Three Days and Three Nights
Was Jesus in the grave for exactly three days and three nights?
The ONLY 'sign' Jesus ever gave the Jews to prove His
Messiah-ship was that He would be dead three days and three nights.
Does this mean Jesus died on a Friday and was resurrected on a Sunday?
How does the Bible define "three days and three nights?"
Was Jesus in the grave for exactly three days and three nights?
Matthew 12:38-40 says:
"Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall
no sign be given to it,
but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth"
Since Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the Jews demanded a sign of Him to prove His claim.
Jesus could give them no better proof that He
was the Messiah than the literal fulfillment of the well-known sign of Jonah, Luke 11:30.
If this sign were not literally fulfilled, it would prove to them that He was not the Messiah.
This was the only sign Jesus ever gave them to prove that He was indeed
the Messiah. So, you can see the great need for
Him to do exactly what He promised them to do.
Mark 8:31 tells us:
"And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of
the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and
after three days rise again."
Did Jesus mean what He said? Did He really expect to be buried in the earth for three days and three nights?
Jesus did not say, "After two
nights and one day I will rise again." He said, "After three days I will rise again."
He meant three days and three nights!
The Jewish leadership remembered this sign when He was crucified.
Matthew 27:62-64 says:
"Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto
Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive,
After three days I will rise again.
Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal
him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first"
.
They did all they could to prevent His resurrection. They got the watch, made the sepulchre sure, and sealed the stone.
"After three days I
will rise again" was necessary to fulfill the Jonah sign.
Several modern interpreters of the Bible make Jesus a liar. They say that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday,
was buried just before sundown the same
day, and arose on the following Sunday about daybreak. This is in contradiction to the
Scriptures. Any elementary school student knows that this is only two nights and one
day. If He were crucified on Good Friday and arose on Sunday morning as they say, then He did not literally fulfill the sign of Jonah.
If He did
not fulfill this sign as He promised the Jews, then He was an impostor and not the Messiah!
In other words, Jesus lied to the Jews
about His burial and resurrection.
If the Good Friday theory is correct as some teach, then the Bible contains "highly figurative language" which requires a human interpreter to
tell people what the verses really mean. By this same liberal method of interpreting the Scriptures you can destroy every basic doctrine in the
Bible, starting with Genesis.
What different commentators and scholars say about the Bible is interesting and
thought provoking, but not to ever be taken as The Word of God.
I truly believe that the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible
itself.! What does concerned me about any interpretation of the Bible is
we must ensure that we do not go about accusing our Lord of lying! Jesus plainly said
He would be in the grave "three days and three nights". He emphatically declared He would rise again "after three days".
I believe He fulfilled
the sign of Jonah and proved that He is the Messiah. Matthew
28:6 shows the testimony of the angel at the tomb:
"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said."
He said He would be in the grave "three days and three nights" and "after three days" He would rise again.
Jesus did fulfill the Jonah sign. But He was not crucified on Good Friday, nor did
He necessarily rise on Sunday morning around daybreak!
The Theory that Part-of-a-Day is a Day is Wrong
Some, in order to get the Bible out of an embarrassing situation, state that the
Jewish leadership counted a part of a day as the whole day. Such passages
as Genesis 42:17, 18; I Samuel 30:12, 13; Esther 4:15-17;
I Kings 20:29; and I Chronicles 10:5 are cited to prove this theory. However, none of
these passages prove "three days and three nights" means two nights and one
day. Only one of them even contains the expression "three days
and three nights", I Samuel 30:12. But there is absolutely no reason to give "three days and three nights" in I Samuel 30:12 any meaning except
their literal meaning. Divine inspiration declares the young man
"had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three
nights." What authority has any man to contradict
those plain words by affirming that the time-span was
different? The expression, "three days,
night and day", in Esther 4:15, is not the same wording as "three days and three nights" in Matthew 12:40.
There is no mention of any nights
at all in the other passages; therefore, they give no evidence as to the meaning of "three days and three nights."
There is no logical reason to take any
of the passages cited in any sense except their literal sense, unless one has a theory to
prove. The "three days and three nights" in Jonah 1:17
are to be taken in their literal sense.
Granting that some of the Jewish leadership did count a part of the day for a whole day, can it be proven that this is what Jesus meant?
