Not everyone is convinced that Jesus died on a Friday. There is a fringe view that Jesus must have died earlier than Friday (like maybe Thursday or even Wednesday), because Jesus said, “For just 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” (Matt. 12:40).
Jesus’s words in Matthew 12:40 seem to suggest a 72-hour period (three full days and three full nights) that can’t be placed between a Friday death and a Sunday resurrection. So if Jesus rose on a Sunday morning, he had to die earlier than a Friday afternoon—right?
No. Several important pieces of information are missing here.
First, the use of “three days and three nights” can simply mean a three-day period. Jesus is reading the story of Jonah typologically. Just as Jonah was delivered (after a period of time associated with the number three), so would Jesus be delivered (also after a period of time associated with the number three). The insistence for a 72-hour period of death for Jesus is an unnecessary and overly literal reading of Matthew 12:40.
Second, we know that Joseph of Arimathea needed to wrap Jesus’ dead body and lay it in the tomb before the Sabbath began. The Sabbath is, of course, the seventh day of the week. Logically, if Joseph of Arimathea buried Jesus before the seventh day began (Mark 15:42), then Jesus’s death occurred on the sixth day—Friday. All four Gospels confirm that Jesus was buried after his death and that his burial occurred right before the Sabbath day began (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:56; John 19:31). Let that sink in: all four Gospels confirm this.
Third, all four Gospels teach that Jesus rose on the first day of the week—Sunday. The women went to the tomb on that Sunday morning (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). The accounts are clear that the Sabbath had ended when the women approached the tomb.
Fourth, Jesus’s resurrection did not need a preceding 72-hour period of death, because the count of “three days” began on the day of his death. Jesus rose on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4). The day of his death was Day One—Friday. The next day would therefore be Day Two—Saturday. The day after that was Day Three—Sunday, the day of his resurrection. The count is inclusive: Friday is Day One.
Fifth, this kind of inclusive counting is evident in the Old Testament. For example, in Esther 4:16, Esther’s message to Mordecai was this: “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” When Esther goes to the king, it is “on the third day” (5:1). Do you see how 4:16 and 5:1 relate to each other? The idea of “three days, night or day” is the same as “on the third day” for Esther.
Sixth, the New Testament uses “after three days” and “on the third day” synonymously, so we should too. Jesus taught that “after three days” the Son of Man would rise (Mark 10:34). Yet in Matthew 16:21 he taught that the Son of Man would be raised “on the third day.” In Luke 9:22, Jesus uses the phrase “on the third day.” In John 2:19 Jesus told some Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” and he meant the temple of his body. The Gospels do not differentiate between “after three days” and “on the third day” and “in three days.”
On Friday, Jesus was crucified. That’s the first day.
On Saturday, Jesus rested on the Sabbath in the tomb. That’s the second day.
On Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead. That’s the third day.
The Gospel accounts, and subsequent church tradition, confirm this ordering and counting of events.
Really Dead for Three Days?
Mitch, this was so helpful. I have been mulling through this off and on for a few years. Praise God. It was clarifying and winsome and winning me to continue trusting in the Scriptures.