Jimmy DeYoung was quite a guy. He lived in Jerusalem and was a world-renowned journalist, conference speaker, author, and expert on Bible prophecy. He was seen on the Day of Discovery television program, was heard on all kinds of radio stations and internet sites, and had his own website (prophecytoday.com), a website that is still in operation even though DeYoung himself has been dead for several years now.

Our local Baptist Association once hosted DeYoung for a week-long series on Bible prophecy, and one night he did a question-and-answer session before he preached. Since the auditorium was packed, and people had far more questions than he had time to answer, I didn’t even attempt to ask him my question. It didn’t have anything to do with prophecy anyway and therefore might not have even been appropriate for the setting.

And what was my question? Well, during that period of my life I was mulling over the information that I shared in my previous post (Was Jesus Crucified on Wednesday?) about a possible Wednesday crucifixion. So, I wanted to get DeYoung’s thoughts on the matter. Fortunately for me, each night after he preached he stood at the door of the auditorium and shook hands as the people filed out of the building. That was my chance. As I shook his hand that night, I leaned in close to his ear and asked, “Was Jesus crucified on Wednesday or Friday?” A big smile came across his face as if he was pleased that someone had asked that question. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Thursday. Look it up.” Naturally, I went straight home and did just that.

According to the Thursday interpretation for Christ’s crucifixion, Jesus was crucified Thursday and His body was buried late Thursday afternoon just before sundown. His body laid in the tomb for the brief time before sundown that afternoon (with sundown beginning a new day according to the way the Jews counted time), continued to lie in the tomb the entirety of Friday and Saturday, and then the resurrection took place sometime early Sunday. If we classify that brief period of time Thursday afternoon before sundown as a full day — and the Jews did count any part of a day as a full day — then a Thursday crucifixion can be made to literally fulfill the Matthew 12:40 prophecy about three days and three nights. The three days and three nights would have been Thursday afternoon (day 1) and the entirety of Thursday night (night 1), the entirety of Friday day (day 2) and the entirety of Friday night (night 2), and the entirety of Saturday day (day 3) and the entirety of Saturday night (night 3), with Jesus resurrecting sometime shortly before Sunday’s morning’s dawn.

Like the possibility of a Wednesday crucifixion, the possibility of a Thursday crucifixion rests upon us correctly identifying the type of Sabbath that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were trying to beat to get Christ’s body buried before the Sabbath began. If that Sabbath was the typical weekly one that began at sundown on Friday afternoon and lasted until sundown on Saturday afternoon, Jesus was crucified on Friday. Case closed. If, however, the Sabbath in question was one of the other Sabbaths the Jewish law required, discussions can be had concerning either a Wednesday crucifixion or a Thursday one. This explains why the advocates for a Wednesday crucifixion date or a Thursday one heavily emphasize the fact that John 19:31 calls the specific Sabbath in question a “high day,” which might be taken to mean that it was different than the typical weekly Sabbath even though every weekly Sabbath was also, technically, a “high day.”

According to the Thursday crucifixion interpretation, there were actually two Sabbaths the week of Christ’s crucifixion. The first one began at sundown on Thursday afternoon and lasted until sundown on Friday afternoon. That was the Sabbath that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were facing, the one required by the beginning of The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began immediately following the Passover (Leviticus 23:4-8, 39). The second Sabbath was the weekly one that began at sundown on Friday afternoon and lasted until sundown on Saturday afternoon.

Along these same lines, since John 19:14 calls the day of Christ’s crucifixion “the Preparation Day of the Passover,” advocates for a Thursday crucifixion contend that the Last Supper that Jesus shared with His apostles was not a Passover meal. As evidence for this assertion, they point to the fact that no lamb is mentioned as being a part of that meal. Only bread and wine are specifically mentioned (Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:17-20).

