Was Jesus in The Tomb For 3 Days?

As it is known, Jesus was crucified on Friday and rose on Sunday; however, many look at this in confusion for three days after Friday seem to equal Monday(Saturday, Sunday, then Monday). What exactly is going on here?

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read: "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man(Jesus) be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth," (Matthew 12:40 KJV). The idea of counting this in a modern sense is an anachronism. The ancient Jews would count time far differently than we do today. They would commonly count part of a year as the entire year or part of a day as the entire day. "A day and night are an Onah (time period) and the portion of an Onah is as the whole of it." (JT, Shabbat 9:3; BT, Pesahim 4a). The point is that saying "three days and three nights" is merely equivalent to Friday to Sunday. We can not force our modern-day perceptions onto the text.

Dr. Harold Hoehner in his book Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ notes: "The three days and three nights in Matthew 12:40 is an idiomatic expression of the same time period (VIZ[or videlicet]., The Third Day)" (Hoehner 66).

Dr. David A. Falk also says: "The way that the Israelites counted, is part of a year is a year. Part of a day is a day."

We see examples of this all throughout the Bible. Another example is in 1 Kings where it says: "And they pitched one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day," (1 Kings 20:29 KJV). Here, we see the Bible states the people pitched for 7 days, yet on the seventh day they fought. Once again, there is no issue unless we remove the ancient context of the passage.

Works Cited:

Dr. Falk, David. Can you explain how Jesus was in the tomb for three days and nights from Friday to Sunday? YouTube, 4 Oct. 2022, https://youtube.com/shorts/yNnYqUrsnBU?si=4laR0TmlzthWXmi0. Accessed 7 Oct. 2023.

Hoehner, Harold W.. Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. United States, Zondervan, 2010.

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