Three Days and Three Nights?

One inconsistency that people claim to find in the Gospels is how long Jesus was buried. Because the New Testament claims to record historical events, we should be able to place events in time and space. The crucifixion happened in Jerusalem at Golgotha, but when did it happen, and how long was the time between Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection?

The Bible is clear that Jesus was raised on the first day of the week, which we call Sunday. That’s why from the very earliest existence of the church, Christians have met for worship on Sunday, the Lord’s day.1 The Bible is also clear that before he died, Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples and transformed it into the Lord’s supper. So the events of Jesus’ arrest and death had to happen between the Passover and that Sunday.

First, let’s look at all the passages that have anything to say about how much time would pass between Jesus’ death and resurrection, since the Bible is our authority as well as our best historical record for these events.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matthew 16:21)

And they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day. (Matthew 17:23)

And [they will] deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day. (Matthew 20:19)

Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, “After three days I will rise.” Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, “He has risen from the dead,” and the last fraud will be worse than the first. (Matthew 27:63–64)

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31)

For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” (Mark 9:31)

And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise. (Mark 10:34)

The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Luke 9:22)

And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise. (Luke 18:33)

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. (Luke 24:21)

And [he] said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” (Luke 24:46)

God raised him on the third day and made him to appear. (Acts 10:40)

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3–4)

We see that the majority of the time, Jesus is said to be raised on the third day. But Matthew 12:40 says that Jesus would spend “three days and three nights” in the tomb. Mark 8:31 says “after three days,” but the context of Matthew 27:63–64 makes it clear that Mark means “after three days” to be synonymous with third day.

But “the third day” after what? The arrest and scourging happened Thursday night (Friday according to Jewish reckoning), and if the clock started with the rejection and handing over to the Gentiles, not with the crucifixion and burial, then three nights actually passed with Jesus rising on the third day. Most of the statements of what would happen include the earlier events like the rejection, mocking, scourging, and betrayal. These are things that happened on Thursday night (Friday).

All Christians agree that Jesus rose on Sunday and that he was in the tomb on Saturday. Monday and Tuesday are not candidates for the crucifixion day because they don’t fit with “third day” or “three days and three nights.” Some people argue for a Wednesday crucifixion to strictly adhere to “three days and three nights,” but that results in Jesus being entombed longer than necessary, and Sunday is the fourth or fifth day after Wednesday (depending on whether Wednesday is Day 0 or Day 1), not the third.

So by process of elimination, we arrive at two possible days Jesus could have been crucified: Thursday and Friday. The vast majority of Christians, including all the church fathers, say that Jesus was crucified on Friday, which is why most churches celebrate Good Friday. However, some Christians argue that there is no way for Jesus to be in the ground for “three days and three nights” if he was crucified on Friday, so they say Jesus was crucified on Thursday. And skeptics say there is no way to reconcile “third day” with “after the third day” and “three days and three nights.” Are they correct?

The Day of Preparation

One piece of evidence we need to consider is the day of Preparation. That is the common first-century Jewish way of saying “Friday” because they prepared for the Sabbath on that day. A number of verses place the day of Preparation in relation to the events of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. (Matthew 27:62)

On the day after the crucifixion, the Jewish leaders appealed to Pilate to secure the tomb. The day after the Preparation would be the Sabbath. So the plain meaning of the passage is that after Jesus was crucified on Friday, the chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate on Saturday.2 Some people ask, if it was the Sabbath, why wouldn’t Matthew just say “the Sabbath”? As one theologian notes, it is possible that he used this wording because “this was not an ordinary sabbath but also the day of the Passover meal, Nisan 15. In this year, therefore, Friday was the day of preparation not only for the sabbath but also for the chief day of the festival, so that the phrase ‘the Preparation’ does double duty.”3

Ironically, given the nature of the debate, Matthew might have used this phrasing to be clear about the day on which these events took place! As Carson says, “This may be a way to avoid using the word ‘Sabbath,’ which can be ambiguous during a feast, since it could refer to the last day of the week or to a feast—Sabbath.”4

Also, saying “after the Preparation” contrasts the Jewish leaders’ actions with the followers of Jesus, who had gone to great lengths to care for Jesus’ body before the Sabbath so they could properly observe the Sabbath. To this point, Nolland writes, “Is Matthew quietly saying that, unlike Joseph, the chief priests and the Pharisees here had failed to do the preparing they deemed necessary and are here found doing it on the sabbath, in violation of at least its spirit and probably, in their own best lights, also its letter?”5

When evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath . . . (Mark 15:42)

Mark emphasizes the urgency of caring for Jesus’ body because of the approaching Sabbath. Evening was just before sunset, which would mark the onset of the Sabbath.6 Mark, like Matthew, says that the day of Preparation comes before the Sabbath, providing further evidence of a Friday crucifixion.7 People who believe the crucifixion took place on Thursday say that evening refers to after nightfall, and “the day of Preparation” had commenced (i.e., it was Thursday night, which was the beginning of Friday, the day of Preparation). However, if a day had commenced on which no work was allowed, it would have been too late for the burial, and if work was allowed on that day, it would not be urgent, as they could work into the night or the next day to bury Jesus.

It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. (Luke 23:54)

Luke is even clearer that Jesus’ burial took place on the day of Preparation when the Sabbath was beginning. Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross, wrapped in a linen cloth, and placed in the new tomb. The women observed where he was buried and prepared spices and perfume to anoint the body, but they were unable to carry it out before the Sabbath began. They rested on the Sabbath and returned at the earliest acceptable and practical moment, just after dawn on Sunday.

Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. (John 19:14)

John places Jesus’ trial, which was just before his crucifixion, on the day of Preparation of the Passover. People who believe Jesus was crucified on Friday would say this is simply a way of saying Friday of Passover week. People who believe Jesus was crucified on Thursday would say that “the day of Preparation of the Passover” means “Passover Eve,” the day people would prepare for the Passover. There is no evidence of “the day of Preparation” being unambiguously used in that way, however, and the plain meaning is that these events took place on Friday, which was the day of Preparation of Passover week.

This is a perfectly acceptable rendering, since “Passover” can refer to the Passover meal, the day of the Passover meal, or (as in this case) the entire Passover week. . . . In this view, John and the Synoptics agree that the last supper was eaten on Thursday evening (i.e. the onset of Friday, by Jewish reckoning), and was a Passover meal.8

A Thursday crucifixion position requires that the Last Supper was not Passover, and John’s wording is the most favorable to this position. However, the Synoptics portray the Last Supper as Passover, meaning that reading “day of Preparation for the Passover” here introduces a contradiction in the text that is unnecessary.9

Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. (John 19:31)

So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. (John 19:42)

Again, John brings up the timing of the crucifixion to explain why the legs of the two criminals were broken to speed up their death—so they could be buried before the Sabbath, especially since that Sabbath was a high day. They wanted everyone buried before the onset of the Sabbath, when the very important sheaf offering would be offered.10 Jesus was already dead, so his bones were not broken, and he was laid in the tomb before the onset of the Sabbath.

The Testimony of the Early Church Fathers

Almost immediately after the close of the New Testament canon, we have preserved writings from the earliest Christians talking about when they believed Jesus was crucified. They unanimously say that he was crucified on Friday. The church fathers are not infallible, and they can be wrong. However, when their testimony unanimously agrees, we should give that some weight, even if we don’t automatically accept it.

Ignatius, a disciple of the Apostle John, wrote around AD 100, less than a decade after the New Testament canon closed with the death of John, the last apostle:

On the day of the preparation, then, at the third hour, He received the sentence from Pilate, the Father permitting that to happen; at the sixth hour He was crucified; at the ninth hour He gave up the ghost; and before sunset He was buried. During the Sabbath He continued under the earth in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathaea had laid Him. At the dawning of the Lord’s day He arose from the dead, according to what was spoken by Himself, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man also be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath embraces the burial; the Lord’s Day contains the resurrection.11

Justin Martyr wrote in the first half of the second century:

But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.12

Irenaeus, in the late second or early third century, connected Jesus’ death on the sixth day with a traditional belief that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on the sixth day of the week:

The Lord, therefore, recapitulating in Himself this day, underwent his sufferings on upon the day preceding the Sabbath, that is, the sixth day of the creation, on which day man was creation; thus granting him a second creation my means of His passion, which is that [creation] out of death.13

Augustine, at the end of the fourth century, uses the events of the passion week to explain why Christians fasted on the fourth and sixth days of the week (Wednesday and Friday):

The reason why the Church prefers to appoint the fourth and sixth days of the week for fasting, is found by considering the gospel narrative. There we find that on the fourth day of the week the Jews took counsel to put the Lord to death. One day having intervened—on the evening of which, at the close, namely the day which we call the fifth day of the week, the Lord ate the Passover with His disciples—He was thereafter betrayed on the night which belonged to the sixth day of the week, the day (as is everywhere known) of His passion.14

If there are two possible readings of Scripture that are grammatically possible, but only one view is represented and clearly taught by the earliest church fathers, that is a strong point in favor of that view.

