really important ones.

(NOTE: As for Peter's denying Christ and the number of times the cock crowed, see Crowing, to show this is not a contradiction.)

In EXODUS 13:6 we read, "Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD." So, because of all the feasting to be done "in the seventh day", naturally a day of "preparation" was required. Now the regular weekly Sabbath (Saturday in the Gregorian calendar) is not the only "sabbath" in Jewish religious practice. It is well-documented that many special days were also "sabbaths", as special sabbaths were for special holidays, which came with rest and/or celebration, or other religious practices.

In several of the gospel accounts we read that in the midst of "the day of preparation" Jesus was crucified. Now in the late afternoon of the crucifixions, the Jews wanted the Romans to kill all that were on the crosses and bring them down by sundown, before the official start of the seventh day feast. We read in JOHN 19:31 "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."

Well, this verse clarifies that the next day was a sabbath, but which one, a special one, or the regular weekly Sabbath?

The words are "for that sabbath day was a high day".

Observations:

the word "that" separates this sabbath from the ordinary ones (as in "that man" is separate from just any ordinary man)
the words "high day" means this is not any ordinary sabbath as well, and in the Greek it means a "great day" with the root word for "great" being "mega" so it is certainly more than an ordinary sabbath!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sabbaths states "The seven festivals do not necessarily occur on weekly Shabbat (seventh-day Sabbath) and are called by the name miqra ("called assembly") in Hebrew (Lev. 23). They are observed by Jews and a minority of Christians. Three of them occur in spring: the first and seventh days of Pesach (Passover), .... [others are listed]"

So now it can be seen clearly that this "high day" sabbath is either the first day or the seventh day of the Passover days of eating unleavened bread. Well there are then two ways to look at this:

the first day of the 7-day Passover week was on Thursday of Christ's burial, with the start of Passover on Wednesday evening, OR
the seventh day of the 7-day Passover week was on Thursday of Christ's burial, with the start of Passover on the previous Thursday evening.

The first possibility is very problematic, but the second possiblity is not so difficult. But to do the reconciliation, we first have to dismiss "the traditions of men" and carefully read what the Bible actually says.

The major problem with the first possibility is that the start of seven days of unleavened bread that aligns with Thursday results in "break-neck" speedy trial and crucifixion of Jesus before Thursday. The list consist of:

after dusk on Passover evening (postulated as Tuesday in this case), was "the last supper"
the prayers of Jesus took place until late into the night
the attacks by Annas & Caiaphas and the high priests after they captured Jesus
the denials by Peter
then at dawn (sunrise at about 6 AM Wednesday, that is, 6 AM around the start of Spring)

they would take Jesus before Pontius Pilate for questioning for awhile
then to Herod for examination for awhile
then back to Caiaphas
then back to Pontius Pilate for final judgment and sentencing
then the hour or so of scourging by the Roman soldiers, while also sending soldiers about to announce the crucifixion to the general populace (a custom the Romans followed perpetually)
having time enough for the general populace to get to the place of the crucifixion
then a good hour or more for Jesus and the others to walk carrying their crosses to the place of crucifixion
and all of this in time for a 9 AM crucifixion!??? (MARK 15:25 "And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.")

Another problem with the first possibility is that it conflicts with MARK 14:12 "And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?" So there are several possible solutions (maybe).

If the first day of unleavened bread was on Thursday, Jesus would be dead already (and could not even eat Passover "left-overs" - hehe).
Also, if the first day were instead on Tuesday or Wednesday, it would contradict JOHN 19:31 "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day"

So that leaves the only possibility, that is, that the Thursday after Jesus was crucified was the 7th day of the Passover week, and so the preparation for the feast that is celebrated on the seventh day, came on Wednesday, when Jesus died.

Now of course, if the Thursday after the crucifixion was the 7th day of the Passover week, then actual Passover supper was on the previous Thursday, and the previous Friday was the 1st day of the week of unleavend bread. (See the "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING" table.) This is the more likely accounting because:

There is plenty of time for the interrogations of Christ to happen by the high priests, by Herod, Pontius Pilate (2 or more times), preparing quite a number of things for the crucifixion, and any other undocumented events, instead of things happening at a "break-neck" pace.
It does not "trample" all over scripture with irreconcilable contradictions, or with "sort of" and "maybe".
It actually aligns itself with all the accounts in all four gospel (Reader: Read them all, and see if this is not true, using the above table as a guide.)
It is more inline with a restrained pace in concurrance with Pontius Pilate's reluctance to crucify Christ, in which Pilate may have held Jesus in prison for several days, hoping perhaps that the Jews would not ask him again to put Jesus to death.

A few notes about the "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING" table.

