DID JESUS RISE AS THE WEEKLY SABBATH WAS ENDING OR AT SUNRISE ON SUNDAY?
John 20:1-2 Now in the first of the week, Miryam Magdalitha (Mary Magdalene) came to the tomb in the very early morning while it was still dark. And she saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. And she ran and she came to Shimon Kaypha (Simon Peter) and to that other disciple whom Yeshua (Jesus) had loved, and she said to them, "They have taken away our Lord from the tomb, and I don't know where they have laid Him."
The above text in John 20, tells us of the first visit by Mary Magdalene when it was dark, the tomb was empty, and she had not been told that Jesus was risen, and only saw the stone rolled away. I will leave it to the reader to compare the applicable verses in the four gospels to reconstruct the various visits to the tomb. However, there is one verse which seems to tell us that Jesus rose on the first day of the week.
Mark 16:9 Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
(Peshitta Aramaic NT) Mark 16:9 But at the beginning/dawning of the first of the week, He had risen and appeared first to Miryam Magdalitha (Mary Magdalene) from whom He had cast out seven demons.
The above text would seem to conclusively prove that Jesus rose early in the evening on the first day of the week, what we would call Saturday night. Some commentators have speculated that verses 9-20 of this chapter were later added since they weren't in any of the early manuscripts. Whether or not that is true, the reader ought to know that the meaning of a verse may be altered by the addition of a comma or a deletion. The original text did not have these punctuation marks in the Greek text, so they were added later. If a comma is added after risen, the verse takes on an entirely different meaning. Now after He had risen, early on the first day of the week He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. This change is not altering scripture since it was not written with punctuation marks. This makes the verse consistent with all the four gospels, where Mary Magdalene visited the grave, shortly after the Sabbath ended, and saw the empty grave with the stone rolled away, but did not see an angel or see Jesus. It was later, when the sun had risen on Sunday morning that she came with Mary the mother of James and Salome back to the tomb, saw an angel who told her that he had risen, and then saw Jesus. One can imagine that Mary asked Mary Magdalene, "Who would roll away the stone?" as they approached the tomb, since Mary Magdalene had not mentioned that she had been there earlier and saw the empty grave. Then she went and told the disciples that she saw the angel and saw Jesus. What any reader should realize is that the Holy Spirit gave us the four gospels with fragments of the story in each, and it takes a study of all together, to arrive at the complete picture. The following verse clearly shows us that Mary Magdalene came to the grave as the weekly Sabbath was ending.
Matthew 28:1 (NASB) Now late on the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
Bishop Papias was an early church bishop in Syria and he wrote that the book of Matthew was originally written in Aramaic, and then translated into Greek by the apostles. Irenaeus and Clement also mentioned seeing the original Aramaic of the book of Matthew. We have some precedence and evidence that at least some of the new testament books were first written in Aramaic, and translated by the apostles into Greek, and Matthew is one of them. I say all of this because the Peshitta Aramaic of Matthew 28:1 in Aramaic is much clearer than the Greek.
(smoother English from the Peshitta Aramaic NT) But in the evening, in the Sabbath, when the first of the week was beginning/dawning, Miryam Magdalitha (Mary Magdalene) and the other Miryam (Mary) came to see the tomb.
It is obvious that "at/in the Sabbath" where the beginning of the first of the week was near, that it is making the point that it was at twilight that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb. The twilight period belongs half to the day ending and half to the next day beginning. The verse drives home the point that this was Saturday evening, but that the twilight period still belonged to the Sabbath (i.e. within 1/2 hour after sundown). There were no streetlights then, and no flashlights, so if the full moon had not yet risen, then when it got dark, it got really dark, really fast. The 2 Mary's had just enough time to look around and leave. No one can read the Peshitta Aramaic of Matthew 28:1 and mistake it for any other understanding than that the Mary's arrived at the tomb at twilight on Saturday evening and the stone had already been rolled away.
Note: some people try and make a trivial argument that the word "nagah" literally means beginning of daylight and cannot mean metaphorically the twilight. They are mistaken. Why? because Matthew 28:1 says it was still in the Sabbath and the Sabbath ended 1/2 hour after sundown. The context is clear that "nagah" is being used metaphorically for the beginning of the first day of the week.
Why didn't the 2 Mary's try to anoint the body of Jesus on Friday, since they had prepared the spices and perfumes on Friday before the weekly Sabbath began? It is because in Matthew 27:62-66, Pilate had given the Roman order to have the grave sealed on Thursday morning, and they had put the Roman seal on it and posted guards until the 3 days were complete. Therefore, if the 2 Marys had tried to annoint the body on Friday, they would have broken the law and been arrested. They waited until after the 3 days, so as to avoid arrest. The apostles were all in hiding at the time, fearing possibly their own arrest, so it fell to the 2 Mary's to annoint the body.
The fact is that the Last Supper celebrated with the bread and wine by Jesus and the disciples took place on the evening of the fourth day of the week (we would say Tuesday evening) and was not the Passover seder meal. Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday and was in the grave 3 days and 3 nights. He rose from the dead late on the Sabbath. Finally, He revealed Himself to Mary Magdalene and the disciples on the first day of the week, shortly after sunrise. Of course this means that we have a Palm Saturday and not a Palm Sunday. It also means that Jesus performed the sign He said He would, and that Sunday being the Lord's day is a fabrication of the bishop of Rome. Bishop Sixtus instituted this teaching at Rome shortly after the death of the Apostle John, and later Bishops of Rome perpetuated the error he brought into the church. In due time, even the keeping of the Passover remembrance on the evening 24hours after the Last Supper was outlawed with excommunication.
Source: Roy A. Reinhold
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