Warning: I’m just thinking out loud. I do that sometimes. I’m not sure I have all the answers to the questions I’m about to raise, but I can say with conviction that the traditional views on the chronology of Passion Week do not pass the sniff test.
What we’re going to cover does not affect the day the Lord was crucified. What we’re covering affects the events leading up to the day of His crucifixion.
You know the story. After the time in the Upper Room, the Lord and the disciples walked to the Garden of Gethsemane. He then prays in agony to the Father to let this cup pass from Him. Judas and his men show up. The Lord is arrested.
When this happens, I’m sure we’d all agree it had to be nighttime.
Then the traditional view would have us to believe that over the course of that one night, the Lord stood before Annas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin Council, Pilate, Herod Jr., then back to Pilate again. And then Pilate negotiates with the angry mob, then the scourging, the verdict, and then Christ is on a cross by 9 a.m. (Mark 15:25 – see also Matt. 26:57-27:10; Mk. 14:53-15:1; Lk. 22:54-71; John 18:12-27).
There is no way all of that happened over the course of one night.
Consider these verses in Luke 22.
Luk 22:66 And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying, Luk 22:67 Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: Luk 22:68 And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. Luk 22:69 Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Luk 22:70 Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am. Luk 22:71 And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth.
Notice in verse 66 that the trial before the Sanhedrin Council began at daybreak. As soon as daylight arrived, usually around 6 am, they started the Lord’s trial.
Think about this. The Lord was brought before the Sanhedrin Council at daybreak. This was a daytime trial. There is no way He could have had His trial before the Sanhedrin Council starting around 6 a.m., go through that whole process of a lengthy trial, be sent to Pilate, then to Herod Jr., then back to Pilate, then the trial with Pilate, the negotiations with the mob, the scourging, the verdict, and then the Lord is on the cross by 9 a.m.
There is no way.
The Lord’s time before the Sanhedrin Council (and all those mouthy corrupt religious-political “leaders”) would not have been a quick affair. Mark 14:56 told us, “For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.” That alone would’ve taken hours. Mark 14:57 says, “ there arose certain, and bare false witness against him…” They didn’t have people lined up to give their testimonies. This was a fluid, evolving process rather than a quick accusation and then He’s condemned.
The law demanded two or three matching testimonies by witnesses for the Council to be justified in condemning a person to death.
But they couldn’t find two witnesses that agreed with each other.
Even the liars couldn’t get their lies straight.
All of this took time. The council struggled mightily to establish a legally usable charge to condemn Him, and this naturally consumed a lot of time.
Consider also Mark 14:55 – “And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none.” Mark tells us these corrupt men were also actively seeking liars with matching testimonies so they’d have their justifiable cause to condemn Him, but they couldn’t find any.
This also took time.
Plus, they were spending time hearing a variety of testimonies that didn’t match up and those testimonies had to be tossed out for inconsistencies and they had to keep searching.
This took a lot of time.
This was not a quick affair. That trial must’ve taken all day.
Then there is Pilate (Matt. 27:2, 11-31; Mk. 15:1-20; Lk. 23:1-25; John 18:28-19:16).
When Christ is brought back to Pilate a second time and He officially rendered His judgment of condemnation – that happened at noon. Consider these verses:
Joh 19:14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour (noon): and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! Joh 19:15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
We know from Matthew what Pilate did after this. Mat 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Mat 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Mat 27:26 Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. (See also Luke 23:18-24)
The guilty verdict by Pilate was rendered around noon.
We already know from Mark 15:25 that Christ is on the cross at 9 a.m., the third hour.
This means that Christ did not immediately go to the cross after Pilate’s verdict. It was likely not until the next day that Christ would be crucified, which makes sense. Rome would need at least a day to prepare for this very public execution of three criminals.
What does all of this mean?
It means His trials took days, not hours.
We know from Exod. 12 that Passover begins when the lamb is selected on the first day. The people were to observe that lamb for 4 days. Then they had to sacrifice that lamb in the evening of the 4th day. They were to select the lamb on the 10th of Nisan, observe it until the evening of the 14th of Nisan, and then sacrifice that lamb.
I would just suggest that this period of observation for the Lord was not the time He spent in the temple before He was arrested. His period of observation were His trials, which probably took 3 days. Then He was on the cross on the 4th day.
This would also mean that the day the lamb was selected was the same day the Lord was arrested.
What about the Lord’s “triumphal entry?” Consider John 12:1, which says, “Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany…” I would suggest He came a week early before Passover even started and the lamb was selected on that first day. What Christians view as Passion Week in Scripture may have been the week prior to Passover. Don’t take my word. I may be wrong. I often am. Study it out.
If I’m wrong, then how could the Lord stand trial before the Sanhedrin Council starting at daybreak, go to Pilate, then Herod Jr., then Pilate again, and then have Pilate render his verdict at noon and yet – somehow the Lord is still on a cross by 9 a.m.?
There’s no way.
SUPPLY OF GRACE 
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