Original ExistDifferently.com Weblog of David, a Christian Network and Systems Manager, with topics ranging from Apologetics to Worldview, and some crypto, open source, programming, opinion, and daily life thrown in between.

Over at WorldMagBlog.com they were “having a discussion”:http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/010584.html the other day about Christian bookstores being open on Sunday. Below is a copy of a post I made in the thread of that discussion, edited slightly to fit outside the context of that conversation, and expanded a bit with some links near the end. The following paragraph is informational in relation to that discussion, the rest lays out my true question.

My Mom and brother work at a Chik-Fil-A and it’s great that they’re closed on Sundays. However…at my church (A/G) we have a Resource Center where we sell CDs of that morning’s sermon, and some books and older sermons and sermon series. I don’t see a problem with it…there are a lot of people “working” behind the scenes at church on Sunday (some volunteer some not), not just the pastor. There’s security guards, Sunday school teachers, shuttle bus drivers, parking lot attendant’s, ushers, nursery check-in workers, and of course the person running the Resource Center (sometimes paid sometimes a volunteer). The funds go to the church anyway, it’s not like we’re a retail operation.

Anyway, my true point, and I’m not sure exactly where I stand on this personally, but has anyone ever counted from Friday to Sunday and gotten three days? Because I have a friend who is a Messianic Jew who believes that Christ died on Wednesday, was buried before sundown because the next day was Passover (also called a sabbath), and they didn’t have time to go properly bury him until Saturday evening (“early on the first day of the week” which started in the evening Saturday…keep in mind translations that say “Sunday morning” may be introducing something in the translation that’s not in the original) since on Friday they would have been too busy preparing for the weekly (Saturday) Sabbath right after the holiday Sabbath. Thus, three actual days and nights between death and resurrection, and no change of Sabbath day, which was supposedly introduced later by cultures trying to compromise between Christians and pagens who had their sun-god worship on Sunday.

Like I said, I’m Assemblies of God and we do things on Sunday and celebrate Easter and stuff, but it’s something interesting to think about, especially in light of this conversation. I sure can’t get 3 days and 3 nights out of Friday-Sunday! And that’s what it would have to be…Friday they had to get him down before weekly Sabbath of course, and if you read about it being early on the first morning of the week instead of the “first day” (which would mean Sat. evening to the Jews…and Jesus!)…those are the results of those constraints.

Anyone have any opinions? (loaded question :-)

(From this point down is stuff I added later here that are not in my WorldMagBlog post.) Here’s some links I found that are interesting on this subject. “this one says He died Wednesday”:http://www.abcog.org/3days.htm and “this one says He died Friday”:http://www.cin.org/users/james/questions/q084.htm. However, the latter mentions near the bottom this quote:

“Since it was the Day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:31)

Which is interesting because the other page, and the reason for my question, has to do with the fact that Thursday is also a Sabbath, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread I think (I believe I said Passover earlier…I’d have to look it up, but the High Holy Days were considered “Sabbaths” or “High Sabbaths” and therefore could be what they are talking about instead of Saturday). The latter link above does not mention the possibility of Thursday being a holiday Sabbath instead of the weekly Sabbath. And neither does “this other link”:http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/saturdaysabbath.htm on the same subject.

Also, does the original Greek say “early in the morning” or just early in the day? I’d have to check but I believe some English translations have it one way and others the other way. There’s a mailing list archive I found that raises a “similar question”:http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2002-March/020392.html but doesn’t answer it. There are also several followups such as “this one”:http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2002-March/020398.html but click on Thread and find messages with the same subject to see the rest.

There’s “another site”:http://www.bibleinsight.com/crucp1.html that actually presents three theories of time of death and two of rising. It presents the theories for each (in brief) and then concludes that there is more evidence for Sunday but that it’s still somewhat up in the air.