The "Good Friday" Hoax

[Vickilynn]

Shalom 4 Given,

What does this have to do with "Good Friday"? What am I missing here?

Jesus ate unleavened bread at the passover and drank wine, but many denoms use goofy counterfeits like crackers and grape juice at the Lord's supper.

I was merely responding the Adarian's post.

Shalom 4 Given,

Thanks for clarifying that, I appreciate it! I didn't understand and I HAD missed that part!

Np. Funny thing is that when you asked me I wondered if I had lost my mind for a bit because I couldn't find Adarian's post.

Shalom 4 Given,

And I thought I had lost MY mind and backed out of the thread, thinking I had clicked on the wrong one! :24:

Thanks for helping this old lady regain her brain!

[EricH]

Shalom Eric,

Thank you!!! That was very considerate!

Thats why I get paid the big bucks

[Smalcald]

Maybe someone has done this up thread somewhere and I apologize if that is the case, but why don't we just look at scripture, simply pick one of the accounts we have of the resurrection and walk us through the days leading up to the resurrection, it is pretty direct. Or simply start with the resurrection which we know without a doubt was the first day of the week, Sunday and go backward through the events to His execution.

When I do that I come up with Friday, but maybe someone could show me how I am wrong? I have no real vested interest in the day one way or the other. I do think it is really stupid to NOT believe it is Friday just because the Catholics believe that Good Friday is the day of His crucifixion, I mean they also believe He rose from the dead, maybe that is a hoax also another Catholic conspiracy?

[Smalcald]

From Luke:

44It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last. 47The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man." 48When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. 50Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, 51who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. 52Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. 53Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. 54It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. 1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

It looks clear here. The first day of the week, which we know is Sunday the women found the tomb empty, the day prior was the Sabbath, we know that Christ was dead then we know that the women did nothing following the command, the day prior to that Joseph took the Body down and we know that day was Preparation Day, the Day prior to the Sabbath, Friday. The only way it could not be Friday would be if there were days between the times that Christ breathed His last and the time when Joseph took His body down, but that is not how the text reads to me at all.

Maybe I am missing something?

[Vickilynn]

Shalom Smalcald,

Think like a Jew and research the days and customs of the time.

http://penei.org/holidays-pesach.shtml

Pesach lamb Yeshua

(1) On the tenth day of the month of Nissan, the family brought a lamb to their home. They inspected it for four days, making sure it was suitable.

(1) On the tenth day of the month of Nissan, Yeshua entered Jerusalem. (Christians call this day Palm Sunday.) Yeshua was questioned by the people of Jerusalem for four days.

(2) The lambs were to be sacrificed at dusk. Because of the great number of lambs sacrificed in Yeshua's day, the sacrifices began earlier in the day at ended at dusk.

(2) Yeshua was crucified before noon, at the same time the Pesach lambs were being sacrificed. At noon, darkness covered the land. This could not have been an eclipse since the 14th of any Jewish month is a full moon. At dusk Yeshua died.

(3) Some blood from the sacrificed lamb was brought back to the home, and put on the sides and top of the front doorposts. (3) The blood from Yeshua's head and hands marked the cross in the same pattern as the blood marks on the doorposts.

(4) The blood is a sign: God passed over the houses it marked when he slew the firstborn of Egypt on the first Pesach.

(4) The blood is a sign: Yeshua is the final sacrifice, by which the sins and iniquities of the world have atonement. Those who accept this forgiveness will be passed over on the Day of Judgment when all those with iniquity are judged unfit to be in God's presence forever.

(5) Each individual Israelite had to obey God and stay within a home marked by the blood. Any who left their home would not have been protected.

(5) Each individual today is required to personally accept the atonement of Yeshua's sacrificial death. Being a believer is not a matter of ancestry or upbringing. "Belief" as scripture defines it requires obedience. Merely intellectually acknowledging Yeshua's sacrifice does nothing spiritually.

(6) None of the lamb's bones were to be broken during or after the sacrifice.

(6) None of Yeshua's bones were broken.

(7) Only people who were circumcised could eat the sacrificial lamb.

(7) Only people with circumcised hearts can accept the atonement of Yeshua's sacrificial death. (In other words, some people may be blinded by pride, falsely claiming to be believers but still slaves to the evil inclination.)

(8) The holy day of First Fruits is the Sunday after the Pesach sacrifice. On this day the first fruits of your harvest were given to God, showing your trust in his provision.

(8) On First Fruits, Yeshua rose from the dead, the first fruit of the new life God now makes available to everyone. Yeshua's resurrection allows us to trust that God will provide for us after we die: indeed, Yeshua called it sleeping, not death, and he claimed to give Eternal Life.

Two notes about above comparisons:

[1] Deuteronomy 30:6 speaks of circumcised hearts, defining it as "love[ing] Adonai your God with all your heart and all your being". Although Christians may think their culture invented that imagery, it is Jewish and from the Torah.

[2] You may have noticed, reading the comparison above, that Yeshua was crucified on a Thursday night. This is contrary to the incorrect but traditional teaching that the crucifixion happened on a Friday night. Some knowledge of the Jewish customs of the time allow an clear explanation.

To determine when the month would start, some men would go atop a hill and try to see the moon. The month started the first night that a sliver of the new moon could be seen. However, there remained a worry: what if some moon was visible the previous night, but due to clouds or poor eyesight it was not seen? In other words, what if a month's counting was starting a day late?

That worry caused an interesting Pesach tradition to start: two seders were celebrated, one on the scripturally commended evening (the 14th) and one the evening before. Pesach was such an important holiday that this extra work was done to make sure that even if the month's counting started a day late Pesach would still happen on the correct evening!

(Today, there are still traditionally two seders, but they happen on the evenings of the 14th and the 15th. With modern astronomy, there is no concern that the month's counting is incorrect. But the tradition of the second seder had become dear to the Jewish people.)

