Three Days and Three Nights

[Charlie_Zeaiter]

On a different thread, we reached an interesting topic…
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=1557365&postcount=7

What did Jesus refer to when he said he’ll spend three days and three nights in the “depths of the earth” (Mt 12:40), with a reference to the sign of Jonah.

Christians have argued that part of the day is counted as a full day and a full night in Jewishing reckoning.

Non-christians have argued that this is fanciful reckoning, and Jesus is not the messiah because he didn’t fulfill his own prophecy. (He may have spent three days in the tomb, but he clearly spent only two nights.)

But I came across an interesting Web site the other day that explains the three days and three nights…
blessedcause.org/BlessedCause%20Exclusives/The%20Sign%20of%20Jonah.htm

Whenever Jesus refers to His suffering of three days, it begins when he is handed over to the authorities. This occurred on the Thursday night when Judas betrayed Him.

In light of the above, the assumption of referring the “depths of the earth” to the tomb may be wrong. There are scriptures that liken “earth” to the heart of man, which is also described as exceedingly wicked (Gen 6:5-7, Jas 4:4). Thus, when Jesus shares in our sin, He is in the “depths of the earth”.

Does anybody know of an official church teaching on the three days and three nights?

 

[PhilVaz]

Don’t know about official Church teaching, like most verses these are not defined. But some commentaries (evangelical and liberal Protestant mostly) I’ve looked up on the “three days/nights”:

“‘Three days and nights’ (Jonah 2:1 [1:17]) need NOT imply complete days; PARTS of a twenty-four-hour day counted as representing the WHOLE day. In early Jewish law, only after three days was the witness to a person’s death accepted.” (Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary [Intervarsity Press, 1993], p 81)

“‘Three days and three nights’ is a special phrase used in the ancient world with the meaning ‘long enough to be definitely dead.’ It derives originally from the ancient pagan notion that the soul’s trip to the after-world took three days and three nights. Jesus’ use of the same phrase for the duration of his death before his resurrection (Mt 12:40) carries a similar force: it is a way of saying that he would really die, NOT that he would be literally dead for exactly seventy-two hours. ‘Three days and three nights’ was a Jewish idiom for a period covering PARTS of three 24-hour ‘days-and-nights’ (cf. 1 Sam 30:12-13; Est 4:16-5:1).” (New Bible Commentary, p 819,920 under Jonah 1:17/Matt 12:40)

“In ancient literature [three days and three nights] indicated a period so long that if someone appeared to be in the realm of death for that length of time, only divine intervention could bring him back to life. …Three days may also simply mean a fairly long time (cf. 1 Sam 30: 12; Esther 4:16). In Jonah it heightens the picture of the great power of God who can save his disobedient messenger even after ‘three days and three nights.’ Much later Jesus’ disciples on the way to Emmaus had given up hope because ‘this is THE THIRD DAY since it happened’ (Luke 24:21).” (The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah commentary by John D.W. Watts [Cambridge Univ Press, 1975], p 82f)

“Jesus stayed in the realm of the dead PARTS of three twenty-four-hour periods, not three whole days and nights. But the reference to three days and three nights comes out of Jonah 2:1 [1:17] rather than from the story of Jesus and causes no problem in view of the Jewish method of reckoning PART of a twenty-four-hour day for the WHOLE (see Gen 42:17-18; 1 Sam 30:1,12-13; 2 Chron 10:5,12; Esth 4:16-5:1; and rabbinic references in TDNT 2:949-950). Here is the only reference to his death and resurrection that Jesus made in the hearing of Jewish leaders. The chief priests and Pharisees will allude to it in recalling that he said he would rise ‘AFTER three days’ (27:63)…The reason is that Matthew’s Jesus spoke to the Jewish leaders about staying in the realm of the dead three days and three nights. But Jesus rose ON the third day. Though the peculiarity of the Jews’ method of reckoning time eliminates a necessary contradiction, Matthew suits the two different ways of phrasing the matter to the audience of Pharisees on the one hand (27:63 with 12:40) and to the historical event on the other hand (16:21; 17:23; 20:19) [which read ‘ON the third day’].” (Robert H. Gundry, MATTHEW: A Commentary on His Handbook for a Mixed Church under Persecution [Eerdmans, 1994], p 244-245)

Now for the scholarly Theological Dictionary of the New Testament referred to above as TDNT, edited by Gerhard Kittel, under “DAY” :

"The difficulty has often been advanced that there is a discrepancy between the ‘on the third day’] of Matthew, Luke, and Paul and the usual ‘after three days’] of Mark. But in this connection it has to be remembered that difficulties always arise in the reckoning of days according to Jewish usage. Thus

‘in Halachic statements PART of a day is reckoned as a WHOLE day’

[Footnote has rabbinic source Str-B I,649 and the original Hebrew ‘part of a day counts as a whole day’ e.g. bNazir 5b; Pes 4,2]

"and already in the first century A.D. we read: ‘A day and a night constitute a -onah- ([Hebrew for] a full day), and part of a -onah- counts as a whole -onah-’ (jShab 12a,15,17)

“IT IS IN THIS LIGHT THAT WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND MATTHEW 12:40…Thus the Marcan narrative ‘after three days’] means that Friday and the night up to the resurrection are each counted as a day, while Matthew, Luke and Paul…use a mode of expression ‘on the third day’] which would be regarded as more correct by Greeks. Both forms are found in close proximity in Matthew 27:63f…” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament [TDNT], vol 2, p 949f)

[Footnote 30 also refers to Josephus “inclusive” reckoning of days and references are given: Antiquities 7:280f; 8:214/218; 5:17]

The exact same point is made by Evangelical Protestants Kenneth Barker (Hebrew scholar and general editor of the NIV), and John Kohlenberger in the NIV Bible Commentary (Volume II: NT, Zondervan, 1994) that Jewish tradition says that an -onah- is a day and a night and that PART of an -onah- is considered as the WHOLE.

Phil P