3rd Holy Bible question

[dougedwards]

Since we are asking questions I thought I would get some input on a passage of scripture that has baffled me. Of course this isn't the only passage in the Holy Bible that causes me to pause and scratch my head but it is one that any sensible person who can count might find contradictory. The following is from the gospel of Matthew 12:38-40

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For 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.

If Jesus was crucified and gave up his human life late in the evening on Friday and then early on Sunday morning while it was still dark the stone had been rolled away and Jesus had already been resurrected.......how is this three days and three nights in the heart of the earth??

Anyone have any ideas or input on how this can be?

Doug

[craigf]

It is 3 days by the Jewish way of counting. Basically, he was dead on Friday, not all of it, dead on Saturday, all of it, and dead on Sunday, not all of it. It made sense back then.

[dougedwards]

Jan 23, 2010 14:19:14 GMT -5 craigf said:

It is 3 days by the Jewish way of counting. Basically, he was dead on Friday, not all of it, dead on Saturday, all of it, and dead on Sunday, not all of it. It made sense back then.

What about the nights?

[Deleted]

There are several explanations as to this apparent contradiction. I think this one best explains it.....

The expression “three days and three nights” is an idiom [an expression or usage peculiar to a particular language or region]. Any part of a day and of a night was considered a day and a night. The same is true for reckoning years. For example, if a king came to the throne in the tenth month of the year and died in the sixth month of the next year, He would have reigned for two years. So with Jesus’ chronology, if He died on Friday and was laid in the tomb, that would be the first “day and a night”; His being in the tomb Saturday would count the second day and a night, and rising on Sunday would cover the third “day and a night.” It is idiomatic, and not intended to be calculated to the precision of 72 hours. [In the context of this passage a period of 26 hours could be called three days and nights.]

The important thing I see here is that Jesus was telling them that they would have one more opportunity to be convinced--the sign of His resurrection would prove who He is and what His death was all about. They had rejected every other sign that Jesus had given them, so there was one more, but they would have to wait for it. This sign--the death and resurrection--would confirm that Jesus indeed is the Messiah, the Son of God.

I love the fact that there are true men of God that frequent this board
Zen

[dougedwards]

Zen......I didn't know that in the Jewish culture that any part of a day would constitute a day and a night in their terms but that would explain it.

Thanks

Doug

[craigf]

We live and think in a scientific age. Theirs was a general one and cultures like this still exist. If you told me that you would meet me at 2:00 and showed up at 2:30 you would agree that you are late. In many parts of Africa if someone said that they would meet me at 2:00 and showed up at 4:00 they would say that they are not late. To them 2:00 means "afternoon sometime" since it occurs in the afternoon.

Doug, very good question!