Was Jesus resurrection on Sunday?

As I stated in the introduction to this website, in my younger years I came to envision several questions based on what I had the opportunity of Bible reading and what religious authority of the day offered as the actual truth of the matter. One of these many questions related to the day Jesus died on the cross and the day of His resurrection. For years I had the question in my mind. How come is that from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning is three days and three nights? I did not see this as an actual truth. As of today, organized Christianity continues teaching that Jesus died on the cross on what today is a Friday and that His resurrection takes place on what today is Sunday. If this is true, the question is this: Had Jesus been in the grave for three days and three nights? According to today’s teaching by organized Christianity, the answer to this question is an emphatic NO. If Jesus was buried on Friday afternoon and raised on Sunday morning, the answer is NO; these are not three days and three nights. What proof did Christ offer that He was the Messiah? The Pharisees challenged Him on this very point and He gave them an answer Now, Jesus himself said the following: From Matthew 12:38 to Matthew 12:40 -- Revised Version “Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet: 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.” Now, allow me to present a scale of time as God himself designed for mankind to follow. We need to go back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. In this book, we learn that God established the day to be from Sunset to Sunset. Here you have scripture: (same Revised Version) Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. Genesis 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind: and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day Genesis 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, Genesis 1:18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. Genesis 1:23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. Genesis 1:30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Genesis 2:1 And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it: because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. According to God, the following could be a picture representing the seven days of the week.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

How, then, does the “Good Friday-Easter Sunday” tradition fit? Can 72 hours (three days and three nights) be made to fit into a period between late day Friday and early Sunday morning? Why do so few even seem to question this only sign that Christ said He would give that He was the Messiah? Could He have been wrong on this single great proof of who He was and still has been the Messiah? Since no one directly witnessed His Resurrection, we must examine the only available authority on this great event—your Bible! The apostle Paul said, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (I Thes. 5:21). The Bible is the revealed Word of God. It is His written revelation to mankind. Prepare to be shocked at what the Bible does and does not say on this vital point! While professing Christians willingly accept the traditions of men, true disciples (learners, students) of Christ want to know what HE says. Christ warned, “In vain do they worship Me teaching for doctrines the traditions of men.” What standard will you use? Will you accept the recorded facts of history found in God's Word—or continue with the familiar, comfortable traditions of men? This sign has foundational importance and meaning for Christians. Sometimes I see the subtle works of Satan when looking not only at the national but at the worldwide landscape of Christianity. There are a number of teachings and beliefs twisted or moved to the realm of myths propagated and vigorously taught by so-called Christian teachers from the pulpit. It is not a surprise that Satan would seek to relegate the story of Jonah and the “whale” to folklore, myth, symbolism, and superstition. If this miracle never occurred, then Christ's sign, based entirely upon it, is nothing more than a hollow and pointless allegory. Consider what is at stake in Jesus' statement in Matthew 12:39-40. Jesus placed His entire identity on the line with His sign. If He failed His only sign, then He is not our Savior and nothing He said can be trusted. In effect, if His prophecy of this sign failed, then He must be considered a false prophet. He would be a fraud and should not be followed and MANKIND HAS NO SAVIOR! Do not confuse the fact of the resurrection's occurrence as being the sign, with the question of “how long”—the precise length of time—He would be in the grave before His resurrection took place. This was the test of His sign. Be under no illusion about the position of Bible critics—sometimes known as “higher critics.” While it is embarrassing to watch them try to explain away Christ's only sign, they have no choice. If Christ's sign remains intact, the Good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition would be exposed as groundless—false—and collapse in a heap! Some Bible commentaries nearly leave one breathless in astonishment when they assert that three days and three nights, in the Greek language, can mean three periods of time—either day or night. Friday night, Saturday daylight, and Saturday night are portrayed as these three “periods” of