1.    After Christ was resurrected, when were visits made to the tomb?

“And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun,” Mark 16:1, 2.

2.    Of what one thing in particular were they talking among themselves, as they went to the sepulcher?

“And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?” verse 3.

3.    What did they discover when they arrived at the tomb?

“And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great,” verse 4.

4.    Did they find the body of Jesus, or had He left the tomb some time before this?

“He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him,” verse 6.

5.    As the above verse says, Christ was gone from the tomb early the first day of the week. What does the other witness, Luke, say?

“Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre . . . . And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus,” Luke 24:1-3.

6.    The evidence according to both Mark and Luke, is that Christ was gone when these visits were made. What does John testify on this subject?

“The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene . . . and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them. They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him,” John 20:1-2.

7.    As these three gospels, Mark, Luke and John, all agree that when the visitors came to the tomb early the first day of the week, the stone at the door of the sepulcher was already rolled away. Christ was then resurrected and gone. What evidence have we as to the time when this stone was rolled away, and when Christ was really resurrected?

“In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.  And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightening, and his raiment white as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women,  Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.  He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” Matthew 28:1-6.

8.    The earthquake occurred, the angels descended, and the stone was rolled away in the end of the Sabbath. The events of Christ’s resurrection occurred at this time. Christ Himself tells us, in Matthew 12:40, that the only sign He would give the world that He was the Messiah, was that He would be in the earth three days and three nights. Upon what day of the week would the crucifixion and burial have taken place?

NOTE: Three days and three nights before the end of the Sabbath (which is the day before the first day of the week, and therefore Saturday) count backwards from Saturday night three days and three nights. This takes us to Wednesday.

9.    When did the prophet Daniel say Christ would be crucified, or cut off?

“And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,” Daniel 9:27.

NOTE: While the week here has a prophetical meaning, and application with the seventy weeks, it also has a literal significance, and to this prophecy is given a two-fold meaning, as is the case with the seven heads of the beast in Revelation 17:9, 10.

Evidence From Astronomy

The next day after the full moon was always the Passover. It was the 14th day of the Jewish month Nisan. “It was coincident with the Passover,” Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Leviticus 23:5.

This year, A.D. 31, it fell on Wednesday. On this day Christ was crucified and laid in the tomb. “It was the preparation of the passover,” or “high day” festival sabbath, John 19:14, 31, which came on the 15th of Nisan, Leviticus 23:6, 7.

Jesus was alive and the tomb empty “In the end of the Sabbath,” Matthew 28:1-7. “Late on the Sabbath,” Revised version, He was in the tomb “Three days and three nights,” Matthew 12:40.

Count back three days and three nights from “Late on the Sabbath” and we have Wednesday evening the time of his burial. Thus God’s great time-piece, the Heavens, Genesis 1:14; Psalm 19:1, speaking through the unerring science of Astronomy, confirms the Bible record of the time of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

10.    Isn’t it a fact according to John 19:31, that Christ was crucified the day before a Sabbath? The text reads:

“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day (for that sabbath day was an high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away,” John 19:31.

11.    Was this the weekly Sabbath, or the Passover Sabbath, which was called the high day Sabbath?

“For that sabbath day was a high day,” verse 31.

“And it was the preparation of the passover,” verse 14.

12.    How did the Passover Sabbath originate?

“In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord,” Leviticus 23:5, 6.

13.    How long was this feast of unleavened bread to continue?

“Seven days ye must eat unleavened bread,” verse 6 last part of verse.

14.    What is said of the first day of this feast, which was the fifteenth day of this month?

“In the first day [first day of the feast], ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein,” verse 7.

NOTE: This fifteenth day of the month is kept as a Sabbath. The day before was the passover, when the lamb without blemish was slain and offered as a sacrifice for the sins of the people, Exodus 12:3-6. This lamb was a true type of Christ who is so often mentioned as the lamb of God. Christ was also crucified on the passover, which was the fourteenth day of this month, the same day the lamb had for hundreds of years been slain. The day after Christ’s crucifixion, therefore, would be the passover Sabbath, or the high day Sabbath.