101 Bible Secrets
Bible Secret Number 34 

When Was Christ Resurrected?

Audio read by Tom Parks -  MP3
 
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In the King James Version it seems to state that the two Marys saw Christ having been resurrected from the dead "in the end of the sabbaths" (Greek). Does this mean that Christ’s resurrection was at the time we call the start of Saturday night and not Sunday morning?
 

The Gospel of Mark makes it clear that Christ was indeed resurrected early Sunday Morning (Mark 16:9). But it has perplexed people for centuries that Matthew 28:1 with its statement "in the end of the sabbaths" (which refers to the beginning of Saturday evening) was a time associated with the resurrection of Christ (at least the phrase is located at the very beginning of chapter 28 in our Bibles and it seems to be connected with the time of Christ’s resurrection). But let us look closer at the text. The Greek actually has the word "sabbaths" in the plural. This was in Passover week and in the Mosaic calendar that beginning day of the Unleavened Bread (associated with Passover) came to be reckoned as an annual "Sabbath" (there were seven of them) because no servile work was to be done on annual days like on the seventh day of each week (Leviticus 23:7: Numbers 28:18). That annual "sabbath" was on Friday of that week [See next question for the chronology of the crucifixion week] and it was followed immediately by the weekly "sabbath." This is why the Greek actually has the "end of the sabbaths [plural]." But, careful analysis shows that the phrase is actually connected with the previous verse (Matthew 27:66) and it has to do with the time when the authorities made the sepulchre sure, sealed the stone and then set a watch around the tomb so that no one would steal the body. But the King James translators separated the phrase "the end of the sabbaths" which had to do with securing the tomb and setting the guard, and attached it to the beginning of Matthew 28:1 which seems to connect the phrase with the resurrection of Christ. This is where the mistake was made. What one should do to understand the matter is to make the phrase "end of the sabbaths" to be the last verse of chapter 27, and the phrase "As it began to dawn" as the actual beginning of chapter 28. Everything becomes clear when this is done.


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