The fact is that, if Mary Magdalene and the other women had visited the tomb of the Savior on any day between the evenings of 14th Nisan and that of 17th Nisan, 30 AD, they would have found the body of the Savior in the tomb. Now, the earliest date after 17th Nisan is the 18th of Nisan; so let us assume for now that, it was on this date (the 18th Nisan, 30 AD) that Mary Magdalene and her friends went to the tomb, only to find it empty. The question is: Why did they have to go to the tomb on 18th Nisan, 30 AD, and not before? Obviously, one could not say it was because they lacked dedication to the task of embalming the body of the Lord. It must be that some obvious circumstances, beyond their control, played against them in their zealous determination to embalm the body of the Lord, after it had been laid in the tomb. These circumstances, we must seek to find out. Maybe, we should start our investigations by asking the question: Why did Mary Magdalene and the other women not go to the tomb of the Savior, the next day after his burial, with the spices to embalm his body? This would have been on 15th Nisan, 30 AD, and they would have met the body of the Savior lying in the tomb. The obvious answer is that, they could not go out on this day to buy the needed spices, prepare them at home, and then visit the tomb with them, because it was a fixed date Sabbath Day: the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. All shops were closed for this feast, and so they would not get the needed spices sold to them. Besides that, if they had done any one of the three tasks mentioned above, they would have violated the anti-work Sabbath law. And, this violation, would have brought them the dead sentence; death by stoning. If they failed to visit the tomb on 15th Nisan, 30 AD, for this good reason, why did they not rush there the next day, 16th Nisan, 30 AD, the second day after the Savior was laid to rest? An answer will soon be given to this question. In any case, in seeking to establish the actual time of the Lord’s resurrection, it is not plausible to consider 16th Nisan, 30 AD, the second day after the Savior was laid to rest, for resurrection day. Nonetheless, the reason why the women never visited the tomb on 16th Nisan, 30 AD, will be given after we answer the question: Why did they not visit the tomb on 17th Nisan? Why did Mary Magdalene and the other women, not visit the tomb on the 17th Nisan, 30 AD? Why did they not, since they seemed very eager to complete the embalming process on the body of their Lord? This process had been started on the 9th Nisan, 30 AD, in Bethany, by Mary when the Savior was yet alive (cf. John 12: 3-8); and later on, at the time the lifeless body of the Savior was laid in the tomb, by Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus, who at that time, seemed not to have enough spices for an effective job at embalming the body of the Lord. (cf. John 19: 39-40). When they were able to surmount whatever challenges (God-ordained?) they faced, in their bid to give honor to the body of the Savior, these faithful and dedicated women-followers of the Savior were able to visit the tomb, on the first day of the week (Sunday), not at its beginning at sunset, but at sunrise; at a time this Sunday was obviously, well over ten hours old. This establishes the fact that, since the body of the Savior was laid to rest, there had been one last day of the week Sabbath Day (Saturday), immediately preceding the Sunday early morning discovery of the empty tomb. This fact is very significant, since for one full day of twelve hours night and twelve hours day, which is this immediate last day of the week Sabbath Day preceding the Sunday discovery of the empty tomb, nobody could visit the tomb because no one works on a Sabbath Day. Yes, it is a fact that, the discovery of the empty tomb was on Sunday, but to say with certainty that the resurrection took place on the same Sunday would be untenable. This is because nobody had witness of the happenings of the previous day, the last day of the week Sabbath Day, in all its sunset-sunset time-frame; and for all one might know, the tomb of the Savior could have been empty since the beginning of that Sabbath Day. In fact, a correct count of the three days and three nights that are required for the resurrection of the Savior, from 14th Nisan, 30 AD, as earlier on stated, would take us to 17th Nisan, 30 AD, the date of this last day of the week Sabbath Day (Saturday) under our scrutiny, and on which these women could not visit the tomb to attend to the body of the Savior. The date of the Sunday in which the discovery of the empty tomb was made, must of course follow the date of this Saturday. And so, this Sunday, on which the discovery of the empty tomb was made, must be 18th Nisan, 30 AD; four clear days after the Savior was laid to rest. All these facts and details tear to shreds, whatever Sunday-resurrection theory or doctrine, theologians and Clergy have sold out to the world for close to two millennia. Obviously, the Clergy’s view of a Sunday-resurrection of the Savior is not validated by the biblical record. We can therefore say, emphatically and in all boldness, that Resurrection Day was Saturday 17th Nisan, 30 AD. Sadly, Christianity led by some “clothing makes the man” Clergy, would have salvation-seekers accept their deception that, Resurrection Day was Sunday; Sunday being indeed Sun Day? And, in calling Sunday (Sun Day) as the Lord’s Day, they commit more sacrilege by twisting the truth of God. What obvious twisting of the truth: The Lord’s Day, at Creation, has always been the last day of the week, and God, since then, calls this day, Sabbath Day. And was is it not to be that Resurrection Day must be on the true Lord’s Day, the last day of the week Sabbath Day? With the days of 17th and 18th Nisan, 30 AD, now firmly established by the analysis of this treatise and clearly corroborated by the biblical records, as being Saturday (the day of the Lord’s resurrection) and Sunday respectively, we can, with and by this fact, fix the days of all the dates of the Passion Week. Let us do this, working backwards with Sunday 18th Nisan, 30 AD and Saturday 17th Nisan 30 AD as reference points. From these reference points, 16th Nisan, 30 AD, was Friday; 15th Nisan, 30 AD, was Thursday; 14th Nisan, 30 AD, was Wednesday; 13th Nisan, 30 AD, was Tuesday; 12th Nisan, 30 AD, was Monday; 11th Nisan, 30 AD, was Sunday; 10th Nisan, 30 AD, was Saturday; and 9th Nisan, 30 AD, was Friday. We can also, on the same basis, work out the days following the discovery of the empty tomb of the Savior, down to the last date of 30th Nisan, 30 AD. Indeed, this has been done for easy reference, in a table of events of Nisan, 30 AD, (Fig. 1), at the concluding part (Part Six) of this article. Let us now go back to answer the question we deferred answering earlier-on. The question was asked: Why did Mary Magdalene and her colleagues not visit the tomb of the Savior on 16th Nisan, 30 AD? From all the foregoing, we observe that there were as many as three Sabbath Days within the Passion Week. Indeed, a plurality of Sabbath Days within Passover week is the normal thing, except on the rare occasion where Passover falls on the last day of the week, thereby pushing the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread into a new week. This plurality of Sabbath Days within Passover week was played out in the year 2012 AD, wherein we live now. This year, Passover Day (“an high day” Sabbath Day) was on Thursday 5th April, 2012. This was followed by the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on Friday 6th April, 2012. The next day, 7th April, 2012, was a last day of the week Sabbath Day. Three Sabbath Days in a row: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wow! (---continuing part to this article is in Part Five: Soon to be published). Chris Bapuohyele is a bible-expositor and author of the book: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE... His email address is: chrisbapuohyele@yahoo.com

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