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Continuing
LEHRE UNO WEHRE
MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LUTH. HOMILETIK
THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLy-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY
Vol.xvm April, 1947 No.4
CONTENTS
Pqe
Why Should Our Pastors, Teachers, and Professors Subscribe
Unconditionally to the Symbolical Wr itings of OUl' Church?
C. F. W. Walther _ ------------ ------- -- --- _ _ 241
Natural Theology in David Hollaz . .Jarosiav Pelikan, Jr. ___ __________ _ W
Timelog of Jesus' Last Days. W. Geo i __ . __ .. ___ .. .... __ ... _ __ Z63
Outlines on the Nitzsch Gospel Selections .. __ __ ____ .. _ 277
l!88 MisceUanea __ . ___ .. __ _
Theological Observer . ___ . _____ ._ .. .. __ ._ .. _ 2M
Book Review _ .._ .. __ _ .... __ . __ . .. __ - . __ _______ ...
..._. . _ __ 314
ElD Predlger mUll nleht alleIn wei-
clew. al80 class er die Scha1e unter-
welae. wte sie rechte Chrlsten aollen
ae1n. .andern auch daneben den Woel-
ten eDell-ren. daII llie die Schafe nlcht
anarelfen und mit fal5cher Lehre ver-
fuebren und I:rrtum eintuehren.
Luth~
PubUsh
Zs iBt lteJn DIn£ du die IAate
mehr bei der K1rche behae1t clenn
d ie gute Predigt. - AJlOIoQie. At't. If
It the trumpet give an UIlcvtain
aound, who Ihall prepare hlIuelf t.
the battle? - i erw. 14:8
by tile
Ev. Lnth. S1D-od of MIssouri, Ohio, aud Other States
CONCORDIA PUBLISHING BOUSE, St. Louis 18, Mo.
111 11. 5 • ••
TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS 263
accept Pietism as a substitute, early German rationalists re-
jected the primacy of the Biblical revelation and ultimately
proposed that "natural religion" replace it. In Pietism and
rationalism, then, the tension between revelation and reason
was eliminated.
As Hans Emil Weber has shown, rationalism could claim
a certain continuity with orthodoxy through their common
interest in natural theology. But it is equally clear - and
here Albrecht Ritschl's Geschichte des Pietism'US needs con-
siderable revision - that Pietism, too, could claim a certain
continuity with orthodoxy through their common emphasis
upon the supremacy of revelation, despite their divergent
views on the psychological agency through which that reve-
lation is mediated.
For an evaluation of that continuity and of the stand of
Lutheran orthodoxy on the eve of the controversial eighteenth
century, David Friedrich Hollaz is indispensable; and nowhere
does his critical position in the entire development stand out
more sharply than in his view of natural theology.
Valparaiso, Ind.
• ••
Timelog of Jesus' Last Days
By w. GEORGI
The last period in the Life of Christ comprises eight days,
passed in or near Jerusalem, from Friday to Friday, Nisan
8-15, 30 A. D.
In order of events Jesus came to Bethany "six days be-
fore the Passover" (John 12: 1).1 The Passover was observed
Nisan 15-21 (Num. 28: 17-25; Ex. 12: 8-19). That year Ni-
san 15 fell on Friday (John 19: 31), after the preparation of
the Passover meal on the day before, Nisan 14 (John 13: 2;
Mark 14: 12; Luke 22: 7; Ex. 12:6). Counting back six days
from Nisan 14, that is from Thursday back to Saturday, Nisan
14-9 (extremes included) and considering, according to the
accurate translation of Joh.12: 1, that Jesus came to Bethany
before the six days that immediately preceded the Passover,
we hold Friday, Nisan 8, of the foregoing week to be the day
on which Jesus came to Bethany. At Bethphage He had left
1 See Addition No. I.
264 TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS
the caravan of copilgrims bound for the Passover festival
(Matt. 20: 29; Luke 19: 28-29). Such a caravan would not
travel from Jericho to Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Friday,
Nisan 8, then, was the day of Christ's arrival at Bethany,
While His copilgrims went to Jerusalem, His friends in
Bethany found time to prepare a supper on that Friday, the
eating thereof, however, extending into the Sabbath, Nisan 9.
