FS-101 - A Timeline of Passion Week & the Resurrection
- Description
- Curriculum
- Reviews
- Grade
For centuries the Church has taught that Jesus Christ was crucified on “Good Friday,” but a careful, Scripture-first examination of Passion Week tells a different story. This course walks through the Jewish Passover and the calendars in use in the first century — Julian, solar, lunar, and lunisolar — before working systematically through the Gospel accounts, the early church fathers, and the development of the Easter/Passover disconnect at the Council of Nicaea. Anchored by a detailed day-by-day harmony of the Gospels covering Passion Week through Resurrection Sunday, the course builds a careful case that Christ was crucified on a Thursday, not a Friday, and shows why the timing matters for taking Christ’s own words about “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” seriously. This is not a salvation issue, but it is a case study in reading Scripture and history with precision rather than settling for popular tradition.
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Part 1 - Introduction -
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Part 2 - What Are the Passover and Passion Week?
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Part 3 - A Discussion of Calendars
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Part 4 - Did the Early Church Fathers Mention the Day of Christ's Crucifixion?
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Part 5 - Development of the Easter/Passover Disconnect
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Part 6 - Passover Observance in the Time of Christ
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Part 7 - The Scriptures Pertaining to the Passover
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Part 8 - Two Calendars?
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Part 9 - Back to the Scriptures
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Part 10 - Conclusion
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Part 11 - References
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FS-101 - A Timeline of Passion Week & the Resurrection Quiz
- Passover and Passion Week fundamentals: what Passover commemorates, its regulations under the Mosaic Law, and what Passion Week actually spans from Palm Sunday through Resurrection Sunday.
- The calendar systems of the first century: the Julian, solar, lunar, and lunisolar (Hebrew) calendars, and why understanding them is essential to dating the crucifixion accurately.
- A verse-by-verse case for a Thursday crucifixion: working through the synoptic Gospels, John's Gospel, the early church fathers, and the Council of Nicaea's role in disconnecting Easter from Passover.
- A full day-by-day Passion Week timeline: a detailed harmony of the Gospels covering the Triumphal Entry through the Resurrection appearances, adapted to reflect the Thursday-crucifixion dating this course argues for.
- A working familiarity with the Gospel accounts of the Passion Week (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) is helpful but not required — all relevant passages are quoted and discussed in full.
- Access to a Bible (NKJV) for personal cross-reference is recommended.
- No prior study of Biblical calendars or chronology is assumed; the course explains the necessary calendar systems from the ground up.
- An open mind toward reexamining a long-held tradition (the Friday crucifixion) on the basis of Scripture and historical evidence.
- Students who want a rigorous, source-based answer to "was Jesus really crucified on a Friday?" rather than an assumption inherited from tradition.
- Anyone preparing to teach on Passion Week, Easter, or the Resurrection who wants to handle the timeline accurately.
- Students of Biblical chronology and calendar systems interested in how Jewish and Roman timekeeping intersect with the Gospel narratives.
- Believers who want to go deeper into the historical and Scriptural foundations of the Church's central events — the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
