Three Days and Three Nights

Was Jesus crucified on Thursday or Friday? The question turns on how you read specific Greek and Hebrew words — words the Gospel authors chose deliberately and that can be checked against the original text. It also turns on the Torah's festival calendar, which the New Testament claims Jesus fulfilled. Two positions exist. The direct chronological statements (Luke 24:21, Mark 15:42, 1 Corinthians 15:4) converge on Friday; the Passover-lamb typology and the festival calendar raise structural questions that deserve a full hearing. This study presents both, shows the original-language data, traces the patterns, and distinguishes what the text says from what we infer.

The Text

The debate rests on a handful of passages. Before arguing for either side, the reader needs to see all of them.

Matthew 12:40 — Jesus speaking:

ὥσπερ γὰρ ἦν Ἰωνᾶς ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας, οὕτως ἔσται ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ τῆς γῆς τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας. — Matthew 12:40 (TAGNT)

"For just as Jonah was in the belly of the sea creature treis hemeras kai treis nuktas (τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας) — three days (G2250) and three nights (G3571) — so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights."

Mark 15:42 — the narrator:

Καὶ ἤδη ὀψίας γενομένης, ἐπεὶ ἦν παρασκευή, ὅ ἐστιν προσάββατον — Mark 15:42 (TAGNT)

"And when evening had already come, since it was paraskeue (παρασκευή, G3904), that is, prosabbaton — the day before the Sabbath."

Luke 24:21 — the Emmaus disciples, speaking on Sunday:

τρίτην ταύτην ἡμέραν ἄγει σήμερον ἀφ᾽ οὗ ταῦτα ἐγένετο — Luke 24:21 (TAGNT)

"Today is the third (τρίτην, G5154) day (ἡμέραν, G2250) since these things happened."

John 19:14 — the narrator:

ἦν δὲ παρασκευὴ τοῦ πάσχα — John 19:14 (TAGNT)

"Now it was the paraskeue (παρασκευή, G3904) of the Passover."

John 19:31 — the narrator:

ἦν γὰρ μεγάλη ἡ ἡμέρα ἐκείνου τοῦ σαββάτου — John 19:31 (TAGNT)

"For the day of that sabbatou (σαββάτου, G4521) was megale (μεγάλη, G3173) — great."

1 Corinthians 15:4 — Paul:

ἐγήγερται τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ κατὰ τὰς γραφάς — 1 Corinthians 15:4 (TAGNT)

"He has been raised on the third (τρίτῃ, G5154) day (ἡμέρᾳ, G2250) according to the Scriptures."

The verb egegertai (ἐγήγερται, G1453) is a perfect passive indicative — completed action with ongoing result. He was raised and remains raised. The phrase is "on the third day," not "after three days."

Hosea 6:2 — the probable Scripture behind Paul's "according to the Scriptures":

יְחַיֵּנוּ מִיֹּמָיִם בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי יְקִמֵנוּ — Hosea 6:2 (MT)

"After two days he will revive us (יְחַיֵּנוּ, H2421); on the third day (הַשְּׁלִישִׁי, H7992) he will raise us up (יְקִמֵנוּ, H6965)." The verb yaqimenu (H6965) is the same root used for resurrection throughout the Hebrew Bible. The time frame is "the third day" (H3117, yom) — not "after three days."

Leviticus 23:5-7 — the festival calendar:

בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן בְּאַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר לַחֹדֶשׁ בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם פֶּסַח לַיהוָה — Leviticus 23:5 (MT)

Passover falls on Nisan 14. The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on Nisan 15. Leviticus 23:7 specifies that Nisan 15 is a miqra-qodesh (מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ, H4744+H6944) — a holy convocation — on which no servile work is to be done. This is a festival sabbath, distinct from the weekly Sabbath. Both types of sabbath existed in the Jewish calendar, and this distinction is critical to the debate.

