Three Days and Three Nights

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).

The “three days and three nights” mentioned in Matthew 12:40 have confused some people because of the supposed differences between how long Christ said He would be in the tomb as it relates to the amount of time between His burial and resurrection that are recorded in the Bible.

Some people have declared that if we are to accept all of the teachings of the Bible, we must believe that Jesus was in the grave exactly three days and three nights—or a full 72 hours of time. They focus upon the length of time Jesus was in the tomb rather than upon the all-important fact of His resurrection.

The Meaning of Matthew 12:40

A careful study of the context of Matthew 12:40 will show that the central thought and meaning of the Bible text is Jesus’ reproof of the unbelief of His critics. He says that even the inhabitants of the evil city Nineveh repented and believed before the religious leaders of the day. But the length of time Jesus stayed in the tomb could not possibly be “the only supernatural proof” of His Messiahship.

The Bible plainly teaches that the proof of Jesus’ divine status and mission was His resurrection. The importance of Christ’s resurrection is clearly stated by Paul who wrote that Christ was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). Jesus’ resurrection is the evidence of His divinity. (See also Acts 13:30-37; 1 Corinthians 15:19-22; Romans 4:24, 25.)

The great emphasis of Scripture is on Christ’s resurrection, not on the time He spent in the tomb.

Eight Considerations to Keep in Mind

To argue that Christ lay in the tomb for 72 hours is to deny Bible facts and to misunderstand Jewish custom and idiom. The facts to remember when studying this problem may be summed up as follows:

1. Jesus Christ was crucified on the Passover, the 14th day of Abib, and died at the 9th hour or at about three in the afternoon. This day was also “the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath.” (See Mark 15:34-38, 42; Luke 23:44-46, 54; John 19:14, 30-31, 42; Leviticus 23:5; Exodus 12:2, 6; 1 Corinthians 5:7.)
2. Jesus was buried between the 9th hour when He died, and sunset, the beginning of the Sabbath. (See Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:31, 38-42.)
3. The next day after the Passover was the 15th day of Abib, a solemn annual Sabbath. This was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, commemorating the first Passover when God delivered the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage after the Destroying Angel had slain the firstborn of the Egyptians. It was a day of solemn convocation when all men were required to present themselves before the Lord. (See Exodus 12:14-17; Exodus 23:14, 15, 17.)
4. John 19:31 says that the day following the Crucifixion was “a high day.” Clarke’s Commentary explains that it was a “high day,” because:
   • It was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a solemn annual Sabbath, commemorating the first Passover when God destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians and led the Israelites out of Egypt.
   • It was also the seventh-day Sabbath of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11). It was not very often that these two days would coincide; that only occurred about 2-3 times per decade. This made it a "high day".
      
5. Alfred Edersheim in his Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Vol. 2, page 613, says: “The Sabbath about to open was a ‘high day’—it was both a Sabbath and the second Paschal Day, which was regarded in every respect equally sacred with the first.” Therefore, the coincidence of the annual with the weekly Sabbath made this day “a high day.”
    
6. Jesus lay in the tomb during the “high day” or the day of the two coinciding Sabbaths while His disciples “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56).
7. He arose from the dead early on the first day of the week, which is Sunday. (See Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:1-6.) The Jews reckoned a “day” from sunset to sunset (Leviticus 23:32). Therefore, since Jesus arose from the grave between sunset Saturday night and sunrise Sunday morning, he resurrected on Sunday, not Saturday, even if it was before sunrise.
8. Two of His disciples walked to Emmaus “that same day” (Luke 24:13). Jesus, unrecognized, joined them and was told about the crucifixion that had taken place two days before. They said: “Today is the third day since these things were done” (Luke 24:21.)
   • 1 Corinthians 15:4 says that Jesus “rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
   • The expression “after three days” found in Mark 8:31 and Matthew 27:63 must, therefore, be interpreted in the light of Jesus’ statement to His disciples found in Mark 9:31 as follows: “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day,” that is, He would rise from the dead on the third day.
   • See also John 2:19, which reads: “...Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.” Here, Jesus was speaking figuratively of His own body.

Jesus, therefore, lay in the tomb from late Friday afternoon until shortly before sunrise on Sunday morning, a period considerably less than 72 hours.

Putting it All Together

How are the above facts to be reconciled with Matthew 12:40, which says that the Son of Man was to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth?

In studying this problem, we need to bear in mind that Jesus was born and raised in the Middle East under the influence of Eastern customs and language. He used the idioms of His time and country and was accustomed to using the Jewish method of determining time.

• The Bible Handbook by Angus and Green, page 351, says: “It is to be observed that the Jews and other Orientals generally speak of any part of a day, or a period of time as if it were the whole. In like manner, fractions of a day are in England treated as legally whole days.”
• In his footnote to Matthew 12:40 in his Commentary on the New Testament , Weymouth writes: “Lit[erally] ‘three days and three nights,’ a striking Hebraism. According to the Talmud [ancient Jewish teachings] a day and a night together make up a ‘night-day,’ and any part of such a period is counted as a whole. Thus in our Saviour's case the three ‘night-days’ consist of about three hours of the Friday, the whole of Saturday (reckoned in the Jewish mode from sunset to sunset), and the first half—the night—of the Sunday.”

Agreement

The facts regarding the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, studied in the light of Jewish custom and idiomatic speech, are in complete agreement with Matthew 12:40.

Nevertheless, we should always bear in mind that the important fact which should engage our study is not the time which Jesus spent in the tomb, but rather the great fact of His resurrection, which made possible His mediation in our behalf, as well as the assurance of our resurrection and redemption.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).