Jesus was crucified on Thursday

Saber Truth Tiger said:

Hi Der Alte, I really enjoyed your posts on this thread. According to your photo and comment. you are well into your 80s and I just wanted to know if you are still with us. If so, let me know.

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My 85th is in 5 days. I don't spend as much time here as I once did. I drop in every now and then. I was on staff a few decades ago. The name I used on staff was Old Shepherd some of my OS posts are still around.

Der Alte said:

My 85th is in 5 days. I don't spend as much time here as I once did. I drop in every now and then. I was on staff a few decades ago. The name I used on staff was Old Shepherd some of my OS posts are still around.

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Nice to know you are still around. I am a young 68. Although my body is getting old my mind is still young. Did you post on this topic when you were Old Shepherd?

Saber Truth Tiger said:

I believe the "three days and three nights" is either a scribal gloss or emendation because "three days and three nights" would entail Jesus would rise from the dead on the fourth day and not the third. This would create contradictions everywhere where the "third day" is mentioned. It makes more problems than it solves.

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My understanding is that it is simply a figure of speech known as synecdoche, where the part implies the whole, or the whole implies the part, like 15 'head' of cattle or 'England' beat 'Wales' in the rugby. Three days and three nights is three whole "day and night" implying the parts, Friday afternoon, the whole of the Sabbath, and the beginning of Sunday. This does not contradict the many times Christ said He would rise on the third day and is in keeping with the prophecy of Psalm 16:10 that He would not see corruption. Christ was buried before sunset on Friday and rose after sunset on Saturday, a little over 24 hours, having rested in the tomb on the 7th day as foretold in the creation account in Genesis. If Christ had been dead for 72 hours then His body would have begun to decay and would have "seen corruption".

PatrickTate said:

In Ad 31 the first day of Unleavened Bread was on a Thursday. A Wednesday crucifixion fits with the women preparing the spices for the burial of Jesus on Friday and then resting on the weekly Sabbath and going to the tomb on Sunday morning, [the first day of the week], but Jesus was already risen.

If He was in the tomb for seventy two hours it would mean a Saturday around sunset resurrection as the Sabbath would end. I assume Jesus died several hours before sunset on Wednesday and gave the thief on the cross next to him a tour of heaven for an hour or so before he went into hell itself for three days and three nights.

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Jesus was crucified on the Preparation. That's the day before the weekly Sabbath, aka Friday.

The day Jesus rose from the dead, Sunday, the first day of the week, He traveled incognito with two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus. As they walked down the road, the disciples said that "it is the third day" since "these things happened". Well let's do math: if the third day is Sunday, then the second day is Saturday, and the first day is Friday.

Jesus was crucified on Friday before sundown.

-CryptoLutheran

prodromos said:

thMy understanding is that it is simply a figure of speech known as synecdoche, where the part implies the whole, or the whole implies the part, like 15 'head' of cattle or 'England' beat 'Wales' in the rugby. Three days and three nights is three whole "day and night" implying the parts, Friday afternoon, the whole of the Sabbath, and the beginning of Sunday. This does not contradict the many times Christ said He would rise on the third day and is in keeping with the prophecy of Psalm 16:10 that He would not see corruption. Christ was buried before sunset on Friday and rose after sunset on Saturday, a little over 24 hours, having rested in the tomb on the 7th day as foretold in the creation account in Genesis. If Christ had been dead for 72 hours then His body would have begun to decay and would have "seen corruption".

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Hi Prodomos, thanks for the reply. I don't believe the synecdoche theory; I think it means three days and three nights. I just feel a scribal emendation or gloss is responsible for this. Including it in the text creates contradictions elsewhere in the Bible, particularly in passages that mention Jesus rising on the third day. In early Christianity, the spurious Gospel of Peter mentions fasting night and day between the day of the crucifixion and the Sabbath. That is found in verse 27 of the gospel. I deduce from this that there were some early Christians who believed Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights. The gospel of Peter is, of course, not canonical. But it is possible there was an early scribe who held to the Gospel of Peter, verse 27, and he added the three days and three nights because the book of Jonah mentions the three days and three nights.


Luke mentions only the sign of Jonah (a resurrection of sorts) without mentioning the time. Matthew is the only gospel that mentions the time element of three days and three nights, inclusively.

Luke 11:29 (NASB)

As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.​

Luke 11:30
For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

Saber Truth Tiger said:

Hi Prodomos, thanks for the reply. I don't believe the synecdoche theory; I think it means three days and three nights. I just feel a scribal emendation or gloss is responsible for this. Including it in the text creates contradictions elsewhere in the Bible, particularly in passages that mention Jesus rising on the third day. In early Christianity, the spurious Gospel of Peter mentions fasting night and day between the day of the crucifixion and the Sabbath. That is found in verse 27 of the gospel. I deduce from this that there were some early Christians who believed Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights. The gospel of Peter is, of course, not canonical. But it is possible there was an early scribe who held to the Gospel of Peter, verse 27, and he added the three days and three nights because the book of Jonah mentions the three days and three nights.

