The Timeline of Jesus' Death, Burial and Resurrection

 

 We are approaching the Christian celebrations of Good Friday and Easter. Good Friday is the day that the church has set aside to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus, and Easter is, of course, the recognition of the resurrection of Jesus as the Messiah and our Saviour, having conquered death and paid the penalty for our sins. These Christian celebrations always coincide with the Jewish celebration of Passover, for very good reason, because they are locked together by meaning if not by the calendar.

The Day of Passover is a day of commemoration for the Israelite people for the remembrance of the final plague that God placed upon the nation of Egypt just prior to the Israelites leaving Egypt after being there for 430 years. This marked the end of their slavery and the beginning of the journey by which God truly made the Israelite nation His.

The Day of Passover became relevant to the Christian faith at the moment when the Christian faith began to take root, almost 2000 years ago. As such, I think that there is value in understanding the timeline of events. The ways that the different accounts of Jesus observing the Passover, facing the Sanhedrin, facing Pilate and Herod, being crucified and ultimately rising from the grave are written can cause confusion when we try to look at all of the accounts of the events. There are some discrepancies in the stories that muddle the timeline.

There are those who attack the Bible's authenticity based on these discrepancies, but rather than disprove the Bible, these minor differences actually reinforce the eye witness and other accounts of what we are told, and disprove conspiracy. I am reminded of a clip from the movie, "God's Not Dead 2", in which Jim Warner Wallace plays himself, a former cold case murder detective, as he testifies in a trial about how these discrepancies point to accuracy within various eye witness accounts, rather than proving a false narrative; a position that he presents in his own writings. 

I have taken the time to prepare a timeline of the days of Jesus just prior to His death and resurrection according to the Biblical timeline, basing these conclusions on the overarching evidence which will appear to contradict parts of individual accounts, but which lay the story out effectively through these multiple witnesses. We should keep in mind that the gospels were recorded years after the events that they talk about. Mark's account is considered to be the first account that was recorded, and it is believed to have been written around 25 years after the fact. We should also consider that the time of Jesus' arrest, trial, death and resurrection will have been tumultuous and confusing times for the disciples. It would burn the events into their memories, but time and confusion can blur some of the details of the factual story. These truths do not change the facts of the accounts, nor do they take away from the legitimacy of the stories that they tell.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus celebrated the Passover feast with His disciples in the evening, the beginning of the Day of Passover, as is commanded by the Torah. Bear in mind that the Jewish day begins and ends at sunset, not sunrise. We know that Jesus was born and raised as a Jew, and we also know that He fulfilled the Law perfectly (Matthew 5:17), so we can assume that Jesus also observed the various feasts as the Torah required of Him. Beyond this, we have confirmation that this is the case for the last Passover meal that Jesus has ever taken part in, until such time that we will partake in this meal together with Him (Matthew 16:29).

In Mark 14:12, we read that, "On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His [Jesus'] disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?”. Luke 22:7-8 confirm this where we read, "Then came the first day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 And Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it." So we have the start of the story beginning on the Day of Passover, which I am presenting as having fallen on a Thursday of our modern calendar, and which I will show lines up with the Biblical accounts.

According to Matthew 26:20, it is that very evening that Jesus enjoys the meal with His disciples and also institutes the rite of Communion that the church is instructed to observe regularly until the time of His coming. It is during the course of this meal that Jesus states the He will be betrayed by one of the twelve disciples, and according to John's account, He specifically singles out Judas, and afterwards, Judas leaves to prepare to fulfill his role (John 13:26,30). 

It is thought that the cup of wine that was used when Jesus instituted the rite of Communion was the third cup of the Seder meal, which is referred to as the Cup of Redemption. The proper observance of the Seder meal can take a really long time, with numerous steps to be followed throughout. As such, it is possible, and I would argue that it is even likely, that Judas was gone before the meal reached the point of drinking from the third cup. Spiritually, this would be so that Judas would not be present to partake of the most important aspect of the Last Supper with Jesus, and thereby taint it. It is the rite of Communion, the sharing of ourselves with other Believers, that Jesus was instituting, so to share that with the one who was about to betray Jesus seems to me to be contrary to the purpose of the rite. We also see in John that after Judas leaves the meal, Jesus shares quite a bit of teaching with the remaining disciples, and it could be argued that it is during this time that the Communion is first practised, especially since John does not write of the Communion aspect of the meal to give us a reference for it.

John 13:30 tells us that it was already nighttime when Judas left the Passover meal, which makes sense since the Passover officially began at sunset. We also read in all of the gospels that Jesus lead His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane after they had finished the meal, so this is still the Day of Passover; late Thursday evening. John's account adds the details that Judas and those who were with him "came there with lanterns and torches", indicating that it was still night and that they were conducting their shady business under the cover of night. Of course, it was at this time that Jesus was arrested and taken to the religious leaders of Israel in order to face their accusations.

