3 NIGHTS/3 DAYS

 

1. Preparing for the Passover.When did Jesus eat the 'Last Supper' with his disciples? Mark 14:12–16; Matt 26:17–19; Luke 22:7–13 put it on the evening after "the First Day of Unleavened Bread" before Passover. That does not refer to the first day of the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread on Nisan 15-21 in the Jewish calendar or to Passover on Nisan 14. Rather the "First Day" was the day before the 8 days of celebration (before Passover & the 7-day Feast) when Jews removed all unleavened bread. It would be Nisan 13 in the Jewish calendar before the day of Passover on Nisan 14. 
2. Passover in Jewish Homes.Philo of Alexandria in his book about Special Laws (Philo, Special Laws 2.148) and Josephus in the Jewish Wars tell us that Jews had two different ways they observed the Passover in Jesus' time. Most people observed Passover in their homes on Wednesday evening as the Jewish day of Nisan 14 began. But Priests celebrated Passover by sacrificing the Korban Pesachin the Temple on Thursday afternoon as Nisan 14 ended with the close of daylight. Josephus estimates that 250,000 lambs were slaughtered in the city of Jerusalem with only a few thousand sacrificed in the Temple (see Josephus, Jewish Wars, Book VI. Chapter 9 Section 3).
3. Jesus Ate And Died on Passover. Jesus ate the Passover meal along with most people in Jerusalem on Wednesday night (modern calendar) or the beginning of Nisan 14 (remember Jewish calendar days start at sunset!) before the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread on Nisan 15-21, also called Passover Week at the time. That is how Jesus both ate the Passover with his disciples one evening and was also killed the next afternoon when the main Passover lamb ('Korban Pesach') was slaughtered in the Temple.
4. Jesus Died on Thursday. Jesus was killed on Thursday afternoon (modern time) when priests slaughtered the main Passover Lamb in the Temple on Nisan 14 before the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread began with a special Sabbath (Leviticus 23:6-7) on Nisan 15 (Thursday evening on our modern calendars).
5. Gospels Use Different Clocks.Synoptic Gospels put Jesus' crucifixion 'at the sixth hour' (Matt 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:34) but John puts Jesus before Pilate 'at the sixth hour' (John 19:14). There is no contradiction because John used Roman time for his audience in Roman Asia Minor (thereby meaning 6am for the trial--the 6th hour after midnight) while the Synoptic Gospels all used Jewish time (thereby meaning Jesus was crucified at noon--the 6th hour after sunrise). Remember the Gospels adapted details of each story for different audiences.
6. Special Sabbaths. The week Jesus died had 2 Sabbaths including a special 'high sabbath' on Friday. Leviticus 23 says the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a special high Sabbath on Nisan 15 regardless of the day of the week it fell on. So both Friday (Nisan 15) and Saturday (Nisan 16) were Sabbaths the week Jesus was crucified. The first special Sabbath on the week Jesus died started the evening right after Jesus was hastily buried in the garden tomb of Joseph of Arimethea (Thursday evening in modern calendars, or the beginning of Nisan 15 in Jewish calendars which would be a Jewish Friday). John 19:31 describes the "special Sabbath" that took place on Friday after Jesus was buried.
7. Burial Before the Special Sabbath. Jewish authorities wanted Jesus tried, killed and buried before this special high Sabbath mentioned in John 19:14,31,42 (see also Matthew 26:62). Luke 23:54 and Mark 15:42 put Jesus' burial on the 'Day of Preparation,' or better translated 'Sabbath Eve'--which would be Thursday afternoon in our calendars before the special Friday Sabbath that began at dusk on Thursday evening (in our Gregorian calendars).
8. Resurrection After Both Sabbaths. Women discovered the empty tomb on Sunday around dawn after the 2nd Sabbath ended. The Sabbath was Saturday night and day, which equated to Nisan 16 in the Jewish calendar. Matthew 28:1 uses plural "Sabbaths" to make it clear that the special Friday Sabbath and normal Saturday Sabbath had transpired during 3 nights between Jesus' death on Thursday afternoon and resurrection on Sunday morning.
9. 3 Nights in the Grave. Death on Thursday afternoon (modern time) or end of Nisan 14 (on the Jewish calendar) and resurrection on Sunday morning matches Jesus' prediction: “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,” said Jesus (Matthew 12:40).
10. Resurrection on the Day of Firstfruits. The Sadducees who controlled the Temple in Jesus' day celebrated the Festival of the Firstfruits on Sunday after the normal weekly Saturday Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So Jesus rose on the day of the Firstfruits, and Paul explains the theological significance in 1 Corinthians 15. Jesus was the first of many more resurrections to come.

