NISAN 14 -- JESUS ARRESTED AND DIED

The following is an attempt to correlate events from Jesus' arrest to His crucifixion and death. As we saw earlier Jesus went out to the Garden of Gethsemane after dinner on the evening (beginning) of Nisan 14. The dinner probably took a few hours. Then Jesus prays while his disciples sleep--presumably this entailed a few hours also.

NISAN 14 -- FROM ARREST TO CRUCIFIXION

Please notice that John indicates this happened after dark. It could have occurred anywhere between 10 PM to dawn or 4 AM (see below).


JESUS TAKEN TO HIGH PRIEST

The word "daybreak" in Luke is Strong's #2250 "hemera" and means "the time space between dawn and dark." Notice it does not say sunrise, but dawn. Dawn can be anytime the light from the sun first appears which occurs before sunrise. If sunrise occurs at 6 AM then Jesus could have been taken to the High Priest as early as 4 AM.


PETER DENIES JESUS

All four Gospel accounts state that Peter denied Jesus and THEN the rooster crowed. According to Mark 13:35 the cock crows before dawn (anyone who has ever raised roosters can confirm this). Baker's Encyclopedia of the Bible indicates there were 4 watches during the night. The first was called the evening watch and ended at 9 pm; the second was called the midnight watch and ended about midnight; the third or Cockcrow watch ended at 3 am; and the forth or morning watch ended about sunrise. Therefore the cock could have crowed any time between 3 AM and 6 AM.


JESUS IS CONDEMNED BY HIGH PRIESTS AND BEATEN BY TEMPLE GUARDS

The same word for "daybreak" is used in both of Luke's passages. Notice that the trial begins at daybreak in the chart above and concludes at daybreak also. Therefore it didn't take them long to falsely convict Christ--their Messiah. We can safely assume the trial ended shorly before 6 AM.


CHIEF PRIESTS TAKE JESUS TO PILATE

Both Matthew and John use Strong's # 4405 "proia" which means "day-dawn" or early morning, while Mark uses another form of that word #4404 "prio" which also means at dawn or early morning. Therefore all three of them must be talking about just before Sunrise when Jesus is taken to Pilate.


CRUCIFY HIM!

All four Gospel accounts are almost identical relating this event. Although John appears to indicate Jewish time is other parts of his Gospel (John 1:39; 4:6; 4:52, 53) in this instance he can only be talking Roman time because, as we will see in the next frame according to Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus is nailed to the cross at the 3rd hour or 9 AM Jewish time. Therefore, for John to mean Jesus' trial ended at the Jewish 6th hour, or Noon, would not make sense because he would have been tried after he was hung on the cross. Therefore, it appears John indicates Pilate was through trying Jesus by the 6th hour Roman time, or 6 AM, or sunrise.

John Leeper in "A Prelude to Glory" shows how all these trials between Annas, Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate could have occurred within a few hours because they all lived within five to twenty minutes of each other.


JESUS IS CRUCIFIED AND DIES

Mark indicates Jesus was crucified at the third hour (9 AM), and both Matthew and Mark indicate he died at the ninth hour (3 PM) and that darkness covered the land from the sixth hour until the ninth (noon till 3 PM). John doesn't mention a time for any of these events.

Not one of the four Gospels give even one clue that another day occurred in between the arrest and death of Christ. In other words, all these events occured on the 14th of Nisan and spanned a time period of eighteen to twenty hours.


Lori Eldridge
Copyright May 8, 1999


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