GOOD THURSDAY?

by | Jan 19, 2021 | Articles

GOOD THURSDAY?

– FOUR PUZZLES OF HOLY WEEK  –

Is the traditional understanding of “Holy Week” sustainable in the light of Jesus’ specific prophecy regarding His resurrection? David Serle investigates …

Fixed Points

The week in which Jesus was crucified – and rose again – is the most momentous in world history. It is true to say that more has been written about this week than any other. Yet the key information sources about the last week of Jesus – the gospels – appear to contradict each other. Given the issues at stake, we should resolve apparent difficulties and establish whether there are indeed contradictions. This article incorporates a timeline that has been carefully compiled from the biblical evidence and locates events in a manner that makes sense. It is offered on that basis, and framed between two fixed points upon which everyone agrees: (1) Jesus arrived in Bethany six days before Passover (John 12:1) and (2) the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week.

Some scholars consider the New Testament unreliable because of apparent discrepancies in the accounts of these seven days. Non-believers query, not unreasonably, if the gospel accounts cannot be harmonized on key events such as the day of the crucifixion and the date and nature of ‘the last supper’, then why should people trust them at all? This article demonstrates, at least in outline, that the gospels do not disagree on key events, and provide a dependable basis for belief.

There are two key facts that we need to keep in mind. The first is that Jesus was raised from the tomb at some time around sun-rise on what the Bible calls “the first day of the week”.

The second is that Jesus’ body had to be placed in a tomb before the Sabbath, which was absolutely a non-working day and burying of the dead would be considered “work”.

Having been crucified, the body was to be underground (in its tomb) before the commencement of the Sabbath. As the normal Jewish Sabbath is Saturday, the assumption has long been that Jesus’ body was laid to rest late on Friday afternoon, before sunset. In many people’s minds these two facts constitute the “fixed geometry” of the Biblical pattern. Yet we need to resolve the Lord’s emphatic prophecy: For as ‘Jonah was in the belly of the monster three days and three nights’ so also the Son of Man will be in the heart of the Earth three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40). We cannot “fix” three days and nights between Friday PM and Sunday AM!

Friday-Sunday?

What this Friday-Sunday schema fails to take into account, however, is that something very special was happening in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was underway, which necessarily incorporates its own High Sabbath.

The simple question becomes, was the High Sabbath the same as the weekly Sabbath – did they happen to occur on the same day? We note something important: the Feast of Unleavened Bread encompasses three Moeds (or appointed meetings) each of which speaks in differing ways about the crucifixion and resurrection:

  • Passover
  • Unleavened Bread (an eight day remembrance that follows immediately after the Passover), and
  • First Fruits.

The day of Resurrection is prophetically and literally First Fruits, and we are told plainly by the apostle Paul that Jesus is our “first fruits” and the pioneer of all those whom God will “raise” eternally:  Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Messiah all will be made alive. But each in turn: Messiah, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, GNT). And again: Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the first-fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, NIV)

There are four things that puzzle people about the chronology of Holy Week, however, to which we turn our attention in this article. They are fully explored in a recently published book “Three Days and Three Nights – that changed the World”

1) The ‘lost day’ in the middle of ‘Holy Week’

Matthew devotes seven of his twenty eight chapters to the week leading to Jesus’ crucifixion. The same week absorbs 30 per cent of Mark’s gospel, about 20 per cent of Luke and almost 40 per cent of John.

Despite this considerable body of information, as biblical scholars try to reconstruct what happened on each day of this week, some think they discern a ‘lost day’ when nothing happened. This is the ‘Wednesday’ before what they assume to be a Friday crucifixion. Interestingly, the popular NIV Study Bible comments ‘Day of rest: Wednesday: Not mentioned in the Gospels.’ Whilst this view is by no means universal amongst scholars, it is predicated on an assumed “Friday” crucifixion.

As the chart shown below indicates, the final week of Jesus can be adequately understood once we question the traditional “Friday” to “Sunday” schema. A Wednesday or Thursday crucifixion is the approach adopted by most Biblically conservative commentators these days. On that basis we make no further comment here on a supposed missing day. Had a day devoid of any activity been a part of Jesus’ momentous final week, surely at least one Gospel writer would have so commented?

