Question
Mat 12:40 says Christ will be in the ground three days and three nights. No matter how I try, I count only two days, or three days & two nights if you count the dawn of Sunday a day, but it certainly can’t be counted a night as well can it?
Response Thee math works out fine when we let the Bible identify the day upon which the Lord was crucified and not tradition. Tradition says it took place on Friday, but that does not agree with the Bible’s testimony. For example, ‘doing the math’ in Luke24 makes it clear that Friday cannot be the day. Verses 1-12 describe the reality of the Lord’s resurrection taking place “upon the first day of the week.” Then verses 13 and following describe the events regarding “two of them that went that same day to a village called Emmaus.” In connection with this, note how that when they unknowingly encounter the Lord and tell him about the crucifixion of Jesus, they say in verse 21, “and beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done.” They know exactly when the Lord was crucified, and they say that “to-day,” that is “the first day of the week,” is the “third day since these things were done.” Therefore, this means that the previous day, that is the seventh day of the week, was the second day since the crucifixion; the day previous to that, that is the sixth day of the week, was the first day since the crucifixion. Hence the day previous to that, that is the fifth day of the week, was the day of the crucifixion itself. And that day, therefore, was Thursday; not Friday. Friday is the sixth day of the week, not the fifth. It was the first day since the crucifixion, but it was not the day upon which the crucifixion took place.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
20000413 B53