Another Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 1 - Article 21

Article 21 - Mystery of the Holy Weekend – Good Friday to Easter Sunday

It's Easter Weekend, and there are very confusing facts surrounding how the Lord Jesus could have risen on the 3rd day when Friday to Sunday hardly makes three days considering He mentioned that like Jonah, He would be in the belly of the Earth for 3 days and 3 nights. There are some who believed that the Lord Jesus would need to be crucified on Wednesday night to fulfill the "3 days and 3 nights". Given that the Scriptures mentioned that it was a "High Sabbath" (NISAN 15; some argue for NISAN 14), the confusion deepens.

After a couple of hours of research to find the most likely day that the Lord Jesus actually died, I looked into Jewish definition of a day. So here's what I've found.

Firstly, the next day starts at sunset till sunset the next day. That's the definition of a Jewish day at that time (Genesis 1:15). Further support of the Jewish day is all over Leviticus which states that the person shall be unclean until sunset. With the definition of a day established, it is now easy to work backwards. Firstly, it is clear from the gospels that the Lord resurrected sometime on the first day of the week after the Sabbath at dawn (Sunday morning). So here's what I concluded for myself after some calculation.

Working backwards from Resurrection

Sat sunset to Sun dawn = 1 day + 1 night, 3rd day after crucifixion (First day of the week, the day after Sabbath, Bible is clear on this being a Sunday).

Fri sunset to Sat Sunset = 1 day + 1 night, 2nd day after crucifixion (Sabbath).

Thurs sunset to Fri Sunset = 1 day + 1 night, actual crucifixion (Preparation day).

Jesus died on Thursday aka Preparation Day around 3pm (9th hour from 6AM), so He was in "the belly of the Earth" on Thursday night (1 night), Friday morning (1 day), Friday night (+1 night), Sat morning (+1 day), Sat night (+1 night), and resurrected on Sunday dawn (+ 1 day).

Jewish day calculation - Thurs sunset to Fri sunset (1st day) since He died at 3pm, close to sunset (preparation day); Fri Sunset to Sat Sunset (2nd day, also the High Sabbath), and Sat Sunset to Sun Sunset (3rd day, the day after the Sabbath).

Since the Jews must be ceremonially clean for the Sabbath, they did not want to touch dead bodies and wanted the other 2 criminals and Jesus to be taken down before sunset, lest it makes them ceremonially unclean for the Sabbath. So, based on the calculations, Jesus was crucified and "gave up His ghost" on Thursday, and not Friday.