Good Wednesday not Good Friday
Genesis 1:5
God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
In the West we usually think of the day as starting in the morning at sunrise but in Judaism the day starts in the evening at sunset.
2 Chronicles 2:4
Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, dedicating it to Him, to burn fragrant incense before Him and to set out the showbread continually, and to offer burnt offerings morning and evening, on sabbaths and on new moons and on the appointed feasts of the LORD our God, this being required forever in Israel.”
In the West we use the Gregorian calendar which consists of 12 months with days ranging from 28 to 31. In Judaism the calendar also consists of 12 months but each month starts when there’s a new moon. And because the moon revolves around the Earth every 29.5 days there are six 29-day months and six 30-day months.
In the Gregorian calendar every four years (leap year) an extra day is added to the month of February in order to re-synchronize the calendar with the revolution of the Earth around the sun. In the Judaic calendar every two to three years a thirteenth month (Adar 2) is added to re-synchronize the calendar.
Leviticus 23:3
“For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings.
In Judaism the seventh day of the week is a sabbath or holy convocation. It is a day of rest when no work can be done and it begins on Friday evening.
Leviticus 23:4-8
“These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’S Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.”
In addition to the weekly sabbath the Lord gave the Israelites seven appointed times - four spring festivals (Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of First Fruits and Shavuot or Pentecost) and three fall festivals (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot). See Leviticus chapter 23.
Each one of these festivals has a holy convocation or sabbath rest of its own (which can also be called a “high sabbath”). However, even though these festivals occur on specific days of the Jewish month because a month begins with a new moon these sabbaths can occur on any day of the week.
For example, the festival of Passover (which begins on the 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan) is not limited to fall on Friday evenings and in 2023 Passover fell on April 5th which was a Wednesday evening. And in 2030 Passover will fall on April 17th which is also a Wednesday evening. And again in 2033 Passover will fall on April 13th which is another Wednesday evening. So it’s not unusual for Passover to fall on a Wednesday evening and in fact this happens about 29% of the time.
Matthew 12:39, 40
But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
One of the most important prophecies concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is that He was buried in the heart of the earth for THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS. In other words Jesus was buried for 72 hours.
John 19:31
Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Matthew 27:57-60
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.
Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday the day of preparation and buried that evening when the Feast of Unleavened Bread began and the Passover meal was eaten. He was then raised from the dead exactly three days and three nights later on Saturday evening when the first day of the week began. And early Sunday morning while it was still dark Mary found the stone had already been taken away from the tomb…
John 20:1, 2
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”
It is also worth noting that Saturday evening would have been the evening the Feast of First Fruits began which is what the Apostle Paul is referring to in the following passage…
1 Corinthians 15:20-22
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
For more on the Jewish calendar please click/tap on the following link…
Hebrew for Christians - The Jewish Calendar
Link courtesy of “Hebrew for Christians”: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/index.html
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