The Sabbaths, as taught in the Old Testament

Notice the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They are 8 consecutive days set aside as Sabbath days for the Lord. The Passover is a Sabbath, on which no work was to be done. Likewise, the next day, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, was also a Sabbath, which Jews were forbidden to do any work.

The logical fallacy of a Friday crucifixion should be evident now. There were two holy Sabbaths which all Jews observed here, and thus there are 48 hours demanded for the Lord to have been left alone in the grave. If Friday is the crucifixion, then Sunday would have been the first day of the Feast, another Sabbath day. Yet we find no hesitation in the disciples going to the grave, and trying to fix up the Lord’s body. The Jews were forbidden to even touch something dead on the Sabbath, and even journeying to the tomb would have been work, not to mention all the things which had been prepared to properly rebury Jesus.

Thus, the conclusion seems irrefutable: the Jews were not acting like it was the first day of the Feast, and thus, the day must not have been on Sunday. Rather, we are only left with two logical outcomes: the feast’s first day must have been Saturday, or perhaps Friday itself. In no logical manner can I see the first day of the feast to be a day scorned by Jews, so it becomes a calendar impossibility for the crucifixion to happen on Friday, since there are not the minimum 48 hours required to complete these two Sabbaths. Wednesday or Thursday are the only possible weekdays that our Lord could have been crucified on.

1. The First Sabbath
Saturday
And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work that he had done. (Genesis 2:3)
Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day do not work. (Exodus 23:12)

2. The Second Sabbath
The Passover
On the fourteenth day of the first month the LORD’s Passover is to be held. (Numbers 28: 16)
This is a day that you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:14)
It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath) Mark 15:42 (the Sabbath being spoken about here is the Passover)
It was the Preparation Day and the Sabbath was about to begin. (Luke 24:54) (the Sabbath being spoken about here is the Passover)

3. The Third Sabbath
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a festival; for seven days eat bread made without yeast. (Numbers 28:17)
On the first day (this is the day before Jesus arose) hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.

4. The Fourth Sabbath
The Feast of Weeks
On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the LORD an offering of new grain during the Feast of Weeks, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. (Numbers 28:26)


5. The Fifth Sabbath
The Feast of Trumpets
On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. (Numbers 29:1)

6. The Sixth Sabbath
Day of Atonement
On the tenth day of this seventh month hold a sacred assembly. You must deny yourselves and do no work. (Numbers 29:7)

7. The Seventh Sabbath
Feast of Tabernacles
On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the LORD for seven days. (Numbers 29:12)

8. The Eighth Sabbath
The Sabbath Year
But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the LORD. (Leviticus 25:4)

9. The Ninth Sabbath
The Year of Jubilee
Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. (Leviticus 25:9, 10)
The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. (Lev. 25:11) (This was to be the year of rest for the land.)

10. The Tenth Sabbath
The Feast of Purim
The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the 13th and 14th, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. (Esther 9:18)
The Jews took it upon themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never cease to be celebrated by the Jews, nor should the memory of them die out among their descendants. (Esther 9:27,28)