time. At least some are honest enough to acknowledge that the Friday-Sunday tradition is, in fact, only about half the length of time that Christ said He would be in the grave. What Are Days and Nights? Can we know for certain or must we speculate on the meaning—the definition—of a day or the meaning of a night? Does the Bible leave this definition open to opinion—with one man's opinion as good as another? Jonah 1:17 plainly says, “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Here, scholars face a dilemma when they explore the phrase “three days and three nights.” Some of these same “scholars”—who are critics—acknowledge that the Hebrew language must mean 72 hours. There is no room for any “periods” theories in Hebrew. Here is the problem! Christ said His time in the grave would be “as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish's belly...” The word “as” sets the standard of comparison. It leaves no room to “negotiate” the meaning of the Greek. The margin of Jonah 2:2 even compares Jonah's time in the “great fish” to “the grave.” In this verse, the Hebrew word translated as “hell” is Sheol. It means “the grave.” The comparison of Christ to Jonah—in a grave—becomes complete. I need to include in this article a word about Jesus' view of time. Some believers are proposing that Jesus did not have a clear understanding of time. The following argument is almost insulting, but I have heard the questioning of whether Jesus knew or if He had a complete understanding of the length of the day and the length of the night. Well, YES he did. See John 11:9,10 The Third Day I have included a graphical depiction of the scale of time according to God, this is, according to Genesis. In this graphical depiction, we can see the day as a period of 24 hours from Sunset to Sunset. The Bible mentions in several places that Christ rose on “the third day.” How long was this? The first half of the creation chapter, in Genesis 1:4-13, plainly says that God “divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. And the evening [darkness] and the morning [light] were the first days...And the evening [darkness] and the morning [light] were the second days...And the evening [now THREE periods of darkness called night—three nights] and the morning [now THREE periods of light called day—three days] were the third day.” This is the Bible's definition of the length of time accounted for within the phrase “the third day.” It spanned three periods of darkness and three periods of light. We have proven that each of these periods is twelve hours. Six times twelve hours equals 72 hours! What could be plainer? The Problem of Many Without a doubt, we can confidently now affirm that Jesus was in three days and three nights in the tomb as a 72-hour period, no less. And again, as He said, “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.” John 2:19-21 states, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up...But He spoke of the temple of His body.” Clearly, the use of the phrase “in three days” means that Christ's time in the tomb could not exceed 72 hours—or it would not be within the three-day period. Conversely, Matthew 27:63 establishes Jesus' time in the tomb as not less than three days, or 72 hours, for it says, “After three days I will rise again. After three days are 72 hours. It is not 36 or 48 or 55 hours, it is 72 hours.” Examining two additional verses in Mark's gospel account proves the same parameters of John 2 and Matthew 27. Notice Mark 8:31: “And He began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” A late Friday afternoon entombment means a late Monday afternoon resurrection. The issue is very simple! Finally, in reference to this verse, if it stood alone without other scriptures to qualify it—it must be plainly admitted that Christ's use of the word “after” does not, by itself, limit His time in the tomb to 72 hours. He could still be there longer. He just could not be there one bit less than 72 hours. This much should now be clear. Please see the following graphic depicting the 72 hours from the Friday afternoon that the tradition of men has taught for centuries!

Based on this graphical depiction of the three days after Jesus was buried and according to the fact that Maria Magdalene found an empty tomb at the dawn of the first day (Matthew 28,1) we now know that Jesus did not die on Friday! Establishing the Time of the Resurrection The following fact should be clear. The exact moment and time of day when Christ was placed in the tomb had to coincide with the exact time of day of His Resurrection. We must establish precisely when Christ was placed in the tomb. We will then know precisely when He left the tomb. Plainly, any time of day or night—morning, noon, afternoon, evening, midnight, etc.