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Christ's Tomb |
At the time that Christ's burial was finished, Luke states Luke 23:54 "it was day of preparation, and Sabbath was lighting upon" |
The new testament was written in Greek; and the original Greek word for "lighting upon" is epephosken; "phos" is the Greek root for light. From the root "phos" or "phot" come words such as phosphorus, phosphorescence, photo, photograph, photon. Therefore when Luke states "Sabbath was lighting upon", he means that it was becoming daylight, or dawn. This means it was morning when Christ was finally buried, not evening as most people believe.
From reading Luke 23:54 "...Sabbath was lighting upon " many people have assumed that this means that it was now Saturday. However in the Bible there are weekly Sabbaths, and there are also annual Sabbaths which refer to the holy days.
Now, this Sabbath, was not a weekly Sabbath, this was a yearly Sabbath that falls on Nisan 15 of the Jewish Calendar, the first day of Feast of Unleavened Bread. It happens that that year, Nisan 15 fell on a Thursday. Counting from that Thursday morning 72 hours, 3 days and 3 nights, we arrive to Sunday morning, the day that we find Christ was already resurrected, fulfilling the prophesy. See Sign of the Messiah.
Jesus, therefore, died during the night, late on Wednesday. His burial took place during the night of Wednesday and past midnight until the early hours of Thursday, the burial finishing with the stone being rolled over the entrance of the grave in the early morning hours around 5:00 AM Thursday Mark 15:46.
To answer the question "Was he buried at 3:00 pm on Friday?" we have to understand that the problem arises from trying to "fit a foot too big for the shoe". Through the ages people have tried to fit the events of Christ's death and prove that he was the Messiah. From the lack of knowledge of what Pesach/passover, feast of unleavened bread, and the yearly holidays mean, people have assumed that the Sabbath in reference was a weekly Sabbath, and therefore in order to fit the 3 days and 3 nights, they needed to "bury" Christ as early as possible in order to be able to count Friday as one of the 3 days. We do not need to fit a peg into a hole. We want to find the truth; we are going to look into the bible and find out what it says.
| More evidence that Christ died late at night is found in Mark 15:42. The original Greek transliteration states "and already of evening having come to be..." The word translated as evening is the Greek word "opsias" which means late evening. |  |
It was already late evening around 9:30 PM when Joseph from Arimathea comes to the cross and seeing Jesus dead takes enough courage to go in front of Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus Mark15:43. Pilate had to make sure Jesus was dead, so he sends the centurion to find out. After Pilate confirms that Jesus is dead, about 10:30 PM, he allows Joseph of Arimathea to take the body for burial.
From the time Joseph of Arimathea came to Jesus' cross we can list the following events:
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Roman Centurion |
1. The request of Joseph to Pilate Matt 28:58 2. Pilate sending the Centurion to the cross Mark 15:44 3. The Centurion returning to Pilate Mark 15:44 4. Pilate giving the order to allow Joseph to get the body Mark 15:45
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| 5. Joseph going to buy linen for the burial
6. Getting the body of Jesus out of the cross Mark 15:46 Accordingly he [Joseph] bought fine linen and took him down. |
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7. Nicodemus getting the spices and aloes. John 19:39 Nicodemus, also, the man that came to him in the night the first time, came bringing a roll or myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 8. Preparing the body for burial according to Jewish custom with myrrh, aloes, spices, and bandages.John 19:40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it up with bandages with the spices, just the way the Jews have the custom of preparing for burial. |
| Preparing the tomb.
Luke 23:53 ...And he laid him in a tomb carved in the rock in which no man had yet lain. Matthew 27:59 and Joseph took the body wrapped it up in clean fine linen and laid it in his new memorial tomb, which he quarried in the rock-mass. Quarrying the rock took a long time. |
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9. Bringing the prepared body to the tomb
John 19, 41-42
Incidentally at the place where he was impaled there was a garden, and in the garden, a new memorial tomb in which no-one had ever yet been laid. |
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10. Rolling the stone over the entrance of the tomb Mark 15:46-47 ...and he rolled a stone up to the door of the memorial tomb. But Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses continued looking at where he had been laid. Matthew 27:60-61 ...and after rolling a big stone to the door of the memorial tomb, he [Joseph] left, but Mary Magdalene and the other Mary continued there, sitting before the grave. |
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It was becoming daylight when they finally finished rolling the stone to the door of the tomb. Luke 24:54 Now it was day of preparation and Sabbath was lighting upon.
How long did all of those events take? Several hours as a minimum. That is why we can be sure that if Jesus died at 9:00 PM that Wednesday and Joseph of Arimathea came to the cross when it was already late in the evening, around 9:30 PM, then Christ's burial was finally completed around 5:00 AM that Thursday morning.
