Jesus meurt sur La Croix le dimanche

Question

As a Catholic, I was always taught that Jesus died on Friday and rose to heaven on Sunday. I know this is argued in theological circles unendingly, but there were three days between Jesus' death and when eh ascended into heaven, as is part of the liturgy, "on the third day he rose again". I guess this isn't a question, but I was surprised to read in your essay that he died and ascended on Sunday. Is that a French thing?

Accepted Answer

First, I apologize if my answer shows up twice.  I was double-checking something in the original article and my answer went away.  I think the article says the same thing, but I do not know if that that is a common French understanding of the timeline.  Among evangelicals in America, Canada, and France, the traditional timeline would be that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday and rose again on a Sunday.  That allows for the three days in the tomb by the Jewish reckoning of days starting at evening and continuing into the next day:  Thursday evening/Friday morning is one day, Friday evening/Saturday morning is the second day, Saturday evening/Sunday morning is the third day.  So, I can't speak to the broader understanding of it in Europe, but there's a peek into the evangelical understanding (and as an additional note -- the timeline for resurrection events in my French Bible lines up with that in my English Bible).