Ever wondered, “When did Jesus die?” It’s a perfectly reasonable question as we near the celebration of Easter. The good news is there’s a fairly straightforward answer.
The Bible and historical records suggest Jesus died at three o’clock in the afternoon on Friday of Passover week AD 29.
If you think of the Passion narratives as a really old medical drama, you’ll see why specificity is difficult when discussing Jesus’s death.
In medical dramas, there’s a key moment when the medical examiner comes onto the scene and says, “Time of death is …” That’s when the story really gets started. That’s when we get to start figuring out who did it.
We never get that scene in the Gospels’ Passion narratives.
Don’t get me wrong. We know Jesus died. John describes a Roman soldier piercing Jesus’s side and blood and water gushing out (which was a sign that he was dead).
But there is no one on the scene to give the particulars of the…