I believe that John's account is the only one that mentions that Jesus was brought before Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the High Priest. I do not know why this detail is important, but if John included it, there is probably some significance to it, and perhaps someday we will figure out what that significance is. Regardless of this added detail, all of the accounts tell us that Jesus was tried by the Jewish religious leaders, under the authority and the very hand of Caiaphas, in order for them to create the circumstances necessary to bring Jesus to the Roman government for crucifixion. This trial happened during the dark and secrecy of the night, the same as Jesus' arrest.

As an interesting side note, the timing of Jesus' ministry was very precise. I am going from memory a bit here, but I believe it was at about the time of Jesus' birth that the Roman government removed the right to kill "criminals" from the Jewish religious leaders, for reasons that I have either currently forgotten or I may have never known them. This is important because prophecies state that the Messiah was to die on a tree, which was a purely Roman means of execution. Jesus had broken no Roman law, so the Romans had no reason to have Him killed, and the Jews would have stoned Jesus to death if they had been legally permitted to do so. If the law had not been changed, Jesus would not have died on a cross, and therefore would not have fulfilled all of the prophecies about the Messiah. Because Jesus arrived on the scene in His ministry after the Jews had lost their right to kill "criminals", if they wanted someone killed, they had to appeal to the Romans to have it done, which is the only reason why Jesus died on a cross, fulfilling the prophecy, and pointing the Jews to their own Messiah, even if it was after the fact. We see this partly revealed in John 18:31-32.

Returning to the timeline, we read of Peter's denial of Jesus in John 18, and it is indicated here that Peter's denial and the crowing of the rooster occurred prior to Jesus being brought by the Priests to Pilate. Since the crowing of the rooster was to be a sign to Peter, we can safely assume that this was the first time that a rooster crowed that morning, and roosters tend to begin crowing at around sunrise. So while the interrogation of the Priests did not necessarily last all night, Jesus was in their custody through the night and He was delivered to Herod early in the morning; still the Day of Passover.

Bearing this in mind and continuing along the timeline, we read in John 18:28 and Mark 15:1 that the priests brought Jesus to Pilate in order to convince him to have Jesus killed. This would be very early on Friday morning; in the daytime after the Passover feast and the day of preparation for the weekly sabbath. The importance of this timing comes into play later.

Another thing to note is a detail that we read only in John's account. In verse 28 of chapter 18, we read that the priests did not enter the Roman Praetorium, so as to remain ceremonially clean, and the reason for this is because they had not yet partaken of the Passover feast, which was supposed to have been observed the night before. It appears that the priests were too busy enacting their conspiracy and interrogating Jesus to have observed this most important feast that God had commanded of them. Again, the importance of this will come into play later.

A lot happens in what seems to be a fairly short time on the morning of Jesus' crucifixion. Sometime after sunrise, Jesus appeared before Pilate, who then sends Him to appear before Herod, who returns Jesus to Pilate again. There is quite a bit of conversation and examination that occurs over this time frame, and we have to include whatever the travel time was between the two palaces as well, unless Herod was staying with Pilate, though they were not friends at that time according to Luke 23:12. We also have to account for the beating or beatings that Jesus underwent, by different accounts, at the hands of Pilate's men and/or the hands of Herod's men. Separate accounts have Jesus beaten by either one of both groups of soldiers.

Now we get into some time references that seem contradictory, and I cannot explain right now why that might be. My best, uneducated guess is that there may have been a difference in the ways that different people from different areas "read" the time. Of course, they didn't have clocks and watches in those days, so they didn't have a shared reckoning of the time. I have heard it said that the time was determined according to the sunrise, and I have also heard it said that the time was determined according to the different watches throughout the day and the night. Either or both of those statements could be correct.

John states in chapter 19 verse 14 that it was about the sixth hour when Pilate handed Jesus over to be killed, which means that Jesus was still in the Praetorium at this time. There are those who interpret this as being six in the morning, yet we have just looked at almost everything that had to happen between sunrise and the time that Jesus was crucified according to other accounts. We also need to account for Jesus' likely slow march to Golgotha, carrying His own cross at least part of the way after having been scourged and beaten. We don't know how long this took, but to project that it could have been somewhere in the area of an hour may not be far off. John gives no other references to the time in the rest of his account, so we'll spend more time looking at the other accounts.

In Mark 15:25, it is claimed that Jesus was crucified in the third hour, which is obviously an earlier stated time than the sixth hour of Jesus' being handed over in John's account. While the sixth hour is interpreted by some to be six in the morning, the third hour is interpreted by some to be nine in the morning, which is justified as it being the third hour after sunrise. For this reason, among some others, I would argue that John either had the times wrong in his account, or for some reason John was referring to the times according to a different manner. This is not a critical issue since we have corroborating witness accounts for the death of Jesus that nail that time down more precisely.

