Today it is largely accepted without question that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Most people accept this scenario as there was a Sabbath following and everyone knows that the Jews keep the Sabbath on Saturday. So ipso facto, the crucifixion had to be on Friday. Making such an assumption shows how little is commonly understood about the world into which Jesus was born, lived and died. However, by putting the key events into context, we can discover more details from the Gospels. Jesus was crucified on the 14th Nisan and died about 3:00 p.m. The next day, 15th Nisan, was an annual festival: the first day of the seven days of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6-7) which was associated with the Passover. So depending upon which day of the week the 15th fell, it was possible to have two Sabbaths during the week in which Jesus Christ was crucified. That possibility creates numerous scenarios for reconstructing the factors given in the gospels. Rodney J. Decker, Professor of Greek and New Testament at the Baptist Bible College published a paper in which he examined this aspect of the crucifixion week. It is available on his blog and is well worth the read and consideration. The upshot is that he also considers the impact of Jesus being in the tomb three days and three nights and offers a non-orthodox reading of the event. To be fair to his considerations of the resurrection, what was to prevent that event occurring at sunset on Saturday evening? That would have made a strict three days and three nights, as opposed to the three days and four nights that Decker suggests. Next week is the time of the Jewish Passover, which represents the real time that Jesus was crucified, rather than the Easter weekend, which this year was almost a month removed from the event according to the Hebrew calendar. | 
