Jesus could NOT have died on Good Friday.

It’s impossible. You just can’t get three days and three nights from Friday to Sunday.

And why does that matter? Because Jesus said it plainly:

Matthew 12:40 (KJV) – For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

For Jesus to have been “in the tomb” for three days and three nights, the crucifixion couldn’t have happened on Friday. In fact, it didn’t happen on Thursday, either. Jesus died on Passover (Nisan 14 on the Israelite calendar), and He didn’t resurrect until the Feast of Firstfruits. In fact, He fulfilled these feasts to the very day that they fell on the Levitical calendar.

So what exactly was the timeline of Passion week? This is a very complicated subject to piece together from Scripture. I have an infographic below that hopefully lays out the whole thing clearly, but there are a few details to keep in mind before you dive in.

• Biblical/Jewish days begin at sundown, or evening. Each day, as the sun set, a new day would begin. Thus, this infographic shows the Jewish days (Nisan 14-18) at the top, juxtaposed with our modern days of the week along the bottom.
• The Jewish feast days are integrated into this calendar. Passover– which always took place on Nisan 14; Unleavened Bread, which lasted 7 days but always began on Nisan 15; and Firstfruits, which always took place during the week of Unleavened Bread on the day after the weekly Sabbath.
• Jesus was able to participate in a Passover meal on the night of Nisan 14 (as that day was actually beginning) and then BE our Passover sacrifice less than 24 hours later in the afternoon of Nisan 14.
• There were two Sabbaths during Passion week. One was the weekly Sabbath (Nisan 17) (which always begins Friday evening and then takes up most of Saturday). The other was the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15). This is key to understand while piecing together the timeline from Scripture.
• Only one event is said to have taken place during Nisan 16- the women prepared spices for the body of Jesus. They waited until after the weekly Sabbath to bring them to the body of Jesus- which, by that point, had actually resurrected!

Passion Week Timeline: How Jesus fulfilled Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits on the exact days

This graphic explains how Jesus spent three literal days and nights- a 72-hour period- within the grave. While His body was in the tomb, His spirit was in Sheol- proclaiming judgment on the fallen Sons of God who sinned in the pre-flood world, as well as releasing the Old Testament saints who were in Abraham’s Bosom, allowing them to go up to heaven with God.

Still need some help piecing it all together? I have recorded a special presentation with Daniel Wade of Body & Soul Transformation to explain it all.