Things New and Old: Three Days and Three Nights = 72 hrs?

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.

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Matthew 12:38-40 KJV
[38] Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
[39] 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:
[40] 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.

Not a few sincere Christians decided that the phrase "three days and three nights" MUST BE UNDERSTOOD as exactly 72hrs of 3 12hr-day and 3 12hr-night, no more and no less; anything else would make Christ a liar, they insist.

Perhaps they should make the next phrase "in the heart of the earth" as literal as well!

These sincere 72hr-ists begin with an assumption and then work everything else to fit into that notion by any means even though such a sincere attempt is inconsistent with some stated facts of the Scriptures. What a bizarre phenomenon!

Ask some questions...
1. When were the soldiers posted to guard the tomb?
2. When were the soldiers seen rushing to the city to report the resurrection of Christ?
3. When did Joseph buy the clean linen to wrap the body of Jesus?
4. When did the women buy the sweet spices to anoint Jesus? Check Mark 16:1.
5. What day followed the Passover day?
6. How was the day of the preparation related to Passover day?

Check Mat 27:62; John 19:42
7. The two men returning to Emmaus from Jerusalem on Sunday morning (the first 12hr-day of the week, preceded by the first 12hr-night of the week) said it was the THIRD day since those things (i.e. the kangaroo court, the condemnation, and the crucifixion of Christ...) had happened.

Which day did those things happen?
8. And, was Christ literally in the heart of the earth?

Feel free to ask your questions.

We'll search the Scriptures to answer them together.

Thanks.

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Comments

Reggie Lee
Ok...kinda excited about this...
I'm gonna follow these instructions and see if I can come to a conclusion.

As of right now, I’m saying...
“I am not sure what day Jesus was crucified and rose.... “
Starting from a blank slate! ”Tabula Rossa”

Mark Despi
Stand guard on the tomb is a culture in that time?

sing
Mark Despi, Look at this passage
Mt 27
62 ¶Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
64 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.

Mark Despi
Sir SingF Lau Thank you 🙂

Fung Tze Sen
I believe in 3 days and 3 nights. Full stop.
No matter what the world says.

sing
Fung Tze Sen: You are right, it matters not what the world says.
It is when ALL Christians say, "I believe in 3 days and 3 nights; period" - but end up with vastly different meanings, i.e. some say Wednesday morning crucifixion, others say Thursday morning, and very many say Friday morning - then you have some work to do. They can't be all correct.

sing
Mt 27
62 ¶Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
64Command 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.
---------

Three separate days are indicated in verse 62.
The day of preparation, the day before that, and the day after that.

Pray tell, what's the day BEFORE the day of preparation, and the day AFTER?

Thank you.

Reed Luther
When Jesus refers to being in the grave 3days and nights he refers us back to Jonah being in the belly of the whale and says so as Jonah was so shall he be, I have no reason to believe Jonah was not literally in the whale's belly 3d 3n there's no figure of speech used in the context of jonah as "heart of the earth" you used to cast doubt on it being literal 3 days and night.

Does logic not tell us to reason from the literal sense first and if it doesn't make sense seek another sense.

We should have a simple approach to identifying and interpreting figures of speech.

We conclude we have a figure when a literal approach results in absurdity.

I don't interpret the heart of the earth being literal because clearly, the earth does not have a red fleshly tissue that pumps blood throughout it. The heart of earth simply refers to the inmost part of the earth. Under the earth. While it's perfectly reasonable to take 3 days and 3 nights literally. Unlike the use of 1000 years which we do not take literally because elsewhere in scripture it's clearly not literal. God doesn't just own the cattle of a thousand hills but all cattle of every hill

sing
Reed Luther,
I didn't question the literalness of Jonah being swallowed up by a big fish, neither did I question the literalness of Christ being crucified and buried.

You don't interpret the heart of the earth being literal but you do interpret the 3 days and 3 nights to mean exactly 72hrs, no more and no less?

I asked, why must the phrase 3 days and 3 nights be understood as EXACTLY 72 hours - ESPECIALLY when this assumption and its conclusions fly in the face of biblical data?

Fung Tze Sen
Sing, I'm not sure if this is a translation problem or the choice of words.
In Mandarin translation, it is "...人子也要这样三日三夜在地里头。"
It simply means 3 days and 3 nights in the ground.
As I grew up with the Mandarin Bible, I have no such struggle as some might have with the English Bible.

sing
In this particular case, it's not the translation; it's interpretation.

Must "3 days and 3 nights" mean exactly 72hrs? Must 三曰三夜 mean exactly 72 hours? If you tell me you'll be away for two days and a night, must I make you to mean exactly 36hrs?

Fung Tze Sen
Sing, by right, u should.

sing
Fung Tze Sen Why? Because you speak as an engineer?

Fung Tze Sen
bcos son of man says so.

sing
me: If you tell me you'll be away for two days and a night, must I make you to mean exactly 36hrs?
you: by right, u should.
me: Why? Because you speak as an engineer?

LOOOOOOOOOL.
Sorry.

sing
OK, let's say you take the Lord's 3 days and 3 nights as exactly 72hrs, when did the 72hrs start, and when did they end?

