The Sabbath wasn't changed, it was superseded by the Lord's Day. The seventh day is the day on which God rested from creation, signifying that He had finished His work in creating the heavens and the earth. The Lord's Day, Sunday, is the day on which Christ redeemed the whole of the fallen and broken world. It is a REcreation, a restoration of that which was corrupted. It wasn't a "change" made by "infiltrators" into the Church; it was the original practice to observe Sunday worship, as is abundantly testified of in the New Testament.
But the Church is the Body of Christ. Christ had already died. The prophecy about the Temple (i.e. Jesus' body) had already been fulfilled at the Cross and at the empty tomb. Remember Romans 6:9--Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
Christ lives forever. Death will never have any hold over Him. How, then, can death ever have any hold over the Church, since it is Christ's body, over which death has no more dominion? This is what Christ meant when He said that the gates of Hell will not prevail over His Church; since He had already died and risen, the Church, which is His body, already shares in His eternal victory over death. The Church will never be overcome by death, since Jesus has already overcome it. There will be no repeat experiences of Jesus' body dying, if He has already died and risen.
So we're agreed that Jesus rose on Sunday? Excellent. That's half the battle here.
Note WHEN the Gospels say the first day of the Passover is-- one of two days of Passover that was considered a Sabbath.
Matthew 26:17 Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
Mark 14:12 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?”
Luke 22:7 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.
So, by the accounts of the synoptic Gospels (where all this business about spices and oils is), it is made abundantly clear that Jesus and His disciples eat the Passover on Thursday, which the Gospels say is the first day of Passover. This means that Jesus was NOT crucified on the day before the Sabbath in the synoptic Gospels, but rather the day of or the day after the first Passover Sabbath. So the Sabbath before which Jesus was crucified in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the Sabbath after which the women came to the tomb to anoint His body, must have been the Saturday Sabbath. Jesus therefore, according to the synoptic Gospels' accounts of when the first day of Passover was, must have been crucified on Friday afternoon before the Saturday Sabbath, since the Day of Preparation for the Passover Sabbath had already come and gone. According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus was crucified on Friday, and rose on Sunday.
Also, if the women and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were able to anoint and wash Jesus' body and buy the necessary spices all at once, then why would they not be able to begin making the oils just before Friday evening and let the process continue on the Sabbath, or buy them right then?
Further, note that the Greek word used for spices, "aromata," also means "perfumes." And it was perfumes that they used for anointing the dead, which were laced with spices. So the women bought "aromata," which could mean "spices" and/or "perfumes."
Hi Shiranui117, I should clarify several things:
1. Yeshua did not rise from the dead Sunday morning at sunrise. Why would you think I thought He did? He rose from the dead 72 hours after He was placed in the tomb on Wednesday at sunset. He rose from the dead Saturday at sunset, at the end of the weekly Sabbath.
2. The Passover and the 7 days of Unleavened Bread need to be looked at according to the Scriptures. The Passover is on the 14th of Nissan, and it is not a Sabbath, it is the day BEFORE the High Day Sabbath, and it is the day of preparation. The 15th of Nissan is the High Day Sabbath (1st day of Unleavened Bread), and this was the Sabbath that was starting at sunset as Yeshua was being placed in the tomb.
Exo 12:15-16
(15) Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
(16) And
in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you;
no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
Lev 23:5-7
(5) In the
fourteenth day of the first month at even is
Yahweh's passover.
(6) And on the
fifteenth day of the same month is the
feast of unleavened bread unto Yahweh: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
(7) In the
first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
The 1st day of the feast of Unleavened Bread is the High Day Sabbath (holy convocation and no servile work), and it always follows the day of preparation, which is the Passover.
2Ch 35:6
(6) So
kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and
prepare your brethren, that they may
do according to the word of Yahweh by the hand of Moses.
Shiranui117, the 14th of Nissan was the Passover, and it was the day of preparation to do according to the Word of Yahweh, and prepare for the Sabbath that was starting on the 15th of Nissan at sunset.
3. The "gate/gates" of hades is death. Death is the gate that is passed through to enter the grave:
Isa 38:10
(10) I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the
gates of the grave (
death is the gate of the grave): I am deprived of the residue of my years.
When Yeshua said that the gates would not prevail, He surely meant that death would not prevail against His Body, the Church. Just as death (the gates) did not PREVAIL against Him, so also death will not prevail against His Church. And just as it was written in the Law of Moses that He would suffer, die, be buried and then resurrected on the third day, so also it is written in the Law of Moses that the Church would suffer and die (nothing of the Passover could remain after morning, it had to be completely burned, and this is why Peter told the believers to think it not strange for the fiery ordeal they were going through-1 Pet 4:12).
4. Joseph and Nicodemus brought with them a mixture of myrrh and aloes that had ALREADY been prepared (about 75 pounds worth). It is surprising to me that you would think that they prepared them that day. No where in Scripture can that be indicated. In fact, you should go to this site about
Ancient Perfume Making and read where in those days it would take 2-3 days to properly make perfumes and ointments with myrrh and other mixtures/ingredients. A fire had to be built, oil and water was boiled and the ingredients were added. It would have been impossible for the women to have watched as the stone was rolled over the entrance to the tomb and then returned to where they had come from and do all of that BEFORE the Sabbath begin. And you are incorrect to say that they worked on the Sabbath making these ointments.
So Shiranui117, you need to re-evaluate the sign that Yeshua gave, the sign of Him being in the tomb for three days and three nights, as it would be impossible for that to have happened from Friday at sunset to Sunday at sunrise. The only way for the three days and three nights sign to be fulfilled is for Yeshua to have been placed in the tomb right at sunset as the High Day Sabbath was starting that Wednesday evening, and remained there until the Saturday Sabbath was ending at sunset, and then He arose. Hope this helps. KB
