Was Jesus In The Grave For Three Days And Three
Nights?
Paul
Taylor and Bodie Hodge
Biblical
Authority Ministries, April 19, 2025 (Donate)
(Passages NKJV)
Introduction
There are several solutions to this alleged problem. By simply counting
backwards from Sunday (the Lord’s Day), some arrive at Thursday and suggest
that a special Sabbath might have occurred. All agree that the Lord’s Day, the
first day of the week was the day Christ rose from the dead:
Now after the Sabbath, as the first
day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see
the tomb. (Matthew
28:1)
Then, as they were afraid and bowed
their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among
the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He
was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands
of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’” (Luke 24:5–7)
Therefore, some hold that Jesus was actually crucified on a Thursday and not
a Friday. But this introduces a different problem; several places in Scripture
lead us to infer Jesus was crucified on a Friday. For example: “They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will
rise again.” (Luke 18:33, See also Acts 10:40, 1 Corinthians 15:4, Luke 24:46,
etc.)
Empty Grave; image from Presentation Library
So by this reckoning, Christ would be dead Thursday - 1, Friday – 2,
Saturday – 3, and Sunday - 4 (Christ rose on a Sunday, Luke 24:21). Was this on the third day? We need to look
more closely at the days and how they are calculated. A solution that seems
more convincing is that Jesus was indeed crucified on a Friday, but that the
Jewish method of counting days was not the same as ours.
Counting Days In The Bible
The first clue is to understand how the Jews counted a day. The day began in
the evening and ended the following evening. Unlike our modern days, where a
day begins at midnight, their day basically began at sunset. So what we view as
Thursday evening was actually the beginning of Friday to the Jews. And Friday
night was actually the beginning of Saturday to the Jews.
In fact, many ancient cultures counted days this way and goes back to
creation ordinance. In Genesis 1, when God created, it was dark, and when God
created light, it was day. So the cycle was dark first, then light second to
mark a day, e.g. an evening and a morning.
In Esther
4:16, we find Esther exhorting Mordecai to persuade the Jews to
fast. “Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day.”
This was clearly in preparation for her highly risky attempt to see the king.
Yet just two verses later, in Esther 5:1, we read, “Now it
happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the
inner court of the king’s palace.” If three days and nights were counted
in the same way as we count them today, then why would Esther see the king prior
to the end of the fast which would be on the fourth day? This is analogous to
the situation with the Lord’s Crucifixion and Resurrection.
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 (Matthew 12:40).
Saying, "Sir, we remember,
while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will
rise.’” (Matthew 27:63)
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. (Mark
8:31)
If the three days and nights were counted the way we count them, then Jesus
would have to rise on the fourth day (being after
3 days). But, by comparing these passages, we can see that in the minds of
people in Bible times, “the third day” was equivalent to “after three
days.”
In fact, the way they counted was this: part of a day would be counted as
one day. The following table, reproduced from the Christian Apologetics and
Research Ministry (CARM) website, shows how the counting works.
|
Day One
|
Day Two
|
Day Three
|
|
FRI
starts at
sundown on
Thursday
|
FRI
ends at
sundown
|
SAT
starts at
sundown on
Friday
|
SAT
ends at
sundown
|
SUN
starts at
sundown on
Saturday
|
SUN
ends at
sundown
|
|
Night
|
Day
|
Night
|
Day
|
Night
|
Day
|
|
Crucifixion
|
Sabbath
|
Resurrection
|
Analyzing this table, we can see how Jesus died on Good Friday; that was day
one. In total, day one includes the day and the previous night, even though
Jesus died in the day.
So, although only part of Friday was left, that was the first day and night to
be counted. Saturday was day two. Jesus rose in the morning of the Sunday.
That was day three. Thus, by Jewish counting, we have three days and nights,
yet Jesus rose on the third day.
It should not be a surprise to us that a different culture used a different
method of counting days. As soon as we adopt this method of counting, the
supposed biblical problems with counting the days disappear. But let’s take a
closer look.
A Closer Look At The Details
There are all sorts of difficulties with determining the date of the Crucifixion,
and we would certainly not want to insist on the Crucifixion being on a Friday
for traditional reasons—but rather, for biblical reasons. Our hope here is to
explain this in more detail. However, we are not being dogmatic about such a
stance either—just showing that is acceptable biblically.
