Christ :: The Three Days and the Three Nights

rstrats · Oct 13, 2025

1LoverofGod said:
We should celebrate the cross and the resurrection every day of our earthly visit.

It just seems curious that scripture is silent with regard to anyone doing that.

1LoverofGod · Oct 13, 2025

rstrats said:
It just seems curious that scripture is silent with regard to anyone doing that.

23 "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes."
1 Corinthians 11:23-26

There is no set amount of times to observe the remembrance of the Lord's death and resurrection. Some churches do it together weekly, some every 2 weeks, some monthly, but a Christian can do this daily if we choose to. The point is to keep Jesus command to do it, and "as "often" as we do it we proclaim the Lord's death until He Comes".

rstrats · Oct 13, 2025

1LoverofGod said:
1LoverofGod said:

The point is to keep Jesus command to do it, and "as "often" as we do it we proclaim the Lord's death until He Comes".

Click to expand...

Yes, the Lord's death. Nothing is said about the resurrection.

rstrats · Oct 13, 2025

1LoverofGod said:
The chart below shows this, remember a Jewish day starts at sunset rather than midnight.

What difference would it make?

1LoverofGod · Oct 13, 2025

Without Jesus's resurrection His death could not have completed our redemption.
So its sensible to remember His resurrection along with His death. This is biblical.

12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.
16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
1 Corinthians 15:12-18

mattfivefour · Oct 14, 2025

rstrats said:
Yes, the Lord's death. Nothing is said about the resurrection.

Respectfully, you are in error. Scripture says clearly that without the resurrection there is no salvation, as Rose has already answered above. 1 Corinthians 15:12-18.

dwb · Oct 14, 2025

There must be a language or communication gap here.

rstrats · Oct 15, 2025

mattfivefour said:
Respectfully, you are in error. Scripture says clearly that without the resurrection there is no salvation, as Rose has already answered above. 1 Corinthians 15:12-18.

."
Of course, without the resurrection there indeed is no salvation.
However, The OP says, "We should celebrate the cross and the resurrection every day of our earthly visit."

I was merely pointing out that as far as scripture is concerned, though, that nothing is specifically said about folks meeting together for the purpose of honoring the resurrection, much less that they were doing it on the first day of the week. There may be some looking in who think that there is.

BTW, I don't see where 1 Corinthians 15:12-18 says anything about meeting for the purpose of honoring the resurrection.

1LoverofGod · Oct 15, 2025

rstrats said:
."
Of course, without the resurrection there indeed is no salvation.
However, The OP says, "We should celebrate the cross and the resurrection every day of our earthly visit."

I was merely pointing out that as far as scripture is concerned, though, that nothing is specifically said about folks meeting together for the purpose of honoring the resurrection, much less that they were doing it on the first day of the week. There may be some looking in who think that there is.

BTW, I don't see where 1 Corinthians 15:12-18 says anything about meeting for the purpose of honoring the resurrection.

The OP quote you are using doesnt suggest "meeting". It is suggesting an individual practice as believers of "celebrating" the cross and resurrection significance. Celebrate doesnt necessarily imply a formal gathering in the sense of meeting together, but uses the term celebrate to signify the joy and appreciation we have on what the significance of the cross and resurrection means to us as believers.
This is what believers would want to observe as a daily practice on our temporary earthly visit.
Of course its a personal choice whether a person wants to celebrate this as a daily practice.

rstrats · Oct 15, 2025

1LoverofGod said:
The OP quote you are using doesnt suggest "meeting". It is suggesting an individual practice as believers of "celebrating" the cross and resurrection significance. Celebrate doesnt necessarily imply a formal gathering in the sense of meeting together, but uses the term celebrate to signify the joy and appreciation we have on what the significance of the cross and resurrection means to us as believers.
This is what believers would want to observe as a daily practice on our temporary earthly visit.
Of course its a personal choice whether a person wants to celebrate this as a daily practice.

My bad. I was perpetuating your off-topic comment at the end of the OP. I had been on a topic regarding a resurrection issue and apparently that was on my mind.

dwb · Oct 15, 2025

We got sidetracked. Was it ever decided what day Jesus was crucified and the 3 days and 3 nights reconciled? I don't see a definite answer.

Margery · Oct 15, 2025

dwb said:
We got sidetracked. Was it ever decided what day Jesus was crucified and the 3 days and 3 nights reconciled? I don't see a definite answer.

The answer by Jack Kelley at Grace Thru Faith remains the best in my opinion. It completely agrees with the article that Rose posted as the OP.

