3 Days and 3 Nights

The NT says Jesus was raised from the dead:

• on “the third day" (8x, Mark 9:31; 10:34, Luke 9:22; 13:32; 18:33; 24:7, 46; 1Cor 15:4).

• "in three days" (3x, Mark 15:29, John 2:19-20).

• "after three days" (once, Mark 8:31).

• and once Jesus said that he would be raised from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights (Mat 12.40).

But note that for Matthew the phrases "in 3 days" (Mat 26.61; 27.40) "after 3 days" (Mat 27.63) and "3 days, 3 nights" (Mat 12.40) mean the same thing!

So there are two biblical methods being employed here:

• The Hebrew way of counting time and

• Hebrew idioms.

When counting days, the Bible generally uses inclusive counting.

This means you include as day 1 the day you start counting.

For example:

• Genesis 42:17 says Joseph imprisoned his brothers for 3 days and released them on the third day, i.e., before the completion of a full 3 days.

• 2 Chronicles 10:5 the king says: Come back after 3 days.

Yet, v. 12b says the people reported back “on the third day just as the king had ordered."

NOTE: when in actuality the king had said after 3 days not on the third day.

• Esther 4:16 tells Mordecai to fast for 3 days, “and afterward go to the king" but then Esther 5:1 says she went to the king on the third day.

• Genesis 17:12 says that a child is to be circumcised at 8 days old.

But Luke 1:59 says Jesus was circumcised "on the 8th day." 

And Luke 2:21 uses the expression: 

"When 8 days were accomplished."

The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 4, page 475.

"Circumcision takes place on the eighth day, even though of the first day only a few minutes remained after the birth of the child, these being counted as one day."

In Luke 13:32 Jesus uses this method of counting inclusively when he says that he will keep on casting out demons and healing people “today, tomorrow and the third day.”

If we apply this method of counting to his resurrection it would look something like this:

Friday crucifixion (today), the Sabbath (tomorrow) and Sunday (the third day).

As we see in Luke 24.21 on the first day of the week, i.e., Sunday afternoon, the men walking on the road to Emmaus said it was "the third day since all this took place.”

That is, the crucifixion.

So counting backwards we have:

In Luke 24:21 the men were despondent because they knew that God, in OT prophecies like Hos 6:2, had promised to restore "Israel” (represented by the Messiah) “on the third day."

They were also expectant because God had performed many miracles on the third day:

• Exo 19:11 YHWH says to Moses:

”Be ready, because on the third day I will intervene with a miracle.”

• Gen 22.4 on the third day Abram was told to kill Isaac; Heb 11.19 adds that this was a type of the resurrection.

• John 2:1 On the third day Jesus performed his first sign-miracle at the wedding in Cana.

(See also 2 Kings 20:5, Est 5:1).

This was well-known by Paul when he writes in 1Cor 15.

3 For I handed down to you as of first importance what

I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

So the phrase 3 days and 3 nights is understood as a Hebrew idiom, i.e., a way of speaking and not to be taken literally, as a 72 hr period.

Because any part of a day is taken as the entire 24-hour period; which obviously would include the day time plus night time.

Thus, Mat 12:40 describes the same period of time as the other verses, i.e., the third day, Sunday, resurrection day.

This firmly places the crucifixion on Friday.

carlos@thehumanjesus.org