There are people who insist that Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday or a Thursday rather than the traditional Friday. There are multiple reasons these options cannot be correct.
To understand this topic, you first need to know that Jewish days begin at sunset rather than midnight. This goes back to the very first day of creation which began in darkness and then God created the light. Evening is first, then morning. This difference from modern conventions is important for understanding the timeline.The Passover Lamb was always sacrificed in the afternoon of Nisan 14 and roasted in preparation for the Passover feast, which would be eaten after the sun went down (Nisan 15) and must be completed by morning. Jesus ate a supper of unleavened bread with His disciples on the evening of Nisan 14, but this was not the Passover feast and had no lamb. The unleavened bread had to be eaten beginning on the 14th, in preparation for Passover, and thus the 14th was considered the first day of unleavened bread, but not the feast of Passover.
After this supper of unleavened bread on the 14th, Jesus and His disciples went to the garden, and He was arrested. The next day was the Passover feast, and the Jewish leaders did not want to kill Jesus during the feast in case it caused an uproar, so they had to arrest Him before the 15th. He was arrested and tried during the night and sent to the cross in the morning. He died in the middle of the afternoon on Nisan 14, about the time the Passover lambs were being sacrificed. So as they killed their lambs, Christ, the Lamb of God, was dying for their sins. In their rush to get rid of Jesus before the Passover, the Jewish leaders unwittingly fulfilled the very picture of Christ that had been given to their people many centuries before.
That year, the Passover feast (Nisan 15) fell on a Sabbath, so that Sabbath was a high day, as the scripture tells us (John 19:31). They had to bury the body before the sun set. According to the traditional timeline, Jesus was laid in the tomb before the sun set on Friday evening, shortly before the Sabbath (Saturday) began. He rose near dawn on Sunday.
Arguments for a Wednesday or Thursday crucifixion rest on two claims:
A) Jesus said He would be 3 days and nights in the heart of the earth like Jonah was 3 days and nights in the belly of the fish. This is sometimes taken to mean a full 72 hours in the tomb.
B) It is claimed that the Passover was also a "Sabbath" because it was supposed to be a day of rest, thus there were two Sabbaths in the same week due to the Passover. Since Jesus had to be put in the tomb before the Sabbath and then rose right after the Sabbath on a Sunday, they have to claim those were two different days, either back to back (Thursday crucifixion) or with a day between them (Wednesday crucifixion).
Note that the Thursday theory suggests that Jesus died on Thursday afternoon and rose on Sunday morning, meaning He spent parts of Thursday afternoon, all of Friday and Saturday, and the night part of Sunday in the tomb. This wouldn't be a full 72 hours in the tomb, but it is claimed to be parts of 3 days and nights. Meanwhile, the Wednesday theory says it was a full 72 hours, with Jesus being buried minutes before sunset on Wednesday (almost Thursday) and then rising minutes after sunset when it was barely Sunday. Apparently, the earthquake at dawn on Sunday as the women were going to the tomb was totally coincidental, in this view, and had nothing to do with the resurrection itself since Jesus had been resurrected secretly many hours before.
There are several reasons these theories do not work.
1) The concept of 3 days being 72 hours is a very modern concept not found in 1st century Israel. The time from Jesus' burial to resurrection is variously referred to in scripture as "three days," "in three days," or rising "on the third day." These times are all equivalent in Jewish thought and used interchangeably. Any part of a day counts as a day. There are several examples in scripture where someone does something for three days, then stops "on the third day." This happens, for example, with Esther who fasted for three days and then went to the king on the third day. A Thursday crucifixion followed by a Sunday resurrection would no longer be on the third day. It would be on the fourth day by Jewish reckoning. A Wednesday crucifixion would involve a resurrection on the 5th day.
