Christ said he would be in the grave 3 days and 3 nights. Christendom teaches to observe Good Friday regarding Christ’s death and Easter Sunday regarding Christ’s resurrection. However, that is only 2 nights. What the Bible really teaches about the time of Christ’s death and resurrection is a LITTLE KNOWN FACT OF THE BIBLE.
Yeshua The Messiah himself said that he would be “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). However, most so-called Christian religions teach that Yeshua was crucified on what is called “Good Friday” and resurrected on Easter Sunday. That means he would be only in the grave for two nights and a portion of 3 days. Can Christ’s own words be discounted? No. The math is easy. The way his death and resurrection is commonly taught by religions is not correct according to the Bible.
A Passover on (what we now call) Wednesday is the only day of the week that supports all of the Biblical accounts of the crucifixion. Yeshua was in the grave “three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40). From Wednesday just before sunset to Saturday just before sunset makes three days and three nights. The Jewish day was sunset to sunset, not midnight to midnight as we calculate a day now. Yeshua was crucified on the day of Passover (also called the day of preparation in the Bible), which came the day before a Sabbath day (Mark 15:42, Luke 23:52-54, & John 19:31). Still, that fact alone does not prove he was crucified on a Friday.
According to the Law of Moses, the day following Passover was specified to be the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That day was always a Sabbath day, a day of rest in which no work was to be done, in the same way the weekly Sabbath was observed on the seventh day. (Read Leviticus 23:4-8, Numbers 28:16-18, and take special notice of John 19:31 again.) The Sabbath that occurred immediately following Yeshua’ crucifixion was not an ordinary Sabbath day, but instead was an annual Sabbath that began the week-long observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
According to the Jewish calendar, certain feasts were to be held on the same date of the month, but that did not mean they would fall on the same day of the week every year. In the particular year that Yeshua was killed, the Passover occurred on what corresponds today to Wednesday. According to the Jewish calendar, the 14th day of the first month was Passover Day, and the 15th day was the annual Sabbath, which began the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:1-8).
To understand that Yeshua was crucified on the day of Passover (Wednesday of that year), solves what some people consider to be a conflict in scriptural records. Luke 23:55, 56 say that the women (Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James) went and prepared anointing spices and oils BEFORE the Sabbath. In Mark 16:1 it says that they bought the spices AFTER the Sabbath. The answer to what seems to be differing accounts is in the fact that there are two different Sabbaths being spoken of in these verses. The women both bought and prepared the spices on the same day (Friday), which just so happened to fall between the two Sabbaths on Thursday and Saturday. When Mark says they bought the spices AFTER the Sabbath, it was the special annual Sabbath on Thursday, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When Luke says they prepared the spices and then rested on the Sabbath, this particular Sabbath was the usual weekly Sabbath that always occurred on the seventh day of the week, which was Saturday.
There is also proof that there were two Sabbaths in Matthew 28:1. Since the word “Sabbath” is mentioned in the singular form in most modern language Bible translations, this could be taken to mean that the traditional Friday crucifixion scenario would be referenced. However, Greek manuscripts render the word “Sabbaths” in the plural form. This fact of the use of plural Sabbaths can be verified using a Greek interlinear translation of the Bible. Therefore, for all of the scriptural records to add up, it has to be concluded that Yeshua was crucified on the day that we know now as Wednesday.
Click on this link for a calendar of events that shows when Christ died and when he was resurrected, coinciding with the scripture that he would spend 3 days and 3 nights in the grave.