Difficulties
Some have suggested alternative timings that place the Crucifixion on a Wednesday
or Thursday rather than a Friday. The Bible does not explicitly state which day
of the week on which Jesus died.
However, to have Jesus dying on a Wednesday requires the postulation of an extra Sabbath day on the Thursday,
though nothing is mentioned for this instance. And
for those pushing for a Thursday crucifixion, it would require and extra
Sabbath on a Friday. Again, nothing is mentioned for this.
The Wednesday and Thursday crucifixion views need to insert an extra Sabbath
day during Christ’s final week. In fact, for many years, one of the writers of
this chapter (Paul Taylor) held to the view of an extra Sabbath day based on
the following verse:
Therefore,
because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the
cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate
that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. (John
19:31)
There is some dispute about the meaning of the term “high day.” Some view it
as the actual Sabbath day during the Passover week or one of the other Jewish
festivals. Some believe the term refers to one of those special Jewish feast
days described in Leviticus 23—no matter which day of the week it happened to
fall on. These holidays were sometimes identified as Sabbaths (Leviticus
23:24).
Jesus died on the Preparation Day, the day before the Sabbath (Mark 15:42).
However, this could refer to the day to prepare for the weekly Sabbath or to
“the Preparation Day of the Passover” (John 19:14). Jesus was placed in the
tomb on the Preparation Day (John 19:42), but was this the weekly Preparation Day or a
special one? It would seem the answer to this question is that it was the
Preparation Day for the weekly Sabbath since Jesus and His disciples ate the
Passover the previous evening, which would have been the start of the same day
according to traditional Jewish reckoning (Luke 22:15).
However, it is more complicated than this. John 18:28 states, “Then they led
Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they
themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but
that they might eat the Passover.”
This verse seems to indicate that John viewed the day of the Crucifixion as
the same day as the Preparation Day prior
to the Passover. Is there any solution to this confusing difficulty? Actually,
it is rather easy to resolve; but first Dr. John MacArthur adds insight to this
dilemma in his introduction to the Gospel of John.
“The chronological
reckoning between John’s gospel and the synoptics presents a challenge,
especially in relation to the time of the Last Supper (13:2). While the
synoptics portray the disciples and the Lord at the Last Supper as eating the
Passover meal on Thursday evening (Nisan 14) and Jesus being crucified on
Friday, John’s gospel states that the Jews did not enter into the Praetorium
“lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover” (18:28).
So, the disciples had eaten the Passover on Thursday evening, but the Jews had
not. In fact, John (19:14) states that Jesus’ trial and crucifixion were on the
day of Preparation for the Passover and not after the eating of the Passover,
so that with the trial and crucifixion on Friday Christ was actually sacrificed
at the same time the Passover lambs were being slain (19:14). The question is,
“Why did the disciples eat the Passover meal on Thursday?”
The answer lies in a
difference among the Jews in the way they reckoned the beginning and ending of
days. From Josephus, the Mishna, and other ancient Jewish sources we learn that
the Jews in northern Palestine calculated days from sunrise to sunrise. That
area included the region of Galilee, where Jesus and all the disciples, except
Judas, had grown up. Apparently most, if not all, of the Pharisees used that
system of reckoning. But Jews in the southern part, which centered in
Jerusalem, calculated days from sunset to sunset. Because all the priests
necessarily lived in or near Jerusalem, as did most of the Sadducees, those
groups followed the southern scheme.
That variation
doubtlessly caused confusion at times, but it also had some practical benefits.
During Passover time, for instance, it allowed for the feast to be celebrated
legitimately on two adjoining days, thereby permitting the temple sacrifices to
be made over a total period of four hours rather than two. That separation of
days may also have had the effect of reducing both regional and religious
clashes between the two groups.
On that basis the
seeming contradictions in the gospel accounts are easily explained. Being
Galileans, Jesus and the disciples considered Passover day to have started at
sunrise on Thursday and to end at sunrise on Friday. The Jewish leaders who
arrested and tried Jesus, being mostly priests and Sadducees, considered
Passover day to begin at sunset on Thursday and end at sunset on Friday. By
that variation, predetermined by God’s sovereign provision, Jesus could thereby
legitimately celebrate the last Passover meal with His disciples and yet still
be sacrificed on Passover day.”[5]
Although MacArthur holds to a Friday Crucifixion, this
two-fold approach to reckoning days does not really solve the problem of
determining the day of the Crucifixion, but it does explain how Jews could
celebrate the Passover on two successive days (depending on which part of
Israel they came from). However, this may not be the best explanation of trying
to deal with the Preparation Day of the Passover.
