Ask Mr. Religion
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Our Lord was was crucified on Friday, at around 3:00 PM ("about... the 9th hour" Lk. 23:44).
Unfortunately some will argue Our Lord was crucified on Wednesday citing Matthew 12:40:
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
They then extrapolate that for Him to be in the grave three full days and three nights:
First Night - Wednesday night
First Day - Thursday
Second Night - Thursday night
Second Day - Friday
Third Night - Friday night
Third Day - Saturday
They also claim that Jesus was resurrected after sunset Saturday—considered Sunday morning according to Jewish time keeping.
Using the idiomatic “three days and three nights” from Matthew 12:40 it is more correct to see it means three days, taken as entire days or a part of three separate days. See "a day and a night are an Onah [portion of time] and the portion of an Onah is as the whole part of it" (Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, Jerusalem Talmud: Shabbat 9:3), written around 100 A.D.
Our Lord’s being crucified on Friday now makes more sense.
Matthew 12:40 stands alone against the readings of Matthew 16:21; Matthew 27:64; Mark 9:31; Mark 10:34; Luke 9:22; Luke 24:7; Acts 10:40. Allowing the idiomatic phrase of Matthew 12:40 to override the clarity of all the other verses in Scripture is bad exegesis.
When we understand the idiom to mean any part of three days, it becomes clear from all the Scripture testimony that Our Lord was crucified on Friday, entombed before sundown, hence:
First Day - Friday
Second Day - Saturday
Third Day - Sunday
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all use Παρασκευή to refer to the day preceding the Sabbath (See: Matthew 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; see also Josephus, Ant. 16.6.2 §§163–64). The term therefore should be taken to refer to the day of preparation for the Sabbath (i.e., Friday). Accordiingly, then τοῦ πάσχα (tou pascha) means not “of the Passover,” but “of Passover week.” Indeed, “Passover” may refer to the day of the actual Passover meal or, as in the present case, the entire Passover week, including Passover day as well as the associated Feast of Unleavened Bread. “Day of Preparation of Passover week” is therefore best taken to refer to the day of preparation for the Sabbath (i.e., Friday) of Passover week. Thus, all four Gospels concur that Jesus’ last supper was a Passover meal eaten on Thursday evening (by Jewish reckoning, the onset of Friday).
As the other verses teach us, He was raised on the third day, Sunday.
Jesus' death occured in conjunction with the Passover as it was ordained to be. Our Lord is "the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world." The Law of Moses is very clear, the sacrifice to be killed on the fourteenth at twilight, and the fourteenth is always the day of preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which always began on the Sabbath.
The impact of the Babylonian captivity on the Jewish calendar, the logistics of a massive national celebration concentrated in one city—both of these things contributed in the providence of God to what amounted to a "split" celebration—one by our reckoning Thursday evening or the "beginning" of Friday the fourteenth by the later Jewish reckoning, when Jesus and the disciples held their meal; the other by our reckoning on Friday evening or the "end" of Friday the fourteenth.
As interpreters have studied this event for centuries, the most consistent interpretation of the data as the majority have agreed is that Our Lord died on Friday. This explanation may not answer every single question, however it leaves the least amount of loose-ends and difficulties.
It also worth noticing that Our Lord pronounced that "his hour had arrived" in John 12:27. The phrase "heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40) is pointing to the whole atonement experience which started Thursday in the garden. His "descent" (the suffering of an eternal equivalent of punishment for those given to Him being made possible by the union of His divine and human natures) really begins someplace before the six hours on the cross. Our Lord suffers during all His trial, including His scourging. And let’s not forget the garden, (Thursday night). The devil, hell's demons, and death all stalk Him until cluminating in the climax of the cross.
It is best to not think of this event (Jesus' suffering for our sins) in "blocks of time." Rather think of it as the cup of God's wrath being turned over, and the dribbling of the grapes of wrath turning into a flood until Our Lord—spirit and body—drains its dreggs, casts away the cup, and utters those words, "it is finished".
And His lifeless body remains (a portion) of three days under the power of death, until Our Lord demands it back. He is risen!
AMR
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