Matt 12:40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The interesting thing to note here is that, if we assume Jesus was indeed found missing from the grave following his burial (and by this we do not mean to imply that we assume he was resurrected), then the time he spent in the grave/earth was less than three days and three nights, and this "prophecy", probably worded this way by St. Matthew rather than Jesus, fails. Each Jewish day began at sunset, and ended at sunset 24 hours later. It was the convention to divide a full 24-hour day into two parts, a "night" and a "day" (think of them as night-time and day-time, if you wish). The "night" ran from sunset to sunrise, and the "day" from unrise to the next sunset. That is why the Bible speaks of X days and Y nights so often. A full 24-hour sunset-to-sunset time span is referred to as a "day," but when days and nights are mentioned together, each 12-hour period is what is meant.
This night-and-day convention was established in Genesis 1:4-13, and even Jesus himself acknowledged that there are 12 hours in a day, "Jesus answered, 'Are there not twelve hours in the day?'". (John 11:9 ) And the remaining 12 hours are in the night that precedes that day.
The Jewish Saturday (sabbath) spans a full 24-hour day, or one night and one day, and begins at sunset on our modern Friday, and ends at sunset of our modern Saturday.
According to Matthew and the others, Jesus died on the "ninth hour" of Paraskeuen (Preparation-Day), in the week in which Passover began. Specifically, they say this was on the First Day of the Feast of Unrising Bread (which is the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nisan) (Mark 14:12-16, 15:42-44, Matt 26:17-19, Luke 22:1,7-10). The word, Paraskeuen (Paraskeuhn) Greek for "Preparation"), was used in the first century and thereafter as a proper name for the day before the weekly sabbath, much like we use the word, "Friday". This is well established. Thus, that is why the Bibles translate "Preparation" as meaning "Preparation-Day". It does not mean the day on which preparations for the Passover festivities were made, although, by coincidence, there were certainly some preparations going on for Passover. Incidentally, the First Day of the Feast is a holy convocation, but it is not a sabbath (unless of course it happens to fall on the last day of the week, as it does here).
The fact that Preparation-Day was the day before the weekly sabbath
(modern Saturday), is acknowledged by Mark, Luke, and John.
Mark 15:42-44
And now when the evening had come,
because it was Preparation Day,
that is, the day before the sabbath,
Joseph of Arimathaea... went in boldly to Pilate, and desired the body
of Jesus.
But, Pilate wondered if he were even dead yet...
Why did Joseph crave the body of Jesus? It was important to the Jews
to get the criminals' bodies buried before the weekly sabbath began
(at sundown of Preparation-Day), because Deut 21:22-23 stipulates that
people who were executed must be buried before sundown. They rushed
Jesus to the nearest suitable tomb because they did not have much time
before sundown.
Luke 23:53-54
And he took it (Jesus's body) down, and wrapped it in cloth, and laid
it in a tomb that was dug in stone...
And that day was Preparation Day, and the sabbath was dawning.
John 19:31,42
The Jews, because it was Preparation Day, so that the bodies would not
remain on the cross on the Sabbath Day, because, the day of that
sabbath was great.
They laid Jesus there because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for, the
tomb was nearby.
The Jews, incidentally, wanted the body down not simply because the
Sabbath was about to dawn, but because Deu 21:22-23 says that
criminals who are executed on any day must be buried before sundown.
The fact that the day to come was the weekly sabbath, and also that it
was the sabbath that fell within the seven days of the Passover
festival, gave it extra importance.
In modern terms, the 9th hour of Preparation Day is Friday afternoon,
about 3 p.m. Jesus then was put into the grave sometime close to
sundown (which was when Preparation Day ended and Sabbath Day began).
Then, Jesus was gone from the grave, "risen", sometime before dawn of
the first day of the week (Sunday morning, the sunrise after the
sabbath). The Bible does not say exactly when, but we note that if it
had been before sundown on Saturday, that would have put Jesus's or
his god in the position of breaking the sabbath. And, were it earlier
than sundown Saturday, the public would have surely noticed the rolled
stone and the "dead" guards. And, since Jesus gave himself a 3-day and
3-night interval, let us give him as much time as we possibly can just
to help out. Let us say that Jesus rose just before sunrise Sunday
(which is the time accepted by the Church, anyway).