To prepare meals on the Sabbath was forbidden (Ex. 35: 2-3),
but not the eating of meals prepared on Friday before sunset
(Luke 14: 1) .
"On the next day," after the Sabbath meal (John 12: 12),
on Sunday, Nisan 10, Jesus, acclaimed by many "the King of
the Daughter of Zion," entered Jerusalem. "He went into the
Temple, and when He had looked round about upon all things
and now eventide was come, He went out unto Bethany"
(Mark 11: 11) .
"On the morrow," Monday, Nisan 11 (Mark 11: 12), they
came to Jerusalem, and Jesus went into the Temple, cleans-
ing it. "And when even was come, He went out of the city,"
to pass Monday night on the Mount of Olives (Luke 21: 37).
On Tuesday morning, Nisan 12, "they saw, as they passed,
the fig tree which Jesus had cursed the day before, dried up
from the roots" (Mark 11: 20). And they came again to Jeru-
salem (Mark 11: 27), and Jesus taught on that day many
things (cp. Matt. 21: 22-25: 46; Mark 11: 37-13: 37; Luke 20:
1-21: 36). And it came to pass when Jesus had finished all
these sayings, He said unto His disciples: Ye know that after
two days is the Feast of the Passover [after sunset of Nisan 14.
Therefore, it was Tuesday evening, Nisan 12, when Jesus was
speakingJ and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified"
[on Friday, Nisan 15, after the two days Wednesday and
Thursday, Nisan 13 and 14J (Matt. 26: 1-2).
On the next day, Wednesday, Nisan 13, Jesus stayed at
Bethany. Judas, however, went to the chief priests and offered
to deliver Jesus to them (Luke 21: 37; Matt. 26: 14-15).
On Thursday, Nisan 14, "when they killed the Passover"
(Mark 14: 12), Jesus "sent Peter and John, saying, Go and
prepare us the Passover that we may eat it" (Luke 22: 7-8).
The Passover lamb was killed on Nisan 14, between the two
evenings, 3 P. M. and 6 P. M. (Ex. 12: 6).2
2 See Addition No. II.
TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS 26G
"And in the second evening" (Mark 14: 17) - at sunset
at the beginning of Nisan 15 - "supper [not being ended (John
13: 2), rather its preparation] being ended," it being supper-
time, or, as Luke has it: "When the hour was come, He sat
down, and the twelve Apostles with Him" (Luke 22: 14).
But Jesus rose from supper to wash the disciples' feet (John
13: 4 ff.). Then He sat down again, and partook of the supper
(Luke 22: 15 ff.). After the supper, Jesus was on the way
to suffer in Gethsemane, before the high priests, before Pilate,
and on the Cross from 9 A. M. to 3 P. M. Some time before
sunset His body was buried. All Evangelists call that day
the paraskeue (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John
19: 14,31,42). This term denotes Friday, «the day before the
Sabbath" (Mark 15: 42). Therefore Jesus was crucified and
buried, according to all four Gospels, on Friday, Nisan 15.
To the Sabbath, Nisan 16, Matthew refers in the words:
"Now on the next day, that follows the day of preparation,"
the paraskeue. Forthwith the chief priests secured a guard
from Pilate to safeguard the grave of Jesus (Matt. 27: 62).3
The women, however, who already on Friday had prepared
spices and ointments, "rested the Sabbath day accol'ding to
the commandment" (Luke 23: 56). Their Lord kept the Sab-
bath in His soldier-guarded grave.
"And when the Sabbath was past" (Mark 16: 1), that
evening after 6 P. M., the women purchased more sweet spices
and prepared them, for the first day of the week had begun,
and ordinary work might be resumed. Night, however, pre-
vented the women from going to the grave. "Very early in
the morning ... they came" (Mark 16: 2). Matthew uses this
language: "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn
toward the first day of the week," they came (Matt. 28: 1).
