Why is Good Friday Called Good Friday?
With the hope and joy that comes with the Easter weekend, there is a question that keeps coming up: why is Good Friday called Good Friday?
Dr. Josh McNall, School of Ministry
I had to look this one up myself.
It seems that the first appearance of the phrase “Good Friday” (“guode friday”) was around the 13thcentury, and the word “good” was frequently used in the English of the time to denote “a day or season observed as holy by the church” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
For today’s Christians, however, the goodness of this particular Friday resides in what Christ accomplished on the cross—dying for our sins so that we might rise with him to new life when we give Jesus our believing-allegiance.
