"Tradition" has taught us that Jesus died on friday and was buried, then was raised from the dead on sunday morning. This connotes 2 nights and one day of time n the grave. In the gospel according to Matthew in chpt 12 verse 40. Jesus stated that he would be in the grave for three days and three nights. In ancient Jewish custom the dead were not "legally" dead until three days (72 hours) have passed until they were legally documented as deceasd. So, the question I have is how is this reconcilled? I believe I have the correct answer, but would like to see if any one else does. I will give you a clue. The high passover that year fell on wednesday, not friday!

since you are so familiar with Jewish custom... you might know that

6 pm... Thursday night our time... is their friday...

Thursday - Friday = Day 1
Friday - Saturday = Day 2
Saturday - Sunday = Day 3

That does not account for 72 hours. Thursday is out because he was crucified on the High passover, which would have placed it Wed afternoon. Then you can count forward and see that he was raised up on saturday.

actually if you read the text... they had to take Him down from the Cross because passover was about to start... had it been wednesday... they would have had a whole day to leave Him there...

since Passover starts on Nisan 14th... which was on Thursday 6pm....

Jesus rose on Nisan 17th... 3 days later...

so if they had crucified Him on a wednesday... Nisan 13th... they wouldn't have been in a rush to get the bodies down before passover... they would have had 24 hours to leave Him there...

boy am i ever lost.

on the plus side, Friday is the start of the weekend. That's 'good' enough for me.

Jesus DID Passover on what Christians now call 'the last supper' which is Jewish custom to break UNLEAVENED BREAD and drink wine along with lamb and bitter herbs etc. He was crucified the NEXT DAY, Niassan 15TH which is the SECOND nightof Passover. Passoever goes for 7 days from sunset Nissan 14th.

OK, from now on it's BAD Friday.

they weren't allowed to kill anyone during Passover... and since the feast of Unleavened Bread starts on the 14th of Nisan... they couldn't kill Him..

and so if they had killed Him on the 15th... that means He rose on the 18th... which is a Monday... and all Christian tradition... including the Bible, says it was a Sunday...

and actually as i was thinking about it... He may have been killed very late on Nisan 13th... and that's why they were rushing to get Him buried... so maybe He was buried on the 14th and killed very late on the 13th like the OP said...

that would make a lot of sense as to why they were in such a hurry to bury Him...

I am now totally confused ---numbers and dates are just not my thing AT ALL!!

But thaphantum, your logic seems sound, so I go with what you said!

Phantum, I stand corrected. You are correct, I was off by one day. The Passover was on the 15th of Nisan. I misread my calendar. This is why they were urgent in having him removed off the cross before the next day began.

thank you... this is very noble of you

There is nothing good about Friday. It's not a day off for me !

No one is sure of the year so the 'days' may be way off. He did do Passover with his chosen 12 which the Christians now call the 'Last Supper'. It could have been the fast of the firstborn which is a day before but only HE would have had to do it, which everyone knows he didn't and it still doesn't explain the Sedar which he did (the breaking of the unleavened bread and the wine with the Matzoh being dipped in bitter herbs) which is exactly whatthey were doing.

The record in Matt 26 of the "last supper" I do not personally think it was a passover meal. The text uses the word "artos" for "bread". "Artos" is never used in language to describe unleavened bread as would be the word "azumos". It appears that they ate leavened bread at this meal. This coupled with the urgency to remove Jesus from the cross before sundown when he was crucified also indicates the "high passover" had not yet begun.

you might want to check your sources again... the word "artos" is used for both levened and unleavened bread... its a general word for bread...
sort of like the english word "rice".... although we have white, brown, yellow, etc...

I have. Azumos is used in every record in the NT of "unleavened bread". Biblical usage is being implied, not secular.

As a Minister it means that the Lenton season is almost over and after Easter on the coming sunday we will get a break.