@rstrats, isn’t one example of anything in the Bible enough to show you that people of that time thought of part of a day is equal to a whole day?
Hi,
I did not see the question addressed to me. I know I am late responding to it. I apologize.
1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures KJV
Paul tells us Jesus rose the third day. There is no mention of a 72 hour period of time. In fact, Jesus’ quote in Matthew can mean less than 72 hours as well. Be careful that you are adding to what the Bible says.
Did Jesus fulfill what He said?
Paul said Jesus did the correct amount of time. And that is good enough for me.
Why is Jesus the time marker i.e. BC, and AD?
Because Jesus changed time while He was here on earth .
We live in the hope os His return.
Blessings
Joe,
re: “‘1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures KJV’. Paul tells us Jesus rose the third day. There is no mention of a 72 hour period of time. In fact, Jesus’ quote in Matthew can mean less than 72 hours as well.”
I still don’t see what that has to do with my question.
re: “Be careful that you are adding to what the Bible says.”
What do you think I have I added?
re: “Did Jesus fulfill what He said? Paul said Jesus did the correct amount of time.”
The Messiah specifically made the point that His time in the “heart of the earth” would include 3 nights. Why do you suppose He did that if He knew that only 2 nights would be included?
re: “Why is Jesus the time marker i.e. BC, and AD? Because Jesus changed time while He was here on earth.”
I don’t see your point with regard to this topic. BTW, though, what time did He change?
Messiah in the Heart of the Earth — How Long According to the Hebrew Calendar and Verbs?
You ask why Jesus, the Messiah, declared “three nights” if only two nights occurred. The question, though sincere, fails to account for how Jews measured time, how Hebrew idiom works, and how prophetic fulfillment functions according to the Scriptures.
- The Key Text: Matthew 12:40
“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
The Greek says: τρεις ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας (three days and three nights). Jesus is quoting Jonah 1:17, which in Hebrew reads:
וַיְהִי יוֹנָה בִּמְעֵי הַדָּג שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת
vayehi Yonah bim‘ei haddag sheloshah yamim u-sheloshah leilot
(“And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”)
Now ask: does this Hebrew phrase demand three full 24-hour periods? No. Here’s why.
- Hebrew Timekeeping: Any Part of a Day Counts as a Day and Night
In Jewish reckoning, any part of a day counts as a whole day. This is attested in multiple places in Scripture and rabbinic writing. One clear example is Esther 4:16 where Esther says:
“Fast for me… three days, night or day… then I will go to the king.”
Yet Esther 5:1 says she went to the king “on the third day.”
The Hebrew verb צ֣וּמוּ עָלַ֔י (tzumu alai, “fast for me”) indicates a total fast, including nights. But the action begins and ends in less than 72 hours, yet is still called “three days and nights.”
The same Hebrew idiom occurs in 1 Samuel 30:12–13, where the Egyptian servant had eaten no bread or drunk water for “three days and three nights,” but is said to have been abandoned on “the third day.”
In Hebrew narrative idiom, sheloshah yamim u-sheloshah leilot does not require three full 24-hour periods. Even part of a day is reckoned as a whole.
- The Crucifixion and Resurrection Timeline: According to the Jewish Calendar
Jesus died on Friday afternoon, just before sundown (Luke 23:54, “the Sabbath was beginning”). That’s Day 1.
Day 1: Friday before sunset (preparation day), laid in the tomb (part of a day = full day in Jewish reckoning)
Night 1: Friday night
Day 2: Saturday (Sabbath)
Night 2: Saturday night
Day 3: Sunday morning—Jesus rose on the third day (Luke 24:7, 1 Corinthians 15:4)
This matches exactly with what the Messiah predicted: He would rise on the third day, not after three full days.
The Greek verb in Luke 24:46 is ἀναστῆναι τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ (anastēnai tē tritē hēmera) — “to rise on the third day.” Not after three days, not on the fourth. The phrase is identical to the Septuagint pattern and standard Greek rendering of Hebrew idiom.
- The Hebrew Prophetic Pattern
The Messiah’s death and resurrection followed the prophetic pattern of Hosea 6:2:
“After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up.”
Hebrew: בַּיּ֥וֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁ֖י יְקִימֵ֑נוּ (bayom hashelishi yeqimenu)
This verse was not about chronology but resurrection hope—Jesus fulfilled this exactly by rising on the third day.
