Matthew 12:40 -- How to justify three days, three nights and tradition

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xzereus

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I’m hoping somebody can put this right for me. According to scripture, Jesus would be dead for three days and three nights. We see this in Matthew 12:40:

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

Tradition holds that Christ died on Friday and rose on Sunday morning. There is no way, at least by my counting, to have more than three days and two nights in that period. How do we reconcile these?

Thanks.
 
Per Tim Staples (I believe) in an Open Forums… don’t know which one, I’d have to look…

It was an iddium as seen also in the book of Esther, meaning a time period that occurs durring 3 seperate days. In Esther, she asks the Jewish community to fast and pray for “three days and three nights” after which she will go to the King. But she goes to the king on the 3rd day.

Patrick Madrid takes on the question here: catholic.com/radio/shows/open-forum-for-non-catholics-6382

Here’s a ‘quick question’ on it:
catholic.com/quickquestions/was-christ-really-in-the-tomb-for-three-days

Hope this helps.

May God Bless you :signofcross:
 
xzereus said:
I’m hoping somebody can put this right for me. According to scripture, Jesus would be dead for three days and three nights. We see this in Matthew 12:40:

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

Tradition holds that Christ died on Friday and rose on Sunday morning. There is no way, at least by my counting, to have more than three days and two nights in that period. How do we reconcile these?

Thanks.
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by knowing that the Jewish people counted their days (as they still do today) from sunset to sunset.

As I understand it, since Jesus died before sunset on Friday, He would have been considered dead for an entire day by the time that sunset on Friday ushered in the second day (Saturday). He was dead all of Saturday, an entire day. Once Sunday arrived (after sunset on Saturday), He would still have been considered dead for the ‘entire’ day (night and day) on which He rose, just as He was considered dead for ‘the entire’ Friday even though He died in the afternoon.

There you are, three days and three nights.
 
According to the Jewish reckoning of days, the day begins with evening. So Christ was laid in the tomb on Friday (one day), laid there Saturday until the evening (two days), and rose again on Sunday (three days).

-ACEGC
 
xzereus said:
I’m hoping somebody can put this right for me. According to scripture, Jesus would be dead for three days and three nights. We see this in Matthew 12:40:

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

Tradition holds that Christ died on Friday and rose on Sunday morning. There is no way, at least by my counting, to have more than three days and two nights in that period. How do we reconcile these?

Thanks.
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They had no clocks or calendars back then…as we have it today. 3 days…meant a part of a day is one day…and it was not a literal 24 hour day as we know it today.
 
simple

Firday day one
Sautrday day two
Sunday he rose day three.
 
The explanation can be found at in the link that PoorKnight gave: Patrick Madrid explained that “three days and three nights” is a Jewish idiom that means “three days”. When I was a boy, and my mom complained that she was doing all the work around the house, and that we children were just slacking, she was fond of saying, “I work day and night around here, and what’s the thanks I get?!?!?!?” Now, she really wasn’t working all day and all night; rather, that was an idiom that meant “every day”. Same thing here: it’s just an idiom.

CatholicTiger and PoorKnight are also giving an additional piece of information that wasn’t asked about: in some places, it’s asserted that Jesus rose “on the third day”. In order to understand that construction, we need to recall that Jews saw sunset as the start of the day. So, Jesus was buried on Friday prior to sunset (the first day). He lay in the tomb all night Friday and all day Saturday (the second day). He rose early Sunday morning (the third day, which started at sunset on Saturday).

Hope this helps!
 
Thank you for the idiom bit. That helps a lot. As far as “Friday is the first, Saturday the second, Sunday the third”, I was already aware of that as that’s the argument I’ve always heard. Now that I have a bit more info, though, I feel much better about this Tradition. Thanks!
 
xzereus said:
I’m hoping somebody can put this right for me. According to scripture, Jesus would be dead for three days and three nights. We see this in Matthew 12:40:

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

Tradition holds that Christ died on Friday and rose on Sunday morning. There is no way, at least by my counting, to have more than three days and two nights in that period. How do we reconcile these?