2) The phrase "three days and three nights" is used exactly once in reference to the crucifixion events. This phrase is used by Jesus to make an analogy to Jonah, who was 3 days and 3 nights in the fish. Yet Jesus did not say that He would be 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb. He said in the heart of the earth. This may not be referring solely to the tomb, but to the entire ordeal He suffered with His angst while praying in the garden, the arrest, the trial, the scourging, the crucifixion, and the time in the tomb, which did cover 3 days and 3 nights. It should be noted that Jonah was not dead for 3 days and nights, but spent at least part of His time in the fish praying to God just as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. So if we take Jonah as an analogy, the time he spent in the fish was a longer period of suffering just as Jesus' suffering did not begin at His burial. Thus, this period of 3 days and nights is not the period that Jesus was dead and buried but likely the length of the entire passion event. In any event, this statement about 3 days and 3 nights must be consistent with the rest of the statements in scripture that Jesus rose on the 3rd day.
3) There is no evidence, in scripture or outside it, that Passover Day was ever called a Sabbath. Thus, there is no evidence that there were two Sabbaths during the Passion week. The text works perfectly well with just one Sabbath, the normal Sabbath (Saturday), which was also the Passover Day (Nisan 15).
4) The two men on the road to Emmaus met Jesus without knowing it and spoke to Him for several hours on Sunday afternoon (Luke 24:13-35). During this conversation, they were reporting that some women had claimed Jesus rose that morning and also that it was now the 3rd day since the events of the crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus. It's not just the wee hours of Sunday morning or the period after sunset the night before that was the 3rd day after Jesus died. Sunday afternoon was still the 3rd day, and they specifically said it was the 3rd day since He was delivered up to be crucified. This can only be true if the crucifixion was on Friday.
5) There are no years in which Nisan 14 falls on a Thursday in the timeframe when Jesus could have died. From AD 28 to AD 36, there are no Thursday options, as shown by astronomical data. The day before Passover (Nisan 14) does fall on a Friday twice - in AD 30 and AD 33. It falls on a Wednesday once in 34 AD. There are no Thursdays in the possible period. There are multiple reasons that 33 AD must have been the year, including the timeline given by Daniel, the historical events involving Pilate and Tiberias, and the historical markers in the scriptures which place the baptism of Jesus in the 15th year of Tiberias (29 AD), followed by a 3.5 year ministry. The timing of Passover in different years completely rules out a Thursday crucifixion and makes Wednesday highly unlikely. This is an independent line of evidence, in addition to the Biblical indications.
6) The consistent testimony of the early church fathers was that Jesus died on a Friday. Everyone who mentions the day of the week agrees that it was a Friday. There are no mentions of a Wednesday or Thursday crucifixion.
7) A Wednesday or Thursday crucifixion would violate Biblical prophecy that the Messiah would not see corruption. According to Jewish understanding, decay of a dead body would begin in earnest 3 days after death. There had been cases of prophets raising the dead shortly after death, such as the case of Elijah raising the young son of the widow of Zarephath. However, it was widely believed that no such restoration of life could happen after decay had begun to set in after 3 days. This is the main reason that Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead on the 4th day (John 11) was so astounding and set off the sequence of events that led to the Jewish leaders being desperate to kill Jesus. No one expected it to be possible to raise someone after 3 days. They even mentioned that it was the 4th day, and thus Lazarus would stink. His body was already decaying. No prophet had ever been able to raise the dead on the 4th day or after. Jesus did it specifically to prove that He was God, not a mere prophet. He was showing His disciples who He was because He was headed to the cross. He needed them to know that He could rise from the dead, as He had foretold. The raising of Lazarus was an important evidence of His power and authority. So here we see that corruption of the body begins in earnest at 3 days. Yet Psalm 16:10 prophesied that the Holy One (Messiah) would not see corruption. This passage is also quoted in the New Testament as prophecy of Jesus' resurrection (Acts 2 and 13). Thus, the Messiah would have to be raised from the dead before a full 3 days had passed since death. Arguably, a full 72 hours in the tomb (plus the hours between death and burial) would violate this prophecy by having the body of Jesus begin decay. A resurrection on the 3rd day, with death from Friday evening to Sunday morning, would fulfill the prophecy.
Several of these lines of evidence are very strong refutations of the Wednesday and Thursday theories by themselves, but the cumulative case here is tremendous. Jesus was definitely crucified on a Friday. It is the only option which fits all the Biblical details, the historical evidence, the astronomical data, and the prophecy in the Old Testament. It's time to put the alternate theories aside in the dust heap where they belong.
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