Three days and three nights The "three days and three nights" mentioned in Matthew 12:40 have confused some people because of the supposed differences between how long Christ said He would be in the tomb as it relates to the amount of time between His burial and resurrection that are recorded in the Bible. Some people have declared that if we are to accept all of the teachings of the Bible. Was Jesus in the tomb for three days and three nights? (Matthew 12:40 vs.
Mark 15:42-47) Was Jesus in the tomb 3 days/nights? Therefore, Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 12:40 and the facts of His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection are not at odds, but simply reflect the common way of understanding days in the first century. The question of how Jesus Christ spent three days and three nights in the tomb is one that many believers, both new and seasoned, have grappled with. The confusion arises from trying to reconcile the timeline of Jesus' death, burial, and resurre.
The Context of Crucifixion and Burial To understand what Jesus was doing in the grave, we must first reflect on the events leading up to this period. After Jesus' crucifixion, which is documented in all four Gospels, he died on the cross and was laid in a tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea. Christ died around three in the afternoon on Friday and was entombed shortly thereafter.
The Resurrection occurred by dawn on Sunday. Thus he was in the tomb less than nine hours Friday (by the modern reckoning), twenty-four hours Saturday, and less than six hours Sunday-at any rate, far less than the seventy. Jesus died on Friday, Preparation Day, and rose on Sunday - that's why we commemorate the Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
No matter how we cut it, Jesus was not in the tomb for three nights. Jesus exited the tomb not long after the sun started rising. When we look at Jesus' act of salvation and its timing through the cultural context it was originally written in, we realize that He truly was in the tomb three days and three nights.
Jesus' prophesy from Mark 12:40, like all of His other words, came true. Indeed, Jesus' sacrificial death and miraculous resurrection on the third day is the glorious archetypal fulfillment of Old Testament types including the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12; cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7), Jonah's preservation "for three days and three nights" (Jonah 1:17), and the restoration of Israel "on the third day" prophesied.
There has been a long standing debate over the meaning of Matthew 12:40, "for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." In my opinion, the evidence supports the traditional view that Jesus was crucified on Friday afternoon and was in the grave part of Friday.