Three Days and Three Nights

Three Days and Three Nights

Joe R. Price

How long was Jesus in the grave?  The skeptic is quick to say there is a contradiction in the Scriptures over the time Jesus said He would be in the tomb and the actual length he was there. When one considers the evidence, this allegation cannot be scripturally or logically sustained.
Jesus said He would be in the grave three days and three nights: “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” (Matt. 12:40). But, Mark records Jesus saying He would rise again “after three days” (Mk. 8:31).  This is where the skeptic thinks he proves his case.
Jesus died and was buried on Friday before the Sabbath (Lk. 23:53-56). Jesus rose from the death on the first day of the week, on which day two disciples said “today is the third day since these things happened” (Lk. 24:1, 7, 21).  Parts of three days are under discussion.
Peter said Jesus was raised from the dead “on the third day” (Acts 10:40). Paul said, “that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:4).  Is it a conspiracy?  Did Jesus and the apostles conspire to deceive?  No, they did not.
Historically, the Jewish reckoning of time has been quite liberal. They counted any portion of a day as a day itself. The following from Eric Lyons, M.Min., is helpful on this point:
“In the first century, any part of a day could be computed for the whole day and the night following it (cf. Lightfoot, 1979, pp. 210-211). The Jerusalem Talmud quotes rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, who lived around A.D. 100, as saying: “A day and night are an Onah [‘a portion of time’] and the portion of an Onah is as the whole of it” (from
Jerusalem Talmud: Shabbath ix. 3, as quoted in Hoehner, 1974, pp. 248-249, bracketed comment in orig.).”  Azariah indicated that a portion of a twenty-four hour period could be considered the same “as the whole of it.”  ( Alleged Bible Discrepancies , Apologetics Press, http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=10&article=3689 )
We are not unfamiliar with this way of speaking of time.  For example, a man says, “I worked all day” when in fact he only worked a 10-hour shift.  Similarly, the expression “three days and three nights” in the Bible can properly include portions of three days without meaning the entire 72-hour period.
Furthermore, the Bible confirms this to be a common way of counting time.
In Genesis 7:12 the rain of the flood was on the earth “forty days and forty nights,” while verse 17 merely says, “the flood was on the earth forty days.” The one expression is equivalent to the other.
A Biblical parallel to the length of time the body of Jesus was in the tomb is found in 2 Chronicles 10:5 and 12. Here, when Jeroboam and all Israel petitioned King Rehoboam to lighten their load, the king said, “Come back to me after three days” (10:5). Verse 12 then observes, “Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had directed, saying, "Come back to me the third day.” When they came back “on” the third day it was
“as the king had directed.” So, “on” the third day (v. 12) is equivalent to “after” the third day (v. 5).  Because we might not speak of it that way today does not preclude the fact that Scripture so speaks of it, confirming the point that a portion of a day was spoken of as a day itself.
In Jewish reckoning of time, any portion of a day could be regarded as a day. Thus there is no contradiction between Jesus’ predicted length of His burial and the actual event.  In truth, the accuracy is confirmed.
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