How Long Was Jesus "in The Heart Of The Earth"?

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Article • How long was Jesus “in the heart of the earth”?

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How long was Jesus "in the heart of the earth"? As the last month was the month during which a large part of Christianity uses to commemorate the passion and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, I thought it would be suitable to devote this article to the examination of a subject relevant to what happened in those days. The subject that was chosen refers to the day that Jesus died and the time period from the burial to the resurrection. Though the day by itself has no particular importance, the relative inquiry becomes very interesting if it is taken into account the fact that the Bible has many times been condemned for contradictions on this matter. The reason is that the prevailing view, according to which Jesus died on Friday afternoon and was risen on Sunday morning, comes in contradiction to what Jesus himself said in Matthew 12:40. Really, there we read: Matthew 12:40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" How can the time period from Friday late afternoon to Sunday early morning make three days and three nights is something that has perplexed many.

1. How much time is three days and three nights? To face the fact that the supposed time that Jesus was in the tomb can by no means make three days and three nights, many have assumed that by "a day and a night" Jesus meant any part of a day. In other words, even one hour of a day would be enough, according to this theory, to make "a day and a night". Nevertheless, though this might have been true if Jesus had spoken indefinitely for "three days", it obviously cannot be true in our case as Jesus spoke DEFINITELY, setting the time that he would be in the tomb to no more no less than three days AND THREE NIGHTS. Since now the time period from Friday late afternoon to Sunday early morning makes no more than two

nights (Friday and Saturday), one day (Saturday) and a very small portion of another day (no more than one or two hours of Friday) it is obvious that the relevant supposition is problematic and more research is needed.

2. John 19:31 and Luke 23:50-54 The two main passages on which the theory of Friday crucifixion is based are John 19:31 and Luke 23:54-56. There we read: John 19:31 "Therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was a high day) the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." (NKJV-KJV) Luke 23:50, 52-53 "And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man.....This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on." The reader should not feel strange reading that "the Sabbath drew on" as this does not mean that it was nearly midnight. Really, according to the time reckoning of that age, the day didn't start at midnight but at sunset, which in April is about 7 p.m. Since now according to Matthew 27:46 Jesus died "about the ninth hour" i.e. about 3 p.m., the above recorded events as well as the events that other records place between Jesus' death and his burial, happened from 3 p.m. to about 7 p.m. Regarding now the day that Jesus died, the reason that most people believe that it was Friday is because they identify the Sabbath that the above passages tell us that followed the day of the crucifixion with the weekly Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. However, the word "Sabbath" was not used by the Word of God only for the

weakly Sabbath but also for other special, high, days that though were not weekly Sabbaths, had equal validity to it.

2.1 Two kinds of Sabbath The fact that apart from the weekly Sabbath, there were also other special Sabbaths is made evident by a look at Leviticus 23, a chapter devoted to the regulations of the great feasts of Israel. There, starting from verses 4-8, we read: Leviticus 23:4-8 "These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed time. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord: seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation: YOU SHALL DO NO CUSTOMARY WORK ON IT. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation: YOU SHALL DO NO CUSTOMARY WORK ON IT." The first month of the Hebrew calendar was the month Abib that was later called Nisan1. The preparation for which we read about in John 19:31 and Luke 23:53 was the preparation for the feast of the Passover and the subsequent feast of unleavened bread. According to Matthew 27:46, the Lord Jesus Christ died "about the ninth hour" i.e. about 3 p.m. on the fourteenth of Nisan, about the time that according to the law the passover lamb was to be sacrificed. The Passover meal was eaten at the same evening and the feast of the unleavened bread commenced. Thus the Sabbath "that drew on" (Luke 23:53) was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, for which Leviticus 23:7 told us: Leviticus 23:7 "On the first day you shall have a holy convocation: YOU SHALL DO NO CUSTOMARY WORK ON IT." 1See Exodus 12:2, 13:4 and Esther 3:7.

The phrase "you shall do no customary work on it", gave to this day equal validity to a weekly Sabbath. Nonetheless, it was not a weekly Sabbath2, BUT A SPECIAL SABBATH, a High Day, on which the law prohibited any kind of work. As John 19:31 characteristically tells us: John 19:31 "Therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day, (FOR THAT SABBATH DAY WAS A HIGH DAY (i.e. that Sabbath was not a weekly Sabbath but a high day, a special Sabbath)) the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." (NKJV-KJV) As also Mark 15:42 tells us about the day of the crucifixion and the day that succeeded it after the sunset: Mark 15:42-43 "Now when evening had come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea.................went into Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus" The crucifixion occurred on the fourteenth of Nisan, when it was still the preparation for the Passover and for the feast of unleavened bread. As we can see from the above passage, this day was ALWAYS [this shows the explanatory phrase "that is"] "a day before the Sabbath", which in turn means that the day that followed it - the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the Sabbath of John 19:31 and Luke 23:52-54 - was also ALWAYS a Sabbath. However, since this day was also a fixed date (the 15th of Nisan) this means that that Sabbath was not a weekly Sabbath but a special Sabbath.