Dr. John Gill points out that the Preparation Day was a preparation
day before the Sabbath, that occurred on the Passover Week. So this day is not
to be confused with a day of preparation before the Passover. He further points
out that preparation for the Passover was not just one day before but for a number of days before (e.g. separating out
the Passover lamb on 10th day of the month well before it was to be
turned over for sacrifice on the 14th day, and so on). These things
happened in preparation for the Passover, far sooner that one day before. Gill says:
“Ver. 14. And it was the preparation of the passover, &c.] So the Jews {x} say, that Jesus suffered on the eve of the passover; and the author of the blasphemous account of his life says {y}, it was the eve both of the passover and the sabbath; which account so far agrees with the evangelic history; but then this preparation of the passover was not of the passover lamb, for that had been prepared and eaten the night before. Nor do I find that there was any particular day which was called "the preparation of the passover" in such sense, and much less that this day was the day before the eating of the passover. According to the law in #Ex 12:3-6 the lamb for the passover was to be separated from the rest of the flock on the tenth day of the month, and to be kept up till the fourteenth; but this is never called the preparation of the passover; and was it so called, it cannot be intended here; the preparing and making ready the passover the evangelists speak of, were on the same day it was eaten, and design the getting ready a place to eat it in, and things convenient for that purpose, and the killing the lamb, and dressing it, and the like, #Mt 26:17,19 Mr 14:12,15,16 Lu 22:8,9,12,13 there is what the Jews call xoph owrp, which was a space of fifteen days before the passover, and began at the middle of the thirty days before the feast, in which they used to ask questions, and explain the traditions concerning the passover {z}: but this is never called the preparation of the passover: and on the night of the fourteenth month they sought diligently, in every hole and corner of their houses, for leavened bread, in order to remove it {a}; but this also never went by any such name: wherefore, if any respect is had to the preparation for the passover, it must either design the preparation of the "Chagigah," which was a grand festival, commonly kept on the fifteenth day, and which was sometimes called the passover; or else the preparation for the whole feast all the remaining days of it; see Gill on "Joh 18:28" but it seems best of all to understand it only of the preparation for the sabbath, which, because it was in the passover week, is called the passover preparation day: and it may be observed, that it is sometimes only called "the day of the preparation," and "the preparation," #Mt 27:62, Lu 23:54, Joh 19:31 and sometimes the "Jews’ preparation day," #Joh 19:42 and it is explained by the Evangelist #Mr 15:42. "It was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath"; on which they both prepared themselves for the sabbath, and food to eat on that day; and this being the time of the passover likewise, the preparation was the greater: and therefore to distinguish this preparation day for the sabbath, from others, it is called the passover preparation; nor have I observed that any other day is called the preparation but that before the sabbath:”[6]
Various Views
So let’s look at the strengths and weaknesses of the various
views. A Wednesday Crucifixion solves some difficulties, but seems to introduce
others. For example, Jesus would have been in the grave for a full three
daytime periods (along with a few hours on Wednesday afternoon), but this
timeframe also includes four full nights. So if one is trying to find a
precisely literal fulfillment of the “three days and three nights” in Matthew
12:40, then a Wednesday crucifixion does not meet that criteria. This would
simply not make sense of Jesus rising on the third day, as many Scriptures
reveal (Luke 18:33, See also Acts 10:40, 1 Corinthians
15:4, Luke 24:46, etc.). However, as will be demonstrated below, the
“three days and three nights” does not necessarily need to be fulfilled by a
72-hour period.
The Wednesday also requires the postulation of an extra Sabbath day on Thursday, since the
day of the Crucifixion was the Preparation Day and there was a rush to remove
the bodies from the crosses before the Sabbath (the Passover on this view) next
day started. This means the “high day” must be interpreted as the Passover,
which is contested.
A Thursday Crucifixion also solves some of the difficulties.
It is commonly believed that a portion of a day or evening would count as the
entire day or evening, respectively. As such, a Thursday Crucifixion would give
exactly three days and three nights. Jesus died at the ninth hour (Matthew
27:46), which corresponds to 3:00 PM (by our modern reckoning). So, there would
be three hours of daylight on Thursday, a full night and a full day for Friday,
a full night and a full day for Saturday, and then a full night on Sunday.
