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When Was Yeshua Moshiach Crucified and Resurrected?

How can we fit three days and three nights between a Friday afternoon crucifixion before the Shabbat and a Sunday-morning resurrection?

Answer:

Let us examine what the Scripture really says:

In Matthew 12:38, some of the scribes and Pharisees asked Yeshua for a sign to prove He was the Moshiach. But Yeshua told them that the only sign He would give was that of the prophet Jonah: -- For 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 -- verse 40. But how can we fit -three days and three nights- between a Friday-afternoon before Shabbat crucifixion and a Sunday-morning resurrection? This traditional view allows for Yeshua to have been entombed for only a day and a half. Some believe that our Moshiach's -three days and three nights- statement does not require a literal span of 72 hours, reasoning that a part of a day can be reckoned as a whole day. Thus, since Yeshua died in the afternoon, they think the remainder of Friday constituted the first day, Saturday the second and part of Sunday the third. However, they fail to take into consideration that only two nights - Friday night and Saturday night - are accounted for in this explanation. Something is obviously wrong with the traditional view regarding when our Moshiach was in the tomb. Jonah 1:17, to which Yeshua referred, states specifically that -- Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. We have no basis for thinking that Yeshua meant only two nights and one day, plus parts of two days. If Yeshua were in the tomb only from late Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning, then the sign He gave that He was the prophesied Moshiach was not fulfilled. Let's carefully examine the details from the Gospels. When we do, we uncover the real story of how Yeshua’s Words were fulfilled precisely. Notice the events outlined in Luke 23. Yeshua’s moment of death, as well as His hasty burial because of the oncoming Shabbat that began at sundown, is narrated in verses 46-53. Verse 54 then states, -- That day was the Preparation, and the Shabbat drew near. Many have assumed that it is the weekly Shabbat mentioned here and that Yeshua was therefore crucified on a Friday. But John 19:31 shows that this approaching Shabbat -was a high day" - not the weekly Shabbat -- Friday sunset to Saturday sunset but the first day of Unleavened Bread, which is one of YHVH's annual high or Shabbat days -- Exodus 12:16, 17; Leviticus 23:6, 7 These annual Holy Days could - and usually did - fall on days of the week other than the regular weekly Shabbat day. This high-day Shabbat was Wednesday night and Thursday, since Luke 23:56 shows that the women, after seeing the Moshiach's Body being laid in the tomb just before sunset, -- returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils -- for the final preparation of the Body. Such work would not have been done on a Shabbat day since it would have been considered a violation of the Shabbat. This is verified by Mark's account, which states, -- Now when the Shabbat was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices [which they would not have purchased on the high-day Shabbat], that they might come and anoint Him -- Mark 16:1 The women had to wait until this annual high day Shabbat was over before they could buy and prepare the spices to be used for anointing Yeshua’s Body. Then, after purchasing and preparing the spices and oils on Friday, -- they rested on the Shabbat according to the commandment -- Luke 23:56. This second Shabbat mentioned in the Gospel accounts is the regular weekly Shabbat, observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. By comparing details in both Gospels - where Mark tells us the women bought spices after the Shabbat and Luke relates that they prepared the spices before resting on the Shabbat - we can clearly see that two different Shabbats are mentioned. The first, as John 19:31 tells us, was a -high day- the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread - which, in A.D. 31, fell on a Thursday. The second was the weekly seventh-day Shabbat. After the women rested on the regular weekly Shabbat, they went to Yeshua’s tomb early on the first day of the week -Sunday, -- while it was still dark -- John 20:1-- and found that He had already been resurrected -- Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:2-6; Luke 24:1-3. When we consider the details in all four Gospel accounts, the picture is clear. Yeshua was crucified and entombed late on Wednesday afternoon, just before a Shabbat began at sunset. However, that was a high-day Shabbat, lasting from Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset that week, rather than the regular weekly Shabbat, lasting from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. He remained in the tomb from Wednesday at sunset until Saturday at sunset, when He rose from the dead. While no one witnessed His resurrection -which took place inside a sealed tomb-, it had to have happened near sunset on Saturday, three days and three nights after His Body was entombed. It could not have happened on Sunday morning, because when Mary Magdalene came to the tomb that morning before sunrise, -- while it was still dark, -- she found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. We can be assured that the length of His entombment that Yeshua gave as proof He was the Moshiach was exactly as long as He foretold. Yeshua rose precisely three days and three nights after He was placed in the tomb. Because most people do not understand the biblical high days Yeshua Moshiach and His followers kept, they fail to understand the chronological details so accurately preserved for us in the Gospels.

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