2It was a fixed date - the fifteenth day of the first month - and not a fixed day.

Moving on, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread was not the only special Sabbath. In contrast there were more, and for some of them the Bible uses the word "Sabbath" explicitly. Really in Leviticus 23:23-32 we read: Leviticus 23:23-32 "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, YOU SHALL HAVE A SABBATH, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. YOU SHALL DO NO CUSTOMARY WORK ON IT: but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. AND YOU SHALL DO NO WORK ON THAT SAME DAY: for it is the day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul that shall not be afflicted on that same day, shall be cut off from his people. And whatsoever soul that does any work on that same day, the same soul I will destroy from among his people. YOU SHALL DO NO MANNER OF WORK: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. IT SHALL BE TO YOU A SABBATH OF REST, and you shall afflict your souls: on the ninth day of the month at evening from evening to evening3, you shall celebrate your Sabbath." Neither the first nor the tenth day of the seventh month that are characterised as Sabbaths were weekly Sabbaths, for they were fixed DATES and not fixed DAYS, as the weekly Sabbath. Why therefore does the Word call them "Sabbaths"? Because, though they weren't weekly Sabbaths, they were SPECIAL Sabbaths, HIGH DAYS on which "no customary work" was to be done, exactly as "no customary work" was to be done in the first day of the feast of unleavened bread that followed the death of the Lord. Moving further, another passage where reference is made to a special Sabbath is Leviticus 23:33-36 where we read:

3"From evening to evening" is in accordance to what we said about the reckoning of time in that age.

Leviticus 23:33-36 "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation: YOU SHALL DO NO CUSTOMARY WORK ON IT. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord: on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord: it is a sacred assembly; and YOU SHALL DO NO CUSTOMARY WORK ON IT." As it can be seen from this passage, both the first and the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles were days on which "no customary work" was to be done i.e. they were SPECIAL SABBATHS, High Days, that didn't correspond to a weekly Sabbath4. However, the word "Sabbath" was used not only for High Days that being fixed dates it was not necessary to correspond to a weekly Sabbath, but also for a whole year. Really Leviticus 25:1-4 tells us: Leviticus 25:1-4 "And the Lord spoke to Moses on mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; But in THE SEVENTH YEAR THERE SHALL BE A SABBATH OF REST FOR THE LAND, A SABBATH TO THE LORD: you shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard." From all the above it is evident that the Bible speaks for two kinds of Sabbath: the regular weekly Sabbath, "the seventh day of the week" and the Special Sabbaths that were high days on which no customary work was to be done. In contrast to the weekly Sabbaths that were fixed DAYS, the Special Sabbaths were fixed DATES, and thus could fall in any day of the week. A Special Sabbath was also the first day of the feast of the unleavened bread, the day that followed the death of the Lord. That's why John 19:31

4They would correspond only when the respective dates fell in Sabbath.

tells us that "THAT SABBATH DAY WAS AN HIGH DAY" i.e. it was not a weekly Sabbath but a Special Sabbath, a High Day, that could fall in any day of the week.

3. When was Jesus raised? Having made clear that the Sabbath that followed Jesus' death was a Special Sabbath and not a weekly one, we have also removed what made people to try to squeeze three days and three nights in a time period of about forty hours (from late Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning). Believing that what Jesus said he also meant, we can easily find out the day that he died. Really, since, as he said, he would be "in the heart of the earth" three days and three nights, and since he was buried about the sunset we can conclude that he was raised 72 hours - three days and three nights - later, the same time with the time that he was buried. This places the time of Jesus' resurrection in the afternoon, near the sunset, and not on Sunday morning as it is usually supposed. In fact, the only reason for which it is assumed that Jesus was raised on Sunday morning is because people SUPPOSE that the resurrection took place little before the woman's visit to the tomb that morning (Mark 16:1-8). As we all probably know the women found the tomb empty. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the fact that the women found the tomb empty on Sunday morning, does not also mean that Jesus emptied it on Sunday morning5. In contrast, these records put an upper limit regarding the time of the resurrection, as this certainly didn't happen later than the time that the women found the tomb the empty. When exactly did it happen? According to Jesus, it happened when he had fully completed three days and three nights "in the heart of the earth" i.e. on Saturday afternoon, near the sunset, at the same time that he was buried. The fact that

5The only passage that seems to support something like this is Mark 16:9 where we read: "Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons". However, since there was no punctuation in the ancient manuscripts, the conclusion that Jesus was risen "early on the first day of the week", is totally dependent on where one puts the comma. Since if Jesus was risen on Sunday morning, he would stay one night more in the tomb, our opinion is that the comma should be put after the word "rose". Doing this the above passage reads: "Now when he rose, early on the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons", which is in perfect agreement with the other passages of the Word.