2) The problem of the last supper

The debate is around the precise relationship of the ‘last supper’ to the Jewish Passover. Here is the problem: Matthew, Mark and Luke state that the last supper was a Passover. By contrast, John equally clearly says that the last supper was held before the Passover meal.

The Passover was, and remains today, the most important meal of the year for Jews. It commemorates the exodus from Egypt and the birth of Israel as a nation. We can assume, then, that the gospel writers, as serious witnesses and writing with a serious purpose, are unlikely to have made a mistake about this! Why do the gospels apparently disagree?

We should bear in mind the beginning of Luke’s gospel: ‘Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eye-witnesses and servants of the word’. Luke claims eye-witness sources, who would have known whether or not the ‘last supper’ was a Passover!

Whilst the problem of the nature of the last supper has been well known to scholars for centuries, little attempt has been made to deal with it. There is a theory, slowly gaining support, that in First-Century Israel (specifically the Roman provinces of Galilee and Judaea) there existed two Jewish calendars;  a pre-exile calendar, used extensively in Galilee (where Jesus was raised) and a post-exile calendar, used extensively by the Judean metropolitan elite. The theory expresses that pious Jews would have used the pre-exile calendar as this was the same as that instituted by Moses.

This article is not the place to resolve this question fully. However Colin J. Humphreys’ “The Mystery of the Last Supper” (Cambridge University Press, 2011) fully explores the two-calendar theory. Whilst there are many detail issues open to debate and question on Humphreys book, the two-calendar theory seems an entirely reasonable solution to the “problem”. Conservative scholar Ian Howard Marshall in “Last Supper & Lord’s Supper” (Paternoster, 1980) reached the same conclusion: “…. Jesus held a Passover meal earlier than the official Jewish date, and he was able to do so as the result of calendar differences among the Jews.”

3) Insufficient time for the trials of Jesus

Some state that there was simply not enough time for the trials and all the other events between the arrest of Jesus and His crucifixion. The night of the arrest leading through to the crucifixion was undoubtedly an intensely busy one, yet the geographical area in which the events took place is amazingly small.

If one places a compass point on the site of the Hasmonean Palace within Jerusalem and draws a circle to the Garden of Gethsemane outside Jerusalem, then the radius is just over half a mile as the crow flies!

Allowing that the events were propelled at a cracking pace by the secular and religious authorities’ overriding need to have Jesus dead and buried before Passover, we calculate that the events likely took place in 11 out of a possible 15 hours available. Whilst certainly “busy”, the schedule could be accommodated fully within those 15 hours. Our view may be open to challenge, yet it does cast serious doubt on the idea that there was insufficient time!

4) The legality of the trials

Scholars are generally agreed that the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin was at night. It is said that Jewish rules regarding trials for capital cases would not allow for this. These rules are stated in the Mishnah (a compendium containing regulations attributed to approx 150 rabbis during the period 50 BC to 200 AD): ‘In capital cases they hold the trial during the daytime and the verdict must also be reached during the daytime … In capital cases a verdict of acquittal may be reached the same day, but a verdict of conviction not until the following day’ (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4.1). Note these are post-apostolic period writings. In reality we do not know what rules were applied. In the extraordinary circumstances of the trial of political prisoner Jesus, whether legal rules were rigorously applied, must be open to serious question.

Jesus had been, in the minds of the Jewish authorities, both secular and religious, a dead man for at least some months, if not years, prior to the staged trial. Jesus had been the subject of hostile questioning and investigation throughout His public ministry. Any reading of the Gospel accounts makes this abundantly clear. It seems that the Sanhedrin wanted to arrest Jesus earlier in His ministry. John 7: 45-52 suggests, intriguingly, that they had in mind to interrogate Jesus – and perhaps more.

Before the arrest High Priest Caiaphas had already made his infamous quote that “it is better that one man should die than a whole nation perish” (John 11:50). In John 11:53 it is clear that the die was cast and the scene was set. In Matthew 12:14 (half way through Jesus’ ministry), the Pharisees were already plotting Jesus’ death. The secular authorities were no better.

