1. The crux presented here – the one answered in this endnote – is the main reason this whole project was done in the first place. It was born out of the desire to clearly understand the dates and events surrounding Jesus' crucifixion, as well as those surrounding His birth. And although most of the pieces to this puzzle were available at the on-set, it wasn’t until it came down to writing this endnote that all the pieces could be seen in perspective and how they all fit together.
To explain, it is like piecing together any other puzzle: The first pieces you take are the ones that have the clearly distinguishable details, and you piece them together first. And, in this project, the initial pieces were, at this point of the Gospel chronology, that Jesus indisputably said that He would be three days and three nights (in that order) in the belly of the earth (Matthew 12:40).
In finding which three days these were, we need to determine an indisputable starting point and work our way from there. The unquestionable starting point is the day of Sunday because we know that He was NOT in the grave Sunday since the women found the grave empty on Sunday morning – while it was still dark (John 20:1). Therefore, Saturday has to be the third day. And knowing this, we can now count backward three days and find that He was "in the belly of the earth" Saturday, Friday and Thursday.
From there, we also know that He could not have entered into it when He was buried, just before sundown on Thursday night (Matthew 27:45 and Matthew 27:57-60) because that would mean He was only "in the belly of the earth" two days – Friday and Saturday, beginning on our Friday night and their Saturday.
We now know that He was in the "belly of the earth" exactly the way He said, "three days (beginning with a day) and three nights (ending on a night – our Saturday night, their beginning of Sunday).
Having now found the fact that that He did not "enter the belly of the earth" with His burial – since that would have only been two days – we have two choices. Either He entered the "belly of the earth" when Pilot publicly declared Jesus to be crucified (John 19:14-16), or when He "gave up His spirit" on the the afternoon of Thursday, the day of Passover.
Up to this point, the events are as such: The Passover began on what would have been our Wednesday night, and their beginning of Thursday, at six PM. (The Jews of that day, due to the vast amount of sheep that needed to be killed for the feast, would have sacrificed lambs for the entire day, beginning at sundown as required in the law (Leviticus 23:5). Therefore, they began to sacrifice the lambs as soon as the Passover began at approximately six PM of our Wednesday night; the people throughout the Jewish communities eating the meal at any time between six PM Wednesday night until six PM Thursday night.)
Jesus and His disciples then ate the Passover, and when it was dark (probably around nine or ten o’clock), they went out to the Mount of Olives (John 13:30 and 18:1). It was on that night that Jesus was arrested and underwent a mockery trial at the high priest’s home until morning (Mark 15:1).
In the morning, He was brought before Pilate and, after being beaten and mocked by the Romans, was sentenced to be crucified at six in the morning on Thursday (John 19:14-16). (The "day of preparation" being the day the sheep were sacrificed.)
From there He was brought to and hung on the cross from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon (Mark 15:25 and 33). He was then taken down by Joseph of Arimathea so that He would not be on the cross for the Sabbath (the high Sabbath (John 19:31), which was the one on the first day of the week of unleavened bread (Leviticus 23:7)), and He put in the grave just before six PM that same day, which was Thursday (Mark 15:42-43) – day one.
The next day was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened bread, and it was the Passover Sabbath (Leviticus 23:7), a Friday, which began on our Thursday night. This was His first night in "the belly of the earth."
Again, Friday was the Passover’s Sabbath (see endnote 11:4), and so He was left undisturbed in the grave that whole day – day two.
Friday night, the beginning of the regular weekly Sabbath, He spent the second night in the grave. And all day Saturday, the women rested in obedience to the regular weekly Sabbath – day three.
Saturday night, the woman, probably not wanting to go to a graveyard in the middle of the night, waited until Sunday morning, while Jesus was in the grave for the third night.
All this fulfilling what He had said, how He would "be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth (Matthew 12:40)." According to your reckoning of time versus the Jewish reckoning in Jesus' day, He was there Thursday (1st day), Thursday night (1st night), Friday (2nd day), Friday night (2nd night), Saturday (1st day) and Saturday night (3rd night) – 3 days and 3 nights.
We can even go at it from a different approach and independently come to the same conclusions, which would go as follows:
The most archaeologically substantiated date of all history is the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Syria, who reigned from 465 to 424 BC. And as history goes, in the 20th year of his reign, in the month of Nisan (Nehemiah 2:1) or what we know to be March 15th 445 BC, there was a decree signed (2:7-8) for Nehemiah to rebuild the Holy City, Jerusalem (but not the Temple). This is the decree Daniel had foretold of in 9:24-26, years before – something of which we will now have to explain.