Reed Luther
I think the Lord said what he meant and meant what he said regardless of whether man's feeble mind can pin it down

Reed Luther
Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples on the evening of the fourteenth by Moses’ law (Ex 12:6-8; Matt 26:17-20; Mark 14:12-17; Luke 22:7-15).

2. The crucifixion began at 9:00 AM, and Jesus died after the darkness ended at 3:00 PM (Matthew 27:45-50; Mark 15:25,33-37; Luke 23:44-49).

3. Jesus was buried hurriedly as the preparation day ended and the high Sabbath day was about to begin (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14,31,42).

4. The women who followed Jesus rested the high Sabbath day of the Passover before buying and preparing their spices (Mark 16:1 cp Exodus 12:16).

5. The women bought their spices and prepared them on the regular workday between the two Sabbaths days this week (Mark 16:1 cp Luke 23:55-56).

6. The women rested during the weekly Sabbath day after buying and preparing their spices the previous workday (Luke 23:55-56 cp Exodus 20:10).

7. Jesus rose from the dead as the weekly Sabbath ended – three days and three nights after burial – as prophesied (Matthew 12:39-40; Mark 8:31).

8. While it was still dark, the morning of the first day of the week, the women found the tomb already empty (Matt 28:1-6; Luke 24:1-3; John 20:1).

9. The gospel record of Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection prove His identifying sign of three days and three nights (Matthew 12:39-40).

10. Anyone holding to a Friday crucifixion and/or a Sunday morning resurrection is denying the very sign Jesus gave to prove He was the Son of God.

sing
Reed Luther Thank you for the neat points.

May I inquire, did you copy and paste, or did you think through and work out the above yourself. In case you wonder, does the question even matters; the simple reason is, if you have thought through and worked out the above, then I think it is worth asking you a few questions on some of the points you stated and also asking for your explanation on some passages of Scriptures. Thanks.

No, I don't hold to a Friday crucifixion; I do believe in the Sunday morning resurrection.

The little article is found here:
https://things-new-and-old.blogspot.com/2010/06/three-days-and-three-nights.html

Ante Zivkovic
To me, the part that is weak is this: we know they bought spices before and after the sabbath ( though this after the sabbath could as well be on Saturday night). It took them a whole day to prepare the spices (why?), then they rested on the sabbath and went to the tomb before dawn. Jesus was by then already 3 days in the tomb so balming would in a way also be pointless. So between Mark 16:1 and 2, there are 2 days in between. To me that is stretched, and that they needed the whole day to prepare the spices. It would make more sense then to go to the tomb on Friday. They had the whole day to do so. In the proposed sequence of events, they waited 2 days for balming, after He was in the tomb already for a day, and then rushed first thing in the morning to get to the tomb. Seems stretched. When I read Mark 16 there is a sense of urgency, and because they couldn’t go on the sabbath, so they went the first chance they got. Sunday morning, having bought the spices the night before. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could buy stuff in Israel the minute that the sun sets after the sabbath.

sing
Ante Zivkovic, Thanks for your thought.
- You are right. It is UNLIKELY anything to do with embalming. Joseph and Nicodemus already did that. [It is stated specifically that it was to anoint Him; anointing and embalming are different.]

John 19
38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

I don't know why a weekday between High Sabbath and weekly sabbath is plucked out of thin air just to accommodate the women buying their sweet spices.

Joseph of Arimathea had time to buy the fine linen for graveclothes on the day Christ was crucified; Nicodemus bought his myrrh and aloes - nearly a hundred pounds too. Why couldn't the women have bought their sweet spices for anointing on the same day? Christ was crucified by 9am. Men and women with some common sense and love and devotion for their Lord have the foresight to get those things ready.

Mark 16:1 gives an indication.
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

Some conclude that this is Saturday evening that those women went to the tomb when it was getting dark! And they insist that Mt 28:1 confirms their opinion.

Mt 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."

BUT it does NOT read "... as it began to dawn toward the first NIGHT of the week". The first night of the week is Saturday 6pm - Sunday 6am; the first day of the week is from Sun 6am to Sun 6pm.

Incidentally, the sabbath as in "in the end of the sabbath" is in the plural (not the usual singular) - indicating the annual high sabbath and the weekly sabbath.

Back to Mk 16:1

It reads "And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him."

Read it like this: Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, HAD BOUGHT sweet spices, and when the sabbath was past that they might come and anoint him.

The past perfect HAD BOUGHT indicates that the purchase was made before the sabbath - since no purchase could be made on the both high sabbath and the weekly sabbath. They bought the sweet spices on the day Christ was crucified... but there was not enough time to do the anointing on that day. But those devoted women must do their anointing, no matter what. What lesson!

Ante Zivkovic
I read it more like they actually bought more spices right after the sundown on Sabbath, and slept and went in the morning when there would be light.

Reed Luther
When we read of Jonah being in a ship and swallowed by a fish do we first reason that it is a figurative fish and a figurative ship absolutely not, because the literal sense makes sense. we must start from somewhere is not the literal meaning the most logical and reasonable thing to do?

sing
Reed Luther, You are barking up the wrong herring!
Some have something to say; Others have to say something. 😉

Marty-Sandy Smith
For consideration: