Episode 1: Tell Me About Easter “Chiman, Dalia and Fallacy”…

Here’s a story that explains how the events of “Good Friday” actually happened on a Wednesday.

Episode 1: Tell Me About Easter

“Chiman, Dalia and Fallacy”
By Ernie Cantu ©2020

This is a dialogue about how the events of “Good Friday” actually happened on a Wednesday, explained using logic, reason and scripture to prove it. The dialogues are numbered for purposes of citations.

1. Chiman: I’m curious. Tell me about Easter.

2. Fallacy: It’s about children hunting for colored eggs hidden by the Easter Bunny.

3. Dalia: It’s about the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

4. Fallacy: Yes, that too. Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and resurrected on the morning of Easter Sunday.

5. Dalia: No. It didn’t go quite like that.

6. Chiman: Isn’t there something about three days?

7. Fallacy: Yes, Jesus said that he would be dead for three days and resurrected on the third day.

8. Dalia: No, that is NOT what Jesus said. Per Matthew 12:40, Jesus said that he would be sacrificed and THEN would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

9. Fallacy: Same thing. Like I said, three days. 1. Good Friday. 2. The Saturday Sabbath. And 3. Easter Sunday. Three days.

10. Chiman: But something doesn’t seem to add up right. From Friday to Saturday makes one day, and from Saturday to Sunday makes a second day. Where is the third day?

11. Fallacy: There’s an explanation for that. Back then, counting PART of a day meant counting that as a whole day. So, Friday night is part of Friday, Day One. All of Saturday is Day Two. Sunday morning is part of Sunday, Day Three. That totals three days, just like I said, just like Jesus said.

12. Chiman: Oh, okay. That makes sense now, I think.

13. Dalia: Jesus said that he would spend specifically three days AND three nights in the heart of the earth, not parts of three days, just like Jonah who spent three days AND three nights in the belly of a sea creature, not parts of three days.

14. Fallacy: There’s an explanation for that. When Jesus said “three days and three nights” he didn’t really mean “three days and three nights.” Instead, it was a phrase that meant generally three days, and that means parts of days count as whole days. Tradition has always held to the span from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Dalia, are you trying to say that the whole world has been wrong for over 2000 years? What are you going to do, say that all of history has been wrong? You’re just one person in this whole world.

15. Dalia: Yes.

16. Fallacy: What! There’s no way you can be right in this. Tradition and all of history is against you.

17. Dalia: I’m saying that others of us would rather believe in the truth of the word of the bible rather than in the invention of Good Friday. It’s evident if you would just open your bible and read it! Every time you use the phrase “all of history” or the phrase “the whole world,” you are assuming something that isn’t true. YOU are wrong, and your sources are wrong. That tradition of Good Friday has been wrong. Despite what you were told, there is a reason why “everyone in the whole world” doesn’t believe in that tradition, and that tradition hasn’t been going on for “all of history.”

18. Fallacy: You sound very blasphemous right now. Good Friday is a well established religious holiday. It has been for very many years. I have already explained how it works. And it works. It has always worked. It doesn’t just stop working because you feel like it should stop working because you just deny it.

19. Chiman: I don’t get it. What do you mean?

20. Dalia: Good Friday DOESN’T work! I can explain and explain it completely, but only if you’re willing to listen.

21. Fallacy: I don’t get what you mean either. Go ahead, attempt your explanation. This will be entertaining.

22. Dalia: Let’s start out with days in general. Back in the time of Jesus, days – like the twenty-four-hour periods of days – went from sunset to sunset. At sunset, one day ended and a new day began, just like at midnight in our present culture. Except the days changed at sunset instead of at midnight.

23. Fallacy: I know that. So what.

24. Chiman: That’s confusing to me.

25. Dalia: A day began with the period that we call evening. Think of Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Those happen at the evening before the holiday. Christmas Eve is the EVEning before Christmas Day. New Year’s Eve is the EVEning before New Year’s Day. So, back then the evening was the eve at the beginning of each twenty-four-hour day. Each day started with sunset and the evening and went on into the night time. When the sun came up, the daylight time started, but it was still part of the same twenty-four-hour day as it had been after the previous sunset which had started the evening and night time. When the sun came up, day time started but the day itself was already halfway through. The last half of the whole day was all of the daylight hours up until sunset which was when the day ended and the next day started.