Three Days and Three Nights

Matthew 12:40 is the Thursday position's strongest verse. Jesus says he will be in the heart of the earth treis hemeras kai treis nuktas — three days and three nights. If taken as 72 literal hours, a Friday crucifixion does not work: Friday evening to Sunday morning is roughly 36 hours, covering parts of three days but only two nights.

The phrase, however, is a quotation. Jesus cites Jonah 1:17 (2:1 in Hebrew/LXX versification), where the same Greek phrase appears: τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας. In the Hebrew, the phrase is sheloshet yamim ushloshet leilot (שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת) — three days (H3117, yom) and three nights (H3915, layil).

Did the Hebrew idiom "three days and three nights" require 72 hours?

The book of Esther provides a direct test case. In Esther 4:16, Esther tells Mordecai:

צוּמוּ עָלַי וְאַל־תֹּאכְלוּ וְאַל־תִּשְׁתּוּ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים לַיְלָה וָיוֹם — Esther 4:16 (MT)

"Fast for me, and do not eat or drink sheloshet yamim lailah vayom (שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים לַיְלָה וָיוֹם) — three days (H7969+H3117), night (H3915) and day." The same idiom: three days, explicitly including the nights.

Then in Esther 5:1:

וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי — Esther 5:1 (MT)

"And it was on the third day (בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי, H3117+H7992)." Esther acts on the third day — not after three full days and three full nights had elapsed. The author of Esther saw no contradiction between "three days, night and day" and "on the third day." The idiom was inclusive: any part of a day counted as a day.

This is not an obscure point. The Hebrew noun yom (יוֹם, H3117) and the Greek noun hemera (ἡμέρα, G2250) both function with inclusive counting in their respective cultures. Strong's note on G2250 states directly: "several days were usually reckoned by the Jews as inclusive of the parts of both extremes." A Friday afternoon crucifixion touches Friday (day one), Saturday (day two), and Sunday (day three) — three days by inclusive reckoning, even though the total elapsed time is less than 48 hours.

This does not mean the Thursday position is wrong. It means that Matthew 12:40 does not require a Thursday crucifixion. The phrase "three days and three nights" is an established Hebrew idiom that the Old Testament itself uses with inclusive counting.

The Preparation Day

The word paraskeue (παρασκευή, G3904) appears six times in the New Testament, all in the passion narratives: Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14, John 19:31, and John 19:42. In every case it refers to the day of Jesus' burial.

Mark 15:42 is the crucial verse because Mark defines the term. He does not leave it ambiguous. He writes: paraskeue, ho estin prosabbaton — "the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath." The word prosabbaton means precisely "the day preceding the Sabbath." Mark's readers, many of them Gentiles unfamiliar with Jewish calendar terminology, needed this explanation. And the explanation identifies paraskeue as the day before the weekly Sabbath — Friday.

By the first century, paraskeue had become the standard Greek name for Friday. Josephus uses it this way (Antiquities 16.163), and it remains the name for Friday in Modern Greek. When the Gospel writers say "it was paraskeue," they are saying "it was Friday" in the same way a modern English speaker says "it was Saturday" — the word had become a day-name.

John 19:14 introduces a complication. John writes that it was paraskeue tou pascha — "the Preparation of the Passover." The Thursday position reads this as "the day before Passover" — that is, Nisan 14, when the lambs were slaughtered and the Passover meal prepared. If the crucifixion fell on the day before Passover, it could have been a Thursday (or even a Wednesday), with the Passover meal still ahead.

The Friday position reads paraskeue tou pascha differently: "the Friday of Passover week." Since paraskeue had already become a day-name meaning Friday, the genitive tou pascha does not mean "before Passover" but "during Passover" — the Friday that fell within the festival week. This reading is supported by John 19:31, where paraskeue is connected to the Sabbath, not to the Passover meal.

Both readings are grammatically possible. The genitive in Greek can express many relationships. What resolves the ambiguity is context: John 19:31 says the leaders wanted the bodies removed because it was paraskeue — and the next day was a Sabbath, a great one. The concern is the coming Sabbath, not the coming Passover meal. This favors the reading that paraskeue means Friday.

