Dead Reckoning

     In the wondrous way God weaves His word and our daily lives together, our BSF study of the crucifixion in John intersected perfectly with this year's early Easter. Though I have done the study of John many times, this year I learned that the reason Jesus could have Passover with his disciples and still be killed when the Passover lambs were, is because Galileans observed Passover on Thursday. They reckoned days as being sunrise to sunrise, not sundown to sundown as most Jews did. What troubled me about learning this was that I, who pride myself on logical reasoning, had never noticed this discrepancy before. I know there are some who believe Good Friday was actually Thursday, or even Wednesday, in order to fit three days and three nights in the tomb before the Sunday morning resurrection. However, the Jews of that time considered any part of a day as a day. So, instead of trying to adjust the way Jews in the Bible reckoned time to fit how we do it in our time, we should probably go with their flow. 

    For example, one of the members of our small group is named HeLEna, emphasis on the the second syllable. I figure most people know how to pronounce their own names, so it would be rude to call her HElena, emphasis on the first syllable, as in the capital of Montana, just because I am used to saying it that way. And I would be totally out of line to try to convince her to pronounce her name differently, so l am going to interpret three days the way the Jews of Jesus' time did. 

   The other reason we cannot knock Jesus off a couple days earlier to entomb Him longer, is the Passover problem mentioned above. Jews could not just choose a day to celebrate such a specifically regulated feast. Galileans may have had a little wiggle room, and there is one exception in 2 Chron. 30 when Hezekiah held Passover one month later because, though he had the temple cleared out to reinstate worship, the priests had not been fully consecrated and the people hadn't had time to assemble yet. Other than that, the date is as precribed as all the other requirements for the observance. They could no more pick a different day than they could decide to eat leavened bread and ham, like we do at Easter.

   It may be hard for modern western minds to reconcile three days/three nights dead with partial days and nights, but cultural context is something we cannot simply pass over. At least, not by my reckoning.