Chain of Custody – Was the Body of Jesus Stolen?

Posted on by K.B. Vogelman

Oldest of the arguments against the Resurrection is the charge that the crucified body of Jesus of Nazareth was stolen from the tomb. To steal the body, a Roman/Jewish chain of custody over his body would make the claim difficult to overcome.

Procurator Pilate granted the mutilated body of Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Jewish council. He was joined by Nicodemus, another prominent member of the Jewish Council. Both took the body to Joseph’s own unused tomb and quickly prepared the body for burial.

Witnessing the scene were women from Galilee, two identified by name, Mary the mother of Joseph (aka Jose) and Mary Magdalene.^[2] The women watched Joseph roll a stone in front of the tomb entrance – confirmation by the two Jewish Council members that Jesus was indeed dead and buried.

What did or didn’t happen between the time Jesus was laid in the tomb just before dusk, Nissan 15, until Sunday is limited. Nonetheless, Matthew and Mark reported some activities that occurred.

Those who most certainly would not have wanted to be corroborating witnesses of a Resurrection became just that. After Jesus was buried late afternoon of the prior day, the next day some of the leaders of the priests and Pharisees declared to the Roman government that the body of Jesus was still in the tomb that Sabbath morning, Nissan 16:

^{MT 27:62-64} The next day (which is after the day of preparation) the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give orders to secure the tomb until the third day. Otherwise his disciples may come and steal his body and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”_(NET)

Top level Jewish leadership had approached Rome’s jurisdictional authority of Judea – Pilate – with their concern of a false fulfillment of Jesus’ own 3-day Resurrection prophecy. As a Roman Procurator whose governing capacity included serving as a judge, Pilate had to weigh the truthfulness of their claim as well as the potential political consequences.

First was the declaration that the corpse of Jesus was lying in a tomb and the Jewish leader’s concern that it could be stolen. Rome otherwise had little regard for crucified victims, according to Josephus; however, Rome did allow the Jews’ custom to bury their crucified dead:^[3]

“Nay, they proceeded to that degree of impiety, as to cast away their dead bodies without burial, although the Jews used to take so much care of the burial of men, that they took down those that were condemned and crucified, and buried them before the going down of the sun.” – Josephus, Wars ^[4]

Pilate most likely considered other factors, too, such as the validity of the testimony of the Jewish leaders. False witness was a capital offense making it highly unlikely they were lying to him. If the body was stolen and later found, it would complicate matters even worse. Weighing the credibility and motive of their testimony, then concluding the body of Jesus was still in the tomb, an irritated Pilate issued a terse decision:

^{MT 27:65-66} “Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.”_(NASB)

Pilate granted permission through what was, in essence, a Roman court order to secure the body the best way they knew how. This included stationing of a koustodia, a company of guards, at the tomb. Together, the Jewish leadership and the koustodia placed a seal on the tomb as an additional security measure.

Josephus described a “seal” process involving a combined Jewish-Roman military style squad led by a “Roman captain of the temple guards.” The Roman captain, who resided in the Tower of Antonia adjacent to the Temple, was assigned to a contingent of armed Temple guards.^[6]

It was the Roman captain’s responsibility to match his seal ring with a matching seal ring possessed by the Temple leadership to verify the integrity of the seal, in this case, to secure the Chief Priest’s vestments worn at the Jewish festal sacrifices. This Roman-Jewish seal process was temporarily in place only from the death of King Herod until Vitellius became president of Syria in 35 AD – the period of years virtually coinciding with the lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth.^[7]

A similar type of seal and guard process appeared to be utilized at the tomb. The koustodia were accountable to Pilate as evidenced after the resurrection event on Sunday morning when some the guards reportedly ran to the chief priests instead of Pilate. Additionally, Jewish leaders promised the guards they would handle Pilate if their adverse behavior became an issue.

