Timeline of the crucifixion of Jesus

Have you ever wondered about
The timeline of the crucifixion?

When you read the four different eyewitness accounts in the Gospels, it can be quite confusing to establish a timeline due to the different perspectives on these unprecedented events in the history of humanity. Therefore, in his usual thorough and informative style, John Paul Jackson decided to tackle the subject and provide a chronological crucifixion timeline.

The video by John Paul Jackson is followed by a transcript below. Near the end of the transcript, a few edits (highlighted in green) have been added for further clarity, particularly regarding the women as eyewitnesses. In the video, you will witness a step-by-step reenactment of the last 36 hours of Jesus’s life before the cross, as well as the events surrounding His resurrection.

The Crucifixion Timeline

This program will be noticeably different, it’s centered on the timeline of the last 72 hours of the crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I will here in, describe the events of those days in light of the most historical accurate Biblical thinking.

Wednesday

It is Wednesday night, 36 hours before Jesus would be crucified. Jesus went to sleep for the last time on Wednesday night. Tomorrow the greatest change in the history of creation would begin, and there would be no more sleep for Him. Everything that had been dark for the past 4,000 years would change in a moment, and eternal life would be offered.

Thursday Morning

Jesus awoke early in the morning from the last sleep He would have, He would die Friday at noon, 36 hours from now. Immediately He began to prepare Himself and His disciples for the final phase of what would happen. He started with the preparations for the Passover supper, by Thursday afternoon, Jesus tells Peter and John to go and prepare an upper room where they would eat this Last Supper together.

Of the three Passover’s Jesus would experience during His ministry, this is the only one that He would leave. Jesus’ ministry spanned three Passover’s – the first Passover, two years earlier found in John the second chapter, Jesus drove out the money changers, He spoke of destroying the temple, which was His body, and many believed in him because of the signs that he did.

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The second Passover, one year earlier found in John chapter 6, Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish, feeds 5,000 men, walks on water, transports the disciples in a boat across the Sea of Galilee, compares Himself to the manna in the wilderness, tells His followers they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, and lost four hundred of them in one moment.

The third Passover found in John chapter 12, and also in Luke chapter 7, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, visits the home of Simon the leper to heal him, rode on a donkey into town, and goes through the process of the crucifixion.

By Thursday night, after sundown, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and together they eat of the Passover meal, the disciples as Jesus foretold, now eat of His flesh, the bread, and drink of His blood, the wine.

About two hours later, Judas leaves to betray Him, and Jesus prays the John 17 prayer of consecration and oneness with Him and the Father for all of his disciples and all of those who would follow Him in the future. Then they quietly leave the upper room for the Garden of Gethsemane. During the agony of those three hours, He spends there, He sweats great drops of blood, wrestles with his own soul, and encounters some level of frustration, as three times He urges His disciples to pray with him, and not to fall asleep. He asked them to pray at least one hour, but recognizes though the spirit is willing, their flesh was really quite weak.

Friday Morning

Approximately midnight, a Roman cohort, which is six hundred armed men come for Jesus. Jesus identifies Himself, and when He speaks the words, “I AM He,” all 600 Roman soldiers fall backwards to the ground.

Jesus calls Judas His friend, and Judas steps forward and kisses Him, just before they take Jesus away to Annas, and his son-in-law Caiaphas, the high priest, Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest. Jesus reaches down and picks up the ear, and places it back on the servant’s head. Within moments of this time, Pilate’s wife will have dreams about Jesus, that so frighten her, she will later beg Pilate to release Him

Early Friday morning, about 1 o’clock a.m., as Jesus is being led to the palace of the high priest, Peter denies Jesus for the first time. Caiaphas has already gathered the tribunal of 72 members together for Jesus’s arrival, and interestingly enough, the name Caiaphas means comely or handsome in Aramaic, so paradoxically, the uncomely Jesus, as the prophet Isaiah described Him, stood before the comely or handsome Caiaphas.