The Third Day

Luke 24:21 is the most precise chronological statement in the passion narratives. The Emmaus disciples, speaking on Sunday (the day of the resurrection appearances), say: "Today is the third day (τρίτην ἡμέραν, G5154+G2250) since these things happened."

Count backward from Sunday using inclusive reckoning:

• Sunday = the third day
• Saturday = the second day
• Friday = the first day — the day "these things happened"

If the crucifixion had been on Thursday, then Sunday would be the fourth day: Thursday (1), Friday (2), Saturday (3), Sunday (4). The disciples would have said "today is the fourth day." They did not. They said "today is the third day," and that count points to Friday.

Paul's formulation in 1 Corinthians 15:4 uses the same language: raised te hemera te trite (τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ) — "on the third day." Not "after three days" (which would be meta treis hemeras, μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας). The preposition matters. "On the third day" with a Friday crucifixion yields Sunday. "After three days" with a Friday crucifixion would yield Monday — but Paul does not say "after."

The expression "on the third day" echoes Hosea 6:2, where the MT reads bayyom hashelishi (בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי) — "on the third day" (H3117+H7992). This is likely the "Scripture" Paul has in mind when he writes "according to the Scriptures." The resurrection pattern is "on the third day," and both the Hebrew source and the Greek formulation agree on the counting.

The High Day

John 19:31 states that the Sabbath following the crucifixion was megale (μεγάλη, G3173) — great. This is the pivot point for the Thursday reconstruction.

The Thursday argument reads it this way: the "great" Sabbath was not the weekly Sabbath (Saturday) but the festival sabbath of Nisan 15 — the first day of Unleavened Bread, which Leviticus 23:7 designates as a holy convocation with no servile work. If the crucifixion was on Thursday (Nisan 14), then Friday (Nisan 15) was the festival sabbath — the "great day" — and Saturday was the regular weekly Sabbath. Two sabbaths, back to back: festival on Friday, weekly on Saturday.

The Friday argument offers a more specific explanation: if the crucifixion was on Friday Nisan 14, then Saturday was both the weekly Sabbath and the Nisan 15 festival sabbath (Leviticus 23:7). The two sabbaths coincided on the same day. A sabbath that carries both weekly and festival sanctity would naturally be called megale — great. This is an inference from the calendar — the text itself says only that the day was "great," not why — but it is grounded in the Torah's own festival structure (Leviticus 23:7), not in speculation.

The adjective megale (G3173) is unusual — this is the only place in the New Testament where a sabbath is called "great." The Thursday position explains the uniqueness by positing a separate festival sabbath (Friday) distinct from the weekly Sabbath (Saturday). The Friday position explains it by the coincidence of both sabbaths on the same day. Both explanations account for the adjective; the question is which calendar reconstruction is correct.

The Thursday Reconstruction

The Thursday (and, in some versions, Wednesday) position reconstructs the week as follows:

• Thursday (Nisan 14): Jesus is crucified. The Passover lambs are slaughtered that afternoon. Jesus is buried before evening.
• Friday (Nisan 15): The festival sabbath — the first day of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:7). No work is done. This is the "great" Sabbath of John 19:31.
• Saturday (Nisan 16): The weekly Sabbath. No work is done.
• Sunday (Nisan 17): The women come to the tomb. Jesus has risen.

This reconstruction solves the 72-hour problem: Thursday evening to Sunday morning spans three nights (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) and parts of three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday).

It also addresses an apparent tension between Mark 16:1 and Luke 23:56. Mark 16:1 says the women bought spices (ἠγόρασαν, egorasan — aorist active) after the sabbath passed. Luke 23:56 says they prepared spices (ἡτοίμασαν, hetoimasan — aorist active) and then rested on the sabbath. The Thursday position argues: the women bought spices on Friday (after the festival sabbath), prepared them that same day, then rested on Saturday (the weekly sabbath), and came to the tomb on Sunday. Two sabbaths give them a day in between for purchasing and preparation.

