Whenever the three days and three nights of Matthew 12:40 is brought up in a “discussion†with 6th day crucifixion folks, they frequently argue that it is a Jewish idiom for counting any part of a day as a whole day. I wonder if anyone has documentation that shows that the phrase “x†days and “xâ€nights was ever used in the first century or before when it absolutely didn’t include at least parts of the “x†days and at least parts of the “x†nights?
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Guest, Join Papa Zoom today for some uplifting biblical encouragement! --> Daily Verses
Matthew 12:40
- Thread starter rstrats
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Not sure I can help with the x-factor here, but Christ surely knew what He meant when He said this...
Joh 11:9 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
Joh 11:10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
He knew there were 12 hours in the day and 12 at night, (After all, it was He who created day and night) and plainly shows He knows what a day consists of...
Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Days begin at sunset and consist of a dark period called night and a daylight period called day.
I can't comment on the "x" factor, but I can tell you that your source of confusion stems from 2 things:
1- the Sabbath after the crucifixtion was NOT the 7th day weekly Sabbath, but was the High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread. And 2- the Jews observe Passover on the wrong day. The instruction is to eat the Passover on the 14th day of the month, but the Jews (both in Messiah’s day and today) combine Passover and Unleavened Bread and observe both on the 15th day of the month.
The “Passover Timeline:†(God’s day begins at sunset.)
On the 10th day of the 1st month, a lamb is brought into the house and is inspected for any spot or blemish. This is the day the Messiah rode into Jerusalem. He was then inspected by the general population AND by the priests /religious authorities.
On the 14th day of the 1st month the lamb is slaughtered and eaten (this is the Passover.) We see Messiah eating the Passover (the “Last Supperâ€) with His disciples. After the Passover meal, He is betrayed and arrested (around midnight.) He is then handed off between the authorities, beaten and crucified by lunchtime on the 14th and He dies around 3 P.M. on Passover.
The 15th day of the 1st month is the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts for 7 days. The 1st day of Unleavened Bread is a "High" Sabbath and it can occur on any day of the week. The Messiah’s body is taken down and buried right before the sun sets on Passover and the High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread begins.
Then the weekly Sabbath occurs on Saturday.
The Feast of First Fruits begins after the weekly Sabbath ends (at sunset) during the week of Unleavened Bread. It is on this day that the priest in the Temple thanks God for the resurrection and newness of life.
Passion Week timeline:
14th = Messiah eats the Passover with His disciples after sunset on Tuesday night. He dies late Wednesday afternoon and His body is put into the tomb. The 3-day and 3-night countdown begins at sunset Wednesday night.
15th = after sunset on Wednesday the Jews observe their Passover on the High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread.
Saturday is the weekly Sabbath.
Sunday is First Fruits.
Thursday day (1), Friday day (2), Saturday day (3) = 3 days
Wednesday night (1), Thursday night (2), Friday night (3) = 3 nights
1- the Sabbath after the crucifixtion was NOT the 7th day weekly Sabbath, but was the High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread. And 2- the Jews observe Passover on the wrong day. The instruction is to eat the Passover on the 14th day of the month, but the Jews (both in Messiah’s day and today) combine Passover and Unleavened Bread and observe both on the 15th day of the month.
The “Passover Timeline:†(God’s day begins at sunset.)
On the 10th day of the 1st month, a lamb is brought into the house and is inspected for any spot or blemish. This is the day the Messiah rode into Jerusalem. He was then inspected by the general population AND by the priests /religious authorities.
On the 14th day of the 1st month the lamb is slaughtered and eaten (this is the Passover.) We see Messiah eating the Passover (the “Last Supperâ€) with His disciples. After the Passover meal, He is betrayed and arrested (around midnight.) He is then handed off between the authorities, beaten and crucified by lunchtime on the 14th and He dies around 3 P.M. on Passover.
The 15th day of the 1st month is the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts for 7 days. The 1st day of Unleavened Bread is a "High" Sabbath and it can occur on any day of the week. The Messiah’s body is taken down and buried right before the sun sets on Passover and the High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread begins.
Then the weekly Sabbath occurs on Saturday.
The Feast of First Fruits begins after the weekly Sabbath ends (at sunset) during the week of Unleavened Bread. It is on this day that the priest in the Temple thanks God for the resurrection and newness of life.
Passion Week timeline:
14th = Messiah eats the Passover with His disciples after sunset on Tuesday night. He dies late Wednesday afternoon and His body is put into the tomb. The 3-day and 3-night countdown begins at sunset Wednesday night.
15th = after sunset on Wednesday the Jews observe their Passover on the High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread.
Saturday is the weekly Sabbath.
Sunday is First Fruits.
Thursday day (1), Friday day (2), Saturday day (3) = 3 days
Wednesday night (1), Thursday night (2), Friday night (3) = 3 nights
F
felix
Guest
The darkness on the noon is actually "a night" because, it was God who defined and called "darkness" as night.