Just as Herod the Great had tried to murder the infant Jesus, so his grandson Herod Agrippa bore a grudge against Him. Luke tells us that Herod Agrippa was “pleased” to see Jesus at last, during the trials (see Luke 23: 7-12). Herod had executed John the Baptist (Mark 6: 17-29) and was apparently afraid that Jesus was the reincarnation of John! (Mark 6:14). Just as he had killed what he saw as the pesky moralist John, so Herod had a vested interest along with other civic authorities in permanently silencing this troublesome itinerant Galilean preacher and miracle worker.

There is absolutely no doubt that the authorities wanted Jesus dead. They were in a hurry! The night-time nature of the trial is reflected in these specific verses: Luke 22:66 tells us “Then as it became daylight, the elders of the people gathered, both high priests and scribes, and they were leading Him away to their Sanhedrin.” Mark 15:1 says ‘as soon as morning came’ they led Jesus to Pilate …… Once the trial was concluded and an illegal sentence pronounced (an accused could not be convicted purely on their own testimony, i.e. on a confession, but this did not worry the authorities in their hurry!).

Luke 22:71 appears to reflect the illegality of the trial as the Sanhedrin, having heard Jesus’ affirmation that He is the Son of God, they angrily demand “what further need of witnesses do we have?” They dispensed with the pesky legal need for further witnesses because they believed that Jesus’ affirmation was, in and of itself, completely damning. Luke 23:1 also affirms: “Then after the whole multitude of them got up they led Him to Pilate”. John 18:28 tells us: “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium: it was early”. We say no more here: the trial was an illegal one. It was a political trial, first and foremost – and it could have only one outcome.

The following summary chart presents the main thesis that is developed in the book “Three Days and Three Nights”. The full chart is available https://christian-publications-int.com/images/PDF/SuggestedChronologyOfHolyWeek2.pdf

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
  Lamb chosen Examine Lamb Sacrifice Lamb High Day

(holy-day)

   Firstfruits
Meal at Bethany

6 days before the Passover

 Triumphal entry Jesus in the Temple examined by the religious authorities Disciples prepare and eat Passover with Jesus Passover Start of

Unleavened Bread

   Resurrection
        14   15   16   17  

|_______ Jesus in grave _______|

Some explanatory notes:

  • The time Jesus is in the grave agrees with Jesus’ own prediction of 3 days and 3 nights, counting days as the Jews would.
  • Jesus rises on the Feast of Firstfruits (on the day after the Sabbath after Passover), which is the Third Day of Unleavened Bread
  • Agrees with the disciples on the Emmaus Road in the evening of Resurrection day, that “this third day has passed since” the death and burial of their Messiah happened
  • No need to identify a ‘Lost Day’ as some Study Bibles do (see above)
  • Places the Triumphal entry (Palm Sunday) on the very day that the Passover lambs were chosen
  • Aligns the events of Holy Week with the Feasts of the Lord in described Leviticus ch. 23 and other Scriptures

The main point!

The wonderful truth is that Jesus the Messiah is the Passover Lamb, and has been sacrificed to take away our sins and reconcile us to God! This wonderful salvation had been planned by God from before the foundation of the world and declared for 1500 years in the annual Passover celebration – remembering the Israelites deliverance from oppression and slavery – just as Jesus delivers us from the oppression and slavery of sin, and its eternal results.

As the Passover Lamb, He had to fulfill all the instructions pertaining to the Passover lamb as given to Israel. For example: He was born in Bethlehem because that is where the Passover lambs were born and raised. He had to be selected as the Passover Lamb on the 10th day of Nisan and sacrificed exactly as God commanded “between the two evenings” on the 14th day of Nisan — see Exodus 12:3, 6.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

David Serle manages “David’s Bible Notes” online,

http://davidsbiblenotes.info/assets/bible_index.pdf . He is a contributor to Sword Magazine and co-author of “Three Days and Three Nights – That Changed The World”:  https://christian-publications-int.com/default-32.html?ID=176