Well, nice try, but not quite.
If you look at Matthew chapters 27 & 28, Mark chapters 15 &16, Luke chapters 23 & 24, and John chapters 19 & 20, it is pretty clear that they are all referring to "the Sabbath" as in "on the 7th day" -- that is, Saturday.
According to all four of the gospels, Jesus died around 3:00 p.m. on the day before the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day is Saturday, therefore, Jesus died on Friday.
So we have established two of the three days involved. But when did they realize that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb? We celebrate Easter on a Sunday, but could it have been on a Monday or a Tuesday instead? Nope.
Here again we find agreement between the four gospels that the events took place on the first day of the week," which would be Sunday. Don’t just take my word for it,look at those eight chapters I listed. You will see they include the references to Easter morning.
Saturday, which is the Sabbath, is the last day of the week, Sunday is the first day of the week. There’s really no getting around the timeline of Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. So how is that three days?
First we need to look at a slight-but-important difference in wording. The Bible does not say that Jesus was in the tomb for three days and three nights. What the Bible actually says is that Jesus rose "on the third day." That might seem like a minor difference, but it’s actually quite important.
It is factually and morally wrong to blame the Jews for Jesus’ death. Everyone born after Adam is to blame, because everyone after Adam has sinned, and made the sacrifice of Jesus necessary. However, it is accurate to blame the Jews for the weird time-keeping we’re about to run into. You’ll remember that Jesus was a Jew, as were all of His original Apostles. Judaism doesn’t consider the days to start and end at midnight. Instead, days start and end at sunrise/sunset.
So:
Capice?
If you look at Matthew chapters 27 & 28, Mark chapters 15 &16, Luke chapters 23 & 24, and John chapters 19 & 20, it is pretty clear that they are all referring to "the Sabbath" as in "on the 7th day" -- that is, Saturday.
According to all four of the gospels, Jesus died around 3:00 p.m. on the day before the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day is Saturday, therefore, Jesus died on Friday.
So we have established two of the three days involved. But when did they realize that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb? We celebrate Easter on a Sunday, but could it have been on a Monday or a Tuesday instead? Nope.
Here again we find agreement between the four gospels that the events took place on the first day of the week," which would be Sunday. Don’t just take my word for it,look at those eight chapters I listed. You will see they include the references to Easter morning.
Saturday, which is the Sabbath, is the last day of the week, Sunday is the first day of the week. There’s really no getting around the timeline of Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. So how is that three days?
First we need to look at a slight-but-important difference in wording. The Bible does not say that Jesus was in the tomb for three days and three nights. What the Bible actually says is that Jesus rose "on the third day." That might seem like a minor difference, but it’s actually quite important.
It is factually and morally wrong to blame the Jews for Jesus’ death. Everyone born after Adam is to blame, because everyone after Adam has sinned, and made the sacrifice of Jesus necessary. However, it is accurate to blame the Jews for the weird time-keeping we’re about to run into. You’ll remember that Jesus was a Jew, as were all of His original Apostles. Judaism doesn’t consider the days to start and end at midnight. Instead, days start and end at sunrise/sunset.
So:
- Jesus died at noon on Friday = First day
- Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday = Second day.
- Sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday = Third day.
Capice?