Jesus likely rose at dawn the following morning, so
a Thursday Crucifixion fits the “three days and three nights” concept very
well.
The Thursday Crucifixion idea requires an extra Sabbath day on Friday and
the “high day” must also be interpreted as the Passover. These are both
debatable, as there would be two high Sabbaths that week, as the normal Sabbath
would have been a high day as well since it fell on Passover week. Furthermore,
the Bible lists no such days as Sabbath-rest days in the month of Nisan (the
month that Passover is in). There is
nothing in the text that leads us necessarily to suspect that the Sabbath was
anything other than the regular day seven
Sabbath.
The Thursday Resurrection scenario, while trying to make the prophetic
statement by Jesus about being in the
heart of the earth for three days and three nights, neglects the clear
statements that Jesus resurrects on the third day (Luke
18:33, See also Acts 10:40, 1 Corinthians 15:4, Luke 24:46, etc.). If it is a full three days and three nights
Jesus is in the grave, then He would be resurrected on the fourth day. For proper interpretation of Scripture one is
to use the clear passages of Scripture to interpret the unclear, not
vice-versa.
We want to emphasize that this is not a major point of doctrinal concern.
The “Special Sabbath” analysis is certainly a valid analysis to resolve the
alleged contradiction, maintained by people whose commitment to the authority
of Scripture is sound – so please do not misunderstand us in this. We maintain that
the Friday-Sunday timescale is scripturally sound—and we believe it is to be
preferred, as it does not require assumptions extra to the text.
Some have tried to push for an extra Sabbath by appealing to John 18:28,
saying the Jews were looking to celebrate the Passover after Jesus was
crucified, the next day by Jewish reckoning.
The Thursday crucifixion scenario encounters a major problem when we accept
the view that the Jewish leaders wanted to eat the Passover the day after
Christ’s death—that would be saying that Jesus didn’t eat the Passover on the
correct day, since He ate the evening before (Luke 25:15) prior to his
suffering. It is true that they were planning on eating the Passover at a later
time, but not the next day. John 18:28 indicates that they were wanting eat
later that day, which was still the same
day Jesus ate; but Jesus ate at the beginning of the day (evening in the
Jewish calendar), whereas the others wanted to eat later in the day (probably
the afternoon prior to sunset) before the Passover was finished. Regarding John
18:289, Numbers 9:3-5 indicate that the Israelites were to eat the Passover at
twilight when the Passover began – which is exactly when Jesus did it with the
disciples. The others waited to eat well after the following morning after Christ was lead to the Praetorium
indicating they were not being obedient to the Word of God.
Sir Robert Anderson in The Coming Prince calculated which days would
have been Passovers for various years on the Jewish calendar.
For example, AD 30 was a Thursday, AD 31 was Tuesday, AD 32 was a Monday, AD 33
was a Friday, AD 34 was a Tuesday, AD 35 was a Monday, and AD 36 was a Friday. For
a Wednesday Passover, one would need to go to AD 27, as this is the closest
year.
The Traditional View
One thing that often overlooked is that John 2:20
establishes that Christ’s first Passover while He was in public ministry (AD
30) was 46 years after Herod began building the Temple in 17 BC—assuming the
date Ussher gives is accurate. Jesus celebrated at least two more Passovers (e.g., John 6:4)
and the final recorded Passover was His Crucifixion, most likely AD 33, which
occurred on a Friday.
So, the beginning of the Jewish Friday (which is Thursday evening for most
of us today) is when Jesus ate the Passover—then was betrayed, beaten, put on
trial, and ultimately crucified in the daylight hours that followed the same
day. This occurred on the Preparation Day of the Sabbath, which was fell during
the Passover that year and immediately before the Sabbath—a High Sabbath (High
Day) because it fell during Passover
week.
Significance Of The Passover
God has always been very strict about the Passover. When the firstborn of
Egypt were struck down, the Lord gave specific instructions in Exodus 12 which the
Israelites were to follow to the letter. Throughout Israelite history, the
Passover was among the most honored and sacred times of sacrifice. Recall that
even Jesus, during His recorded years of ministry, diligently kept Passovers (John 2:13; John 6:4; John
13:1). Even Jesus’ parents celebrated the Passover each year (Luke 2:41).
