History

Our Three-Day Weekend

16 Comments

We were wondering this morning why Good Friday was two days before Easter, when it was supposed to be three days until the resurrection. I figured they must have just wanted to make it a three-day weekend, like government holidays. Anyway, I did a search, and here’s the story.

16 thoughts on “Our Three-Day Weekend”

  1. Great article except they fail to mention the lunar calendar which determines the passover.

    Religion seems to always follow the doctrine, “never let the facts destroy a good story.” To the point that it’s often fair to equate religion with gullibility. However, Hebrews 11 points out that true faith has to be based on evidence… like the scientific method (and not like climate science!)

    1. It did say they used some computer program to figure out the day Passover would have been. Not sure which one, but it does seem they considered it.

  3. Guess I am a little confused. I always interpreted it this way: day first (Friday) he was cruxified; day 2nd (Saturday); day third (Sunday) his empty tomb was discovered; he therefore resurrected some time on Sunday. There was no day “zero”; just like there is no year zero. The first year was one AD; one through 100 the first century of the Christian calendar, and so on.

    1. Yes. The Creed says “…on the third day He rose again…” which made perfect sense to me because the nuns at Catholic school took pains to explain it.

      1. But that means picking a scripture to conform with existing belief rather than simply heading the scripture. Stick with the sign of Jonah, 3 days AND 3 nights and there’s no room for confusion. The article is very clear. Which is where humans come in… Do you resolve a conflict by accepting evidence or ignoring it? I don’t know if there’s been a study, but observation suggests to me most people overwhemingly ignore evidence that conflicts with beliefs.

        Yesterday had a talk with a guy that sincerely believes the moon landing were a hoax (along with a mind boggling array of other issues) and no amount of reason was persuasive.

        I don’t know how anyone can be a christian and not continually test your own understanding as the scripture admonishes.

          1. Nice trry, but the Catholic church has a history.

            In Haiti they combine with voodoo. They stick with what works for them.

            Jesus died in 31CE at the age of 33-1/2 and was born in October… but don’t let that bother ya.

            Whatever the true story is, you don’t reach it by starting with what you believe and searching for conformation by ‘logical’ twists. The truth is found by not ignoring conflicting evidence. That is science in a nutshell.

        2. Actually the Gospels don’t agree. Mark, for example, states that he was buried on the evening before the Sabaath and the women went to the tomb immediately after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week. If the article were correct that he was buried on Wednesday, then the women would have gone on Friday morning to anoint his body, not Sunday. And Mark also talks about “on the third day”, not “three days and three nights”

          Since Jewish days began at sundown, an equally plausible explanation is that he was buried on Friday afternoon (day 1), then Friday night into Saturday (day 2), then rose Saturday night into Sunday (day 3), so that he rose “on the third day”. Corinthians (which predates Matthew’s Gospel, the one that referenced the 3 days and 3 nights, by ~ 30 years), states that he rose *on* the third day, not after the third day, so this timeline fits that reference.

        3. > Nice trry, but the Catholic church has a history.

          That article is filled with factual inaccuracies.

  4. Tim is right. You have to look at how they would have counted it then. Any part of the day added to the count.

  6. I took one look at the graphic on the linked page and rejected it.

    The Last Supper was a Passover Seder. Jesus’ body was left uncleansed in the tomb on the second day because it was the Sabbath — Saturday. When the disciples went to perform the ritual on Sunday He wasn’t there.

  8. One thing that bugged me at the end:

    Are you willing to make a commitment to worship God according to biblical truth rather than human tradition?

    Biblical truth is yet another human tradition. As is the decision to worship God at all. And it’s ridiculous to presume that God cares which day of the week we decide Easter (and other religious days of observance which we decide to respect) should fall on.

Comments are closed.