Friday crucifixion?

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i have a couple of questions:

  • where exactly do we get the idea that a nanosecond of a day = a day, per 'Jewish reckoning"?
    • is this Biblical, a tradition, or an anecdote?
    • can anyone readily give citations, reasoning and historical evidence, e.g. Talmud?
  • how long is a day according to God?
    • sundown-sundown varies per location on Earth and per time of year, and changes over the years. it is not 24 hours
    • the Levitical calendar counts 360 day years, not 365 ((why??)) - and 365 is not exact, either, nor consistent year to year
    • when God says three days and nights, is He referring to the perfection of the clock He made in Genesis 1 or to the imperfection of the clock we see now in the fallen, cursed dust?
 
posthuman said:
how long is a day according to God?
  • sundown-sundown varies per location on Earth and per time of year, and changes over the years. it is not 24 hours
  • the Levitical calendar counts 360 day years, not 365 ((why??)) - and 365 is not exact, either, nor consistent year to year
  • when God says three days and nights, is He referring to the perfection of the clock He made in Genesis 1 or to the imperfection of the clock we see now in the fallen, cursed dust?
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@cv5

when i said earlier i believe Jesus-God was in the tomb for exactly 3 nights and days, i meant it according to the way God counts days - not how men do.

;):love:
 
Does He count the start of a new calendar day when the following edge of the Sun disk disappears below the horizon? And does He count the start of the daytime of the new calendar day when the leading edge of the Sun disk appears above the horizon?
 
So far, there have been - I think - around three posters out of the 120 plus posts who have offered possible explanations for how a Friday burial/Sunday resurrection could be reconciled.

1. The "heart of the earth" wasn't just referring to His time in the tomb.

2. The 3 hours of darkness from noon to 3pm was one of the nighttimes.

3. The prophesy was based on a midnight to midnight calendar day.

4. If a calendar day is involed, both a daytime and a nighttime can be counted whether or not a daytime or a nighttime were actually involved.

Can anyone think of any other posibilities?
 
rstrats said:
The Catholic Church as well as a number of protestant churches believe that the crucifixion took place on a Friday. And to support that belief, Luke 23:54 is often used as a proof text. That may pose a problem, though, since scripture says that the stay in the heart of the earth would be for three days and three nights. But assuming a Sunday resurrection, a third night would have been missing within that period of time. Any thoughts on how that might be reconciled?
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The Day was a Wednesday. I created the image below for my video.Passon Week.png
 
rstrats said:
Thanks for posting, but that is an issue for a different topic.

But I do wonder about your chart. Under Gregorian you have day first and then night. However, it should be night first, then day and then night. What am I missing?
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Your instinct is correct. My chart is inadequate to paint the entire picture. During the lifetime of Jesus (early 1st century AD), the Romans did indeed begin the civil day at midnight — media nox — and counted the 24‑hour period from midnight to midnight. Roman timekeeping sources explicitly confirm this. My chart would have been "more correct" if it showed two nighttime sections per calendar day: the first nighttime row beginning at midnight. Then the yellow daytime row. Then the second nighttime row ending at midnight.

In Jewish reckoning, the day begins at twilight, and it ends 24 hours later on the next twilight. Since I created the chart to be shown on a computer screen, I simplified it so the basic ideas could be easily grasped. The Bible is written for a Jewish audience so it uses the Jewish reckoning.

A few key elements in the Gospels give the reader a hint about the timeline.

  1. Jesus prediction: 3 days and 3 nights
  2. Passover - Feast of Unleavened Bread
  3. Weekly Sabbath
  4. High Sabbath
  5. Preparation days
  6. Jesus' arrest
  7. Jesus' trial
  8. The hour when Jesus was crucified
  9. The activities of the women
  10. The activities of those who buried Jesus
  11. His Resurrection

We begin with the facts we know: Jesus rose on Sunday morning and he was to spend three days and three nights in the tomb. Let's assume, for the time being Jesus was in the tomb on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This is just a supposition for now; we will look at other factors to arrive at our final conclusion.

Before we continue, we should note a few key concepts, which help us understand the timeline. As we know, the Jewish culture celebrates a weekly Sabbath every Saturday. No work can be done on that day. The women couldn't prepare spices, for instance, on the Sabbath because no work can be done on that Day. So traditionally, the day before the Sabbath is called "the preparation day," and John mentions this day in his Gospel.

