Systematic Theology

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Question on Msg#1613’s Three Days and Three Nights

March 31, 2016, Pastor Rice, Uncategorized,

On 3/30/2016 pastor_undisclosed@yahoo.com wrote:

Thank you Pastor Rice for today’s Penny Pulpit on 3 days and 3 nights. I agree with you, but I am unsure how best to respond to the assertion that “any part of a day is considered a day according to Jewish tradition” argument. I am not sure where they get that teaching from or started that thought — just like the folded napkin story. Could you give me a suggestion?

Dear Pastor

Thanks for writing. Remember what I said about traditions; they will often twist your Bible understandings.

I had not heard of any partial day considerations in Jewish traditions. I do know that they take their Genesis account very literally and when God said the evening and the morning were the first day, they have been counting their days that way ever since; whereas we traditionally use a mid-night starting of our day. Both traditions are insignificant when considering Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

From my studies Christ was crucified on:

1) Passover, he was the passover lamb that taketh away the sin of the world (1Cor 5:7),

2) the preparation for the feast of unleavened bread, (Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14)

3) the 14th day of the month of Abib (Exod 12:6, 13:4, 23:15, 34:18, Deu 16:1) (the name was revised to “Nisan” after Babylonians messed with it),

4) the exact time they killed the passover lambs (1Cor5:7),

5) six days after the feast at Bethany (John 12:1), which feast was not on a Sabbath Day, ergo it was on a Friday,

6) three days before the Sunday which found the disciples on the Emaus road (Luke 24:13, 18), and

7) a Thursday because it falls six days after Friday (#5 above) and three days before a Sunday (#6 above).

Also noted previous, Palm Sunday falling on Sunday and on the 10th of Abib (Exod 12:3) causes the 14th to be on a Thursday, AND the Bible dictation of all that happened after his triumphal entry and before his crucifixion accounts for a Monday, a Tuesday and a Wednesday, three full days, resulting in a Thursday crucifixion.

All this Bible evidence necessitates a day count which includes Thursday day (he died in the 9th hour of the day, i.e. 3pm, no matter when Joseph and Nick got his body into the tomb his soul was in the heart of the earth on that Thursday), Thursday night, Friday day, Friday night, Saturday day, Saturday night. That is three days and three nights as specifically called out in Matthew 12:40.

All this settles it for me; that Wednesday night was his last supper with the disciples, and Thursday was the day of his crucifixion. I enjoy debate with Baptists who hold to a Wednesday crucifixion, they insist on three twenty-four hour days spent in the tomb. I’ll not debate with someone who holds to a Roman Good Friday, they do not have a leg to stand on.

Thanks for asking. God bless your studies.

Pastor Rice

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