Three days, three nights

James Jordan has handled the problems surrounding Jesus’ “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40) not by pushing Jesus’ death back from Friday to mid-week but by reinterpreting what “heart of the earth” means.  Earth often signifies land, the land of Israel, and being at the “heart of the earth” means being thrust into the central power structures of Judaism, swallowed like Jonah into the “belly of the beast.”

Matthew’s chronology of Jesus’ final days fits that supposition in certain respects.  Assuming that Matthew is indicating the days in sequence, without any gaps, Matthew follows this sequence:

Evening #1: Jesus has a meal with His disciples, prays and is betrayed in Gethsemane, is tried by the Sanhedrin, 26:20-75

Day #1: Jesus is tried before Pilate and is crucified, 27:1-56

Evening #2: Jesus is buried, 27:57-61

Day #2: Day of preparation, 27:62

Evening #3: Guard set at Jesus’ tomb, 27:62-66

Day #3: First day of the week, Jesus rises, 28:1

This leaves us with a very partial “Day #3,” since the women discover that Jesus tomb is empty “as it began to dawn toward the first of the week” (28:1). But Matthew does begin enumerating the days, which appear to fulfill Jesus’ prediction, not from the time of His death but from the time of His arrest and trial.