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What Day Was Jesus Crucified?
What Day Was Jesus Crucified?
Christians believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. While two witnesses at a trial may confuse details, the gospel writers were guided by the Spirit to record the events of Jesus' life accurately (John 16:3). That is why any skeptic's charge of contradiction is so serious and must be answered.
The Contradiction
Skeptics of the Bible claim that John records the crucifixion on Thursday instead of Friday in an attempt to show Jesus’ sacrifice to be on the same day as when the Passover lambs were sacrificed. One skeptic wrote this, “John has changed a historical datum in order to make a theological point: Jesus is the Lamb. To convey this, John had to create a discrepancy… It is impossible that both Mark’s and John’s accounts are both accurate, since they contradict each other on the question of when Jesus died” (Ehrman, “Jesus Interrupted,” p. 28-29). While John does seem to emphasize Jesus as the Lamb, it is not true that his gospel contradicts Mark’s gospel or any of the other gospels.
Mark 14.12 “On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples said to Him, ‘Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?’” Mark’s account makes it clear that the disciples were eating the Passover meal, thus making the crucifixion of Jesus happen the day after Passover (Friday).
John 13.1-2 “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him…”
John appears to contradict Mark, by suggesting the last supper happened “before the feast of Passover” (John 13.1). But there is a very easy way to parse this passage to clarify. John 13.1 is a general statement summarizing Jesus’ love for others as the final events of his life draw near. John 13.2 actually starts the next section. Thus, “during supper” (13.2) does not describe a meal that happens before Passover (13.1), as a skeptic would charge. Instead, “during supper” indicates a subsequent moment in the action when John specifically turns to the events of the Passover meal.
John 18.28 “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover.”
How can John say they did not want to defile themselves to eat the Passover if Mark’s gospel has them eat it the evening before? Here’s how: the Jews used the terms “Passover” and “Feast of Unleavened Bread” almost interchangeably. This is stated clearly in Luke’s gospel,
“Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching” (Luke 22.1). In other words, these terms referred to the entire week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, not just the Passover meal. This simple clarification helps us understand the apparent contradiction here. When John says the Jews did not want to be defiled so they could eat the Passover, this does not mean that the Passover meal itself had not occurred yet. Instead, John is likely referring to the other meals and festivities that would be part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
John 19.31 “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” John’s phrase “day of preparation” is the issue here. Being crucified on the day of preparation would seem to imply that Jesus was crucified before the Passover, unlike what is stated in the synoptic gospels. But the day of preparation here is not referring to preparing for the Passover; it is referring to the preparation for the Sabbath. Mark’s account offers some insight for us, “When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath…” (Mark 15.42). The preparation day was the day before the Sabbath, so if Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation according to John, then John’s account does not contradict the synoptic gospels but affirms them. John 19.31 is saying that Jesus died on Friday (the day of preparation), which is in agreement with the other gospels.
Even though some of the terms are different between the synoptic gospels and John’s gospel, with a deeper look into the culture and the text we can understand how the accounts affirm each other and do not contradict each other.
–William Speer