Can it be proven
that the Jewish leadership counted a part of a day as a whole day and a whole night?
Where is the proof in the inspired Word?
Yet, those in favor of the Good Friday tradition want us to believe that a part of a day meant a whole day and a whole night.
Those who believe
the Bible to be literally true will not accept that type of reasoning.
The Meaning of Day in the Bible
The word "day" in the Bible in its primary sense means the interval between dawn and darkness.
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night . . . "
Genesis 1:5.
(Compare Genesis 1:14-18; 8:22.)
This is the first occurrence of the word "day" in the Bible, and the Lord God
himself gives its meaning. The Rule of First Mention carries
significant meaning, such as the meaning of the word "love" in Genesis
22:2. Jesus believed there were 12 hours in a
day. He asked in John 11:9:
" . . . Are there not twelve hours in the day?
If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not,
because
he seeth the
light of this world."
Jesus made a day and night consist of 24 hours. Can there be any higher authorities than the Lord God
and Jesus Christ? Don't these
authorities settle the matter?
In the Bible a day is the interval of time comprising the period between two successive
settings of the sun. As God stated it for us in Genesis...six times
(Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23 and 31), and the Jewish religion practices today, a
day is reckoned from evening to evening. Exodus 12:18 shows God
instructing the Nation of Israel a period of seven days, evening to evening
"In
the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat
unleavened bread,
until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
Leviticus 23:32 further shows the Lord explaining the sabbath day:
" . . . from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath"
The 12-hour night began at sunset and ended at sunup. It was counted before the 12-hour day.
"And the evening and the morning were the first day" Genesis 1:5.
So, from the above, a new day began at 6 o'clock in the evening and lasted until the same time the next evening--a period of 24 hours--a 12-hour night
followed by a 12-hour day!
The Good Friday Hoax
The Bible nowhere says or implies that Jesus was crucified and died on Good Friday!
It is said that Jesus was crucified on
"the day before the Sabbath" Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14, 31, 42.
As the Jewish weekly Sabbath came on Saturday (beginning Friday at
sunset), scholars have assumed Jesus was crucified on Good Friday. This is poor reasoning because
the Bible contains abundant testimony that the Jewish people had other Sabbaths beside the weekly Sabbath which fell on Saturday.
All major Jewish holidays are called Sabbaths.
The first day of the Passover week, no matter on what day of the week it came,
is always a Sabbath.
Leviticus 23:6, and 7 says:
"And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD:
seven days ye must
eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy
convocation:
ye shall do no servile work therein"
On the seventh day of this feast, the 21st of Nisan, was another
Sabbath (holy convocation) held annually: Leviticus 23:8 says:
" . . . in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein"
The day of Pentecost was an annual Sabbath as well. (Numbers
28:26). This is the reason we read about Sabbaths in the plural number in the Old
Testament. ( Leviticus 26:2, 34, 35, and 43).
The Bible makes it plain, Jesus was crucified and buried on:
" . . . the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath" Mark 15:42.
John tells us in John 19:14:
"And it was the preparation of the Passover"
It was the preparation day on which the Passover Supper was made ready
[ note: it was actually the preparation for the Holy Day, the
Night to Be Much Remembered], the 14th of Nisan (John 13:1, 29;
18:28). It was the preparation to keep the Passover Sabbath--the annual
Sabbath which always comes on the 15th day of the first ecclesiastical month.
Remember, there are two calendars used by the Jewish people (Religious and
Civil). John 19:31 adds:
" . . . (for that sabbath day was an high day) . . . ."
Two Sabbaths that Week
Its greatness was due to the fact that it was the annual Sabbath of the Passover Festival.
There were two Sabbaths that Week. Matthew makes it plain that two Sabbaths had passed since Jesus was crucified.
The KJV has this rendering in Matthew 28:1:
"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,
came Mary Magdalene
and the
other Mary to see the sepulchre"
On this verse nearly all translators have allowed tradition to control their translation.
It is not "Sabbath" but "Sabbaths" in the Greek text (the
genitive case and the plural number). The verse properly translated would read:
"In the end of the sabbaths . . . ."
This allows for an annual Sabbath on Thursday and a regular Sabbath on Saturday.
When Jesus was buried near sundown on the day of the Passover,
"Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary"
watched the burial Matthew 27:58-61. Immediately after the burial, Luke
3:54 says:
"And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on"
This Sabbath was an annual Sabbath on Thursday. The day after the annual Sabbath the women bought spices, Mark 16:1.
