3 days, 3 nights where is the missing link?

tktk
edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
The scriptures says for three days and thee nights, Christ shall be in the belly of the earth but if one read between lines of the books of Gospels [NT ] there is variations.
Does any one have some explainations?

Comments

  • Matthew 12:40 (New International Version)
    New International Version (NIV)

    40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
  • ???

    but if one read between lines of the books of Gospels

    What do you read between the lines of the books of Gospels?
    (I fail to understand your two posts)
  • Tk,

    I can see how you and many others can be confused. But lets look at the timeing.

    When Jesus was burried, it had to be before sunset on Friday. He died on Friday at 3:00 pm (The 9th hour according to the Jewish Tradition) So they buried Him on Friday.

    Also, the four Gosples talk about the time when all the Mary's went to the tomb, it was Sunday morning, while the sun hasn't risen yet.

    So if you count:
    Friday (1 day or partial day)
    Saturday (All Day)
    Sunday (untill Sunday Morning)

    Those are your 3 days. Hope this helps.

    +Copticboy
  • yes coptic boy is definitely correct

    the jews at that time used to calculate their days differently in that at about sunset they would consider it the beginning of the day.

    TK

    what do u mean read between the lines???

    Kristina123
  • [quote author=Kristina123 link=board=1;threadid=4178;start=0#msg57981 date=1153645212]
    the jews at that time used to calculate their days differently in that at about sunset they would consider it the beginning of the day.


    The Church still counts days in this way, which is why Vespers is the first service of the day. This is because Genesis says "and there was evening and there was morning, the first day," rather than "morning and evening."
  • Thanks Copticboy,
    but the three nights aint complete.
    And Katrina, reaing between lines means appreciating every word.
    Just like Coptic tried to analyse.
  • hi

    And Katrina, reaing between lines means appreciating every word.

    TK

    my name is Krisitna and now i see what u mean

    and the three nights r complete dont forget that on sat there was a night

    so fri night and sat night and then another night between sat and sun

    u have to think about it like a math problem just draw it on a piece of paper u will see.

    KRISTINA123
  • Hi Katrina,
    check this

    FRIDAY THERE IS 1 DAY AND 1 NIGHT

    SATURDAY 2ND DAY AND 2ND NIGHT

    BY SUNDAY MORNING CHRIST HAD RISEN.

    SUPPOSE LIKE COPTIC EXPLAINDE WE TAKE THE MORNING AS A WHOLE DAY, THERE IS NO THIRD NIGHT?
  • hi tk,
    i think that the Jewish consider a part of the day as a whole day including morning and night,that`s why the morning of sunday is considered as a whole day with morning and evening...by this way we have 3 days and 3 nights.
  • I still don't understand. Can someone further elaborate?

    The way I see it is this, Christ was crucifixified on Friday before sunset so that's one day, and came evening and so a night. Then Saturday morning came and so a day and then night. After night came morning, and so we have three days and two nights. Can someone please explain?
  • Hi TK,

    there is no need to write in capital letters!

    dont stress !

    take it easy!

    you seem to have trouble either reading or writing my name its not katrina BUT KRISTINA.

    look i cant explain it any further

    i have noticed u seem to always ask questions thats attempt to create doubt in peoples faith. i suggest u do some reading if u are really interested in finding the truth. Pope Shenouda writes plenty of them where he explains issues such as these, i suggest you try to get a copy from your local church or library or im sure u can access them on the net also.

    in the mean time i will also ask someone i know and attempt to obtain an easier explanation, one that u may be able to grasp.

    Kristina123
  • I am sorry about your name miss up and the caps....it is not inteded to show urgency or to stress...I was lazy so did not bother to change. And as regards my posts, all are on issues I find challenging that I am unable to read and grasp on my own.
    As a kid in secondary and as a student of Bible knowlegde, my first question was how and where Cain after exile from his family got a wife.
    Now remember, all we know at that time was Adams immediate nuclear family but we are suddenly told Cain left and got married.
    Not everybody questions or understands; and believe me at the time very few understood my questions but my teacher did and praised my thinking.
    I did not at that time asked the question so as to cause doubt on any one s mind but my quest to understand. So are my questions today.
    Dear Kristina,
    if I post that question today about Cain s wife not all of us will have ready ans.
    Again,these questions hardly create doubt but ehances knowlegde by encoraging faithfulls to seek and understand better their faith.
    It is ans to questions that forms the fundamentals of all denominations.
  • [quote author=tk link=board=1;threadid=4178;start=0#msg58160 date=1153914187]
    I am sorry about your name miss up and the caps....it is not inteded to show urgency or to stress...I was lazy so did not bother to change. And as regards my posts, all are on issues I find challenging that I am unable to read and grasp on my own.
    As a kid in secondary and as a student of Bible knowlegde, my first question was how and where Cain after exile from his family got a wife.
    Now remember, all we know at that time was Adams immediate nuclear family but we are suddenly told Cain left and got married.
    Not everybody questions or understands; and believe me at the time very few understood my questions but my teacher did and praised my thinking.
    I did not at that time asked the question so as to cause doubt on any one s mind but my quest to understand. So are my questions today.
    Dear Kristina,
    if I post that question today about Cain s wife not all of us will have ready ans.
    Again,these questions hardly create doubt but ehances knowlegde by encoraging faithfulls to seek and understand better their faith.
    It is ans to questions that forms the fundamentals of all denominations.


