Easter Week Chronology
6 days before Passover
Friday – Nisan 8 – late afternoon - Jesus arrives in Bethany from Jericho
Friday – Nisan 9 – sunset – Sabbath supper at home of Simon
5 days before Passover
Saturday – Nisan 9 – Sabbath - Jesus rests in Bethany; multitudes come from all over to see Jesus and Lazarus; chief priests and Pharisees plot to arrest both Jesus and Lazarus
4 days before Passover
Sunday – Nisan 10 – Palm Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem; lambs selected for Passover; Jesus cleanses Temple for the 2nd time
3 days before Passover
Monday – Nisan 11 – Jesus teaches the multitudes
2 days before Passover
Tuesday – Nisan 12 – Jesus’ denunciation of Jerusalem; Mt. Olivet discourse
1 day before Passover
Wednesday – Nisan 13 - no record in Gospels how Jesus spent the day; possibly in Bethany and last night spent there
Wednesday – Nisan 14 – at sunset Jews begin to search their homes with candles for leaven
Passover
Thursday – Nisan 14 – morning – no leaven eaten after 10:00 a.m.
Thursday – Nisan 14 –noon– leaven ceremonially destroyed by burning or by dispersing to the winds; Regular evening sacrifice moved up to just past noon to allow for time for multitude of paschal Sacrifices through the afternoon
Thursday – Nisan 14 – afternoon – lambs sacrificed from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Seder prepared
1st Day of Unleavened Bread
Thursday – Nisan 15 – evening – Seder eaten (roasted Passover lamb and 1st Passover Chagigah eaten {breast and shoulder of voluntary thank-offering}); the Lord's Supper instituted
Thursday – Nisan 15 – night – Jesus arrested, brought before priests and elders
Friday – Nisan 15 – morning – Jesus brought before Pilate
Friday – Nisan 15 – 9:00 in the morning – Jesus crucified
Friday – Nisan 15 – 12:00 noon– darkness
Friday – Nisan 15 – 3:00 in the afternoon – Jesus dies
Friday – Nisan 15 – late afternoon – Jesus' body placed in tomb
Friday - Nisan 15 - before sunset women purchase and prepare spices for Jesus' burial (festival sabbaths allowed certain work necessary for preparation for the feasts, shops were allowed to be open to provide pilgrims with necessary items to keep the feast); High Sabbath preparations were made as no work could be done on the regular weekly Sabbath, not even work necessary to prepare for a feast, thus a High Day in that the weekly Sabbath commandments superceded festival commandments)
Sabbath 7th Day of Week (a "High Day") 2nd Day of Unleavened Bread
Friday – Nisan 16 – sunset – High Sabbath begins (2nd feast at which mandatory 2nd Passover Chagigah (voluntary thank-offering) is eaten which Pharisees would have been excluded from eating had they become defiled that morning)
Friday – Nisan 16 – night – women rest
Saturday – Nisan 16 – Sabbath – women rest
Saturday - Nisan 17 - night - Rabbinic Law required that work not be resumed during night following Shabbat
1st Day of the Week (1st Day of Feast of Weeks-concludes on Pentecost)
Sunday – Nisan 17 – morning early – women come to tomb, Jesus is risen
Primary Sources: The New Testament; Talmudic Tractate "Pesachim," Josephus "Antiquities."
Secondary Sources: The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim; The Temple and It's Services, Alfred Edersheim; Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, Joachim Jeremias; Sketches of Jewish Social Life, Alfred Edersheim; Daily Life in Bible Times, Packer/Tenney/White; Manner and Customs of Bible Times, Ralph Gower, Jesus and His Word, John J. Rousseau and Rami Arav; Excavating Jesus, John Dominic Crossan & Jonathan L. Reed; In the Steps of Jesus, Peter Walker; The Archeology of the New Testament, Jack Finegan; The Trial of Jesus, Walter M Chandler; and many more