Jesus ate Passover with his disciples. The Passover is the Day just before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This Feast funs for seven days. The first day of Unleavened Bread is a High Holy Day. יוֹם טוֹב (Yom Tov) — “Good Day,” meaning a festival day with Sabbath-level restrictions. No work can be done on either of these days. This is significant because the Chief Priests requested that Pilate break the legs of those on the cross so that the bodies could be taken down before the Passover -- meaning "The High Holy Day." We know this because John's Gospel tells us this.

So, What do we know so far? Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples. The Passover began at twilight. During that time, Jesus ate with his disciples, talked with them outside in the evening, and was arrested, tortured, and interviewed during that night. When daylight came, he was taken to Pilate to be judged and sentenced. Jesus was crucified later that day. It was 3:00 pm.

He was already dead when the soldiers came to break his legs, so they didn't break his legs. According to every Gospel account, Joseph of Arimathea took charge of the burial and placed Jesus in the tomb, while Nicodemus helped with spices and wrapping.

The women were going to deliver the spices to the tomb, but since Jesus was crucified the day before the High Holy Day, Nicodemus and the women were required to wait until the end of the High Holy Day. They prepared the spices on a Preparation Day. Luke 23:56 shows the women prepared the spices before the Sabbath began, which means they did this work on Friday — the Preparation Day (the day before the Sabbath).

In other words, between the time when Jesus was crucified and the day that the women showed up to the tomb to prepare the body of Jesus, there was a High Sabbath, a Preparation Day, and a Weekly Sabbath.

With this information, we can safely conclude that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday during the daylight hours. He was placed in the tomb just before Twilight that day because the Chief Priests wanted the bodies removed before the High Holy Day began. After the High Holy Day, during the daylight hours of Friday, the women prepared the spices. That day was a day of preparation, which preceded the Weekly Sabbath.

When the Sabbath was over, they went to the tomb and found it empty.

Hopefully this helped.
 
Roger316 said:
Hopefully this helped.
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I'm afraid it doesn't. The topic is not asking for the day of the crucifixion. It is directed to anyone who believes that it took place on a Friday - the 6th day of the week with a resurrection on the 1st day of the week - Sunday. I am simply asking how they account for the lack of a 3rd night.

With regard to your post, perhaps you could start a new topic to argue for a Wednesday - 4th day of the week - crucifixion.

BTW, you might want to edit your comment that the crucifixion occured at 3pm. Actually, it began at the 3rd hour - 9am.
 
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rstrats said:
I'm afraid it doesn't. The topic is not asking for the day of the crucifixion. It is directed to anyone who believes that it took place on a Friday - the 6th day of the week with a resurrection on the 1st day of the week - Sunday. I am simply asking how they account for the lack of a 3rd night.

With regard to your post, perhaps you could start a new topic to argue for a Wednesday - 4th day of the week - crucifixion.

BTW, you might want to edit your comment that the crucifixion occured at 3pm. Actually, it began at the 3rd hour - 9am.
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Thanks for the time correction. I wrote my entire post from memory and I was bound to make a small mistake. It is correct in my video. Anyway, I honestly can't believe that anyone would think Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Some do, but I suspect that they are committed to a dogma, not to common sense. You can't get three days and three nights from Friday to Sunday.

Imagine this. Suppose we booked a hotel room at a resort and we wanted to stay three days and three nights. Would we pay full price if check in time was Friday afternoon and check out time was Sunday morning? Really?
 
Roger316 said:
You can't get three days and three nights from Friday to Sunday.
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Yes, which is this topic's issue as stated in the OP.
Roger316 said:
Imagine this. Suppose we booked a hotel room at a resort and we wanted to stay three days and three nights. Would we pay full price if check in time was Friday afternoon and check out time was Sunday morning? Really?
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You can include that in your new topic if you decide to start one.
 
rstrats said:
Yes, which is this topic's issue as stated in the OP.

You can include that in your new topic if you decide to start one.
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Why do you want to know? Why did you ask the question? What is behind your question? What is at stake for you?

The answer is no, there is no way to resolve the Friday Crucifixion.

Someone already mentioned that supposedly the Jewish people counted a partial day as a full day. I am not convinced of that. Partial reckoning doesn't appear anywhere else in the New Testament. And with my hotel scenario, I showed how ridiculous the concept is. The Jews did NOT count a partial day as a half day and I can prove it.

