On March 29, 2024, marks the traditional observance of Jesus’ crucifixion. But did you know that there is an alternate timeframe to this event?

Jesus declared that He would be in the grave for three days and three nights just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. Traditionally Friday to Sunday was somehow changed to mean three parts of three days/nights. One such idea comes from the period of time when darkness prevailed during the time Jesus was on the cross, and that this timeframe constituted “night.”

When considering how time was stated in the creatioon account, the beginning of a new day began at night. “There was evening and morning.” So, if Jesus were in the grave for a literal three days and nights, how can we find this in the Bible? The key is in John’s gospel where he uses the terminology of “a high day” to clarify the difference between the weekly Sabbath and the annual holy days. In John 19:31, John writes of the sabbath that would begin at evening, and requring the bodies be taken down from the crosses and buried before the sun set beginning the “Sabbath” This was called the day of preparation. In the same verse, John stated that this approaching day was a “high day.” This high day was the beginning of the Days Of Unleavened Bread. Jesus, the Lamb Of God, was crucified at the time that the Passover lambs were being slaughtered.

To get to a Sunday resurrection, Jesus would have been killed on a Wednesday. Since the Holy day began at evening, Jesus had to be laid in the tomb at the end of Wednesday, and thus Thursday evening began the high day. On the high day, no work could be done, and the women who wanted to prepare Jesus’ body for a proper burial, wanted to buy spices to annoint His body, but they couldn’t do so until the day of preparation before the weekly Sabbath. So Jesus was in the tomb on what we should call Thursday evening and Thursday. Then the following evening would be Friday evening and the subsequent morning would be Fsriday. This is when the women gathered the spices and prepared them for Jesus’ annointing. But then comes the weekly Sabbath, when there was a day of rest, and Jesus was in the tomb from the evening of Saturday and the morning of that Sabbath day. So when the women came to the tomb Early on the first day of the week, which would have been after the sun set afterr the weekly Sabbath ended, the tomb was already empty.

So Jesus was in the tomb from what we would call Wednesday night and Thursday morening,a day. Then He was in the tomb Thursday evening and Friday morning, the second day, and finally, Friday evening and Saturday morning. Then after these three days, He arose!