There has been much confusion over which day of the week Jesus was crucified and what day was the resurrection. Jesus said he would be in the grave three days and three nights, Matthew 12:40. The popular tradition is that Jesus was crucified on Friday and arose on Sunday. However, by our calendars, this does not figure as three days and three nights.

The Hebrew Calendar

We must understand that they were not going by our calendar, but rather the Biblical Hebrew calendar as given to Moses. We know that the Passover was ordained of God to begin on the fourteenth day of the first month of the year. Their months were to be reckoned by the appearance of the new moon, not by a calendar page. Just as our months do not always begin on the same day of the week, so theirs did not. Just as our Christmas day does not always fall on Sunday, so their Passover did not always fall on a regular seventh-day Sabbath. So the fourteenth day of the month was not always on the Sabbath, according to the regular consecutive counting of seven-day weeks. However, it would fall on the Sabbath occasionally.

Passover

Fourteen days after the appearance of the new moon, they were to slay the Passover lamb, Leviticus 23:4-8, regardless of what day of the week it was. They were to slay it in the evening, but were to feast on it in the night, verse 8. In their system of time-telling, the day began at evening, when a certain number of stars had appeared. So, although they slew the lamb in the evening of the fourteenth, the night that followed would have been the fifteenth.

This began the seven days of unleavened bread, verses 15-19. This fifteenth day was to be a “holy convocation” and counting from that day to the seventh day following was to be another “holy convocation.” It was to be a day of rest, “no manner of work shall be done.” The word Sabbath means “rest, repose, cease from labor.” Therefore, a day when they were commanded to cease from labor, to rest, could be called a Sabbath. So the fifteenth day could also be a Sabbath, and, counting seven days from that was to be another Sabbath. On every year that the fifteenth day fell on the Sabbath, there would have been a double Sabbath.

We find this more clearly spelled out in Leviticus 23 and Numbers chapters 28 and 29. In Leviticus 23, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are described clearly. The fifteenth day of the first month was to be the feast of Unleavened Bread, a day of rest, a holy convocation, and of offerings. From this day they were to count seven Sabbaths, or forty-nine days, and the day following would be the fiftieth day, which was also to be a “holy convocation” where no work was to be done, therefore it, too, was to be a Sabbath. Here we can clearly see that there would again be a double Sabbath, the forty-ninth day and the fiftieth day.

The Double Sabbath: Resurrection Day

On the Passover when Jesus was crucified, there would have been a double Sabbath. Therefore, He was crucified on the day of the slaying of the lamb, the fourteenth.  Then He was in the grave three days and three nights and arose on the third day, which was the “second Sabbath after the first.” We find mention of this same phenomenon in Luke 6:1 where it mentions the “second Sabbath after the first.” In their calendar-reckoning, there were many double Sabbaths.

The Sabbaths were counted consecutively as the seventh day. However, when there was a double Sabbath, the counting for that next week began with the eighth day, that is, the day after the first Sabbath. Therefore, the whole system of Sabbaths from the beginning foreshadowed the resurrection of Christ which began on the “first day of the week,” and was called “The Lord’s Day.” This signifies the rest which Christians enjoy in the Lord: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God,” Hebrews 4:9.

            Revelation 14:13: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”