Matthew's words designate the same thing as Mark's expres-
sion, when the Sabbath was past, i. e., after the Sabbath.4
That day had advanced to the hour of dawn on Sunday. While
the women were on the way, "behold, there was a great earth-
quake" (Matt. 28: 2). God announced to His creation that He
had resurrected His Son from the dead. And an angel de-
scended from heaven and rolled the stone away from the grave
in order to reveal that Jesus' guarded grave was vacant (Matt.
28: 2). Christ had risen on the first day of the week, on Sun-
3 See Addition No. III. 4 See Addition No. IV.
266 TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS
day, Nisan 17, on the third day after the crucifixion, having
lain in the grave three days and three nights, i. e., on three
calendar dates, Nisan 15-17.5
To this resume of the chronology of Jesus' last days some
explanatory remarks must be added because of late the lan-
guage of the Biblical writers has not been fully grasped, has
even been misconstrued and distorted. Certain expositors who
twist the meaning of the Biblical words are even boasting that
they take the Bible words very literally by teaching that Jesus
lay in the grave 72 hours, claiming these to be the equivalent
of the expression thr·ee days and three nights. Therefore, some
of the Biblical terms ought to be analyzed very accurately ac-
cording to their usus loquendi and their context. We submit
the following
ADDITIONS
I
The six days before the Passover (John 12: 1) are vari-
ously reckoned even by orthodox writers. The reason for this
divergence of opinion is found in the diverse viewpoints as-
sumed in regard to placing the terminus a quo and the ter-
minus ad quem. Which day is to be considered the beginning
of the Passover, Nisan 14 or 15? In counting back, which day
shall be taken as the first among the six days? Is the day of
Christ's entry into Bethany in the designation six days in-
cluded or excluded?
In order to answer these questions, the phrase :n:Qo 6;
1J!l8QOW 'tOU :n:uaxu must be analyzed. The preposition pro is
placed before the six days as well as before the word Passover.
Hence, Jesus entered Bethany not only before the Passover,
but also before six days preceding it, for the Passover is not
part of the six days. The two time terms Passover and six
days complement each other, as if to say: Before the Passover
- at that time foremost in the people's mind - more specifi-
cally before six days preceding the Passover. The first of
the six days before the Passover Feast therefore is Nisan 14.
Counting back, we get the Sabbath, Nisan 9, as the sixth day
preceding the Passover. But John 12: 1 declares that Jesus en-
tered Bethany before the sixth day, Nisan 9. The cardinal
number designates here a span of complete days (cp. John 4:
5 Regarding the Julian dates April 3-12, corresponding to Nisan
8-17,30 A.D., see CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY, IX: 526 f.; XI:784ff.
TlMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS 267
40,43). We observe the same usus loqu,endi in Matt. 26: 2:
"Ye know that after two days is the Feast of the Passover."
Thus spoke Jesus "when He had finished all these sayings"
(Matt. 26: 1), by the end of Tuesday before the Passover Feast,
Wednesday and Thursday being the two days referred to.
Again, the Scriptures employ this usus loquendi when fix-
ing the time of Christ's transfiguration. We find in Luke 9: 28,
the following time clause: "It came to pass about an eight days.
after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James, etc."
Luke did not miscalculate the number of days which elapsed
between Christ's preaching and the day of His going up to·
this mountain. Luke included the terminus a quo and the·
terminus ad quem. Therefore the time consumed by the day
of "these sayings" and the days following until He went up the
mountain was about eight days, not complete days, all of them,
however, for he adds the particle about. But Matthew and
Mark count the days of the interval as complete days: "And
[not on the sixth day, but] after six days [on the seventh day]
Jesus taketh" with Him the three disciples (Matt. 17: 1; Mark
9: 2). We must take the words in their context according to
their usus loquendi.
