Can the Bible Be Trusted: Did Jesus Really Rise "On the Third Day."

I know it's late for my Easter Post, but Easter we were all locked down. It just wasn't the same celebration. So now as we begin to emerge from lock down. One of the things we have learned is that experts and scientist know far less than we expect. Almost none of the models of the Coronavirus were accurate. In some places the illness was worse than projected in some places less. Over half of the counties in the United States have had no Covid 19 deaths. The debate rages about whether Hydroxy Cloroquin or Remdisivir are effective therapeutics. It seems to me that what we've learned is how little the experts know, and how little confidence we can have in our government.

That's why it seemed to me something was missing in not going to church on Easter.  At a time like this when we have learned that we are completely unable to believe and trust either the experts or government who can we trust? I have a suggestion I believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ proves God is trustworthy, but skeptics will dispute whether the Bible's account of the resurrection is trustworthy. Some skeptics claim the gospels are full of errors and inaccuracies and that we can't really trust it. Some argue that the Bible incorrectly states that Jesus body was entombed for three days:
[40] For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40 ESV) 
When Jesus's credibility was challenged by the Pharisees who were demanding a sign or miracle to validate his claim. Jesus predicted his death and resurrection would be the validation of his claim. He compares the events surrounding his death and resurrection to the events surrounding the biblical character Jonah, who while in a boat on stormy sees was cast overboard and swallowed by a fish. Jesus predicts the events surrounding his death resurrection will occur over the same time period that the Prophet Jonah records the events of his trial:"[17] And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." (Jonah 1:17 ESV)

While we might assume that Jonah was in the belly of the fish 72 hours, the biblical phrase "three days and three nights" may not require that chronology. Remember Jesus was interred about  6PM on Friday (Luke 23:54) of what Christian's call Holy Week, the last week of Christ's life, then the tomb was discovered empty just before dawn on (John 20:1) Sunday morning, hardly 3 days. Yet Christ's resurrection on"the third day" is repeated in Scripture and is an element of the Apostle's Creed. What exactly does the Bible teach about the duration of time that Jesus spent in the tomb and is it reliable, and if a fundamental teaching about the most important Christian doctrine is incredulous why believe any of it? Did Jesus really rise "on the third day?"

To understand the meaning of the phrase "on the third day" we have to understand that New Testament was written in "koine" Greek; it was colloquial language not formal, legal or scientific. It was common speech, much like a daily news paper. Colloquial language often represent reality the way it is perceived rather than as a precise record. Open page 2 of a daily news paper and you will find a listing of "tomorrow's sun rise." The term "sun rise" is an example of a colloquialism.  No one reading a news paper really thinks the sun rises over the horizon. Even the most ardent "flat-earther" realizes that the sun rise is the way we perceive the movement of the sun in relation to the earth. So do we discredit our daily newspaper because it says the sun will rise tomorrow when it really does not?

In the first century time was  often perceived as process or sequence of events rather than as a duration. It was perceived as the process of an experience through a series of actions or interactions. There is no way that a Friday crucifixion followed by a Sunday resurrection results in a 72 hour internment, but nor does a Thursday afternoon crucifixion or a Wednesday afternoon crucifixion. The only way you have a 72 hour internment is if he dies and then rises exactly 72 hours later he rises from the dead. Further it would be difficult by any accounting to describe "on the third day precisely." If he had arisen early Monday morning it would have been less than 3 days. If he had arisen late Monday evening it would have been more. So in a 'non-scientific" culture often time was more a reflection of process, the sequence of events, then of duration. 

The scripture often refers "to days" as sequential processes rather than as a duration of experience. 1 Samuel 30:12 is a case where an event that occurs within some portion  a 72 hour duration is described as occurring on the third day:
[11] They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate. They gave him water to drink, [12] and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. [italics mine.](1 Samuel 30:11–12ESV)
 This is the account of David's rescuing of the city of Ziklag that had been captured by the Amalakites. Among those capture were two of his wives. After seeking God's direction David sets out with 400 men to route the Amalakites, rescue the captives, and restore the city. As they were travelling to attack the city they came across an Egytian slave who had gotten sick and been abandoned by his Amalakite master. The text says he had "not eaten in three days and three nights". The slave himself reported "I fell sick three days ago" (verse 13). Yet only  two sun rises and sets had passed. In 21st century English he might have said "I fell sick day before yesterday," but even that would be a period of less than seventy two hours. Normally in our more precise way of speaking we would not refer to that as occurring over three days but this text does, twice. Clearly the Bible often does not speak of time in measurable units of experience but as processes or sequences of events. 

So how do we understand the expression in Matthew 12:40  "three days and three nights" in the heart of the earth. It can only refer to all or part of three twenty-four hour periods. The Hebrew Day begins at sundown. Jesus died near 3PM on Friday, that would be the first day. From 6PM Friday until 6PM Saturday was the Second Day, Jesus rose at dawn on Sunday Morning, The third day. Sunday in the Hebrew calendar would have begun at 6PM Saturday (by our reckoning) and ended 6PM Sunday. Jesus arose just prior to dawn or sunrise, Sunday, on the third day. From Friday 3PM until dawn Sunday Jesus rested in what the old Testament referred to as "Hades," in the segment of it knows as "Abraham's Bosom" (Lk 16:22-26; 23:43) or Paradise. So why is this period referred to as "three days?" In the ancient world there were no chronographs time was not perceived in precise seconds, minutes and hours but a day was from sundown to sunrise. Any thing that happened within that period was seen as occurring on that day.  Referring to this period as "three days," or "on third day," is the only way day in the sense of "dawn to dusk" sunlight could be understood. So the word "day" is used in reference to any  processes that takes place between dusk and dawn. In the same way Jonah's reference to his own confinement in the whale is a description of the process of God's work in his life not a measure of a duration. Jesus compare the process of his deliverance from death through resurrection to the same process God used to deliver Jonah from the whale. The point of comparison is that the events took place over a span of three days.  While this is hardly the way we would say it this was the parlance of the ancient Hebrew culture.

In our more scientific culture we are uncomfortable with this imprecise language, but it is only imprecise. It is far from false. So when Paul reminds us that the "foremost" doctrine of the Christian faith is Christ rose on "the third day," and that assertion is consistent with promise and language of scripture he is speaking in the way the readers of his day would have communicated. He is recording events accurately. Once again the resurrection proves the reliability of Jesus' claim, because it is a reliable event. :


[3] For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, [4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, [5] and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (1 Corinthians 15:3–5 ESV)
So we may not know what our future hold and what the right course of action is to take when facing Coronavirus, we know that  Jesus died and rose again for our sins and will soon return. That is the reliable message of Easter.

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