The Friday position responds: if the weekly and festival sabbaths coincided (both on Saturday), there was no gap day. The women bought and prepared spices on Friday evening after the crucifixion, before the Sabbath began at sundown, rested on the single Sabbath (Saturday), and came to the tomb Sunday morning. Luke 23:56 narrates a sequence — they prepared spices and then rested — which fits a Friday evening timeline before sundown.

This is a genuine point of tension. The Thursday reconstruction resolves the spice sequence naturally by providing a gap day between two sabbaths. The Friday reconstruction resolves it by eliminating the need for a gap — one sabbath, not two. The reader should note the difficulty and weigh it alongside the other evidence.

The Passover Lamb

The article has so far examined the chronological language. But the New Testament makes an explicit typological claim that bears directly on the question: Christ is the Passover lamb.

1 Corinthians 5:7 — Paul:

τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν ἐτύθη Χριστός — 1 Corinthians 5:7 (TAGNT)

"Christ our Passover (πάσχα, G3957) has been sacrificed (ἐτύθη, G2380 — aorist passive indicative)." This is not a metaphor offered in passing. Paul identifies Christ with the Passover lamb of Exodus 12.

The Passover lamb was slaughtered on Nisan 14, bein ha'arbayim (בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם, H6153) — "between the evenings" (Exodus 12:6, Leviticus 23:5). John's Gospel places the crucifixion on the paraskeue tou pascha — "the Preparation of the Passover" (John 19:14) — the day the lambs were slaughtered in the temple. John also notes that Jesus' legs were not broken (John 19:33), then cites the Passover statute: "Not a bone of him shall be broken" (John 19:36, citing Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12).

This is deliberate. John is telling his readers: the Passover lamb pattern, established in Torah, is being fulfilled in the death of Jesus. The lamb dies on Nisan 14. The day after — Nisan 15 — is the high sabbath (Leviticus 23:7). This is a structural constraint set by the Torah's own calendar, not an inference.

Both positions agree that the crucifixion fell on Nisan 14. The question is which day of the week Nisan 14 was. The Passover-lamb pattern does not resolve that question by itself — it fixes the date (Nisan 14) but not the weekday. However, it does establish that the sabbath John calls "great" (John 19:31) is the Nisan 15 festival sabbath, because that is what Leviticus 23:7 says follows Nisan 14. Whether that festival sabbath coincided with the weekly Sabbath (the Friday view) or fell on a different day (the Thursday view) is what the remaining evidence must decide.

The Firstfruits

Paul makes a second typological claim that directly constrains the chronology.

1 Corinthians 15:20 — Paul:

Χριστὸς ἐγήγερται ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμημένων — 1 Corinthians 15:20 (TAGNT)

"Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits (ἀπαρχή, G0536) of those who have fallen asleep."

The firstfruits offering is prescribed in Leviticus 23:10-11. The sheaf (עֹמֶר, H6016) was waved before the LORD mimochorat hashabbat (מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת, H4283+H7676) — "on the day after the Sabbath." The text itself does not specify which sabbath. The Pharisaic interpretation, which governed temple practice in the first century (Josephus, Antiquities 3.250-251), took "the Sabbath" here as Nisan 15 — the festival sabbath of Leviticus 23:7. On that reckoning, firstfruits fell on Nisan 16. The Sadducean interpretation took "the Sabbath" as the weekly Sabbath, placing firstfruits always on a Sunday. The dispute is attested in rabbinic literature (Menachot 65a-b), and the Pharisaic practice prevailed in temple worship.

If the crucifixion was on Friday (Nisan 14):

• Saturday = Nisan 15 (weekly Sabbath + festival sabbath coincide)
• Sunday = Nisan 16 = the day of firstfruits = the day of resurrection

Christ rises on the very day the firstfruits sheaf is waved. The alignment is exact.

