There is a lot of confusion surrounding the question: on which day of the week did Jesus die? For example, many wonder how Jesus could have been crucified at the time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered and yet He ate a Passover meal with His disciples. Others ask how He could fulfil the Passover if He died the next day. Or, if Jesus died on Friday the 15th of Nisan in AD 30, then didn’t He die on the first day of Unleavened Bread and not Passover? Or, how does He spend three days and three nights in the tomb if He dies on Friday morning and rises on Sunday morning? Consequently, many suggest that He ate the Passover meal before the appointed time, and that He was crucified before that Friday.
Why does it matter? It matters because the Scriptures claim to be inspired by God and if they are not accurate then how can we trust them?
This document will address such questions by considering both the Old Testament texts and the New Testament texts in the light of the relevant Jewish background, and then considering some evidence found in the Jewish records. And we will see that it is possible to reconcile all these apparent discrepancies without changing the intended meaning of the gospel records.