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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
" ἐ π έ φ ω σ κ
ε ν"
"epephosken"; "phos" is the Greek root for light. From the root "phos" or
"phot" come words such as phosphorus, phosphorescence, photo, photograph,
photon, etc.
Another place where a similar word "ἐ π ι φ ω σ κ ο ύ σ ῃ" appears is in the book of Matthew, in reference to Christ's resurrection, and it has been translated correctly Matthew 28:1 Now after the Sabbaths, as it began to light up into the first of sabbaths (Sunday), Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
Therefore when Luke states "Sabbath was lighting upon," he means that it was becoming daylight, or dawn. It was becoming MORNING when Christ was finally buried, not evening as most people believe. Yeshua/Jesus had to be buried before morning because our Messiah is the Passover lamb, and the requirement was that any part left of the Passover lamb had to be buried or burned before daybreak.
Exodus 34:25
You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with
leavened bread; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be
left to the morning.
From reading in
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.
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 72 hours(3 days and 3 nights) from that Thursday morning when Yeshua's burial was finally COMPLETED, we arrive at Sunday morning, the day that we find Christ was already resurrected, fulfilling the prophecy.
See our file Sign of the Messiah.
The crucifixion occurred at 3:00 PM Mark 15:25 It was now the third hour, and they crucified Him. Jesus died during the night, late on Wednesday (Roman time). 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 5:45 AM Thursday (Mark 15:46). See Did Christ die on a Friday?
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." Throughout 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 annual 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 square peg into a round 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 THAT EVENING 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 "o y
i a V"
"opsias" which means late evening.
It was already late evening when
Joseph from Arimathea came to the cross.
After Jesus was already dead,
Joseph went to Pilate to claim the body of Jesus. |
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Pilate had to make sure that Jesus was dead, so he first sends the centurion to find out if it is true. 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 |
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Joseph was the owner of the cave site were they buried Jesus, but it was just a cave, not a burial site. Since there were no power tools at that time, they had to prepare the tomb by chiseling out the rock with hand tools. The tomb included a flat bed carved out of the rock in which they put the body of Christ. This took several hours.
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It was becoming daylight when they finally finished rolling the stone to the door of the tomb. Remember, the original Greek word for "lighting upon" is "e p e f w s k e n" epephosken. How long did all of these events take? Several hours as a minimum. That is why we can be sure that if Jesus died at 9:00 PM that Wednesday night, then Christ's burial was finally completed around 5:45 AM that Thursday morning, because during the spring equinox -- time of the year when Christ died -- the sun rises at 6:00 AM. By finishing His burial before daybreak of Nisan 15, it was fulfilled the requirement of the law that no part of the Passover lamb was to remain till the morning. Exodus 34:25
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