Crucifixion of Jesus

A date reconstructed, not recorded

The identification of Friday, 7 April AD 30 with Nisan 14 is a modern calendrical reconstruction. Helen Bond notes how popular that scheme is among scholars, and then concludes that the precise date can no longer be recovered; the best-known rival reconstruction is Friday, 3 April AD 33.

The obstacle is inside the sources. The Synoptic Gospels present the final meal as Passover, while John implies the authorities had not yet eaten Passover on the morning of the trial — a disagreement that changes any calendar calculation.

The 7 April date is retrospective Julian in any case. Neither the modern AD numbering system nor the later Christian designation ‘Good Friday’ was in use at the time.

What Mark narrates of the execution

Mark says Pilate had Jesus flogged and handed over for crucifixion. Soldiers took him to Golgotha and crucified him under the charge ‘The King of the Jews’, with two men Mark calls rebels placed beside him.

Mark’s narrative clock puts the crucifixion at the third hour and death at the ninth — conventionally about 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Both Christian sources and the Roman historian Tacitus tie the execution to Pilate’s authority, which is the historically secure core of the account.

Buried before the Sabbath

Joseph of Arimathea, whom Mark calls a respected council member, obtained the body from Pilate, wrapped it in linen and placed it in a rock-cut tomb before the Sabbath began. Two women watched where it was laid.

Reports that Jesus was alive belong to the following days rather than to 7 April itself. Mark describes women finding the tomb open after the Sabbath; Paul, the earliest surviving Christian letter-writer to preserve the tradition, reduces it to four movements — died, was buried, was raised on the third day, appeared to named followers.