The date of Jesus' death supposed contradiction
This is a response to the above question made by Firebirdofmercy. He asks about the timing of Jesus's death and when the High Day Sabbath was observed.
First off, there was no High Day Sabbath at the time the Bible was written. That was an invention of the Pharisaic Jews late in the Second Temple period, sometime after Jesus had ascended into heaven, most probably shortly before the destruction of the Temple and before the writings of the Talmuds. In the Hebrew Scriptures there were no references to a "high day" Sabbath. In John 19:31 the author described the day as "great" (megales in the Greek) and in John 7:37 he refers to the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles as a great day. This day later became known as "The Last Great Day" by Sabbath keeping Churches of God. The Jews later referred to these "great" days as "high days" in the Talmuds and normative Judaism calls them so as well.
EDIT: The actual first use of high day regarding the Jewish holidays was sometime in the 12th century, about 400 years before the King James Version was written, according to this webpage:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/high-day#google_vignettev
Jesus died on Friday afternoon the day before the weekly Sabbath and the first day of Unleavened Bread, which that year fell on the weekly Sabbath. John calls that Sabbath a great day because it was one of the seven annual holy convocations that coincided with the weekly Sabbath the weekend Jesus died.
The KJV translators, when they translated the Bible from Greek to English, used the Jewish term "high day" for the great day in John 19:31. There is nothing wrong with that though because after all most of the Jews had been calling these "great" feast days as high days for four centuries. Most modern translations render it as "high day" as well. However, the Nisan 15 holiday falling on the weekly Sabbath was not called a high day until after the rabbinic writings were made. It was simply referred to as a "great" day, especially if a holy convocation fell on a weekly Sabbath.
At the time Jesus lived on earth there were two major parties in the Jewish world. One of them were the Sadducees who held to the scriptural reckoning of the waving of the Omer which followed the first weekly Sabbath of Passover week. This waving of the Omer was important because it was day one of the fifty-day countdown to Shavuot (Pentecost) which began and ended up on Sunday, the day after the seventh Sabbath.
Read Leviticus 23:11 for the timing of the waving of the Omer and read Leviticus 23:15-16 that places the 50th day as the day after the seventh Sabbath, hence also a Sunday. The Pharisees held the erroneous reckoning of the Septuagint translation, which was actually a mistranslation of Leviticus 23:11 where it changed the waving of the Omer from the day after the weekly Sabbath to the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread. Hence, the Pharisees started their countdown from Nisan 16 every year. In the modern Jewish calendar the 50th day from Nisan 16 is Sivan 6. Under the Pharisee reckoning there are always exactly 50 days between the Passover meal and the day of Shavuot.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, there are eight holy convocations in the Jewish year. You can read about them in Leviticus 23. One of them is the weekly Sabbath, mentioned in verse 3. It forbids ANY work and is called a Sabbath. There are about 50 of them every Jewish year. There is one of the seven annual holy convocations that forbids ANY work and that day is called a Sabbath too. That one is the Day of Atonement and it forbids ANY work. These two days do not only have being called a Sabbath in common, but both of them were the only holy convocations that called for the death penalty when they were broken. They are also the only two holy convocations that are paired with another Hebrew word for rest SHABBATHOWN. Therefore, they are called SHABBATH SHABBATHOWN in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Septuagint, the SHABBATHOWN is rendered as ANAPAUSIS, which means "rest". In the Christian Greek Scriptures ANAPAUSIS (G372) means rest too. In Leviticus 23 three of the holy convocations that fell in the sacred month of Tishri (the seventh month) that were called SHABBATHOWN are translated as "rest" in most modern English translations.
The other six holy convocations forbid only servile work and they are never called Sabbaths in the Hebrew Scriptures. Nisan 15 is not a Sabbath. This must be understood when you are taking into account that Jesus died on the day before the Sabbath (Mark 15:42). The Greek word for "before the Sabbath" is prosabbaton and that word is used in other Greek writings other than the Bible for the day before the weekly Sabbath. It is never used for the day before a festival day unless the festival day falls on the weekly Sabbath. John 19:31 claims the Sabbath that followed Jesus's death was a high day. All that means is the Nisan 15 is called a high day by the KJV translators and other translators as well. But when Jesus died the "high day" wasn't invented yet. It was simply a "great" day because it fell on the weekly Sabbath. Nisan 15 was not a Sabbath by itself, but it fell on the weekly Sabbath the week Jesus died.
