How many nights did Jesus spend in the heart of the earth?

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Jesus died on a Friday and rose up from the dead on Sunday morning.

So he was in the “heart of the earth” for two nights, Friday night and Saturday night.

But look what Jesus says in Matthew 12:40,

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and **three nights **in the heart of the earth.”

Someone please explain this contradiction.
 
The Jewish 24 hour day went from sundown to sundown (approx. 6PM to 6PM). Then, as now, the word"day" can refer to the period of sunlight - that is, dawn to dusk; or it can refer to a 24 hour period that also incorporates the nighttime hours.

From “Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties”:
According to ancient parlance, then, when you wished to refer to three separate twenty-four-hour days, you said, “Three days and three nights”–even though only a portion of the first and third days might be involved.

A similar usage is apparent rom the narrative in 1 Samuel 30:12, where “he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights” is equated in v.13 with *hayyom s losah * (“three days ago”)–which could only mean “day before yesterday”. … We simply have to get used to slightly different ways of expressing time intervals. …

In other words, if Jesus had said only that He was going to be in the ground “for three nights” – then it would mean He would have had to be there at some point, at least briefly, on three separate nights. Likewise, if He had said only that He would be in the ground “for three days”–then it could be understood that He would be, at least briefly, in the tomb during three separate daylight periods.

But, by stating “three days and three nights”, Jesus makes it clear He is referring to the full 24 hour period. He would be in the tomb, even if only briefly, during of those three 24 hour periods.
 
Nita said:
The Jewish 24 hour day went from sundown to sundown (approx. 6PM to 6PM). Then, as now, the word"day" can refer to the period of sunlight - that is, dawn to dusk; or it can refer to a 24 hour period that also incorporates the nighttime hours.

From “Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties”:
According to ancient parlance, then, when you wished to refer to three separate twenty-four-hour days, you said, “Three days and three nights”–even though only a portion of the first and third days might be involved.

A similar usage is apparent rom the narrative in 1 Samuel 30:12, where “he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights” is equated in v.13 with *hayyom s losah * (“three days ago”)–which could only mean “day before yesterday”. … We simply have to get used to slightly different ways of expressing time intervals. …

In other words, if Jesus had said only that He was going to be in the ground “for three nights” – then it would mean He would have had to be there at some point, at least briefly, on three separate nights. Likewise, if He had said only that He would be in the ground “for three days”–then it could be understood that He would be, at least briefly, in the tomb during three separate daylight periods.

But, by stating “three days and three nights”, Jesus makes it clear He is referring to the full 24 hour period. He would be in the tomb, even if only briefly, during of those three 24 hour periods.
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Laudatur Jesus Christus.

Dear Nita:

Thank you for your succinct statement. I think your argument is persuasive.

One can get a sense of this usage even in the first chapter of Genesis. The light is called “day,” but the text specifies both “evening” and “morning” which it counts as “one day,” “a second day,” etc. In the Greek the word “hemera” is used for both the period of “daylight” and the period of “night time and daylight” together. This seems to lead naturally to referring to what we might call a “24-hour-day” as “day and night.”

In languages which decline forms of nouns, it would be natural to use plurals for both “day” and “night,” if one wanted to refer to more than one “day and night.” (In our current, “less formal” style we might say “three ‘day-and-nights’,” but we should not be proud of doing so.)

I think your explanation is well taken and well put. Thank you.

Spiritus Sapientiae nobiscum.

John Hiner
 
Could you please explain more clearly (by giving examples)?
 
iaskquestions said:
Then what did they mean?
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The “three days and three nights” did refer to three 24 hour “days”. BUT, it did not mean that Jesus was in the tomb for ALL 24 hours of each of those "three days and three nights". It meant that He was in the tomb for at least some period of time on each of those 24 hour periods.

Eg. Had He been in the tomb for only 1 minute of the 24 hour period called “Friday”, we would say He was in the tomb on “Friday” (even tho “Friday” consists of 24 hours - a period of day and a period of night).