What this means is that Jesus was in the grave from:
Late Friday afternoon before sundown = less than 1/4th of 1 day
Friday sundown to Saturday sunrise = 1 night
Saturday sunrise to Saturday sundown = 1 day
Saturday sundown to sometime before Sunday sunrise = 1 night
Jesus was gone from the grave after less than 39 hours (1 day, 2
nights, and a few hours of a day). This is horribly short of the three
days and three nights that Jesus said he would be in the grave. More
than 1 night and almost 2 days are missing. Some would note that when
counting spans of days, that the "few hours of a day" when Jesus was
buried should count as a full 12-hour day. It is true that this was
the Jewish convention for counting time spans. So, we allow it here.
It still only makes for 2 days and 2 nights.
Either Jesus or St. Matthew made the mistake. The other gospel writers
simply have Jesus saying things like "and on the third day, he shall
rise". They are referring to full 24-hour days, in those cases, and
their counts work. The Friday Jesus was buried is the first day, then,
Friday sundown to Saturday sundown would be the second, and then
Saturday sundown to Sunday sundown wold be the third day, during which
Jesus was allegedly risen (Sunday sunrise). But, St. Matthew -- all
too eager to force artificial prophecy into Jonah -- chose to specify
three days and three nights, thus contradicting the resurrection
timeline.
As a side note, some Christian demonimations have scrambled to
formulate some kind of explanation for this. This has led to such
ill-thought notions that suggest the crucifiction occured on Wednesday
instead of the Friday that the rest of the Christian church accepts.
It has the ridiculous consequence of having Jesus rising 3 days and
nights later on Saturday afternoon. Others attempt to squeeze an
entire day out of the little time (probably less than an hour) before
Friday sunset, before Jesus was put into the grave. One poor fellow I
read on the net suggested that this provides a second day. Scrambling
for a third night, he said that the third night would be the
exhausting night before the crucifiction (trial before Pilate, etc).
But, someone else pointed out that his re-definition of "the grave"
has it changing from the plain and literal meaning of physically being
in the earth, as Jesus said, to merely being dead (prior to burial),
and finally to merely being TIRED. After this was brought to light, I
don't think anybody even wanted to point out to the poor fellow that
it still left one day missing. Attempts to put the crucifiction on a
Thursday run into similar problems.
This night-and-day convention was established in Genesis 1:4-13, and even Jesus himself acknowledged that there are 12 hours in a day, "Jesus answered, 'Are there not twelve hours in the day?'". (John 11:9 ) And the remaining 12 hours are in the night that precedes that day.
The Jewish Saturday (sabbath) spans a full 24-hour day, or one night and one day, and begins at sunset on our modern Friday, and ends at sunset of our modern Saturday.
According to Matthew and the others, Jesus died on the "ninth hour" of Paraskeuen (Preparation-Day), in the week in which Passover began. Specifically, they say this was on the First Day of the Feast of Unrising Bread (which is the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nisan) (Mark 14:12-16, 15:42-44, Matt 26:17-19, Luke 22:1,7-10). The word, Paraskeuen (Paraskeuhn) Greek for "Preparation"), was used in the first century and thereafter as a proper name for the day before the weekly sabbath, much like we use the word, "Friday". This is well established. Thus, that is why the Bibles translate "Preparation" as meaning "Preparation-Day". It does not mean the day on which preparations for the Passover festivities were made, although, by coincidence, there were certainly some preparations going on for Passover. Incidentally, the First Day of the Feast is a holy convocation, but it is not a sabbath (unless of course it happens to fall on the last day of the week, as it does here).
The fact that Preparation-Day was the day before the weekly sabbath
(modern Saturday), is acknowledged by Mark, Luke, and John.
Mark 15:42-44
And now when the evening had come,
because it was Preparation Day,
that is, the day before the sabbath,
Joseph of Arimathaea... went in boldly to Pilate, and desired the body
of Jesus.
But, Pilate wondered if he were even dead yet...
