Was Jesus Entombed 72 Hours? - Part I

Is the phrase "three days" meant to be understood as a literal 72 hours? We look at several verses to get some clues.

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In 2013, I wrote a post called "Three Days and Three Nights" where we investigated that phrase from Matthew 12: 40. Certain groups assert it must be taken literally, that Jesus was dead exactly 72 hours, and that the Friday-Sunday crucifixion timeline is wrong. I took the opposite side of this debate, arguing for idiomatic expressions and inclusive reckoning. I tried to fit everything I could find into one post. It was too much. Now, I want to break it apart into digestible chunks.

We are going to take this in two parts. In this first one, the phrase "three days". In the second, the phrase "three days and three nights".

We have important questions to answer. How did ancient Israel count days? Were partial days really counted as whole days? Can Sunday morning be three days from Friday evening? By the end, we will see that a 72-hour literalism is not necessary and a Friday crucifixion scenario is entirely possible.

We are going to let the Bible interpret the Bible.

GENESIS

Let's start at the start, where we will see a pattern emerge.

(GEN. 40: 12-13) 12 And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. 13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler.

Joseph interprets a dream for a fellow prisoner, the Chief Butler for Pharaoh. The Chief Butler dreamed of three grape vine branches that budded and fruited. Joseph explained the three branches represented three days of imprisonment. Notice very carefully the timing here. Even though the three branches represent three days, his release would come before the third day was complete.

If we force the Bible to be so chronologically literal, one would expect two partial branches and one full. But the full three branches are there, each budding and providing grapes, even though a full three days are not there.

This same thing is repeated in verses 18 and 19, without the happy outcome.

Now, let's see something similar in another place.

(GEN. 42: 17-19) 17 So he put them all together in prison three days. 18 Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God: 19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses.

Joseph, now the Vizier of Egypt, has imprisoned his brothers in retaliation for selling him into slavery those years ago. Notice very carefully the timing here once again. Joseph's brothers were only in the prison for part of one day, then a full day, and then part of another day, same as the Chief Butler we saw before. Sounds pretty much exactly like Jesus’ death. Yet there the Bible says "three days."

Do you see the pattern emerging already?
     A part of a day counts as the whole.

That is how days are counted throughout the Bible. Every day is included in the count, even if it isn't a full day. Our term for this method of counting is "inclusive reckoning". The ancient Jews called this the "onah".

With inclusive reckoning, all items in a count are included in the count, regardless if they are partial or full. This is how all ancient cultures around the Mediterranean counted time. When modern Western minds count, we might say, "Friday to Saturday, Saturday to Sunday; that's two days." But that is not how ancient Jewish minds counted days. They would say, "Friday, Saturday, Sunday; that's three days." How the story of Joseph relates to this is to demonstrate inclusive reckoning was used even from early in the Bible. Three days are counted, even though the first day and the last day were only partial.

If we are not using the Biblical method of counting days, we are guaranteed to misunderstand the timing of the crucifixion.

EXODUS

Here is an even more blatantly plain example from Exodus.

(EXO. 19: 10-11) 10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. 11 And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people."

We could not have a more plain example when God says today, tomorrow, and the third day. What can we conclude? "Third day" means the exact same thing as "day-after-tomorrow."

Do we not see that the Jews were counting time inclusively even from the beginning? It's the same in the New Testament as well.

ACTS AND LUKE

We find another example of inclusive reckoning in Acts 10: 1-30. This is the story of when Peter met Cornelius, the first Gentile to receive the Holy Spirit.

On day 1, after 3 PM Cornelius sends men 36 miles south to Joppa to find Peter.
On day 2, Peter has a vision around noon as Cornelius' men approach Joppa. They stay the night and leave the next day.
On day 3, they travel all day.
On day 4, before 3 PM they arrive at Cornelius' house. In verse 30, Cornelius relates that "four days ago" he sent men.

Cornelius includes his current day in the count. That's inclusive reckoning. Onah!

If we count in the modern, Western way, we would say "Day 4 to 3 is the fourth day, day 3 to 2 is the third day, day 2 to 1 is the second day, and day 1 to 0 is the fourth day. Wait! Day zero?? There is no day zero in my list. Do you see how the modern counting style has added a day? We would see the timeline above as only three days, not four. We have added a day to get to four. This error happens because we are not using inclusive reckoning.
What's more, Cornelius ignores the fact that both day 1 and day 4 are only partial days. Day 1 began after 3 PM, and day 4 ends sometime before 3 PM, yet both were included in the count as if they were full days.

