Bible Contradiction? When (on what day) was Jesus crucified?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: When (on what day) was Jesus crucified?

Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

After noon on the day before the Passover meal

“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.” (John 18:28)

“Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he *said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” 15 So they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate *said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.” (John 19:14-16)

Mid-morning on the day after the Passover meal

“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 14:12)

“It was the third hour when they crucified Him.” (Mark 15:25)

 

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

 

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. Both John 18:28 and John 19:14-16 is cited by the skeptic as proof that Jesus was crucified in the after noon on the day before the Passover meal.  This is contrasted with the skeptics citing both Mark 14:12 and Mark 15:25 as proof that Jesus was crucified mid-morning on the day after the Passover meal.  The big thing the skeptic is trying to do here is show the account in John and the account in Mark disagree on what day Jesus was crucified based upon the day one eat of the Passover.  Yet if we go deeper to what was the Jewish understanding of the duration of when the Passover was permitted to be eaten we don’t have a contradiction.  Keep in mind Mark’s account record Jesus and His disciples had their Passover meal before Jesus’ arrest and the Jewish religious leaders didn’t have their Passover meal yet when Jesus was arrested.
4. Going by the Old Testament’s rule the Passover should be eaten on the 14th day on the month of Nissan.  This is taught in Leviticus 23:5= “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.“
5. One thing to keep in mind is that the Jewish people in Jerusalem would not have had the Passover meal all at the same time.  According to Josephus a Jewish historian contemporary of Jesus’ time 256,500 sacrifices were offered in Jerusalem during Passover which fed over two million people: “So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves,) and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy” (Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War 6.9.3).  One can imagine those who are involved with the Jewish Temple would have eaten the Passover meal later compared to most Jewish individuals since they had to perform the sacrifices for the masses.  This is confirmed in John 18:28 with reference to the Jewish religious leaders and their party having not eaten the Passover when they arrested Jesus though Jesus already had the Passover before being arrested.
6. Concerning sacrifices the Talmud states the following: “Therefore, the following derivation is required: It is stated here, with regard to the slaughter of an animal and its offspring: “One day,” and it is stated in the act of Creation: “One day.” Just as concerning the phrase “one day” that is stated in the act of Creation, the day follows the night, so too concerning the phrase “one day” that is stated with regard to the slaughter of an animal itself and its offspring, the day follows the night” (Talmud Chulin 83a; see here).  Here we see the killing of a sacrifice is to be done sometime that night to the next day.  No doubt this rule would be applied to the Passover sacrifice.
7. Given that the daytime following night was also permissible to sacrifice and eat the Passover in Judaism there’s no problem with the next daytime after nighttime to still call the next daytime a day of preparation for the Passover for some of the Jews as it is stated in John 19:14-16.
8. While technically the next daytime after night is the fifteenth day of the Month of Nissan the Jews saw that it was permissible for sacrifices since they go back to how Genesis 1 keep a record of day: “night and then day.”  This practice of the fifteenth day of the month of Nissan to eat the Passover meal is still something practiced among some of the Jews of modern Judaism.
9. Thus there is no contradiction given the different times of when Jesus’ and His followers had the Passover and when the Jewish religious leaders had their Passover meal.
10. The skeptic cited both Mark 15:25 and John 19:14-16 as different hours of when Jesus was crucified.  We have dealt with that issue already at Bible Contradiction? When (at what time of day) was Jesus crucified?
11. In conclusion there is no contradiction here.  The skeptic needs to learn How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
12. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”