Placed at the scene of the tomb holding the body of Jesus of Nazareth are the contingent of chief priests and Pharisees (possibly including stealth followers of Jesus, Joseph and Nicodemus) to witness the seal being placed on the tomb and the posting of the koustodia. Jewish leaders left with full confidence the sealed tomb was secure alleviating their anxiety that someone might steal the body of Jesus.^[8]

Archenemies of Jesus obtained a legally established Roman-Jewish chain of custody over the body of Jesus that remained unbroken until Sunday morning. At dawn that Sunday morning, incredible events occurred at the tomb while the koustodia were still stationed at their post with the seal intact.

Considering there was a legally established Roman-Jewish chain of custody in place, what is the possibility his body was stolen?

Updated March 12, 2024.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

REFERENCES:

NET = NetBible translation; NASB = New American Standard Bible translation
Gospel references: Matthew 27-28, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19.

[1] Pearce, Jonathan MS. “Matthew and the guards at the tomb.” 2012. <http://www.debunking-christianity.com/2012/06/matthew-and-guards-at-tomb.html rel=”nofollow”> “Gospel Disproof #38: The guards at the tomb.” FreeThoughtBlogs.com. 2014. <http://freethoughtblogs.com/alethianworldview/2012/02/27/gospel-disproof-38-the-guards-at-the-tomb rel=”nofollow”> Chain. Business2Community. image. 2015. <https://www.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Chain-red-link.jpg-300×200.jpg>
[2] Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Book V. 1883. Philogos.org. n.d. <http://philologos.org/__eb-lat/default.htm>
[3] Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews. Book IV, Chapter VIII;
Google Books. n.d. <http://books.google.com/books?id=e0dAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>
[4] Josephus. Wars. Book IV, Chapter V.
[5] Jahnige, Joan. “The Roman Legal System.” KET Distance Learning. 2017. http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/legallatin/legal01.htm> Adams, John Paul. “The Twelve Tables.” 2009. California State University – Northridge. <https://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/12tables.html>
[6] Josephus. Antiquities. Book XV, Chapter XI; Book XX, Chapter I. Wars. Book II, Chapter XVII; Book V, Chapter VI.
[7] Josephus. Antiquities. Book XV, Chapter XI; Book XX, Chapter I. Smith William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 1857. “L. Vitellius” (#5); “C. Cassius Longinus” (#18), and “L. Cassius Longinus” (#19). OpenLibrary.org. n.d. <https://archive.org/stream/schooldictionary00smituoft#page/n9/mode/2up> Smith, Mahlon H. “Lucius Vitellius.” VirtualReligion.net. 2008. http://virtualreligion.net/iho/vitellius_1.html> “Lucius Vitellius.” Livius.org. Ed. Jona Lendering. http://www.livius.org/person/vitellius-lucius> “Chain of Custody in Drugs Cases.” ProhealthLaw. photo. 2015. <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Bg40JhqJxo/Vsmv-MAWtXI/AAAAAAAAJlo/U59A28gTqRs/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/blogger-image–519822927.jpg>
[8] “koustodia”, G2892l (Strong) “#2892 κουστωδία koustodia;” “strategos <4755> and “speira <4686>” Lexicon-Concordance Online Bible. n.d. http://lexiconcordance.com>

The Trial of Jesus — Guilty or Innocent?

Posted on by K.B. Vogelman

The Trial of Jesus — Guilty or Innocent?

Jesus of Nazareth had been arrested by a posse of the Jewish leadership in the Garden of Gethsemane outside Jerusalem. Escorted by the armed guards back into the city, Jesus would be aberrantly tried on the charge of blasphemy as defined in the Law of Moses.^[1]

Prosecuting the case in defense of God’s Law was Chief Priest Caiaphas and the defendant representing himself was Jesus of Nazareth. The verdict of the aberrant trial would have colossal implications in one of two very different ways.

Rome would surely react unfavorably to any potential new Jewish figurehead if they did nothing. A conviction as an insurrectionist and tax evader might be viewed by Rome positively and trouble could be averted.

Conviction from a Jewish perspective would publicly label Jesus as a blasphemer worthy of death, not worship. God’s Law would be successfully defended and upheld.

