What Are ‘High Day’ Sabbaths? All italicized text below was extracted from that page unless otherwise linked. The article also includes comments about the lunar calendar.
‘For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’ Matthew 12:40
Jesus said He would be in the tomb for three days and three nights, emphasizing it by using the phrase ‘three days and three nights’ twice.
Now whichever way we look at it, the Lord Jesus was saying He would be three days and three nights in the tomb. Not only three days but also three nights. The problem with trying to reconcile the human tradition of remembering the death of the Lord on a Friday is that there is no way one can count three nights from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, not even if one follows the Hebrew custom of counting an incomplete night as a whole night.
However, there is no problem if we accept that He died on Thursday daytime. Counting part Thursday as one day, together with Friday and Saturday as two more days adds up to three days by Hebrew reckoning.
Recognizing that the Lord died on a Thursday would raise the question in the minds of those not familiar with Hebrew culture. How could the next day (Friday) be a Sabbath since the regular Sabbath is Saturday?
I understand that it is for their benefit that John explains that the Sabbath following the crucifixion was a special Sabbath, a ‘high day’ Sabbath, in that way distinguishing it from the regular Sabbath. There is no other reason why he should introduce the matter of ‘high days’ because they would be anxious that bodies should not remain exposed even on the regular weekday Sabbath.
John explains that the Sabbath following the Lord’s crucifixion was a ‘High Day’. There would be no need for his explanation if that year the 15th of Abib was on a Saturday, that is on a regular weekly Sabbath.
However, it would make sense for John to stress that it was a ‘High Day Sabbath’ if it fell on a Friday. In which case the Lord would have been crucified on a Thursday.
If the Lord was crucified on a Thursday afternoon, then there are 3 days counting part of Thursday and the whole of Friday and of Saturday. Also, there are three nights counting Thursday Night, Friday night and part of Saturday night.
NOTES
- These Sabbaths were known as ‘High Days’, alternatively translated ‘Great Days’, John 7:37 ‘On the last and greatest day of the festival’. See various translations below.
- From here. Abib is the first month of the Hebrew calendar, which begins on the new moon of Nisan. In the Bible, Abib is used interchangeably with Nisan, and the two are often seen together in the same sentence. Abib is the month in which Passover is celebrated, making it an especially important time of year for the Jewish people. Abib is also mentioned several times throughout the Bible as a significant period in the lives of the Patriarchs and Israelites—from the Exodus of Egypt to the establishment of settlements in the Promised Land. From here.
RSV – 31 Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
KLV – 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
ASV – 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the Preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross upon the sabbath (for the day of that sabbath was a high day), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
NIV – Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.
