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Mark 15:42 provides us with what is perhaps the most lucid definition of the expression
"day of Preparation" by the following statement: "It was the day of Preparation, that is, the day be-
fore the Sabbath." Carefully note that in the Greek language the two phrases "the day of Prepara-
tion" and "the day before the Sabbath" are each given with a single technical designation:
"paraskeue (Preparation)," and "pro-sabbaton (Sabbath-eve)." When literally translated the pas-
sage reads: "It was Preparation, that is, Sabbath-eve." For the sake of clarity, the disciple Mark
uses two technical terms here -- both of which unmistakably indicate what we call "Friday" in our
pagan Gregorian calendar.

Writes Bacchiocchi --

The term "prosabbaton-Sabbath-eve" was used by Hellenistic Jews to designate explicitly
and exclusively "the day before the Sabbath, i.e. Friday" (Judith 8:6; 2 Macc. 8:26). Thus
Mark, by defining "paraskeue-Preparation" as being the "prosabbaton-Sabbath-eve," gives
the clearest possible definition to his Gentile readers of what he meant by "paraskeue,"
namely, THE DAY BEFORE THE WEEKLY SABBATH. Clarification of time refer
ences by a qualifying clause are common in Mark, evidently because the author knew that
his Gentile readers were generally unfamiliar with Jewish terms and customs (The Time
of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, chapter 3.)

An English reader could quite easily fail to see the connection between the term "Prepara-
tion" and the the day before the Sabbath because in the English language such a term is a generic
noun which simply does not mean the day before the Sabbath. However, in the Semitic Greek of
the New Testament documents the situation was much different. In this context the term
"paraskeue" was the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic word "ARUBTA (eve)," both of which were
commonly used to indicate the day before the weekly Sabbath.

While I earlier used the term "sixth day" to designate the Preparation day, this is not techni-
cally correct. In Aramaic, as Charles C. Torrey explains, "the middle days of the week were des-
ignated by numbers, 'third, fourth, fifth,' but Friday [the sixth day of the week] was always
ARUBTA; there was no 'sixth day' of the week;...Its Greek equivalent, paraskeue-Friday, was like-
wise adopted from the first by the Greek Church" ("The Date of the Crucifixion According to the
Fourth Gospel," Journal of Biblical Literature (1931), pp. 324-335).

The early use of the term "paraskeue" by the Christians -- as a technical designation for the
sixth day of the week -- is well attested outside of the New Testament. The Didache (or "The
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles"), dated between 70 and 120 A.D., tells Christians to fast on "the
fourth day and Preparation [6th day]" (8:1). It should be noted that the sixth day of the week is
termed simply the "Preparation (paraskeuen)," -- without the article or the noun "day," thus point-
ing to the technical usage of the term.

By the time of Tertullian (c. 160-225 A.D.), notes Bacchiocchi, paraskeue had already be-
come such a fixed name for the day before the weekly Sabbath that he even argues that this had
been the name for the sixth day since creation. These, and similar examples (The Martyrdom of
Polycarp, 7, 1), clearly show that Christians adopted the Jewish practice of numbering the first

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