If I told you that this Thursday was a holiday would that mean Thursday itself was a holiday or that a holiday fell on Thursday? Some sincere, well-meaning Christians claim it was Nisan 15 that was the Sabbath John was referring to but that simply is not true. Nisan 15 is not called a Sabbath anywhere in Scripture. The Pharisees called it a Sabbath and they have done that since the post-first century CE rabbis codified it in the Talmud's and it has been a Jewish tradition every since. Jesus died on a Friday.
John also declares it was the Preparation of the Passover. Usually, when the Greek word for Preparation was used, either in the Greek Scriptures or other Greek writings of that day, it referred to Friday, the day before the weekly Sabbath. In modern Greek it is used for Friday. John 19:14 does however use Preparation for the Passover and not the weekly Sabbath. But does that mean Jesus did not die on a Friday? No, because Preparation is used elsewhere in the gospels in reference to the weekly Sabbath. So, not only was Preparation (Friday) used to refer to the day of the week, it was used to designate the time Jewish households were cleansing their homes and rooms of all leaven, and that required inspection and work. Nisan 15 fell on the weekly Sabbath the next day.
I hope this helps. Jesus died on a Friday afternoon and resurrected on Sunday morning, the third day. Friday was the first day of Jesus's death, Saturday was the second day of his death and Sunday was the third day of his death. He resurrected on the third day, just as he declared many times during his ministry on earth.
Many claim that Matthew 12:40 is literal because if it isn't then there is a contradiction between "3 days and 3 nights" and the Friday crucifixion and the Sunday resurrection. However, if Matthew 12:40 belongs in Matthew then there are several contradictions in the Gospels between Matthew 12:40 and those that say Jesus would rise on "the third day". I believe Matthew 12:40 is a scribal emendation. The part about the sign of Jonah is referred to by Luke but Luke does not refer to any time period. It is possible that Jesus actually said, "for as Jonah was in the whale's belly three days, so shall I be in the heart of the earth three days." No mention of nights here, but if the "three nights" belong in the text, then contradictions abound in the Gospels. If "three days" only was meant, then there are no contradictions anywhere between Matthew and the other Gospels. All the gospels have Jesus rising on the "third day" and "in three days". These verses are all contradicted if Matthew 12:40 means "three days and three nights" literally. That's because Jews counted their days inclusively. It's not even up for debate.
https://www.wednesdaycrucifixion.com/inclusive-reckoning.html
If Jesus died on Wednesday afternoon that would be the first day of his death, even if a few hours were involved. Friday afternoon would therefore be the third day and Saturday afternoon would be the fourth day.
Jesus was said to have risen from the dead on the third day, or as Mark says three times, "after three days." One can compare Marks "after three days" in Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:34 to the parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke and see "after three days" is interchangeable with "the third day." In John 4:40-43 one can read that "after two days" can be interchangeable with "two days". Like, if someone was arrested on Monday and thrown in jail around noon time Monday and he was checked out of jail on Tuesday afternoon, it can be said he spent two days in jail when in reality he was only parts of two days in jail.It can also be said "after two days in jail he went home" even when the second day was still in progress.
A final word for those that believe Nisan 15 was a Sabbath (and all the other holy convocations) just turn to your Bible and read Leviticus 23. Some good versions to use are the NASB 1995 edition, the ESV, and the Legacy Standard Bible. All of these translate the Hebrew well.
I originally used the KJV. As you read each verse of Leviticus 23 compare with them the Septuagint translation verse by verse. You will see where the Septuagint translators went awry in Leviticus 23:11 and changed the waving of the Omer (wave sheaf) from the day after the weekly Sabbath to the day after the first day. That first day would be the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread.
In this manner, those that observed the waving of the Omer on the day after the weekly Sabbath would begin their 50-day countdown to Shavuot always on a Sunday and it would always end on a Sunday. Those that stubbornly hold to the view that the waving of the Omer on the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15) therefore must believe that Nisan 15 is a Sabbath and their 50-day count always ends on Sivan 6.
Under the Pharisee method of reckoning it doesn't matter what day of the week Nisan 16 falls on, whether it is a Tuesday or a Friday, it will always end on the same day of the week it began. The correct day of counting is to count seven Sabbath Days and on the day after the seventh Sabbath, on Sunday, is Shavuot (Pentecost). The incorrect way to begin the count is to begin the count on a weekday and to end on the same weekday seven WEEKS later.