Could Jesus have arisen from the dead before sunrise on the Sabbath?

Could Jesus have arisen from the dead before sunrise on the Sabbath?

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by Saber Truth Tiger

Internet historian and author Daniel Gregg has claimed that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday afternoon, died, and was resurrected from the dead in the wee hours before sunrise Sabbath morning.

Unlike most who believe the Wednesday crucifixion and Saturday afternoon resurrection theory, Gregg opts for placing the resurrection in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday. Gregg even has his own translation of the New Testament called the Good News of Messiah.

Gregg claims that traditional Christianity is under a Satanic deception that has covered up the truth of the Sabbath resurrection and replaced it with the teaching that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday so they could abandon Sabbath worship and worship instead on Sunday.

His main argument seems to be that in the original Greek in Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1-2, Luke 24:1-2, and John 20:1-2 the verses literally state that it was not on the first day of the week as most translations have it, but on the "first of the Sabbaths". This leads Gregg to assert that Jesus actually rose from the dead Saturday morning before sunrise.

He goes to great lengths to prove this, bringing forth many claims that support his belief in the Sabbath resurrection. He claims that those who believe otherwise are deceived. Much of his chronology depends on the truth of the annual Sabbath Nisan 15. Without it, his whole case collapses like a house of cards. Gregg claims there were not one, but two Sabbaths early in Passover weekend the first being the annual Sabbath that fell on Thursday and the "first of the Sabbaths" in the resurrection accounts that refer to the first weekly Sabbath of the seven weekly Sabbath countdown toward Shavuot.

There is plenty on BHSE about the so-called annual Sabbath Passover week. I have answered this issue twice at the following link:

can Nisan 15 be referred to as "the sabbath"?

In any case, he makes some errors in his reasoning but does that diminish his claim? It seems to me it does. But I am interested in the opinion of others.

There have been Christians that have worshipped on Saturday dating back to the first century CE and there have been Christians who also celebrated Sunday as the Lord’s Day. But that’s another subject. If you want to be challenged, I suggest you consider the following article.

https://www.torahtimes.org/SabbathResurrection/The%20Sabbath%20Resurrection.htm

My question is this: "Could Jesus have risen from the dead before sunrise Saturday morning?" Have you ever heard of this before?

1 Comment

  • Reply March 19, 2026

    Vance

    What confuse me on the issue is this if the 15th of Aviv is a Sabbath and the 7th day is a sabbath ,where in the bible does it specifically say the 15th is the Sabbath secondly if you count 7 Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost my question is why isn’t the 21st a Sabbath which doesn’t count now but the regular 7 day Sabbath count but the 21st of Aviv is not counted in this and would throw the whole 7 Sabbath off if the 21st is in it.Remember we are told the 15 th is a Sabbath but when it comes to the 21st its thrown in the garbage pail why,thank you.

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