26. Chiman: Okay, I get it. EVE’ning was the eve-part of the day, and that was the beginning part of the day. After midnight and after sunrise was still the same day. One whole day consisted of the night time and then the day time, the night hours plus the daylight hours, from sunset to sunset.

27. Dalia: Yes!

28. Fallacy: That’s old history. What does that have to do with anything?

29. Dalia: Joseph of Aremathea didn’t want to have Jesus up on the cross during a Sabbath. He wanted to take the dead body of Christ down from the cross and have the body placed inside his own unused tomb before the Sabbath started. Right, Fallacy?

30. Fallacy: Yes. That’s what the bible says. And? Get to your point.

31. Dalia: Each day started at sunset. Crucifixion Day ended at sunset, and the Sabbath started at that sunset. That means Joseph of Aremathea buried Jesus just before sunset, just before the very end of the Crucifixion Day, according to how they figured days back then, from sunset to sunset. You see?

32. Fallacy: I know all this. What are you getting at?

33. Chiman: That means Friday night doesn’t count! Jesus was buried at the END of Friday, just before sunset, so Friday doesn’t count!

34. Dalia: Chiman, you’re getting closer. From the book of Matthew, Chapter 12, Verses 38 to 40, we know that Jesus said that he would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He meant three days and three nights BURIED inside the earth, or buried inside the tomb. The time that he was on the cross and dead was not part of the time in the heart of the earth.

35. Chiman: Jesus wasn’t in the tomb on Friday! He was in the tomb all of Saturday and part of Sunday, but none of Friday! I get it now!

36. Fallacy: There’s an explanation for that. Jesus was buried in the tomb on Friday, yes at the tail end of Friday, but, even if it was just a few minutes, technically he was buried in the tomb for PART of Friday. So Friday DOES count. I’m still at three days, Dalia. I think you’re just making stuff up.

37. Chiman: Wait a minute. Now, I don’t get it again. Two days are three days? I think I’m confused again.

38. Dalia: Chiman, you’re less confused than you think you are.

39. Fallacy: You’re not making any sense, Dalia. Jesus said three days, not two days. You’re down by one day.

40. Dalia: No, from Friday to Sunday was YOUR idea, not mine. In Matthew 12:38-40 and in Matthew 16:4, Jesus said that the only sign that he would give to prove that he was the Messiah was the sign of the prophet Jonah. You think he would leave his greatest sign of resurrecting from the death after three days to depend on trusting in a technicality? No! YOU are the one who is down by at least one day. I’m not finished yet.

41. Fallacy: My explanation works for three days. Dalia, it isn’t even MY explanation; it’s the world’s explanation. Your fantasy explanation makes things worse than mine.

42. Chiman: He’s got a point, Dalia. You’re BOTH at two days instead of three.

43. Fallacy: What do you mean BOTH of us?

44. Chiman: Sunset to sunset. She’s got you on that one. You don’t get to count Friday. So, Dalia, where’s your missing day?

45. Dalia: Like I said, I’m not finished yet. Jesus said that he would spend THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS in the heart of the earth. The day after Crucifixion Day was a Sabbath. You follow me on that?

46. Fallacy and Chiman: Yeah.

47. Fallacy: And?

48. Dalia: Jesus was in the tomb all of the night time for that Sabbath day and all of the day time for that Sabbath day. Out of three days and three nights, so far we have accounted for one day and one night in the heart of the earth.

49. Chiman: I see what you’re getting at. Saturday is one day and one night, sunset to sunset. And Sunday is only one night, sunset to sunrise. There is no Sunday day time in the tomb. Now we’re at one and a half days. Fallacy, she’s chopping your days up. Now you’re at one and a half days instead of three. Dalia, I hope you have more to say, because you only have half of the time that you started with.