We will get to the point, but first we need to explain something else. Daniel was told that there were "seventy sevens" arranged to proceed the ushering in of everlasting righteousness for Jerusalem, which means 70 sets of 7 years, or 490 years (Something to keep in mind through all this, however, a Hebrew year has 360 and not 365 days, adding one month every so many years, as dictated by the seasons – otherwise winter would end up being in what would have previously been summer months.) Anyway, with this in mind, when we go back to what Daniel was saying, he tells us that from the signing of this decree "until the Messiah is cut off" there will be 62 sevens, and seven sevens; or, in other words, 69 sets of seven years (69 x 7 being 483 years, and for our immediate concern, 177,480 days.)
Having this time-frame, we can then count these days starting from the signing of the degree mentioned above, on March 15th 445 BC, up to where it brings us to exactly Sunday, Nissan 10th /April sixth of 32 AD – the day Jesus rode down on the foul of a donkey to be established as King of the Jews – the time He was rejected or "cut off (Luke 19:41-44 and Mark 11:11)."
Four days later (John 12:1 and 12 Mark 11:11), from the 10th to the 14th, we are brought to Thursday, the 14th of Nisan, the day of Passover (Exodus 12:3-6) – Thursday being the same day we determined in the 1st half of this endnote.
Also see endnotes 11:6 and 25, as well as the chart titled "The Final Week" at the end of this book.
2. The Greek says, "became as dead men."
4. The Greek word used here that is simply translated as "stooped," in most translations, literally incorporates the meaning of someone stooping down sideways.
6. The text plainly says "it." But in order for this publication to read smoothly, it seemed necessary to expound on what the "it" was.
7. It has been said that this piece of cloth was folded neatly, like a napkin, and was lying on the ground near the place Jesus had been laid; and that this was a cultural thing to do when a person wanted to communicate to the host of a meal that you were offended by something that was said while you were eating at their table – and that Jesus had done this because He was offended by the Jews.
That may be, however, there is nothing in the text that communicates this. On top of that, the Greek word used here actually has the meaning of something coiled up. Therefore because this unusual word is used, it is translated into the English text as "crumpled up."
It appears that this particular Greek word was used because it was the most accurate word to describe the headpiece and the position it was in when it had fallen off as He first got up. Having the headpiece crumpled up on the ground a short distance from the rest of the cloth gives a picture of Him getting up from the burial cloth He was laying in. And then after taking a few steps, He had the headpiece removed or fallen off his head as He was walking out of the tomb.
Another reason the first suggestion does not seem likely (how it was because He wanted to show the Jews that He was offended), is because it just seems that it would have been something specifically mentioned in the text itself, and would not have been something left to speculation, using only this one word to describe it. And on top of that, we are talking about Jesus who, while He was unjustly hanging on the cross, prayed to His Father to forgive them. The whole napkin theory sounds more like a man's reaction than the Son of God's.
8. The Greek text says, "marveling."
9. The Greek word used here that is translated as "stooped" also has the meaning of someone stooping down sideways.
10. The original text also says, ". . . they have laid him," or "I do not know where they have laid him."
11. The Greek has the word Hebraisti (Εβραιστί). Also see endnote 13:20.
12. This could not be because no one was allowed to touch Jesus after He had been raised, for He even told Thomas to touch Him (John 20:27). It had to be that Jesus was telling Mary that she did not need to cling on to Him as if He were going to leave her. That is why it adds just after He tells her not to hold onto her, that He had not yet ascended to the Father (John 20:17). Besides all that, the Greek word used is aptou (απτου) and it communicates the idea of clinging onto something.
13. The Sabbath had ended at six PM the night before; therefore, this is about eleven or twelve hours after the Sabbath had ended.
14. Jacob is the Greek name that is always – though I am not absolutely sure why – translated as James (See endnote 4:45). The woman mentioned here is Jesus mother. (See Matthew 13:55.)
15. Salome is probably Jesus' mother's sister. See endnote 13:32.
16. The text from Mark 16:1-2 indicates that Mary Magdalene was with the women at this point, but if she was, it does not take away from all the incidents John describes with her coming to the tomb previous to this point.
17. There was some difficulty in trying to sort out the details of the women going to the tomb and finding it empty. Sometimes it sounds like they all went there together, and then at other times it sounds like Mary Magdalene went to the tomb first – even pointing out that it was before the sun had come up.