It takes into account the Special Sabbath (explained in the article, in which certain days are considered a Sabbath, a special extra Sabbath but fit into the same week as any regular Saturday Sabbath.

His wife keeps his site open and I think she created the really helpful chart to be able to see how this all pulls together.

A Thursday crucifixion. He was off the cross by Sundown that evening which began the Special Sabbath on the Friday.

Solving the Three Day Three Night Mystery – Grace thru faith

Note: Jack originally published this article in 2003. It remains one of the most popular on this site, and for good reason. It’s a great example of what we love about his studies: taking God at His Word and not relying on human logic or tradition. This study has been an eye opener for so many,

gracethrufaith.com

Note: Jack originally published this article in 2003. It remains one of the most popular on this site, and for good reason. It’s a great example of what we love about his studies: taking God at His Word and not relying on human logic or tradition. This study has been an eye opener for so many, but some have had a hard time reconciling the differences between the Jewish calendar and their own, in particular, that the Jewish day begins at sundown. I created the new image you’ll find at the bottom of the article, hoping that a visual representation would make this all a bit clearer. I hope this helps! -Samantha

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

In Matthew 12:38 Jesus was asked for a sign to show that He was the promised Messiah. The religious officials had just accused Him of using the power of Satan to perform His miracles, and so He described the only sign they would see. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,” He said, “So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40).” By this He meant that because of their hardened hearts they would only know for sure that He was their Messiah after He rose from the dead, an unmistakably miraculous sign. History shows they didn’t accept even as incredible a sign as this, but His response has resulted in a 2,000 year controversy surrounding the time of His death.

What’s A Sabbath?

People who were unfamiliar with the sequence of the spring Feasts of Israel determined that the phrase in John 19:31 identifying the day after the crucifixion as a special Sabbath meant that Jesus was crucified on a Friday, because everyone knows that the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday. And almost everyone agrees that He rose again on Sunday. But there isn’t any way you can put three days and three nights between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. Hence the controversy.

So let’s set the record straight. Sabbath is a Hebrew word that means means “rest” and refers to holy days when no work is allowed. There is one every Saturday in Israel, but there are also several during the year that are date specific. That means they are always observed on a specific calendar date, regardless of the day. They’re like our Christmas. Every year it comes on the 25th of December no matter what day of the week that happens to be.

The special Sabbath John referred to is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it’s a date specific holy day; always observed on the 15th of the month they call Nisan, which corresponds to March/April on our calendar. So the first thing we learn is that the special Sabbath mentioned in John 19:31 didn’t have to be a Saturday.

Originally there were four special days in the month of Nisan. The first was Passover on the 14th. Then the Feast of Unleavened Bread which began on the 15th and ended on the 22nd, both of which were special Sabbaths. And finally, there was the Feast of First Fruits which fell on the Sunday morning following Passover (Leviticus 23:4-14).

Of the four, only the two that opened and closed the Feast of Unleavened Bread prohibited work like the weekly Sabbath, but all have both a historical and prophetic purpose and like all days in the Jewish calendar they begin at sundown, following the pattern of Genesis 1 where God repeated the phrase, “and there was evening and there was morning” six times, once for each day of creation.

The Passover Lamb

The next issue we have to consider is the sequence of events in the week we call Holy Week. In Exodus 12:1-13, where the Passover was ordained, we learn what that sequence was. God told the Israelites to select a lamb on the 10th day of the month and inspect it for defects until the 14th. This means through the end of the 13th. Then at twilight they were to slaughter and roast it, eating it that same evening, as the 14th was beginning. Using some of its blood they were to paint their door posts red to protect them from the plague coming upon Egypt at midnight.

Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy of the Passover Lamb, to save from death everyone who spiritually applies His shed blood to their lives. The only day He ever allowed the people to hail Him as King was on the day we call Palm Sunday, and as we’ll see it was the 10th day of the month. He did this to fulfill the selection process for the Passover Lamb. When the officials told Him to rebuke His disciples, He said that if they became quiet, the very stones would cry out (Luke 19:40). For this was a day ordained in history. It was the day He officially presented Himself as Israel’s Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). It was 483 years to the day from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet (Daniel 9:25). A little while after the officials cautioned Him, He condemned Jerusalem to utter destruction because they did not recognize the day of His visitation (Luke 19:41-44).