An hour later, Peter denies Christ a second time, meanwhile the members of the tribunal are physically beating and verbally abusing Jesus. During all of this, Jesus says nothing, not even making a sound. They move Jesus to a more open area where they hope He’ll be seen admitting and confessing publicly that He has blasphemed, by claiming to be the Messiah. To help solidify their case, they bring in false witnesses to lie in their testimony against Him.

It is now that Peter, in full view of Jesus, denies Him a third time. At that poignant moment, the eyes of Jesus meet the eyes of Peter, and the rooster crows the final time. Peter runs away to the gathering crowd, bitterly and uncontrollably weeping. The tribunal now concludes that Jesus actually claims to be the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, and plot to turn Him over to the Romans for crucifixion, so their hands will be clean.

By Friday morning, five o’clock a.m., in the pale gray light of the morning, Caiaphas once again gathers the Sanhedrin together. There are more at this meeting, and the wisest and most influential are now present, in a vote they agreed to send Jesus to Pilate.

Pilate, his wife’s dream still echoing in his ears, tries to send Jesus back to the Hebrews, but the tribunal claims they have no power to sentence Jesus to death. Only Pilate has that authority, and so they demand that Pilate take action against this One, who claims to be the King, thus threatening the rule of Caesar. The irony is that Pilate had long wanted to meet this Jesus. He had heard so many wonderful things about Him, why did they have to meet like this?

By Friday 6 o’clock in the morning, Pilate tries to barter with the Jews and offers Barabbas for Jesus, hoping the crowd that had gathered would want the miracle worker kept alive. After all, how would He do miracles if He was dead? Their response shocked Pilate, and after his final interview of Jesus, Pilate literally washes his hands of the matter.

About that time, Judas in shame, rushes out of town to the potter’s field, and hangs himself. In his attempt to commit suicide, it is believed the branch breaks. And falling on the large sharp rocks below this hanging tree, his bowels were opened, he dies there in this potter’s field. The very field once owned by Jeremiah the Prophet, the field he bought while in prison with 17 shekels of silver, the price of a lamb. It was here in this field that Jeremiah prophesied against Israel, and now Judas dies here.

Jesus is now taken by the Roman soldiers and stripped of all of His clothing, they began the beating process which leaves His face so deformed, He is no longer recognizable as a man. He is eventually given a purple robe, and in mockery of his Kingship. a crown of thorns is placed on His head. He is hastily taken back to the praetorium, where He’s beaten further, and eventually presented to the people. Once more they cry out for, and demand Jesus to be crucified.

It’s now seven o’clock in the morning on Friday. The Roman soldier seize Jesus, and lead Him away to be scourged. They again strip Him of His robe, He’s beaten with a cat of nine tails, each tail having a metal tip that rips the flesh. His beard is also plucked out, a fistful at a time. By this time Jesus has lost at least one quart of blood, and has no water or food, and is very weak.

An hour later by 8 o’clock in the morning Jesus begins His journey outside the camp to be crucified. He’s dragging the cross, He will shortly be nailed to, weakening, as His heart pumps, and His body loses even more blood, Jesus falls to the ground. A man, Simon the Cyrene is ordered to carry it the rest of the way.

By 9 o’clock in the morning, the procession reaches Golgotha. Jesus’s hands are nailed to the cross piece, and He’s hoisted up into place by a set of ropes. Bent-kneed, His feet are then nailed into place, all who are crucified, hang like this until they die. Breath is nearly impossible without hoisting oneself up via hands or feet, and when they do that, the flesh tears even more.

All through this process Jesus continues to lose massive amounts of blood, normal body functions should have sent Him into shock, thus lessening the pain, but the Father did not allow this to happen, Jesus felt everything from the beginning to the end.

He is hanged between two thieves, one mocks Him, the other one is penitent, and asked Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom. And as Jesus hangs there between these two men, He utters seven sayings, the first thing He says, is to to the Father.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Saying of the Cross #1

To the penitent thief He says, “Today you’ll be with me in Paradise!”

