All Christians believe that Christ died and rose from the grave.

God delivers from His judgment those with faith in this Truth (Romans 3:25). Without faith in Jesus’ work at the cross, one cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6).

Knowledge about the details of Christ’s death and resurrection immeasurably strengthens one’s conviction and assurance that Christianity is not one of many possible valid religions.

Christianity is the only religion built on the truth,

“God saves sinners.”

We who’ve violated the commands of our Creator cannot save ourselves from His judgment.

But God (the two most essential words in the Bible), in His love for sinners, has delivered the Truth that saves us (Jude 1:3).

If this is the first time you’ve heard that Jesus died on a Thursday, it might sound strange to your ears.

We sing powerful songs, hear great messages, and experience vivid memories of Good Friday services.

However, suppose you let Scripture only (sola Scriptura) guide you. In that case, you’ll find that the Thursday death of the Messiah becomes a powerful demonstration of God’s infinite ability to orchestrate His Story as the centerpiece of History.

From before Creation, God appointed that the Messiah would die at this precise time to ransom His people from their slavery to sin and death (Rev. 13:8).

Jesus did just as He said He would; He fulfilled the Law (e.g., Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).

All the things written in the Five Books of the Law were about the Person and work of Jesus.

There is no other day, no other time, no other way Jesus could have died, and there is no other day, no other time, no other way Jesus could have risen from the dead for the Law of God to be fulfilled.

Religions around the world place mankind in a man-oriented religious performance. Many have no idea that only Christianity sets sinners free by pointing them to trust Christ’s performance and not their own.

The Truth of what is written in this post will thoroughly erase any belief that our ability to perform adequately determines God’s mercy, love, and grace.

Take a few moments and read this post to “Grow in grace and your knowledge of Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18).

Proof for When Jesus Died

Nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, the scholarly Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 27 (1870), pp. 401–429, published an article entitled The Crucifixion on Thursday – Not Friday by J.K. Aldrich.

Greek and New Testament scholar Professor Brooke Westcott of Great Britain, author of the classic work An Introduction to the Study of the Gospels (Cambridge: 1881), pp. 343–349, adamantly maintained that Christ’s crucifixion was on Thursday, not Friday.

In 1974, Christianity Today published The Day He Died by Dr. Roger Rusk, the Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Tennessee.

In his short article, Dr. Rusk shows through his computer-enhanced lunar calculations that Jesus died on Thursday, the 14th of Abib, A.D. 30.

Because we operate by a solar calendar today, not the lunar calendar, we can compute the 14th of Abib, A.D. 30, to Thursday, April 6, A.D. 30, on our calendars.

The Way the Jews Measured Time

The Jews followed a Lunar Calendar.

You need to understand three basic things about how the Jews kept time in Jesus’ day before you can know why Jesus died when He did.

1. First, the Jewish months revolved around eyeballing the moon during its phases of brightness in the sky.

When a ‘new moon’ occurred (see chart), the priests would blow their horns and declare that a new ‘month’ had begun. Aviv was the first month of the new year for the Jews (see Leviticus 23:5). Aviv means ‘grain ripening’ in Hebrew.

Aviv occurred in the spring as God woke nature from her winter slumber.

Aviv corresponds to March/April on our calendar. Jesus died on the 14th day of Aviv, 30 A.D. at 3:00 in the afternoon, which would correspond to April 6, 30 A.D. on our Western solar calendar.

2. Second, the Jews of Jesus’ time did not call the days of their week Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., as we do.

The Jews called them “the first day of the week, the second day of the week, etc…”

The seventh day of the week was the Shabat in Hebrew, which means seventh and rest. In English, we call it ‘Sabbath,’ and that Hebrew day is known to us in the Western world as ‘Saturday.’

The ‘first day of the week is what we call Sunday.

Of course, Jesus rose on “the first day of the week” (John 20:1).

3. Third, a new day began for the Jews at 6:00 p.m.

In the Western world, we have six hours of the evening before midnight. We call these six hours the last six hours of our day. At midnight, a new day begins for us.

For the Jews, 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight were the first six hours of a new day.

So, Jesus died at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, the 14th of Aviv, just three hours before the sixth day of the week (Friday), the 15th of Aviv, began.

So, the Jews ate a “Passover Meal” after sunset (6:00 p.m.); the meal would be consumed in the first hours of a new day, between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. of Thursday, Aviv 14, the way we measure time today, but the early hours of the sixth day of the week (Friday), the way the Jews measure time.

That’s why Jesus didn’t eat the Passover with His disciples on Wednesday night, Aviv 13 (the night before He died).

Jesus ate an average meal with His disciples in The Last Supper.

The Passover Lamb

The Passover lamb was sacrificed on the 14th of Aviv every year (Passover) at 3:00 p.m.

The Passover Meal, composed of Unleavened Bread and roasted Passover Lamb, was eaten that night in the first few hours of the new day, the 15th of Aviv.

