| John 19:31 �The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.� Deut. 21:22, 23 (22) �And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: (23) His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.� According to the above verses bodies were not to remain upon a �tree� overnight, but were to be buried on the same day. The following day, being the Sabbath, would make even more imperative the carrying out of the command. Doubtless this �high day� was called such because that Sabbath was also the first day of unleavened bread. Lev. 23:6 (6) �And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.� This use of the term �high day� cannot be demonstrated from contemporary Jewish literature. Those who hold that Jesus was crucified on Nisan 15 contend that the Sabbath was a high day because the weekly Sabbath coincided with the day of the waving of the first fruits. Lev. 23:9-14 (9) �And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, (10) Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: (11) And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (12) And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD. (13) And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. (14) And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. However, Jesus rose on the day the first fruits were offered, in precise fulfillment. Back to the Study of the Length of Christ's Ministry |