During
the Easter season the Christian Church celebrates what they call "Good
Friday" supposedly the day of Christ's crucifixion and Sunrise Services
on Sunday morning believed to be the time of Christ's resurrection.
Most people never stop to think about this but let's take a minute and look at a few things. Let's start with Matthew 12
Matthew 12:39-40:
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
For 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.
Christ was to be dead and buried for three days and three nights as it says here. Now most people just say, "Well, Friday through Sunday covers it." But does it?
When Matthew says a day and a night, it is referring to a 24 hour period. This was a legal issue to confirm the death of a person. It is believed by the Christian Church that Christ died in the afternoon sometime between 3 PM and 6 PM and that is true but on which day? The Jewish recognition of a day started at 6 PM in the evening and went for 24 hours until the next evening at 6 PM-that is 1 night and 1 day a 24 hour period.
If Christ died Friday afternoon between 3-6 PM, then Friday to Saturday between 3-6 PM is one night and one day. From Saturday between 3-6 PM until early Sunday morning is only one more night but certainly not a full day since the women came early Sunday morning. So that is only 2 nights (Friday and Saturday) and 1 day (Saturday. Early Sunday morning doesn't count as a full day)-where are the 3 days and 3 nights?
Most people don't care, they just say "So what? What's the big deal?" Well, Christ said it would be a sign for them to believe, so what really happened?
I believe the scriptures are right and our customs are wrong. But to understand this you have to consider many different issues and allow the scriptures to spell it out and not assume we think we understand the meaning of words without checking it out. Also we can't read each Gospel separately and expect to get the whole picture, each was written for a purpose. By putting all four Gospels together to develop one connected timeline we get the full picture.
In Christianity we believe that Christ was the sacrifice for all of mankind, Moses in Egypt followed God's direction to set up the first Passover with the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. As Christians, we believe Christ was the final Passover Lamb for all of mankind.
To understand this concept of 3 days and 3 nights, we need to start by going back to the Jewish calendar of the year of the crucifixion. The Jewish month called Nisan was the Passover month and in the year of the crucifixion, the 14th of Nisan, which was the preparation day, was on a Wednesday. This was the day that the Passover Lamb was to be prepared and sacrificed in the late afternoon sometime before 6 PM so they could start Passover on 15th of Nisan at 6 PM with the beginning of the Passover feast which was Wednesday night.
The 15th of Nisan was called the Sabbath day that year, not because it was a Saturday but because it was a holy day, the celebration of the Passover. People have assumed it fell on a Saturday as a normal Sabbath, but that year the 15th of Nisan fell on a Thursday.
We do the same thing in our culture. If Christmas falls on a Thursday we celebrate that day as a holy day and go to church even though it's a Thursday. Then we turn around and go back to church on that next Sunday because that is the regular worship day.
In this year of Christ's death and resurrection according to the Hebrew calendar the 14th of Nisan was on a Wednesday. Just as the ceremonial Passover Lamb was being sacrificed between 3-6 PM, Jesus Christ was dying on the cross as the Passover Lamb for all of mankind.
In order to see how all of this fits, the four Gospels must be looked at verse by verse and put together as a whole instead of just reading the timeline of a single Gospel. By doing this you will see the real picture of what happened.
After Christ died, Joseph of Arimathaea appealed to Pilate for the body of Christ.
Matthew 27:57:
When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus disciple;
He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth
And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a geat stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.
"When the even was come" means that sunset on Wednesday the 14th of Nisan was approaching. So right after the death of Jesus, sometime between 3-6 PM on that Wednesday, Joseph of Arimathaea went to Pilate to ask for the body of Christ.
These few verses speak volumes. For Joseph to meet with Pilate, a Gentile, made Joseph unclean, which meant he could not participate in the Passover that year-this would mean waiting an entire year before it was available again. Also for him to touch the dead body of Christ would make him unclean as well. So why did he do it?
First of all it says Joseph just wrapped the body of Jesus up in a linen cloth and laid it in the tomb. There was a ceremonial process in Jewish custom that should have been followed with spices and herbs and a proper burial wrapping of the dead. But Joseph just wrapped him up and placed him in this newly hewn tomb.
Why also would Joseph of Arimathaea, who lived in Arimathaea, 25 miles away from Jerusalem, have a tomb carved out right here at this spot? You put your grave in the city where you live so your family can visit it, not 25 miles away in a different city.
You see, the tomb wasn't for Joseph and he didn't care if he was unclean for that year's Passover, nor did he care about a proper burial for Jesus, because he believed that in 3 days and 3 nights Christ would arise from the dead.
