The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-03-30
Did the CrucinXion Take Place
on Friday?

1t is the general belief that the Savior was cru.
Gifted on Friday, but in an article of % pages in
BibliOtheca Sacra. OF July, 1870. Rev. J. X. Aidrich
proves to his own satisfaction that the cTucifXiOn
occurred on Thursday. His reasons are First
He must have been crucifed on Thursday in order
10 the ful6llment Of the prediction that he should
be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth. Matthew 1910. Second-If he was cruci-
fed on Friday. there is a plain discrepancy between
John and the other EvangelistS.
II be was crucifed on Friday. his body could
have lain in the sepulchre only two nights, and
hardly. if any more than two days, as it must have
heen about sundOwn when it was placed there.
Evidently. therefore. it must have been on Thurs
day that he was cruci6ed.
But what about the apparent discrepancies be
tween John and the other Evaugelists? According
to Matthew. Marx and Luke. our Lord ate the
passover with his disciples on the evening of the
fourteenth day Of Nissan, which was the first day of
unleavened bread. But John describes the last
supper of our Lord with his disciples as before the
passover. John 1871. He also declares, 1928.
that the Jews went not into the judgment hall. lest
they should be defled but that they might eat the
passover. From this it would seem that they had
not yet eaten the passover. And again John calls
the day of crucifXion, the preparation Of tie pass
Orer. 1914.
How are we to reconcile these seeming differ
ences? If Christ was crueifed on Thursday. then
he ate the passover with his disciples on Wednes-
day evening. as the passover was to be killed on
the fourteenth of Nissan. Wednesday must have
been the fourteenth. As the Savior came to fulfill
the law, he would eat the passover on the day
specified by the law. Five astronomers have cal
culated the passover full moon in the year of the
crucifXion, and they all agree that it fell on
Wednesday.
But how was it that the Jews observed the pass
over on Thursday? 1t seems that they reckoned
the new moons from the appearance of the moon.
When the time of the new moon drew near, watch
men were stationed on elevated places around
Jerusalem. and the day that the new moon appeared
was declared TO be the first day of the month.
But the new moon does not always appear the first
day and when it did not appear. the jews would
call the second day of the month the first day. 1t
appears from an old writer that there was a con-
tcntion among the Jews about the passover, the
the Savior and his disciples observed the passover
on the day specified by the law and that the Jews,
not having discovered the new moon on the first
day, observed it one day lately. Matthew, Mark
and Luke. speak of the passover according to the
true time of the moon. while John speaks OF it
according to the reckoning of the Jews or rather,
according to the decree of the Sanbedrim.
But there are objections to this view of the sub
ject; for John speaks of the day of the crucifXion
us being the preparation for the Sabbath 1881.
how then could it be Thursday? He also speaks
of it as being the preparation of the passover
day of the week. but the day of unleavened bread.
on which no servile work was to be done. Hence
he calls it a Sabbath. Leviticus, 1888.
Again, VT read that the women were at the sep
ulchre on the evening Of the day he was cTucifed,
and that they returned and prepared spices and
intments. and rested the Sabbath day. according
to the commandment Luke, 1886. and when the
was past. they returned to the sepulchre.
They returned early the first day of the week.
Mark. 1871 and 2. Did they observe both Friday
and Saturday as Sabbath? So it would seem.
Matthew says. ISL, in the end. or after the
He uses the plural form. Thus is it
evident that our Lord was crucifed on Thursday
instead of Friday, as is generally supposed.