So, as we can see, the case for a Thursday crucifixion does seem to make sense in certain ways, just as the case for a Wednesday crucifixion does. However, just like the case for a Wednesday crucifixion, there are some problems with the Thursday interpretation. Here are four of them:

1. As I explained in the previous post about a Wednesday crucifixion, it’s a real stretch to make the term “the commandment” in Luke 23:56 refer to anything other than the 4th commandment about keeping the weekly Sabbath. According to that verse, a certain group of women followed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus to the burial site to see where Christ’s body was buried, returned to prepare spices and fragrant oils to anoint the body when the Sabbath was finished, and then rested on the Sabbath according the commandment. That verse’s specific use of the singular term “the commandment” immediately takes our minds to the 4th of the Old Testament law’s famous 10 commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). That 4th commandment was the command to keep the weekly Sabbath as a day of rest. Therefore, while it’s true that the Old Testament law instructed the Jews to make Sabbath days of the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it seems unlikely that those commands would be described as “the commandment.”
2. Even though it is accurate to say that a lamb is not specifically mentioned as being a part of Christ’s Last Supper, multiple passages make it clear that the meal was indeed a Passover meal. For example, in Matthew 26:17 the disciples ask Jesus, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” Likewise, in Matthew 26:18 Jesus talks about the house where He will keep the Passover with His disciples. Additionally, Mark 14:12-15 and Luke 22:7-13 use the same language in reference to the meal. Clearly, Christ’s Last Supper was a Passover meal.
3. If we are going to apply a hyper-literal approach to the words “three days and three nights” in Jesus’ quote from Matthew 12:40, we should be consistent in applying that same approach to the rest of His words from that quote. But that is where the approach shows itself to be lacking. I say that because Christ’s body wasn’t literally buried “in the heart of the earth.” It was, instead, buried in a cave-like tomb above ground. Therefore, the entire quote can be interpreted as being an idiomatic expression that served as Christ’s way of emphasizing that He would resurrect on the third day. This might explain why Matthew 12:40 is the one and only place where the phrase “three days and three nights” is used in reference to Christ’s crucifixion. In all the other references, the terms “three days” or “third day” are used.
4. In Luke 24:21, two of Christ’s disciples specifically refer to the day of His resurrection as being “the third day since these things (the events of His crucifixion) happened.” That fits perfectly with the idea that Jesus was crucified on Friday. Again, according to the way the Jews reckoned days, any part of a day was counted as one day. That makes the late afternoon hours of Friday before the Sabbath began “the first day,” Saturday “the second day,” and resurrection Sunday “the third day.” A Thursday crucifixion, on the other hand, makes resurrection “the fourth day.” Even worse, a Wednesday crucifixion makes it “the fifth day.”

As for the question of how we can reconcile Jesus eating the Passover meal the night before He was crucified with the fact that John 19:14 describes the day of the crucifixion as being the preparation day of the Passover, there is a simple answer. That answer is: The term “the Preparation of the Passover” refers to the preparations that had to be made for the typical weekly Sabbath, the Sabbath that fell during that year’s Passover celebration. You see, due to the fact that the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread began immediately following the Passover Day (Leviticus 23:4-8; Exodus chapters 12 and 13), the Jews used the general term “Passover” in reference to the entire 8-day period. With this in mind, John 19:14 can be read as: “Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover (week)…” Every week, the Jews had to prepare extra food ahead of time to eat on the Sabbath day because they weren’t allowed to work on that day. Because of this, Friday day (before the Sabbath began at sundown) was commonly thought of as the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42). Conversely, there is no historical record of the day before the singular day of Passover ever being called the Day of Preparation.

And so, in the end, these four serious problems with the Thursday interpretation, in addition to this simple explanation of the term “the Day of Preparation,” are more than enough to keep me from believing that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday. Despite my profound respect for Jimmy DeYoung and his ministry, I just can’t go along with him on this one. To me, the Friday interpretation just makes the most sense.

Really, though, if we get right down to it, let’s just be glad that Jesus died for the sins of the world on any day of the week and then arose from the dead! As a matter of fact, if Joseph, Nicodemus, and those women had been thinking correctly about Jesus resurrecting, they wouldn’t have even bothered to anoint His body. Even Jesus Himself, while He was still very much alive, had classified the anointing of Mary (the sister of Martha and Lazarus) via her alabaster flask of costly oil as all the anointing He would need for burial (Matthew 26:6-13). Consequently, there was no real need to fixate on all the details of getting Christ’s body buried because there was a resurrection right around the corner. Sadly, though, those early followers of Christ really didn’t believe that Jesus was going to do what He had promised to do: arise.