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Day 309: Praying for the Dead
DAY 309 The Day of the Crucifixion
CHALLENGE : “Jesus couldn’t have been crucified on a Friday. He rose Sunday morning, and he said he would be in the tomb “three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40). There aren’t three days and nights between Friday and Sunday.”
DEFENSE: This fails to understand the modes of speech then used.
In the most literal sense, “three days and three nights” means seventy-two hours. The Gospels agree Jesus died in the afternoon and was buried in the evening, just before the beginning of the Sabbath at sunset (Matt. 27:57; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:42). If he remained buried for seventy-two hours, he also would have had to rise just before sunset.
This is not the picture indicated by the Gospels, which depict the empty tomb being discovered early in the morning on Sunday, the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), which then became “the Lord’s day,” the Christian day of worship (Rev. 1:10; 1 Cor. 16:2), because that was when Jesus rose.
Therefore, “three days and three nights” should not be taken in a fully literal sense. So how should it be taken?
According to the modes of speech then used, parts were often reckoned for wholes, so “three days” could be one full day and parts of two others. This is the picture we get from the Gospels: Jesus died in the afternoon and was buried shortly before sunset on one day, he lay in the tomb on a second day (the Sabbath), and he rose early in the morning on the third day. This corresponds to the repeated biblical affirmation that Jesus was raised “on the third day” (Matt. 16:21, 17:23, 20:19; Luke 9:22, 18:33, 24:7, 46; Acts 10:40; 1 Cor. 15:4).
The “three days” are thus explained, leaving the “three nights.” Here is where another ancient mode of speech is relevant: Adding “three nights” to “three days” is a poetic flourish not meant to be taken literally. “Three days and three nights was a Jewish idiom appropriate to a period covering only two nights” (R.T. France, The Gospel According to Matthew, 213).
Finally, the Gospels are explicit that Jesus was crucified on a Friday, which was referred to as the “day of preparation” when people got ready for the Sabbath (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14, 31, 42).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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