This is the latest version of this important article that I wrote about the vital events of that week, from the Sunday before Jesus's Resurrection until His Resurrection on that First Day of the week, which would, therefore, have happened the following Sunday after that week.
Regarding the dating of the events according to the Jewish Calendar, my dating is the same as in my previous articles. Note that my latest dating, according to the Gregorian calendar we follow today, differs somewhat from my calculations in the past.
Let us first set down a few solid points from Scripture and specifically from the Gospels and other New Testament books about these events.
• On 14 Nissan the lamb for the “Pesach”-feast had to be slaughtered (Ex. 12:6). It must then be prepared to be eaten that same evening, i.e. on 15 Nissan, which is counted from 18h00 to 18h00, our time, along with the rest of the PASSOVER meal. (See Ex. 12:8).
• These events were, according to the Old Testament Torah law, preceded by a series of events in this regard. Such as the events on the 10th Nissan (four days before the time), when a lamb without blemish had to be chosen and set aside to be slaughtered as the Passover Lamb.
• The day of the PASSOVER meal itself is, according to the TORAH law, counted as a SABBATH, regardless of which day it would take place. (See Ex. 12 and Ex. 23:4-8)
• From the Gospels and other New Testament passages, we know the following information: Jesus is called the Lamb in several passages. (See e.g., John 1:29,36; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 5:6,8,12,13;6:1,9,12,16; 7:9,10,14,17; 8:1; 12:11; 13:8; 14:1,4; 15:3; 17:14; 19:7,9; 21:9,14,22,23,27; 22:1,3)
• From the Gospel accounts, we know that Jesus died on the day of His crucifixion, 3:00 p.m. Because the next day was considered a Sabbath (because the first day of the Passover, with its meal that evening, was also considered a holy day), His Body had to be removed from the cross that afternoon, and He had to be buried in the tomb that Joseph of Armitea had made available.
• Then we also know that Jesus prophesied, based on Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, that He would be in the tomb (or literally “in the heart of the earth”) for three days and three nights. (See Matt. 12:40; 27:63; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34; John 2:19)
• We also know that the women went to the tomb on the first day of the week, in other words, Sunday morning, after the crucifixion events were over and the Body of Jesus had already been in the tomb for three days and after the regular Sabbath was over. (See e.g., Luke 24:1)
Introduction
Most Christian believers commemorate the crucifixion events on Friday, which they then call “Good Friday” for this reason, which would then be followed by the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday as the first day of the week.
The reason for celebrating the Crucifixion of Jesus on a Friday is because Luke 23:24 states: “And it was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was about to begin.” (Some translations, such as the 1983 Afrikaans Translation, have therefore also interpreted this verse in this way. The NIV consequently translated it as: “It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.”
Although one therefore understands why many Christians around the world celebrate the crucifixion events as a “Good Friday” event, it is very clear from the facts of the events that the crucifixion happened on Wednesday.
One can say that it is about celebrating the events and that it offers followers of Jesus the opportunity and privilege to be silent with other family members and other Christian believers about a week of events in Jesus’ life that changed each of our lives.
I disagree with this, and in writing this article, I have tried to show why the precision of what and when these events took place is important because they deal with historical events that changed the entire history of the world. If we cannot even account for such events to ourselves about the real facts of the events, how can we testify about them with credibility to a lost, but very critical and cynical world, which is already wondering about and whether there are credible grounds for the Biblical message and specifically what is said and testified about Jesus.
Therefore, in this article, I want to offer readers the opportunity to meditate on the details of the historical events of each day of this vital week.
May the living God himself, through the working of His Spirit, use these truths to touch and set everyone free anew.
After all, the truth alone sets us free!
That week’s events that year in which the first day of the Pesach on 15 Nissan did not fall on an ordinary Sabbath
THE SUNDAY
Before I talk about that Wednesday’s events, let’s begin our reflection with the events of Sunday, usually called “Palm Sunday” in the church worldwide.
This was the day Luke 19 and John 12:12 and onwards tell us about. It was the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the city of King David, on a donkey.
As before, when a king of that time, the crowd threw garments and palm branches down before Him to show Him honour as the King from the line of David. All exactly as the prophecies in Zech. 9:9 and Dan. 9:25 – 27 had predicted centuries earlier would happen.
According to Exodus 12, the lamb for the Passover to be celebrated later that week was to be chosen on the tenth of the first month of the Jewish Year, the month, Nissan.
According to the custom in Jesus’s time, only lambs from the Bethlehem area were considered suitable to serve as a lamb for the Passover celebration. Therefore, during that week in which Pesach was celebrated, on that particular Sunday, a lamb born in the Bethlehem’' district was chosen and brought into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives’ side, through the Sheep Gate.