But the objection is raised that in colloquial language the
term Passah) as also the term the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
by and by included Nisan 14. But where is the proof of the
correctness of this contention? Mark 14: 1 and Luke 22: 1 are
not pertinent proof texts, for they speak of the Feast of Un-
leavened Bread. The Evangelists were well aware of what
days the Scriptures assigned to the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
e. g., Lev. 23: 6: "And on the fifteenth day of the same month
is the Feast of Unleavened Bread." Cpo Ex. 13: 6-7; 12: 18.
Such is also the language of Josephus.6 The Evangelists were
equally well aware of the fact that in their day all homes were
purged of leaven already on Nisan 14, but in that connection
they do not speak of the Feast) rather of the first day of Un-
leavened Bread (Matt. 26: 17; Mark 14: 12; Luke 22: 7). It is
not possible to use here the authority of the Gospels for the
position we criticize. The Evangelists use accurate and clear
language. It is true that the people in their day ate unleavened
bread already on Nisan 14, but this practice was no part of the
F'east of Unleavened Bread. Again, John 13: 1-2 speaks of
6 Josephus, Antiquitates, III: 10, 5.
268 TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS
Jesus' love toward His disciples, shown so far before the Pass-
over Feast, i. e., before the Passover meal, v. 2, and then ex-
tended "unto the end." Neither the term the Passover nor the
term the Feast of Unleavened Bread ever includes any time
before the beginning of Nisan 15. By the context in Mark 14: 1
and Luke 22: 1 they are identified.1
From these remarks the answer is gleaned that Jesus en-
tered into Bethany on Friday, Nisan 8, before Nisan 9-14.
II
Certain expositors, however, assert that, according to
John's Gospel, Jesus anticipated the time of His last Passover
and ate the Passover lamb with His disciples after sunset of
Nisan 13, i. e., in the first hour of Nisan 14. All such are asked
not to halt at the beginning of John 13, but to read on and per-
ceive that Jesus, while eating the Passover meal, revealed
Judas as His traitor and told Peter: "The cock shall not crow
till thou hast denied Me thrice" (John 13: 38). Then John re-
ports the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter and Jesus'
trials before the high priest and before Pilate. We note that
he incidentally injects the time clause: "And it was the
paraskeue" (John 19: 14), that is, all the events recorded from
John 13: 2 onward (the Passover meal included) took place on
the paraskeue. As stated above, the word paraskeue is the
calendar term for Friday, as it is still in modern Greek.s
But here certain expositors stumble. They profess "to
take the Bible words very literally and ask their opponents to
quit using Catholic Church data and traditions to bolster up
their teaching." With them it is "reproachful tradition to find
in the Scriptures recorded that Jesus died on Good Friday
and rose on Resurrection Sunday at dawn." They assert:
"These data contradict Christ's own words about the sign of
Jonah that also He would be three days and three nights
(72 hours) in the heart of the earth." Their exposition there-
fore reads: "As the sign of Jonah was fulfilled by the resul'-
7 See also Josephus, op. cit., XIV: 2, l.
8 See Jannarakis, De1dsch-Griech. Woerterb'Uch.-See also Jo-
sephus, op. cit., XVI: 6, 2; Evangeli'Um Nicodemi, ch.15; Chrysostomus,
Oper'Um, III: 161; Eusebius, De Martyribu,s Palaestinae, IV: 32.5; Acta
PoLycarpi, ch.7, to which Gresswell adds the note: "The use of 'tn
n«Q«(j%EUn absolutely can be understood only of Friday." Gresswell,
Dissertations 'Upon a Harmony of the Gospels, 2d ed., Oxford, 1837,
IV: 623.
TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS 269
rection of Jesus on Saturday [?] afternoon before sunset
(6 P. M.), Jesus must have been killed and buried three days
and three nights (72 hours) before that time, which brings us
back to Wednesday before sunset." They contend: "He re-
mained in the earth Wednesday night, Thursday night, and
Friday night, and all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,
rising as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,
and not as the first day of the week was dawning. Three P. M.
Wednesday plus three days and three nights (72 hours) take
us over to Saturday 3 P. M. The theory of Friday crucifixion
and Sunday resurrection makes void the Jonah sign, Matt. 12:
38-40, and makes our Lord a liar, because Friday 3 P. M. till
Sunday morning can never make 72 hours (three days and
three nights)." Some religious periodicals are at the present
time carrying articles written in this tone: "Let us not reject
God's Word that we may keep the traditions of men."!)
