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Yeshua gave
only one sign that he was the anointed Messiah of There is no proof, as some may assert, that the term 'three days and three nights' means three consecutive 24 hours periods, or 72 hours. In fact, there is much more evidence that the term simply means what it says and that a part of a day is equivalent to the entire day. For example, if a person was to arrive in a town at 4:00 pm on a Friday afternoon he could accurately state at noon on Sunday that he has been in that town for three days. If he wanted to be even more accurate, he could state that he was in the town for three days and two nights. In the "Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica" by John Lightfoot, he quotes:
When the Israelites wanted to indicate that the time period was to be an exact 24 hour period, they would use the term 'day and night' appended to the number of days referred to. For example, if one wanted to express that an event was 72 hours in duration, they would say: 'the battle lasted 3 days, both day and night.'3 We see this term being used several times in the scriptures in one form or another. Deut. 28.66-67; Est. 4.16; Isa. 28.19. Many get the terms, 'three days and three nights' and 'day and night' mixed up and thereby wrongly believe that they mean the same thing. The former is not discussing the topic of a specific period of time whereas the latter is referring to a twenty-four hour period of time.
Yeshua gave up the spirit at 3:00 pm on Thursday afternoon before sundown.4 It must be remembered that one is working in Jewish time and not Roman time. He had to be placed in the grave before sundown on that same day due to the fact that the next day was a special Sabbath.5 He rose before sunrise on Sunday morning, it must be before sunrise, otherwise he would have been in the grave for four days and three nights. It is my opinion that, according to our reckoning of counting time, Yeshua was placed in the grave on Thursday afternoon before sundown. This was day one, even though he was only in the grave for a short period of time. At sundown he would have been in the grave one day and one night. He rose after sunset on Saturday but before sunrise on Sunday, according to our counting of time. This places him in the grave three days and three nights. One must remember that the Jewish day begins at sundown. Therefore when sundown approached on Thursday, the 14th of Aviv, the day would change to the 15th of Aviv although the Romans, as well as America, would still consider it Thursday evening. Shalom & G-d Bless Steve and Karen Salter Footnotes
1. Matt. 12.40
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