This would be the same route that Jesus took that Sunday in that week on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. (See Matt. 21:1 ff.; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-38; John 12:12-19)
As He entered, the people shouted: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Save us, Son of David!
In this manner, Jesus from Nazareth was announced with acclamation as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, and the crowd chose their Lamb for the Passover!
However, this lamb had to be examined by the spiritual leaders first. As taught in the Torah, it had to be a lamb without blemish and without spot to be suitable to be slaughtered as a lamb for the Passover.
Therefore. we read how Jesus, after entering Jerusalem, first went to the temple to teach there. (See passages on this, such as Matt. 21:23 ff.; Mark 11:27-33; Luke 20:1-8)
While He was there, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law came and tried to trap Him with all kinds of difficult questions, trying to expose Him as a liar. But they could find no fault in Him.
The dating of these events
Let me confess honestly right away that it is very difficult to date these events now according to our calendar. As you remember, initially it was dated according to the Jewish Lunar calendar, while we are using nowadays the Gregorian calendar.
The reason for this is that because the Gregorian calendar (which has been followed since 1582 and is based on the movement of the sun), has very strict rules and can therefore be easily adjusted and calculated. In contrast, the Jewish Rabbis, who determined the dates of the Jewish Festivals each year according to the 28-day cycle of the Moon, sometimes used their own rules and preferences to calculate when a particular festival, such as Pesach, which had to be celebrated as a Sabbath, could occur in a given year. Furthermore, to make things even more complicated, some of these festivals could not be celebrated on a Monday, or a Wednesday, or a Friday, but only on a Sunday, a Tuesday, a Thursday, or a Saturday, according to the beliefs of certain groups of Jewish Rabbis.
But, with this in mind, let us try to date these events according to the best research and calculations.
If we start from a date in which the Pesach meal on the First Day of the Pesach celebrations took place on a Thursday, then the date of that year would be 30 A.D.
15 Nissan of that year, 30 A.D., then fell on 5-6 April 30 A.D. (Remember that the Jewish Thursday already began on Wednesday evening, 18h00!)
Then this particular Palm Sunday would fall on 2 April 30 A.D.
THE MONDAY
On the particular Monday of the week in which the Passover was to be celebrated, every form of yeast, as a symbol of evil and sin, had to be removed from every house according to the instructions of the Torah. Therefore, every Jewish mother searched her house with a candle for any form of it on this day.
Therefore, Jesus went to the temple as the house of God on that very Monday and then drove out all the money changers (Luke 19:45 ff.).
THE TUESDAY EVENING
Because Jesus and his disciples were not in Jerusalem that year but in Bethany, a small village just outside Jerusalem, it was permissible for them to make preparations there the day before and celebrate the Passover meal. (Luke 22:14 ff.; Matthew 26:17-35; and John 13:36-38 tell us about it).
Later that evening Jesus is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, which lies on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem (Matt. 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-53).
THAT WEEK HAD TWO SABBATHS
Because it is important for a correct dating and understanding of the events of this important week, I want to reiterate here that the week in which the Passover was celebrated could sometimes have two Sabbaths if the Passover fell somewhere in the middle of the week.
The year 30 A.D., according to the Jewish calendar, was just such a year. Therefore, we find that in such a week, the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover meal was celebrated in the evening, would be counted as a Sabbath according to the Jewish festival calendar. Later in the week, the regular Sabbath is then celebrated on the seventh day of the week as usual.
As I said, the week when Jesus was crucified was just like that.
Let me begin to chronologically place the rest of the events of that week for you in light of this.
WEDNESDAY MORNING AT 06H00
According to the Jewish calendar that particular year (30 AD), the “day of preparation”, with the Passover meal that would follow later that evening, had to take place that Wednesday.
Jesus, our perfect Passover lamb without blemish, had to be prepared to be slaughtered and die in our place.
Everything started happening that Wednesday morning at 06h00 when Jesus was tried and sentenced by Pilate. (John 19:13-16)
WEDNESDAY MORNING AT 09H00
In the temple in Jerusalem, the High Priest tied the chosen lamb for the Passover to the horns of the altar, as was ordained for the 14th Nissan.
Jesus was nailed to a cross on Golgotha at 09h00 that morning.
According to our Gregorian dating, Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, April 5, 30 AD, or Nissan 14 that year, according to the Jewish lunar calendar.
15H00, THAT WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
After a sudden solar eclipse of three hours from 12h00 that afternoon, simultaneously with the time that the lamb was to be slaughtered in the temple (according to Exodus 12:6), Jesus died at 15h00 that Wednesday afternoon (Matt. 27:45 ff.). After three hours of “hell,” He could say: “It is finished”, and He could finally breathe His last.
Everything that needed to happen to make forgiveness of sin possible was done. The victory was achieved, and therefore, Jesus could peacefully surrender His life to the Father.