How do such men come to construe the words of the Scrip-
tures thus? It is evident that they expound these Biblical
texts in obedience to a certain logical system. The following
quotations will illustrate: "Jesus must have been killed and
buried three days and three nights before He was resurrected;
Christ could not have died therefore on Friday, remained three
days and three nights in the earth, and risen some time after
sundown of Saturday and sunup on Sunday."
Such interpretations show a lack of knowledge regarding
the usus loquendi of the people at the time of Jesus. From of
old, "three days and three nights" was with the Hebrews a
calendar term not to be confused with the counting of calendar
days. For this the very first page of the Bible is proof: "And
there was evening and there was morning, one day [or the
first day]; and there was evening and there was morning,
the second day". But at the giving of the Law, God counted
thus: "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth" (Ex.
20: 11).
For further proof let us consider the story of the Flood.
Gen. 7: 11 ff. records: "In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the
second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day
were all the fountains of the deep broken up, and the windows
9 We mention a few productions, written from this point of view:
R. A. Torrey, Difficulties and Alleged Errors and Contradictions in the
Bible (pp.101 ft.), Chicago, 1907; Missionary Baptist, June, 1946; R. D.
Ingle in Western Voice, Aug. 22, 1946; A. G. Kruchwitz, ibid, Oct. 24, 1946.
270 TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS
of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty
days and forty nights." We note that the 17th verse, repeat-
ing the story, simply states: "And the flood was forty days
upon the earth." Again forty days and forty nights and forty
days are equivalent to that many calendar days. Or would
anybody take this to mean that it rained just 960 hours to the
second? At what second did it start to rain? In which second
did the rain cease? The various references to the duration
of the rainfall are couched in divers phrases. From this prac-
tice it is obvious that the Hebrews designated by the phrase
day and night a calendar day. They did not concern them-
selves with the question whether an event consumed all of the
24 hours of the calendar day or only some of them. Therefore
also a part of a whole day must be counted and included as
a real day and night when the count is made by calendar.
Hence, what was said of Jonah's being in the belly of the whale
three days and three nights holds good also of Jesus' being in
the grave on three calendar days, Friday, Saturday, and Sun-
day. The paraskeue (Friday) ended at 6 P. M., and all Evan-
gelists state that Jesus was buried on the paraskeue, on Good
Friday, before 6 P. M. This was calendar day 1; Saturday,
calendar day 2; and Sunday, calendar day 3, totaling three
days and three nights.
Jesus Himself gave the Jews a sign similar to Jonah's.
When Jesus cleansed the Temple the first time, "the Jews said
to Him: What sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou
doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them: De-
stroy this temple - He was speaking of the temple of His
body - and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2: 18-19).
Nobody will deny that the meaning of the sign of Jonah and
the one referred to in John are identical. It is interesting to
note here Winer's annotation to John 2: 19: "In three days
(Plato, Menex. 240 b) does not mean that three whole days are
spent on something, but only that something is to take place
within that span of time, consequently before its expiration." 10
Nor is it necessary to assume that the first of a group of days
always comprises 24 complete hours. This was the usus lo-
quendi regarding the counting of time from Moses till Jesus.
10 Dr. George Benedict Winer, N. T. Grammar. Andover, 1889.
Par. 48: 2, p. 385 f. See also Robertson, Grammar of the N. T., 2d ed.,
p.587.
TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS 271
There is also no Scriptural warrant for taking paraskeue
in a double sense, as is done in the following statement: "The
Passover Sabbath followed the preparation day (our Wednes-
day, on which Jesus was crucified), and the regular weekly
Sabbath on which Jesus rose followed the preparation day
(our Friday)." This opinion is at variance with the Scriptural
explanation of paraskeue recorded Mark 15: 42: "It was the
paraskeue, that is the day before the Sabbath." From this is
clear that paraskeue is a definite calendar term for Friday, and
for Friday only. No other day of the week was designated by
the term paraskeue than Friday. Surely, no one would make
bold to assert that off and on there were two Fridays within
the span of a week. True, it became necessary periodically to
correct the calendar, the almanac, but in doing so the sequence
of the weekdays was never interfered with. Therefore no-
where can the calendar term paraskeue be taken in the sense
of a preparation day in general. John, together with the other
Evangelists, restricts the meaning of paraskeue to Friday, as is
seen from the following statement: "Because it was the para-
skeue, that the bodies should. not remain upon the cross on
the Sabbath day" (John 19: 31). Later he calls this day "the
paraskeue of the Jews" (John 19: 42).
The objection is raised that if Nisan 15 in this year fell on
Friday and was officially observed as the first day of the Pass-
over Festival, as it should have been according to the Law,
it would have been absolutely impossible for the Jews to cru-
cify Jesus on the first day of the Passover festival, which had
to be celebrated at least as a regular Sabbath. The thieves
who had been crucified with Jesus (Mark 15: 27) were male-
factors. To have among the Jews an official execution of male-
factors on the Sabbath would have been impossible, therefore,
also on the first day of the Passover if this were officially ob-
served. Had not the chief priests expressly stipulated: "Not
on the feast day" (Matt. 26: 5)? Certainly nobody would as-
sume that afterwards they would act contrary to their own
decree.
But the fact remains that Christ was crucified on the day
fixed by God for the beginning of the Passover feast, Nisan 15.
In this year Nisan 15, then, was not officially observed as the
first day of the Passover. The Passover festival, we hold, was
officially postponed to the next day, the Sabbath, Nisan 16.
272 TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS
It is true that Thursday, Nisan 14, is described as "the day,
when they killed the Passover" (Mark 14: 2), or in Luke's
words: "Then came the day of unleavened bread when the
Passover must be killed" (Luke 23: 7) . Yet what Rupertus,
a priest at Liege, Belgium, at the beginning of the twelfth cen-
tury stated is quite likely true: "Some Jews celebrated the
Passover on the same day as Jesus did; others the following
day." 11 This statement is substantiated by the fact mentioned
John 18: 28: "And they [the priests] themselves went [on the
paraskeue of the Passover, on Friday, Nisan 15, before the
officially celebrated Passover week] not in Pilate's judgment
hall lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the
Passover." They had not yet eaten of it that year, although
the evening before was legally the time for it. That Nisan 15
of that year was officially not observed as the first day of the
Passover is also substantiated by the fact that the Sanhedrin
convened on this Nisan 15 in public council concerning Jesus,
for a session of the Council in the official meeting place of the
Sanhedrin could not be held on the Sabbath or on feast days.
In addition, documentary evidence is not lacking. Eders-
heim stated: "Joel, a Jewish writer on the subject (see his
Blicke in die Relig. Gesch., I, p. 62 fl.), has by an ingenious
combination shown that the original view expressed in Jewish
writings was that Jesus was crucified on the first Paschal day,
and that this was at a later period modified to the 'Eve of the
Pascha,' San. 43a. 67a." 12 The phrase, the Eve of the Pascha,
means in Jewish parlance the day before the Passover. Hence,
in this year, Nisan 15 was not officially kept as the beginning
of the Passover feast. More documentary evidence may be
cited. The above-mentioned Rupertus commented on Matt. 26:
"As often as the Passover festival fell on the sixth weekday, it
was transferred to the following day, namely, the Sabbath." 13
11 Rupertus, lib. 2, in Lev., ch.36, scribit: Judaeos partim eodem
die, quo Christus, partim in postridie Pascha celebrasse (quoted by Ger-
hard, Harmonia Ev., II, ch.166, p. 928).
12 Dr. Alf. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah,
II, p.481, Note 3.
