I feel it necessary to warn against this false teaching about when Christ died and was raised.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron" 1 Timothy 4:1-2
Jesus could not have died on a Wednesday and been raised from the dead on a Saturday. This is a lie from the pit of hell, and here is why.
All four books of the Gospel state that Jesus died on a preparation day. This could not have been a preparation day for the Passover feast because Jesus and his disciples ate their Passover meal just before he was arrested.
It had to be Friday, the preparation day for the Shabbat, and the Gospels expressly say so.
Matthew 27:62
"Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,"
Mark 15:42
"Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,"
Luke 23:54
"That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near."
John 19:42
"So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby."
Furthermore, Luke 24:1-3 tells us this extremely important detail:
"1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus."
It says Jesus' resurrection was on the first day of the week. The first day of the week in Hebrew culture is Sunday.
In the same chapter, Jesus appears on the road to Emmaus and the text says this in Luke 24:13:
"Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem"
This conversation took place the same Sunday that Jesus was raised from the dead.
During the conversation, they said this to Jesus in Luke 24:21:
"But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened."
Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The third day.
People who insist that Jesus died on Wednesday and was raised on Saturday use Matthew 12:40 as justification for their belief because it says "three days and three nights" so they deny the Friday to Sunday account, however this ignores what all these verses I have quoted plainly say and makes the gospel authors out to be liars, which they are not.
Ellicot's Commentary for English Readers says this about the matter:
That the very difficulty presented by the prediction of “three days and three nights” as compared with the six-and-thirty hours (two nights and one day) of the actual history of the Resurrection, is against the probability of the verse having been inserted as a prophecy after the event. (3) That if we believe that our Lord had a distinct prevision of His resurrection, and foretold it, sometimes plainly and sometimes in dark sayings—and of this the Gospels leave no room for doubt (Matthew 16:21; Matthew 26:32; John 2:19)—then the history of Jonah presented an analogy which it was natural that He should notice. It does not necessarily follow that this use of the history as a prophetic symbol of the Resurrection requires us to accept it in the very letter of its details. It was enough, for the purposes of the illustration, that it was familiar and generally accepted. The purely chronological difficulty is explained by the common mode of speech among the Jews, according to which, any part of a day, though it were but a single hour, was for legal purposes considered as a whole. An instance of this mode of speech is found in 1Samuel 30:12-13, and it is possible that in the history of Jonah itself the measurement of time is to be taken with the same laxity.
and Barnes' Notes on the Bible says this:
Three days and three nights - It will be seen in the account of the resurrection of Christ that he was in the grave but two nights and a part of three days. See Matthew 18:6. This computation is, however, strictly in accordance with the Jewish mode of reckoning. If it had "not" been, the Jews would have understood it, and would have charged our Saviour as being a false prophet, for it was well known to them that he had spoken this prophecy, Matthew 27:63. Such a charge, however, was never made; and it is plain, therefore, that what was "meant" by the prediction was accomplished. It was a maxim, also, among the Jews, in computing time, that a part of a day was to be received as the whole. Many instances of this kind occur in both sacred and profane history.
Luke 24:1 says Jesus was raised on the first day of the week which is Sunday. There is simply no way you can twist this to make His crucifixion land on Wednesday, regardless of any supposed wandering sabbath day.
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.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
If they came Saturday afternoon, He would have been gone too.
[25] Then the Jews and the elders and the priests, having come to know how much wrong they had done themselves, began to beat themselves and say: 'Woe to our sins. The judgment has approached and the end of Jerusalem.' [26] But I with the companions was sorrowful; and having been wounded in spirit, we were in hiding, for we were sought after by them as wrongdoers and as wishing to set fire to the sanctuary. [27] In addition to all these things we were fasting; and we were sitting mourning and weeping night and day until the Sabbath.