—that Christ would have entered the tomb would have to be the very same time He would depart it by His resurrection! I have searched for many years for the answer to the following questions: What day did Jesus die? And what day did Jesus resurrect? As I stated at the beginning of this article, the 72 hours period from Friday to Sunday did not offer me a satisfactory answer at all. It was clear that something was missing from my understanding and from my reading of Scripture. While on the cross, after “the ninth hour” (three o'clock in the afternoon), Jesus “cried out” and died. Luke 23:44 also makes a reference to “the sixth hour, and there was darkness in all the earth until the ninth hour.” The sixth hour is six hours after sunrise—or noon! This would make the ninth hour three o'clock. These events occurred on the day before “a Sabbath”—the day called “the preparation” (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54). Remember that the Bible counts days as the period from evening to evening (Lev. 23:32) or sunset to sunset. Establishing the time of Jesus’ death is of the most important because it will serve us as a pivotal point to begin counting the 72 hours for His resurrection from the tomb. The Crucifixion Preceded a Sabbath—But Which Sabbath? Matthew 26:2 states, “You know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.” There is no doubt that Christ was crucified on the Passover. Leviticus 23 shows that the Passover was the one feast that was not also a Sabbath, wherein work was prohibited. The original Passover is described in Exodus 12. A lamb was slain and the blood of this lamb was struck over the doorposts of all the Israelite houses. It was this blood that caused the death angel to pass over any particular house, thus saving the firstborn of that house from death! Hence, the term “Passover.” The Old Testament Passover always preceded the annual Sabbath called the First Day of Unleavened Bread. This day was a high day or a feast day to be celebrated each year, again, on the day immediately following the Passover. Notice Numbers 28:16-17: “And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the Lord. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast.” This feast was the first day of Unleavened Bread. Jesus Christ was slain by crucifixion on the exact same day that the Passover lamb had been slain every year. See I Corinthians 5:7 plainly states, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” John the Baptist called Christ “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Christ was crucified on the Passover and this day then would automatically be a preparation day for the feast day, or annual high day Sabbath—which was to begin almost immediately after His burial. The day after Passover was a Sabbath but not the weekly Sabbath taking place on the seventh day of the week. Up to this moment we have the following: • Jesus did not die on the cross on Friday. • Jesus died on the cross around three o’clock afternoon. • Jesus was not buried on Friday afternoon, otherwise His resurrection was on Monday afternoon or 72 hours after his burial. • Passover is a national feast but not a Sabbath (Leviticus 23). Jesus was crucified on Passover day. • Following Passover, this is, the following day after Passover is the annual Sabbath but not the weekly Sabbath. Any Jew will tell you that a “high day” is a FEAST DAY or an ANNUAL HOLY DAY! Leviticus 23 describes seven of these days that the nation of ancient Israel was commanded to keep year by year. A simple review of this chapter (verses 24, 26-32, and 39) reveals that God considered these days to be Sabbaths. Notice that Leviticus 23:2 refers to all of these Sabbaths as “the feasts of the LORD” and “even these are my feasts.” This same verse also calls them “holy convocations”—meaning commanded assemblies. These days do not fall on the same day, year after year, any more than do the common pagan holidays that most people observe today. Which Was the Day of the Resurrection? Jesus’ resurrection was not on Monday or the second day of the week. We can be sure of this based on Scripture, specifically Matthew 28, 1. Matthew 28:1 Now late on the Sabbath, when the dawn of the first day of the week was near, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the place where his body was. The Sabbath Matthew is referring to is the weekly Sabbath because the following day is the first day of the week (our Sunday). By the time Mary Magdalene and the other Mary visited the tomb of Jesus, he was not there already. Jesus had resurrected already. By the time Mary Magdalene and the other Mary visited the tomb of Jesus, he was not there. This means that by the time Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came, Jesus was already resurrected. Jesus’ resurrection took place before the first day, this is, Jesus, resurrected on Saturday afternoon, exactly 72 hours after he was buried and exactly as He said in Mark 9,31. Which Was the Day of the Crucifixion? Since Jesus’ resurrection took place on Saturday, 72 hours after his burial, all we need to do is to move the time 72 hours back from Saturday to 3:00. This takes us to 3 O’clock on Wednesday, the day of the crucifixion and death of Jesus in the cross.

Note about the 3:00 PM I am using here in the text. We do not truly know the hour of the day Jesus was buried. Remember that Joseph from the town of Arimathea went asking Pilate for Jesus’ body. He placed Jesus in his tomb after cleaning his body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. (Matthew 27, verses 57-61). All these actions took some time, perhaps one hour, perhaps two? If finally Jesus was buried at 5:00 PM then His resurrection took place 72 hours after this hour. Paul adds a final, great, corroborating proof that Christ did spend three entire days and three entire nights—from late Wednesday afternoon until late Saturday afternoon—in the tomb. In I Corinthians 15:3-4, Paul validates the words of Christ and the two angels who witnessed His fulfillment. Notice: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures.”