50. Fallacy: I count parts of days, Friday too. She doesn’t. I still have three days. She doesn’t. She hasn’t proved anything.

51. Dalia: What happened on Palm Sunday?

52. Fallacy: What does that have to do with anything?

53. Dalia: It has everything to do with what we’re discussing. So, what happened on Palm Sunday?

54. Fallacy: Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a colt, which was the foal of a donkey, while the people of Jerusalem placed palm branches on his path. This is described in the book of Matthew, Chapter 21, Verses 1 through 11, and fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah in the book of Zechariah Chapter 9, Verse 9. I know my stuff, Dalia.

55. Chiman: You’re pretty good, Fallacy. I think you might win this.

56. Fallacy: There’s nothing to win. Dalia’s talking gibberish.

57. Dalia: Fallacy, since you know so much, tell me what happened over the Passover.

58. Fallacy: I don’t understand what you’re getting at, Dalia, but I’ll oblige. The Passover started at sunset, as you were saying, because days went from sunset to sunset. That Passover evening, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. That Passover night, Judas betrayed Jesus. At Passover sunrise Jesus was on trial. That Passover day Jesus was scourged and crucified. Then Joseph of Aremathea came into the picture DURING A PART OF FRIDAY, just before the Saturday Sabbath. That’s what happened on the Passover. That’s all common knowledge, Dalia. What’s your point.

59. Dalia: Fallacy, now tell me about John 12:1.

60. Fallacy: Easy. You think I don’t know this? Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Same thing in Luke 7:36-50, where Simon the Leper, a Pharisee, invites Jesus to his house in Bethany. Jesus went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.

61. Dalia: Six days before what?

62. Fallacy: The Passover!

63. Chiman: Fallacy, I think she means Friday.

64. Dalia: EXACTLY, Chiman! Fallacy thinks the Passover was on Friday.

65. Fallacy: Of course it was! That’s why they call it “Good Friday”. Dalia, you’re getting nowhere.

66. Dalia: Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Simon’s house in Bethany. What day of the week do you think it was when Jesus came to Bethany?

67. Chiman: Six days before Good Friday? One day before is Thursday. 2; Wednesday. 3; Tuesday. 4; Monday. 5; Sunday. Six days before Friday is a Saturday.

68. Dalia: Fallacy, any objections to that?

69. Fallacy: No. That makes sense to me, Dalia. As I said, and your point is?

70. Dalia: Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany. If Passover was on your Good Friday, then Jesus traveled to Bethany on a Saturday Sabbath. Can’t you see the error in thinking like this? Do you really think Jesus did any traveling from one city to another city on a Sabbath? A Friday Passover doesn’t work.

71. Fallacy: There’s an explanation for that!

72. Dalia: Really, Fallacy? Jesus traveling on a Sabbath? There is NO excuse.

73. Chiman: She’s got you on that one.

74. Fallacy: There IS an explanation for that. Of course, he didn’t travel on the Sabbath. Jesus traveled during the day on Friday and got to Bethany just before sunset. Then he settled in at Simon’s house on that Friday evening. He didn’t do any traveling on a Saturday Sabbath.

75. Dalia: You mean Saturday evening.

76. Fallacy: Yes. He got to Bethany on Friday, but at the very end of Friday. So Friday technically didn’t count. Six WHOLE days before the Passover puts it at the very beginning of Saturday, which is the very end of Friday, before the start of the Sabbath. See, Dalia? It STILL works. Give it up.

77. Chiman: Fallacy, you’re squirming.

78. Dalia: Okay, so it works for you. Jesus gets to Bethany at the end of Friday. And, you say that’s “technically” six days instead of seven days before the Passover, because you DO NOT count that tiny part of Friday that is before the Sabbath. Otherwise it would have to be seven days before the Sabbath instead of six days. Is that what you’re saying.

79. Fallacy: Precisely. It’s about time you’re saying something that makes sense.

80. Dalia: And yet, Joseph of Aremathea buried Jesus just before the start of the Sabbath, but in this case you DO want to include that tiny PART of the day before the Sabbath, so that you can have three days instead of two days. So, sometimes you DON’T want to include Friday, and sometimes you DO want to include Friday.