[28] But the scribes and Pharisees and elders, having gathered together with one another, having heard that all the people were murmuring and beating their breasts, saying that 'If at his death these very great signs happened, behold how just he was,' [29] feared (especially the elders) and came before Pilate, begging him and saying, [30] 'Give over soldiers to us in order that we may safeguard his burial place for three days, lest, having come, his disciples steal him, and the people accept that he is risen from the death, and they do us wrong.' [31] But Pilate gave over to them Petronius the centurion with soldiers to safeguard the sepulcher. And with these the elders and scribes came to the burial place. [32] And having rolled a large stone, all who were there, together with the centurion and the soldiers, placed it against the door of the burial place. [33] And they marked it with seven wax seals; and having pitched a tent there, they safeguarded it. [34] But early when the Sabbath was dawning, a crowd came from Jerusalem and the surrounding area in order that they might see the sealed tomb.
[35] But in the night in which the Lord's day dawned, when the soldiers were safeguarding it two by two in every watch, there was a loud voice in heaven; [36] and they saw that the heavens were opened and that two males who had much radiance had come down from there and come near the sepulcher. [37] But that stone which had been thrust against the door, having rolled by itself, went a distance off the side; and the sepulcher opened, and both the young men entered. [38] And so those soldiers, having seen, awakened the centurion and the elders (for they too were present, safeguarding). [39] And while they were relating what they had seen, again they see three males who have come out from they sepulcher, with the two supporting the other one, and a cross following them, [40] and the head of the two reaching unto heaven, but that of the one being led out by a hand by them going beyond the heavens. [41] And they were hearing a voice from the heavens saying, 'Have you made proclamation to the fallen-asleep?' [42] And an obeisance was heard from the cross, 'Yes.' [43]
And so those people were seeking a common perspective to go off and make these things clear to Pilate; [44] and while they were still considering it through, there appear again the opened heavens and a certain man having come down and entered into the burial place. [45] Having seen these things, those around the centurion hastened at night before Pilate (having left the sepulcher which they were safeguarding) and described all the things that they indeed had seen, agonizing greatly and saying: 'Truly he was God's Son.'
It describes two angels bringing Jesus out from the sepulcher "in the night in which the Lord's day dawned" (which is Sunday)
I feel it necessary to warn against this false teaching about when Christ died and was raised.
Jesus could not have died on a Wednesday and been raised from the dead on a Saturday. This is a lie from the pit of hell, and here is why.
All four books of the Gospel state that Jesus died on a preparation day. This could not have been a preparation day for the Passover feast because Jesus and his disciples ate their Passover meal just before he was arrested.
It had to be Friday, the preparation day for the Shabbat, and the Gospels expressly say so.
Matthew 27:62
"Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,"
Mark 15:42
"Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,"
Luke 23:54
"That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near."
John 19:42
"So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby."
Furthermore, Luke 24:1-3 tells us this extremely important detail:
"1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus."
It says Jesus' resurrection was on the first day of the week. The first day of the week in Hebrew culture is Sunday.
In the same chapter, Jesus appears on the road to Emmaus and the text says this in Luke 24:13:
"Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem"
This conversation took place the same Sunday that Jesus was raised from the dead.
During the conversation, they said this to Jesus in Luke 24:21:
"But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened."
Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The third day.
People who insist that Jesus died on Wednesday and was raised on Saturday use Matthew 12:40 as justification for their belief because it says "three days and three nights" so they deny the Friday to Sunday account, however this ignores what all these verses I have quoted plainly say and makes the gospel authors out to be liars, which they are not.
Commentaries
Ellicot's Commentary for English Readers says this about the matter:
and Barnes' Notes on the Bible says this:
Dude, the day after Passover is a High Sabbath day, the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread.
Leviticus 23 KJV
5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover.
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.
7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
Luke 24:1 says Jesus was raised on the first day of the week which is Sunday. There is simply no way you can twist this to make His crucifixion land on Wednesday, regardless of any supposed wandering sabbath day.
Luke 24 KJV
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.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
If they came Saturday afternoon, He would have been gone too.
No, you are wrong. Jewish Sunday begins at sunset on Saturday. The angels came and moved the stone away in the night.
Please consider this writing from the apocryphal Gospel of Peter describing the opening of the tomb: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/gospelpeter-brown.html
It describes two angels bringing Jesus out from the sepulcher "in the night in which the Lord's day dawned" (which is Sunday)