Pilate investigated the death of Jesus, to find "if he had been dead for some time" (Mark 15:44), and granted Joseph his request (Matt 27:58, Mark 15:45, John 19:38.

Joseph went to buy "fine linen" — presumably in Jerusalem (Mark 15:46).

He then walked back to Golgotha to retrieve the body.

He and Nicodemus (John 19:39) "Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen cloths with the spices..." (John 19:40, Matt 27:59), "and laid it in his [Joseph's] own new tomb" (Matt 27:60, Mark 15:46, Luke 23:53, John 19:39-42).

"And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on" (Luke 23:54, John 19:42).

"And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre and how his body was laid" (Luke 23:55, Matt 27:61, Mark 15:47).

"And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Solome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him" (Mark 16:1).

Then "they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment" (Luke 23:56).

Note: The buying and preparing of the spices and oils by the women occurred between two Sabbaths. Therefore, these two Sabbaths could not have been concurrent, as is popularly believed. And, as John 19:31 explains, the first Sabbath, the one immediately after Jesus' death, was a High Day, that is, an annual Holy Day, the First Day of Unleavened Bread, not the weekly Sabbath.

"Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre." (Matt 28:1 3 , Luke 24:1, Mark 16:2, John 20:1) The women could not have bought the spices after the sun set on "Saturday" because: If there had been any businesses open on the Sabbath (unlikely, because the Jews were strict in not allowing such at that time) they would have closed for the day before dark; and, It is highly unlikely that any businesses would have opened after sunset.

Christ was dead and in the grave for the last moments of the Preparation day (Wednesday), the entirety of the first, High Day Sabbath (Thursday), the entirety of the intervening day (Friday), and all but the last moments of the last (weekly) Sabbath (Saturday) — Exactly three days and three nights, just as scripture declares (Mt 16:21, 17:23, 20:19, 27:64, Mr 9:31, 10:34, Lu 9:22, 18:33, 24:7, 21, 46, Ac 10:40, I Cor 15:4). There is no finagling needed (redefining what a day and night is) to get Scripture to agree with some preconceived and errant doctrine.

It is also noteworthy that A. T. Robertson, in A Harmony of the Gospels, declares that the women visited the tomb at dusk at the end of the Sabbath (sunset on Saturday), not at dawn on the first day of the week (Sunday) as is popularly believed 4 . This settles a long standing question in my mind: Jesus had declared to Mary Magdalene that he had not yet risen to his Father (This was because it was still Sabbath, otherwise Jesus would have risen to the Father on the First day of the week as the "Wave Sheaf"). After having risen from the dead on the evening of the Sabbath, what was he doing all night long while waiting for the disciples to discover him alive at the tomb? However, if it had only been a few minutes since his resurrection to when the women discovered the empty tomb (as is suggested by Matt 28:1-15 and Mark 16:1-4), there is no interval to question.

Synopsis Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb, was sacrificed and died at the time of the Passover sacrifice of the lambs in the evening at the end of the 14th of Abib (Nisan) — which occurred on a Wednesday in 31 AD, the year of his crucifixion. He was buried just before sunset that day, and he remained in the grave, "the belly of the earth," for exactly three days and three nights, as he had said, until he rose from the dead and his grave just before sunset on that week's Sabbath — NOT on Sunday morning, as is popularly believed.

Of course the time of his death cannot be determined that precisely, and the precise time is not important to the proof, but this is the approximate time of the "ninth hour." Other pertinent times and the method I used are as follows: Sunset on April 25 (the proof of this date is beyond the scope of this document, but, again, is not important to the current proof) is at about 7:02pm. Daylight is about 13 hours and 20 minutes long. This makes the "sixth hour" to be about 12:22pm, and the ninth about 3:42pm. All this was derived from an estimate using the Farmers Almanac, and the similarity in latitude of Jerusalem and Savannah, Georgia (32°N — sunset = 6:37 + 25 = 7:02pm, sunrise = 4:48 + 54 = 5:42am, dusk is calculated to be about 1 hour and 28 minutes long.

Note the use and application of the term "evening." Clearly, evening was before sunset and must have been considerably longer than just an hour and twenty minutes before sunset. Joseph had time enough to do all these things and still finish before sunset. Since the Passover could not be sacrificed until "between the two evenings," and according to some, that must be between 3:00 in the afternoon and sunset, but others consider it to be between sunset and dark, this scripture is evidence that it is the former definition that is the Biblically accepted meaning of the term. Translation from A.T. Robertson's A Harmony of the Gospels, HarperSanFrancisco, p. 239 — He footnotes this verse (Matt 28:1) with: "This phrase once gave much trouble, but the usage of the vernacular Koine Greek amply justifies the translation. The visit of the women to inspect the tomb was thus made before the Sabbath was over [emphasis rfc] (before 6 p.m. on Saturday). But the same Greek idiom was occasionally used in the sense of 'after.'" Robertson goes on to say that the women likely bought the spices after sunset. But this is contradictory.

Robertson orders Matt 28:1 (the time the women visited the sepulchre at the end of the Sabbath) before Mark 16:1 (the buying of the spices and oils, after the Sabbath), in effect, saying that the women went to the sepulchre with the spices and oils before they went to buy them. This verse and particular translation is not necessary to this proof, but it is included to show that there is more evidence that Jesus did not die on a Friday night and rise on a Sunday morning, nor did the women visit the tomb at dawn, and that translators are subject to bending scripture toward their preconceived beliefs over the truth.

"To err is human and to forgive is divine" "Please forgive...!!!

                                                       May Almighty God Bless You all

Fr. Johnson Punchakonam   

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