Sunday, April 14, commemorates the most revered of all holy days in Christendom, namely, observing the ‘Easter’ celebration or Pascha. "Good Friday" culminates the final last days of the sacred week which reached its zenith with worship services and all the liturgical elements which accompany the solemnity of the occasion. While it is almost universally accepted that Friday was the day in which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified at Golgotha Hill on Mount Calvary, yet, is that really the day on which this sacred event happened?
Matthew 27: 57a, 59-60
Now, when evening [of the ‘Preparation Day before the Sabbath] had come. . . Joseph [of ‘Arimathea’] took the body of Jesus and laid it in his new tomb.
62-65
On the next day which follows the ‘Preparation Day’ [the Sabbath], the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’ “Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead;’ So that the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how.”
28: 1
Now after the Sabbath, as the ‘First’ day of the week began to dawn.
Mark 15: 42-45
Now, when evening had come, because, it was the ‘Preparation Day,’ that is, the day before the Sabbath. Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Pilate granted the body to Joseph, who wrapped His body in linen and laid Him in a tomb which he had hewn out of the rock.
16: 1-2
Now, when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, brought spices, that they might come and anoint Him; very early in the morning, on the ‘First’ day of the week, they came to the tomb when [‘before’??] the sun had risen.
Luke 23: 50, 52-54
Now, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a good and just man. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. The he took it down, wrapped it in linen and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the ‘Preparation Day’ (Cp. Mark 15: 42), and the Sabbath drew near.
24: 1
Now, on the ‘First’ day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bearing spices which they had prepared.
John 19: 31, 40, 42
Therefore, because it was the ‘Preparation Day,’ (Cp. Mark 15: 42) that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the ‘Sabbath’ (for the ‘Sabbath’ was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then they[Cp. 19: 38-39; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus] took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ ‘Preparation Day,’ for the tomb was nearby.
20: 1a
Now, on the ‘First’ day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark.
So, what ‘Day’ was it on that Jesus conquered the power of death and rose victorious from the grave? Well, using the ancient lunar chronology of ‘evening and morning’ as a ‘Day’ (Cp. Genesis 1: 5b) as well as Jesus’ own words in Matthew 12: 40: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be ‘three days and three nights’ in the heart of the earth.”
[CHART]
(1a) Thursday Dawn
(1b) Thursday Dusk ‘Preparation Day’(START)
“Jesus Crucified”
(2a) Friday Dawn
(2b) Friday Dusk ‘Preparation Day’ (END)
‘Sabbath Day’(START)
(3a) Saturday Dawn
(3b) Saturday Dusk ‘Sabbath Day’(END)
‘First Day’ of the week(START)
*Jesus resurrected sometime between late Saturday night [most likely,
after ‘midnight’] and early Sunday morning before dawn.*
(4a) Sunday Dawn
(4a) Sunday Dusk ‘First Day’ of the week (END)
So, it would seem from this illustration that "Holy Friday" may indeed be Holy Thursday; coincidentally, the very day of the week that is named in honor of ‘Thor,’ son of the Viking deity and Father of the Norse gods, ‘Odin.’ It was ordained in the Old Testament Scriptures through the prophesy of King David that God would not allow His Holy One to see corruption [‘decay’], and so, on the ‘Third Day,’ He arose!
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
April 15, 2009
pbks@hotmail.com
