Three Days and Three Nights

Crisp and clear! It behooves people to look up all the Scriptures mentioned - from Genesis through the Gospels and more! All too often people get caught in the trap of traditions and things learned as a child. Further research into many other articles can help clarify any other issues people may have.

The video is in error. Passover begins on the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This is a High Sabbath (annual sabbath) which can fall on any day of the week. Where people get confused is they think that Christ had to be buried before the weekly sabbath or 6pm Friday. You can not look at the days of the week to calculate the burial, resurrection or the Preparation of the Passover. It is still 72 hours between the death and resurrection however. One has to use the Hebrew Lunar Solar Calendar.

So remember, during the beginning of Passover there are two Sabbaths, an annual and weekly. Annual Sabbaths can fall on any day. It is commonly believed the year Christ was crucified the Annual Sabbath began 6pm on a Wednesday and Christ rose on Saturday afternoon on the weekly sabbath. Mary was then permitted to travel after 6pm on the First Day of the Week (Sunday/Saturday night) and it was dark when she arrived at the tomb. When the full moon falls on the weekly Sabbath during Passover the Annual Sabbath is moved to the next evening which will give 48 hours of continuous Sabbath.

Thank you, Steve. I had posted the link above on FaceBook and had a response from a person trying to explain things-which he did not. I've pondered an answer and I believe you have succinctly explained the situation.

scripturally we have evidence jesus rose after 3 days and nights as prophecied. to use our roman system for a hebrew timeline is absurd. passover which (and i do not even want to use the blasphemic e word here)and our christian passover are founded on occurs on the 15 of nissan which fell on a thursday in the year 33AD. 3 days and 3 days jesus was dead, crucified on preparation day nissan 14) and that fact is scripturally cemented down too. it fulfills jonah's prophecy too. the time of his rising on nissan 17, weekly sabbath, depends on whether we consider his death at 3 pm entering the earth, or the time of entombment sometime before 7 pm john 20 tells us about mary magdalene visiting the tomb on the first day before sun up, jesus appeared to her. sunrise service makes no sense,it was still dark out! that it was the first day, our sunday, is coincidence and was governed by way of prophecy and jewish passover celebrations. and jesus had risen way before mary magdalene came to the tomb!

Hello Mr. Lynch,

Yes—“From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon” (Matthew 27:45Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
See All..., ISV 2010; see also Mark 15:33And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
See All... and Luke 23:44And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
See All...), and yes—“At three o'clock Jesus cried out” and, shortly thereafter, died (Mark 15:34-37 [34] And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
[35] And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.
[36] And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.
[37] And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.

See All... ISV; see Matthew 27:46-50 [46] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
[47] Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.
[48] And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
[49] The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
[50] Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

See All...). Then the darkness lifted (see Mat 27:45Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
See All... again). Hours later, “when evening had come” (Mark 15:42And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
See All... ESV), Joseph asked for permission to bury the body. Presumably, the burial itself occurred at dusk—being that the annual Sabbath “was about to begin” (Luke 23:54And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
See All..., NIV 2011). His body then remained “in the grave three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40For 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.
See All...b, ERV 2008).

Counterfactually, even if Christ had been prophesied to be dead (rather than in the grave) for 3 nights, the preternatural darkness still wouldn’t count as one of those nights since it ended about 3 PM when He died.

Here is how it happened: http://www.ucg.org/booklet/jesus-christ-real-story/did-jesus-really-die-...

Hello Mr. Lynch,

"[T]here was a mighty tempest...So they...hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging" (Jonah 1:4But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
See All...b, 15; ESV 2011 throughout).

Are you counting the darkness in the tempest as a “night [H3915]” (v. 17)?

In Genesis 1:16And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
See All..., Exodus 40:38For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
See All..., Leviticus 6:9Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.
See All..., Judges 16:2And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.
See All..., 19:25, 2 Sam 2:32And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which was in Bethlehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and they came to Hebron at break of day.
See All..., Nehemiah 4:9Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
See All..., Psalm 74:16The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
See All..., 121:6, & Jeremiah 31:35Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
See All...; 36:30, H3915 clearly refers to a literal night.

“He who…turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night [H3915]” (Amos 5:8Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
See All...a) refers not to Amos 3:6Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
See All... (“Does disaster come…unless the Lord has done it?”) but merely to earth’s rotation—rather than substitution of “light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
See All...), or conversion “from darkness to light” (Acts 26:18To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
See All...).

Micah’s metaphor for spiritual darkness – “Therefore it shall be night [H3915] to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination” (Micah 3:6Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
See All...a ESV) – is clarified by “The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them” (v. 6b).

How did Christ’s contemporaries understand his prophecy? “‘[T]hat impostor said…‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day’” (Mat 27:63Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
See All...b-64a).

“‘In Rome Easter was celebrated on the Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox’ [Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity]…The date of Easter, as part of the mixing of the ancient fertility and resurrection celebrations with the death and resurrection of Jesus, was heatedly debated during the 2nd century after Christ, especially by…the Quartodecimans…[who] insisted on observing Passover on the 14th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar.

‘In the mid-second century…some Gentile Christians began to celebrate it on the Sunday after 14 Nisan…regardless of the date on which it fell. The resulting controversy…reached a head in A.D. 197, when Victor of Rome excommunicated those Christians who insisted on celebrating Easter [actually Passover] on 14 Nisan.

‘The dispute continued until…Constantine [required] the…observing [of] Easter on the Sunday following 14 Nisan, rather than on the date itself [of the actual Passover]’ [Harper's Bible Dictionary]”: http://www.ucg.org/holidays-and-holy-days/what-does-easter-really-commem...

It was “supplanted by nonbiblical traditions”: http://www.ucg.org/holidays-and-holy-days/does-easter-really-commemorate...