Gen 1:5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Day and Night has nothing to do with Sun because, when God defined a Day, Sun simply didn't exist.
- Thursday, 12pm to 3pm (darkness) - a newly created night which Jews were unaware of.
- Thursday, 3pm - Jesus died on the cross
- Thursday, 3pm to 6pm - Day 1 - Jews unaware of this day.
- Thursday, 6pm to 6am - Night 1 - Jews celebrating Passover Sabbath (night part) but in reality, the actual Passover Sabbath was already over from 12pm to 6pm (the new night and day created). This night is actually part of weekly Sabbath
- Friday, 6am to 6pm - Day 2 - Jews celebrating Passover Sabbath (day part) but in reality, the actual Passover Sabbath was already over from 12pm to 6pm (the new night and day created). This day is actually part of weekly Sabbath
- Friday, 6pm to 6am - Night 2 - Jews celebrating weekly Sabbath (night part) without realizing it is already over.
- Saturday, 6am to 6pm - Day 3 - Jews celebrating weekly Sabbath (day part) without realizing it is already over.
- Saturday, 6pm to 6am - Night 3 - Sabbaths just ended but it was night for anyone to go to a tomb.
- Sunday, 6am - Jesus was resurrected. Mary visits Jesus at the tomb.
Thus, 3 days and 3 nights which Christ spoke are fulfilled in an amazing accuracy.
This is exactly what occurred. Christ was resurrected at about sunset on the weekly Sabbath. This coincided exactly with the Wave Sheaf ceremony conducted at sunset. The following article gives a very good description...
http://livingtheway.org/wave2.html
thisnumbersdisconnected
Member
Christ was crucified on the day before the Sabbath, which began at Sundown Friday. Therefore, He was crucified on Friday. As that has to be the case given that Joseph's concern was not to defile himself Sabbath without opportunity to cleanse himself prior to it, we must adopt the view that the -- as has been said repeatedly in this forum on other threads -- the Jews considered part of a day a whole day. This is seen particularly in the payment of the labors in the harvest for a full day, even though they worked only one hour before sunset. The fact the other workers protested does not negate the idea that the day is a seen in Jewish tradition as a whole day, regardless of whether a real 24-hour day (or 12-hour work day0 is involved in the reference. The Jews also considered the whole day to include the previous night, since their day began at sundown. There is no need to make convoluted and unworkable scenarios to "explain" what does not need to be explained.
thisnumbersdisconnected,
re: "...the Jews considered part of a day a whole day."
As regards the Jewish practice of counting any part of a day as a whole day I would agree, but when "nights" is added to "days" to yield a phrase such as 3 days AND 3 nights, it normally refers to a consecutive time period where "day" refers to the light portion of a 24 hour period and "night" refers to the dark portion of a 24 hour period. No one In the history of apologetics as far as I know has ever presented any historical documentation that a phrase such as 3 days AND 3 nights was a unique first century idiom of Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek which could mean something different than what the phrase means in English. If you have such documentation that shows that a phrase stating a certain number of days, as well as a certain number of nights was ever used in the first century or before when it absolutely didn’t/couldn't include at least parts of the specified number of days and at least parts of the specified number of nights, I would very much like to see it.
BTW, Luke 24:21 indicates that the crucifixion could not have taken place any later than the 5th day of the week.
re: "...the Jews considered part of a day a whole day."
As regards the Jewish practice of counting any part of a day as a whole day I would agree, but when "nights" is added to "days" to yield a phrase such as 3 days AND 3 nights, it normally refers to a consecutive time period where "day" refers to the light portion of a 24 hour period and "night" refers to the dark portion of a 24 hour period. No one In the history of apologetics as far as I know has ever presented any historical documentation that a phrase such as 3 days AND 3 nights was a unique first century idiom of Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek which could mean something different than what the phrase means in English. If you have such documentation that shows that a phrase stating a certain number of days, as well as a certain number of nights was ever used in the first century or before when it absolutely didn’t/couldn't include at least parts of the specified number of days and at least parts of the specified number of nights, I would very much like to see it.
BTW, Luke 24:21 indicates that the crucifixion could not have taken place any later than the 5th day of the week.
Joh 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Do you know what a high day is? It is not the weekly Sabbath, it is one of the annual Sabbaths. It is the First Day of Unleavened Bread...
Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover.
Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
Lev 23:7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
Christ was crucified on the Passover and hustled into the tomb right about sunset. The Passover is also called the preparation day for the First Day of Unleavened Bread. The First Day of Unleavened Bread began at sunset.
Passover was on Wednesday, First Day of unleavened Bread on Thursday, then there was Friday, then the weekly Sabbath and Christ was resurrected right about sunset on the weekly sabbath, three days and three nights after He was buried.
