Three Days and Three Nights

[visionary]

There has been a long standing debate over the meaning of Matthew 12:40, “for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Let’s consider the Lord’s words Himself as well as those of the elders, scribes and chief priests that were apparently within earshot when Yeshua spoke the words, “three days and three nights in the the heart of the earth.” The reason the elders, scribes and Pharisees recount Yeshua saying “after three days” would have extra meaning considering the supposed *Jewish superstition of that time.

Matthew 12:39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Mark 8:31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Matthew 27:62 On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, 63 saying, “Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’

 

[visionary]

He was resurrected, not after three days but on the third day:

Matthew 16:21 ...and on the third day be raised.

Matthew 17:32 ...and on the third day he will be raised.

Luke 9:22 ...and on the third day be raised.

Luke 18:33 ...and on the third day he will rise again.

Acts 10:40 ...but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear

1 Corinthians 15:4 ...and that he was raised on the third day

 

[MoreCoffee]

Didn't you do this topic recently? Are you trying for a different outcome or just like this topic so much that you need to repeat it every few weeks?

 

[psalms 91]

I think it is a god topic and we just had one poster that kept repeating post after post at least 10 times if not twenty and it was not removed or mentioned so what is wrong with this?

 

[visionary]

A Jewish day starts at sundown. So for example, here it is March 13th, Sunday according to our calendar as I write this post. When sunset comes on March 13th, the new day starts for the biblical setting of time. So 3rd of Adar II, 5776 starts on the 13th at sunset.

April 22nd in the evening will be 14th of Nisan, 5776 Erev Pesach, the start of Passover. To project it back in time to the day when Yeshua lived. It was Erev Pesach that Yeshua celebrated the last supper with the Disciples. The Passover Lamb in the temple will be sacrificed on Nisan 14 the next day. Yeshua was hung on the cross and died as the Passover Lamb was to be sacrificed. Yeshua was taken down before the Sabbath and laid in the grave.

 

[visionary]

Here lies the difficulty with "three days and three nights" and it is found in the counting of them.

If we go with the Friday account... we have

1) Evening Friday... Day Saturday
2) Evening Saturday... Day Sunday

If we go with the Thursday account.. we have
1)Evening Thursday... Day Friday
2)Evening Friday... Day Saturday
3.) Evening Saturday... Day Sunday

Looks good but there are a multitude problems with that. Mainly the Jewish feasts have rules that must be abided by. There are biblical verses that must be accounted for.

 

[visionary]

We know that Nisan 14 doesn't fall on the same day every year, so no argument there. Since the Feast of the Unleavened bread was seven days long it would always include one Sunday. Wave Offering or First Fruits would always occur on the 1st day of the week after the regular weekly Sabbath. First Fruits always occurred on the 1st day of the week whether it was two days, three days or four days etc after Passover. First Fruits was always on Sunday.

 

[visionary]

Let's see what Jewish law says about death.

"According to Jewish law, to be declared legally dead, a person had to be dead for three FULL days or more. Therefore, if Jesus had risen from the dead before 3 PM on the afternoon of Nisan 17, a weekly Sabbath (Saturday), He would not have been considered legally dead. As a result, His return to life would not have been considered a true resurrection from the dead.

"If He had been crucified on a Friday and restored to life on Sunday morning at sunrise (what Christianity calls Easter morning), His death WOULD NOT have been "valid" since only two nights and one day would have passed between Friday sunset and Sunday morning. In order for His death to be publicly recognized and acknowledged, it was necessary for Jesus to remain in the grave for three nights and three days before He was raised from the dead." (HBFV, Appendix J) "

http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/was-jesus-in-the-grave-for-three-days-and-nights.html

 

[visionary]

Now before this point is brought up, I will declare it true. Remember, ANY portion of a day is considered as the whole in Jewish reckoning.

 

[visionary]

Yeshua made the "three days and three nights" significant. It was so important that even the seal on the tomb stone was to keep Him there just because they thought He meant it.

Luke 24:20-22...and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

After His resurrection, when Yeshua appears to His disciples, He affirms the prophecies concerning His death and refers to His resurrection on “the third day”...

Luke 24:46 ..And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

 

[visionary]

We also have to understand "while it is still dark"..

John 20:1 CJB Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Miryam from Magdala went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

Mary didn't see Yeshua until she went that Sunday morning.

While it is still dark could be Saturday night or after midnight Sunday... It is not clear as to the exact moment of the resurrection, so we will have to go to other avenues to figure out when the resurrection actually happened. The feast of first fruits would be the next avenue to check out. The priests would gather the wave sheaf on Saturday night in preparations for the next day's celebrations. It was after dark. The celebration was in the morning.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Gee, you've clocked up 9 posts out of 11.

