So on which day are you supposed to say "Happy Easter"?
Question popped up listening to 6PR and the short answer might actually be if you're not Christian say it any day I guess. You'll say whatever you want, whenever you like & it won't matter to you if you're neither Jewish nor Christian. But technically, is there a more accurate day?
To be super accurate, you won't find the word Easter in the Scriptures so work out what it is you're trying to mean. If its just you saying have a nice public holiday or have a nice day off work perhaps there is no day more accurate than others.
If it's because you think its to celebrate the most solemn day during the Easter festive break it gets a little trickier. Quite tricky. Or does it?
Fair chance if you're thinking of the most solemn day you're possibly going to think one of two things.
1) One is the more common held view, its the day of Christ's resurrection.
2) The other less common is its the day of His crucifixtion.
Now whilst the latter would have been an immensely sorrow filled day for those then who were there & were close to Him, it was that actual death that according to Scripture leads us away from Judgement.
It was a horrible death, but as horrible as it was, it remains a triumph & many scholars have pointed out Christ was actually in control of all the timing. Another story, another day. Getting back to which day when, here's where it gets tricky irrespective of which, what & when in your mind.
Scripture is very clear, in the ground/buried for 3 days & 3 nights.
Problem is there are not 3 days & 3 nights between Good Friday & Easter Sunday.
Remember another thing, we have 24 hours in a day, our day starts at Midnight & goes through to midnight.
Remember this is a story from the Bible. Its told by Jews about Jews in a Roman territory. To them a Monday starts at 6pm Sunday & goes through until 6pm Monday. Tuesday starts 6pm Monday & finishes 24 hours later at 6pm & so on.
With that in mind, and remember the Scripture quotes Christ as saying "Are there not 12 hours in the day?"
So if he spent 3 days & 3 nights in the grave it couldn't really happen if he died on Friday & rose on Sunday.
So, go to the time he died, then to the time he was buried and estimate a start point of the actual day.
Remember these Jewish story, Jewish days & hours
Scripture is clear as it can get, Jesus was nailed to the cross between the third and the sixth hour, that is, between 9am & Noon.
And soon after the ninth hour, that is, between three and four o’clock (but closer to 3pm) in the afternoon, he died.
Now that day, the day he died was referred to by Scripture as a Day of Preparation.
That's the day before every Shabbat which is their day of rest. And this is where people think Shabbat is on Saturday, so Christ must have been Crucified on a Friday, Good Friday.
What many miss is there is a Shabbat once a week but there's also 13 (I think 13) other Special Shabbats or High Shabbats. The week Christ was crucified, there were 2 Shabbats. The one following Christ's death wasn't referred to as Shabbat, it was referred to in John 19:31 as a "Special Shabbat"
or in other translation as a "Special Sabbath" or "High Sabbat".
The KJV clearly says "For that sabbath day was an high day"
There are 2 days as Shabbat that week, 2 days of Preparation that week but only one Special Shabbat or High Shabbat...starting Wednesday 6pm that starts just hours after Jesus dies.
Christ once buried has to be in the ground/buried 3 days & 3 nights (as Scripture says) BEFORE His resurrection.
Remember its a rushed burial, without the usual procedure, they're running out of time for usual ritual. They have to bury him before 6pm or they're defiled for that Sabbath. Clocks ticking.
So for 3 nights in the ground, its Wednesday night, Thursday night & Friday night.
For the 3 full days of 12 hours, its Thursday daytime (High Shabbat) , its Friday daytime (another Day of Preparation) & Saturday daytime (usual Shabbat). At the end of that Saturday daytime, at 6pm Shabbat ends and a new day begins.
So technically Christ could fulfil the 3 days & 3 nights in the ground & be resurrected anytime after 6pm Saturday if he died at the hours Scripture says and it was the Wednesday, as Scripture says.
So he died sometime after 3pm on the Wednesday, was buried sometime before 6pm Wednesday.
Stayed in the ground 3 full days & 3 full nights ending 6pm Saturday which is after Shabbat. And he resurrected sometime on or after 6pm Saturday.
And yes Jesus Christ was actually Jewish and even in death & resurrection He observed the 2 Shabbats that week doing no work on earth.
We know no one went looking for him until early Sunday morning because Scripture says...
"The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre."
So it was dark, it was the first day of the week. so that means it was before sunrise Sunday morning.
So technically, Mary Magadalene could have left where she was spending Shabbat at 6:01pm Saturday night & gone to the Tomb because THAT is the early hours of Sunday, the first day of the week.
He might have been resurrected bang the tick of 6pm before she even got there.
We don't know for sure.
Earliest she can get there is after 6pm Saturday night. The earliest He can resurrect is 6pm Saturday
So if you really want to be technical you first have to say which the greeting "Happy Easter" applies to.
The Death by crucifixtion or The Resurrection.
If it's the Death you could celebrate by saying Happy Easter on Wednesday
If it's the Resurrection you celebrate by saying Happy Easter, then its anytime after 6pm Saturday.
If you understand that the death & ressurectioon fell during a week long Jewish festive called Passover, that Christ was predicted to be the Lamb of the Passover & its still a thing for you to say Happy Easter then any day during Passover would be fine. Everyday for the whole week long event.
Now there are reasons the modern church doesn't observe the Wednesday Crucifixtion & the resurrection after the weekly Shabbat...despite the clear words of Scripture.
The early church in the centuries after the Cricifixtion got pretty ugly towards the Jewish people.
Fair to say the early Church became grotequely anti-Simetic. There's much showing Christianity distancing & demonising the Jews and we ended up seeing Replacement Theology which is horribly wrong. Again, another story another day.
The disciples & others Post Resurection probably didn't celebrate "Easter" or "Christmas"...they were too busy , healing, instructing churches, ministering to people & baptising.
Arguably more important than a public holiday that didn't exist for many centuries into the 2nd Millenium.
And no Christ could not have been born in December either.
Most likely Autumn 2BC but yet again, anothe story, another day.
Perhaps, if you mean well, say nice things any day you like but knowing a thing with precision is never ever a bad thing.
Happy Easter...
Footnote - its usually at this point in a verbal discussion that someone without a Bible & possible a non or anti Believer might say "If it's that clear how come its not known by everyone then? Everyone everywhere would know if the Scriptures really say that?"
Disbelief & asking questions is a good thing. I usually say "Can you tell me how many wise men visited Jesus in the manger then?"
Usually, in fact everytime I've ever asked this the answer is "Three"
That's wrong. None of the wise men met the baby Jesus in the Manger. NONE.
They met Him in a house, he was a toddler and the Scripture says wise men as in plural, never says how many. They brought 3 gifts which symbolised High Priest, Death (Saviour) & King.
Its been in the Scriptures since they were first written down eons ago and people still answer "3 wise men" which is still as always is clearly wrong. So same deal, mainstream don't read or check the Scriptures so the truth, the facts kinda run away from them.
Funny the information they hide in text in books...who knew?
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