The reason it sounds this way is because Matthew, Mark, and Luke state the simple fact that Mary Magdalene, and the other women, went to the tomb early on Sunday morning and found it empty; not offering any specific details of the chronology. Except Mark does say in what seems to be a parenthetical thought – a kind of "oh, and by the way" – after giving the above generalization like Matthew and Luke do, that Jesus had appeared to Mary first.
And Mark’s remark went unnoticed to me until I got to the point of adding John's details. John, almost as if it was in response to Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s ignorance, if you will, to the details of Mary Magdalene’s early – before sun up – visit to the tomb, he recalls in detail how Mary went to the tomb by herself, without the other women.
It was difficult to see in the beginning. But now, after having them together and having to explain why they are in the order they are, the reasons why they need to be in this chronology as they are in this publication are clear.
18. The original text plainly says, "they."
19. See chapter 5 verse 138 of this book.
20. Before He was crucified, Jesus told His disciples that He would meet them in Galilee after He was raised. But they didn’t go there. They were staying in Jerusalem.
So one of the angels, at this point, tells the women to tell the disciples what He had said again. And even then, they still did not go until Jesus first appears to them twice. He appears to the eleven once while Thomas was not among them and then again eight days later (John 20:26), as His disciples were still hiding out in the upper room.
I guess we, therefore, need to ask: "What are we not doing that He told us to do because of our unbelief and/or fear?"
21. The Greek puts it as saying, "this is the word spread abroad among the Jews even to this day (a literal translation)."
The words "spread abroad" are in reference to the Jews who had remained among the Gentile nations even after the Diaspora had ended, as described in Nehemiah and Ezra (in 500 BC), which was after the 70 years of captivity (Jeremiah 25:11).
After Nehemiah and Ezra the dispersed Jews still came to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts (Acts 2:5-11). And going back to their homes, which were throughout the Roman Empire, after the feast had ended – this is what provided the vehicle for this word to be spread abroad.
22. Jacob is the name that practically every translation translates as James (See endnote 4:42). In this instance, the text is speaking of Jesus’ brother, known as James the less (or the younger) (Mark 15:40 and Matthew 13:55).
23. The phrase, "the ones he had appointed to be sent out to preach the good news" is, in essence, the literal translation of the Greek word for apostle.
This can be illustrated in Mark 3:13-14 and Matthew 10:5-7 when it says that Jesus ". . . called the disciples He wanted with Him aside, and He sat down with the twelve of them. He called them apostles and appointed them to be with Him, so that He could send them out to preach," These twelve were the ones Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’"
24. Some see this as Luke’s signature on his Gospel. It is believed that Luke was possibly the other unnamed man on the road to Emmaus.
The thinking goes that each author had a "signature" in their Gospel. Matthew has him identifying himself as "the tax-collector" (10:3), Luke has this, Mark as the description of himself losing his clothes in the garden of Gethsame when Jesus is arrested (14:51), and John has himself mentioned, not by name, but by the description, "the disciple that Jesus loved (11:5, 13:23, 20:2, 21:7, and 21:20)."
25. The case here is that though the women told the disciples they had seen Jesus, the disciples surmised that it could not have been Jesus but an appearance of angels that the women had mistaken for Jesus (consider Matthew 14:26). (Also, see endnote number 20 of this chapter.) This statement is also a generalization. When the women reported Jesus’ resurrection to the disciples, they did not believe the women’s words. All the more so, that is why Peter and John had run to the tomb to see what had happened – John, consequently, believing (John 20:8).
26. This means there were more than just the eleven hiding out in this room. There were, at the least, the women among them.
27. "The eleven" was just a generalization by the author of the particular Gospel this account comes from. We know this because when we get more details from another gospel, we find out that Thomas was actually not with them at this time, but that Jesus had to make another visit to especially assure Thomas of the facts (John 20:24 ff.).
This is not a contradiction, however, it is a very common way for a witness to any event, not magnifying particular points to emphasize others. They would generalize a particular point to not detract from the points he heeds as important. To the one author, the point was not that one of the eleven was not there at the time, but that the eleven were gathered in the upper room for that particular time period of eight days (John 20:26) – though one or another of the disciples may not have been there at any given hour.
28. The Greek literally says, "Reproached the unbelief of them."
30. This could also read, "whenever you retain the sins of anyone their sins are retained."
31. The word "also" is left out here because it is implied in the statement, "we are coming with you." And when this phrase is translated into the English grammar in contrast to the Greek it becomes unnecessary.
32. The text says, "two hundred cubits." A cubit is equal to about eighteen inches. 18 times 200 is 3600. 3600 divided by 12 (inches) is 300 feet. 300 (feet) divided by 3 (the measurement of one yard) equals 100 (yards). And just for the record, a mile is 5280 ft or 1760 yards.