13 Rupertus in cap. 26 Matt. scribit: "Paschae festivitatem, quoties
in feriam sextam incidit, in diem sequentem, videlicet Sabbatum, distu-
lisse" (quoted by Gerhard, op. cit., p. 928). [EDITOR'S NOTE. - Some mod-
ern scholars hold that the priestly party in the year of Christ's crucifixion
placed the fourteenth of Nisan on Friday of that week, while the general
public placed it on Thursday. The difficulty of fixing the beginning of
the month, astronomical observations being very imperfect, is held to
have caused this confusion. Cf. Paul Feine, Jesus, pp.1l5--1l7. In ad-
dition, it may be well to consult J. Ylvisaker, The Gospels, pp.637-646.]
TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS 273
Moreover, Nicolas de Lyra, who in the 14th century published
a commentary on the whole Bible, annexed to ch. 26 of Mat-
thew "the tradition of the transfer of feasts from the Jewish
book Seder Olam in these words: 'Our chief judges ... sanc-
tioned and ordered a perpetual statute. This was placed into
the hands of Rabbi Elieser [at the beginning of the Christian
Era], who was greater than all others. He ordered that the
Passover should not be observed on the second, fourth, sixth
weekday." 14 We note, then, that in the era of Jesus it was
customary among the chief priests officially not to observe
Nisan 15 as the first day of the Passover whenever it fell on
Friday. This happened, according to the gospels, in the year
when Jesus was crucified. This had also happened two years
earlier, 28 A. D. See Luke 6: 1: "And it came to pass on the
second Sabbath after the first" (literally translated: on the
second-first Sabbath. Such was the official name for the post-
poned first day of the Passover festival, as if to say: "On the
Sabbath on which the second day of the Passover was observed
as the first day of it, and thus the time of the entire festival
was postponed a whole day) .15 Such practice belongs to the
things of which Jesus said to the Jews: "There is one that
accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. . .. Yebelieve
not his writings" (John 5: 45,47).
In a way, the foregoing comment sheds light also on
John 5: 1, where we read only of a feast of the Jews, denoting
the postponed beginning of the Passover Festival two years
ago, 28 A. D. For, putting alongside of this verse the words
in John 19: 42: "The paraskeue of the Jews," we notice that
at that time both these events - the postponement of the
Passover feast and the observance of that Friday as prepara-
tion day for the Sabbath - resulted from self-imposed ordi-
nances of the Jews and not according to statutes of the Law.
When God ordered that the Passover should begin on Nisan 15,
He knew that in the course of time it would fall on Friday,
14 Nicolas de Lyra in cap. 26 Matt. traditionem illam de transla-
tione festorum ex libro Seder Olam recenset huismodi verbis: Magistri
nostri judices . . . sanxerunt, ordinaveruntque statutum perpetuum, et
traditum est in manus Elieseri, qui reliquis omnibus major erat, et is
ordinavit, Pascha non observari secundo, quarto, sexto hebdomadae die
(quoted by Gerhard, cp. cit., p. 929).
15 Cpo Epiphanius, died 403 A. D., Panarion - a list of 80 heresies-
30: 32: "Nisan 16."
18
274 TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS
but He permitted no exceptions. It simply had to be cele-
brated on Friday, and was observed on Friday for ages. In
the days of Jesus, however, the Pharisees ruled the people of
Israel, and they were Sabbath rigorists, as the Gospel records
show. The Pharisees made subservient to the celebration of
the Sabbath whatever they could. As the documentary evi-
dence above proves, even the celebration of the Passover had
to yield to their Sabbath rigorism, namely, when Nisan 15 fell
on Friday, they postponed the beginning of the Passover fes-
tival to the Sabbath, Nisan 16. Again, the Pharisees would
not permit the setting aside of the observance of Friday as the
day of preparation for the Sabbath. This explains why John
called the paraskeue in Christ's Passion week "the paraskeue
of the Jews," as he also designated the Passover feast two years
earlier only "a feast of the Jews." Those regulations were
Pharisaical additions of the Jews to Moses' precepts, so that
Jesus said to them: "Full well ye reject the commandment of
God that ye may keep your own tradition" (Mark 7: 9). So
this wrong practice alludes also to John 19: 31: "The Jews,
therefore, because it was the paraskeue, that the bodies should
not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath
was a high day)." Why was it a high day? Because this ordi-
nary Sabbath combined with it the solemnity of an extraor-
dinary Sabbath, the celebration of the first day of the Passover,
which also was to be observed as Sabbath (Ex. 12: 16; Lev. 23:
11, 15). Each of them, being a Sabbath, produced by this
coincidence a double Sabbath, a Sabbath of double sanctity,
solemnized by peculiar offerings (Num. 28: 9-10, 18-23).
