by Harry BuererAll four canonical gospels record the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Can we determine from these accounts when during the week the resurrection occurred? I think we can.
Of the four gospels, Matthew is the only one that seems to mention actual resurrection events. The other three gospels talk about effects of the resurrection, the moved stone, the empty tomb, and appearences of Jesus. These things could have been encountered at any time subsequent to the resurrection. Matthew alone mentions the earthquake, which would have marked the time of the resurrection. So it’s to Matthew that we should go for chronological details.
Most translations of Matthew 28:1 say something like, “After the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week…”. The translators here tend to render the words based on their assumptions, rather than the underlying Greek text. There are two words in particular that they tend to translate unnaturally, to fit what they think happened.
The first of these is the word that is often translated “after”. In all the other occurrences this word means “late”, specifically, “in the evening”. If it were translated faithfully here, it would almost certainly say, “late on the Sabbath”, that is, on Saturday evening toward sunset.
Often translation errors and misunderstandings occur because we don’t understand the Jewish concept of the day as starting and ending at sunset. This is consistent with the account in Genesis where each day of creation is described as, “the evening and the morning”. That concept is key here.
The other word that is commonly mistranslated is a Greek word that only occurs twice in the New Testament. It contains the Greek word for “light”, and that makes translators think it refers to “dawning”. In reality, it is a Greek idiom that means “draw near” or “approach”. This is made clear by its only other use, in Luke 23:54. This passage refers to Jesus being taken down from the cross because the Sabbath was approaching. It was evening, and the word can’t possibly be referring to dawn.
I light of this (so to speak), the passage in Matthew 28:1 would be more naturally rendered, “Late on the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was approaching.” This would point to a time around sunset on Saturday evening. Luke points out (23:56) that after preparing spices, the women rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. It’s only natural that they would have set out as early as they could, once the Sabbath was over, or almost over.
Another factor in favor of understanding the resurrection taking place Saturday evening is that it makes sense of Jesus’ discussion of the sign of Jonah in Matthew 12:40. “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.”
It’s impossible to get three days and three nights into a time frame of a Friday evening crucifixion and a Sunday morning resurrection. But with a Saturday evening resurrection, we can calculate backwards to a Wednesday evening crucifixion, and have three days and three nights.
But wasn’t Jesus removed from the cross because the Sabbath was approaching? Yes, but this wasn’t necessarily the weekly Sabbath (Saturday). The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the day after Passover) was to be regarded as a Sabbath, and no work was to be done on it. This day was apparently on a Thursday that year.
From the account in the gospel of Matthew, we see that it’s very likely that the resurrection of Jesus occurred shortly after sunset on Saturday evening. There were no doubt encounters and appearances to various people at several times during the night and morning, as recorded in the gospel accounts. But it makes sense to think of the resurrection actually occurring immediately after the Sabbath, on Saturday evening.