    i just like to know taht how is the answer to your quesion will change you. all you need to know is that Cain was lost because of what he did and got married may be from one of his relitives latter because as you know, adam got another son and than got more and more and more. may be Cain took one of them but they didn't know that it was wrong to marry him because remeber, no one know that he had killed his brother. BUT ALL WHAT AM SAYING NOW IS JUST WHAT I THINK HAPPEND. i'll get you an answer, but you to answer my quesion..!!!!
  • [quote author=Christ4Life link=board=1;threadid=4178;start=0#msg58083 date=1153794091]
    I still don't understand. Can someone further elaborate?

    The way I see it is this, Christ was crucifixified on Friday before sunset so that's one day, and came evening and so a night. Then Saturday morning came and so a day and then night. After night came morning, and so we have three days and two nights. Can someone please explain?


    Somebody help? Iqbal? Orthodox 11? Somebody?
  • Hi Minagir,
    I do not know which of my questions you are referring to but will how ever attempt some answer on the two discussed here.
    First of all, questions for knowledge seekers are a continuous process.
    My question on the issue of 3 days & nights is not an attempt to question God on how or why but rather to clarify what the scripture says.
    My second question to this day I believe is the most interesting and innocent of all my encounters in studying the Bible...just wanted to know how Cain got a wife when there was only his father Adam, mother Eve, the brother he already killed Abel.
    At that time I didn’t even know that reference to female children were not as important [pls do not take offence at this sentence about female as that’s what I was made to understand]
    On how it will change me, every single word I have confirmed from the scriptures have brought me closer to God, made me a better advocate of God and given me the confidence to discuss God among brothers like you. And I learn every day as new perspective to issues is put forward.
    Do not be tired of listening and helping out with your views, you may be the one to may a difference in another‘s life.
  • [quote author=Christ4Life link=board=1;threadid=4178;start=0#msg58204 date=1153964458]
    Somebody help? Iqbal? Orthodox 11? Somebody?


    This is just my personal view, so forgive me if it is wrong:

    The New Testament clearly shows that Christ was in the 3 days and only 2 nights. So why then does He say, “For even as Jonas was three days and three night in the belly of the sea-monster, so the Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40)?

    At first this seems contradictory, but I think one has to take into account the possibility that Christ’s expression is idiomatic, not literal. That is, “three days and three nights” was simply the common way of saying “three days” among the Jews; probably since a day is counted as starting from the evening. And so although Christ was only “in the heart of the earth” for two nights, not three, He was still correct in using this wording to express the fact that He was “in the heart of the earth” for three days.

    Also, we must not forget that the point of this saying is to draw a parallel between Jonas’ time in the belly of the sea-monster and His time in the grave; the former being a prefiguration of the latter. And so Christ’s main concern is not to accurately express the number of nights He is in the grave (although He does do this anyway, when one considers it an idiomatic figure of speech), but rather to echo the wording of the Old Testament, which says “and Jonas was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights” (Jonas 2:1), so as to make this parallel apparent to the Pharisees to whom He was speaking.

    And so, yes, Christ was only in the grave for two days, but when one considers the purpose of His statement, and the fact that the expression is idiomatic and not literal, it is not actually a mistake on His part.

    Please pray for me, a sinner.
  • Thank you Orthodox 11, :) I never looked at it that way...
  • http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ488.HTM - i found this link after searching the net. the following is the txt it contained i beleive this sounds right.

    Jesus' "Three Days and Three Nights" in the Tomb: Is it a Biblical Contradiction?

    Many people think that Jesus Christ was crucified on a Wednesday (or sometimes Thursday), in accord with the "three days and nights" of Jonah's stay in the fish's belly, or that it was not possible for Jesus to be crucified on a Friday. Orthodox Christianity has always held that Jesus was crucified and died on a Friday afternoon (hence, Good Friday), and rose from the dead in the very early morning on the following Sunday (hence the Christian day of worship and Easter Sunday). The reason for this is as follows:

    "Three days and three nights" is simply Hebrew idiom. The phrase "one day and one night" meant a day, even when only a part of a day was indicated. We see this, e.g., in 1 Sam 30:12-13 (cf. Gen 42:17-18).

