3 days and 3 nights

[javid]

Hi.

Lord jesus’ Resurrection happend 3 days and 3 nights after his Crucifixion.

But can’t find 3 days and 3 nights between Friday’s sunset and Sunday’s sunrise.

please help me.

Thanks.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Hi.

Lord jesus’ Resurrection happend 3 days and 3 nights after his Crucifixion.

But can’t find 3 days and 3 nights between Friday’s sunset and Sunday’s sunrise.

please help me.

Thanks.

It happend on the Third Day, not 3 days and 3 nights. You won’t find anything in scripture that will say Jesus was dead for 3 days and 3 nights.

The counting is different. When I say 3 days, it means 24-hour periods, so if it is 3 days then from today to tomorrow is one day, etc. So August 17 will be 3 days from today. But “on the Third day” carries a different context. If the event happened today, then today is the First Day, tomorrow is the Second Day, then the day after tomorrow is the Third Day.

 

[DavidFilmer]

People in Biblical times often used numbers in a non-literal context. The number three was considered the number of divine perfection. Thus, when someone says “3 days and 3 nights,” it means “the perfect number of days and nights.”

 

[1ke]

Hi.

Lord jesus’ Resurrection happend 3 days and 3 nights after his Crucifixion.

But can’t find 3 days and 3 nights between Friday’s sunset and Sunday’s sunrise.

please help me.

Thanks.

I suggest a study of the Jewish concept of time, particularly days. The Jewish day begins with sunset the evening before and concludes at sunset. Jewish reckoning of time also includes the concept that any part of a day is a day.

 

[DavidFilmer]

I You won’t find anything in scripture that will say Jesus was dead for 3 days and 3 nights.

Actually, you kinda do:

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. [Matt 12:40]

But the math still works - if you understand what it means.

First, in both Biblical times and in modern times, a “day” includes the “night.” If a baby is born at 11:00 pm, and someone asks you, “what day was the baby born?” you would not say, “well, he wasn’t born during the day, he was born during the night.” No, you would say, “Tuesday” or whatever (even if the baby had not yet been born for 23 of the hours of that day - being born for one hour (or one minute) is enough to establish that a baby is born on Tuesday and not Wednesday).

When we say Tuesday in modern times, we mean from midnight on Monday, and include all time for the next 24 hours. A “day” includes the “night.”

Jews reckoned that days began at sunset and ended the following sunset. Jesus was laid in the tomb on Friday afternoon. But “Friday” also included the period from sunset the previous day until dawn (which we term “night”). So Friday is a night and a day (not a day and a night, as we tend to think of it).

We see this in the creation account in Genesis:

**And the evening and the morning were the third **[fourth, etc] **day. **[Gen 1:1 - 31]

A “day” consists of both evening (darkness) and morning (daylight).

Even though Jesus was not in the tomb during the darkness of Friday, the day includes that period of darkness (just as it does in modern times - only with a different demarcation). So the “missing night” would have been the darkness that preceded dawn on Friday.

 

[javid]

Thanks for answers.

So the “missing night” would have been the darkness that preceded dawn on Friday.

Yes, I found a missing night. In “the darkness that preceded dawn on Friday” Lord Jesus was not in the heart of the earth, so why we must count it?

 

[DavidFilmer]

Lord Jesus was not in the heart of the earth, so why we must count it?

Because Friday includes the darkness before dawn. Jesus WAS in the earth on Friday, and Friday includes both the darkness and the light (in that order).

You can’t have a Friday without both the darkness and the light (in that order). The same is sorta true today - a Friday is dark-light-dark.

 

[rstrats]

DavidFilmer,

re: “First, in both Biblical times and in modern times, a ‘day’ includes the ‘night.’”

Would you say, then, that Matthew 12:40 is using commom Jewish idiomatic language?

 

[Ignatius]

Hi.
Lord jesus’ Resurrection happend 3 days and 3 nights after his Crucifixion.
But can’t find 3 days and 3 nights between Friday’s sunset and Sunday’s sunrise.
.

Do some research on "how ancient Hebrews reckoned time. Specifically how they reckoned days and parts of days. I hope this helps.

 

[DavidFilmer]

Would you say, then, that Matthew 12:40 is using commom Jewish idiomatic language?

Well, since he was a Jew, then yes.

Modern society reckons the end of the day at midnight, which is an arbitrary time somewhere around (but rarely precisely) the middle of the time from sunset to sunrise.

No ancient culture reckoned days this way. This system doesn’t work very well unless you have clocks (which are roughly synchronized). How would you know, at night, when it was mid-way between sunset and sunrise? (in the daytime, you can determine noon with a sundial, but not at night.) With advanced knowledge of astronomy you could make a crude estimate, but you would lack accurate star charts (because nobody had clocks to make accurate charts in the first place, and a star chart without a reliable timeline is nothing more than a guess).

Neither the Jews nor the Romans regarded a “day” as a 24-hour period. To them, day and night were different things. We still use the word “day” ambiguously - it sometimes (often) means the period of daylight, and other times means a 24-hour period. We say “the days grow longer in summer” but of course the days are all 24-hours long.

We use words like “daytime” and “nighttime,” although a day includes both light and dark, but a night never includes the light.

And we use the word “night” ambiguously. If something wakes us at 2:00 AM, we commonly say we were awakened in the middle of the night. If we sleep well, we say, “I slept well all night” or “I got a good night’s sleep.” Nobody ever says, “I slept well for the last four hours of last night and the first four hours of this morning.” Even if we go to bed at midnight and sleep until eight, we still say we slept well all night, even though we technically didn’t sleep ANY at night.