So we have the death and burial of Jesus on Wednesday the 14th of Nisan at the same time the Passover Lamb was sacrificed.
The next day, Thursday the 15th of Nisan the religious leaders demanded that Pilate put a guard by the tomb so no one would come and steal the body away and claim he had risen and so a guard was placed at the tomb. This day was the special Sabbath so nothing happened on this day as people celebrated the day, but from 3-6 PM Wednesday when Christ died and was buried, to 3-6PM Thursday is 1 night and 1 day.
On Friday the 16th of Nisan the scriptures say that Mary Magdalene and some others purchased spices and herbs to prepare for the proper burial of Jesus (Mark 16:1). They prepared the herbs on that Friday and then rested the following day which was the regular Sabbath (Luke 23:56). Now from 3-6 PM Thursday to 3-6 PM Friday is the 2nd night and 2nd day.
Now here is where our misunderstanding of Jewish culture and our own filters that make us see things a certain way and get us into trouble.
Matthew 28:1:
In the end of the Sabbath (this is late afternoon on the weekly Sabbath, Saturday the 17th of Nisan), as it began to dawn (now remember, dawn doesn't mean morning, it means the beginning of the Jewish day which is 6 PM not the early morning) toward the first day of the week (which would have been Sunday the 18th of Nisan, the Jewish calendar calls our Sunday the first day of the week) came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see (gaze on) the sepulcher.
In this verse Mary and another woman came to look at the tomb towards the end of the day (Saturday) on the regular Sabbath the 17th of Nisan. Remember a guard was still there so they just came to look and then left.
Matthew 28:2:
And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.
This was between 3-6 PM Saturday the 17th of Nisan which would make it the end of the 3rd night and the 3rd day as was promised. This is when Christ arose. The way we know that Mary and the others with her did not witness this is because when they came to the tomb early in the morning on Sunday the 18th of Nisan, the rock was already been moved and the tomb was open and empty. Had they been there during the earthquake and seen the rock moved by the angel, they would have seen Christ walk out of the tomb and clearly they did not.
There are many more to this story and much more for you to consider. I have one book alone that is over 500 pages about the last week of Christ's life. So I could go one for many more pages, but my purpose here was to get you to consider the sign of three days and three nights.
I sure you have a lot of questions and as I said I have not covered every detail here, but hopefully what I have put up will at least get you to consider the issue a little deeper and think about what else we may have just accepted for granted.
Most people never stop to think about this but let's take a minute and look at a few things. Let's start with Matthew 12
Matthew 12:39-40:
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
For 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.
Christ was to be dead and buried for three days and three nights as it says here. Now most people just say, "Well, Friday through Sunday covers it." But does it?
When Matthew says a day and a night, it is referring to a 24 hour period. This was a legal issue to confirm the death of a person. It is believed by the Christian Church that Christ died in the afternoon sometime between 3 PM and 6 PM and that is true but on which day? The Jewish recognition of a day started at 6 PM in the evening and went for 24 hours until the next evening at 6 PM-that is 1 night and 1 day a 24 hour period.
If Christ died Friday afternoon between 3-6 PM, then Friday to Saturday between 3-6 PM is one night and one day. From Saturday between 3-6 PM until early Sunday morning is only one more night but certainly not a full day since the women came early Sunday morning. So that is only 2 nights (Friday and Saturday) and 1 day (Saturday. Early Sunday morning doesn't count as a full day)-where are the 3 days and 3 nights?
Most people don't care, they just say "So what? What's the big deal?" Well, Christ said it would be a sign for them to believe, so what really happened?
I believe the scriptures are right and our customs are wrong. But to understand this you have to consider many different issues and allow the scriptures to spell it out and not assume we think we understand the meaning of words without checking it out. Also we can't read each Gospel separately and expect to get the whole picture, each was written for a purpose. By putting all four Gospels together to develop one connected timeline we get the full picture.
In Christianity we believe that Christ was the sacrifice for all of mankind, Moses in Egypt followed God's direction to set up the first Passover with the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. As Christians, we believe Christ was the final Passover Lamb for all of mankind.
To understand this concept of 3 days and 3 nights, we need to start by going back to the Jewish calendar of the year of the crucifixion. The Jewish month called Nisan was the Passover month and in the year of the crucifixion, the 14th of Nisan, which was the preparation day, was on a Wednesday. This was the day that the Passover Lamb was to be prepared and sacrificed in the late afternoon sometime before 6 PM so they could start Passover on 15th of Nisan at 6 PM with the beginning of the Passover feast which was Wednesday night.
