Good Friday

Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Black Friday and Great Friday is the Friday before Easter according to the Christian religion. On this day Jesus’ death is commemorated.
The definition of the exact date is not a very simple task according to the evangelic and other ancient sources. Many thought that Jesus died on a Friday evening in April when the South Cross could be seen on the bottom of the sky at South to Jerusalem. But this is not possible because of the precession. One possible date is 3rd of April in 33 AD. On this particular day there also was a partial lunar eclipse. The seeming differences between the synoptic gospels and the narrative of John’s gospel make problematic to count the exact date. According to the first the Last Supper squarely meant the eating of the Easter Lamb (to the remembrance of Moses) what the Jews celebrated on the 14th day of the first month of the year on a Thursday evening. This was the 15th of the Jews’ Nissan month. As the Jew days go on from one sunset to another Jesus’ crucifixion happened still on 15th of Nissan but on Friday. However John writes that Joseph from Arimathea put Jesus’ body in the new grave (with the permission of Pilate) before the preparations for the holiday which means that Jesus had the Last Supper with his disciples before the evening of the Jew Passover. To solve this contradiction a lot of attempts were made. Most likely is (according to John 13: 1) that Jesus knew that his last minutes were coming so he had the Lust Supper on Tuesday or Wednesday. Like this they could have more time for the happenings before the crucifixion.
It is important that the gospels agree in the fact that the crucifixion happened under the reign of Pilate between 26 and 36 BC. In this period of time the 14th of Nissan (according to John) was a Friday only in 27, 30, 33 and 36 BC. Other arguments strengthen these arguments. The Gospel of Luke mentions that Jesus began his activity in his 30s and John the Baptism began his open activity in the 15th year of the Emperor Tiberius. If we take the year of 6 BC the natal year of Jesus then this puts the beginning of his activity to 26 BC and the beginning of John’s the Baptism to 29 AD. As the Gospel of John mentions three different Easter during Jesus active life and as Tiberius became the emperor in 14 AD this is too late for Jesus. Because of these we have to put the crucifixion to 33 AD. This is supported by the argument that in 32 AD Tiberius abolished Seianus’ decrees referring to the Jew’s oppression after Seianus death. (This could be an explanation also to that why Pilate listened to the Jews and sentenced Jesus to death against his own will.) But if we accept that many think that Tiberius began his ruling with what power he had before Augustus death (11 AD) then we can put the beginning of John the Baptism’s activity to 26 AD which puts the most probably date of Jesus’ death to 7th of April in 30 AD. It is almost impossible to determine the earlier dates and the days of the weeks because the Jews calculated their dates according to the movements of the Sun and the Moon and the calendar used today was made only in the 5th century AD.

In Kobátfalva we have the service on Good Friday at 6 PM.