The next three days were filled with the most aggressive debate and confrontation with the officials in His entire ministry. He was being inspected for any doctrinal spot or blemish that would disqualify Him as the Lamb of God. They found none, and finally no one dared ask Him any more questions. (Matt. 22:46)

Tradition, Tradition

Some years before the birth of Jesus, the Passover celebration had been changed and in the Lord’s time called for a brief ritual meal of lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs (horseradish) to begin the 14th followed by a great and leisurely festival meal on the 15th, when the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins. This meal is called the Passover Seder.

The 14th became known among the people as Preparation Day , because during the day they made ready for the great feast day beginning at sundown, after which no work was permitted. Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:31 all identify Preparation Day as the day of the Lord’ s death, while Matt. 27:62 says the day after the crucifixion was the day after Preparation Day. So all four Gospels agree; Jesus died on Preparation day, the 14th of their month Nisan, which is Passover. As evening began the day, He ate the ritual meal with His disciples in the Upper Room, and then was arrested, tried, convicted, and put to death; all on Passover. So just like the Lord had commanded in Exodus 12, our Passover Lamb was selected on the 10th, inspected on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, and executed on the 14th of Nisan.

How Do We Know This?

A little over 100 years ago a believer named Robert Anderson was head of Scotland Yard’s investigative division. He became intrigued by the three days and three nights issue and enlisted the help of the London Royal Observatory to investigate the problem since astronomers can locate the exact position of the planets and stars on any date in history. Since Passover always falls on the 14th, and since the Jewish calendar is lunar (moon) rather than solar (sun) oriented, there is always a full moon on Passover. This fulfills Genesis 1:14.

Plotting the course of the Sun and Moon they documented the day and date of every full moon. The Royal Observatory discovered that the first Palm Sunday was the 10th of Nisan, the day when Exodus 12 says to select the lamb. Therefore Passover, the 14th, was a Thursday. The Feast of Unleavened bread began on Friday the 15th, Saturday the 16th was the weekly Sabbath, and Resurrection Morning was also a Sunday, the 17th, when the Feast of First Fruits was celebrated. From Thursday to Sunday there are three days and three nights. It’s a little confusing to our way of thinking because the Hebrew day changes at sunset, which means that night precedes day. But read carefully and you’ll see that it makes sense.

As I’ve said, Jesus had to die on Passover to fulfill the prophecy. Early that Thursday morning the Jewish leadership had gotten permission to crucify Him. (Matt. 27:1-26) His fate was sealed and He was hanging on the cross by 9 AM, as good as dead. His actual time of death was about 3 PM and His body was laid in the tomb sometime later, since the officials wanted it off the cross before sundown brought the Feast of Unleavened Bread, after which no work was permitted. By then Jesus had been in Sheol for several hours. Thursday was day one.

Because in Jewish reckoning the night precedes the day, at sundown it became Friday the 15th, night one, and the special Sabbath John mentioned began (John 19:31). At sunrise it was Friday morning, and day two began. The next sundown brought Saturday night the 16th, night two, and the regular Sabbath began. As of sunrise it was Saturday day, the beginning of day three. At sundown on Saturday it became Sunday night the 17th, night three, and sometime before sunrise Jesus rose from the tomb. Three days and three nights. When the women arrived at sunrise to anoint His body early in the morning, He was already gone.

So in the week Jesus died two Sabbaths that permitted no work were observed back to back: The Feast of Unleavened Bread on Friday the 15th, and the regular weekly Sabbath on Saturday the 16th. In Matthew 28:1 we read that at dawn on the first day of the week (Sunday the 17th) the women who were close to Jesus went to the tomb. Luke 24:1 tells us they were going to anoint His body for burial. The two consecutive Sabbaths had prevented them from doing so earlier (Luke 23:55-56). But He wasn’t there. He had risen. Being the Sunday after Passover, at the Jewish Temple it was Feast of First Fruits. At the Empty Tomb it was Resurrection Morning.

How Can We Confirm This?

Some people try to equate his time of death with the burial of His body and say you can’t count Thursday as day one, because His body wasn’t laid in the tomb until sunset was upon them. But that doesn’t make sense. A person’s death always precedes his or her burial, sometimes by several days. In the Lord’s case it was several hours between the time He died and the time His body was laid in the tomb.

The two disciples who met the Lord on the road to Emmaus that Sunday (the day the Lord’s resurrection was discovered) help us to confirm this (Luke 24:13-35). At first they thought the Lord must have been a very recent visitor to the area when He asked them to explain why they were so sad. In the course of the discussion they indicated it was the third day since the crucifixion. “Since” is roughly equivalent to “after”. It being a Sunday, the previous day (Saturday) would have been the 2nd day since it happened , and Friday would have been the first day since it happened, making Thursday the day it happened.