81. Chiman: Wait a minute. Fallacy, you can’t have it both ways. That small PART of Friday before the Saturday Sabbath has to be either counted as a whole day in both accounts or in neither one of those accounts. No wonder this is so confusing.

82. Dalia: Fallacy, if you say that Joseph of Aremathea placed Jesus in the tomb on Friday and you count that as part of your three days, then you either have to change the bible from six days before Passover to seven days before Passover for Friday travels, OR you have to say that it really was six days and Jesus traveled from city to city during the Sabbath.

83. Chiman: Oooh! Good one, Dalia.

84. Dalia: On the other hand, if you don’t include Jesus’s travel time on Friday, just so that you get your count of six days instead of seven days, then you also have to not count your Friday Crucifixion Day in your total of three days before resurrection.

85. Chiman: Oh! Bam! Fallacy’s squirming big time now!

86. Fallacy: I don’t know! Okay? Tradition says Jesus died on Good Friday and was resurrected three days later on Easter Sunday. That’s just what it is! That’s what I’m told to believe. I don’t have to know why.

87. Chiman: Oh, the Fallacy Man is down for the count.

88. Fallacy: Do you think you can do better? Dalia, you haven’t proved anything!

89. Dalia: Luke 23:54-56 says that funeral spices were prepared BEFORE a Sabbath.

90. Fallacy: I already said that. Fridaaaaay, before the Saturday Sabbath.

91. Dalia: Correct Fallacy.

92. Fallacy: I told you. Wait, what? You agree with me? It’s about time.

93. Dalia: But Mark 16:1 says that spices were prepared AFTER a Sabbath! You can’t ignore the parts of the bible that don’t fit your belief.

94. Fallacy: There’s an explanation for that. Where it says “after a Sabbath,” it doesn’t really mean “after a Sabbath.” What it really means is “before a S—“

95. Dalia: Cut it, Fallacy! There are TWO Sabbaths, one on Saturday after the day of preparing the spices and one Thursday before that same Friday of preparing the spices. No one would go buy spices after the Saturday Sabbath when they found out that Jesus was already resurrected. The spices were purchased and prepared on Friday. From Thursday evening, you can count three days, 1. Friday evening, 2. Saturday evening, 3. Sunday evening. So Jesus likely came back to life shortly after Sunday evening, the evening after the Friday sunset, but the resurrection did happen at some point that night.

96. Fallacy: Hold on! You can’t just make stuff up. They had Sabbaths on every Saturday and, what, Sabbaths on every Thursday, too? I’m laughing at you, Dalia!

97. Dalia: Listen very closely. When the barley at the temple in ancient Israel is ripe, it is called abib, or aviv. When the barley seed is almost abib, or is almost ripe, people wait for the first sighting of a visible moon after a new moon. When two witnesses observe a sliver of a crescent moon, that night marks the EVE of the first day of the month of Abib, or the month when barley is ripe enough to harvest. Abib is now called Nisan. Since the Exodus from Egypt, per Exodus 12:2 Abib/Nisan is the first month of the year. Before the Babylonian captivity, the name of the first month of the year was called Abib, a Canaanite word meaning the barley seeds have reached full size and are filled with starch, but have not dried yet. After the Babylonian captivity, the month of Abib was renamed to the Babylonian word Nisan, like in Nehemiah 2:1 and Esther 3:7. When daylight comes, it is the first day of the month of Abib, or the First of Nisan. Per Exodus 12:6, The 14th of Nisan is Passover. Per Joshua 5:11, Passover is NOT a Sabbath. Passover is not the 15th day of the month. The 14th and 15th days of Nisan are a half a month after the first sighting of the sliver of the moon, so the moon is at or near being a full moon on the 14th and 15th days of Nisan. There can be no solar eclipse during a full moon, only during a new moon. The 15th day of Nisan is the first day after Passover and is a Special High Sabbath…Leviticus 23:4-8, Joshua 5:11, Matthew 27:62. The first day after Passover is the first day of a holy holiday week called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and that first day after Passover is a Sabbath day called a Special High Sabbath. The Crucifixion was on a Passover. Therefore, the day after the Crucifixion was not a weekly Sabbath but rather a Special High Sabbath day that started at sunset after the afternoon of the Crucifixion. In John 19:31, John even says, “that Sabbath day was a high day.” No spices could be purchased on this Thursday Special High Sabbath. The day after the Thursday Sabbath was a Friday. Friday was not a Sabbath day and spices could be purchased and prepared. Per Luke 23:54-56, after the spices were prepared, people rested over the Saturday weekly Sabbath.

