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The Didascalia, an early Christian work, also supports the Wednesday commemoration of
the Messiah's death. In this work the apostles are quoted as saying that it was on Tuesday that they
ate the final supper with Jesus, and that on Wednesday He was taken captive and held in custody in
the house of Caiaphas.

Furthermore, Epiphanius, a post-Nicene writer, protests that Jesus could not have been ar-
rested on the night of Thursday-Friday; the false tradition for him is that which puts the Last Supper
on Thursday evening. The correct one, according to Epiphanius, is that which places it on Tuesday.
Moreover, an early chronology worked out by Victorinus of Pettau came to the conclusion that Je-
sus must have been put to death on a Wednesday.

Finally, there is a certain amount of evidence found in the writings of the early church fa-
thers for the Last Supper having taken place on Tuesday. And, according to the way the Jews reck-
oned time, Nisan 14 began at sundown that day -- falling on a Wednesday that year.

The Ultimate Significance of the Sign of Jonah

It should be clear by now why Jesus gave the Jews this one sign -- the sign of the prophet
Jonah. It was His death, burial and resurrection from the dead (not the length of time in the grave)
that would surely prove to them that He was the Messiah.

We have already seen that the Pharisees and Sadducees sought a sign from heaven, a sign
that was a greater feat than any performed by any of the prophets in their history, to prove His
claims; and, as one looks at the miracles of the former prophets, one sees all the more vividly the
significance of the sign of Jonah. Prior to the arrest and trial of Jesus, His greatest sign was to
raise Lazarus from the dead after he had been in the tomb for four days. But this did not persuade
the religious leaders (John 12:9-11). Such things had been performed during the days of the
prophet Elisha.

But let me ask you this, what greater feat can a man perform than to raise a dead man to life
again? There is only one possible answer: If that man, after dying, is able to RAISE HIMSELF
FROM THE DEAD and live again, this will surely qualify as the greater sign. This was performed
by no prophet before or after Jesus.

Living prophets had raised the dead, but the sign that Jesus was promising them was that
He -- the Messiah -- would RAISE HIMSELF from the dead. This is the sign of Jonah. The Jews
who stood at the foot of the crucifixion tree mocking Jesus did not know that after expiring a few
hours later He would RAISE HIMSELF FROM THE DEAD on the third day -- providing over-
whelming proof that He was indeed the Messiah and the ultimate temple of God, the one in whom
the living God of all creation dwelt. As Jonah had come back from the stomach of a great fish in
the very depths of the sea to warn the Ninevites, so Jesus was to die, be buried, only to raise Him-
self to life on the third day. In John 10:17-18 Jesus made this quite plain to the Jewish religious
leaders, saying --

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