Was Christ Cruicified on a Friday?

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If He was crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday, then how was He in the grave for 3 days, and 3 nights?

If someone could explain this for me I would very much appreciate it.
 
I have/had the same confusion. Basically, they count Friday as a full day, as well as Saturday and Sunday. But that leaves only two nights, and two days not completed. In other words, he was only in the grave for less than 48 hours. If I remember correctly, Jesus said that he would raise from the dead “on the third day.” :confused:
 
As I understand it, Friday counts as the first day, Saturday the second and Sunday the 3rd, even though it was early morning Sunday. We don’t have to equate it with full 24-hour days.
 
It wouldn’t rock my faith to find that our Lord was crucified on a day other than Friday (Thursday seems quite possible as well, if the three nights were literal). However, I’m very comfortable with the tradition of remembering our Lord’s Passion on Friday.
 
I believe this refers to Jewish days. They start at sunset. Friday is day one. Friday night and Saturday is day two. Saturday night and Sunday is day three. Jesus and the apostles were Jews…so I would think their days would be Jewish.
 
what wxornot said

The First day would have been from the time he was laid in the tomb until sunset. The 2nd day from Sunset on Friday until Sunset on Saturday night. The third day would have began on Saturday night…and HE Rose just after midnight to very early morning, before the women arrived to anoint his body. Also pay attention to the fact that it says the next day was the SABBATH…the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday…
 
mrphilosophias said:
If He was crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday, then how was He in the grave for 3 days, and 3 nights?

If someone could explain this for me I would very much appreciate it.
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They had no clocks then…part of a day meant one day.
 
1ke said:
It’s a figure of speech.
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I’ve heard that said a lot, and it sounds reasonable. But I’ve never seen anyone actually show why it is considered a figure of speech (e.g. clear demonstration of its use as a figure of speech in historical use at the time). Would anyone be able to demonstrate it as a figure of speech without simply referring to someone else asserting it is a figure of speech?

Also, while assuming it is a figure of speech allows for a Friday-Sunday period, I don’t see how it must rule out a Thursday-Sunday period (a literal three nights).
 
The ancients counted days counting both the first and last days, even partial days. We see this in the Classical Roman calendar. For example, we have the Calends, the day before Calends, and then the third day before Calends, and so on. (We also see this sort of counting in music, where an interval of a third counts both the tonic note, the note left out, and the third note. Hence, an octave only has seven letters associated with it, not eight.)

As for the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus, it has always been celebrated on Friday, and the Resurrection on Sunday–certainly as far back as we have any records. This was one reason that Friday is a Christian fasting day: it was the day "when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” (Lk 5:35)
 
Spencerian said:

CA Senior Apologist Jimmy Akin answers this question in detail on his blog.
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This was a good read but it doesn’t really address the answer to my satisfaction: If Christ was buried at evening on Friday, which would have been the beginning of the first day, and rose in the early morning hours Sunday, it would have only been 1 and a half days, or two days at most, and 2 nights (sun down Friday to sun down Saturday is day one, sun down Saturday to His resurrection Sunday morning would be half a day, or a whole day if partial days are called a ‘day.’)

from the article:
This brings in the third factor that must be considered in the ancient Jewish way of reckoning time — that the expression “three days and three nights” is simply a slightly hyperbolic way of referring to “three days.” As Protestant Bible scholar R. T. France notes:
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” Three days and three nights was a Jewish idiom to a period covering only two nights (see my Jesus and the Old Testament, p. 81, n. 2)” (Matthew, p. 213).
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Similarly, D. A. Carson, regarded as one of the deans of conservative Protestant Bible exegesis, notes:
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“In rabbinical thought a day and a night make an onah, and a part of an onah, is as the whole (cf. Strach and Billerbeck: Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, 1:649, for references; cf. further 1 Sam 30:12-13, 2 Chron 10:5, 12, Esth 4:16, 5:1). Thus according to Jewish tradition, ‘three days and three nights’ need mean no more than ‘three days’ or the combination of any part of three separate days” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 8, p. 296).
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Even if it was a manner of speaking it still doesn’t make sense.

I guess I’ll have to save this question for God. In the mean time it doesn’t “rock my faith” to quote Michael above, but I am a curious fellow, and it was an honest peculiarity, so I figured I’d ask.
 
mrphilosophias said:
If He was crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday, then how was He in the grave for 3 days, and 3 nights?

If someone could explain this for me I would very much appreciate it.
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According to the Gospel account, they had to take His body down off of the cross before sundown because that is the start of the Sabath, i.e. Saturday, therefore it was Friday.
 
Michael_Allen said:
I’ve heard that said a lot, and it sounds reasonable. But I’ve never seen anyone actually show why it is considered a figure of speech (e.g. clear demonstration of its use as a figure of speech in historical use at the time). Would anyone be able to demonstrate it as a figure of speech without simply referring to someone else asserting it is a figure of speech?

Also, while assuming it is a figure of speech allows for a Friday-Sunday period, I don’t see how it must rule out a Thursday-Sunday period (a literal three nights).
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The Jewish day starts at sundown around 6pm. Jesus died at around 3pm on Friday. This is day 1(Thursday 6pm - Friday 6pm). Day 2 is from 6pm Friday to 6 pm Sat. Jesus rose on Sunday. So this is Day 3 (Sat 6pm to Sun 6pm). That is, he rose on the 3rd Day.

3 days and 3 nights is a figure of speech. Examples of 3 days and 3 nights to mean on the 3rd day :

1 Sam 30:12 where the Egyptian had not eaten/drunk for 3 days and 3 nights yet he said he fell sick 3 days ago. It should have been 4 days ago if properly counted.

Esther 4:16 “neither eat nor drink for 3 days, night or day.” Later on Esther 15, she ended her prayer on the 3rd day rather than on the 4th day.
 
ericc said:
The Jewish day starts at sundown around 6pm. Jesus died at around 3pm on Friday. This is day 1(Thursday 6pm - Friday 6pm). Day 2 is from 6pm Friday to 6 pm Sat. Jesus rose on Sunday. So this is Day 3 (Sat 6pm to Sun 6pm). That is, he rose on the 3rd Day.

3 days and 3 nights is a figure of speech. Examples of 3 days and 3 nights to mean on the 3rd day :

1 Sam 30:12 where the Egyptian had not eaten/drunk for 3 days and 3 nights yet he said he fell sick 3 days ago. It should have been 4 days ago if properly counted.

Esther 4:16 “neither eat nor drink for 3 days, night or day.” Later on Esther 15, she ended her prayer on the 3rd day rather than on the 4th day.
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Matthew 27
57a When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself a disciple of Jesus.b 58He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be handed over. 59Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it [in] clean linen 60and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed.
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It says He was laid in the tomb at evening, this is how I came up with 1 and a half days, or two days if you count partial days as days.
 
mrphilosophias said:
It says He was laid in the tomb at evening, this is how I came up with 1 and a half days, or two days if you count partial days as days.
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Jesus would have been buried before sabbath day began. Luke 23:54-56. They rested on sabbath day so all the burial work has to be completed before the sabbath. John 19:42 also states the same thing. Burial was done on Preparation Day.
 
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