What Day Did Jesus Rise On
Another look at how to figure three days and three nights between the crucifixion and resurrection.
by David Albert
Traditional Christianity around the world has come up with unique ways of commemorating the last week of Jesus’ physical life. Some practices may seem very strange, but they have one thing in common–the tradition that Jesus was crucified on Friday and that the resurrection occurred early the following Sunday morning at or just before sunrise–a tradition millions have accepted without proof.
Now Jesus was crucified and he was resurrected. That is a keystone of the Christian faith. But those events didn’t happen on the days we now call Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning.
Remember that when Jesus was here on earth people were asking him for a sign, a miracle, to prove that he really was the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Notice that Jesus said, in Matthew 12:39, the only sign of his Messiahship, the sign that he is indeed the Savior of the world, is that the Son of man would be “in the heart of the earth” three days and three nights just as Jonah was in his own land of grave for three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. Let’s look at that incident. In Jonah 1:17 we read:
“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” What is a day and a night according to the Bible? Jesus himself gave the answer in John 11:9-10: “Jesus answered, `Are there not twelve hours in the day? [Now Jesus is giving a definition of a day. There are 12 hours in the daylight part of a day.] If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble.. . . But if one walks in the night, he stumbles. . . .’ “
So here is a daytime period and a nighttime period-each 12 hours in length, making a whole natural day.
How can you figure three such periods of time-three 24-hour periods, three days and three nights-from Friday evening to Sunday morning”
All Friday night is one night. The daytime of Saturday is one day, and Saturday night makes two nights. You have only one day and two nights. That’s not three days and three nights. There’s another expression used in the New Testament, the expression “after three days.”
Notice Mark 8:31: “And He [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
But you can’t have “after three days” on a Good Friday crucifixion and a Sunday morning resurrection.
Another expression is used by Jesus in Mark 9:31: “For He taught His disciples and said to them, `The Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.’ “
Yes, he would rise “the third day” after he was killed, and also “after three days.” What day would he rise if he was crucified and buried on late Friday?
The first day after he was killed, if on a Friday, would be on Saturday, and the second day after would be on Sunday, but the third day after would be late Monday afternoon. But nobody thinks he rose on a Monday.
From these four expressions, Jesus’ time in the tomb couldn’t be more than three days and it couldn’t be less than the full 72 hours. It has to be exactly 72 hours.
So let’s realize then that the time of day Jesus left the tomb had to be at the same time of day as his burial–only three days later.
Today we begin and end our days at midnight. That’s when one day changes to the next. But in the 1st century, the people in Judea reckoned their days from sunset to sunset; at sunset the new day began.
Now after sunset in the evening of the 14th of the first month, called Nisan, Jesus instituted the New Testament Passover. You’ll read about that in Luke 22:14-15. That particular year, A.D. 31, this event occurred on what we’d call Tuesday evening. “And when the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…: “
Now we turn next to Mark 15:34: “And at the ninth hour [that’s three o’clock in the afternoon of the 14th by biblical reckoning] Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, `Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated, `My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ “
Then in verse 37, “. . . Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.”
That evening, a little more than three hours later, a new day began. This day was a Sabbath, but not a regular weekly Sabbath, which was always observed on the seventh day of the week. You see, there were also seven special annual Sabbaths that God commanded to be observed. This particular Sabbath was the first of those seven annual holy days, known as the first day of Unleavned Bread. There were two Sabbaths in that week–first, the annual Sabbath and then the weekly Sabbath.
The Jews were anxious to be prepared for this annual high Sabbath. Notice the proof of this in John 19:31. “Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath [for that Sabbath was a high day). Yes, this was a special annual day, a “high day; ‘ not the regular weekly Sabbath.
Jesus didn’t die until shortly after three o’clock in the afternoon. Later that day the soldiers came to break the legs of the crucified victims, but Jesus was already dead. Later still, Joseph of Arimathea got permission from Pilate to bury the body of Jesus. Having received permission, he came back to get the body down from the cross to wrap it for burial.
In Luke 23:53-54, we read, “Then he took [the body] down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock [that is, in the heart of the earth], where no one had ever lain before.”
All this took several hours, and so we read: “That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.”
That new day was the annual Sabbath, which in that year was the equivalent of our Wednesday evening and Thursday daytime. So Jesus was actually crucified on a day that coincided with a Wednesday–not a Friday. Then Joseph of Arimathea hurriedly placed Jesus in the tomb as the sun was setting.
His body remained in the tomb all through the next day–the first annual high Sabbath, which corresponded to our Thursday. On the day after the annual Sabbath, the equivalent of our Friday, the women purchased spices and ointments, according to Mark 16:1. They were prohibited from doing that on Thursday, the annual Sabbath.
Now let’s read Luke 23:56. The women “.. prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment “
You see, on Friday they purchased the spices and ointments and prepared them. Then following sunset Friday, when the weekly Sabbath according to the Fourth Commandment began, they rested again.
Then on Sunday morning the women came very early to the tomb to apply additional spices and ointments to the body of Jesus. Luke 24:1: “Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.”
And what did they see? A sunrise resurrection? No they found an empty tomb. Jesus had already been resurrected (Luke 24:2-6).
And when was Jesus resurrected? Look at John 20:1. “On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” Notice that it was when it was still dark and the tomb was empty!
Now let’s count the days and nights Jesus was in the grave. All Wednesday night is one period. All day Thursday is one daylight period. All Thursday night is now two nights. All day Friday is two days. Friday night is three nights. Daylight Saturday completes three days. About sunset Saturday evening Jesus departed from the tomb– after three days and three nights, just as he said.
Yes, Jesus was not mistaken. He meant exactly what he said in Matthew 12:40, that he would “be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”