Thanks.
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There’s a number of possibilities, but they are all pretty involved the main thing is always that we accept by faith what we may not be able to completely understand in the mind alone.
Try this one; it was as it was for Jonah, but Jonah did not die as soon he was swallowed by the whale, he remained awake and aware for some time before going into a very deep sleep. In fact he does not die at all in the book of Jonah and we are’nt given any of the passage of days or nights until in one of the latter chapters we are told that it had been three days and three nights. Then we can include Holy Thursday night as the starting point for the 3 days and 3 nights using Jonah as a kind of a template, then we could start from the time after the Last Supper when the Lord is arrested and taken away from the Apostles and his friends whom He will not be reunited with again in His earthly life, and in the gospel of John i think He even says “Now is the hour of Darkness”. So from Holy Thur. eve to Good Fri. sunrise is 1night. From Good Fri. sunrise to Good Fri. sunset is 1day. From Good Fri.sunset to Holy Sat sunrise is makes 2nights. From Holy Sat.sunrise to Holy Sat. sunset makes 2days. From Holy Sat.sunset to Easter Sunday sunrise makes 3nights, which still leaves us 1day period short to make the prophecy of Mat12:40 exact, right? But, Holy Sat. was the Sabbath the day of complete rest at the end of which in Exodus, Israel departs from Egypt, travelling out, using night as if it were day as ordered by God through Moses so Holy Sat. night also counts for 1day bringing the total to three days and three nights.
 
The time of the start of the three days and three night starts at 6AM on Thursday when the Sanhedrin convicted Jesus of blasphemy from that time Jesus was considered dead. This is exactly 3 days and 3 nights in the correct order until the resurrection. As soon as Jesus was convicted, He was transferred into Pilate’s custody and was imprisoned below ground (in the earth) when He died He went into the tomb also below ground. Jonah was in the belly of the great fish, the first part of that time was in the hold of the ship (below sea level but alive) the second part after the fish swallowed him below sea level where he died. This is one of the strong proofs of the last supper being on Tuesday evening. See www.scripturescholar.com/ChronologyJesus.pdf page 62.
Grace and peace,
Bruce
 
Reading through some of of the perspectives at the above site 'Scripture Catholic ’ , found them rather interesting, esp. the mention about the fish shaped appearence of the moon on Good Friday night , this esp. so , coming across another Jewish site on animal sacrifices ( not in agreement with all the view points ) ; not having read the writings of Bl.Emmerich that carefully, unsure if her visions corroborate the sighting of the fish shaped moon !

jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/vegsacrifices.html - interesting that the last and 4th pargraph in the above mentions how there is the Jewish belief that in the Messianic age, the ‘righteous’ would be fed from the flesh of a giant fish !

That could add another explaination , to the symbolism of The Lord choosing the fishermen , as Apostles, the miracles of the catching and feeding of the fish, even after The Resurrection !

Trying to bring together the literal 3 days , with the Last Supper still being on Thursday - it could be , when the Sanhedrin finalised their decision , if such took place on Thursday , The Lord being in the symbolic belly of the whale of death sentence from that hour on and His Spirit would have recognised same !
 
Josephine,
Before I was convinced that the Last Supper had to be earlier that Thursday evening. I recognized that Pilate condemned Jesus at 6AM Friday, again being in Pilate’s custody He would be confined to the dungeons so underground, when not on trial. Second, day and night were controlled by darkness and light. From 6AM Friday until Noon was the first day. From Noon when darkness covered the earth until 3PM was the fist Night. From 3PM when the darkness lifted until 6PM was the second day and from that point the nights and days follow their normal course. Therefore, there were three days and three nights from the point where Jesus was condemned by Pilate.
Grace and peace,
Bruce
 
If people are needing a LITERAL 3 days and 3 nights… does anyone consider the eclipse after Christ died? Wouldn’t that also be a “night” in the eyes of many?

So you’d have Eclipse (1 night) Eclipse passes (1 day), night of Friday (2 nights), Sat morning (2 days), Sat night (3 nights), Sun morning (3 days)…

Or are we all trying to apply a Modern American context to a Scripture that’s context is removed by 2000 years and thousands of miles?

Bottom line for me: The Church says Christ died on Friday night and rose on Sunday morning. I have many ways in which I can rectify that with “Three Days and Three Nights”.

I would not believe the inspiriation of Scripture, had the Catholic Church not moved me to do so.

Thats my additional $0.02 🙂

God Bless :signofcross:
 
Read a while ago, in an article at this site - thedivinemercy.org/ , the citation from St.Faustina’s Diary , on how the mystical death of our Lord really takes place , at The Last Supper and how only the physical aspects of same were left to be accomplished , in The Passion that follows !

Apologies for not being able to provide the exact wording or # of the citation from the book .

( Having read through the Diary a while ago, having overlooked the above, now try to reread through sections , to realise that same is worth much ! )

Being God-Man , the above insight given to the St.Faustina , on The Passion , makes sense - of God who is beyond time and space , and goes along with the verse of the ‘Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.’

