Why do we call it Good Friday?

David Mallory

I'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

It'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

I 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

It's because we Scots are so miserly and tight-fisted, never buy a round, and are only interested in money.

dearieme

Can I invent some folklore, please? It was originally God Friday. Howsabout that, then?

salieri

Simple answer, Fraser: 'Good' means Holy.

Faceless Bureaucrat

Philip Martin [12.38] Yes, that sounds about right...

jedyoong

Probably out of British preference of civility. Can't really call it Bloody Friday?

Rabbits

I read somewhere that 'Good' derives from an old (Saxon?) word for 'blood.' Try the OED or somewhere like that.

Puncheon

Salieri has it right: good is an old English word meaning "holy". Thus it's the same as the French vendredi saint.

Stephen Neilly

I 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

I 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

Your 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

Good 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

In 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

Just a small point - it's Karfreitag in the German-speaking world.

Wilks

A 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

The 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