The Crucifixion vs Easter

Submitted by Mario

Have you ever wondered about the “Easter Weekend”, how it is that the “Church” fit 3 days and 3 nights in, between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday?

According to Jesus Himself, He prophesied that He would be as Jonah was for 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the whale, so shall He be for 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth. (See Matthew 12:40)

This “Easter Weekend” bothered me for a long time. Is it really a Christian celebration, or did Satan pervert it into just another Pagan celebration practiced in the Church? If this is true, then about nobody today, understand and celebrate the Biblical crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and would be a real shame if it is true!

One of the most difficult things in life to get rid off or to correct is tradition that we grew up with. Most people don’t even have a clue where most of the Church traditions really originate from, and blindly follow it. Who would think there is something wrong with it, after all, it is a Church thing … or is it?

To work this out accurately and without confusion, we have to understand a little bit about the Jewish calendar. Our 24-hour day starts at 12am and ends at 12am. The Jewish 24-hour day starts at 6pm and ends a 6pm. According to the gospels in the Bible, Jesus died at about 3pm (Jewish 9th hour) on the Passover day, the 14th of Nisan, and was buried after 6pm, that would make it the 15th of Nisan. The day following the Passover, is the Feast of Unleavened bread (15th of Nisan) and is a special Sabbath day, therefore they could only burry Him and not anoint Him with spices, to avoid violating their law.

According to Mark 16:2, very early in the morning the first day of the week (Sunday), they came to the sepulcher at the rising of the sun, and found the tomb of Jesus empty. Lets assume a time between 4am to 6am. With this in mind, we can then count the days back and see where it comes out to. remember that Jesus died and His spirit left His body at 3pm. Thus, we can then only count from the last 3pm before Sunday morning, to get our full 24-hour days. Counting from 3pm Saturday, 3pm Friday will make it day 1 in the heart of the earth. Day 2 would be from 3pm Friday to 3pm Thursday. Day 3 would be from 3pm Thursday to 3pm Wednesday.

This is then quite interesting, according to Jesus’ own words, He must have been crucified on the Wednesday, on which He died at 3pm, and 3 days and 3 nights later, rose from the dead after 3pm Saturday. We must remember, all these things follow the Jewish pattern where their new day start at 6pm, not our modern day pattern with the new day starting at 12am.

With this simple calculation in mind, does the Bible support it? Lets follow through and see what the Bible (KJV) says:

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