Now you and I can say in faith with boldness and certainty: I have been delivered from the hands of the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb!
But even more than that happened at that moment.
Matthew tells us about it in chapter 27, verse 51, and onwards.
It was as if God the Father from heaven wanted to help the people of that time to understand that what happened here was of cardinal importance. Yes, the history of the world changed with these events!
To fully shine the spotlight on exactly what happened at that moment, God, with His own hands, took hold of the thick curtain that separated the Holy part of the temple from the Holy of Holies.
And then God ripped it apart and tore it from top to bottom!
Yes, it was that same curtain through which the high priest could walk only once a year into the Holy of Holies!
Suddenly, it was gone! No more was any separation left between the Holy and the Most Holy, where God himself sat in His holy presence and waited to speak to His people.
For this reason, in Hebrews chapter 10, we read about the boldness with which every believer could now appear in the presence of the Holy God after these events. (See Heb. 10:19)
To further emphasize what happened here, God uses everything He has to keep the community talking about these events for weeks and years.
Suddenly, there was an earthquake, and graves opened. People who had recently died and been buried suddenly came out of their graves alive and began walking around the streets of Jerusalem for everyone to see and talk to!
It was as if God wanted to say: This is a new beginning! The old covenant with all its things was over. A new relationship with Me is now possible. Everything that the Old Covenant, with all its festivals and laws, wanted to remind you of, were now only like signposts wanting to lead you to Me and to what happened here!
All these things from the Old Covenant served their purpose. From then on, the laws would only serve to convince unbelievers that they were sinners and lost!
Yes, it would finally remind them that Jesus Christ had come as the Messiah and Lamb of God, who had to die this very week like the Passover Lamb of old.
EARLY EVENING, BEFORE 18H00 THAT WEDNESDAY
With the Passover celebration to take place after 18h00 and the Sabbath rest ahead, the believing followers of Jesus had to take His body down from the cross and lay it in the tomb that Joseph of Arimathea had donated for it.
Mark 15:42 and further tell us about it.
THREE DAYS IN THE TOMB
According to the Scriptures and the prophecies, Jesus would be in the tomb for three days and nights.
So, he was there that special Sabbath (or first day of the “Feast of Unleavened Bread”), which extended from Wednesday 6:00 p.m. to Thursday 6:00 p.m.; followed by Friday (which extended from Thursday evening 18h00 to Friday evening 18h00); and then also for the Jewish Sabbath (from Friday 6:00 p.m. to Saturday 18:00).
HE RISEN
Early that Saturday evening, after 18:00, with the dawn of the Jewish First day of the week, Jesus rose from the dead after three days in the tomb.
Exactly what time it was, we do not know.
Jesus himself prophetically declared that He would be crucified, die, and be in the tomb for three days and then rise again.
Thus, many other prophetic passages are also fulfilled with this, namely, Hos. 6:1,2 and the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:40).
That Saturday evening, according to the Jewish festival calendar, the priest also waved the “First fruits Sheaf” of the harvest before God to dedicate the new harvest to God (Lev. 23:10-11).
That is why the Risen Jesus is also called the “First fruit” in 1 Cor. 15:20-23.
EARLY SUNDAY MORNING
Early that Sunday morning, April 8, 30 AD, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, and later also some of the other disciples, discovered that Jesus Christ had risen as He Himself had said would happen (Matt. 28:1 ff.).
Therefore, we can say with the believers throughout the ages: Hallelujah, we truly serve a living Lord! (1 Cor. 15). Jesus Christ truly rose, and He lives.
Unlike all figures worshipped in other religions, we serve a Living, Risen Lord.
If He had not truly risen, our faith as Christian believers would be in vain. (Read 1 Cor. 15 about this)
SUDDENLY THIS BECAME THE WEEK THAT CHANGED HISTORY
Anyone who reflects on the realities of this week's events cannot help but think for the first time, or in remembrance, about Jesus and who He was.
Who was Jesus of Nazareth really? Was He just an ordinary man who lived from the 11th of September 3 BC to the 5th of April 30 AD?
What about all the remarkable things He said and did?
What about the fact that everything He said, even about His death, happened exactly like that?
He even said that He would rise from the dead after three days!
Could He then have been just an exceptionally good man or just a prophet, as some would describe Him? That cannot be if the events happened as I have told you.
And if He did not rise from the dead, He was a liar and could not be a true prophet.
What's more, He claimed to be God who became man!
Anyone who is really serious about this and wants to be honest in light of the facts cannot just say that He was just another exceptionally good man or prophet.
Either He was the biggest liar and psychopath who ever lived, or He was who He said He was: Namely, God who became man to finally redeem us.
Yes, then Jesus of Nazareth was truly the Savior who came so that everyone who believes in Him may have life and have it abundantly!