Bible Talk > General
Three Days and Three Nights
rstrats:
Whenever the three days and three nights of Matthew 12:40 is brought up in a “discussion” with 6th day crucifixion proponents, they frequently argue that it is a Jewish idiom for counting any part of a day as a whole day. I wonder if anyone has documentation that shows that a phrase stating a specific number of days as well as a specific number of nights was ever used in the first century or before when it absolutely couldn't have included at least a part of each one of the specific number of days and at least a part of each one of the specific number of nights?
Fat:
We have been down this road a number of times. I going to do a cut and paste from Gill's commentary.
--- Quote ---To solve this difficulty, and set the matter in a clear light, let it be observed, that the three days and three nights, mean three natural days, consisting of day and night, or twenty four hours, and are what the Greeks call (nucyhmera) , "night days"; but the Jews have no other way of expressing them, but as here; and with them it is a well known rule, and used on all occasions, as in the computation of their feasts and times of mourning, in the observance of the passover, circumcision, and divers purifications, that (wlwkk Mwyh tuqm) , "a part of a day is as the whole" and so, whatever was done before sun setting, or after, if but an hour, or ever so small a time, before or after it, it was reckoned as the whole preceding, or following day; and whether this was in the night part, or day part of the night day, or natural day, it mattered not, it was accounted as the whole night day: by this rule, the case here is easily adjusted; Christ was laid in the grave towards the close of the sixth day, a little before sun setting, and this being a part of the night day preceding, is reckoned as the whole; he continued there the whole night day following, being the seventh day; and rose again early on the first day, which being after sun setting, though it might be even before sun rising, yet being a part of the night day following, is to be esteemed as the whole; and thus the son of man was to be, and was three days and three nights in the grave; and which was very easy to be understood by the Jews; and it is a question whether Jonas was longer in the belly of the fish.
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--- Quote from: American Tract Society Dictionary ---The phrase "three days and three nights, " Mat 12:40, was equivalent in Hebrew to the English "three days;" the Jews employing the expression "a day and a night" to denote our "day" of twentyfour hours. Nor did "three days, " 1Sa 30:13, literally "this third day, " according to their usage, necessarily include the whole of three days, but a part of three days, a continuous period including one whole day of twenty-four hours, and a portion of the day preceding it and the day following it. Compare Gen 7:12, 17 1Sa 30:12-13.
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--- Quote from: The People's New Testament ---As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. See Jon 1:17. The great fish was probably not a whale, the Greek is "sea monster, " but a white shark, which abounds abounds in the Mediterranean, and is said to swallow a horse whole. The miracle was the preservation of the life of Jonah during his living burial. This was a type of the burial and resurrection of Christ.
So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights. Jesus says (Mat 16:21) that he will "be raised again the third day." Hence, in Jewish usage the third day must mean the same as three days and three nights. It was and is customary with the Orientals to make any part of the day stand for the whole twenty-four hours. Compare Mat 16:21, Mar 8:31, 2Ch 10:5 and 2Ch 10:12, Est 4:16, Gen 7:4, Gen 7:12, Exo 24:18, Exo 34:28. A traveler in the East writes: "At length the tenth morning arrived--the tenth morning because, though we performed nominally ten days quarantine, yet it was, really, only eight days. We landed at nine o'clock in the evening of the first day, and were liberated at six o'clock in the morning of the tenth day, but it was held to be ten days according to the custom of the East." Christ was buried Friday evening, lay in the grave Saturday, and rose Sunday, parts of three days, rose "on the third day, " and was in the grave the space of time meant in eastern usage by three days and three nights.
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P.S. If you count from thursday you end up with 4 days and 3 nights. Hope that helps.
JB Horn:
--- Quote from: rstrats on May 20, 2013, 06:05:38 am ---Whenever the three days and three nights of Matthew 12:40 is brought up in a “discussion” with 6th day crucifixion proponents, they frequently argue that it is a Jewish idiom for counting any part of a day as a whole day. I wonder if anyone has documentation that shows that a phrase stating a specific number of days as well as a specific number of nights was ever used in the first century or before when it absolutely couldn't have included at least a part of each one of the specific number of days and at least a part of each one of the specific number of nights?
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Documentation LOL. Do you have any documentation that Christ died on a cross and not a stake?
Matthew 27:42 (Complete Jewish Bible) "He saved others, but he can't save himself!" "So he's King of Isra'el, is he? Let him come down now from the stake! Then we'll believe him!"
Luke 9:23 (Complete Jewish Bible)
Then to everyone he said, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him say `No' to himself, take up his execution-stake daily and keep following me.
--- Quote ---ἡμέρα,n \{hay-mer'-ah}
1) the day, used of the natural day, or the interval between sunrise and sunset, as distinguished from and contrasted with the night 1a) in the daytime 1b) metaph., "the day" is regarded as the time for abstaining from indulgence, vice, crime, because acts of the sort are perpetrated at night and in darkness 2) of the civil day, or the space of twenty four hours (thus including the night) 2a) Eastern usage of this term differs from our western usage. Any part of a day is counted as a whole day, hence the expression "three days and three nights" does not mean literally three whole days, but at least one whole day plus part of two other days. 3) of the last day of this present age, the day Christ will return from heaven, raise the dead, hold the final judgment, and perfect his kingdom 4) used of time in general, i.e. the days of his life.
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--- Quote from: Robertson's Word Pictures of the New Testament ---The whale (tou khtou). Sea-monster, huge fish. In Jonah 2:1 the LXX has khtei megalwi. "Three days and three nights" may simply mean three days in popular speech. Jesus rose "on the third day" ( Matthew 16:21 ), not "on the fourth day." It is just a fuller form for "after three days" ( Mark 8:31 ; Mark 10:34 ).
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rstrats:
Fat,
re: "We have been down this road a number of times."
Sorry. I looked and couldn't find where my request for some actual writing had previously been requested by someone else. I wonder if you might identify one of the "number of times" where it had been (requested)?
Fat:
--- Quote from: rstrats on May 28, 2013, 07:29:11 am ---Fat,
re: "We have been down this road a number of times."
Sorry. I looked and couldn't find where my request for some actual writing had previously been requested by someone else. I wonder if you might identify one of the "number of times" where it had been (requested)?
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The request for WRITING is nothing but a red-hearing, IMHO.
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