Luke mentions only the sign of Jonah (a resurrection of sorts) without mentioning the time. Matthew is the only gospel that mentions the time element of three days and three nights, inclusively.

The Gospel of Peter, translated by Raymond Brown

The Gospel of Peter. On Early Christian Writings.

www.earlychristianwritings.com

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I can't help but think that the simplest answer is simply that "three days and three nights" isn't meant to refer to three 12 hour periods of day and three 12 hour periods of night; but really is just meant to refer to the Friday through Sunday which the Gospels all very much affirm what happened. We do not have to attribute this to a hypothetical later gloss, or attempt to force-fit the clear data of the Gospels; it's simply phrasing that is meant to point to the time Jesus was crucified on Friday afternoon to when He was raised Sunday morning.

-CryptoLutheran

Some people read "after three days" and take that to mean the fourth day. But Jesus and everywhere else say "the third day" and not the fourth day. They don't directly call it the fourth day because that would conflict with all the "third day" passages, but they claim it is AFTER the three days were completed that Jesus rose from the dead. Just a nice way to say on "the fourth day". Three days after Wednesday are literally Saturday. But the Jews counted inclusively, so "after three days" is the same as "the third day" and not the day after the third day.

prodromos said:

Christ was buried before sunset on Friday and rose after sunset on Saturday, a little over 24 hours, having rested in the tomb on the 7th day as foretold in the creation account in Genesis. If Christ had been dead for 72 hours then His body would have begun to decay and would have "seen corruption".

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I'm also on the Good Friday Team. But I never thought about: "If Christ had been dead for 72 hours then His body would have begun to decay and would have "seen corruption". That's a pretty good one. I might add that to my repertoire.

The way I understand it is that Christ was Crucified on Friday, April 7, 30AD. The evidence for timing of this can then force the understanding of the text. I can go back to Leviticus, get the instructions for Passover, and use calendars from that time to count the new moon and find the time when Jesus said in Luke:


And that "suffering" began in the middle of a heptad, a "week", which ended with it's Friday, on April 7, 30AD. So the problem isn't with our counting of three days and nights, but with our understanding of that enigmatic phrase: "the heart of the earth."

The Messiah might not have been employing a common figure of speech/colloquial language of the period, but He was referring to the three days and nights of Jonah. Jonah's three days and three nights timeline began as soon as he found himself caught in the belly of that great fish. That timing began, when the suffering began.


Jonah's depths of the graves, the very heart of the seas, = the Three days and three nights, in the heart of the earth.

Jesus was hurled into the deep as soon as He was caught on Thursday night, and sinful men could lay a hand on Him.. Jesus defined the hour Himself: "Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. That was the beginning of His three days and three nights.

The timing began when Jesus was still alive. The timing began as soon as Jesus was caught, the minute He was delivered into the hands of sinners. Just like Jonah's time began as soon as he was caught in the fish and hurled into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, .

Jesus said the Son of Man must suffer many things. Many things. He was captured, He was beaten, He was falsely accused, He was humiliated, He was spat on, He was abandoned by His friends, He was mocked and scourged, He was finally crucified and put in a tomb. The Son of Man suffered many things. Up until that, "hour", nobody could lay a hand on the Son of Man. Because His TIME had not yet come. His time was the Three days and Three nights.

It might be confusing counting this while looking at calendars. We are used to our new days beginning at midnight, or sunrise. The next new day in God's economy was at sunset. And the evening and the morning were the first day, night before light. So the timing was Thursday Night, Friday Day, Friday Night, Saturday Day, Saturday Night, first light on Sunday morning counts inclusively as a Day. It's called inclusive counting. Any part of a day counts as a day. Easy.

The three days and nights qualify as a prophetic time period which is part of a bigger prophetic time period which has a beginning point in time, and an ending point in time. The 457 BC Artaxerxes decree, to 27AD, fulfilled the 7 and 62 weeks when Jesus said, early in Mark, that the "time" is fulfilled. The lesser light that rules the night, witnessed the Passover count prior to Jesus' Crucifixion on Friday 30 AD. Smack dab in the middle of the week. Passover started at sundown on Thursday April 6. Jesus was following the conjunction. The Old Time Jews were rushing to eat an erroneous Passover, the Passover of the Jews, on the wrong day that Friday Night at sundown. They miscalculated the sliver of the moon.

So the "heart of the earth" has to be referring to, not just the tomb, but from the very moment that Jesus was caught on Thursday night. As soon as Jesus was delivered into the hands of sinners, the three day and night timeline begins. Probably around the time He did His last miracle when He re-attached that guy's ear. I wonder what ever happened to that guy. Was he able to hear any better with his newly attached ear? Lol.

Take a look again at all the "third day" examples from the Gospels, especially Matthew 20:18. They all include the whole sequence of events that began with His capture on Thursday night. Even in Luke the sequence includes Him to "suffer", and then rise on the "third' day..

The countdown began at the hour that He was betrayed, and was captured, and was delivered into the hands of sinful man, and all of his suffering, and His Crucifixion and then his time in the grave.


From that hour when Jesus was caught, until He was raised on the third day.

Peaceful Sabbath.