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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.“
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- In conclusion there is no contradiction here. The skeptic needs to learn How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- 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.”
[…] When (on what day) was Jesus crucified? […]
Thanks for this thorough refutation of another one Steve/Stephen Wells’ alleged contradictions. You’ve provided some excellent information on the ancient Jewish understanding of what constituted a “day” and how all Jews didn’t celebrate the Passover at the same time.
Thanks for reading this. This alleged contradiction actually made me step back and say what’s going on unlike some of the other alleged Bible contradictions the last three weeks where it’s just plain silly and obviously can be seen as not a contradiction from a mile away. But God used that time to make me go deeper with His Word and also with history. I don’t regret that this made me stay up till 4 AM!
I really appreciate your effort on this. Many believers, including myself, aren’t aware of all of the cultural norms and practices of ancient Israel.
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Excellent resource. Thanks for the insight.
Thank you brother. Anything I can pray for you Michael? How are you?
Doing great thank you. Please pray for our new Leadership the Jesus Way program. Lot’s to get ready to kick it off.
Blessings.
Thank you Pastor Jim.
You’re welcome Maw Maw. I hope those searching for responses to the skeptics twisting of the Scriptures will find an answer and be encouraged in their faith and have an answer. The Bible is true and have been vindicated many times against what the skeptics have to say, amen?
Amen.
You took the skeptics’ case apart here limb by limb.
Interesting way of putting it
Hey, Jim! I know a lot of people who struggle with how time was understood in the Gospels. Thank you for this post!
You’re welcome. I remember our previous discussion about forced harmonization of the Gospels and this was one that I think require care and slow analysis to avoid that. I was working on this for three days mainly thinking through it and went to sleep at 4 AM! But it was a joy to work through the Scriptures which I know you probably have those nights working on a paper doing research! Or should I say morning? 😄
It is so encouraging and refreshing to hear you taking time to analyze and synthesize Scripture! I wish more folks would do that! As for me, I would rather wake up at 3-4AM and start writing rather than staying up all night! God is amazing, I have no idea how you and your family accomplish all that y’all do in a day. Amazing!!!
Well said, Jim! No contradiction here and never has been.
Agreed RG, there’s no contradictions here! Every week I look at another alleged contradiction from the list over at SAB, and every week I’m surprised at how shallow the skeptic reads the Bible. I’m thankful for all your support with these refutations on my blog, from commenting, reading, reblogging and tweeting them. A big, big, thank you to you RG!
Aw, you’re welcome Jim!
Encouraging to see someone regularly responding to these attacks on Scripture
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The Torah commandment to expel the stateless refugee alien populations from the land has nothing to do with Nazi autarky self-sufficiency. Assimilation to none Cohen cultures and customs: qualifies as the first face of avoda zara. Goyim by definition worship avoda zara. Hence, based upon their disgraceful traditions of לשון הרע, they tend to project interpretations of Israeli policies base upon their own skewed projections of a ‘goyim-rein’ racism.
Commenters like the pseudo historian Patrick Wolfe condemns Israel but ignores Saudi Arabian policies which exclude none Muslims from living in the lands of the ‘prophet’. He denounces racism based upon what his box enclosed brain determines; as if his narrative shapes the ‘Big Picture’.
Ilan Pappé, represents the דיוק of David Duke: founder of the Louisiana-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKKK). Professor of English at the University of California, David Lloyd,a founding member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, (supporter of the BDS), movement – despises the Jewish state.
Russell Berman, a professor of comparative literature and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, when asked the question: What are the historical roots of anti-Semitism? He gave multiple ludicrous answers. Never once did this subject of Jewish assimilation to foreign cultures and customs merit consideration. Torah blessings or curses hinges upon Jews maintaining our Cohen cultural identities. Attempts to place blame upon Goyim for Jew hatred, totally misses the boat.
The root of anti-Semitism sprouts from Jewish assimilation and identification to none Cohen cultures and customs – just that simple. The Yom Kippor revelation of tohor middot at Horev, 40 days after the sin of the Golden Calf, this spiritual revelation determines anti-Semitism throughout the annals of time.
The obtuse failure to directly link anti-Semitism with assimilation blindly ignores the basic realities of Jewish communities in the Weimar Republic, and in the EU or US today. This acute square-headedness, exposes a spiritual malaise, a disease of shameless ignorant cowardice within the Jewish people. Jews to our disgrace walked into the Nazi gas chambers. Only at the end did Jews rise up and revolt against the SS sub human monsters. From the Munich Beer Hall Putsch till the revolt at Treblinka, Jews accepted wicked decrees as their fate – the tail wagged the dog.
Brain dead Berman attributes anti-Semitism to silly reactionary נארישקייט; Jews, according to him, Goyim view as capitalists or as communists, as threateningly aggressive or hopelessly weak, as too international or too tribal etc etc etc. What a load of smelly דרעק.
Buddy this isn’t even related to the post
Wow you don’t play. You quoted Josephus and the Talmud and Scripture!
That worked out some things for me thank you
This was rather detailed. I learned a lot about “day” today
[…] When (on what day) was Jesus crucified? […]
How does this absurd attack of the Bible based upon nonsense become so mainstream so quickly? The stuff the atheist make up looks like they emerge from the Jerry Springer show. If some one needs expert view concerning solutions to Bible contradictions I suggest him/her to pay a quick visit to this web site, Keep up the fastidious work.
[…] Bible Contradiction? When (on what day) was Jesus crucified? […]
[…] When (on what day) was Jesus crucified? […]
So this is so good! Sadly it’s spot on the skeptics MO.
I found your blog this morning since Woke Preacher Clips shared your Joel McDurmon post on Gab, found the essay very thorough and looked around and saw your response to atheist’s attack on the Bible to be equally helpful and thorough.
[…] When (on what day) was Jesus crucified? […]
Skeptics seems to just get things online without knowing the other side. I am skeptical that Steve Wells reads anything outside his own little group of Skeptics. His contradictions consistently shows he misunderstand basic reading comprehension
I can picture a Caucasian 30 year old skeptic living in mommas basement drinking a pumpkin spice latte getting upset that he saw this and it refuted his list of contradictions
It’s easy to make up contradictions and take effort to refute them and make it look easy
I found your page after first seeing this on the Skeptic Annotated Bible. I couldn’t resist commenting. Their site uses KJV. Someone needs to break the news to them that besides the interlinear the NASB95 is the most accurate bible we have.
[…] When (on what day) was Jesus crucified? […]
I wish I can share this to internet atheist. They make this stuff up out of thin air and block anyone who disagrees.