Notice also that John 19:31 mentions that the Sabbath immediately after Jesus’ death was “a high day””not the weekly seventh-day Sabbath (from Friday evening to Saturday evening), but one of the annual Sabbaths, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Leviticus 23:6-7), which can fall on any day of the week.

In fact, two Sabbaths”first an annual Holy Day and then the regular weekly Sabbath”are mentioned in the Gospel accounts, a detail overlooked by most people. This can be proven by comparing Mark 16:1 with Luke 23:56.

Mark’s account tells us, “Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him” (Mark 16:1). However, Luke’s account describes how the women who followed Jesus saw how His body was laid in the tomb. “Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils” for the final preparation of the body. “And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56).

Mark tells us that the women bought the spices after the Sabbath, “when the Sabbath was past.” Luke, however, tells us that they prepared the spices and oils, after which “they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.” How could the women have bought spices after the Sabbath, yet then prepared them and rested on the same Sabbath?

That is obviously impossible”unless two Sabbaths are involved, with a day between them. Once we realise this, the two accounts become clear .Christ died near 3 p.m. and was placed in the tomb near sunset that day”a Wednesday in 31. That evening began the “high day” Sabbath, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which fell on Thursday that year.

The women rested on that day, then on Friday purchased and prepared the spices and oils for Jesus’ body, which could not be done on either the Holy Day or the weekly Sabbath. They then rested again on the weekly Sabbath before going to the tomb before daybreak on Sunday morning, at which time they discovered that Christ had already been resurrected.