Christ Himself said He would "be cut off" in the middle of the week.
That fixes his death on a Wednsday. He also Said "as Jonah was in the
whale's belly for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man
be in the bowels of the earth for three days and three nights."

Hi! Thanks for a very interesting question.

The Bible specifically says that Jesus died on a Friday and rose on a
Sunday.

"The Gospels  of Mark, Luke and John all make it clear that Jesus'
burial occurred shortly after His death on the day of “preparation”
(Friday) before the Sabbath (Saturday), and  ends at the sunset of
each day.  Mark 15:37-47; Luke 23:53-56; John 19:31. In order for
Jesus to  have been buried just before the Sabbath (Saturday), Jesus'
crucifixion could only have occurred on Friday."

"The Bible is clear that Jesus was crucified on the Passover Friday,
then buried later that (Friday) afternoon or evening before the
Sabbath  (Saturday), and then rose from the dead the first day of the
week (Sunday)."

As regards to to the reference to Jonah, this article also has an
explanation.

"In Old Testament the expression “one day and one night” was an idiom
used often by the Jews for a day, even when it was applied to only a
part of a day.'

"The Jewish reckoning of time is found in the Jewish Talmud and the
Babylonian Jerusalem Talmud (the commentaries of the Jews), said any
part, an “onan”, any part of the day is considered a full day. On
Friday before six o'clock by Jewish reckoning, any minute was
considered one day and one night. From Friday night at six o'clock to
Saturday at six o'clock, was another day and another night. From
Saturday night to Sunday a third day. Thus, Jesus was in the grave
part of Friday (a whole “natural day”), through all of Saturday (the
second day), and from Saturday at sunset a part of Sunday (the third
day)."

The Bible passages cited to reference the day of death and
resurrection of Jesus could also be found within this article.

"WHAT DAY DID JESUS DIE?"
http://www.letusreason.org/Doct10.htm

Our next article also refutes the Wednesday argument.

"Was Jesus crucified on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday?"
http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/pasover.htm

Search terms used:        
Jesus died friday evidence
            
I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.
            
Thanks for visiting us.             
            
Regards,             
Easterangel-ga             
Google Answers Researcher

---

Clarification of Answer by easterangel-ga on 20 Apr 2003 06:33 PDT

Hi again! I forgot to discuss the point of view of the terms "be cut
off" and "middle of the week". Such phrases can actually be found in
the Old Testament in Daniel 9:26-27.

"Daniel 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut
off [NKJV: Messiah shall be cut off], but not for himself: and the
people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end
of the war desolations are determined.

"27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in
the midst [NKJV: middle] of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and
the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he
shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that
determined shall be poured upon the desolate."

It is the basis for the Wednesday Crucifixion argument. The following
article supports this point of view.

"GOOD FRIDAY - GOOD DISCOVERY"
http://www.cw.co.za/explore/exfriday.htm

Thanks!

I rate this answer high because the researcher was not afraid to risk
his reputation on a MOOT question, and his research was very useful to
me, although it burst my bubble.  I thought that my conclusion was
exclusive.

HI ! Toughlover ga. If you go back into the jewish texts, you will
find that jesus died on Nisan 14 in the jewish calendah. whem compared
with the calendah we use today, it can vary from year to year. for
example, this year Nisan 14 fell on April 16. The bible states that
Jesus requested that we remember his sacrifice. Luke 22;19, Jesus said
" Keep doing this in remembrance of me". The Jews celebrated the
Passover annually and it was as a Jew that Jesus was celebrating the
Passover on that evening. first Corinthians 11;25, mentions Jesus` new
covenant, where he did away with the jewish tradition that had been in
operation for fifteen hundred years since Abraham and Moses, This
simple new covenant says love God, and love your neighbour as
yourself. Up to now, we have failed that order. The scripture at
Daniel 9: 24 to 26 is a prophecy leading to the birth and eventual
death of Jesus. the seventy weeks and later on the sixty two weeks are
" weeks of years" totaling 2,250 years. this started when the jews
were released from Babylon and were granted permission to return to
Jerusalem to rebuild their temple. The Jewish leaders knew of this
prophecy pover all those many years and were actually in expectation
of Jesus` arrival at the time he was born. what they did not realize
was that Jesus would live a simple life as a carpenter until he was
thirty, and then he began his evangelizing. The latter half of Daniel
9:27 states Jesus will cause sacrifice and sin offering to cease. this
refers to the traditions of the long standing jewish faith. They still
carry on even today but if they were following Jesus correctly, they
should not, according to that scripture.

Hi Hipugwashjw
I agreewith your observation. Ilthough I give high marks to
EasterAngel for the great research I have not yet switched views
because of the following observations.  1.  I was not impressed with
the parsing of why the alusion to the Jonah 3 day vacation did not
sustain.  In addition even if the Jews treated any part of a day as a
full day, this practice would be overridden by the stipulation of the
number of nights too.  If I say meet me in an hour.  You naturally may
meet me in one hour and 5 minutes.  However, if I say meet me in 55
minutes, I just conditioned you to be there at the exact time.

Therefore any logical pearson could conclude that Christ specifically
included the number of nights, in order to preclude the ambiguity,
because he knew the gravity of those last days and infact those last
seconds... watch my comments to EasterAngel for more...