98. Chiman: Now this is getting too heavy for me. Way over my head.

99. Dalia: We’re almost there. Just a bit more.

100. Chiman: Okay.

101. Fallacy: For the record, you lost me too. This is too complicated, so I disagree.

102. Dalia: Let’s go backwards. It’s easier to explain that way. Jesus was resurrected on Resurrection Sunday. He was resurrected before sunrise on Resurrection Sunday. Jesus was resurrected at some point in time during that Sunday night before the Sunday daylight. We don’t know when except that it was during this night. It could have been towards the beginning of that night or it could have been towards the end of that night, but when the women got to the tomb just before sunrise, the resurrection had already happened.

103. Fallacy: No disagreement there.

104. Dalia: In the total three days and three nights, Sunday doesn’t count.

105. Fallacy: Yes, it does. Has to count.

106. Dalia: All of the daylight of three days and all of the nights of three days. Three days and three nights. Sunday doesn’t count. Saturday-daytime and the Saturday-night before that, Jesus is in the tomb one day and one night during the Saturday Sabbath.

107. Chiman: Okay. Gotcha so far.

108. Dalia: Now let’s talk about that Friday. Per Luke 23:54-56, the funeral spices are purchased and prepared on Friday, BEFORE the weekly Saturday Sabbath. The spices won’t be taken to the tomb yet. This Friday is not a Sabbath. Purchasing spices is allowed on this day. This Friday marks the second day and second night in the tomb. And, per Mark 16:1, the funeral spices are purchased and prepared on Friday, the Friday AFTER a Thursday Special High Sabbath. Jesus is in the tomb, in the heart of the earth, all of Saturday, all of Friday, and all of the daylight of Thursday and, before that, all of the night time of Thursday, all the way backwards to the start of the eve of Thursday. Thursday marks three days and three nights in the tomb. Therefore, Jonah’s prophecy is fulfilled exactly as it was worded. Thursday, being a Special High Sabbath, is the 15th day of Nisan. That means the day before the 15th of Nisan is the Passover, on a Wednesday. Still working backwards, the start of Thursday is the start of the Special High Sabbath. This sabbath is the reason that Joseph of Aremathea was rushing at the end of the Wednesday Passover day. The sunset between the Passover and the Special High Sabbath marked the time when Jesus was placed in the tomb. So during the day on Wednesday, the 14th of Nisan, Jesus suffers on the cross. The night before the Crucifixion is still Wednesday, the eve of Wednesday, and is still the Passover. Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper on this evening and night of the Wednesday Passover, the 14th of Nisan. On Sunday, the 11th of Nisan, Jesus enters Jerusalem for Palm Sunday. On Thursday, the 8th day of Nisan, Jesus travels to Bethany, which is not on a Sabbath and is six days before the Wednesday Passover. Done. Everything works, exactly as scripture dictates.

109. Chiman: Mind blown. Poof!

110. Dalia: Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday. He was placed in the tomb just before a Thursday Special High Sabbath. Three nights and three days later, Jesus is resurrected at some time during the night before Sunday’s sunrise. The sacrifice of the perfect lamb saves us all.

111. Chiman: You covered EVERYTHING! Amazing!

112. Dalia: What do you think, Fallacy?

113. Fallacy: What? I wasn’t listening. It’s Good Friday, Sabbath Saturday, and Resurrection Sunday, as tradition says.

End Episode 1: Tell Me About Easter
“Chiman, Dalia and Fallacy”
By Ernie Cantu ©2020