Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
Truth to Learn
Jesus is the true Pascal Lamb, sacrificed for you and me on the day before the Passover!
Behind the Words
Several days ago we looked at the word “Preparation” and learned that this was the day before a Sabbath. We also learned that this particular Sabbath was the day of Passover.
Meaning Explained
We have gone to great lengths to show that the Bible does, in fact, indicate that Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday. Most Biblical scholars will read these posts and say, “This guy is full of baloney” or something equivalent. However, if you will bear with me for just a few more paragraphs, I will show you conclusively that this is so.
The first thing we need to determine is when Jesus was born. We all know he was born on December 25th, right? Well, actually we don’t know the exact day of the year. It was most likely in the springtime. The Roman Catholic monk who calculated Jesus birthday was Dionysius Exeguus (this literally means “Dennis the Little”). He lived during the 6th century. He made an error, however. He was three years off. So, by the reckoning of our calendar (which is the Gregorian Calendar) he was born in the year 4 BC. Jesus began his ministry as he was baptized by John the Baptist when Jesus was 30 years old. This was the specified age at which a prophet or priest began his ministry. Jesus was crucified some three years later. Thus, the year of his crucifixion was AD 30. (When you do the calculations to check my dates, keep in mind that there was no year zero. It went from the year 2 BC to 1 BC, to AD 1 to AD 2, etc.)
Now we need to talk about the Jewish calendar. It consists of 12 months of 30 days each. It is based on the lunar cycle (from new moon to new moon is 29.5 days). Every 6 years or so an additional month is added to make up for the 5 ¼ day error incurred each year. The Jewish year is counted from the year of creation. This is expressed as Anno Mundi, meaning “Year of the world” (abbreviated as AM.) Every month of the Jewish calendar begins on the day of the new moon and the first month of the year is Nisan. Passover is always in the month Nisan and it is always on the day of the full moon (the 15th of Nisan). So, the Preparation day is and was always the 14th of Nisan. Conversion from the Jewish Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar is a complex process. However, in this age of computers and the Internet we can determine exactly what day on the Gregorian Calendar that Jesus was crucified and what day of the week it was.
Below is a table showing the years AD 25 through AD 40. The day of the week is based on three different website calculations and they all agree. You will notice that the 14th of Nisan was on a Wednesday in the year AD 30. That’s what the Bible tells us too!
Application
Although it is very hard for us to accept this, Jesus was not crucified on a Friday and he was not raised from the dead on Sunday. He was crucified on Wednesday and resurrected on Saturday evening.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about the implications of this revelation.
| What day of the week was the crucifixion? | ||||||||
| Jewish | Gregorian | Day of the week | ||||||
| Day | Month | Year (AM) | Month | Day | Year (AD) | *1 | *2 | *3 |
| 14 | Nisan | 3785 | March | 31 | 25 | Monday | Monday | Monday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3786 | March | 20 | 26 | Friday | Friday | Friday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3787 | April | 7 | 27 | Wednesday | Wednesday | Wednesday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3788 | March | 27 | 28 | Monday | Monday | Monday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3789 | April | 14 | 29 | Saturday | Saturday | Saturday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3790 | April | 3 | 30 | Wednesday | Wednesday | Wednesday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3791 | March | 24 | 31 | Monday | Monday | Monday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3792 | April | 12 | 32 | Monday | Monday | Monday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3793 | April | 1 | 33 | Friday | Friday | Friday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3794 | March | 20 | 34 | Monday | Monday | Monday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3795 | April | 9 | 35 | Monday | Monday | Monday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3796 | March | 28 | 36 | Friday | Friday | Friday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3797 | March | 18 | 36 | Wednesday | Wednesday | Wednesday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3798 | April | 5 | 38 | Monday | Monday | Monday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3799 | March | 25 | 39 | Friday | Friday | Friday |
| 14 | Nisan | 3800 | April | 13 | 40 | Friday | Friday | Friday |
| *1 | http://bsswebsite.me.uk/Daysanddates/hebrew-date.html | |||||||
| *2 | https://keisan.casio.com/exec/system/1346139486 | |||||||
| *3 | https://www.abdicate.net/cal.aspx | |||||||
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2019 Will Krause. All rights reserved