Why did Jesus die at 3pm instead of 2pm with the other Paschal Lambs slain on Friday Preparation Day before Passover?

Answer 1

A:

First of all, it is only in John's Gospel that Jesus is crucified on the Day of Preparation. In the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) he is crucified on the day of the Passover, with the Seder meal the previous night.

In Mark's Gospel, the first New Testament gospel to be written, the last twenty four hours in the life of Jesus were divinded into eight periods of just three hours each:

• "When it was evening", or approximately 6 pm, Jesus and the disciples began the Last Supper. The duration of the Passover meal was three hours and it concluded with the singing of a hymn. So at the end of his segment Mark noted, "And when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives". It was about 9 p.m. when Jesus and the disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane,
• His closest disciples, Peter, James and John, were not able to remain awake. "Could you not watch one hour?" Jesus asked. The process was repeated two more times. The disciples could not watch one, two or three hours. It was now midnight.
• The act of betrayal, the darkest deed in human history occurred at the stroke of midnight.
• Jesus was led away for a trial before the Sanhedrin. This governing body then judged him, on the basis of his messianic claim, to be worthy of death. It was 3:00 a.m.
• The watch of the night between 3 am and 6 am was called cockcrow. Mark now inserted his account of Peter's threefold denial of Jesus, once each hour until the cock crowed, marking the end of that phase of the night. That makes it 6 a.m.
• "As soon as it was morning", which would be 6 o'clock, Jesus was led by the chief priests, scribes and elders to Pontius Pilate for judgement.
• "It was the third hour", or 9 o'clock "when they crucified him".
• When "the sixth hour had come" (12 noon), as if on cue, darkness covered the whole earth for three hours, a counterpoint to the midnight betrayal.
• At the end of the three hours, at 3 p.m., Jesus said "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and gave up the ghost.
• Jesus was buried in the final period from 3 to 6 p.m., before the sun went down and the Sabbath began.

We can see from this table that the gospel structure would not have permitted Jesus to die at 2 PM. When the author of John's Gospel copied thisacount, he made two changes, first to place the crucifixion on the Day of Preparation and second to have the crucifixion take place at 12 noon, the sixth hour, but he left the hour of Jesus' death at 3 p.m.