We read three accounts of darkness falling on the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, those accounts being Matthew's, Mark's and Luke's. This aligns with Mark's account that Jesus was crucified around the third hour (Mark 15:25). So it seems that Jesus was hung on the cross at around nine o'clock and darkness fell around noon and lasted until around three in the afternoon.

Matthew and Mark both state specifically that Jesus died at the ninth hour, and Luke infers it. It is commonly understood that the crucifixion process could take a long time, and we read in Mark's account that when Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus' body, Pilate was surprised that Jesus had already died. The timing of this is indicated in verse 42 of Mark's account, stating that it was the evening of "the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath". Jews did not like for dead bodies to remain exposed for the Sabbath, so there was strong desire to bury Jesus before the start of the Sabbath, which would begin at sunset. We also read that the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves in order to speed up their deaths, but they found Jesus already dead and pierced His side with a spear rather than breaking His legs, which incidentally fulfills at least two more prophecies.

There are several references to the fact that Jesus died on the preparation day for the Sabbath. This is understood as being the weekly Sabbath and not a festival Sabbath because only the weekly Sabbath had a specific preparation day. Food was not supposed to be cooked on the Sabbath, so all the food had to be prepared the day before, and since this occurred every week, the day before the Sabbath came to be known as the preparation day.

The last portion of a verse in Luke 23 tells us that, after Jesus had been roughly prepared for burial and placed in the conveniently nearby tomb, those who had cared for Jesus' body rested on the Sabbath, according to the commandment (v. 56b).

So we have thus far seen the Passover Seder celebrated on a Thursday evening, Jesus' trial and death occurring on the preparation day before the Sabbath, which was still the Day of Passover, which would be Friday, and the honouring of the Sabbath by those who cared for Jesus, which would be our Saturday.

Now, according to Matthew's account, after the priests had originally skipped the Passover meal, which was already a big no-no, chapter 27 verse 62 tells us that they then also broke the Sabbath by conducting business on that day; "the next day, the day after the preparation" (ie. on the Sabbath), the Priests and Pharisees met with Pilate to arrange for a guard to stand overnight leading to the morning of the third day. This was done because they remembered that Jesus had stated that He would return on the third day after His death.

This brings us to "the first day of the week", the day after the Sabbath, as referenced by all four accounts, when it was discovered that Jesus was not in the tomb; the day that we recognize as Easter, or Resurrection Sunday. Calculating back from this, looking at everything that I have laid out above, I have come to the conclusion that the Passover Seder was celebrated on Thursday evening; Jesus was killed on Friday the Day of Passover, which would be the first day of an inclusive counting; Jesus remained buried and the people rested on the Sabbath, which would be the second day of an inclusive counting; and early on the third day, the first day of the week, Jesus arose from the grave. 

And that is how the church has come to commemorate Jesus' death on Friday and His resurrection on Sunday. While the Passover is central to Jewish rites, it changes dates on our Gregorian calendar every year, so the Easter celebration is set according to the new moon in much the same way that the Passover Day is calculated, but they are not locked together.

Now I want to refer back to a couple of things that I mentioned earlier. It was on the same day that the Jews were commanded to have observed the Passover meal that Jesus was killed at the behest of the Jewish religious leaders. Again, keep in mind that with the Jewish day beginning and ending at sunset, the day that Jesus was crucified was still the Day of Passover. The celebration was complete, but the day was not. The Passover meal was instituted by God for the Israelites to remember and to teach their children about the Exodus from Egypt, but there are so many things in the Passover meal that point to the Jewish Messiah. The irony that on one evening, the Jewish people celebrated the meal that points to their Saviour, and the very next day they cry out for the crucifixion of that Saviour without seeing the very person that their celebration pointed to, is incredible to those who see it.

Even further, looking at the second thing that I mentioned earlier, the very religious leaders who sought and obtained the crucifixion of Jesus not only missed the same thing as the other Jews in Jerusalem, but they also seemed to have skipped the very meal that they were commanded to eat that would point them to the One that they were at that very time conspiring to have killed, and to top it off, they broke another commandment by negotiating on the Sabbath for a guard to try to stop the truth which they had rejected from coming out. This exposed the religious leaders of Jesus days as the white washed tombs that He called them out as being (Matthew 23:27).

Incidentally, it was a practice of the Jews to apply a white wash to the tombs around Jerusalem prior to Passover in order to mark them as the place where the bones of the dead were laid. This was done so that those who travelled to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast would not accidentally enter one of these tombs as they were looking for shelter during their stay, and thereby defile themselves and make them ineligible to join in the Passover celebration. So even this insult that Jesus delivered to the religious leaders pointed to the date on which their hypocrisies would be exposed, which points to the intricacies of the Bible and how the stories that it tells are interwoven together in wondrous ways.

I hope that this article has helped clarify some of the confusing aspects of the Biblical accounts of Jesus death and resurrection. I know that digging into it to this depth has helped me to get it straight, and hopefully I will remember this more clearly from now on.