Christ Died on Friday and Arose on Sunday by O. A. JOHNSON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 23, 1915

Christ Died on Friday and Arose on Sunday

By O. A. JOHNSON

O. A. JOHNSON

SOME in our day believe that Christ must have been three full days and three full nights, or seventy-two hours, in the heart of the earth, or the grave; hence he must have been crucified on Wednesday and buried on that evening about sunset, and consequently arose Sabbath evening, just before sunset. Such base this conclusion on Matt. 12:40; 28:1. Others hold that Christ was crucified and buried on Thursday and arose Sunday morning. But these views contradict other scriptures that have a direct bearing on the same subject. And furthermore the views expressed above are in direct opposition to the teachings of all Christians from the time of Christ till the present time. All well-informed persons know that the sufferings and death of Christ have been commemorated by the observance of Good Friday from the earliest ages of Christianity. Likewise has the first day of the week been observed in memory of Christ’s resurrection on Sunday. Early history records no dissent therefrom.

It is a wrong principle to interpret one text of Scripture in a manner that will conflict with others which speak of the same subject. Again, texts of the New Testament ought to be interpreted in harmony with the usage of the Old Testament, as well as in harmony with the use of the language in the days of Christ.

Sometimes the word day includes only the light part of the diurnal period, and sometimes it embraces also the night. Gen. 1:5. When several successive days follow an event, that day on which the event occurs is always counted as the first. “I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.” Luke 13:32. The day on which Christ was speaking was the first of these three days.

The day on which a child is born is the first day of its existence, although its birth may occur late in the afternoon of that day. “Abenezra, an eminent Jewish commentator, (on Lev. 12:3) says that if an infant were born in the last hour of the day, such hour was counted for one whole day. This observation critically reconciles the account of our Lord’s resurrection in Matt. 27:63 and Mark 8:31, ‘after three days,’ with that of his resurrection on ‘the third day,’ according to Matt. 16:21 and Luke 9:22, and according to fact; for, as our Lord was crucified on Good Friday about the sixth hour, or noon, the remainder of that day to sunset, according to the Jewish computation, was reckoned as one day. Saturday, it is generally admitted, formed the second day; and as the third day it began on Saturday at sunset, and our Saviour arose about sunrise on the following morning, that part of a day is justly reckoned for the third day; so that the interval was ‘three days and three nights,’ or three calendar days current. < The same mode of computing time obtains in the East to this day.”—Horne’s Introduction, Vol. II, part 2, chap. 4, sec. 6, pages 75, 76.

“R. Eliazar ben Azariah said, ‘A day and a night make an onah, and a part of an onah is as the whole. And a little after, R. Ismael computed a part of the onah for the whole.’ Thus, then, three days and three nights, according to this Jewish method of reckoning, included any part of the first day, the whole of the following night, the next day and its night, and any part of the succeeding or third day.”—Clarke’s Commentary on Matt. 12:40.

King Rehoboam said to the people, “Come again unto me after three days,” and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king bade, saying, Come again to me on the third day.” 2 Chron. 10:5, 12. Queen Esther advised the Jews at Shushan as follows: “Fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king.” “Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house.” Esther 4:16; 5:1. “We remember,” said the Jews to Pilate, “that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day.” Matt. 27:63, 64.

The above scriptures, as well as the quotations from those eminent commentators, show clearly that often a part of a day was counted for a whole day, and that an event to take place after three days actually occurred on the third day.

The earliest Christian writers testify that Christ was crucified on Friday and rose on Sunday. Ignatius, who lived from A. D. 30 to A. D. 107, wrote as follows: “On the day of preparation, then, at the third hour, he received the sentence from Pilate, the Father permitting that to happen; at the sixth hour he was crucified; at the ninth hour he gave up the ghost; and before sunset he was buried. During the Sabbath he continued under the earth in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathea had laid him. At the dawning of the Lord’s Day he arose from the dead, according to what was spoken by himself: ‘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.’ The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath embraces the burial; the Lord’s Day contains the resurrection.”—“Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. I, page 70. Justin Martyr, who lived 110-165, testifies as follows: “Sunday is the day on which all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For he was crucified on the day before that of Saturn [Saturday]; and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the sun, having appeared to his apostles and disciples, he taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also, for your consideration.”—Id., page 186.