 

[visionary]

Understanding that it was a Wednesday Passover and crucifixion also solves apparent conflicts in the Gospel records. In Luke 23:55,56 it says that the women (Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James) went and prepared anointing spices and oils BEFORE the Sabbath. In Mark 16:1 it says that they bought them AFTER the Sabbath! The answer lies is in the fact that there are two different Sabbaths being referred to here. The women both bought and prepared the spices on the same day. The day of the week was Friday. When Mark says they bought the spices AFTER the Sabbath, the Sabbath he is referring to was the special Thursday Sabbath ...the first day of unleavened bread that followed the day of Passover. When Luke says they prepared the spices and then rested the Sabbath, the Sabbath he is referring to is Saturday ...the weekly Sabbath.

There is also proof found in Matthew 28:1 that there were two Sabbaths. Most Bible translations render this word "Sabbath" in the singular because translators, believing the traditional Friday crucifixion scenario, couldn't make any sense of the fact that the Greek manuscripts all render this word in the plural. This fact can be verified by anyone with a Greek interlinear translation or Greek lexicon. Matthew 28:1 therefore should read, "Now after the SABBATHS as the first day of the week began to dawn...". When it says "Sabbaths" it is talking about the counting of the omer to the 50th day which you know as Pentecost and it would have the count of seven Sabbaths.

High Sabbaths are seven annual Biblical festivals and rest days, recorded in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The term "high day" found in the King James Version at John 19:31-42 is talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread which starts on Nisan 15. This is the "high day" Sabbath that Yeshua had to be done off the cross by the start of that day... it would be when the Passover lamb would be eaten (see Twilight Lamb thread)

 

[visionary]

First hurdle is the two Sabbaths... The women go to get the spices after the sabbath before the sabbath...

Mark 16:1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.

Luke 23:55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

Note that the women who had purchased spices after the first Sabbath returned and prepared the spices, then “rested on the Sabbath.” If Yeshua was crucified on Thursday, then the high holy Sabbath (the Passover) would have begun Thursday at sundown and ended at Friday sundown at the beginning of the weekly Sabbath or Saturday. Purchasing the spices after the first Sabbath (Passover) would have meant they purchased them on Saturday and were breaking the Sabbath.

Second issue to resolve... Three days and three nights... Enough presentations on this thread have give all the evidence they can find for the three days and three nights... but to resolve it for the Wednesday crucifix. ... not yet.

Therefore, Wednesday needs more work especially regarding Yeshua's resurrection time. The only explanation that does not violate the biblical account of the women and the spices and holds to a literal understanding of Matthew 12:40, is that Yeshua was crucified on Wednesday, as far as I can figure.

The Sabbath that was a high holy day (Passover) Nisan 14 occurring on Wednesday night, the women purchased spices (after that) on Friday and returned and prepared the spices on the same day, they rested on Saturday which was the weekly Sabbath, then brought the spices to the tomb early Sunday. But by then He was already resurrected and no indication of when. Jesus was buried near sundown on Wednesday, which began Nisan 15 on the Jewish calendar. Using a Jewish calendar, you have Wednesday evening Nisan 15 (night one), Thursday Nisan 15 (day one), Nisan 16 (night two), day (day two), Nisan 17 (night three) Weekly Sabbath, day (day three). We do not know exactly what time He rose, but we do know that it was before sunrise on Sunday. He could have risen as early as just after sunset Saturday evening, which began the first day of the week to the Jews. The discovery of the empty tomb was made just at sunrise (Mark 16:2), before it was fully light (John 20:1).

So by faith we have to look to Yeshua who followed the law perfectly even in death. His resurrection would have to coincide with the gathering of the first fruits [wave sheaf] from the fields by the priests.

Yeshua is the wave-sheaf offering. This took place on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath. We do know that when Mary run into Yeshua, He had not gone before His Father in the heavenly temple to offer Himself as the wave sheaf offering yet.

John 20:1,14,17 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulcher… 14 And when she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father… 17 my God, and your God.

He wanted to make sure His offering of Himself was perfect and that is why He would not let Mary touch Him.

By faith, I would say that Yeshua resurrected at the end of the weekly Sabbath, rising up as the first fruit.

 

[visionary]

Gee, you've clocked up 9 posts out of 11.

IT would be too much to post on one post.

 

[MoreCoffee]

IT would be too much to post on one post.

Why not do it as a blog then?

 

[visionary]

we have blogs here??

 

[MoreCoffee]

we have blogs here??

seems so.

 

[visionary]

Luke 22:14 is interesting because to me it implies the 14th and final day for Yesua had begun (i.e. sundown) because it says "the hour had come." As the Passover Lamb, He would know which Nisan 14 and would not have said it until the time has come.

 

[Lamb]

we have blogs here??

We do! Romanos gave the area to us last night http://www.christianityhaven.com/forumdisplay.php?97-Blog-Central

We're coming up with some guidelines so members can choose whether they want responses or none within their blog.

Back to your thread, sorry to interrupt