To answer this question, we must first understand the special context of the crucifixion.
The Gospels give us a wealth of detail surrounding this time.
It begins with the Passover meal:
“And the day of unleavened bread came, on which the passover must be sacrificed.”
(Luke 22:7, Elberfelder 1905)
From this verse we gain two crucial insights:
- (a) It concerns the Passover
- (b) The lamb had to be slaughtered
This shows us that it is about one of the festivals of the LORD, as described in Leviticus 23:
“These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons:
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, is the LORD’s passover.
And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD:
seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days:
in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof,
then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you:
on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.”
(Leviticus 23:4–11, Elberfelder 1905)
The Passover lamb was to be sacrificed on the 14th of Abib, in the evening.
From the context, we also learn that the firstfruits offering was to take place after the Sabbath, i.e., on the 16th of Abib.
The entire period from the 15th to the 21st of Abib is the Feast of the LORD, later known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
So, if our Redeemer ate the Passover with His disciples, then it was the 14th of Abib.
The events described in the Bible—His interrogation by the Sanhedrin, sentencing by Pontius Pilate, and scourging—clearly point to the crucifixion taking place on a Friday.
The Scripture states unequivocally that it was the Preparation Day:
“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day (for that sabbath day was an high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
(John 19:31, Elberfelder 1905)
Now, to understand the biblical day reckoning: a new day begins at sunset—not at midnight.
This may seem strange to us, since we count the new day by the clock (24:00 or 0:00).
But in biblical terms, the event defines the beginning of the day:
when the sun sets, the new day begins.
Jesus had already foretold:
“An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly,
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
(Matthew 12:39–40, Elberfelder 1905)
We also know from Scripture the precise time of death:
“And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?
which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
(Mark 15:33–34, Elberfelder 1905)
The ninth hour corresponds roughly to 3 p.m. in modern time.
Even if we disregard the precise date, we know that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, died on a Friday around 3 p.m.,
and was then laid in the tomb.
At sunset, according to biblical reckoning, the first night in the grave had begun.
In biblical thinking, it was not necessary for both day and night to be fully completed in order to count as fulfilled—
it was sufficient that the night or day had begun.
Reckoning the three days and three nights:
- Friday evening (after sunset):
→ First night / no day - Saturday (evening included):
→ Two nights / one day - Sunday evening:
→ Three nights / two days - Monday morning (sunrise):
→ Three nights / three days
According to the Scriptures, this shows very clearly:
The resurrection could not have taken place on Sunday.
So when modern Bible translations refer to the “first day of the week,”
they mean the first day according to church tradition.
Because the Church redefined Sunday as the last day,
the first day of the week became Monday.
Only the Luther 1545 translation gets it exactly right:
“And they came unto the sepulchre very early in the morning on one of the sabbaths, as the sun was rising.”
(Mark 16:2, Luther 1545)
This translation is what first caught my attention and prompted me to look more closely at what actually happened.
It is fully consistent with the Textus Receptus, the foundational Greek text—
because it speaks of “sabbaton” (Greek: σαββάτων, Strong G4521).
And because this was the festival week of the LORD,
Scripture refers to it in the plural: Sabbaths.
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