Mhonjan Odyuo
DC Court Colony
The Bible does not explicitly state on which day of the week Jesus was crucified. The most two widely held views are Thursday and Friday. In Mathew 12: 40, He said “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the huge belly of a fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”. For the Christians who opined the crucifixion on Friday has a valid point in which He could be considered three days and three nights in the tomb. In the Jewish mind of the first Century, a part of a day was considered as a full day.
Since Jesus was in the grave for a part of Friday, all of Saturday and part of Sunday, He could be considered to have been in the grave for three days. One of the supports for Friday is found in Mark 15:42 which note that Jesus was crucified the day before the Sabbath. If that was the weekly Sabbath i.e. Saturday then that fact leads to a Friday crucifixion.
The Jewish calendar is lunar running in nineteen year metonic cycles. To give indication of the start and finish of a cycle in respect to year dates, from which the cycle with which we are dealing ran from 22 to 40 CE, Pilates date in Judea being from 26-36 CE. The only year with the 14th of Nisan day before the Passover falling on Thursday was the year 33CE in which the Pascal full moon came on the 9th of April.
The dates in the Holy week are then Palm Sunday on 5th,last supper on 8th and crucifixion on 9th, the same day in which the arrest and trial before Pilate was held at 0700-0730, nailing on the cross at 0900,death point of Christ at about 1500 and consigning of corpus christi to the tomb at about 1700-1800 hours on the third day (scripturally required and it counts three nights in the tomb Thursday, Friday, Saturday) and on Sunday near the dawn on the 12th April, the empty tomb was discovered by His followers and disciples at about 0530- 0600.
Thus, we observe Easter Day on Sunday. In the Divine scheme, it is not important to know what day of the week Christ was crucified. If it is important then God would have communicated the day and time frame through the Bible, what is important is He died physically and rose from the death to save us. And those who believe in Him will have everlasting life.