Saying of the Cross #2

To His mother and John, He says, “Woman behold your son, and son behold your Mother.”

Saying of the Cross #3

To the Roman guard, He says, “I thirst.”

Saying of the Cross #4

The last three sentences, that Jesus says are also to the Father, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He then says, “It is finished!” And finally, “Father, into Your hands, I commit My Spirit.“

Sayings of the Cross #5, #6 & #7.

Friday Afternoon

It’s now noon, on Friday, Jesus has hung on the cross for three hours. Mysteriously from the moment the first nail is pounded into Jesus, the sun is suddenly covered in darkness for this entire three hour time span, the time it would take for Jesus to die. Jesus dies without a bone being broken, but worse, His heart is broken, as evidenced by the water and blood that flowed from it when the soldier pierced the side of Jesus, just to see if He was dead. For the first time ever, Jesus is in total darkness, spirit, soul and body, and so is the world, but Jesus uttered His last words and died instantly.

Two six inch thick veils that were 30 feet high in the temple are torn from top to bottom. Simultaneously there’s suddenly a huge earthquake and massive rocks are split into pieces. Josephus and the Talmud tell us that in addition to all of this, the middle candle in the temple menorah or the lampstand instantly went out, and the massive temple gates that had been kept closed, and locked were instantly opened.

By Friday at 3 o’clock p.m., day one of the three days of resurrection begins. After the death of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take the body of Jesus away, and Pilate gives him that permission. At areph, Hebrew for Twilight, which is between 3 & 6 o’clock in the afternoon, they take Jesus down from the cross to prepare Him for burial before Lila or sundown.

Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden there was a new tomb, no one had been laid in it, it was hewn out of rock, so there in this virgin tomb, they laid Jesus. The burial tomb had to be nearby, because of the Jews preparation day before Passover, and the Sabbath drew near.

Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus who had first come to Jesus by night, also came now, bringing a large mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds of it, they took the body of Jesus, they bound Him in strips of linen with spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.

And there were women, the women came, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome who had come with Him from Galilee, followed after them. They brought spices and fragrant oils too, so that they might also anoint Him, they also according to their custom, observed the tomb, and how his body was laid in it, but because the Sabbath was approaching they returned to their homes quickly, and prepared more spices and fragrant oils there. Then according to the commandment, they rested on the Sabbath.

Saturday

It’s now day two, of the three resurrection days, which began at 6PM on the Friday for Jews. According to the law of the Passover Sabbath, the people were to eat of the burned flesh of the lamb at this time. And as the people ate the burnt flesh of the lamb, Jesus Himself, descended into the burning fires of hell, where He would take back the keys of death, hell and the grave, given to Satan by Adam 4,000 years earlier.

While the disciples observed the Sabbath, which followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees had gathered together (thus breaking the Sabbath by working) to speak to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I’ll rise again,’ therefore command the tomb to be made secure and sealed until the third day ends. If you don’t, His disciples are going to come by night and steal Him away and they’re gonna tell the people He’s risen from the dead. And in such a case, the last deception by these people will be worse than the first.”

Hearing this, Pilate says to them, “You have your guard, go away, make it as secure as you know how.” So they went, and they made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the Roman guard in front of it.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning, the third day, the day of resurrection. Now after the Sabbath, on Sunday, the third day, early in the morning, just before dawn, while it was still dark, there was another great earthquake. This happened when an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and rolled back the stone from the door of the tomb. The guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. And at the same time, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, and certain other women with her, were on the way to see the tomb, and to bring the spices which they had prepared.

Instead they found a stone rolled away and the angel who did it, sat on that stone. When describing this, the woman said that his countenance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow. And the angel answered and said to the woman, “Do not be afraid, for I know what you seek, you seek Jesus who was crucified and He’s not here. He’s risen! Just as He said.” Then getting up, he said “Come on! See the place the Lord lay, now go quickly, tell his disciples, and Peter that He’s risen from the dead, and indeed He’s going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, remember what I’ve told you.” Still they went into the tomb, and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus, with Mary Magdalene was also Mary the mother of James, Joanna, and other women.