Jesus was raised on Saturday afternoon and not on Sunday morning is also certified by Matthew 28:1-2, where we read: Matthew 28:1-2 "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre. 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 on it." (NKJV-KJV) The Sabbath of the above passage is not the special Sabbath, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the "high day" that followed Jesus' death. Instead, it is the weekly Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. The fact that the three days and nights that the Lord was "in the heart of the earth" included both a Special Sabbath and a weekly Sabbath is also affirmed by Mark 16:1 and Luke 23:56. There we read: Mark 16:1 "And when the Sabbath was past Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices that they might come and anoint him." Now Luke 23:56 tells us: "And they (the same women of Mark 16:1, see Luke 24:10) returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment" In Mark we are told that the women bought the spices AFTER the Sabbath. In contrast, in Luke we are told that they prepared the spices (which in turn means that they had bought them earlier) BEFORE the Sabbath. Is there any contradiction here? Of course not, as the two Sabbaths are not the same. Thus, while the Sabbath of Mark 16:1 is a SPECIAL Sabbath - the first day of the feast of the unleavened bread-, the Sabbath of Luke 23:56 is a WEEKLY Sabbath. Both passages refer to the same day (the day that the woman bough and prepared the spices) with the difference that they use as reference different Sabbaths.

Having made clear that the three days and nights that Jesus was buried included two Sabbaths, one special and one weekly, let's now see what Matthew 28:1-2 tells us about the time that Jesus was raised. The key phrase to which we should pay particular attention is the phrase "as it began to dawn". This phrase is a translation of the Greek verb "åðéöþóêù" (epifosko) that means "to dusk". It is not at all accidental that God uses exactly this verb to record the time of Jesus burial in Luke 23:53-54. Really, there we read: Luke 23:53-54 "And he [Joseph] took it [the body] down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on [epifosko]." Apart from this two times no other time the verb "epifosko" is used in the New Testament. Thus, returning to Matthew 28:1, the time to which this passage refers is near the sunset, about the same time that Jesus was buried, three days and three nights earlier. About that time, "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary" came to see the tomb. However, they only saw it and left, as Mark 16:1-2 tells us that they came again the other day with spices, ignoring what followed their leaving. What was this? Verses 2-4 tells us: Matthew 28:1-4 "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week [i.e. about the same time with the time that Jesus was buried, three days and three nights earlier], Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre. 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 on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow: And the guards shook for fear of him, and became as dead men."

When did this happen? As verse 1 tells us "as it began to down toward the first day of the week", i.e. when Jesus had completed three days and three nights in the tomb. Taking therefore the things from the beginning: What time was Jesus buried? Near the sunset of the 14th of Nissan as it began to dusk toward the first day of the feast of the unleavened bread, the High day of John 19:31 and the Special Sabbath of the other passages. How long he was to be buried? According to what he stated in Matthew 12:40, three days and three nights i.e. 72 hours. When was he raised? He was raised "as it began to dusk near the first day of the week (Sunday)" i.e. on Saturday afternoon, when he had completed exactly three days and three nights in the tomb. When did he die? Counting back three days and three nights from Saturday afternoon, we have: Saturday6 was the third day and night that Jesus was buried, Friday was the second and Thursday was the first. Therefore, we can conclude that Jesus died on Wednesday at 3 p.m. and was buried the same afternoon. Thursday was the Special Sabbath, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. Friday was a common day on which the woman bought and prepared the spices and Saturday was the weekly Sabbath at the end of which he was raised. Is therefore any inconsistency with Jesus' saying that he would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights? As far as the Word of God is concerned, certainly not. To conclude therefore: though the days by themselves have no particular importance, it does have importance to know whether the Word of God is accurate about them. And this was exactly our purpose today: to examine the accuracy of the Word of God about a topic for which the Word has for one more time been wrongly condemned and to show that it has really no problem with the detailed examination. In contrast, the

6The time reckoning of that age is followed.

only with which the Word has real problems is with the rough, careless and thus wrong divisions that unfortunately abound in tradition and which distort its clearness.

Tassos Kioulachoglou References: E.W. Bullinger: The Companion Bible, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI 49501, 1990 Ralph Edward Woodrow: "Babylon Mystery Religion: Ancient and Modern", Ralph Woodrow Evangelistic Association Inc., 1992