(Note: When the Jews were in the Babylonian Exile from 609 to 539 BC, they adopted the Chaldean Babylonian word Nisan and substituted Nisan for the Hebrew word Aviv. That’s why modern Jewish calendars use Nisan as the name of the first month of the year, not Aviv).

The Passover Meal began seven days of celebration called The Feast of Unleavened Bread.

During the Feast of Unleavened, the Jews remembered YHWH’s deliverance of them in Egypt on the night they applied the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of their homes (in the form of a cross), and the judgment of God “passed over” (thus, Passover) their homes (see Exodus 12).

The REASON Jesus Died WHEN He Did

After Moses led the Jews out of their Egyptian bondage fifteen hundred years before Christ was born, God “appointed” seven Holy Days (holidays) for the Jews to keep throughout the year.

These Holy Days, called High Sabbaths, were national celebrations of God’s faithfulness and mercy to His people.

God was very specific in His Law (Leviticus 23) regarding when and how these Holy Days would be celebrated.

The first three Holy Days they occurred in the spring, during the month of Aviv, all within one week of each other.

The first holiday was Passover. According to Exodus 12:1, the Passover lamb was to be chosen on the 10th of Aviv and slain on the 14th of Aviv.

After the Passover lamb had been chosen on the 10th of Aviv, the people would inspect the Lamb to ensure there were no spots or blemishes.

The Lamb could not have any broken bones or be defective.

Four days after the Lamb was chosen, the Lamb was slain.

At 3:00 p.m. on the 14th of Aviv, the Lamb would be killed in Preparation for the Passover meal.

Therefore, the 14th of Aviv was called “the day of Preparation for Passover” in Scripture (John 19:14).

The Jews would also use the day of Preparation (the 14th of Aviv) to sweep away any leaven in their houses in Preparation for The Feast of Unleavened Bread.

As already stated, the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the next day, the 15th of Aviv, the same day the Passover Meal was eaten, and lasted seven days.

During this week-long festival, the Jews were forbidden to consume bread with leaven.  As the week of Unleavened Bread began during the early hours of the 15th of Aviv (from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.), the Jewish Passover meal would be eaten.

The Lamb killed three hours earlier (at 3:00 p.m. on the 14th of Aviv) was roasted and eaten at the Passover meal after sunset.

The Lamb would be eaten along with the unleavened bread prepared during daylight of Aviv 14.

Leaven in Scripture is a picture of sin or evil.

After the Passover lamb died and was taken into the Jewish houses, sin and evil disappeared.

The Passover lamb always died on Aviv 14, and the leaven was always swept away from the homes on Aviv 14.

Again, this day of Aviv 14 was called the day of Preparation for Passover.

The actual Feast of Passover was eaten after sunset, in the early hours of Aviv 15, the first day of Unleavened Bread.

The TWO Sabbaths When Jesus Died

The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Aviv 15) was considered a high Sabbath for the Jews.

This High Sabbath was not a regular Sabbath (Saturday) but a special annual Sabbath.

That means Friday, Aviv 15, AD 30, was a High Sabbath, and Saturday, Aviv 16, AD 30, was a regular Sabbath.

The resurrection of Christ occurred on Sunday morning (Aviv 17) after two Sabbaths, back to back, had been observed by the Jews.

The gospel writer Matthew describes the time when the disciples came to the empty tomb of Christ on Sunday morning by writing:

The Greek word translated as Sabbath in this text is “Shabbaton” (plural), not “Shabbat” (singular).

Any English translation that does not use “Sabbaths” is mistranslating the Greek text.

The crucifixion week had the High Sabbath on Friday, the weekly Sabbath, and Saturday.

Three Days and Three Nights

The first day of the week is Sunday.

Jesus died on Thursday, AD 30, Passover Preparation Day, Thursday, Aviv 14. The next day, the First Day of Unleavened Bread (Friday), was Aviv 15 and a special High Sabbath for the Jews.

The next day, Aviv 16 (Saturday), was the regular Sabbath for the Jews.

It was not uncommon for the Jews to have TWO Sabbaths during Passover.

Two Shabats (Sabbaths) – a regular Sabbath and a High Sabbath – occurred at least once a decade during Passover.

This is precisely what happened during crucifixion week, as stated in Scripture.

In further fulfillment of Scripture, Jesus died at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, Aviv 14, when the national Passover lamb was sacrificed in the temple.

When the Jews counted days, they measured any portion of a day or night and considered it an entire day or night.

The time Jesus spent in the grave fulfills the prophecy Jesus said about His death and resurrection:

The Anti-Type Fulfills the Type

Follow Jesus as He enters Jerusalem on the first day of the week, Sunday, April 2, A.D. 30, four days before He died.

He entered the city on Sunday, Aviv 10, as the Jews reckon. We call the day of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem Palm Sunday. 

The Lamb had been led into the city from the east and was taken to the Temple to be the public sacrifice for the world.

The sacrifice of the Passover Lamb for the world would occur four days later (Aviv 14) in fulfillment of the Law.

