It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was beginning.
Parallel translations
- WEB It was the day of the Preparation, and the Sabbath was drawing near.
- KJV And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
- NKJV That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.
- NASB It was a preparation day, and a Sabbath was about to begin.
- NLT This was done late on Friday afternoon, the day of preparation, as the Sabbath was about to begin.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
It was the day of Preparation as the Sabbath drew near. The timing explains the haste of burial and the women's later return.
Overview
Luke marks the day of Preparation before the Sabbath, when work had to cease at sundown. This explains why the burial was hurried and why the women waited to complete their task. The careful chronology grounds the resurrection account in real time and place, framing the events with historical precision.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Matt 27:62The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and Pharisees assembled before Pilate.
- John 19:31It was the day of Preparation, and the next day was a High Sabbath. In order that the bodies would not remain on the cross during the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed.
- Mark 15:42Now it was already evening. Since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath),
- John 19:42And because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they placed Jesus there.
- John 19:14It was the day of Preparation for the Passover, about the sixth hour. And Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your King!”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 23:54 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.