Thus, Yeshua's triumphal entry was on a Sunday. His last supper was a seder on a Wednesday night. His crucifixion was on a Thursday afternoon. He was three nights and three days in the tomb (Matthew 12:40). Sunday morning he rose from the dead.

Many people believe that the different gospels give conflicting accounts of Yeshua's crucifixion. Was Yeshua crucified on a preparation-for-the-seder day, and how could that be if the evening before was a seder? The accounts do not conflict once the context is known.

(A related confusion is John 19:31, which says that after Yeshua's crucifixion was a sabbath. This does not mean that the crucifixion happened on a Friday because the next day was Saturday. Scripturally, Shabbat refers to any holy day that is a day of rest, such as the first day of Pesach. So the Shabbat was the 14th of Nissan, the first day of Pesach and evening of the second seder. The day began that evening, following the Jewish calendar.)

[Vickilynn]

Shalom,

Three days, Three Nights

"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Matt 12:40).

Friday to Sunday does not equal three days.

three days

Click here to view a larger printable chart of the last week of Christ's life on earth. (PDF file requires Acrobat)

[Guest shiloh357]

It looks clear here. The first day of the week, which we know is Sunday the women found the tomb empty, the day prior was the Sabbath, we know that Christ was dead then we know that the women did nothing following the command, the day prior to that Joseph took the Body down and we know that day was Preparation Day, the Day prior to the Sabbath, Friday.

Not necessarily, John tells us that it was a High Sabbath, and High Sabbaths do not necessarily occur on the seventh day of the week. So it could have been another day.

The next day was the first day of unleavened bread and so it was one of those High Sabbaths. Plus remember that they operate from a lunar calendar, not like a solar calendar and that makes a big difference in counting days and nights with respect to this story.

[Treasure]

Plus remember that they operate from a lunar calendar, not like a solar calendar and that makes a big difference in counting days and nights with respect to this story.

Thanks Shiloh. This is what I was thinking.

[Smalcald]

Interesting.

Okay so walk me through how this would occur given the account in Luke? The account gives no time lapse between when Joseph took Jesus down and buried Him and the Preparation Day?

1.)He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. 52Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. 53Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. 54It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

2.)55The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

3.)1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

So just in those three passages I am trying to get somewhere that number 1) was not on a Friday? So are you saying that the Preparation Day was not the day directly prior to the Sabbath, which Luke says was about to begin? This would be the only way that I could see any other day than Friday given this very direct timeline that Luke lays out for us.

[Guest shiloh357]

Interesting.

Okay so walk me through how this would occur given the account in Luke? The account gives no time lapse between when Joseph took Jesus down and buried Him and the Preparation Day?

Of course, there is no time lapse. The problem is that you cannot simply go by what was said in Luke. Matthew, Mark and Luke leave out an important detail that it is included in John and that is that the next day was a High Sabbath.

Also note the term "preparation day." Preparation for what? The "day of preparation" refers to the ridding of all leaven in the house prior to the first day of unleavened bread. It is the process of preparing the home for the seven day festival where no leaven is eaten or even found in the home. The Torah does not require all leaven to be out of the house prior to the eating of the Passover. (Ex. 12:15-16; Lev. 23:5-8; Num. 28:7)

Jesus died on Passover at 3:00 p.m. at the EXACT moment the Passover Lamb was killed for the nation of Israel in the Temple. This was done "between the evenings."

And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

(Exodus 12:6)

Some versions say "twilight" and this gives the wrong understanding. The Hebrew for "in the evening" in verse six is "bein erev" and it means, "between the evenings."

It refers to the way ancient Israel and indeed other contemporary cultures divided the day into 8, 3-hour divisions. The KJV calls the each division a "watch." (please see Exod. 14:24; 1Sam. 11:11; Mar. 6:48; Luk. 12:38) For example, in Mark 6:48 Jesus is said to have walked on the water during the "4th watch." It would go like this:

6 p.m. to 9 p.m. ~ 1st watch

9 p.m. to 12 a.m. ~ 2nd watch

12 a.m. to 3 a.m. ~ 3rd watch

3 a.m. to 6 a.m. ~ 4th watch (John 6:48)

6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ~ 5th watch

9 a.m. to 12 p.m ~ 6th watch

12 p.m. to 3 p.m. ~ 7th watch (lesser evening)

3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ~ 8th watch (greater evening)

Now, Jesus died "between the evenings." He died between was was known in ancient times as the "lesser" and "greater" evenings, which simply means 3:00 p.m.

Jesus had to be in the tomb before the beginning of Unleavened bread (roughly 6 p.m. or at least before sundown). Now according to Jesus own words, He would be in the tomb for three days and three nights. In other words, he would be in the tomb for 72 hours, the same length of time that Jonah was in the belly of the great fish.

As I previously indicated, they were operating under a lunar calendar which means that Jesus was in the tomb from the evening of the 14th to the evening of 15th (one day and one night), to the evening of the 16th (two days and two nights), to the evening of the 17th (three days and three nights), and would have been resurrected any time after the sundown on the 17th. Sundown on the 17th, would be considered, "the first day of the week" on a lunar calendar.

No one actually witnessed the exact moment of his resurrection. The Roman soldiers fainted at the presence of the angel. Jesus was already out of the tomb when the women got there in the morning.

You cannot get three days and three nights if Jesus died on Friday at 3:00 p.m. and was resurrected on Sunday morning. It is more likely that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, died that afternoon, and was resurrected sometime between 6:00 p.m. Saturday night and early Sunday morning when the women got to the tomb. There is no way to pinpoint the precise moment of his resurrection, but there is enough evidence to demonstrate that a Friday crucifixion is really not feasible.