PARASCEVE. – Day of preparation for the Sabbath. The Greek term ἡ Παρασκευή literally means “preparation.” The Vulgate merely transcribes it as p., without translating II.
The four Evangelists use p. to denote the day which the Jews set aside for preparing food and other necessities for the celebration of the Sabbath. Thus p. corresponds to the sixth weekday of the week, namely Friday.
Mk 15:42 states that when Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to request the body of the crucified Jesus for p. (preparation), that is, for the day before the Sabbath, which precedes the Sabbath. In this sense the term is understood by Judg 8:6 and by Flavius Josephus (Antiquitates Judaicae, XVI, 6, 2); Luke in the critical text (23:54) says “it was the day of p. and the Sabbath was beginning” (literally “was being illumined,” that is, lamps were lit at sunset, which for the Jews marked the beginning of the new day).
Mt 27:62 says that “on the day after p. (that is, on the Sabbath) the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate.” In all these passages p. certainly means “Friday.”
A doubt may arise regarding the meaning of the term in Jn 19:14: “It was the p. of the Passover (q.v.).” Here it might mean the eve of the paschal solemnity, yet from John it clearly emerges that it was a Friday (19:31, cf. 19:42).
Even in Ex 16:5, on the sixth day of the week (Friday), one had to prepare what was needed for the Sabbath by gathering a double portion of manna (ibid. 16:2).