Ask the Pastor, Part 1

QUESTION #1

Matthew 12:40 says, “For just 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.” Also, Matthew 28:1 describes how Jesus rose to life on Sunday, the first day of the week. I have always heard that Jesus was crucified on Friday. But if you take Matthew 12:40 literally, does that mean Jesus was crucified on Thursday?

RESPONSE

Background — Jesus died at 3:00 PM (the “ninth hour” of the day was in reference to the start of the Jewish day at 6:00 a.m.; Matthew 27:45, 50; Mark 15:33-34, 37; Luke 23:44-46) and was interred around 6:00 p.m. (cf. Luke 23:54) on the same day (Matthew 27:57; Mark 15:42), which is called “the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath [Saturday]” (Mark 15:42; cf. Matthew 27:62; Luke 23:54; John 19:31 [Deuteronomy 21:22-23], 38, 42). He was clearly resurrected around dawn on the day after the Sabbath, the first day of the week, Sunday (Matthew 28:1-7; Mark 16:1-7; Luke 23:56-24:9; John 20:1-19).

Option #1 — Jesus died on Wednesday or Thursday and was raised on Sunday.

Option #2 — Jesus died on Friday and was raised on Sunday.

• “three days and three nights” = In Jewish usage, this and other similar phrases were used for emphasis, not for literal time-keeping. So, it could simply mean a period of time that includes parts of three days (cf. 1 Samuel 30:12-13; 2 Chronicles 10:5, 12; Esther 4:16; 5:1; Luke 13:32 for a similar phrase employed non-literally). “As we count time, three days and three nights points inexorably to three periods of twenty-four hours each; we thus have a problem with the use of this expression for the time between Jesus’ death and resurrection: the period from toward the middle of the day on Friday (when he was crucified) to early on Sunday morning (when he was seen alive) comes short of what we understand by three days and three nights. But the Jews did not reckon as we do: they counted the day on which any period began as one day, and they did the same with the day on which the period ended. Thus we have Friday, Saturday, Sunday, three days; it does not matter that neither the Friday nor the Sunday was complete [fn: The rabbis said, “A day and a night make an ‘Onah and a part of an ‘Onah is as the whole”; and again, “The part of a day is as the whole day” (SBk, I, p. 649).]. According to the method of counting in use at the time, this is the period during which Jesus would be in the heart of the earth.”[i]

• Support = (1) The biblical timeline, as harmoniously recorded in all four gospels, strongly suggests a Friday death/burial and Sunday resurrection. (2) Paul affirms in 1 Corinthians 15:4 that Jesus “was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (cf. Matthew’s use of this phrase and alteration of it in Matthew 16:21; 27:63). (3) A Thursday evening crucifixion would not solve the problem, for it would still not allow for three 24-hour periods.

[i] Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), pp. 325-326.