Passover, Sabbaths, and Firstfruits
​
Those 10 facts will hopefully give you an easier way to understand the events of holy week. It is hard navigating ancient texts when we don't know that folks celebrated the same holy day at different times or how the same words could refer to different things--like the word Sabbath!

For as Jonah 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. (Matthew 12:40)

If Matthew 12:40 literally means three days and three nights then the crucifixion cannot be on Friday. Some say rather than a literal three days it is an old idiom referring to the two days prior to the day being spoken of. We have found nothing to substantiate this view. The Friday crucifixion is the most widely held view due to the traditional celebration of Easter. Did the crucifixion actually take place on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday?

In order to make the most informed estimate, we need to examine the Sabbath. The original Hebrew word "Shabbath" is defined as: an intermission, the day of rest, the holy seventh day; a week (Leviticus 23:15[cf. Deuteronomy 16:9; Matthew 28:1]), the sacred seventh year, a sabbatical year.

Leviticus 23:1-4 lets us know about the "weekly sabbath," that day set aside each week to honor the Lord. Verse three defines how a sabbath is to be observed, i.e., "...but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings."

However, these are NOT the only sabbaths. Besides the weekly sabbaths there are the High Sabbaths related to the Hebrew Feasts (or Festivals), described in Leviticus 23:4-44.

These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work. (Leviticus 23:4-8)

For example, the verses above speak of two feasts, Passover and Unleavened Bread. Passover starts on the 14th day of Nisan (Hebrew month) and lasts one day. The Feast of Unleavened Bread starts the next day (i.e., the 15th of Nisan) and lasts for seven days.

Please note, the Passover is not a High Sabbath day, this important fact is often overlooked. You can tell because the usual command for a sabbath of "an holy convocation and no servile work is to be done," is not given for Passover. So while Passover is a feast day, it is not a sabbath day. "Why is that important?" you ask. It was on this day Jesus did the work of redemption. Servile work would have been unlawful on a Sabbath day, so God ordained for this day to be a festival, remembering the lamb's blood that caused the angel to "Passover" the Israelites in Egypt and pointing to the Lamb who would shed His blood for all mankind.

One other important feast day is not a High Sabbath day, the Feast of First Fruits. Interestingly enough, this is the day of Jesus' resurrection.

The Lord set forth two sabbath days each for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles. Leviticus 23:7-8 tells us that both the first and seventh (last) day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is an holy convocation and to do no servile work therein. Leviticus 23:35-36 states the same for the Feast of Tabernacles. As you go through the remaining feasts you will see the same instruction.

Next we need to examine what Jesus said regarding His death.

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 NKJV)

(Just a side note: for those who say the story of Jonah is untrue and just a legend—it appears that Jesus doesn't agree with them!)

Jesus said three days and three nights. There is absolutely no way to get three days and three nights from Friday to Sunday. The chart below shows this, remember a Jewish day starts at sunset rather than midnight.

Day 1 = Friday before Sunset
Night 1 = Friday sunset - Saturday sunrise
Day 2 = Saturday sunrise - Saturday sunset
Night 2 = Saturday sunset - Sunday sunrise
Day 3 = Sunday sunrise - resurrection

Assuming Jesus rose from the dead AFTER sunrise on Sunday, which is not stated as such in the Scriptures (the Scriptures merely state that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb right after sunrise), there still are only two nights. There is no way to get three nights in this scenario. To dogmatically choose this position of crucifixion on Friday and Resurrection on Sunday is to choose a position contrary to Jesus' own prophecy.

Another Scripture to consider is John 12:1, "Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany...". Jesus was travelling from Jericho. If the crucifixion took place on Friday (which had to also be Passover), then this journey took place on the sabbath. Travelling that distance on the sabbath was legally out of the question for a devout Jew.

There is perhaps no clearer illustration of just how hard it is to throw off the habitual practices of our families and fellow countrymen than in our holiday celebrations. This is doubly true when speaking about religious holidays, such as Easter and Christmas. As often and as forcefully as one might try to proclaim the truth about the paganism and inaccuracies inherent in Easter and Christmas, the words seem to fall on deaf ears. No one wants to have his treasured fantasies burst. The attitude of many professing Christians concerning these holidays is similar to what God saw in Israel during the ministry of Isaiah.