Acquittal would mean, at the very least, that Jesus would likely be considered the Son of God, worthy of worship. Such a verdict would be an embarrassment for the Jewish Council and pose a threat to their religious political power base.

As an added bonus, a conviction would eliminate the subversive threat to the Jewish leaders political power base. A Jewish Talmud Gemara would later expose the reasoning:^[2]

^{San 49b} “…thus the blasphemer and the idol-worshipper are executed. Wherein lies the particular enormity of these offences? — Because they constitute an attack upon the fundamental belief of Judaism.”^[3]

Gravity of the situation called for a fair and thorough trial, but how likely was that reality? At stake was the defense of Judaism, a religious institution headed by the same power base that was responsible for rendering the verdict – the prosecution witnesses even came from among those serving as judge and jury.^[4]

Defense witnesses for Jesus were nowhere to be found. Not because there weren’t any, but being under the threat of death themselves, who would come forward in his defense?^[5] Even his most stalwart disciple, Peter, upon whom Jesus had declared he would build his church would deny knowing Jesus three times that very night as the aberrant trial progressed.

Other ominous signs did not favor a fair trial given it was not conducted in accordance with Jewish law. Legal code in the Talmud defined how capital offenses were to be tried and convictions rendered. Among them:^[6]

MISHNA: Sanhedrin 32a:

“Capital charges must be tried by day and concluded by day.”

“In capital charges, anyone may argue in his favour, but not against him.”

“Capital charges may be concluded on the same day with a favourable verdict, but only on the morrow with an unfavourable verdict therefore trials are not held on the eve of a Sabbath or Festival.”

Pretrial events began at the residence of Annas, a Sanhedrin power broker, former Chief Priest and father-in-law of Chief Priest Caiaphas. Annas began with cursory questions asking Jesus about his disciples and his teachings. Jesus replied that he had always spoken openly in the Temple and synagogues – there were no secrets.

“Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.”_(NRSV)

Not sitting well with his captors, one of them reacted by hitting Jesus. Holding firm, Jesus again challenged his captors saying:

“If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?””_(NRSV)

With this, Annas sent the posse with their blindfolded and bound prisoner to Caiaphas. By the time they arrived at the Sanhedrin meeting hall at the Temple, Jesus had been mocked and beaten.

Chief Priest Caiaphas presided over the trial held that fateful night. The Law required two eyewitnesses to corroborate the same point of evidence to establish a fact for a conviction.^[8]

Initially the High Priest’s prosecution effort was not going well with many accusers coming forward; however, no two witness testimonies could agree.^[9] Finally, two witnesses made the same accusation: “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’”

Not quite the same, Jesus actually had said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”^[10] Nevertheless, Jesus was accused of saying he would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in just three days when previously it took 46 years to build.

Implying only God could do this, it created an opening, Caiaphas understood the implications. He pounced on the moment with an indicting question that cut to the heart of the trial:

^{MK 14.61} “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” _{(ISV, NLT, NRSV)}

An answer in the affirmative would be self-incriminating and condemning. It was the moment of truth – was Jesus of Nazareth willing to put his life on the line knowing that he would die if he acknowledged this to be true? The answer to Caiaphas was unambiguous:

“I am.”

To be crystal clear, Jesus added:

^{MK 14:62}“’you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven.’”_{ISV, NET, NRSV)}

Immediately the verdict was rendered when Chief Priest Caiaphas tore his robe and said,

^{MT 26:65} “He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses?”_(NASB)

Sentencing was still not a slam dunk. Under Rome’s laws, the Jews were not allowed to carry out capital punishment.^[11]

Would a heathen Roman government even entertain a charge of blasphemy based solely in Jewish religious law? Probably not, they figured.

On the outside chance Rome did level such a charge, would they issue a death penalty judgement for blasphemy? Even more unlikely.^[12]

Considering their options, the Jewish Council sought to convince Pilate that Jesus was guilty of failure to pay taxes to Caesar and for insurrection to Rome. Either of those charges could result in the Roman death penalty.