As Rhett said to Scarlet, "Frankly, my dear..." I really don't think it matters what some commentator said about how the Jews might have counted days and nights, what I do care about is how Christ counted it. He was the one who was going to be interrred for three days and three nights and He is the final authority. What does He say about day and night?
Joh 11:9 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
Joh 11:10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
How many hours are there in the day? There are twelve. How many hours are there left for night? Twelve. Christ, Himself, does not count partial time as a full daylight period. He calls it twelve hours. Christ was the Creator of days, what constitutes a day?
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Gen 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Gen 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Now, how long are the Sabbath days?
Lev 23:32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.
How does the Maker of days and nights, the Creator of time and the calendar reckon a day? From evening to evening, sunset to sunset is a day.
A good read here is some research on the Quarto-Decimani controversy. Easter and Sunday were not the days of the early church, they kept the Passover and the Sabbath.
thisnumbersdisconnected
Member
The very word used to describe what day it was at the time of the crucifixion. The Greek paraskeue, translated "preparation" in v. 14, makes it clear it was the day before the regular Sabbath. The word, since the first century, has meant "Friday" in Koine, Attic, Classic and Modern Greek.
The Greek term tou pascha ("of the Passover") is taken to be equivalent to the Passover Week. This refers to the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Hebrew massot, that immediately followed the initial slaughtering and eating of the Passover lamb on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month Abib, which by Hebrew reckoning would mean the commencement of the fifteenth day, right after sunset. The week of masso-t, coming right after on the heels of Passover itself (during which masso-t were actually eaten, along with the lamb, bitter herbs, etc.) very naturally came to be known as Passover Week as noted in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed., 12:1041, extending from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib, inclusively. Popular usage merged the two festivals and treated them as a unity, as they were for practical purposes. It was unnecessary to insert a specific term for "week" (such as sa-bua) for it to be understood as such. Therefore, that which might be translated literally as "the preparation of the Passover" must in this context be rendered "Friday of Passover Week."
It turns out, therefore, that John affirms just as clearly as the Synoptics that Christ was crucified on Friday and that His sacrificial death represented an atypical fulfillment of the Passover ordinance itself, the Passover Sabbath and the regular Sabbath falling on the same day. It was instituted by God in the days of the Exodus as a means of making Calvary available by faith to the ancient people of God even before the coming of Christ.
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cupid dave
Guest
This is an excelent analysis.
However it competes with one that seems even better.
The day before, (Nisan 14), the traditional Passover seder is also the Fast of the First Born.
Everyone is allowed to eat except the First born, unless some reason exists that will prevent him from feasting afterwards.
This is the day the Lamb is slain.
That Lamb of 32AD was slain before sundown of Thursday, after the seder ofthe evening past.
On Thursday late afternoon, after his crucifixion, but before the Sundown of the 15th was to begin, they buried the dead body of Jesus.
Jesus lay in the tomb Thursday eve-Friday morning.
Mary had to await the end of the High Passover to shop for the usually perfumes and herbs used in washing the dead body.
She did not have enough time to prepare the incense before Friday evening announced the weeky sabbath.
And she was no permitted to wash the body during the sabbath.
Hence Jesus had laid in the tomb two days by then, Friday evening sun down, i.e., (1) Thursday eve-Friday morning (2) Friday evening-Saturday morning.
When the Sabbath had ended on Saturday evening, mary prepared to visit the tomb the next morning, on the end of the third day that Jesus had been entombed.
She did so, and discovered he had risen.
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cupid dave
Guest
This is pretty good, too.
You need only review the Fast of the First Born holy day of Nisan 14, that precedes the traditional seder of the 15th.
Add in that Jesus drank from the Elijah cup, (the 5th up always set out at Passover for the returning Elijah should he appear), and said (for you and the Jews) to definitely remember that, because he was the Elijah, and also the suffer messiah.
Goinheix
Member
I wonder if anyone has documentation that the phrase "x" days and "x" nights was ever used in the first century or before to signify 24 hours times "x".
Perhaps a rewording of the OP will make it a little clearer.
Whenever the three days and three nights of Matthew 12:40 is brought up in a “discussion” with 6th day crucifixion proponents, they frequently argue that it is a common Jewish idiom for counting any part of a day as a whole day. I wonder if anyone knows of any writing from the first century or before which shows a phrase stating a specific number of days and/or a specific number of nights when it absolutely couldn't have included at least a part of each one of the specific number of days and at least a part of each one of the specific number of nights?
Whenever the three days and three nights of Matthew 12:40 is brought up in a “discussion” with 6th day crucifixion proponents, they frequently argue that it is a common Jewish idiom for counting any part of a day as a whole day. I wonder if anyone knows of any writing from the first century or before which shows a phrase stating a specific number of days and/or a specific number of nights when it absolutely couldn't have included at least a part of each one of the specific number of days and at least a part of each one of the specific number of nights?