Revised Holy Week Timeline
I’m updating some of my previous writings on this subject:
My timeline of Holy Week had some problems. I was visiting it again during Easter this year and trying to work out which year had Nissan 14 on Thursday and none of the early 30s AD matched and it was not plausible to suppose that Christ’s early followers would have been wrong about his birth year more than a year or two. However Dave’s recent appearance on the stick of Joseph podcast supplied the missing information. Here are the vital points:
1. The Book of Mormon always refers to Christ being dead three days and three nights, and in one place says he is dead for the space of three days and three nights. The New Testament in comparison says three days and three nights in only one place and otherwise uses the ambiguous phrase the third day. If we take it to be three complete days (or close to it) from death to resurrection my previous timeline of crucifixion happening at 3 PM on Thursday leads to resurrection around 3 PM on Sunday. Add to this the observation that we don’t know Christ resurrected on Sunday, just that Christ resurrected sometime before Sunday morning, when Mary Magdalene saw him.
2. The New Testament narrative supports Sabbaths and a day in between if we assume each one has bits and pieces.
(Luke 23) 55 And the women ...followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. 56 And they returned,
(Mark 16) 1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
…and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. (Luke 23:56)
(Luke) 24 1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
In other words they bought spices after a sabbath, and then, after a sabbath, very early in the morning (before markets opened) they went to the tomb with spices. The logical explanation is there were two Sabbaths, with a regular day in between when they could buy. 34 AD fits this timeline with Thursday (Nissan 15) being the Passover Sabbath. Friday would be the regular day, and Saturday was the seventh day Sabbath. I’m going to dismiss the possibility the ‘had bought’ refers to a time before the crucifixion because with the exception of Mary Magdalene there is no indication they knew Jesus would die, and Mary had used the spikenard she had bought.
So the timeline is as follows:
Palm Sunday, Nissan 11, March 21 34 AD. Jesus enters Jerusalem
Monday and Tuesday: He is tested in the temple like the Passover Lamb is examined in the house. He gives the prophecy of the Olivet Sermon. Other than that as he said unto the pharisees trying to scare him out of town, “Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.” Luke 13:32 (perfected means completed as in ‘it is finished’)
Day of Preparation, Nissan 14, March 24, 34 AD (Our Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and day) Christ instituted the sacrament at the last supper which would have been the unofficial meal where they ate leavened bread for the last time before Passover. He was arrested, tried, and crucified dying at 3 PM about the same time the Passover lambs would have been slaughtered. The trials are the final examinations in the house of the high priest and in Pilates house who both, in their way, find no fault with him. Caiaphas because his trial couldn’t find two witnesses that agreed and Pilate said as much. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea rush to get permission to take the body and bury him before the start of Passover. They put him in a nearby very rich persons tomb that I assume was awaiting the owner who had commissioned it.
Passover Sabbath (Thursday Nissan 15) no work can be done this day, and they would not even have walked to the tomb if they observed the hedge about the law, as I assume they did.
Good Friday (Nissan 16) The women buy and prepare spices and ointments to properly inter the body, as he was in a borrowed tomb.
The Seventh Day Sabbath (Nissan 17, March 27) Christ resurrects in the afternoon sometime around 3 PM on Saturday making the full three days and three nights. Likely when not appearing with witnesses he would have been involved in resurrecting others (I speculate). But its plain during the post resurrection pre-ascension period he comes and goes and is mostly not with people of the New Testament.
Easter Sunday (Nissan 18) Jesus appears to Mary in the morning and to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Restoration Dates commemorating the Sacrament and the Lord’s Day of Resurrection
The church was organized on Tuesday April 6th, 1830 holding the first church meeting as required by New York law. This exact and unlikely day was specified by commandment. On the Jewish calendar this was Nissan 14, the same day Jesus instituted the sacrament. This was the first time the Saints of the restoration partook of the Sacrament.
April 3, 1836 (Nissan 17, resurrection day) Jesus Christ appeared in the Kirtland temple to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey along with Moses, Elijah, and Elias.