For Pilate, the accusation of insurrection was a hot button issue with Rome having battled insurrections throughout his tenure as Procurator … at least this was assumed to be the case.^[13] Ultimately, Pilate found Jesus to have no guilt on either charge. Subsequent Jewish political pressure compelled Pilate to sentence Jesus to be crucified.

Was the trial of Jesus fair or was the verdict a divinely predestined outcome?

Updated June 5, 2024.

NASB = New American Standard Bible translation
ISV = International Standard Version translation
NLT = New Living Translation
NRSV = New Revised Standard Version translation
Gospel accounts: Matthew 26-27, Mark 14-15, Luke 22-23, John 18-19.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

REFERENCES:

[1] Leviticus 24:15-16. John 18:3, 12: “chiliarchos <5506>” and “speira <4686>”. CR Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. 1883. Book V, Chapter 15, pp 1382-1392 & pp 1393-1421. <http://philologos.org/__eb-lat/default.htm> Edersheim, Alfred. The Temple – Its Ministry and Services. Chapter 10. 1826 -1889. The NTSLibrary. 2016. <http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/The%20Temple%20by%20Alfred%20Edersheim.pdf>Babylonian Talmud.
[2] “Lady Justice.” ClipArtBest.com. image. 2022. <http://www.clipartbest.com/clipart-4cbo7xgei>
[3] Soncino Babylonian Talmud. Ed. Isidore Epstein. 1935 – 1948. Sanhedrin 49b.<https://israelect.com/Come-and-Hear/sanhedrin/index.html>
[4] Josephus. Against Apion. Book II. <http://books.google.com/books?id=e0dAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false> Spiro, Ken. “History Crash Course #39: The Talmud.” <http://www.aish.com/jl/h/cc/48948646.html> Valentine, Carol A. . “The Structure of the Talmud Files.” <https://israelect.com/Come-and-Hear/structure.html> CR Numbers 30:35.
[5] Sanhedrin 43a.
[6] Sanhedrin 32a – 36b.; CR. Deuteronomy 19:16-18.
[7] Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. 1883. Chapter 13. The NTSLibrary. 2016. <http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/The%20Life%20and%20Times%20of%20Jesus%20the%20Messiah.pdf> Josephus. Antiquities. Book XX, Chapters IX.1 & X.1; Book XVIII, Chapter IV. Whitson, William. The Complete Works of Josephus. 1850. Footnotes – Book XX, Chapter VIII. <http://books.google.com/books?id=e0dAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>
[8] Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15; Numbers 35:30. Sanhedrin 9a, 30a. Resnicoff, Steven H. “Criminal Confessions in Jewish Law .“ 2007. <http://www.torah.org/features/secondlook/criminal.html>
[9] Sanhedrin 41a. “Capital Punishment.” Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/capital-punishment>
[10] John 2:19. NASB.
[11] Sanhedrin 41a. “Capital Punishment.” Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/capital-punishment>
[12] Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Book V, Chapter 14.
[13] Forsythe, Gary Edward. “Ancient Rome – The Roman Army.” 2007. <http://history-world.org/roman_army.htm>

Preparation Day – Did John Contradict Himself?

Posted on by K.B. Vogelman

Preparation Day – Did John Contradict Himself?

Preparation Day is mentioned several times in the Gospels, but two verses in John seem to create a conflict. Some critics point to these two Preparation Day references in John to claim a Gospel contradiction exists thereby casting doubt on the integrity of Gospel accounts about Jesus of Nazareth.^[1]

Does John contradict himself within just 16 verses? In the first reference, Pilate was judging Jesus:

^{JN 19:14} “Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”” _(NKJV)

In this scenario, “Preparation Day” seems to have preceded the Passover because it implies Jesus was judged by Pilate before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. If true, this view would be conflicting with John’s own second reference to the “Preparation Day” preceding the Sabbath a few verses later:

^{JN 19:31} “Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”_(NKJV)

Scriptures define the time when the Hebrew people “prepared” the day before the Sabbath, traditionally called the “Preparation Day.”^[2] After escaping Egypt, God set an example of this preparation by providing the Hebrews in the desert twice the amount of manna on the sixth day, but nothing on the seven day.^[3]

^{Ex 16:22-23} Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one…”This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.”