Didn't Jesus die at around 3 PM? Yes. According to multiple Gospel accounts, He died around the 9th hour, and that equates to 3PM. In Jewish thinking, even that late hour the day is still counted as an entire day. We can be assured of this by paying attention to the story of Cornelius.

We find another example in Luke 24.

Cleopas and another person (possibly his wife, Mary) were walking to the town of Emmaus on Sunday. Jesus joins them, hiding His identity. Cleopas talks about the events of the past few days. Jesus asks, "What things?" Cleopas responds about the trial and crucifixion, then in verse 21 he says, "Today is the third day since these things happened."

There's that "third day" phrase again, pointing backward in time, just like with Cornelius. Since we know this is Sunday, we must assign that day 1. Day 2 would be Saturday. Day 3 would be Friday.

Friday is the third day since the crucifixion and trial. Third day here means "day-before-yesterday".

For yet another fine example of inclusive reckoning, please see our post "Wednesday Crucifixion? Not Likely".

I was unable to find an example where counting days was clearly done without using inclusive reckoning.

A DISSENT

Now, let's look at an example of someone who disagrees with my conclusions, provided by Herman Hoeh, chief historian of Armstrongism. A man Herbert Armstrong called, "the most accurately informed man in the world."

In his booklet titled "The Crucifixion Was Not On Friday", Hoeh goes to II Chronicles 10, with its parallel in 1 Kings 12. Hoeh then gives us this:

"The people left 'for three days' and did not return until 'after three days' - 'as the king had appointed.' Let us suppose they had first met the king sometime on Friday. As they were ordered to return at the end of three days, they could not have returned before the same time of day the following Monday. Now was Monday “the third day” from the day they had originally met with the King? The first day from that Friday was Saturday; the second day from that Friday was Sunday; and the third day was Monday - exactly the time the king expected them to return."

-Herman Hoeh, "The Crucifixion Was Not On Friday", 1968, pp. 9-10.

Pay very close attention to what Hoeh just did. He makes two unfortunate errors.

Hoeh said, "The people left 'for three days' and did not return until 'after three days'." That order is backwards! What Rehoboam told the people to return 'after three days' (v. 5) and they returned on 'the third day' (v.12).
Hoeh also counts incorrectly, using modern counting styles rather than the appropriate inclusive reckoning. We learn elsewhere that Hoeh is fully aware of the onah and inclusive reckoning, he just dismisses it as Pharisaical. But it is not an invention of the Pharisees. The Pharisees described inclusive reckoning, yes, but as we clearly saw in today's post, the counting style is entirely biblical and must not be dismissed.

You should also know verse 12 is actually a quote of verse 5. Verse 5 doesn't say "after" at all. All this fuss over the word "after" is really making a big deal out of nothing.

So, not only does Hoeh misquote the selection, he misunderstands the passage entirely. In the end, the best thing we get from Herman Hoeh is a lesson on why paying attention to the details is valuable.

Hoeh's entire point is the people returned precisely when Rehoboam expected them to. With that I agree! If the king asks you to return after the third day but you return on the third day, and everyone is fine with that, then that is a good indicator that everyone understood it the same way and all happened as expected.

I am taking so much time on this for a good reason. It displays something very important. That being, we should accept the phrases "third day", "after three days", and "within three days" all mean exactly the same thing to these people. They were not as chronologically exact as we are. Why is this so important? Because these are the same phrases used to describe Jesus' entombment:

• "The third day" 11 times.
• "In three days" 5 times.
• "After three days" 2 times.
• "On the third day" 1 time.
• "Within three days" 1 time.

Twenty different verses describing one event that happened in one way. They all mean the same thing!

CONCLUSION

Today, we had important questions to answer.

• Does the phrase "three days" mean 72 hours? No.
• Were partial days counted as whole days? Yes.
• How did ancient Israel count days? Inclusively.
• Can Sunday morning be three days from Friday evening? By counting days as the people in the Bible did, yes, we can.

"Third day" means either "day after tomorrow" or "day before yesterday". The third day from Friday is Sunday. The third day from Wednesday is Friday. The Wednesday crucifixion timeline does not work.

A literalist will insist on 72-hours, but they base that on what, exactly? I find no evidence in the text to support this. My disagreement is based on what, exactly? Multiple verses and cultural context.

We cannot simply take everything literally. If we must take everything Jesus said literally, then we must believe that for 72 hours Jesus was literally in the beating heart, the cardio-vascular system, of the planet. He did say "heart of the earth" after all. No one has a problem with that part of His statement being idiomatic. Yes, dear reader, God sometimes uses colloquialisms and slang terms to communicate with us.

In the next post, we will see the twenty-first way the Bible describes Jesus' entombment.

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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )

Acts 17:11

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