Others argue that this view doesn’t permit three full days and three full nights in the tomb but that’s not what the Scripture says. It simply says three days and three nights. If you move his death up to Wednesday to get three full days you violate the Passover Lamb prophecies, the women wouldn’t have waited until Sunday morning to prepare the Lord’s body because they could have done it on Friday, and the disciples on the Emmaus road would have said Sunday was the fourth day since the crucifixion. So the Thursday date is the only one that will accommodate both the Passover Lamb and the three day three night prophecies. Mystery solved.

Most of us see our “day” beginning when we get out out of bed in the morning, but the reality is that it began hours before, at midnight. If you keep that subtle difference in mind, it shouldn’t be too difficult to back up a few more hours to sundown of the previous day. That’s when the Jewish calendar day began.

In this calendar, each column represents one day of the week, just like your daily calendar. The top row represents the daytime hours while the bottom row represents the nighttime hours, just as you’re used to.

The difference in this calendar is in the dating.

Since the Jewish day begins at sundown, the first half of each day is shown on the bottom half of the calendar. To follow that day to it’s completion, you jump to the top of the next column to the right.

mattfivefour · Oct 16, 2025

The explanation in Jack Kelley's Bible study above is the ONLY explanation that matches exactly with Holy Scripture and with the historical record of the science of astronomy. Ignorance of Jewish history and practice in the gentile churches is what gave rise to the idea of a Friday crucifixion. They did not realize that there were TWO consecutive sabbaths in that passover week-- the special passover sabbath (Friday) and the regular Saturday sabbath. Now this is not evident if you read most English translations. They mainly line up with the NKJV translation of Matthew 28:1, which reads:

"Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb."

This creates a problem (thus perpetuating the error) in that it is an inaccurate translation of the original Greek manuscripts. The original Greek has the word "Sabbath" in the plural, not the singular. Thus the correct translation of the original text should be:

"Now after the Sabbaths, it being dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb."

You cannot argue this fact: the original manuscripts are clear-- the word Sabbaths is plural.

Why was it changed from plural Sabbaths to singular Sabbath? Ignorance and tradition. But once you see the original, you can see that it speaks of plural sabbaths and thus supports a Thursday crucifixion ... in accordance with Scripture that said Christ would be in the ground 3 days and 3 nights, rising ON (not after) the third day (Luke 24:46). So, it becomes clear that there were two Sabbaths that week and that they had to be consecutive (Friday-Saturday) or else the women would have gone to the tomb before the regular Saturday Sabbath, not after it. But they couldn't go the day before the regular sabbath, because that day was a special Sabbath (the Jews treated holy feasts such as Passover as high or special Sabbaths).

Anyway, this topic is not important enough to argue over. It may be interesting historically and for academic study; and it may settle someone's mind who is troubled over the 3 day-3 night thing. But, regardless of the days on which we celebrate the crucifixion and the resurrection today, what is important is the events, not the dates. For myself, I roll with tradition and join the celebrations on Good Friday. After all, what we memorialize and thank God for is the events themselves-- Christ's substitutionary sacrificial death to pay the penalty for our sins and His resurrection that made it possible for us to be raised to new life before God.

Search

Search

Christ :: The Three Days and the Three Nights

The Three Days and the Three Nights - Study Resources

rstrats

Registered

1LoverofGod

Well-known

rstrats

Registered

rstrats

Registered

1LoverofGod

Well-known

mattfivefour

Admin/Pastor

dwb

Well-known

rstrats

Registered

1LoverofGod

Well-known

rstrats

Registered

dwb

Well-known

Margery

When Stuff Gets Crazy LOOK UP! Maranatha!

Solving the Three Day Three Night Mystery – Grace thru faith

What’s A Sabbath?

The Passover Lamb

Tradition, Tradition

How Do We Know This?

How Can We Confirm This?

mattfivefour

Admin/Pastor

Similar threads

Christ :: The Three Days and the Three Nights

Registered

Well-known

Registered

Registered

Well-known

Admin/Pastor

Well-known

Registered

Well-known

Registered

Well-known

When Stuff Gets Crazy LOOK UP! Maranatha!

What’s A Sabbath?​

The Passover Lamb​

Tradition, Tradition​

How Do We Know This?​

How Can We Confirm This?​

Admin/Pastor

Similar threads

What’s A Sabbath?

The Passover Lamb

Tradition, Tradition

How Do We Know This?

How Can We Confirm This?