What day and what time did Jesus die on the cross?

Answer 1

The day was Friday, and The Bible says it got dark from the sixth hour until about the ninth hour. Daytime hours were measured from dawn, so the first hour was 6:00 AM. The sixth hour was, thus, 12:00 PM, and three hours later, at 3:00 PM, Jesus "gave up the Ghost."

There is still no consensus of the year in which Jesus died, but if the Gospels are taken at face value, the three hours of darkness was surely a lunar eclipse. No solar eclipse lasts for more than 7 and a half minutes, and the moon takes precisely one hour to cover the sun, which means the sun would be covered for about 2 hours. This does not match the darkness's apparent suddenness, as the Gospels suggest. Neither did any solar eclipses around the end of the first third of the 1st Century AD match the time of Passover (in spring).

A lunar eclipse would have been considered an event of darkness, even if the daylight were still sufficient for visibility. Peter mentions in Acts 2:20 that "the moon became as blood," during the Crucifixion. This implies a lunar eclipse, and these can be tracked with mathematical precision.

Given that Jesus died on the day before the Sabbath of the Passover, which means what many Christians now call "Good Friday," the only lunar eclipse of the first third of the 1st Century that took place on the day before the Passover Feast began (Good Friday) occurred in the year 33 AD, on Friday, April 3. If this is so, he was born in 1 AD (there is no year 0).

Given the Bible's penchant for numerological significance, this date seems even stronger, in view of 3 being the number of the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit); thus the three 3s of "Friday, April 3, 33 AD." But then, the years of BC and AD were first arrived at by Dionysius Exiguus, who lived from 470 to 544 AD, and he may have been influenced by the same biblical numerology.

The date of April, 33 AD has been corroborated by 3 different teams of astronomers. The use of astronomy to pinpoint the date of Jesus's death was first proposed by Sir Isaac newton.
No one knows for sure, but one day, date and time that a lot of biblical scholars feel is right is 3:00 PM, Friday, April 3rd, AD 37.

Answer 2

A:This is best answered from the Gospel of Mark, which was the original gospel on which the others were directly or indirectly based. Mark takes its readers through the events following the last supper in eight intervals of just three hours each.

• We start with the Last Supper, which began "when it was evening" (Mark 14:17), or when the sun went down: approximately 6 pm.
• Mark knew that the duration of the Passover meal was three hours and that it concluded with the singing of a hymn, so the first thing Jesus did was to sing a hymn with his disciples. Then Mark says, "And when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives". It was about 9 p.m.
• Mark then has Jesus and the disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went to pray. His 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, came next, occurring at the stroke of midnight.
• At 3:00 a.m., Jesus was led away for a trial before the high priest and other senior priests and elders. This governing body then judged him, on the basis of his messianic claim, to be worthy of death.
• The watch of the night between 3 am and 6 am was called cockcrow. Peter's threefold denial of Jesus, once each hour until the cock crowed, marked the end of that phase of the night. That makes it 6 am.
• "As soon as it was morning", which would be 6 am, Jesus was led by the chief priests, scribes and elders to Pontius Pilate for judgement.
• "It was the third hour when they crucified him," that is, 9 o'clock.
• When "the sixth hour had come" (12 noon), darkness covered the whole earth, reflecting the betrayal at 12 midnight.
• After three hours of darkness, at 3 p.m., Jesus cried out and gave up the ghost.
• Joseph of Arimathea then asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that he could be buried before the Sabbath began. Jesus was buried in the final period from 3 to 6 pm, before the sun went down.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke follow Mark more or less faithfully. For theological reasons, John makes some changes, including Jesus being sent for crucifixion at the sixth hour - 12 noon.

Answer 3

Mark's Gospel contains the most well-structured account of the last twenty-four hours of the life of Jesus, organised into exactly eight three-hour segments.

• The story of the events directly leading up to the crucifixion begins the day of the Passover feast, which for Jesus would be the Last Supper, "when it was evening" (14:17). In this ancient world without electricity this would mean when the sun went down, or approximately 6 pm.
• Mark knew that the duration of the Passover meal was three hours and that it concluded with the singing of a hymn. So at the end of his segment he noted, "And when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives". It was obviously about 9 p.m.
• Mark then has Jesus and the disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where 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, came next, occurring at the stroke of midnight.
• Jesus was led away for a trial before the high priest and other senior priests and elders. 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 am.
• "As soon as it was morning", which would be 6 am, Jesus was led by the chief priests, scribes and elders to Pontius Pilate for judgement.
• Mark told his readers once again that this drama has been shaped liturgically, saying, " It was the third hour," or 9 am "when they crucified him".
• When "the sixth hour had come" (12 noon), as if on cue, darkness covered the whole earth.
• After three hours of darkness, Jesus said "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At 3 pm, Jesus gave up the ghost.
• Jesus was buried in the final period from 3 to 6 pm, before the sun went down. That brings us to 6 pm on Friday evening. The holy sabbath had arrived.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke followed the major events from Mark more or less faithfully, and so agree with Mark's timetable of events.

Answer 4

3pm