The "held" notation in the table is only suggestive as to what happened on those days, and is adjustable to the real set of events, which are left undocumented in precise terms for those days.
The days before the final trial of Jesus, were when Jesus was taken to Caiaphas, to Herod, and to Pilate several times during the week, is of course, subject to "wiggle room", and the days shown are only suggestive.
Obviously, between the morning of Jesus's arrest on the Friday before and His crucifixion on Wednesday, any number of undocumented things may have happened, to stretch out the process before Jesus' crucifixion. This is typical in scripture, to only provide the really significant details. Some of these missing details may include, but are not limited to, the regular sabbath, the first day of unleavened bread celebration (for which they only did some things under cover of dark to avoid the conflict with the Passover week), time for the "wheels of government" in the Roman domain to "spin", preparing more witnesses to "lie" to Pilate, trying others accused of crimes, etc.
The specific days that Jesus first saw Pontius Pilate, went back to Caiaphas, went to Herod, went back to Caiaphas, before going back to Pontius Pilate the day of and/or before His crucifixon are variable, since no specifc days are listed in the scriptures. Only vague notions, like "early in the morning", "when the morning was come" and the like are available, plus the notations related to the Passover week, such as "during the preparation", "eat the Passover" and of course the Resurrection Sunday.
The only "sure" accounts are that Jesus was arrested in the middle of the night after eating the Passover (on Thursday evening or Friday morning, the week before) and the day of His crucifixion on the day before the 7th day of the final feast/sabbath, that is, He was crucified on Wednesday, the day of preparation, which concurs with all accounts.

IMPORTANT DISTINCTIONS IN THE TRIAL OF JESUS BY PONTIUS PILATE

After Jesus is arrested and taken first to Annas and then to Caiaphas at night, he is next taken to Pontius Pilate in the early morning (MT 27:1, MK 15:1). At this point the time-line becomes a bit blurred. Some of the issues are:

Luke 23:6 records that between a first questioning by Pontius Pilate and a second one, Jesus is questioned by Herod, and the word "saw" in Luke 23:8 is in the "aorist" tense in the Greek, which implies any amount of time has passed, from minutes to even days before Herod sent Jesus back to Pontius Pilate
Matthew inserts the story about Judas the traitor inbetween what seems to be questioning of Jesus by Pontious Pilate at two different times
In John 18:33 when Pontius Pilate entered the judgment hall for a second time, the word for "entered" is in the "aorist" tense in the Greek, which implies any amount of time has passed, from minutes to even days.
In Mark 15:6 it says "Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner ...". The tone of this is that of a pause (the word "now"), as if time has passed since the first time Pilate questioned Jesus, and this was the second time.

The reason all of the above is significant is whether the sequence was: last supper, betrayal, taken to Annas/Caiaphas, taken to Pilate/Herod/Pilate and then crucified, all in short order, OR whether there was some gaps of time, even several days, between the initial arrest and the day of the crucifixion. If the order of events includes several days of gaps, then it makes the accounting go easier with respect to the continuity with scriptures.

Since it can be seen that in all four gospel accounts (as listed in the above bullet-item list) there are apparent gaps in time, it then provides a way to show an accounting where the Passover started on the Thursday evening, previous to the crucifixion week, with the alignment of the "high day" of a special sabbath (7th day feast) occurring on the Thursday after the crucifixion (on Wednesday), as shown in the "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING" table. Together, with the other parts of this discussion, it goes to show that the "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING" table most likely reflects the time-line of events, with the caveat that the events in the gaps of a day here or there are suggestive in this table, but may vary slightly with respect to different time "slices": the days having "gaps" and additional events, like festival activities, questioning by Herod, trying other criminals, Roman business activities (from Saturday to Tuesday).

SUMMARY

The discussion herein shows that the most likely accounting of the crucifixion week is the one that aligns itself with scripture, that is, the one shown in the table, "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING". It is not the traditional "Good Friday" accounting and it is not based on some mathematical calculations to figure out when the first day of the Passover week began around 2000 yeas ago in the year Christ was crucified, which has been shown to be impossible to determine.

The accounting shown in the "CRUCIFIXION WEEK ACCOUNTING" table is the most probable accounting because:

it concurs precisely with three days and three nights for Jesus to be in the grave
it concurs with the feast of the 7th day of the week of unleavened bread being a "high day" sabbath, placing Jesus' crucifixion on the preparation for that day (and not a regular weekly sabbath preparation, that is, not the traditional Good Friday postulation)
it concurs with Pilate's reluntance to crucify Christ, when both he and Herod thought Jesus' did nothing wrong ("I find no fault in him."), such that a delay of several days is very likely before a final decision would be made, and it concurs with a system of justice of investigation and time for the prosecution and the defense to line up any witnesses or other evidence over the course of a few days
it concurs with Jesus and the disciples eating the Passover a week earlier and not eating it on the actual day of Jesus' crucifixion (impossible), or the previous evening, which was not the Passover evening, by all accounts
it does not result in contradictions with any gospel account
it takes into account other affairs of state, including trying other criminals, and the festivals and other activities that would contribute to any delay.

WHAT DAY WAS JESUS CRUCIFIED ON?