Every year that rolls around, Christians around the world commemorate Jesus dying on on Friday and rising again on Sunday – but what if they were wrong? According to the Bible, they are.
Firstly, a preface: Why does this matter?
1. Paul instructs Timothy in 2Ti 2:15 to ‘rightly divide’ or ‘make a straight cut’ the Word of God. Does it sound like one is cutting it straight to completely mix up how many days Jesus was in the tomb?
2. A Christian ought to love the Truth. Part of loving the truth is doing our best to know truth. What commitment is shown to the truth when we then say, never mind about being accurate with the truth? Was not what the serpent said to Eve pretty much the truth? Except for an extra word?
Any casual examination of the idea that Christ was crucified on Friday, buried, then rose from the dead on Sunday morning will reveal that there is no way that this could have actually happened. Incidentally, I’m not looking at what actual days it would have been. Simply counting the days is all that is required.
Let’s count the ‘orthodox’ presentation:
Friday – Jesus dies on Friday after/at the ninth hour (approximately 3 pm)
Saturday – Jesus is in the tomb
Sunday – Jesus rises from the dead before the sun rises (the women come to the tomb as the sun is rising)
3 days you might say! What are you going on about? There’s a question we haven’t asked yet. What did Jesus mean when He said ‘three days’. What is a day? Is it 24 hours? Because if that’s the case, Jesus was definitely not in the tomb for 72 hours. Does it just mean daylight hours then? Because He was already out of the tomb when the sun rose on Sunday.
That’s not addressing the elephant in the room, the elephant being, Jesus and all his apostles were JEWS. They used a Jewish way of measuring time. That means that the day starts in the evening (sundown). Let’s try: Jesus is in the tomb Friday just before sundown (count that as a day) then he’s in the tomb Saturday (Friday 6 pm to Saturday 6 pm) and rises Sunday before sunrise, halfway into the third day. Now that could work if we’re being very generous, counting at the most, 3 hours on Friday to count as a day and then not even 12 hours on Sunday to count as a day.
The objections from Scripture don’t stop there, however, because Jesus didn’t just say three days. He also said three nights.
Matthew 12:40 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.
The three days are meant to be paired with three nights. If you use Jewish time and apply it to Friday-Sunday, Jesus is in the grave for 2 daytimes and 2 nights. Perhaps one day I will illustrate it in more detail, but suffice to say, take the time to examine it and you’ll find it doesn’t matter how you try, if you want to remain true to Scripture, it’s IMPOSSIBLE for Jesus to have died on a Friday and risen on a Sunday.
If we were to fit the crucifixion of Christ into the current week and be accurate to the Scripture’s record, it should look like this:
Thursday – Jesus dies around 3 pm
Friday – Jesus is in the grave
Saturday – Jesus is in the grave
Sunday – Jesus rises before sunrise
It looks like four days by our way of measuring days, but it fits perfectly with 3 days and 3 nights that is described. Let’s count:
Thursday day (day 1)
Thursday night (night 1)
Friday day (day 2)
Friday night (night 2)
Saturday day (day 3)
Saturday night (night 3)
3 days & 3 nights just like Jesus said.
You can go further into this to break it down into how we count days, when you do, you’ll find that Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection took place over a period from Thursday to Sunday.
What do we take away from all this?
1. We should get one more public holiday please.
2. Just because something is commonly accepted doesn’t mean it’s correct.
3. God’s word has a great accuracy. Jesus was literally in the tomb for three days and three nights.
Perhaps one day I will treat this in more detail, but do take the time to research it more.
For the love of Truth.
Talking Bible 
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