Deviding one day to merge two days

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

I wish to share a dramatised discussion of mine with some followers of 'prophet Branham' re an issue they remarkably agree on with Christianity at large. It concerns - like you may have expected indeed - the chronology of Jesus' 'Last week'.

I herewith post the first exchanges ....

Dividing one day to merge two days.....​

​

ags@Biblebelievers.org.au answered by Gerhard Ebersöhn


First delivery, Dividing ONE day

BA: (‘Brother Anthony’)
Chart illustrating the Six Days Before Passover in Hebrew Time and "Three Nights and Three Days Jesus was in the heart of the Earth":
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 8, sixth day before Passover (John 12:1)
--0000 | (midnight) Our Friday sunset to Saturday sunset
--0600 | The sabbath day
--1200 |
--1500 |
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 9, fifth day before Passover
--0000 | (midnight) our Saturday sunset to Sunday sunset
--0600 | ("Palm Sunday")
--1200 | John 12:2-19; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 9:29-44;
--1500 | 19:36-44
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 10, fourth day before Passover
--0000 | (midnight) our Sunday sunset to Monday sunset
--0600 | Matthew 21:18-22; Mark 11:12-19;
--1200 | Luke 19:45-47; John 12:20-50
--1500 |
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 11, third day before Passover
--0000 | (midnight) Our Monday sunset to Tuesday sunset
--0600 | Matthew 21:23-23:39; Mark 11:20-12:44;
--1200 | Luke 20:1-21:38
--1500 |
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 12, second day before Passover
--0000 | (midnight) our Tuesday sunset to Wednesday sunset
--0600 | Matthew 24:1-26:13; Mark 13:1-14:9;
--1200 |
--1500 |
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 13, day before Passover
--0000 | (midnight) our Wednesday to Thursday sunset
--0600 | Matthew 26:14-19; Mark 14:10-16;
--1200 | Luke 22:1-13
--1500 |
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 14, Passover
--0000 | (midnight) our Thursday sunset to Friday sunset
--0600 | preparation day and the day of the Crucifixion
--1200 | Matthew 26:21-27:66; Mark 14:18-15:47; Luke 22:14-23:56;
--1500 | John 13:1-19:42 *First day in the grave
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 15, the first day of Unleavened Bread,
--0000 | (midnight) our Friday sunset to Saturday sunset
--0600 | "high day" of the Feast when the Passover
--1200 | meal is eaten
--1500 | *The first night and second day in the grave
> 1800 | (sunset) Nisan 16, second day of the Feast
--0000 | (midnight) our Saturday sunset to Sunday sunset
--0600 | **The second night and THIRD DAY in the grave
--------| First Day of Week, Resurrection morning
--------| Matthew 12:40; 27:63; 16:21; John 2:19
--------| Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-18; Luke 24:1-49;
--------| John 20:1-23 bb980603.htm

When Was Jesus Crucified?
..... Jesus spent our Thursday night near Jericho at the home of Zacchaeus the businessman (Luke 19:1-10). On Friday morning He preached the "parable of the pounds" and set off towards Jerusalem (Luke 19:11-28).

GE:
By what rights do you allege “Jesus spent Thursday night at the home of Zacchaeus” and “On Friday morning set off towards Jerusalem”? Do you READ it?

 

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

BA:
Six days before the Passover Jesus reached Bethany before sundown on Friday afternoon, Nisan 7, and the sabbath of Nisan 8 began after 6.00pm. [Nisan 8, our Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, April 1, AD30] He spent the sabbath in Bethany.

GE:
Was it possible that Jesus – and the crowd who journeyed with him – could have travelled the whole distance from Jericho to Bethany in much less than 12 hours— a journey of normally two full days?

Would Jesus have travelled on the Sabbath Day? No, He would not.

From Dr. Murray Janson’s booklet, “Sewe Dae Sonder Son” (Seven Days Without Sun) N.G. Kerk-Publishers we read: “… The four Evangelists pictured Jesus’ conduct during the last week before his death on the cross in such detail that we could, so to speak, open the itinerary at every hour and follow the growth and unfolding of this mighty week.”
“Not long before this ‘last week’, Jesus “withdrew to the remote hamlet of Ephraim by the desert” p. 4b far north of Jerusalem. From here over Jericho it would be a detour of two days (about 24 kilometres) to Jerusalem.
“At the nearing of the Passover feast Jesus found himself to be a co-pilgrim on road to Jerusalem”. p. 5b “The Thursday (before the ‘last week’) He probably spent the night in Jericho at the little tax collector Zacchaeus’ house … Friday He resumes his journey … Against noon they arrive at the small town of Bethany against the outskirts of Jerusalem …There He intended to overnight and spend the Sabbath.” p.5c-d
“Then Jesus six days before the Passover arrived at Bethany where Lazarus lived”. Jn.12:1 “There they made him a supper”. 2 The passage further treats on the supper’s events, how Mary anointed his feet and the argument over money. The supper, “six days before Passover”, occupies most of the context. Jesus’ journey preceding this event is not the topic of the story. The journey is implied, but it is not what happened on the sixth day before Passover. Jesus did not on the sixth day depart from Ephraim on the long and wearisome walk to Jerusalem. The verb erchontai (ehlthen) in the context does not mean: He “went”, but, He “came to”, or, “arrived at”, or, “entered” Bethany on the sixth day: “into where Lazarus was” –
ehlthen eis Behthanian hopou ehn Ladzaros.
The preposition eis, here, implies movement into Bethany from territory immediately outside Bethany, or, movement from within Bethany into the implied dwelling “where Lazarus was (or “lived”).
Of a journey from Ephraim, on this sixth day before Passover, there is no question. This sixth day before Passover was not a day Jesus undertook a journey on. On this day He enjoyed the company and hospitality of his friends. Jesus completed his journey from Ephraim before this day, most probably just the day before. Janson must be correct in assuming that Christ slept the night of this sixth day in Bethany and there “would have called halt for the Sabbath”. p. 9c The remainder of this sixth day before Passover was occupied by the supper and fellowship of his friends in Lazarus’ house in Bethany – on the Sabbath.
It should be kept in mind that the sunset reckoning of the day applies. Therefore: To arrive six days before Passover Feast in Bethany and to spend that sixth day there while Passover proper – Passover Feast, fifteenth Nisan – fell on a Friday, the sixth day before had to be a weekly Sabbath – which is universally accepted. Tradition agrees. Tradition celebrates “the following day”, that is, the fifth day before Passover Feast Day, as ‘Palm Sunday’. John 12:12 supplies the information from which the appellation ‘Palm Sunday’ is derived. If Jesus was crucified on the day “before Passover (Feast)” – John 13:1, which “was the Preparation of Passover” – John 19:14, it is incomprehensible how Tradition can arrive at Friday as the day of Jesus’ crucifixion with Sunday being the fifth day before Passover.

I approach the question of the chronology of the Last Week from the point of view Jesus was crucified on Thursday, which supposition rests on many clear indications, but for now two may be mentioned of first importance,
1) That Nisan 10 was on Sunday; and
2) That the Burial was finished on Friday.

Chronologically the events of this last week are: Nisan
“six days before Passover” John 12:1 = Saturday 9
“The following day” = Palm Sunday 10
fourth day before Passover = Monday 11
third day before Passover (“Two days crucified”) = Tuesday 12
second day before Passover (“Passover to two days”) = Wednesday 13
“Before Passover” / “Preparation of Passover” = Thursday 14
“Passover” / “Feast” = Friday 15