The 15th of Nisan was called the Sabbath day that year, not because it was a Saturday but because it was a holy day, the celebration of the Passover. People have assumed it fell on a Saturday as a normal Sabbath, but that year the 15th of Nisan fell on a Thursday.
We do the same thing in our culture. If Christmas falls on a Thursday we celebrate that day as a holy day and go to church even though it's a Thursday. Then we turn around and go back to church on that next Sunday because that is the regular worship day.
In this year of Christ's death and resurrection according to the Hebrew calendar the 14th of Nisan was on a Wednesday. Just as the ceremonial Passover Lamb was being sacrificed between 3-6 PM, Jesus Christ was dying on the cross as the Passover Lamb for all of mankind.
In order to see how all of this fits, the four Gospels must be looked at verse by verse and put together as a whole instead of just reading the timeline of a single Gospel. By doing this you will see the real picture of what happened.
After Christ died, Joseph of Arimathaea appealed to Pilate for the body of Christ.
Matthew 27:57:
When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus disciple;
He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth
And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a geat stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.
"When the even was come" means that sunset on Wednesday the 14th of Nisan was approaching. So right after the death of Jesus, sometime between 3-6 PM on that Wednesday, Joseph of Arimathaea went to Pilate to ask for the body of Christ.
These few verses speak volumes. For Joseph to meet with Pilate, a Gentile, made Joseph unclean, which meant he could not participate in the Passover that year-this would mean waiting an entire year before it was available again. Also for him to touch the dead body of Christ would make him unclean as well. So why did he do it?
First of all it says Joseph just wrapped the body of Jesus up in a linen cloth and laid it in the tomb. There was a ceremonial process in Jewish custom that should have been followed with spices and herbs and a proper burial wrapping of the dead. But Joseph just wrapped him up and placed him in this newly hewn tomb.
Why also would Joseph of Arimathaea, who lived in Arimathaea, 25 miles away from Jerusalem, have a tomb carved out right here at this spot? You put your grave in the city where you live so your family can visit it, not 25 miles away in a different city.
You see, the tomb wasn't for Joseph and he didn't care if he was unclean for that year's Passover, nor did he care about a proper burial for Jesus, because he believed that in 3 days and 3 nights Christ would arise from the dead.
So we have the death and burial of Jesus on Wednesday the 14th of Nisan at the same time the Passover Lamb was sacrificed.
The next day, Thursday the 15th of Nisan the religious leaders demanded that Pilate put a guard by the tomb so no one would come and steal the body away and claim he had risen and so a guard was placed at the tomb. This day was the special Sabbath so nothing happened on this day as people celebrated the day, but from 3-6 PM Wednesday when Christ died and was buried, to 3-6PM Thursday is 1 night and 1 day.
On Friday the 16th of Nisan the scriptures say that Mary Magdalene and some others purchased spices and herbs to prepare for the proper burial of Jesus (Mark 16:1). They prepared the herbs on that Friday and then rested the following day which was the regular Sabbath (Luke 23:56). Now from 3-6 PM Thursday to 3-6 PM Friday is the 2nd night and 2nd day.
Now here is where our misunderstanding of Jewish culture and our own filters that make us see things a certain way and get us into trouble.
Matthew 28:1:
In the end of the Sabbath (this is late afternoon on the weekly Sabbath, Saturday the 17th of Nisan), as it began to dawn (now remember, dawn doesn't mean morning, it means the beginning of the Jewish day which is 6 PM not the early morning) toward the first day of the week (which would have been Sunday the 18th of Nisan, the Jewish calendar calls our Sunday the first day of the week) came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see (gaze on) the sepulcher.
In this verse Mary and another woman came to look at the tomb towards the end of the day (Saturday) on the regular Sabbath the 17th of Nisan. Remember a guard was still there so they just came to look and then left.
Matthew 28:2:
And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.
This was between 3-6 PM Saturday the 17th of Nisan which would make it the end of the 3rd night and the 3rd day as was promised. This is when Christ arose. The way we know that Mary and the others with her did not witness this is because when they came to the tomb early in the morning on Sunday the 18th of Nisan, the rock was already been moved and the tomb was open and empty. Had they been there during the earthquake and seen the rock moved by the angel, they would have seen Christ walk out of the tomb and clearly they did not.
There are many more to this story and much more for you to consider. I have one book alone that is over 500 pages about the last week of Christ's life. So I could go one for many more pages, but my purpose here was to get you to consider the sign of three days and three nights.
I sure you have a lot of questions and as I said I have not covered every detail here, but hopefully what I have put up will at least get you to consider the issue a little deeper and think about what else we may have just accepted for granted.