Jesus' Friday Crucifixion

May 6th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

John 19:14 Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And [Pilate] said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”

Jesus’ trial before Pilate occurred on “the day of preparation for the Passover.” For the Jews this meant ridding the home of all leaven, ceasing from all labor, and getting the lamb prepared to be slaughtered by the priest. Now in the Synoptics, Jesus eats the Passover meal the night before He dies (Mark 14:12), and He died on the day of preparation for the Sabbath (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54). So, John’s additional comment that it was the preparation day for the Passover indicates that the weekly Sabbath preparation day (Friday) was also the preparation day for the Passover in that particular year, namely AD 33. Although each day of the week during the Feast would have been a preparation day for the next day of the feast, John is speaking specifically to the day of preparation for Passover which was also preparation for the Sabbath.

John records in 18:28 that it was “early” when Jesus was led to Pilate. Specific times were unknown to the first-century world since there were no clocks or watches. In Jewish time reckoning, a day began at either sunrise (circa 6:00 a.m.) or sunset (circa 6:00 p.m.). Therefore, time of day was estimated. As for the nights, the Jews reckoned four watches of about three hours each (cf. Matt. 14:25; Mark 6:48).

By the time Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews and agreed to His crucifixion, John says that it was the “sixth hour.” By Jewish reckoning, it was noon—six hours after sunrise. But by Roman time reckoning, the sixth hour was 6:00 a.m.—six hours after midnight. If John was using Roman time, the “early” hour Jesus was brought to Pilate was probably around 5:00 a.m.

About an hour later, after two trials by Pilate and one by Herod, Jesus was led away to be crucified. It would have been sunrise at this point—near the sixth hour according to Roman time reckoning. After the vicious scourging and the arduous journey to Golgatha, Jesus was nailed to the cross around 9:00 a.m.— the third hour according to Jewish time reckoning (cf. Mark 15:25). So if John used Roman time reckoning, this coincides nicely with Mark’s use of Jewish time.

Andreas Kostenberger, however, believes that John is using Jewish time reckoning (cf. John 1:37), which means that the sixth hour is noon. He reconciles this with Mark’s “third hour” thus: “Since people related the estimated time to the closest three hour mark, any time between 9:00 a.m. and noon may have led one person to say that an event occurred at the third hour (9:00 a.m.) or the sixth hour (12:00 noon). Mark’s concern likely was to provide the setting for the three hours of darkness (15:25, 33) while John seeks to stress the length of the proceedings, starting with the ‘early morning’ before Pilate.” Carson agrees, concluding, “If the sun was moving toward mid-heaven, two different observers might well have glanced up and decided, respectively, that is was the ‘third hour’ or ‘about the sixth hour.’ ”

Food for Thought
In the end, Jesus was crucified on a Friday during the Passover sometime between 9:00 a.m. and noon. When He was crucified is not as important as when He actually died. Mark’s Gospel says that “when the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour... and [Jesus] breathed His last” (15:33–37). For Mark, the sixth hour was noon when darkness mysteriously covered the earth, and the ninth hour—around 3:00 p.m.—was when Jesus died. Appropriately, it was at the ninth hour when priests began killing the Passover lambs. So when Jesus died at the ninth hour, the Passover Lamb was slain. And why was Jesus slain? He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7) who passes over our sins when we trust in Him for salvation.