Some would suggest that “three days later” (or, as Matthew 12 puts it: the sign of Jonah, three days and three nights) rules out a Friday crucifixion.
You simply cannot get “three days and three nights” by counting from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning.
So, if that’s the case, “Good Friday” is an invalid name. It should be called “Sad Friday,” because the disciples were undoubtedly in deep mourning for their dead leader that day.
Scripture strongly points toward a Thursday afternoon crucifixion, followed by a double Sabbath (the Passover Sabbath on Thursday, followed by the weekly Sabbath on Saturday), with resurrection and joy on Sunday morning. John’s gospel even says that the day after the crucifixion was a “Special Sabbath,” indicating it wasn’t a Saturday.
It matters to those of us who believe that Scripture means what it says.
Jesus said 3 days and 3 nights in Hell. Have you actually been to Hell? Days and nights in hell may have no correlation with time here on this Earth. We measure a day on the Earth by the travel of the Sun, but I don’t believe there is a sunny day in Hell.
Somehow, the contradiction with Lk 24:45 needs to be reconciled. The best explanation I have heard is that "3 days and 3 nights" was a Hebrew expression that literally meant 3 days. I do not know Hebrew and my Greek is woefully lacking, so it is difficult for my to go back to original docs or early copies and determine what was meant 2000 years ago.
It must bepointed out that people in the ancient world counted differently than we do. When marking time or steps, ancient people counted the one on whcih their were standing as #1. Here’s an example:
Suppose you played Monopoly with Julius Caesar and he had his chariot on Free Parking. He throws a 10 and you smile because you claim he just landed on Go to Jail. He says no, I’ve landed on Marvin Gardens. You say no- Kentucky Ave is 1, the railroad is 5 and Go to Jail is 10. Julius Caesar says that you’re being ridiculous. Free Parking is 1, Kentuck is 2, the railroad is 6 and Marvin Gardens is 10.
Jesus died and rose in three days. Friday is 1, Saturday is 2 and Sunday is 3.
“Joy on Sunday morning”? meaning He resurrected on Sunday morning? But was crucified, “a Thursday afternoon”? Then He rose on the FOURTH day; not “on the third day according to the Scriptures” .....
Jedidah, I agree with our conclusions.
Further, in addition to John’s mention of special Sabbath, Matthew 28:1 states “Sabbaths”, not “Sabbath”.
It appears there were at two Sabbaths.
Also, even if, as bobjam suggested, the counting begins as Friday being the first day counted with his monopoly example, this still cannot account for both 3 DAYS and 3 NIGHTS, even in Jewish reconing of days beginning and ending at sunset. Simpply not at all possible.
In order for Jesus’s promise of 3 days and 3 nights to have been fulfilled accurately, the crucifixion must have occurred on Thursday.
His peace to all who seek His truth.
If you study ancient the Hebrew language, and the culture, you will know that the numbers themselves were literally part of the alphabet, and had symbolic meanings-—AND, they used numbers loosely (Luke in Acts speaks of the enslavement in Egypt as “four hundred years” (Acts 7:6) in one place and as “about four hundred-fifty years” (Acts 13:20) in another place.
Was Luke contradicting himself? A computer would say so...but scripture is written in common every-day conversational language. In the same way we talk about America’s founders of “200 years ago” (even though Washington, Franklin, Samuel Adams, and many other founders were long dead in 1810) the biblical writers used numbers. Hence in Jesus’ case, any part of a day, is considered “a day. Friday afternoon...is Friday. Saturday-day, is Saturday. Sunday morning (from Sat. sunset through the night) is Sunday. Three days—by their common sense, common usuage definition—of 1st Century Hebrew culture.
Does a computer think so, since 72 full hours had not elapsed? Neither the writer nor the readers are computers though....nor are they precision-enslaved, industrial era, time-driven, 21st Century humans...