Why did Joseph crave the body of Jesus? It was important to the Jews
to get the criminals' bodies buried before the weekly sabbath began
(at sundown of Preparation-Day), because Deut 21:22-23 stipulates that
people who were executed must be buried before sundown. They rushed
Jesus to the nearest suitable tomb because they did not have much time
before sundown.
Luke 23:53-54
And he took it (Jesus's body) down, and wrapped it in cloth, and laid
it in a tomb that was dug in stone...
And that day was Preparation Day, and the sabbath was dawning.
John 19:31,42
The Jews, because it was Preparation Day, so that the bodies would not
remain on the cross on the Sabbath Day, because, the day of that
sabbath was great.
They laid Jesus there because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for, the
tomb was nearby.
The Jews, incidentally, wanted the body down not simply because the
Sabbath was about to dawn, but because Deu 21:22-23 says that
criminals who are executed on any day must be buried before sundown.
The fact that the day to come was the weekly sabbath, and also that it
was the sabbath that fell within the seven days of the Passover
festival, gave it extra importance.
In modern terms, the 9th hour of Preparation Day is Friday afternoon,
about 3 p.m. Jesus then was put into the grave sometime close to
sundown (which was when Preparation Day ended and Sabbath Day began).
Then, Jesus was gone from the grave, "risen", sometime before dawn of
the first day of the week (Sunday morning, the sunrise after the
sabbath). The Bible does not say exactly when, but we note that if it
had been before sundown on Saturday, that would have put Jesus's or
his god in the position of breaking the sabbath. And, were it earlier
than sundown Saturday, the public would have surely noticed the rolled
stone and the "dead" guards. And, since Jesus gave himself a 3-day and
3-night interval, let us give him as much time as we possibly can just
to help out. Let us say that Jesus rose just before sunrise Sunday
(which is the time accepted by the Church, anyway).
What this means is that Jesus was in the grave from:
Late Friday afternoon before sundown = less than 1/4th of 1 day
Friday sundown to Saturday sunrise = 1 night
Saturday sunrise to Saturday sundown = 1 day
Saturday sundown to sometime before Sunday sunrise = 1 night
Jesus was gone from the grave after less than 39 hours (1 day, 2
nights, and a few hours of a day). This is horribly short of the three
days and three nights that Jesus said he would be in the grave. More
than 1 night and almost 2 days are missing. Some would note that when
counting spans of days, that the "few hours of a day" when Jesus was
buried should count as a full 12-hour day. It is true that this was
the Jewish convention for counting time spans. So, we allow it here.
It still only makes for 2 days and 2 nights.
Either Jesus or St. Matthew made the mistake. The other gospel writers
simply have Jesus saying things like "and on the third day, he shall
rise". They are referring to full 24-hour days, in those cases, and
their counts work. The Friday Jesus was buried is the first day, then,
Friday sundown to Saturday sundown would be the second, and then
Saturday sundown to Sunday sundown wold be the third day, during which
Jesus was allegedly risen (Sunday sunrise). But, St. Matthew -- all
too eager to force artificial prophecy into Jonah -- chose to specify
three days and three nights, thus contradicting the resurrection
timeline.
As a side note, some Christian demonimations have scrambled to
formulate some kind of explanation for this. This has led to such
ill-thought notions that suggest the crucifiction occured on Wednesday
instead of the Friday that the rest of the Christian church accepts.
It has the ridiculous consequence of having Jesus rising 3 days and
nights later on Saturday afternoon. Others attempt to squeeze an
entire day out of the little time (probably less than an hour) before
Friday sunset, before Jesus was put into the grave. One poor fellow I
read on the net suggested that this provides a second day. Scrambling
for a third night, he said that the third night would be the
exhausting night before the crucifiction (trial before Pilate, etc).
But, someone else pointed out that his re-definition of "the grave"
has it changing from the plain and literal meaning of physically being
in the earth, as Jesus said, to merely being dead (prior to burial),
and finally to merely being TIRED. After this was brought to light, I
don't think anybody even wanted to point out to the poor fellow that
it still left one day missing. Attempts to put the crucifiction on a
Thursday run into similar problems.