If the crucifixion was on Thursday (Nisan 14):

• Friday = Nisan 15 (festival sabbath)
• Saturday = Nisan 16 (weekly Sabbath) = the day of firstfruits
• Sunday = Nisan 17 = the day of resurrection

On this reckoning, firstfruits falls on Saturday, but the resurrection is on Sunday — a one-day mismatch. The Thursday position can resolve this only by adopting the Sadducean reckoning of Leviticus 23:11, where "the Sabbath" means the weekly Sabbath, making firstfruits always a Sunday. That reckoning was disputed in the first century and was not the practice of the temple.

The Calendar

The arguments above reason abstractly: if Nisan 14 was a Friday, then the alignment works. But Nisan 14 actually fell on a specific day of the week in each year of Pilate's governorship (AD 26-36). Astronomical reconstruction of the Hebrew calendar — based on computed new moon visibility over Jerusalem — allows us to check which years are viable for each position.

The data (Humphreys & Waddington, Nature 306, 1983; confirmed by multiple independent astronomical calculations):

Humphreys and Waddington identify AD 30 and AD 33 as the two Friday candidates; independent astronomical computation of new moon visibility over Jerusalem confirms that no year between AD 27 and AD 34 places Nisan 14 on a Thursday. In both AD 30 and AD 33, Nisan 15 (the festival sabbath of Leviticus 23:7) coincides with the weekly Sabbath — both fall on Saturday. This is the calendrical basis for calling that sabbath megale (John 19:31): it carried double sanctity, weekly and festival, on the same day.

The only Thursday Nisan 14 in the broader range is AD 26, which is too early for the crucifixion by virtually all chronologies. This astronomical data is external to Scripture and does not carry independent authority, but it is consistent with the textual evidence and narrows the field of candidate years.

The Third Day in the Canon

The phrase "on the third day" (בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי / τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ) is not an isolated formula. It marks a recurring pattern of deliverance from death across the Hebrew Bible:

• Genesis 22:4 — Abraham sees the place of sacrifice on the third day (בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי, H3117+H7992). Hebrews 11:19 says Abraham received Isaac back "as a figure" (ἐν παραβολῇ) — an explicit type of resurrection.
• Genesis 40:20 — On the third day (בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי), Pharaoh lifts the cupbearer's head (restored to life) and the baker's head (condemned to death). Life and death are separated on the third day.
• Genesis 42:18 — Joseph tells his brothers on the third day (בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי): "Do this and live" (וִחְיוּ, H2421). The verb is the same root as Hosea 6:2 — chayah, to live, to be revived.
• Exodus 19:11 — The LORD will come down on Sinai on the third day (בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי, appearing twice in this verse). The third day is the day of divine manifestation.
• 2 Kings 20:5 — God tells the dying Hezekiah: "On the third day (בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי) you shall go up to the house of the LORD." Healing from mortal illness on the third day.
• Hosea 6:2 — "On the third day he will raise us up (יְקִמֵנוּ, H6965) and we shall live (וְנִחְיֶה, H2421)." The only verse in the Hebrew Bible that clusters all four key terms: day (H3117), third (H7992), raise up (H6965), and live (H2421). This is the most probable Scripture behind Paul's "raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:4) — the only verse in the Hebrew Bible where all four terms converge.

The pattern is consistent: the third day is the day of deliverance from death. Both the Thursday and Friday positions affirm a third-day resurrection. The pattern itself does not favor one weekday over another. But it does establish that "the third day" is the operative biblical category — and the Esther case (4:16 + 5:1) shows that "three days and three nights" and "on the third day" are not contradictory expressions. They belong to the same idiom.

What the Text Says and What We Infer

Here is what the text states directly:

1. Jesus was crucified on paraskeue — the Preparation Day (Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14, 19:31, 19:42). Mark defines this as the day before the Sabbath.

2. The Sabbath that followed was called megale — great (John 19:31). Leviticus 23:7 designates Nisan 15 as a holy convocation with no work — a festival sabbath.

