SECTION II

chronological data

That Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday is an incontestable fact, confirmed as well by the Evangelists as by the Apostolic Church (compare Luk 24:1).

Equally certain is it, that on the third day previously, viz., on a Friday, He was crucified (Luk 24:21).

The Synoptists were entirely agreed in pointing out this day at the first day of the Passover (Mat 26:2; Mar 14:1; Luk 23:54). Of late, however, there have been attempts to show that John has contradicted this testimony. It is maintained that, according to John, Christ must have been crucified on the day before the Passover. But such assertions depend upon the erroneous explanations of many expressions of John, and might now be considered as set aside.¹ Nay, if the expressions of John be pondered in their full significance, he will be found to have declared more accurately than the rest of the Evangelists, that Jesus was crucified on a Friday,² and that it was on the first day of the Passover (viz., on the 15th Nisan³). According to the determination of the general chronology of the life of Jesus, which we adopt,⁴ Jesus was crucified in the year 783 after the building of Rome (or in the year 30 of our era). The first Passover-day of this year was a Friday.⁵

According to the statement of John, Jesus came six days before the Passover to Bethany. As the Passover began on the evening of the 14th Nisan, this statement points back to the 9th Nisan, to the Friday evening which preceded the last Sabbath before the feast. Probably on the Friday evening Jesus came with his followers into the region near the Mount of Olives. The desire to reach the neighbourhood of the holy city before the Sabbath had probably furnished the inducement to travel the wearisome journey from Jericho through the desert as soon as the first morning hours of the day were past. The company dispersed on the Mount of Olives for the observance of the peaceful Sabbath-rest in their huts and tents; but Jesus had taken up His abode with His friends in Bethany.

The Sabbath was spent in tranquillity; but after sunset, or after the end of the Sabbath, His friends made ready for Him a feast in the house of Simon the leper. This is the same feast of which the disciples speak for the first time subsequently, because they wish to refer to it as the occasion of the treachery of Judas, to which they come later in the narrative.⁶

On the day after, scil., on the Sunday before the Good Friday, occurred the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the so-called palm-procession (Joh 12:12).

Between that Palm Sunday, which might be called the typical Easter-day, and the actual Easter-day, or the real festal day of the palms of victory, every individual event of the last days of the life and the death of Jesus falls in consecutive order.⁷ The principal circumstance of the following day, or the Monday, was the purification of the temple by Jesus once more, after he had cursed the fig-tree, which He had found without fruit on the road from Bethany to the city. In that purification He, as it were, made the temple itself the subject of His miracles of healing, among the children’s shouts of hosanna, and the hostilities of the high priests and scribes. Thus this day represents the culminating point of His theocratic ministry in the ancient Israel, in the very centre of the Old Testament institutions (comp. Mar 11:12-19).

On the other hand, on the Tuesday, occurs in that very temple the public separation between Jesus and the Jewish hierarchy. The observation of the disciples that the fig-tree which Jesus had cursed on the road-side, was withered away, most significantly leads up to this result. The first division of the transactions of Jesus with His enemies, consists in His repulse of their request that He should declare in what power or in what name He did His works, after they had refused to declare the prophetic dignity of John, with which His own historic acknowledgment was associated. In connection with this repulse He puts forth the parables, in which He vividly describes to them their offence against the Messiah. The second division of these transactions is seen in the victory of Christ over the temptations with which the several parties of His antagonists ranged themselves against Him, with a malicious pretence of homage. The third division comprises the denunciation of woe upon the Pharisees and scribes, and His formal departure from the temple itself, after He had there for the last time uttered His approval of the gift of the widow’s mite (Mat 24:1; Mar 13:1; Joh 12:37).

On the evening of the same day,⁸ He is seated once more with several disciples on the Mount of Olives, over against the mount of the temple. He looks towards the temple, and predicts to them its downfall,—the judgment upon Jerusalem, and the judgment upon the world,—whilst in Jerusalem the high council is holding the session in which His death is resolved on. The time of this is strictly determined by the announcement of Jesus, in the midst of His disciples, that after two days would be the Passover (Mat 26:1-2; Mar 14:1).

Jesus spends the Wednesday in a consecrated retirement, to which the Evangelist John clearly refers (12:36). Probably the Lord availed Himself of this retreat to prepare His larger band of disciples for His departure.

As the Thursday was the first day of unleavened bread, or the day of preparation for the feast, Jesus sent two of His disciples, Peter and John, in advance to the city with the charge to make ready the Passover. In the evening He followed them with the rest of the disciples, and sat down in their company to the celebration of the meal. This celebration found its highest development in the foot-washing and in the institution of the holy communion; and it was concluded with the deep and consolatory words of Jesus (Mat 26:17; Mark 12; Luk 12:7; John 13-17).

Then came the great Friday, the day of Jesus’ death (Joh 18:19).

The peaceful Sabbath, or Saturday, closes the holy week, as the day of Jesus’ rest in the grave, which concludes the week of sorrow, and precedes the morning of the resurrection.

───♦───

Notes

In this portion of the evangelic history it is more difficult to distribute the historical material in John than that in the Synoptists, with any degree of precision. Wieseler postpones the events which are related by Joh 12:20-43, to the Tuesday, with reference to ch. 12:36. First of all, we may perhaps assume that ver. 37 begins a statement, which may be considered as the retrospect of the Evangelist upon the public appearance of Jesus among the people, which now was over. In that case the close of the 36th verse need not compel us to suppose that all that preceded, from ver. 20, is to be referred to the last day of His public ministry. The character of the closing transactions of Jesus with His enemies on the Tuesday, seems, moreover, to point to other situations besides that related by John, ver. 20. The announcement of the Greeks to the Lord belongs, perhaps, to the culminating point of His ministry among the people on the Monday; so also do His calm and solemn discourses with the people. The notice, moreover, of the peevish speech of the Pharisees points to that, ver. 19,-a moment which seems to correspond with the reproaches which the Pharisees, according to the Synoptists, uttered against the Lord on the Monday that He allowed Himself to be hailed by the hosannas of the children.

1) Vol. i. p. 162. Wieseler, 333. Ebrard, das Evangelium Johannes, p. 42

2) Wieseler, p. 335. Ebrard, das Evang. Joh. 43.

3) The expression, πρὸ δὲ τῆς ἑορτῆς, John xiii. 1, plainly indicates the last transition from the eve of the festival to the festival itself, the time towards six o clock on the evening of the 14th Nisan. It is apt to be forgotten that the preparations for the Passover, part of which was the slaughter of the lamb, fell on the 14th Nisan, whilst the Easter supper, which was partaken after sundown, belonged to the next day, the 15th Nisan. Then it is to be observed, that on the day of the crucifixion, Pilate said to the Jews that it was the custom, ἐν τῷ πάσχα, to release to them a prisoner, and that he offered at that time, sell., during the Passover, to release to them Jesus, who was bound.

4) Above, vol. i. p. 342.

5) Wieseler, 176

6) Compare above, vol. ii, p. 207. Wieseler, 391.

7) In the determination of the order we follow Wieseler s careful investigation.

8) It may be doubted whether we are not to reckon the two days in such a way that this scene might occur on the Wednesday morning. But the Evangelists connect it very closely with the departure of Jesus from the temple ; and Luke relates it, before he concludes his narrative of the appearance of Jesus in the temple, with a general retrospect (xxi. 37, 38). Moreover, according to John, it must be assumed that Jesus had once again for a short time withdrawn into absolute concealment.