Except then you would need to count Saturday “night” (morning) too - making it four nights.
From what I can find, the Jews counted any part of one day as an entire day:
Excerpt:
In Esther 4:16 she calls a fast for 3 days and 3 nights before she goes into the king. Then in 5:1 she went into the king on the 3rd day....
Also Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah (10th from Ezra, 100AD) said: “a day and a night are an Onah (a portion of time) and a portion of an Onah is as the whole of it” (in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud).
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In that article, there is another way of perhaps bringing into play a third night. The three hours of darkness during the middle of Friday!
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I read another article where the person looked more at the words “in the heart of the earth”. He somehow linked that term to Jesus’s punishment for the world’s sin which began when he was captured on Thursday night and brought to the various leaders.
He said that was the only time in the Bible that phrase was used.
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Most of the articles that I read say that the Jews at the time would have heard the “three days and three nights” as the day after tomorrow - or on the third day.
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Somewhere in my browsing, one of the Gospel writers makes it sound like Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem was on a Monday, while the other three say Sunday. Someday I might remember to look into that too!
If one looks back into the Old Testament, one can know what day Christ entered triumphantly.
It was the 10th day. The Day in the Old Testament, Israel was commanded to select a lamb for slaughter on the 14th Day, at evening..
He spent that 10th day in Jerusalem. Then left for the evening to Bethany.
He did that two more ‘days’, the 11th and 12th..
Then He waited till evening and came to Jerusalem in the evening for His last supper.
That night, He was betrayed, arrested and put in prison awaiting trial on the next day, the 14th, where He died in accordance with the Old Testament scriptures that the Passover Lamb was to be slain on the 14th at evening.
10th,11th,12th- 3 Days in Jerusalem preaching and teaching
13th,14th,15th- 3 ‘Nights’ in Jerusalem being betrayed, arrested (13th), tried,convicted, sentenced, executed(14th),laid dead in tomb(15th)
Total of 6 ‘days’ in Jerusalem.
3 Days of light.
3 days of darkness, He called Darkness Night, so 3 Nights...
3 days and 3 nights
In Jerusalem, the ‘Heart of the earth’ where the gospel was pumped out to the whole world after His Resurrection..
And where unlike in Jonah’s day where he preached for 3 days, they didn’t repent in Jerusalem, like in Ninevah.
So 40 years later, Jerusalem, The Heart of the earth, was sacked.
A greater than Jonah came and they didnt repent at the preaching.
They arrested and put to death the Author of Life who wasn’t going to stay in some tomb for 3 days and 3 nights,that would have been against the law as His freewill offering only allowed for at most 2 days.
Night of the 14th and all day 15th is all He spent in the tomb.
Raised for the 16th, 3rd Day from Passover to be exactly what the Old Testament scriptures command, the First Fruits Wavesheaf of those who have fallen asleep..
In accordance with the Old Testament scriptures