Three days is three days

Editor: Jarvis Windom

There has been lots of confusion on people trying to understand what three days mean.

Some think three days is 48 hours.  Some think 3 days is 80 hours.  Educated people realize that 24x3 = 72.  When God has a Son and people were looking for a sign on how long the Son of God was dead, people seem to not be able to count.

 A lot of difficult calculation is made to make 3 days into something more than God intended.  When people can’t live with just what is given them, they often want more of a sign.  One statement or sign is not enough.  People can’t deal with just what is given them and they want more.  People always want more signs.  More, More, More proofs.

 We are dealing with an issue of How long Christ was on the cross or stake.  Lots of proof has been historically shown that he was taken down on a Wednesday that year.  We are most able to get those histories correct.   We also understand the Jewish traditions of not preparing bodies on the Holy Day.  

...WAS Jesus three days and three nights in the grave, as He said in Matthew 12:40?

Can you figure three days and three nights between sunset "Good Friday" and sunrise Easter Sunday?   Can't you count?

It is commonly supposed, today, Jesus was crucified on FRIDAY, and that the resurrection occurred about sunrise on Easter Sunday morning.

It would seem that no one, until recently, ever thought to question or to PROVE this "Good-Friday-Easter" tradition. yet the Bible tells us to PROVE all things. And you will be literally astounded by this proof.  For PROOF there is but one dependable authority; a sole historical record - the Bible

 The confusion starts when inverse reasoning is applied.  It works like this… “We know Christ was resurrected early Sunday morning.  All scholars know this and the Christian churches have taught this for years.   The wise men of Christianity have always understood Easter morning for hundreds of years.” 

 We need to refocus on the Sabbath (Saturday) like intended.  We need to understand that the “ascension” and “resurrection” are not the same thing.

Christ was brought back to life, after death, 3 days after he died.  If you can count, you can understand that from Wed afternoon forward 3 days brings a mathematician to Saturday afternoon.

 There were no eye-witnesses to the resurrection. Even so-called "apostolic fathers" had no source of information save that record which is today available to us. Tradition, then, must be dismissed.

What are the recorded facts? The doubting Pharisees were asking Jesus for a SIGN - a supernatural evidence - in proof of His Messiahship.

Jesus answered: "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sigh 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." (Matt. 12:38-40).

Now consider, please, the tremendous import - the overwhelming significance - of Jesus’ statement!

He expressly declared that the ONLY SIGN He would give to prove He was the Messiah was that He should be just THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS in the rock-hewn sepulcher in "the heart of the earth."

 Everyone knows the tomb was empty on Sunday morning.   Everyone understands that Christ was walking among the decuples on the First day of the week.  He had not ascended to the father yet.  So there was an evident break or lost time period from resurrection to ascension.   We don’t know what Christ did all night.

 These Christ-rejecting Pharisees demanded PROOF. Jesus offered but one evidence. That evidence was not the fact of the resurrection itself - it was the LENGTH OF TIME. He would repose in His grave, before being resurrected.

 The only sign that was given on the timing, was the Sign of Jonah.  Jonah was in the belly of the fish 3 days and 3 nights.  That would include 3 nights also, as it wasn’t just a daytime job.  72 hours, if  Jesus can count?  Notice this:  Did Jesus know how much time was in a "day" and in a "night"? Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in a day ...but if a man walk in the NIGHT, he stumbleth." (John 11:9-10).

 So since this was given to the gainsayers at that time, Jonah’s sign was the proof.

 It probably is not important that we know the exact moment of the resurrection.  If it was all that important, more would have been written about it.  But He did say quite a bit.   If we can find the TIME OF DAY of the burial, then we have found the TIME OF DAY of the resurrection! If the burial, for instance, was at sunrise, then in order to be left an even three days and three nights in the tomb, the resurrection and likewise had to occur at sunrise, three days later. If the burial were at noon, the resurrection was at sunset, three days later.

Jesus cried on the cross soon after "the ninth hour" or three o’clock in the afternoon (Matt. 27:46-50; Mark 15:34-37; Luke 23:44-46.)