    We know that Jesus was crucified on a Friday because Scripture tells us that the Sabbath (Saturday) as approaching (e.g., Mt 27:62, Mk 15:42, Lk 23:54, Jn 19:31 -- the "day of preparation" is Friday, the day before the Sabbath: Saturday, and the Sabbath was considered to begin on sundown on Friday, as with Jews to this day).

    We also know from the biblical data that the discovery of His Resurrection was on a Sunday (e.g., Mk 16:1-2-,9, Mt 28:1, Lk 24:1, Jn 20:1). And we know that "three days and three nights" (Mt 12:40) is synonymous in the Hebrew mind and the Bible with "after three days" ((Mk 8:31) and "on the third day" (Mt 16:21, 1 Cor 15:4). Most references to the Resurrection say that it happened on the third day. In John 2:19-22, Jesus said that He would be raised up in three days (not on the fourth day).
    It would be like saying, "This is the third day I've been working on painting this room." I could have started painting late Friday and made this remark on early Sunday. If I complete the task on Sunday, then the chronology would be just as Jesus' Resurrection was. The only difference is the Hebrew idiom "three days and three nights" which was not intended in the hyper-literal sense as we might mistakenly interpret it today.

    In fact, to say that Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon (apart from the biblical difficulties of this assertion) will not solve this problem for those who wish to interpret hyper-literally without taking into account idiomatic and non-literal, non-"scientific" expression. The only way to get three literal 24-hour days would be for Jesus to rise at the same time He was crucified, and then (technically) He would be rising at the beginning of a fourth 24-hour day, whereas the Bible says this happened on the "third" day.

    But He died at about 3 PM (Mt 27:46, Lk 23:44-46: "the ninth hour" is 3 PM, because it was figured by the Jews from 6 AM). So a literal "three 24-hour day" interpretation of a Wednesday crucifixion would have Jesus rising at Saturday at 3 PM, and a Thursday crucifixion would have a Sunday, 3 PM Resurrection (or the discovery of same, at any rate). The Bible, however, has the disciples discovering that the Lord had risen early on Sunday morning (Lk 23:56: they rested on the Sabbath; Lk 24:1: at "early dawn, they went to the tomb"); so early, in Mary Magdalene's case, that it was still dark (Jn 20:1).

    The understanding of idiom explains all this. For both the ancient Jews (6 PM to 6 PM days) and Romans (who reckoned days from midnight to midnight), the way to refer to three separate 24-hour days (in whole or in part) was to say "days and nights." We speak similarly in English idiom -- just without adding the "nights" part. For example, we will say that we are off for a long weekend vacation, of "three days of fun" (Friday through Sunday or Saturday through Monday). But it is understood that this is not three full 24-hour days. Chances are we will depart part way through the first day and return before the third day ends. So for a Saturday through Monday vacation, if we leave at 8 AM on Saturday and return at 10 PM on Monday night, literally that is less than three full days (it would be two 24-hour days and 14 more hours: ten short of three full days).

    Yet we speak of a "three-day vacation" and that we returned "after three days" or "on the third day." A literal "three 24-hour day trip" would end at 8 AM on Tuesday. Such descriptions are understood, then, as non-literal. The ancient Jews and Romans simply added the clause "and nights" to such utterances, but understood them in the same way, as referring to any part of a whole 24-hour day.

    Thus the "problem" or so-called "biblical contradiction" vanishes.


    hope that helps! so in the answer is that this si due to the Hebrew language.

    correct????????

    Kristina123
  • that was an awsome answer Kristina couldn't have put it better myself
  • hi there everyone

    as i understand from what i have read and heard

    Our lord was crucified at the ninth hr...it is correct as u said at 3 pm on Friday.
    What happened exactly at that time is quite amazing. As our lord gave up his spirit as u know there was a great earthquake etc. and at that time there was a darkness that was all over the land. What was this darkness it was an eclipse. The church considers this as the first night, then there was light perhaps for a few hrs and Friday night and then sat night and our lord rose on sun morning.

    Now as far as l know this is accurate.
    u will have to confirm this with some one else to call it credible.(abuna)
    if this is wrong please forgive me and please do correct me.
    karas7
  • [quote author=7karas link=board=1;threadid=4178;start=15#msg58352 date=1154226965]
    As our lord gave up his spirit as u know there was a great earthquake etc. and at that time there was a darkness that was all over the land. What was this darkness it was an eclipse. The church considers this as the first night, then there was light perhaps for a few hrs and Friday night and then sat night and our lord rose on sun morning.


    well karas,as for considering the darkness as a night i heared it before and i think it is a good point of view.but as for considering it an eclipse,i am not sure.we were arguing with our servant once about it and he said that the bible says it was darkness on the whole earth which doesn`t happen in the case of eclipse.
  • Thanks all. The way I see it is the way Orthodox puts it without having to make unnecessary complications by making mathematical assumptions that we can't support.
    If it is idiomatics that puts to rest the case.
    Any thing elsecan be confusing.
Sign In or Register to comment.