Matt. 28:1 is sometimes quoted to prove that Christ must have risen late on the Sabbath; for, say they, the Greek word opse, translated “in the end of the Sabbath,” literally means “late;” hence, late in the Sabbath, and not “in the end” or after the Sabbath. It is true that “late” is one definition of opse, but it has other meanings. “Opse, with a genitive, as in Matt. 28:1, means ‘at the end of, at the close of, after.’”—Robinson’s “Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.” “After the close of the Sabbath, Matt. 28:1.”—Bagster’s “Analytical Greek Lexicon.” “After a long time, at length, late.”—Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon. The following from Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, who lived 200-265, and wrote in Greek, explains Matt. 28:1 as follows: “Now this phrase, ‘in the end,’ will be thought by some to signify, according to the common use of the word, the evening of the Sabbath; while others, with a better perception of the fact, will say that it does not indicate that, but a late hour in the night, as the phrase ‘in the end’ denotes slowness and length of time. Also because he speaks of night, and not of evening, he has added the words ‘as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.’”—“Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. VI, page 95.

I have examined all that the ante-Nicene Fathers have said on Matt. 12:40 and 28:1, and all explain these texts in harmony with the above. I know of no commentator or church historian that explains them otherwise.

From Luke 23:54-56 we learn that Christ was crucified on the preparation day before the Sabbath, which was kept according to the commandment; and this was the seventh day of the week; for the day following was the first day of the week. Luke 24:1; Mark 16:1, 2; Matt. 28:1. That Sabbath was also a “high day.” John 19:31. If, as some believe, this Sabbath was the fifteenth of Nisan, then it was a high day, because the first Passover sabbath and the weekly Sabbath came at the same time; and if this weekly Sabbath fell on the sixteenth day of Nisan, as others teach (which I think is the truth), then this Sabbath was a high day because it was the day on which the wave sheaf was offered. Those who wish to study this subject thoroughly and critically will find valuable information thereon in Edersheim’s “Life of Christ,” Vol. II, chaps. 9, 14; and “The Temple,” by the same author, chapters 11-13, and the appendix.

There is also another line of argument which proves conclusively that Christ could not have been crucified before Friday

day. It is based on the fact that the five Gospels relate what Jesus did during the six days before the Passover. On his way to Jerusalem from Jericho, he stopped at Bethany at the home of Lazarus, and there they made a supper for him. Read Luke 19:1-28; John 11:55-57; 12:1-11. The first of these six days was the day of his arrival at Bethany. But this could not have been the Sabbath, as he with his disciples had traveled many miles from Jericho; nor could it have been on the first day of the week, for that would then have made the Passover fall on the following Sabbath. The day following was therefore the Sabbath, the fifth day before the Passover; and this was spent at the home of Lazarus. See Geikie’s “Life of Christ,” chap. 55, par. 1; “Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,” by Edersheim, Vol. II, page 357; “The Desire of Ages,” chap. 62, par. 3; “Spirit of Prophecy,” Vol. II, page 372.

On the next day, the fourth day before the Passover, he rode into Jerusalem, at which time his disciples made a great demonstration over him, such as would not have been proper for the strict observance of the Sabbath. This entry into Jerusalem was on Sunday, which has been called “Palm Sunday,” because palm branches were strewn on the road by the multitude when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. See “The Desire of Ages,” chap. 63, par. 3; “Spirit of Prophecy,” Vol. II, page 383; Geikie’s “Life of Christ,” page 661.

In the evening of this day he returned to Bethany. Mark 11:11.

On the following morning, the third day before the Passover, which would be Monday, Jesus returned to Jerusalem, cursed the fig tree and cleansed the temple by driving out the buyers and sellers, taught and healed the sick. Mark 11:12-18; Matt. 21:14-19; Luke 19:45-48. From the fact that they bought and sold it is evident that this day could not have been the Sabbath, but a common work day. In the evening he left Jerusalem and returned to Bethany. Mark 11:18, 19; Matt. 21:17.

On the following morning he returned to Jerusalem and taught all day in the temple. Mark 11:20, 27. Jesus spent all this day teaching in the temple. This was Tuesday, the second day before the Passover. Matt. 26:1-5; Mark 14:1, 2.

There is no record of what Jesus did on the following day, or the first day before the Passover, which was Wednesday. It is but reasonable to believe that he rested at the house of Lazarus, preparatory to his trial and sufferings on the days following. Of course the Jews were then plotting against him. Luke 22:1-6.

The following day was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when the lamb was killed between the two evenings, or after three o’clock and before sunset. Matt. 26:17-20; Mark 14:12-17; Luke 22:7-15; John 13:1. According to Josephus, who was a priest, the lamb was killed between the ninth and eleventh hours, or between three and five in the afternoon. See Josephus’s Wars, book 4, chap. 19, sec. 1. Jesus ate the Passover on the night following. Ex. 12:5-8; Matt. 26:20; 1 Cor. 11:23, 24.

On the next day Jesus was crucified, and was buried on the preparation day, the day before the Sabbath. Luke 23:54-56. He rose early on the first day of the week, the third day after his crucifixion, according to the Scriptures. Mark 16:1, 2, 9; Luke 24:21; 1 Cor. 15:3, 4.

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