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, found in Matthew 20:1–16.

This is the story where Jesus describes laborers hired at different times of the day — some early morning, some at the third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, and even the eleventh hour — yet the landowner pays all of them a full day’s wage.

Contrary to what AI says, this is NOT proof that the Jews considered a partial day as a full day. The workers in the Vineyard didn't complain that they got paid for a full day, they complained that those who worked a full day got paid the same amount as the person who worked only a part of a day. If the Jewish culture counted a partial day as a full day then Jesus' parable wouldn't work.

On the contrary, If the Jewish culture counted a partial day as a full day then Jesus' parable wouldn't work. There would be no complaint if they all got paid the same because it would have been a matter of due course. But they didn't expect everyone to get paid the same amount, as if a partial day counted as a full day, those who worked a full day expected to get paid more than those who worked a partial day.
 
rstrats said:
The Catholic Church as well as a number of protestant churches believe that the crucifixion took place on a Friday. And to support that belief, Luke 23:54 is often used as a proof text. That may pose a problem, though, since scripture says that the stay in the heart of the earth would be for three days and three nights. But assuming a Sunday resurrection, a third night would have been missing within that period of time. Any thoughts on how that might be reconciled?
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For one if a person is dead on that day, they are dead for the day. Even if is not 24 hours. dead is dead. One hour ,three days, or four days dead is dead. So if one is dead in day time and is still dead at evening, they are dead day and night. At anytime they are dead in the day time or night. They are dead both day and night.
 
rstrats said:
I'm afraid it doesn't. The topic is not asking for the day of the crucifixion. It is directed to anyone who believes that it took place on a Friday - the 6th day of the week with a resurrection on the 1st day of the week - Sunday. I am simply asking how they account for the lack of a 3rd night.
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The Friday–Sunday model has zero ways to produce three nights.

None.**

Not symbolically.
Not idiomatically.
Not culturally.
Not mathematically.
Not linguistically.

If Jesus was buried before sundown Friday and rose before dawn Sunday, the timeline yields:
Friday night
Saturday night
That’s two nights, not three.

There is no third night anywhere in the Friday model.
That is the entire problem.

Jesus Himself defined the sign: “Three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” — Matthew 12:40
This is not metaphor.
This is not “Jewish idiom.”
This is not “any part of a day counts as a day.”
Jesus explicitly included nights.

The Friday model must explain:
Where is night #3?
And it cannot.

People say: “Any part of a day counts as a day.”
Fine — but Jesus didn’t say “three days.”
He said three days AND three nights.

The idiom argument collapses because:
“day” can be idiomatic
“night” cannot
There is no Jewish idiom where “three nights” means “two nights.”
None.

Inclusive reckoning can stretch days,but it cannot stretch nights.

You cannot make:
Friday night
Saturday night
equal three nights.
It’s mathematically impossible.

Jesus said: “As Jonah was… so shall the Son of Man be…”
Jonah was literally in the fish three days and three nights.

Jesus said His burial would match Jonah’s in duration.
If Jesus meant “two nights,” He would have said “two nights.”

He didn’t.

The Friday–Sunday tradition has no third night and no textual solution.

Every attempted answer:
“Jewish idiom”
“inclusive reckoning”
“part of a day counts”
“the sign is symbolic”
“the nights don’t matter”
fails because Jesus explicitly included nights.


Your question is legitimate.
The Friday model cannot produce three nights.
There is no third night in that timeline.
And every attempt to explain it contradicts Jesus’ own words.

The only timeline that gives Jesus three days and three nights is a Wednesday crucifixion.
Wednesday death → Saturday resurrection (before sundown).

That’s it.

Everything else fails because:
Friday = 2 nights
Thursday = 2 nights
Only Wednesday = 3 nights

The literal count Jesus gave:

Night 1 — Wed night
Night 2 — Thu night
Night 3 — Fri night
Day 1 — Thu
Day 2 — Fri
Day 3 — Sat
Jesus rises late Saturday, before sundown — which is already the start of the first day of the week.
Wednesday is the only timeline that fits Jesus’ own words: “three days and three nights.”
 
Roger316 said:
Why do you want to know? Why did you ask the question?
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I'm simply curious how Friday crucifixion advocates answer the question.

Again, since you are not one of those, this qustion doesn't apply to you.

An again, if you want to discuss the day of the crucifixion, you are free to start a new topic.
 
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