Jesus was in the tomb for a part of Friday, all 24 hours of Saturday, and a part of Sunday.
We do not know exactly how many actual hours He was in the tomb.

Nita
 
Hi, I’m actually new to this board and this is my first post here. To me this is a very important question because alot of people have asked this and people have given up their faith in the Bible largely in part because of this question, but I hope you’ll allow me to answer it from a different angle here and I hope that you’ll bear with me because this going to be quite lengthy.

Allright so Jesus says in Matthew chapter 12 verse 40, ‘As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’ – and immediately people do some mental calculations.

Some people think, ‘Okay Jesus died Friday, that’s why they call it Good Friday. He spent Friday night in the tomb, Saturday night in the tomb, and He rose Sunday, but that’s two nights and a part of three days. There’s no way in the world that it is three nights so how can the Bible accurate?’

Well let me come at it from a different perspective. I believe there is a major misconception here regarding the heart of the earth. People tend to think that means the tomb; but if you let the Bible speak for itself, I don’t think that there is anywhere else in the Bible is the heart of the earth called the tomb. For example, in Matthew when we say the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in Heaven’, does that mean Thy will be done in the tomb?

No. When Jesus said the prince of this world comes (John 14:30) , He was speaking of the devil. When Jesus said as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish or the whale, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, He wasn’t talking about the tomb or vault. He was talking about the heart of the earth meaning the clutches of the world.

You see, every time the mob tried to destroy Jesus or stone Jesus or throw Him off a cliff through His whole Ministry, He was untouchable. He walked right through their midst and they never were able to harm Him in any way because He was under His Father’s protection.

However, in the Garden of Gethsemane on Thursday night when He said quite specifically, ‘Now is the hour of darkness…’(Luke 22:53) then the mob came. They tied Him up, they beat Him, and He began suffering for the sins of the world.

See He didn’t start suffering for the sins of the world when He was on the Cross and the nails pierced His flesh. The suffering began in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He was taken from place to place and beaten and mobbed. He went from Caiaphas to Anna and back to Caiaphas. Then he went from Pilate to Herod and back to Pilate again. He was dragged all over the place during that period and being mocked and whipped and thorns on His head and, He was suffering for the sins of the world.

He was a captive to the devil the same way Jonah went wherever the whale went. Jonah was a captive to the whale and he was in that dark, hopeless environment for three days and three nights the same way that Jesus was in the clutches of the world, the clutches of the lost world, for three days and three nights.

When He prayed the third time, ‘Not my will Thy will be done’, and He said to His disciples you can sleep on because now is the hour of darkness. I believe He made it very clear, this is the starting point. The mob came. He told Peter put away your sword; this is why he came into the world. From Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night, He was taking the penalty for our sins, which is punishment and death, not just death, punishment and death.

And He suffered starting Thursday night, and He died Friday night, and was still dead on Saturday night.

I personally don’t believe that it has anything to do with the tomb. I challenge if I’m mistaken if anyone wants to show me one other place in the Bible where the heart of the earth is called the tomb, I’ll retract it.
 
manny535 said:
…I hope you’ll allow me to answer it from a different angle here
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Thank you for your Interesting interpretation; it is one I have not heard before.

The expression “in the heart of the earth” appears only once in Sacred Scripture (Matthew 12:40) but the expression “in the heart of the sea(s)” appears several times and does not necessarily mean “under the surface of the sea(s)” but rather “on the surface of the sea far from land” or “on the high seas,” as we might say that Gilligan was stranded on a deserted island “in the middle of the ocean.” So, the expression “in the heart of the earth” may mean “on the surface of the earth far from the seas” rather than buried in a tomb.

Also, in Sacred Scripture, a “day” sometimes represents a literal year, as when 70 weeks or 490 days and 490 nights means a literal 490 years. (Daniel 9:24) So, maybe when Jesus says, “three days and three nights,” he means a literal “three years,” which corresponds to the length of his public ministry. Thus, Jesus was saying that the only sign the Scribes and Pharisees would receive would be his public ministry of three years.
 
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