The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Nelly Kaye of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, from the tape, GC 1301-H, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 10."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1978. All Rights Reserved.

Question

If Christ died Friday afternoon, and rose Sunday morning, how could He have been three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, as according to Matthew 12:40?

Answer

Well, there’s a big debate, you see, some people think Christ was crucified on Wednesday, some people think Christ was crucified on Thursday and some people think Christ was crucified on Friday. I am of the Friday category. And I have a reason for that. Remember that little book I wrote called Can a Man Live Again? which dealt with the crucifixion. I tried to go into detail on that. There’s also a tremendous book on biblical chronology written by Harold Honner of Dallas Seminary, in which he defends the Friday day crucifixion, I think it’s the right one. And the answer to that is this, three days and three nights is a colloquialism. It is a Jewish colloquialism. A "day and a night" was simply a Jewish term for any part of a day. And so for a Jew to say "three days and three nights" simply meant three days in terms of a part of three days. You have to take it colloquially, it doesn’t meant three twelve hour days, three twelve hour nights. A day and a night is a colloquialism referring to any portion of a twenty four hour day. And this can be substantiated by other Jewish literature that we can look at.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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