A Friday Crucifixion

The Friday crucifixion has the benefit of easily fitting most of the biblical evidence, the entirety of early church testimony, and the vast majority of Christianity since then. While church history is not infallible, when all branches of Christianity have a unanimous witness that goes back to the second century, we shouldn’t lightly discard that evidence.

On the other hand, a Friday crucifixion means that Jesus was only in the ground one full day and two full nights. However, if the clock started on Thursday night with Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, the “three days and three nights” make sense, with Jesus rising early on the third day.

A Thursday Crucifixion

The argument for a Thursday crucifixion is that the “day of Preparation,” on which our Savior was crucified and on the morning of which the Jewish leaders would not go into the judgment hall “lest they be defiled,” was not the day of Preparation (Friday) for the Jewish Sabbath, which occurred on Saturday, but as it reads, “the day of preparation for the Passover”; that is, the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, when the paschal lamb was to be killed (which was on Thursday in the year AD 30).

With the 16th of Nisan as the regular weekly Sabbath, we have the double Sabbath required. With a forty-eight-hour Sabbath, covering the 15th and the 16th, Jesus must have died on Thursday, Nisan 14th, and he must have risen from the dead on Sunday, the 17th. How often is such a combination possible? But once in six or seven years. In either the years 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, did the conjunction occur at a time to give this double Sabbath on the 15th and the 16th? Astronomy can answer this question and it says, No! Was its occurrence in A.D. 30 favorable to the combination of the double Sabbath? Astronomy can answer and does say, Yes! Here again Dr. Turner, who holds for A.D. 29 as the crucifixion year, is worsted. No dates in the life of Christ are more certainly known than Nisan 14th to 17th, Thursday to Sunday inclusive, April 6th to 9th, A.D. 30.15

Additionally, a Thursday crucifixion better suits the typology of the Passover events. When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, during the daytime hours of Nisan 10, he presented himself to the people by riding into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey (Matthew 21:7). As Jesus entered, the people hailed him as King. This is the day that the church calls Palm Sunday. If Jesus was crucified on a Thursday, he would have been killed before the Passover, just like the Passover lambs. However, that would mean that the last meal he shared with his disciples was not a Passover meal. As one commentator noted:

This presentation of Himself, which we often call the Triumphal Entry, and which Jesus told the Jews was the “day of your visitation” (Luke 19:44), was in fulfillment of the requirements for the Feast of the Passover. The lambs sacrificed on Nisan 14 were selected on Nisan 10 (Exodus 12:3) and presented for inspection that day. Jesus did just that in presenting Himself when He rode into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass. The lambs selected for the sacrifice were taken home and inspected over the next four days to ensure they were pure and spotless. Jesus was also questioned and tested (inspected) by the Jewish leaders.16

Conclusion

The claim that Jesus was crucified, buried, and raised on the third day is a nonnegotiable Christian claim that goes back to the very earliest statements of Christian faith. The claim that Jesus was crucified on Friday is consistent with statements in all four Gospels and is unambiguously stated by church fathers directly after the close of the New Testament canon, but it is not required in the creeds of the church.

It’s all about the one who was crucified in our place, rose from the dead, and is alive forevermore.

It is unnecessary to divide over an issue that is not a salvation issue, but one should be cautious when advancing a view that, while technically possible grammatically, was held nowhere in the early church (a Thursday crucifixion). However, the early church fathers may have placed too much emphasis on the “preparation day” automatically equaling Friday, regardless of any other Sabbaths during a holy week. So Christians are free to hold to either a Thursday or a Friday crucifixion, but the majority of the plain interpretation of Scripture and all the church fathers are on the side of the latter. We need to remember that the most important thing is not the day of the week the crucifixion took place. It’s all about the one who was crucified in our place, rose from the dead, and is alive forevermore. For he is risen, he is risen indeed!