So they went quickly from the tomb and in fear with great joy ran to bring His disciples this word, and when they arrived they told all the things that they had seen and heard to the eleven, and all the rest. And to the disciples the word seemed like simple idle tales, they didn’t believe them, then Mary Magdalene who had delayed, came to Simon, Peter and to John, and said to them they’ve taken away the Lord out of the tomb, we don’t know where they’ve laid Him.

Paying more attention to this 2nd eyewitness testimony of Mary, as required by Jewish Law, Peter and John immediately went out and ran toward the tomb. They ran together, but John eventually outran Peter and came to the tomb first, and stooping down and looking in, John saw the linen clothes lying there, but he didn’t go in. Upon his arrival, Peter immediately went into the tomb, and saw the linen clothes lying all by themselves and the handkerchief that had been around the head of Jesus not lying with the linen clothes, but folded in a place lying by itself. Peter returned to the house marveling at what had happened. John returned to the house, and believed, but none of the others remembered the Scripture that Jesus must rise again from the dead.

Mary in this entire process, waited outside the tomb weeping, as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the tomb. And there she saw two angels in white, one sitting at the head, the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. The angel spoke to her and said, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Mary (who understandably was not fully convinced of the first angel’s message) replied, “Because they’ve taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve laid Him and it happened while she and the other woman were greatly perplexed about this, behold two more men stood by them in shining garments. Then as they were afraid, and bowed their faces to the earth these men spoke to them, and said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead, He’s not here, He’s risen, remember? Remember how He spoke to you when he was still in Galilee? Remember what He said, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and the third day rise again.”

And then, they all remembered His words. The others turned to go back, but Mary lingered behind, and turned around and saw something. There she saw Jesus standing, but she didn’t know who it was until He spoke to her, and He said, “Woman, why are you weeping, and whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, and still questioning in unbelief said, “Sir if you carried Him away, tell me where you’ve laid Him, and I will take him away.” And Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni?” Which is to say teacher. Jesus said to her, “Do not cling or touch me yet, for I’ve yet to ascend to My Father. But go to my brethren, and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father, and to your Father, and to My God, and to your God.’

So Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, a former prostitute, from whom He had cast out seven demons. And the rest of the women, they continued on their way to tell the disciples, and behold Jesus met them as well, and He said to them, “Rejoice!” So they came and they held Him by the feet and worshiped Him, then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid, go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see Me.” Soon Mary Magdalene caught up with the others and arrived, and they told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her.

Now behold, two men were travelling that very same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem, and as they talked and they walked, they talked of all the things that they had seen and all the things that had happened. And so it was while they conversed and reasoned about all these things, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so they did not recognize Him, and as they walked, He opened to them the Scripture, and their hearts burned within them.

Sunday Afternoon

It’s now Sunday, early afternoon. Now the same day while all of this was going on, behold some of the guard came into the city. And reported to the chief priests, all the things that had happened, how the stone had been rolled away, how the angel had came, how they had fell as dead men. When the priests assembled with the elders, and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers saying, “Tell them, His disciples came at night, and stole Him away while we slept, and if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him, and make you secure, so he does no harm to you.” So they took the money, and did as they were instructed, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews even unto this day.

Sunday Evening

It is now Sunday evening. This same day, at evening, Sunday evening, day three. Being the first day of the week, when the doors to the house where the disciples were assembled were shut, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and He spoke to them, and He said, “Peace be with you!”

When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side, and the disciples were so glad when they saw the Lord. Meanwhile, on that same day it was discovered, that when Jesus died many graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who were dead had been raised, and came out of their graves. And they went to Jerusalem and they appeared to many people, and you can read about this in Matthew 27.

And so it shall be with us, just as it was with Jesus, He prepared the way, just as He was resurrected, they were resurrected, we will be resurrected! This is one facet of the greatest story ever told, and its effects will continue forever and forever and forever! Amen!