The Lamb was met by crowds waving palm branches and joyously singing Psalm 118 (the Hallel).

Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, following the national Passover lamb (Matthew 21:1-11).

The Jews, many of whom had either known of Jesus or personally witnessed His great miracles, placed their palm branches in front of Him and shouted to Him passages from Psalm 118:

Just as the Jews began to cleanse their homes of leaven in Preparation for Passover, Jesus went to His Father’s house and cleansed the Temple of evil (Matthew 21:12-13).

From Aviv 10 to Aviv 14, the national Passover lamb was in full public view at the Temple so the Jews could ensure the Lamb was perfect and without defects.

During those same four days, Jesus was inspected and interrogated by the chief priests, elders, Pharisees, and Sadducees.

He left them bumfuzzled because “they could find no fault with His character” (see Matthew 21:23-27).

Even the Roman governor of Jerusalem (Pilate) and Herod, the governor of Galilee, could “find no fault with Him.”

Jesus ate His Last Supper with His disciples the night BEFORE He was crucified (early hours of Aviv 14, between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.).

The Jews would NOT eat their Passover until 24 hours later, but Jesus instituted a New Covenant – with no lamb eaten – giving bread and wine and saying,

He was the Lamb of God. It was His death that mattered.

The Law of God in the Old Covenant was about to be fulfilled by the Lamb of God.  Within a few hours, the Anti-Type (the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world).

The agreement between God and man changed at Calvary with the institution of the New Covenant.

God had Himself a new people (from every tribe, race, and nation), a new Temple (the lives of believers in His Son), a new priesthood (men and women, slave and free, Gentile and Jew), and a New Command (“love one another as I have loved you”). The Law pictured that “the just live by faith,” but the Lamb made that picture a reality.

Jesus was placed on the cross at “the third hour” (9:00 a.m.) on Aviv 14 (Mark 15:25), less than twelve hours after He shared the New Covenant meal in the Upper Room with His disciples.

So, the national Passover lamb was bound to the Temple’s altar at the same hour.

As Jesus hung on the cross, darkness came over the land (Luke 23:44-46) from about “the sixth to the ninth hour” (from noon to 3:00 p.m.).

At 3:00 p.m. on Aviv 14, 30 A.D., Jesus died. At the same time, the High Priest slain the national Passover lamb.

The Passover lamb for the national of Israel was sacrificed in the Temple on Aviv 14 “between the evenings” (3:00 p.m.), just as Jesus, the Lamb of God, was offered for the world “between the evenings.”

As the High Priest brought the knife down on the national Passover lamb, he cried, “It is finished!” J

Just outside the city gate, at that very hour, Jesus cried on the cross, “It Is Finished!” and He died.

It was forbidden by the Law of God for any of the bones of the Passover lamb to be broken (see Exodus 12:46).

At the crucifixion, soldiers came by to break the legs of the two criminals crucified along with Jesus, but they discovered Jesus was already dead.

The reason for breaking the criminal’s legs was to ensure they would die before sunset, the Passover meal, and the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Aviv 15).

It took Jesus only six hours to die.

I am reminded that He said, “No one takes my life. I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18).

Jesus rose three days later, early on “the first day of the week” (Sunday).

His Resurrection Day was the same day the Jews “waved the sheaf of first fruits” in the Temple during the Feast God appointed in the Law, a Feast called “The Feast of the Waving of the Sheaf of First Fruits.”

Jesus rose on this day, and the fulfillment of the Law in advancing as our “first fruits” of resurrection is quite instructive (listen to an Easter message I preached on this subject).

Application for You

Everything in the Old Testament was about Him.

When He walked with the two men on the road to Emmaus, He “began with Moses and all the prophets and explained to them all those things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27)

God appointed the seven Holy Days for Israel (Leviticus 23) nearly a millennium and a half before Jesus ever walked the streets of Jerusalem!

What are the odds that Jesus enters Jerusalem on the 10th of Aviv, dies on the 14th of Aviv, is in the tomb during the days of Unleavened Bread, and rises on the “morrow after the Sabbath” (Sunday, the 17th of Aviv) on the very day the Jews celebrated the Feast of the Sheaf of Firstfruits?

I could explain the Anti-type fulfillment of the last four Jewish feasts (Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Feast Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles), but that is another post.

I think you see the beauty of Christ in the Passover.

Next time somebody mocks Christianity and tells you it is a religion of myths and fairy tales, why don’t you take a little time to show them that His Story is History?

Jesus was born on Tabernacles, died at Passover, rose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits, came to indwell us on Pentecost, and will come again at the Feast of Trumpets.

It would be wise for all to see the Holy One in the Holy Days of the Old Testament and how Jesus Christ is the utter fulfillment of the Law.

When somebody asks you how your sins are swept away, refuse to point that Person to any promise of man, commitment, or pledge of religious fidelity by man!

Point the questioner to the Man who accomplished what we cannot accomplish for ourselves.