III
Regarding the time when the chief priests requested from
Pilate a guard for the grave of Jesus, Matt. 27: 62 reads: "Now,
the next day that followed the day of the paraskeue," the
chief priests asked of Pilate a guard for Jesus' grave. The
Hebrew days began at sunset, fixed at 6 P. M. (Lev. 23: 32).
This "next" day is placed so close to Friday by Matthew
that the text compels us to notice that the chief priests went
to Pilate not after the night of the Sabbath. For, pretending
to fear that the disciples would steal the body of Christ, they
would. prevent them from doing so during the very first night
after the burial of Jesus. Their efforts to safeguard Jesus'
TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS 275
grave might have been frustrated if they had waited until
daybreak of that Sabbath to place the guard at Jesus' grave.
By the way, we once more listen to the words of the
Pharisees which allude to the time during which Jesus lay in
the grave. They told Pilate: "Sir, we remember that that
deceiver said while He was yet alive: After three days I will
rise again." Thus they spoke shortly after the paraskeue, i. e.,
Friday, in the first hour of the Sabbath, on the second day
after the burial of Jesus according to their method of count-
ing time. And they requested of Pilate: "Command there-
fore that the sepulcher 'be made sure until the third day"
(Matt. 27: 63-64). They ask for a guard only until after the
night of the third calendar day that followed Jesus' burial,
i. e., until after the night of the first day of the week, Sunday.
They called this the third day. The disciples who went to
Emmaus on Christ's Resurrection Day counted the days like-
wise, saying: "Today is the third day since these things
were done" (Luke 24: 21) . The interval between Christ's
burial and His resurrection they figured as three days, yet
by no means as a time span of 72 hours. In their language
colloquial phrases like three days and three nights, after three
days, in three days, on the third day, comprise interchange-
ably a time totaling less than 72 hours. Proof for the cor-
rectness of this interpretation of th~ various Bible texts is
the fact that each of these phrases is, according to the con-
text, the expression of one and the same thought, covering
the very same span of time: Friday after 3 P. M. till Sunday
morning. Christ had been resurrected according to the Bib-
lical language after three days, on the third day, or in three
days after His burial, having lain in the grave three days
and three nights according to the Hebrew designation of three
calendar days.
IV
Matthew speaks of the dawn of Sunday: "In the end of
the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the
week" (Matt. 28: 1). This is the Resurrection morn of Sunday.
The phrase in the end of the Sabbath is composed of an ad-
verb linked to a noun. Like a preposition this adverb is here
construed with the genitive of the Sabbath. We find similar
phrases in Greek authors, e. g.: "in the end of, or rather after
the King's times, after the mysteries [had been performed],
276 TIMELOG OF JESUS' LAST DAYS
after the Trojan war, after the day." 16 In harmony with
Mark 16: 1-2: "When the Sabbath was passed," our phrase
should read literally: "After the Sabbath." Very early in
the morning of Sunday the women came to the grave. They
found the stone rolled away and the grave vacant (Matt. 28:
1-6; Mark 16: 1-6; Luke 24: 1-6; John 20: 1-3). The first day
of the week, Sunday, was, is, and will be the day of Christ's
resurrection. Nobody can deny this fact without drawing
into doubt the trustworthiness of the whole Bible.
Fort Wayne, Ind.
16 Plutarch, Num.l: O¢E 'tOOV ~a(nt.Eoo,; XQovoov, longe post regis
tempora. - Philostratus, Vita Apollo, 4,18: O¢E I-tU