Occam’s Razor theory suggests that the simplest explanation is usually the right one. While preparing for the Sabbath is spelled out in Exodus, several clues can be found within these two verses and God’s Law.

Three Festival holy days were also to be regarded as a Sabbath, an “appointed time.” Only the Passover was to be observed on a specific day, Nisan 15.^[4]

Greek text uses the word paraskeuh meaning “preparation” further defined as “the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath, Friday.”^[5] In most English Bible versions, John 19:14 is translated as “… for the Passover” while others say “… of the Passover.”

John 19:31 has a parenthetical comment, “for that Sabbath was a high day.” The original Greek word for “high” is megas meaning “great,” yet out of 44 translations only 15 versions translate the word as “great,” none of which are the mainstream versions.^[6]

Another clue is the Greek text word sabbaton, the Sabbath, where there is no other meaning. Defined in the Law of Moses, God’s commandment said the weekly Sabbath is a holy day prohibiting “all manner of work.”^[7]

Prohibitions of work ran the gambit from cooking, drawing water, walking, carrying, making fires, feeding livestock, harvesting, etc. To avoid such violations, preparatory work for these tasks had to be completed before sunset Friday evening – the day of preparation for the Sabbath. The Talmud expounded on the meaning by detailing what was or was not considered “work” – rules notoriously enforced by the Pharisees.

Customarily on the first day of Passover, Nisan 15, people were busy with other religiously required and traditional activities. Every year Nisan 15 fell on a different day of the week and when it fell on a Friday, it created a back-to-back Sabbath scenario presenting a legal conundrum.

According to the Talmud’s interpretation of the Law, people were meant to “enjoy” the Passover Festival. Confounded by the strict weekly Sabbath restrictions, the enjoyment factor for a Friday Passover seemed to be greatly diminished.

In a back-to-back Sabbath scenario, it would actually be a hardship to require the people to abide by two days of strict Sabbath work restrictions for Friday and Saturday, not to mention farming activities.

Festival Sabbath language in the Law of Leviticus and Numbers used the Hebrew word abodah meaning “labor” that was interpreted by Rabbi Sages to be a more lenient work restriction than the weekly Sabbath of “all manner of work.” English translations reflect this difference saying “servile work,” “laborious work,” “regular work,” “occupations” and “customary work.”^[8]

When Nisan 15 fell on a Friday Sabbath Preparation Day, it was considered to be a special day when the Sabbath work restrictions were somewhat relaxed. In the spirit of the Passover intended by God to be a celebratory festival, the Babylonian Talmud addressed the scenario.^[9]

“The general purpose underlying these laws is to enhance the joy of the festival, and therefore the Rabbis permitted all work necessary to that end, while guarding against turning it into a working-day.” – Jewish Encyclopedia ^[10]

Wading through the analysis of Greek text clues, the Talmud and the Bible’s definition of the preparing for the Sabbath, Johns two references refer to the same “preparation day,” but under two different scenarios:

Verse 14 is in the context of an event marking the specific day when Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd that morning, “the Preparation Day of the Passover.”

Verse 31 is in the narrower context of the very same day. The imminent sunset would begin the weekly Sabbath and its much stricter rules – “because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath.” It is the reason Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were in a hurry to bury the body of Jesus before sunset.

Do the two references in John to the “preparation day” create a Bible contradiction?

Updated November 14, 2023.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

REFERENCES:

Gospel references: Matthew 28, Mark 16; Luke 24, John 20.