33. The following rhetorical question needs to be asked: "What is the significance that Peter dragged this net to shore by himself and that there were so many fish?"
34. Interestingly enough, Jesus does not call Peter "Simon, son of Jonah" at this point as He does in John 1:42. Jesus only calls him "Simon of Jonah." Could it be that Jesus was in some way trying to associate him with the prophet Jonah?
35. This is one of the most interesting passages in any of the Gospels – one that has been hidden by lazy translations over the years. The reason I say this is because when the passage is translated meticulously, according to the author’s specific choice of Greek words, we start to see a whole other dimension in this passage that is left unseen when translated less meticulously.
For example Jesus asks Peter, "do you agape me (agape meaning unconditional love) more than these (referring to the friends Peter is hanging out with)." Jesus asking him this because He knows our hearts, and He knew that Peter had denied Him just days earlier – denying Jesus because of his overwhelming desire for people to accept him. This is the sense of the passage here, and we know this because there is a very revealing exchange of words between Peter and Jesus, which you will see.
For when Jesus asked the question mentioned above, Peter responds, not with the word agape, like Jesus used, but with the comment, "Lord, you know I phileo you (phileo meaning "a friendship-love")." To which, Jesus repeats His question to Peter. Peter, saying the same thing as he did before in return. This goes on that way until the third time, when Jesus switches from using the word agape to saying, "Peter do you phileo (friendship-love) Me?" With which the texts informs us, "Peter, being grieved because Jesus had said the third time, ‘do you love me as a friend," rather than "do you love me unconditionally?" Peter responds this time, saying, "You know all things, Lord. . . ."In other words "I can’t lie to you Lord. . . . You know I love you as I would a friend." Peter basically saying, "No, Lord, I do not love you more than these, my friends." I do not agape you like I wanted to, but I do pheleo you.
But before we get too down on Peter, we need to remember that he did stay true to his conviction when he reached out to strike Malchus’ ear off, to keep Jesus from being arrested. Peter simply misunderstood that to die with Jesus does not meant to fight, but from surrendering to the actions coming from the workers of unrighteousness. And that is a hard pill to swallow for all of us.
37. Did you know that John had accused Peter of being the disciple Jesus was talking about when He had said, at the Last Supper, "one of you is going to betray Me?" At least it seems that this is why Peter, at this point, turns around, looks back at John (probably with a "See, I told you so" expression) and says, "Lord, who is the one who betrays you?" This can also be surmised by the fact that Peter did not wait for an answer but immediately asks Jesus about what was going to happen to John since he was going to glorify Jesus in his death (John 21:21, starting at verse 18).
38. This is an expression John uses whenever he referred to himself (13:23-25, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7).
39. This can even be seen done today when people teach on some passages. They teach only what they think the passage is saying – hastily drawing conclusions because they do not let the context dictate the direction of what is being taught in any passage.
40. The following verses are the ones we have that tell us of how Jesus had told them, ahead of time, that He would meet them in Galilee, after He was raised: Matthew 26:32, 28:10, and Mark 14:28.
41. There are two words in the Greek language, which are used interchangeably. They are dialekto, (διαλέκτω) (the word from which we get our word dialect), and glossais (γλώσσαις) (the word from which we get our word glossary, meaning a word that needs explaining. And it is translated as both "tongue" and "language" in any given case).
42. When we consider Jesus' response to this question, we can confidently say that there will be a day when God will "give the kingdom back to Israel." In fact, throughout the Bible prior to the manifestation of the Gospel, the prophets continually proclaim a time when Israel will have its fortunes restored to a condition that has not been realized as of yet. Isaiah 1:26 for one example, where it says,
43. Being that the Book of Daniel goes into some length in giving the chronology of the last days (Daniel 9:27), this would mean that Jesus was telling His disciples that it was not something that was appointed for them, or that it was not something they needed to be concerned with.
In other words, it would not be something that would happen in their lifetime. This is the same thing God told Daniel (12:9 and 13).
Along with that, it is interesting that the book of Revelation was given to John in his old age and at a time that was near the end of the days of The Apostles. For in the book of Revelation, it says that these things are now not sealed (Revelation 22:10).
44. When Jesus comes back, every eye will see him. There is no indication anywhere in Scripture that there will be a "secret coming." (See endnote 10:25.)
45. "This, O fiend of God" is actually "This, O Theophilus" in the Greek. Theophilus being the man the books of Luke and Acts were written to. The name, Theophilus, comes from two Greek words theo, meaning "God" and philos, meaning "friend."
