PASSOVER

Three Days and Three Nights

We have personally not celebrated Easter/Resurrection Sunday in about 19 years (as a conviction brought upon us years ago by the Spirit of Yahweh). We hope you find resolve in some questions you may have pertaining to why many have been hoodwinked to follow traditions of man rather than the true Jesus Christ. It’s not too late to turn back to Him.

Below is a chapter except out of the book “The True Jesus – Unknown to Christianity” by David Pack as it explains Passover vs. Easter. https://rcg.org/books/ttjc.html

Chapter 12 begins:

Throughout the book, we have alluded to Jesus being in the grave for three full days and three full nights, in contrast to the common Good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition. Now we will thoroughly examine the timing of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. By the end of this chapter, you will have no doubt that the commonly held views of how long Jesus was in the grave are simply not biblically accurate.

In Matthew 12, the Pharisees challenged Jesus to prove with a sign that He was the prophesied Messiah. His answer? “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:39-40).

Here it is most plain that Jesus would be in the grave for three days and three nights—in other words, three complete 24-hour days.

How, then, does the “Good Friday-Easter Sunday” tradition fit? Can 72 hours (three days and three nights) 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 have been the Messiah?

Since no one directly witnessed His Resurrection, we must examine the only available authority on this great event—the Bible! The apostle Paul said to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (I Thes. 5:21).

While most willingly accept the common traditions of men, true disciples (learners, students) of Jesus want to know what HE says.

The Tremendous Importance of His Sign

Consider what is at stake in Jesus’ statement in Matthew 12:39-40. 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 resurrection itself with the question of “how long” Jesus would be in the grave before His resurrection took place. The length of time He was to be in the grave was the test of His sign not the actual resurrection.

While it is embarrassing to watch so-called “Bible experts” try to explain away Christ’s only sign, they really 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 leave one nearly 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 Jesus 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.” Most scholars acknowledge that this Hebrew phrase must mean a 72-hour period. Without getting into specifics, there is no room for any “approximations of time” theories in the Hebrew.

Jesus said His time in the grave would be “as Jonah.” The word “as” means there is a comparison. In other words, just like Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three entire days, Jesus was to be in the grave for three entire days. This comparison does not allow one to “negotiate” the meaning of the Greek, as some like to do, since the Hebrew phrase can only mean three full days.

Did Jesus understand the length of a “day” or the length of a “night”?

He did! In John 11:9, He asked, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?”

In several places, the Bible mentions that Jesus rose “the third day.” How long was this? The first half of the creation chapter, Genesis 1:4-13, plainly states that God “divided the light from darkness. And God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. And the evening [darkness] and the morning [light] were the first day…And the evening [darkness] and the morning [light] were the second day…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 phrases “the third day” and “three days and three nights.” It spanned three periods of darkness and three periods of light. Six times 12 hours equals 72 hours!

How clear!

The Source of the Problem

We have now established the exact duration of Christ’s time in the tomb as a 72-hour period. He was there for three days and three nights “as Jonah was.” We will shortly examine four additional scriptures that prove the same thing.

In Mark 7:13, Jesus warns against “making the word of God of none effect through your tradition.” How is it that intelligent, well-educated Bible scholars seem to “know” that Jesus was crucified on Friday and resurrected on Sunday? What is it about Jesus’ clear, straightforward sign that they cannot accept? The answer lies in the comfort of long-held—but clearly false—traditions!

One of the most important rules of Bible study is to gather all of the scriptures on a subject to gain the complete picture. There are other scriptures that prove the 72-hour duration of Christ’s time in the tomb.

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, “Afterthree days I will rise again.”

Examining two additional verses in Mark’s gospel account prove 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. It is as simple as counting one, two, three! If this verse stood alone without other scriptures to qualify it, it must be 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.

We are now ready for Mark 9:31: “They shall kill Him; and after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day.” This verse presents another limitation on Christ’s time in the tomb. Consider! This verse, if taken by itself, places His time in the grave between 48 and 72 hours. The phrase “the third day” caps the duration at 72 hours—but it also creates a minimum of 48 hours—or the period would be somewhere in the second day! Again, if this verse is to be taken alone, a Friday afternoon crucifixion requires a resurrection sometime after late Sunday afternoon and no later than late Monday afternoon.

