____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ September 3, 1995 ____________________________________________________ What About That Third Day? by Phil Roberts Jesus was in the tomb from late Friday afternoon until early Sunday morning--a period of only a little more than 36 hours. Yet Jesus said that he would be in the tomb for a period of three days and three nights, and that he would rise on the third day. He even used the case of Jonah, who was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, as an example of the type of sign he would give by his resurrection (Matt. 12:38-40). In response to this apparent problem, it has often been pointed out that the Jewish method of reckoning time was a little different from ours. When we say ``three days,'' we usually mean three whole days. But in their reckoning, the Jews would count even the smallest part of a day as if it were a whole day. Thus, a portion of Friday plus the whole day Saturday plus a portion of Sunday would be legitimately reckoned as ``three days'' even though only a small part of Friday and Sunday might be involved. In theory then, any period of just over 36 hours might fall so as to be reckoned as ``three days.'' This same method was used in counting years as well. An event beginning on Dec. 31, 1975 and continuing until Jan. 1, 1977 would have been reckoned as taking three years, even though the actual time lapse would only have been a year and a day. An example of this type of counting can be found in 2 Chron. 10:5,12. King Rehoboam tells the old men to depart and come back after three days. Yet in fulfillment of his command, they returned on the ``third day.'' Obviously only a part of ``three days'' was involved. Yet, some have wondered if this is really a satisfactory answer to the matter, for Jesus not only said that he would be in the tomb for three days, but for three nights as well. Yet, by no means of reckoning could Jesus have been in the tomb for more than two actual nights. So what about that third night? Was Jesus correct in saying that he would be in the tomb for three days and three nights? The answer to this question can be given in a manner similar to that outlined above, but not many people are aware of it. From the Babylonian Talmud we learn that in Jewish reckoning ``a day and a night together make up an `onah,' and that any part of such a period is counted as a whole.'' Now the word ``onah'' is translated into Greek by the word nuchthemeron, a compound word composed of the Greek word for night and the Greek word for day, and translated into English by the phrase ``a night and a day'' (2 Cor. 11:25). Thus it appears that the practice of counting a whole day when only a part of a day was involved was sometimes extended to include the night as well...to count a whole day ``night and day'' when only a part of the day (or perhaps a part of the night) was actually involved. So, when we read the account of Jonah being in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, we do not know if he was actually there during three different nights or not. Probably he was not--unless he was thrown overboard in the night and spit up in the night. And then he would only have been there for two days! The only thing we can know for certain is that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for at least a part of three ``day and night'' periods. Likewise, the only thing necessary for Jesus' statement to be true according to Jewish methods of counting time was for him to be in the tomb for at least part of three separate ``day and night'' periods. And he was. This idiomatic way of reckoning time can also be illustrated from the account of Moses' ascension into Mt. Sinai. We are told that he was there forty days and forty nights. Yet it appears quite obvious that he went up in the mountain in the daytime, and that he came down from the mountain in the daytime. Thus he could not have been up there exactly forty days and forty nights. He could have been up there forty days and thirty-nine nights, or he could have been up there forty-one days and forty nights. But he could not have been there for a literal forty days and forty nights. Thus the only way to make sense out of the biblical statement that he was there forty days and forty nights, and yet went up and came down in the daytime, is to realize that any part of a day would be reckoned by a Jew as a whole ``day and night'' period as far as his counting was concerned. That is exactly what we have in the case of Jesus' three days and three nights in the tomb. It seems that a similar instance of such reckoning can be found in 1 Sam. 30:11-13. There we are told that an Egyptian was abandoned by his comrades and then found on the third day thereafter (second day according to our way of counting) by the men of David. And in recounting the event we are told that the man had not had anything to eat or drink for three days and three nights. In conclusion, some have tried to solve this ``problem'' by suggesting that Jesus was crucified on Thursday instead of Friday. In this connection, it has also been argued that the gospel of John places the crucifixion on Thursday so as to allow for a full three days and three nights. But this notion stems from a misunderstanding of the phrase, ``preparation of the Passover'' in John 19:14. This does not refer to the day of preparation before the Passover, but to the fact that the Passover of that year fell on a Friday, which was the day or preparation for the following Sabbath. In sum, John places the crucifixion on Friday just as Matthew, Mark, and Luke do. Indeed, if John had placed the crucifixion on Thursday, that would not have solved anything, for then Jesus would have been in the tomb for four days, according to Jewish reckoning. -- Via Words of Life, November 13, 1980 ___________________________________________ "For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Romans 14:9). ___________________________________________ Time in the New Testament by Tom Edwards In the New Testament, mention is made of the ``third hour'' (Matt. 20:3), the ``sixth hour,'' (Luke 23:44), the ``seventh hour'' (John 4:52), the ``ninth hour'' (Matt. 20:5), the ``tenth hour'' (John 1:39), the ``eleventh hour'' (Matt. 20:6), and it alludes to a ``twelfth hour''--as well as all the others from hours one to twelve that are not specifically mentioned (John 11:9). For here Jesus rhetorically asks, ``Are there not twelve hours in the day?'' In addition the New Testament also speaks of a ``second watch,'' ``third'' watch (Luke 12:38), and ``fourth watch'' (Mat. 14:25), which also indicates that there must have been a ``first watch.'' But our question is just exactly when were these times in relation to our modern hours? Going all the way back to the beginning, the day was divided. Genesis 1:5 speaks of this natural division as ``the evening and the morning,'' which made the ``first day.'' Evening, of course, beginning at sunset; and morning, at sunrise. This was one of the purposes for the sun, moon, and stars that God made on the fourth day of creation, to ``separate the day from the night,'' and to serve as ``signs, and for seasons, and for days and years'' (Gen. 1:14-18). In the Old Testament, the word ``hour'' is used only five times in the King James Version, while not even once in the New American Standard version. All five occurrences are in the book of Daniel, and four of them speak of things happening in the ``same hour,'' which is simply translated as ``immediately'' or ``suddenly'' in the New American Standard Bible. It is said that it was the Egyptians who divided the day and night into hours about 1200 B.C., but that the division of days into 24 hours was unknown prior to the fourth century B.C. In the New Testament, as we just saw, we read of different ``hours'' during the day, and various ``watches'' through the night. Going back to the Old Testament, Judges 7:19 speaks of the ``middle watch,'' and 1 Samuel 11:11, ``the morning watch.'' It is the Romans who are attributed with initializing this use of ``four'' night watches. According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the ``night was divided, during preexilic times, into three divisions called watches.'' Consider the above chart to better see of the Jewish division of time during the early New Testament period. For clarification, the 1st hour is 6 A.M., the 3rd hour is 9 A.M., the 6th hour is 12 noon, and the 9th hour is 3 P.M. ___________________________________________ Take time for Jesus -- He definitely took time for you! ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 1314 Montgomery Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________