FWIW, prior to the mid-1920’s, astronomers used a 12-hour offset clock - the day began and ended at noon. It was a hassle when 01:20 came after 23:20 (smaller numbers should not come after larger numbers). This offset caused nothing but confusion, and they finally adopted GMT/UTC. But, if you see old star charts, you have to offset the times by twelve hours.

 

[Darryl_B]

The 3 days and 3 nights begins shortly after the Passover meal. The betrayal, the handing over, the drops of blood, the trial, the handing over, the scourging, the trial, the pulverization (the Latin word for dust is pulvis), the crown of thorns, the Stations of the Cross are all part of those 3 days. During that time he was in prison on earth. Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up? The three days began at the start of the destruction of the temple, not at the end of it.

 

[rstrats]

DavidFilmer,

re: “Well, since he was a Jew, then yes [Matthew 12:40 is using common Jewish idiomatic language].”

It would seem that in order to say that it was common usage that there should be writing from the period showing instances of such usage. There ought to be examples of phrases stating a specific number of days and/or a specific number of nights being used in the first century or before when they absolutely couldn’t have included at least parts of each one of the specified number of days and at least parts of each one of the specified number of nights. However, I am not aware of any. Perhaps someone here knows of some?

 

[DaveBj]

It’s a figure of speech. It’s not meant to walk on all fours (another figure of speech, meaning that it’s not meant to be taken hyper-literally). Let it be.

 

[rstrats]

DaveBj,

re: “It’s a figure of speech.”

So you’re saying that the “three nights” specified n Matthew 12:40 is a figure of speech for “two nights”? If so, what is there in scripture that makes it absolutely necessary to interpret it that way?

 

[DaveBj]

I’m saying that to the Jews of that period, 3:00 p.m. on Friday to whatever:00 Sunday morning would have been considered three days, and that “three days and three nights” would have been an acceptable way of expressing it. They would not have had the literalist interpretation of exactly 72 hours, no more and no less.

 

[Gorgias]

re: “It’s a figure of speech.”

So you’re saying that the “three nights” specified n Matthew 12:40 is a figure of speech for “two nights”?

No… it’s a figure of speech for “three days”.

As David mentioned, in Jewish reckoning, a day begins at sunset. So, Jesus was “in the earth” for three days: Friday (afternoon), Saturday (what we’d call “Friday night” and “Saturday morning & afternoon”), and Sunday (what we’d call “Saturday night”).

 

[JohnR77]

DaveBj,

re: “It’s a figure of speech.”

So you’re saying that the “three nights” specified n Matthew 12:40 is a figure of speech for “two nights”? If so, what is there in scripture that makes it absolutely necessary to interpret it that way?

Please let me rephrase your question, if i may. Where do we find proof in Sacred Scripture that the Jews counted their days where only part of the day was actually counted as a day, or as a “day and a night” ?

Great question if I say so myself.
You find the answer in Kings and the Book of Esther. See the there examples listed here.

defendingthebride.com/mc/sa/three.html

God bless,
.

 

[rstrats]

DaveBj,

re: “I’m saying that to the Jews of that period, 3:00 p.m. on Friday to whatever:00 Sunday morning would have been considered three days…”

As regards the Jewish practice of counting any part of a calendar day as a whole calendar day I would agree, but when “nights” is added to “days” to yield the phrase “X days AND X nights” it normally refers to a measurement of a time period where “day” refers to the light portion of a 24 hour period and “night” refers to the dark portion of a 24 hour period. No one In the history of apologetics as far as I know has ever presented any historical documentation that the phrase X days and/or X nights was a common first century idiom of Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek which could mean something different than what the phrase means in English… If you have such documentation, I would very much like to see it.

re: “They would not have had the literalist interpretation of exactly 72 hours, no more and no less.”

Perhaps not full 24 hour calendar days, but if someone said they worked one daytime and one night time are you suggesting that they wouldn’t expect that at least a part of a night time would be involved? If you are, I wonder if you could provide an example from the period where that absolutely had to have been the case?

 

[rstrats]

JohnR77,

re: “Where do we find proof in Sacred Scripture that the Jews counted their days where only part of the day was actually counted as a day, or as a ‘day and a night’ ?..You find the answer in Kings and the Book of Esther.”

The 1 Kings 20:29 reference says nothing about daytimes and night times.

Also, the use of Esther 4:16 and 5:1ff to support the idea that the 3 days and 3 nights that the Messiah said he would be in the heart of the earth isn’t to be taken literally, is not appropriate. Nothing in the Esther references precludes at least parts of 3 nighttime and at least parts of 3 daytime periods.

 

[DavidFilmer]

It would seem that in order to say that it was common usage that there should be writing from the period showing instances of such usage. There ought to be examples of phrases stating a specific number of days and/or a specific number of nights being used in the first century or before when they absolutely couldn’t have included at least parts of each one of the specified number of days and at least parts of each one of the specified number of nights. However, I am not aware of any. Perhaps someone here knows of some?

Umm, you cited one such example (actually, I think I first cited it). Matt 12:40.

Lemme cut to the chase. Why are you asking this? What do you think “three days and three nights” means? Why do you think this is important?

If someone today (with our mixed-up understanding of what constitutes a “day”) told you he went to a party at 3:00 PM on Friday, and the party lasted three days and three nights, when would you think the party ended? At dawn on Monday? At 3:00 PM on Monday?