It seems likely that Jesus, who is the ultimate sacrificial Lamb (John 1:29,
36), would be sacrificed on the Passover, especially considering that God was
so strict with the Israelites about performing sacrifices on the Passover.
Therefore
purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are
unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. (1
Corinthians 5:7)
“You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be
delivered up to be crucified.” (Matthew 26:2)
Such verses lead to the conclusion that Jesus was sacrificed later on the
same day that He ate the Passover. The great scholar Archbishop James Ussher
affirmed that Jesus was crucified on
the Passover.
In Detail: “Three Days and Three Nights” Or “The Third Day”?
Let’s return to the phrases “three days and three nights” and the “third day.”
If it can be shown that these two phrases are used interchangeably then there
is little reason to abandon the Friday
view of the Crucifixion.
We must use Scripture to interpret Scripture within the relative context and
culture. Old Testament Jewish culture equates “three days and three nights”
with “on the third day.” The scriptural basis for this was already established.
But to reiterate we want to explain it in detail and then look at other
Scriptures to affirm this view. We have clear biblical evidence from the book
of Esther that the biblical method of counting was not necessarily the same as
our Western method.
“Go, gather
all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink
for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will
go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” (Esther
4:16)
Now, if the days and nights were counted in a Western way, this should
result in Esther going to see the king on the fourth day. However, this is what
we actually read:
Now it
happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the
inner court of the king’s palace, across from the king’s house, while the king
sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house.
(Esther 5:1)
So it seems that three days and three nights are virtually equated here.
However, one could argue that Esther wanted everyone to fast and she does this during the fast. This is also possible.
But let’s consider another example in the New Testament culture.
Saying, “Sir,
we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three
days I will rise.’ Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the
third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the
people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ So the last deception will be worse than
the first.” (Matthew 27:63–64)
The above example is particularly relevant. If the chief priests and
Pharisees had counted in the Western fashion, they would surely have wanted the
tomb to be made secure until the beginning of the fourth day, especially since
they referred to the danger of Jesus’ body being stolen “by night.”
If you look up the many passages about Christ’s death, you will find both
instances of “three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40) and “on the third day”
(Luke 24:46),
even in reference to raising the temple in three days (Mark 15:29; Luke 2:46).
Church Fathers Equate Three Days With Three Days And Three Nights
Ignatius (c. AD 100), a disciple of the Apostle John, equated three days
with three days and three nights.
He also rose again in three days,
the Father raising Him up; and after spending forty days with the apostles, He
was received up to the Father, and “sat down at His right hand, expecting till
His enemies are placed under His feet.” On the day of the preparation, then, at
the third hour, He received the sentence from Pilate, the Father permitting
that to happen; at the sixth hour He was crucified; at the ninth hour He gave
up the ghost; and before sunset He was buried. During the Sabbath He continued
under the earth in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathaea had laid Him. At the
dawning of the Lord’s day He arose from the dead, according to what was spoken
by Himself, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so
shall the Son of man also be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth.” The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath
embraces the burial; the Lord’s Day contains the resurrection.
The early church father Irenaeus (d. AD 202) also equated
three days with three days and three nights.
And the Lord Himself says, “As
Jonas remained three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the
Son of man be in the heart of the earth.” Then also the apostle says, “But when
He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the
earth?” This, too, David says when prophesying of Him, “And thou hast delivered
my soul from the nethermost hell”; and on His rising again the third day, He
said to Mary, who was the first to see and to worship Him, “Touch Me not, for I
have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to the disciples, and say unto
them, I ascend unto My Father, and unto your Father.”
These early writings are not Scripture, nor were they
perfect, but they equated three days and three nights with being on the third
day. So the practice was commonly used and should be used as the better
explanation.
Conclusion
This is a complicated issue and since the date of the Crucifixion is not as
vital as the fact that He died for our sins, we would not want to “start a new
church” over this issue. The Friday Crucifixion scenario has the strongest
textual support and all objections to it can be handled. It has been the
traditional view throughout church history and represents a conservative
evangelical interpretation of Scripture.
The other views have some merit, but seem to have more difficulties.
Nevertheless, we want to encourage deeper study of the Scriptures. It is good
to endeavor to be consistent in our use of counting the days, but due to Matthew
27:63–64 and other reasons outlined, we would lean
toward the Friday–Sunday view.
Originally at answersingenesis.org; Republished
by permission.
