ON THE THIRD DAY
Was Christ in the tomb from Friday evening to Sunday morning?
MT 12:39 "He answered, 'A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. (:40) For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.'"
Yahshvah knew how many hours are in the day, and in the night!
JN 11:9 "Jesus answered, 'Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. (:10) It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.'"
"Good Friday" to Sunday morning just doesn't add up!
MK 8:31 "He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again."
MT 27:62 "The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. (:63) 'Sir,' they said, 'we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, `After three days I will rise again.' (:64) So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.'"
JN 2:19 "Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.' (:20) The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?' (:21) But the temple he had spoken of was his body."
The "Lamb of God" was tried, beaten, crucified, died and was buried before sunset on Passover Wednesday, April 25th, 31 A.D.
JN 13:1 "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father."
Normally, the "Preparation Day" refers to Friday, the day of preparation for the weekly Sabbath. But, Passover is also always the "Preparation" for an annual High Holy Sabbath; the first day of the "Feast of Unleavened Bread."
JN 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."
JN 19:38 "Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. (:39) He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. (:40) Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. (:41) At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. (:42) Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there."
Joseph and Nicodemus were actually in quite a hurry to wrap Yahshvah in the shroud and lay Him in the "borrowed" tomb before the beginning of the "High Day" at sundown. This is why the women later returned to complete His proper burial, in spite of Nicodemus' hasty application of 75 pounds of spices to the body.
LK 23:55 "The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. (:56) Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath* in obedience to the Commandment."
Thursday, April 26, 31AD - The Feast of Unleavened Bread, a High Holy Sabbath, the "evening and the morning" of Christ's first day in the tomb. It is after the "High Day" Sabbath that we find the women buying more spices and preparing them - Friday, April 27th, the regular "preparation day" for the weekly Sabbath, the "evening and the morning" of His second day in the tomb.
Then the women rested on Sabbath - Saturday, April 28th, the "evening and the morning" of His third day in the tomb. While they were resting, the Lord of the Sabbath rose, exactly 72 hours after He was buried, - in the end of the weekly Sabbath.
Mat 28:1 "In the end of the Sabbath*, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. (:2) 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 upon it. (:3) His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: (:4) And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead [men].
(:5) And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. (:6) He is not here: for He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." - He was already risen!!
*sabbaton (Gr: Sabbaths)
Of Hebrew origin [H7676]; the Sabbath (that is, Shabbath), or day of weekly repose from secular avocations (also the observance or institution itself); by extension a se'nnight, that is, the interval between two Sabbaths; likewise the plural in all the above applications: - sabbath (day), week.
Here we find that the word "Sabbath" in the original Greek at Lk. 23:56, and Mt. 28:1 is plural, ie: " ... in the end of the Sabbaths." or, more correctly: "... after the Sabbaths."
These findings in no way affect the truth of the Biblical statement that Yahshvah rose "On the third day", only that He actually did spend 72 hours in the tomb, exactly according to His own prophecy, rising exactly at the end of Sabbath, as it began to "dawn" toward the first day of the week.