3. Jesus said he would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40), quoting the LXX of Jonah 2:1 verbatim. The Hebrew Bible uses this same idiom with inclusive counting (Esther 4:16 → 5:1).

4. The Emmaus disciples called Sunday the third day since the crucifixion (Luke 24:21). Paul says Jesus was raised on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4). No natural reading of Luke 24:21 yields Thursday as the crucifixion day — Sunday would be the fourth day from Thursday, not the third.

5. Paul identifies Christ as "our Passover" who "has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). The Passover lamb dies on Nisan 14 (Exodus 12:6, Leviticus 23:5). John places the crucifixion on the Preparation of the Passover (John 19:14) and cites the Passover statute about unbroken bones (John 19:36).

6. Paul identifies Christ's resurrection as "the firstfruits" (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). On Pharisaic reckoning, the firstfruits wave offering fell on Nisan 16 (Leviticus 23:10-11). A Friday crucifixion (Nisan 14) places the resurrection on Sunday = Nisan 16 = firstfruits. A Thursday crucifixion shifts firstfruits to Saturday, misaligning with the Sunday resurrection.

7. The "third day" is a canonical pattern of deliverance from death (Genesis 22:4, 42:18, Exodus 19:11, 2 Kings 20:5, Hosea 6:2), and Hosea 6:2 is the probable Scripture behind Paul's "according to the Scriptures."

Here is what requires inference:

• The Friday position infers that "three days and three nights" is an idiom not requiring 72 hours (supported by the Esther precedent within the canon), that the weekly and festival sabbaths coincided on the same Saturday (explaining "great"), and that paraskeue functions as a day-name for Friday.

• The Thursday position infers that "three days and three nights" requires something closer to literal fulfillment (reading the Jonah idiom against its own canonical precedent in Esther), that Nisan 15 fell on a different day than the weekly Sabbath (creating two back-to-back sabbaths not explicitly stated in any Gospel), and that Luke 24:21's "third day" must be counted differently — either from burial rather than crucifixion, or by some other reckoning that produces "third" from a Thursday starting point. This last point is the Thursday position's most significant difficulty: no natural reading of the Emmaus disciples' statement, the most precise chronological marker in the passion narratives, yields Thursday.

The text speaks clearly. The direct chronological statements (Luke 24:21, 1 Corinthians 15:4), Mark's definition of paraskeue as the day before the weekly Sabbath (Mark 15:42), the Passover-lamb typology (1 Corinthians 5:7, John 19:14, 19:36), the firstfruits alignment (Nisan 16 = Sunday on Pharisaic reckoning, 1 Corinthians 15:20, Leviticus 23:10-11), and the Esther idiom precedent (4:16 → 5:1) all converge on a Friday crucifixion on Nisan 14. The festival calendar of Leviticus 23:5-7 confirms that Nisan 15 is a high sabbath. On the Friday view, both sabbaths coincide, explaining why John calls it "great." The "three days and three nights" of Matthew 12:40 is resolved by the Hebrew Bible's own usage of the idiom and by the broader canonical pattern where "three days and three nights" and "on the third day" describe the same span (Genesis 22:4, 42:18, Exodus 19:11, Hosea 6:2).

The astronomical data — which is external to Scripture and carries no independent authority — is consistent with this conclusion. Reconstruction of the Hebrew calendar for the years of Pilate's governorship confirms that Nisan 14 fell on a Friday in AD 30 and AD 33, and that in both years the festival and weekly sabbaths coincided on Saturday. The text establishes the conclusion; the calendar data corroborates it.

The Thursday position is not without evidence. Matthew 12:40 read literally and the spice-purchase sequence (Mark 16:1 / Luke 23:56) deserve the hearing they have received above. But the Thursday reading requires overriding Luke 24:21's plain counting, dismissing the Esther idiom precedent within the same canon, and accepting a firstfruits misalignment that the Friday reading does not produce. The weight of the scriptural evidence — direct statement, idiom precedent, typological pattern, and festival calendar — favors Friday.