Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 69:276 (Oct 1912)
Article: Problems Of The Passion Week
Author: Dean Alfred Martin Haggard

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BSac 69:276 (Oct 1912) p. 664

Problems Of The Passion Week

Dean Alfred Martin Haggard1

, Des Moines, Iowa

“What biblical task would you place before them, if you wished to break down the brightest and best students of all the graduating classes in all the schools of theology of the world for fourteen years in succession?”2 I might not find a question which would do this, but I would try them out on the problems of the Passion Week. I know of nothing more intricate — nothing closer to the realm of the hopeless. I say this after some years of special study in this particular field, and after many years of hard work upon the most difficult problems in the Bible.

In a way as brief and plain and simple as possible, allow me to state the results of my work.

I find that Jesus arose from the dead on a First Day of the week — the day so well known to us as Sunday or the Lord’s Day. This first Lord’s Day differed from its companions of the present time by having both its beginning and its ending determined by the setting of the sun.3 According to Jewish custom, this was true of all their days till the Roman custom of counting from midnight to midnight began to claim a place.4

At what hour of this great day was the stone rolled away? At what hour did Jesus come forth from the tomb? The Gospels clearly and certainly call for an early morning hour.

BSac 69:276 (Oct 1912) p. 665

If the resurrection of our Lord took place between three and four o’clock, we would speak of it as the fourth hour of the day. With the Jews it would have been the tenth hour. I know of no hour which more completely meets the demands of all the facts in the case.

At what hour was the crucified body of our Lord placed in the sepulcher by Joseph and Nicodemus? Since the death upon the cross occurred at or near three o’clock in the afternoon, the hour of interment must be fixed later — enough later to give time for several events mentioned in the records. Since the Sabbath began at or near six o’clock and prevented the Galilean women from taking their part in the embalming of the body, though they did have time for some preparation after their return from the burial; and since the embalming conducted by the men must have taken a little time, the hour of interment must be placed an hour, or the larger part of an hour, before six. The time most probable for the interment was at five o’clock.

How many hours did the grave hold the body of Jes...

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