That would also fulfill the three days and nights perfectly too - Thursday, Friday, Sat …with no need to come up with any other calculations !

God who is truth , humility ,simplicity yet mysterious …sharing His mysteries with the humble and obediant …

The above site , a good resource to also help with the Novena of Divine Mercy , that starts on Good Friday …inviting us , to repent on behhalf of all, thus to undo the enemy holds from more hearts …and to bring all to His mercy …

They now also have the original version of the restored Vilnius image , in canvas -

secure.marianweb.net/divinemercyart.org/product.php?PC=CVILN15E&DID=130&PID=10500055&CATNAME=CANVAS

A Blessed Easter and Octave of Easter - the Feast of Divine Mercy, to all !

May the prayers of St.Faustina and Bl.John Paul 11 continue to help us all , to recognise the aspects of His truth and mercy , that we be grateful , faithful and protected !
 
There are already some good explanations here, to which I really have nothing to add. However, as a linguist and translator, I would like to repeat what I have said on other threads about figures of speech, of which “three days and three nights” is one. They are colloquial ways of expressing common concepts. They are not supposed to walk on all fours (another figure of speech, meaning they are not meant to be taken excessively literally).
 
Gorgias,

re: " When I was a boy, and my mom complained that she was doing all the work around the house, and that we children were just slacking, she was fond of saying, ‘I work day and night around here, and what’s the thanks I get?!?!?!?’ Now, she really wasn’t working all day and all night; rather, that was an idiom that meant ‘every day’. Same thing here: it’s just an idiom."

What if she had said: “I worked one day and one night to finish the project”? Wouldn’t you expect at least a part of a daytime and at least a part of a nighttime to have been involved?
 
The Crucifixion: Wednesday or Friday?

by Jimmy Akin Thursday, April 21, 2011 6:34 PM Comments (35)

There has been some talk recently about a new book by Cambridge University professor Colin Humphreys that proposes the Last Supper was held on Wednesday of Holy Week (GET IT HERE), rather than on Thursday as it has been traditionally commemorated. I haven’t had a chance to review his arguments yet, but there is room for discussion here. In fact, in his recent, second volume of Jesus of Nazareth (GET IT HERE!), Pope Benedict wrestles with the subject of the Last Supper without coming to a definite conclusion.

Regardless of when precisely the Last Supper took place in Holy Week, one thing both the Cambridge professor and the pontiff are agreed upon is that the Crucifixion took place on Friday. There are, however, people who dispute this.

In some Protestant churches, especially Fundamentalist ones, every year at Easter time there are sermons explaining that Jesus didn’t really die on a Friday but on a Wednesday. This claim is based on Matthew 12:40, where Jesus states that “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.”

“If Jesus rose from the dead on Saturday night,” the argument goes, “then he couldn’t have been crucified and died on Friday afternoon, because there aren’t three days in there. There’s only one, so we need to back up his death from Friday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon.” This is often accompanied by the claim that Easter is based on a pagan holiday; the “moving” of Jesus death to Good Friday is explained as the result of some unspecified pagan cause.

None of this is true. Easter is not based on a pagan holiday but on a Jewish one: Passover. Easter originated as the first Sunday following Passover, when Jesus was crucified.

Read more: ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/the-crucifixion-wednesday-or-friday#ixzz2sN8l7Lv9
 
rstrats said:
What if she had said: “I worked one day and one night to finish the project”? Wouldn’t you expect at least a part of a daytime and at least a part of a nighttime to have been involved?
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If she said it in English in 21st century America? Then yes, this would be an expression that’s not idiomatic but literal: “I worked one day and one night.” However, in the context that we’re talking about, we’ve got an idiomatic expression.

Different language, different context, different mode of expression. 😉
 
Gorgias,

re: " However, in the context that we’re talking about, we’ve got an idiomatic expression."

Then I’d think that there would be at least one actual example where that absolutely had to be the case.
 
rstrats said:
40.png
Gorgias:
However, in the context that we’re talking about, we’ve got an idiomatic expression.
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Then I’d think that there would be at least one actual example where that absolutely had to be the case.
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Umm… that’s the whole point of this thread, isn’t it? We’ve got a clear example in which “three days and three nights” is not literal, and thus is an “actual example where [the use of idiom] absolutely has to be the case.” Otherwise, if we attempt to treat it literally, it takes on the appearance that Christ was mistaken. 😉
 
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