© 2024 The Interpreter Foundation. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
All content by The Interpreter Foundation, unless otherwise specified, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here.
Interpreter Foundation is not owned, controlled by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All research and opinions provided on this site are the sole responsibility of their respective authors, and should not be interpreted as the opinions of the Board, nor as official statements of LDS doctrine, belief or practice.
Thank you for your article. To be sure, the details on what Christ probably suffered are gruesome, but all of us who benefitted from his sacrifice need to be conscious of the price that was paid on our behalf. If we better understand what he did for us, perhaps we can come to him, as we ought, with hearts fully broken and spirits fully contrite, the one thing, it seems, we must offer to claim the gift he gave us through this graphically depicted suffering.
In further pondering the question of the crucifixion day, there is a compelling argument for Thursday from Moses that Chadwick did not get into. Jesus is the Pascal Lamb, and the lamb was to be chosen on the 10th day of the month Aviv (Nisan) and guarded or protected (Heb: mishmereth) until the 14th of the month, when it was to be sacrificed (Exodus 12:1-11; 13:4). Chadwick emphasized the crucifixion on the 14th but did not connect the rest of it.
Jesus was chosen by the people on the day He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, which therefore would have been the 10th day of the month. As the Law of Moses forbade placing a burden on an animal on the Sabbath, He could not have entered the city on Saturday, so it had to be the traditional Sunday. Therefore, Jesus had to have entered the city on Sunday the 10th. He was protected by the people from the Pharisees (Matthew 21:46) until Thursday the 14th when He was sacrificed.
Tom, you must be correct about the sisters purchasing spices after sundown Saturday. It was still not a full three days and three nights “in the earth.”
I have, of course, no explanation about where the Lord’s body was at the time of his appearance to Mary if he were not resurrected.
The fact that it wasn’t in the tomb is suggestive, but not conclusive, of an earlier resurrection.
But I don’t have any idea of how bodies are resurrected, nor do I think most people, so it will remain a question until we have more information.
The five foolish virgins who requested oil of their wiser colleagues (Matthew 25) were admonished to “go ye to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.”
The five didn’t object and say, “But it’s dark and all the businesses are closed.” Instead, “they went to buy,” and this was at midnight.
It doesn’t seem as though shopkeepers even then let a little thing like darkness get in the way of merchandizing.
These topics are far afield from the point of my paper.
I presented Chadwick’s opinion only as a possibility worthy of consideration, which it is.
We three can agree that the crucifixion did not occur on Friday.
Thomas,
You quote from Jeffery R. Chadwick on his theory that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday. I disagree with that for two main reasons:
1. Chadwick relies heavily on the Savior’s statement, “The Son of man [shall] be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). However, a Thursday crucifixion is only two days and part of a 3rd night (He was resurrected before dawn on Sunday). To satisfy the Savior’s statement, Jesus had to be crucified on Wednesday, and resurected sometime during Saturday night.
2. “When the Sabbath was over,” Mary Magdalene and company bought spices with which to anoint the body of Jesus, and then “very early” Sunday morning they came to the tomb. (Mark 16:1-2 KJV and JST).
The Sabbath that was approaching when Jesus was crucified was a “High Sabbath” (John 19:31), which Passover always is no matter what day of the week it may fall. If Jesus was crucified on Thursday, then Friday was the High Sabbath and Saturday was the regular Sabbath, which left no time for the sisters to buy and prepare the spices. The markets would not be open that early on Sunday. Only if Christ was crucified on Wednesday was this possible. Thursday would then be the High Sabbath of Passover, the sisters could buy and prepare the spices on Friday, rest on the regular Saturday Sabbath, and be at the tomb very early Sunday morning.
Like Chadwick, I, too, rely heavily on the Savior’s statement that the Lord would be in the earth 3 days and 3 nights (Matthew 12:40), which a Friday crucifixion does not satisfy.
1. Yes, he did appear to Mary early on Sunday morning, but I don’t think he had yet been resurrected.
John 20:17 relates his appearance to her, during which he forbids her to touch him.
According to Doctrine & Covenants 129:6-7, the spirit of a just man will not allow a person to try to touch him, so I think this indicates that Jesus was still a spirit.
We aren’t otherwise informed exactly when the Lord was resurrected, so it appears that it was probably after he had “ascended unto his Father” later that day.
Having been crucified on a Thursday afternoon, the Lord was in the tomb Friday night (our Thursday night), Saturday night (our Friday night), and Sunday night (our Saturday night).
He was also dead for a few hours of Thursday daytime (between ~3pm and sunset), all of Friday daytime, all of Saturday daytime, and an unspecified length of time on Sunday, which still (likely) falls several hours short of three full days, meaning “daylight hours”.
A Wednesday crucifixion, however, leaves him in the tomb for 4 full nights and more than 3 full days, which I consider not to be very compatible with the Matthew 12:40 prediction.
A Thursday crucifixion means that he was dead and not resurrected for 3 full nights and some time between 2 and 3 days (meaning “daytime hours,” depending on when on Sunday he ascended to his Father and was resurrected), This scenario is, to me, more acceptable.
Of course, there is no way the Lord could have been dead for exactly 3 days and 3 nights unless he was resurrected at the exact same time of day that he died, which is unlikely, so there has to be some give and take somewhere with the timing.
Having said that, Good Thursday seems more compatible with Matthew 12:40 than does Good Friday or Good Wednesday.
2. There is another very likely explanation for the sisters’ spice purchases.
When I visited the Holy Land 2 years ago, I noted that some shops in Jerusalem reopened after sunset on Shabbat.
Could it be possible that, following a Thursday crucifixion, especially if followed by two consecutive Shabbats during which time all shops were closed, some shops might have reopened that evening?
After 48 hours of the celebrations of Passover and Shabbat, isn’t it likely that shopkeepers would have realized that the need for people to buy food and other provisions might be greater than usual, and that they could expect business that evening to be very brisk?
I imagine that the sisters did purchase the spices immediately “after the sabbath was over” after dark on Sunday evening—prior to Sunday morning.
Doing so would satisfy both Mark 16:1-2 and the Savior’s prediction in Matthew 12:40 and explain why John added the otherwise unnecessary but very enlightening words “after the Sabbath was over.”
Tom,
The tomb was empty at dawn Sunday morning. If as you propose, He was not yet resurrected and appeared to Mary as a spirit being, where was his body?
As For a Thursday crucifixion that is only two days and less than three nights “in the earth.” As to markets being open after dark at the end of the regular Sabbath so the sisters could buy spices, I suppose it is possible but highly unlikely prior to modern lighting. A Wednesday crucifixion, and His resurrection sometime after sundown at the end of the regular Sabbath is the simplest explanation for all requirements and conditions.
Thomas,
Your article is an emotionally exhausting read. I respect your stamina in researching and writing it.