- Heart of the Earth: Not a Burial Clock, but a Redemptive Descent
Jesus didn’t say “I’ll be buried for 72 hours.” He said He would be “in the heart of the earth” (kardia tēs gēs) — a phrase used nowhere else in Scripture. This was not a topographic statement about being six feet underground. It referred to the realm of death — the dominion He entered when He gave up His spirit. The moment He died, He entered the realm of the dead (see Acts 2:27, Psalm 16:10). That descent began on Friday, not when the tomb was closed.
In Hebrew idiom, the verb yarad (יָרַד, “descend”) is used to describe entry into death or Sheol. Isaiah 53:9 says “He was assigned a grave with the wicked” — vayiten et-kivro. His burial marked His descent. But the descent into the “heart” began at death.
Conclusion: The Messiah Meant What He Said, But You Must Read Him Through Jewish Eyes
The Messiah’s statement was not misleading. He knew precisely what He said and said it in a Jewish idiom that aligned with Hebrew Scripture and first-century time reckoning. Three days and three nights means a part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday, perfectly consistent with the Hebrew text of Jonah, the idiom of Esther and Samuel, the prophecy of Hosea, and the resurrection accounts in the Gospels.
The problem is not that Jesus miscalculated. The problem is we read Him with Gentile clocks instead of Hebrew verbs.
J.
Yeshua died on the day of Preparation (Mk. 15:42, Lk. 23:54, Jn 19:31). In Judaism, the term was used to describe the sixth day of the week, Friday. As the name implies, this day was generally spent preparing what was necessary to avoid work on the Sabbath. The preparations included cooking, completing work, and spiritual purification. Less frequently, the term Preparation could also refer to another day of the week falling just before a festival.
The time reference in all four Gospels implies that Yeshua’s corpse had to be buried before the Sabbath began: the bodies should not remain on the cross upon the Sabbath (for the day of that Sabbath was a high day (Jn 19:31b). In the year A.D. 30 (as well as the year 33), the Passover day fell on the day of Preparation, meaning it began on Thursday evening and lasted until Friday evening. The moment the sun set on Friday, the Sabbath and the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. In the Mosaic Law, the first and the seventh days of this feast were holy days. Whenever a Sabbath day fell on a Jewish holy day, it became a high Sabbath. If possible, the Jews would not leave a dead body exposed and unburied over a Sabbath day. This was all the more true if the day were a high Sabbath, thus the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to hasten the death process. The Jews therefore…asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him (Jn 19:31-32).
Where the feet touched the wood on the cross was a footrest, the sedile, that was nailed there for a specific reason. A person ultimately died by asphyxiation when crucified because of the way the condemned hung on the cross. The footrest was nailed onto the pole so that the victims could raise themselves, breathe, lower themselves, raise themselves again, breathe, lower themselves, and as long as they had the strength to do this, they survived for some time. In some cases, it took days for someone to die this way. As the victims moved up and down, rubbing against the rugged wood of the cross, their backs became painfully raw. Because Yeshua was flogged beforehand, He felt the pain from the time He was first placed on the cross and throughout the six-hour period during which He slid up and down against that rough wood. One way to accelerate the death process was to break the legs of the victims to prevent them from lifting themselves up to take a breath. They died by suffocation shortly thereafter. For that reason, the legs of the men hanging to the left and right of Yeshua were broken (Jn. 19:32). However, by the time the soldiers came to Yeshua, He had already dismissed His spirit from His body (Jn. 19:33). Therefore, they did not bother to break His legs, thus fulfilling the Passover motif that not one bone of the Passover lamb could be broken (Ex.12:46).
To ensure Yeshua had died, one soldier drove a spear into His side (Jn.19:34), thus fulfilling the Messianic prophecy of Zechariah 12:10 that the Messiah would be pierced. Blood and water flowed from the wound. Many have discussed the medical significance of this phenomenon. Some medical doctors believe that Yeshua’s heart ruptured, and He died of a broken heart. Other doctors dispute this conclusion. However, they miss the point. The significance of the blood and the water is not medical, but theological. Yochanan alone recorded this incident, stating that he was an eyewitness to the event: And he that had seen has borne witness, and his witness is true: and he knows that he said true, that ye also may believe (Jn 19:35). Later, the apostle, reflecting on the outpouring of blood and water, made a theological deduction: This was the sign that God had provided eternal life (1 Jn. 5:6-12). The blood and the water were evidence that Yeshua died and by His death provided eternal life.
Blessings in our Messiah! ברכות במשיח שלנו!