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Was Jesus Christ Really in the Grave
for Three Days and Three Nights?
Most of Christianity believes Christ was crucified on a Friday
and resurrected on a Sunday -- while a select few believe that
Christ was put to death on a Wednesday and rose from the dead
on a Saturday. Who is right? Or, are both groups wrong? A cor-
rect understanding of the original Greek and the lunar-based cal-
endar as employed by the Jews and Christians of the 1st century,
reveals that the days of the week, as we know them today, were
not in use and that Jesus died on a Wednesday and rose from the
dead on a Friday as we reckon the days in the pagan Gregorian
calendar of today.
John D. Keyser
According to the New Testament gospels Jesus Christ performed many miracles during His
brief three-year ministry in the land of Israel. Many of His fellow Jews came to believe in Him
when they saw such signs and wonders being performed. The Pharisees and Sadducees, however,
refused to believe in Him and, although His miracles were widely known in the land, they often
pressed Him to perform signs to prove His Messiahship. An instance of this occurred in Matthew
16:1 where "the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a
sign from heaven." On one occasion Jesus answered them by saying that He would give them only
one sign --
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except
the SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAH. For as Jonah was THREE DAYS AND THREE
NIGHTS in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be THREE DAYS AND
THREE NIGHTS in the heart of the earth" -- Matthew 12:39-40.
According to William F. Dankenbring --
This seems like plain language, in English. Three days and three nights would constitute
72 hours, since there are 24 hours in a whole day. Jesus Himself said elsewhere, "Are
there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because
he seeth the light of this world" (John 11:9). Since the Messiah Himself defines a day as
equating twelve hours, then the night would also equal twelve hours, and the two added
together would be 24 hours. That is simple arithmetic. Three days and three nights, then,
would be 3X12=36 hours of day, and 3X12=36 hours of night, and 36 + 36 = 72 hours.
As Sherlock Holms would say, "Elementary, my dear Watson!" (How Long Was Jesus
Christ in the Grave?).
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