What is so difficult is that the truth sets up an uncomfortable proposition: Either we can ignore it and continue blithely in our deceitful, ungodly ways (risking, of course, God's condemnation), or we can accept it and change our lives to conform to it (endangering our relationships with family, friends, and society). It seems to be a no-win situation, each choice fraught with troubles. Most people, despite their purported status as believers, prefer to shrug off the inconvenient truth so as not to rock the boat in the here-and-now. They will worry about what God thinks about their decision later.

Yet, to a Christian, there should be no dithering about a choice like this. Jesustells us in Luke 12:4-5, "And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!"

When a real Christian is presented with truth, he embraces it out of reverence for God. As Christ also says, "He who is of God hears God's words" (John 8:47). He later said to His disciples, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. . . . He who does not love Me does not keep My words" (John 14:21, 24). It is as simple as that.

Consider one of these stubborn truths that exposes perhaps the most glaring inconsistency of the entire Easter scenario. Jesus Himself says in Matthew 12:38-40:

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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."

This is not a difficult concept. Jesus says quite plainly that He would be buried for three days and three nights, just as Jonah languished three days and three nights in the great fish's belly (Jonah 1:17). Jesus says elsewhere, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" (John 11:9), and He obviously knew that nighttime also covered twelve hours. Since a full day is made up of twelve hours of day and twelve hours of night (see Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, etc.), doing the simple math brings us to the unassailable conclusion that Jesus prophesied, as the only sign of His Messiahship, that He would be buried for 72 hours.

Now, try to cram 72 hours - three days and three nights - between about sundown on Friday and sunrise on Sunday. Not even Superman could do it. In fact, it comes out to about half that time. Hmm.

So, let us consider this logically. If Jesus Himself said He would be in the grave for 72 hours, but He was actually "in the heart of the earth" only 36 hours, then Jesus was a liar, guilty of sin, and His sacrifice to take the sins of the world upon Himself was useless. We have no Savior.

However, through the resurrection from the dead, Jesus did live again and ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven. This means that He did not lie. He was in the grave for exactly three days and three nights, and then the Father returned Him to life in glory. He lives now as our High Priest and soon-coming King.

Thus, the Good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition is a bald-faced lie. It is a chronological impossibility. Even the traditional Easter text of John 20:1 says plainly that, when Mary Magdalene came to the tomb "while it was still dark" on that Sunday morning, the tomb was already empty. Easter sunrise services have no biblical basis - in fact, since Jesus was put into the tomb just about at sunset, He would have been resurrected at that same time (see Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:42-46; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:38-42).

Will this truth change any minds? Has it changed yours?

Three Days and Three Nights

1. The greatest fact of the Bible is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God (John 20:30-31; Acts 8:36-37; I John 5:4-5).

2. The gospel is the good news that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, according to the Scriptures (I Cor 15:1-4).

3. Scripture states that Jesus rose THE third day, IN three days, and AFTER three days (Matthew 16:21; 26:61; 27:63).

4. Only three full days – seventy-two full hours – will satisfy all the numerous statements of the New Testament.

5. Jesus gave only one sign to prove He was truly the Son of God – the time He would be dead (Matt 12:38-40; 16:4).

6. Jesus knew there were twelve hours in a day; therefore He prophesied seventy-two hours in a grave (John 11:9-10).

7. Satan is at war against Jesus Christ and wants to deny His gospel by any lies that He can (II Cor 11:3-4; Gal 1:6-8).

8. Easter tradition has Jesus dying on Good Friday afternoon and rising Sunday morning – one day and two nights.

9. Easter tradition denies the gospel and the very sign that Jesus Christ gave of His identity as the Son of God.

10. If He was not in the ground three days and three nights, then He is a liar and not truly the Son of God. God forbid!

11. Rome has perpetrated this fraud on the churches of Jesus Christ. It is time for you to come out of her (Rev 18:4).

12. God the Father is seeking worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24; II Tim 4:3-4).

1. 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 16:1cp 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 23:55-56cp 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.

The first day of the week in the Jewish calendar is Sunday, and the Bible says the tomb was discovered empty on a Sunday. So we can begin counting backward three days and three nights from Sunday to arrive at the day Jesus died. We cannot count Sunday daytime itself, however, because Scripture says Jesus was out of the grave before dawn on Sunday.