Luke tells us that
the women, after preparing the spices on Friday, before sunset, then
" . . . rested the sabbath day according to the commandment" Luke 23:56.
The traditional interpretation makes Mark and Luke contradict each other.
In Mark 16:1 we are informed that the Sabbath was past when the
spices were purchased. "Had" is inserted without any authority from the Greek text.
"No reason can be given for the variation--bought sweet spices. Not had bought"
(An American Commentary
on the New Testament, Vol. 11, p. 251).
In Luke 23:56 we are told that the women prepared the spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day.
If Jesus lay in the grave on Sabbath
only, Mark and Luke contradict each other. But if He lay there two Sabbaths having a work day between them, then Mark and Luke
harmonize to perfection.
The Resurrection Sometime After Saturday Sunset
When does the Bible say that Jesus rose from the dead? The two Mary's came to the tomb:
"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn" Matthew 28:1.
The Sabbath always ends at sunset: Leviticus 23:32 says:
"From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath"
Then they went to the tomb before sometime sunrise on Sunday. Jesus had risen from the dead before their arrival
(Matthew 28:1-8). This could have been anytime after sunset on
Saturday. We don't know. According to the
Bible, Jesus arose before sunrise on Sunday. All we can say is
that Jesus did resurrect sometime between Saturday, after sunset, and before
sunrise on Sunday morning.
"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week . . ." (Matthew 28:1).
Mark 16:9 tells us Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene early the first day of the week, which was Saturday after sundown.
However, "as it began to dawn..." places the timing on Sunday morning,
before sunrise.
Mark does not say that she was alone at the time she first saw Jesus,
and Matthew tells us that:
"the other Mary was with her" (Matthew 28:1).
The Date of the Crucifixion
Having shown from Matthew 28:1 that Jesus rose from the grave after the Sabbath ended at sunset and the first day of the week began, this
would put the crucifixion beginning on Thursday morning. According to the
Gospel writers, Jesus died at the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) and was buried
before sunset that same day (Luke 23:44, 45, 50-54; Mark 15:33-38, 42-47).
At sunset, just as the preparation day ended, the annual Sabbath commenced.
If Jesus were buried at sunset on Thursday and arose after sunset on Saturday, He fulfilled the sign of Jonah. He would have been in the
grave Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. All together "three days and three nights." Thus we have a
literal fulfillment of the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:40.
Therefore, there is no need to follow some traditions which make Jesus a
liar. Truly,
". . . He rose again the third day according to the scriptures" I Corinthians 15:4,
not the second day according to some traditions!
The Third Day
Some Scriptures speak of His resurrection
"after three days" (Mark 8:31; 9:31 R. V.; 10:34 R. V.; Matthew 27:63).
Other verses say
"three days" (Matthew 26:60, 61; 27:39, 40; Mark 14:58; 15:29, 30; John 2:19, 20).
Still others speak of
"the third day" (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; 27:64; Luke 9:22; 18;33; 24:6, 7, 21, 46; Acts 10:40;
I Corinthians 15:4).
Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Passover Seder on the 14th of Nisan,
which began at sunset on Wednesday, was taken in the Garden of Gethsemane after
midnight (very early Thursday morning), and He was crucified during the day,
starting in the morning of Nisan 14. These things were therefore completed on
Thursday; and the first day since Thursday would be Friday, the second day since Thursday
would be Saturday, and "the third day" since Thursday would be Sunday, the first day of the week.
So the supposed objection in reality supports the Thursday crucifixion.
But if the crucifixion took place on Friday, by no manner of
reckoning could Sunday be made "the third day" since these things were done.
Unless we believe the Bible contains errors, we know that all passages must harmonize.
Therefore, "after three days" must mean the same as
"the third day" in Matthew 16:21.
There is nothing in the Bible to favor the Good Friday crucifixion of Jesus.
The biblical record harmonizes with a Thursday
crucifixion and Sunday morning resurrection. This view allows for a literal interpretation of "three days and three nights."
It
allows for the word "after three days" to mean just that. It proves that Jesus
fulfilled the sign of Jonah and thus proved He is the Messiah of the Jews.
Written by: Bruce M. Larner