Why do we call it Good Friday?
Fraser Nelson 11:17am
Why is the most solemn day in the Christian calendar called Good Friday? In Sweden and Denmark it’s “long Friday”; in Germany it’s Charfreitag or Sorrowful Friday. That all chimes with what we commemorate at 3pm today – Good Friday does not. I have been unable to find any convincing explanation of this online, so I thought I’d call on the collective wisdom of Coffee Housers. Any answers?
PS – Can we be as precise as to say 3pm, the Jewish “ninth hour”? Four years ago, a pair of astronomers claimed to have scientifically verified this. Their computer programme looking at star activity between 26AD and 35AD found the first full moon after the vernal equinox was registered on Friday 7 April AD 30 and Friday 3 April at 3pm on 33AD. The solar eclipse, described in the Bible, was only visible in Jerusalem on the latter date.
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David Mallory
March 21st, 2008 12:14pm Report this commentI'm no Christian but I'd always assumed it was good because Jesus died to save us all. So it's good not because Jesus dies, but because we are all saved.
Augustus
March 21st, 2008 12:16pm Report this commentIt's Balls to suggest that it has anything to do with civil servants going AWOL on religeous days of their choice. I believe it has something to do with the goodness implied by Jesus's sacrifice on the day he was crucified.
Thomas Widmann
March 21st, 2008 12:17pm Report this commentI don't know the answer, alas, but can anybody explain to me why Good Friday is not a bank holiday in Scotland? Surely it must be the only place in Europe like that.
Philip Martin
March 21st, 2008 12:38pm Report this commentIt's because we Scots are so miserly and tight-fisted, never buy a round, and are only interested in money.
dearieme
March 21st, 2008 12:39pm Report this commentCan I invent some folklore, please? It was originally God Friday. Howsabout that, then?
salieri
March 21st, 2008 12:50pm Report this commentSimple answer, Fraser: 'Good' means Holy.
Faceless Bureaucrat
March 21st, 2008 1:12pm Report this commentPhilip Martin [12.38] Yes, that sounds about right...
jedyoong
March 21st, 2008 1:32pm Report this commentProbably out of British preference of civility. Can't really call it Bloody Friday?
Rabbits
March 21st, 2008 2:46pm Report this commentI read somewhere that 'Good' derives from an old (Saxon?) word for 'blood.' Try the OED or somewhere like that.
Puncheon
March 21st, 2008 2:47pm Report this commentSalieri has it right: good is an old English word meaning "holy". Thus it's the same as the French vendredi saint.
Stephen Neilly
March 21st, 2008 5:06pm Report this commentI agree that good means 'holy', where the holy One is becoming unholy for the sake of His sinful people. Incidentally, there's no need to believe that the darkness at noon is a solar eclipse. It's a supernatural darkness, after all, lasting for three hours, predicted in Amos 8:9-10, "In that day," declares the Sovereign Lord, "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight... I will make that time like mourning for an only son". God is mourning for His only Son. That's the good He does that first Good Friday.
salieri
March 21st, 2008 5:33pm Report this commentI tread warily in theology, Stephen, but respectfully beg to query the notion that Jesus ever became 'unholy' in any sense and still less for any purpose. Surely the central Christian tenet is that Jesus was above all holy by choosing to give His life for the salvation of his sinful people? It's the occasion that is celebrated as a Holy Day - at least, it still is by Russian and Greek Orthodox believers.
Stephen Neilly
March 21st, 2008 7:03pm Report this commentYour comments are respectful, salieri, and well-made. Jesus doesn't become a sinner in any sense. What I was trying to express, albeit poorly, is the wonder of the exchange in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made Him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us [those who trust in Him], so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."
Philip Collinson
March 21st, 2008 7:17pm Report this commentGood Friday is called that name because of the Good News of the Gospel. God is a holy God who cannot just wink at sin. He is also a God of love. Only God could have thought of a way in sin is punished and yet the sinner who trusts in Christ is forgiven. In His amazing plan of salvation, Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, bore on the Cross the penalty that was due to us and so is able to forgive the sins of all who trust in the Saviour. That is the best news you will ever hear. This is the New Testament Gospel.
S. M. Birks
March 22nd, 2008 3:04am Report this commentIn the bilingual world of Québec, where we move easily between French and English we see no confusion. Holy Week is la Semaine sainte, and Good Friday is le vendredi saint. Those who have made the connection between "Good" and "Holy" are entirely correct.
John MacLeod
March 22nd, 2008 6:16am Report this commentJust a small point - it's Karfreitag in the German-speaking world.
Wilks
March 24th, 2008 2:32pm Report this commentA late answer: in Anglo Saxon it was also know as Long Friday (where "long" had much the same meaning as "great" (in Danish 'Langfredag'). Why Good Friday? Possibly a corruption of God's Friday?
An Accountant
March 24th, 2008 7:11pm Report this commentThe dripping blood our only drink The bloody flesh our only food In spite of which we like to think That we are sound substantial flesh and blood Again, in spite of that, we call this friday Good. East Coker, TS Eliot
Zippcodey
February 21st, 2009 6:54am Report this commentGood Friday? Christ a pagan sun deity name means GOOD not annointed like Christianity teaches. Messias is Greek for Messiah not Christ.
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