Therefore, we start counting with the Saturday nighttime period and move back three daytime periods and three nighttime periods:

• Saturday nighttime - 1 night
• Saturday daytime - 1 day
• Friday nighttime - 2 nights
• Friday daytime - 2 days
• Thursday nighttime - 3 nights
• Thursday daytime - 3 days

if Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights and rose before dawn on Sunday, then there is simply not enough time available for Jesus to have died on a Friday and risen before daybreak on a Sunday. Matthew 12:40 requires that Jesus be crucified on a Thursday.

But wasn't the day after Jesus died a Sabbath? Yes, but the Bible says the day after Jesus' death was not a normal Saturday Sabbath but rather a "high day" Sabbath:

John 19:31  Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

A high day Sabbath refers to a special Sabbath day required by a feast observance regardless of the day of the week upon which it falls. Jesus died on Passover, and the Jewish feast of Passover is always followed the next day by another Jewish feast called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is always a high day Sabbath according to scripture (Lev 23:6-8), which matches the Bible's testimony that the day after Jesus' death was a Sabbath. 

Therefore, Jesus died and was buried on Passover, a Thursday, which was also the day of preparation (John 19:14) prior to the start of a high day Sabbath for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Following that high holy day (Friday) Sabbath came the normal, weekly Sabbath observance on Saturday. So in the week Jesus died, there were two back-to-back Sabbath days observed (i.e., Friday and Saturday).  

Furthermore, John says in chapter 12 that Jesus visited Martha, Mary and Lazarus six days before Passover and the next day (i.e., five days from Passover), Jesus entered Jerusalem:

John 12:1  Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
...
John 12:12  On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
John 12:13 took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel.”

So if Jesus entered the city on the fifth day before Passover, a Sunday (which is the day traditionally observed), then Passover occurred on a Thursday (counting Sunday to Thursday).

Finally, we find further evidence of a Thursday death by consulting lunar records for the second and third decades of the first century. Jewish feasts are timed according to lunar activity, and in the year Jesus died, the day of Passover began Wednesday night and ended Thursday at sundown, and the seven-day feast of Unleavened Bread began the next day on a Friday.

So the weekly Sabbath day ended at sundown on Saturday night, and then sometime before sunrise on Sunday morning, the women came to an empty tomb, which is why Scripture says Jesus resurrected before daybreak on the first day of the week. So if we count from Thursday daytime to Saturday night, we find three days and three nights, just as Scripture requires

Jesus actually died on a Thursday. Friday and Saturday were both sabbaths: Friday was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Saturday was the weekly sabbath.

How can we be sure that this is what happened?

Several decades ago, the London Royal Observatory took on the challenge that since they could theoretically identify the position of the planets and start on any date in history, to figure out if around the time of Jesus there was such a time when Passover fell on a Thursday. Since the Jewish calendar is lunar, there is always a full moon on Passover, so this is pretty easy to figure out. Not surprisingly, there were several years around the time of Jesus when this took place. It’s really not that uncommon – just like how Christmas falls on a Tuesday every few years.

Even More Interesting…”Coincidences”?

According to Exodus 12:1-13, God told the Israelites that they were to select the Passover Lamb on the 10th day of Nisan. They were to examine it from the 11th to the 13th to make sure it was without blemish, and they were to sacrifice it on the 14th.

If the 14th was Thursday – and Jesus was crucified on “the day of Preparation” (Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:31) which was the day when Passover began and the celebration began with the eating of the Passover meal (Jesus and his disciples then would have eaten the last supper Passover meal on Wednesday evening). Then what this means is that when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, that was on the 10th of Nisan – the day when the Passover lambs were to be selected!

Furthermore, remember that the Sunday after Passover was the Feast of First Fruits (Leviticus 23:9-11) – which means that Jesus resurrected on the Feast of First Fruits. This is what Paul the Apostle is making direct reference to in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, where he says:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

So there you have it:

Jesus was indeed in the grave for three days and three nights. It really wasn’t that much of an anomaly, but it resulted in two sabbaths back to back – something which regularly happens every few years.

So “Good Friday” was actually on Thursday, “Maundy Thursday” was actually on Wednesday, and “Holy Saturday” was actually two days long.

However, it is incredible to see how God orchestrated and prepared for this to happen as it did for thousands of years before it happened. In reality, the Bible tells us that God had planned this whole thing out from eternity past (see Revelation 13:8) – and all of it so that you may have life in His name by believing! (John 20:31)