Accepted by Professing Christianity

The Good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition distorts the truth of what actually happened. Since the originators of this false doctrine had no sound biblical proof or authority, they resorted to fraudulent tactics to legitimize their fabrications. One such claim was that Hermes, the brother of Pope Pius (about the year AD 147) “had received instruction from an angel, who commanded that all men should keep the Pasch [Passover] on the Lord’s day [Sunday]” (Antiquities of the Christian Church, Joseph Bingham, p. 1149).

In time, Sunday came to represent the Passover as the time of Christ’s crucifixion and burial, and the resurrection. However, since it was not logical to condense the events of three days and three nights into only one day, the idea of a Friday crucifixion was born. The above-mentioned letter from Hermes was used to validate the position of Anicetus, Pius’s successor, who disputed with Polycarp over the issue of transferring Passover to a Sunday. Trained by the apostle John, Polycarp held fast and taught the observance of Passover as Christ and the apostles had always done. Yet, the bishops of Rome had other ideas.

Thus, the letter from Hermes was either a forgery or it was deceptively written by Pius, who died just before Polycarp’s visit to Rome (Apostolical Fathers, James Donaldson, p. 324). The bishops at Rome had decreed that they possessed the power to supersede and change the times and laws of God (see Daniel 7:25). They rewrote history and changed the order of events to introduce their false doctrines.

Their effort to change the day of the resurrection to Sunday was simply a continuation of a Babylonian tradition—that Nimrod (father of the Babylonian Mystery Religion) was resurrected on a Sunday. By AD 321, Roman Emperor Constantine established Sunday as part of the official state religion, thus legitimizing all the various traditions attached to that day.

What Really Happened from Burial to Resurrection

As we saw in Chapter Eight, Jesus’ crucifixion occurred on Passover day, the 14th of Abib (or Nisan), the first month in God’s Sacred Calendar. This occurred in the year AD 31, in which Passover fell on a Wednesday. Many fail to consider the prophecy that the Messiah would be “cut off…in the midst of the week” (Dan. 9:26-27). Wednesday falls in the middle of the week—the very day upon which Passover fell in AD 31. According to the Roman calendar, this date was Wednesday, April 25.

Between the ninth and twelfth hours (3:00-6:00 p.m.), Christ died (Luke 23:44-46). With Governor Pilate’s permission, Joseph of Arimathaea procured the body, wrapped it in linen (John 19:40) and placed it in the sepulcher (Luke 23:50-53). By the time the burial was complete, the Sabbath “drew on” (vs. 54). Thus, the burial took place on Passover day, shortly before sunset.

Passover is a preparation day; it precedes an annual Sabbath. This annual Sabbath (called the First Day of Unleavened Bread) was called a high Sabbath or “high day” (John 19:31) and fell on a Thursday that year. It was on this day that the high priest and the Pharisees came to Pilate to ensure that Christ’s tomb was securely guarded and sealed (Matt. 27:62-66).

Mark 16:1 records what occurred on that Friday: “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him.” (Verse 2 jumps to Sunday morning.) The phrase, “and when the Sabbath was past,” refers to the high day that occurred on Thursday. Since the women could not buy spices on the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday), Friday was the only time they could have done so.

Luke 23:56 states, “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.” After buying the spices, they returned and prepared them to be applied to Christ’s body in the tomb, which they planned to do after resting on the weekly Sabbath (Saturday).

Luke 24:1 states, “Now upon the first day of the week [Sunday], very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.” The women found the tomb empty (vs. 3). Two angels in shining garments informed them that Christ was already “risen” (vs. 4-6). Mark 16:2 states that the women were present “at the rising of the sun.” This means Jesus was resurrected before sunrise. John 20:1 further tells us that Mary Magdalene came early “when it was yet dark” and found the stone that sealed the tomb was already rolled away. No sunrise resurrection could have occurred—because Jesus was already resurrected!

Nowhere does Scripture record that Jesus rose at sunrise on Sunday morning. However, it does tell us that Christ would be in His grave for three days and three nights. Anyone willing to believe the Bible should not find this difficult to accept. In fact, it is the only logical conclusion that can be drawn. Christ was placed in the tomb just before sunset on Wednesday. Three complete days (three days and three nights) bring us to the end of the weekly Sabbath, just prior to sunset, when Christ was resurrected—just as He had prophesied!