Though Christian tradition tells us that messiah dies on Friday, the gospel accounts (see above) to indicate that he more likely was crucified and died before sundown on Wednesday. My questions, outlined below, revolve around this thesis.
Luke's record about the preparation of spices leaves open the question of what spices, and from where they were purchased. The account in Mark clearly answers the questions; So if we put the accounts in Mark and Luke together, we discover that more than one Sabbath is recorded. So if we read Mark and Luke together we discover the Pesach (Passover) occurred on Wednesday, unless you can refute the above text.
We know from Torah that days of "rest" (Sabbaths) may occur on any day of the week (year to year). For example, the Day of Atonement is an automatic Sabbath day irrespective of the day of the week that this feast/festival occurs, because the date never changes on the calendar. The same with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which immediately follows Pesach (Passover). The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (day right after Passover) is a Sabbath day of rest irrespective of the day of the week this occurs. In other words, while the date of Pesach (Passover) never changes, and by implication the date of the Feast of Unleavened Bread never changes (because it immediately follows Passover), the day (not date) of "Sabbath" rest of the Feast of Unleavened Bread will change from year to year.
So if messiah dies on Wednesday and is laid in the tomb just before sundown, then 3 days and 3 nights later would be just before sundown on the Sabbath according to my calculations. That is, messiah would or could rise from the dead on Saturday before sundown.
The aforementioned discussion concerning the spices provokes us to reexamine our assumptions concerning the day when Jesus was crucified and died. (At least we should re-open discussion on the subject.) Let us suppose that Jesus dies on Wednesday and rises on the Sabbath Saturday...
Here are three scenarios that I wish to propose for consideration and comment:
(1) The "panim" or Bread of Presence is renewed or replaced by the cohen (priest) on the Sabbath per Lev 24:5-9. My first question is why did the Father of all perfection have this recorded as a shadow or symbol for us to learn from... do you know of any other application of the replacement of the Bread of Presence in this context? I inferred this conclusion regarding the "panim" and its meaning after reading and meditating upon the word panim after reading a book from Brandt Pitre titled Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist (New York: Doubleday, 2011).
(2) The second scenario of the Sabbath resurrection reveals our future: on our day of resurrection we shall enter our eternal rest ("Sabbath"), that very day.
(3) Thirdly we must look at the Feasts as set forth in Torah itself (without necessarily defining their significance through the lens of contemporary Jewish traditions). Prior to the Feast of First Fruits ever appearing on the Biblical calendar, the barley is first checked for ripeness Ex 12. Barley must be ready prior to the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of First Fruits. In other words, one does not offer fruit of the ground that is unripe; to offer unripe barley does not make sense. So if messiah is the First Fruits, which always lands on a Sunday, then he is ripe, ready prior to the end of the sabbath and the beginning of FF. One does not need to rise on FF to be FF,you are such prior to First Fruits by designation.
In summary, these three descriptions clearly point to a Saturday Sabbath resurrection. I submit that Jesus the Messiah rose on the Sabbath, which was a Saturday. (We rise on a day that begins our eternal "rest").... I am sorry for lacking specific texts to support my views; I follow a regimen of not using the word of man, but in the future I understand the need to use them and will. But I must say that if we had been doing as the Psalmist says, then we would be much further along. We are not ( I was not), so I will try to provide more information in the future.
That being said we find in Ex 12:1-3 that the Father (the Lord) had commanded the Hebrews to "synchronize" their watches -- i.e., have the lambs blood on your doorposts when I tell you or it will not go well for you. This is in the month of the "ripe" barley and shall be the first month of your year. Most Jews celebrate the new year, Roshhoshana, on the first day the seventh month. I see the Father giving us a new calendar so that we will see His plan unfolding, and so something happening on the wrong day, and we should be wary (maybe the deceiver at work), and so days are very important to the Father. Pesach (Passover) is on the 14th day of first month; the day is the 14th, which again is Pesach (Passover), the slaughter of the lamb. Pesach (Passover) is date of the month driven, and so (as noted above in this posting) can happen any day during the week (year to year).
In conclusion, the discussion of the spices in Mark and Luke tell us this event happened on a Wednesday before sundown and is followed by a day of rest (first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread) or Thursday (Lev 23:6ff). The next important day is the Sabbath followed by the Feast of First Fruits (Lev 23:9-14). This First Fruits feast is an offering of the barley harvest each spring in Israel: the barley is ripe prior to the offering, so if the Jesus the Messiah is fulfilling the Feasts ("shadow pictures of good things to come") then how do you have Him rise after First Fruits begins? Does He come late for His own feast/festival which He had set in motion before the hills were ever formed?
Thus I have presented three scenarios, or word pictures for a Sabbath resurrection. Can anyone provide me feedback? I do want to know truth and believe that I am sent to present this truth. Thank you for your patience!!