16:1 What Sabbath is referred to here?
16:1 What Sabbath is referred to here?
This is the normal weekly - Saturday - Sabbath referred to here which commenced at 6pm Friday and ended at 6pm Saturday.
Night precedes day in God's order (cp Gen 1:3-5; Lev 23:32). Jesus rose up sometime during Saturday night after the Sabbath had ended for He was gone from the grave before the women got there by sunrise on Sunday (cp Mt 28:1-7; Mk 16:1-9; Lk 24:1-7; Jn 20:1-10).
This clearly refutes the teaching in the church that Jesus died and was buried on the Friday - "Good Friday" - as it is known throughout Christendom, because if that were so then Jesus only spent a little over twenty-four hours - a day and a night - in the "heart of the earth" before being raised up.
Yet He Himself said that He would be there three days and three nights (cp Jonah 1:17 with Mt 12:40; 27:63; Mk 8:31; 9:31; 10:34; 1Cor 15:3-4).
It is plainly evident from these scriptures that Jesus could not have died and been three days and three nights in the heart of the earth as He said He would if He was buried on so-called "Good Friday".
To spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth before being raised up again means that Jesus was buried on the preceding Wednesday, which is what scriptures teach (cp Jn 19:31-32, 38-42).
The "high day" Sabbath that was to take place on the next day - Thursday - after Jesus' burial was a special Sabbath: a day of great, solemn celebration, such as the day of the great feast when Jesus invited all who were thirsty to come to Him and drink (cp Jn 7:37).
The high day Sabbath was completely different to the normal weekly - Saturday - Sabbath
(See also comments on Mt 27:50, Jn 19:31, Ac 12:4, Ga 4:9).