The crucifixion day was called "the preparation," or day before "the Sabbath" (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14). This day ended at sunset, according to Bible reckoning (Lev. 23:32).

Yet Jesus was buried before this same day ended - before sunset. (Matt. 27:57; Luke 23:52-54). John 19:42, John adds, "There laid, they Jesus, therefore, because of the Jews’ preparation day." According to the laws observed by the Jews all dead bodies must be buried before the beginning of a Sabbath or feast day. Hence Jesus was buried BEFORE SUNSET on the same day He died. He died shortly after 3 p.m.

Therefore - notice carefully! - the BURIAL OF CHRIST’S BODY WAS IN THE LATE AFTERNOON! It was between 3 p.m. and sunset as these Scriptures prove.

And since the RESURRECTION had to occur at the SAME TIME OF DAY, three days later, THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST OCCURRED, not at sunrise, but IN THE LATE AFTERNOON, near sunset!

The first investigators, Mary Magdalene and her companions, came to the sepulcher on the first day of the week (Sunday) very early, while it was yet dark, as the sun was beginning to rise, at dawn (Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).

Now here are the texts most people have SUPPOSED stated the resurrection was at sunrise Sunday morning. But they do not say that!

When the woman arrived, the tomb was already OPEN! At that time Sunday morning while it was yet dark - JESUS WAS NOT THERE! Notice how the angel says "HE IS NOT HERE, BUT IS RISEN!" See Mark 16:6; Luke 24:3; John 20:2; Matt. 28:5-6.

Jesus was ALREADY RISEN at sunrise Sunday morning! Of course He was. He rose from the grave IN THE LATE AFTERNOON, near SUNSET!

And since we know the resurrection was just shortly prior to that Sunday morning, and that it occurred in the late afternoon of the day, we now may know THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST OCCURRED LATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

The Sabbath day ended at sunset. It was late on that day, before the beginning of the first day of the week. It was not, then, a Sunday resurrection at all- it was a Sabbath resurrection!

Another proof that Christ was in the grave the full length time He expected to be in found I Cor. 15:3-4.

"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES."

His death and burial were ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES - NOT CONTRARY TO THEM.

The THIRD DAY following His Wednesday burial was the Sabbath; THREE FULL DAYS spent in the grave ended Saturday afternoon just prior to sunset not Sunday morning.

 A vital text proving that there were two Sabbaths in that week has been obscured by almost every translation into English. Only Ferrar Fenton’s version has the point correct.

Turn to Matthew 28:1. In the common version it says, "In the end of the Sabbath," or more correctly "after the Sabbath." Notice that both of these renderings use the singular - Sabbath. But in the original Greek the word is in the PLURAL. Fenton renders it correctly by saying. "After the SABBATHS," although the remaining part of the verse he has not translated quite correctly. In a foot-note to this text, he says "The Greek original is in the plural, ‘Sabbaths.’"

According to Mark 16:1 Mary Magdalene and her companions did not buy their spices to anoint the body of Jesus until AFTER THE SABBATH WAS PAST. They could not prepare them until AFTER this- yet after preparing the spices THEY RESTED THE SABBATH DAY ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENTS! (Luke 23:56).

Study these two texts carefully.

There is only one possible explanation: After the annual high-day Sabbath, the feast day of the days of unleavened bread - which was Thursday - these women purchased and prepared their spices on FRIDAY, and then they rested on the weekly Sabbath, Saturday, according to Commandment! (Exodus 20:8-11)

A comparison of these two texts PROVES there were TWO Sabbaths that week, with a DAY IN BETWEEN. Otherwise, these texts contradict themselves.  The two Sabbaths being the annual Holy Day and the Weekly Sabbath (Saturday).

 Christ Died on Wednesday before Sundown and was resurrected Saturday afternoon before sundown. 

 The important thing God wants us to remember is the Death.  He wants us to focus on the Passover.   The Passover Gift of Christ and the symbols that he placed in the observance.  Much is written about the Passover and the Death of Christ.   Much emphasis is placed on this learning and symbols. 

 It seems like this must be proved and reproved when the bible is so simple.