[1] Wells, Steve. The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. 2017. “423. When was Jesus crucified?” http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/passover_meal.html rel=”nofollow”</a> “101 Bible Contradictions.” Islamic Awareness. n.d. Contradiction #69. <http://www.islamawareness.net/Christianity/bible_contra_101.html rel=”nofollow”</a>
[2] Exodus 16:22-23, 29. Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. 1883. Book V, Chapter 15, pp 1382-1392 & pp 1393-1421. <http://philologos.org/__eb-lat/default.htm> Edersheim, Alfred. The Temple – Its Ministry and Services. Chapter 10. 1826 -1889. The NTSLibrary. 2016. “Happy Preparation Day.” Gail-Friends. image. 2017. <https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qEj69N9z6bM/WR87uOnqzcI/AAAAAAAAkvI/hcScRQ40VasvaY1QHdF7bI3C4ep9rsanACLcB/s1600/sabbath%2Bprep.jpg><http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/The%20Temple%20by%20Alfred%20Edersheim.pdf> “Happy Preparation Day.” Gail-Friends. image. 2017. <https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qEj69N9z6bM/WR87uOnqzcI/AAAAAAAAkvI/hcScRQ40VasvaY1QHdF7bI3C4ep9rsanACLcB/s1600/sabbath%2Bprep.jpg>
[3] Exodus 20:8-10, 31:15; Leviticus 23:3. “G4521.” Lexicon-Concordance. n.d. <http://lexiconcordance.com/greek/4521.html> BibleHub.com. Parallel. <https://biblehub.com/john/19-31.htm> CR Exodus 16:23-26; Mark 15:42.
[4] Exodus 23:14-19; Leviticus 23:1-8. “Festivals,”“Holy Days,” “Passover,” ”Shabbat.” Jewish Encyclopedia. 2011. <http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com> Babylonian Talmud. Rodkinson. Book 1, Tract Sabbath, Chapters 1-10.”Sabbath.” Jewish Encyclopedia. 2011. https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6359-friday “Sabbath and Sunday.” Jewish Encyclopedia. 2011. <https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14115-sunday-and-sabbath Babylonian Talmud. Rodkinson trans. Sabbath, Book 1, Chapter I; Book 2; Erubin, Pesachim, Book 3, Chapter IV, VI, VIII. 1918. <https://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm#t03 Soncino Babylonian Talmud. “Shabbath.” <https://israelect.com/Come-and-Hear/shabbath/index.html>
[5] John 19:14. NetBible.org. Greek text. n.d. <https://classic.net.bible.org/verse.php?book=Joh&chapter=19&verse=14> “G3904.” Lexicondordence.com. n.d. <http://lexiconcordance.com/greek/3904.html>
[6] John 19:31. Netbible.org. n.d. Greek text. n.d. <https://classic.net.bible.org/strong.php?id=3173> “G3173.” Lexicon-Concordance. n.d.<http://lexiconcordance.com/greek/3173.html>
[7] Netbible.org. n.d. Hebrew text. “H4399.” Lexicon-Concordance. n.d. <http://lexiconcordance.com/hebrew/4399.html> CR Exodus 31:15, 35:2.
[8] Leviticus 23:7-8; Numbers 28:18. Net.Bible.org. Hebrew text, footnote #20. CR Exodus 23:14. Netbible.org. n.d. Hebrew text. “G5656.” Lexicon-Concordance. n.d. <http://lexiconcordance.com/search6.asp?sw=5656&sm=0&x=0&y=0>
[9] Babylonian Talmud. Rodkinson trans. Book 3, Tracts Pesachim, Chapter IV and Book 4, Tract Betzah (Yom Tob); Book 4, Tract Moed, Chapter II.. <https://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm#t03> KJV, NET, NIV, NASB, NLT, NRSV, NKJV. Special Shabbots.” Jewish Virtual Library 2008. <https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/special-shabbats> “Special Sabbaths.” TorahResource. n.d. <https://torahresource.com/resources/weekly-parashah/special-readings/special-sabbaths/> Posner, Menachem. Chabad.org. “13 Special Shabbats on the Jewish Calendar.” 2019. <https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4333597/jewish/13-Special-Shabbats-on-the-Jewish-Calendar.htm>
[10] “Holy Days.” Jewish Encyclopedia. 2011. <https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7814-holidays>