Mark 8:31
And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Matthew 12:40
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The Catholic Church falsely teaches that Jesus died on a "Friday." This raises the obvious question, How could Jesus have been dead for three days if he rose again from the grave before sunrise on Sunday morning? I have done a thorough analysis of this question in the King James Bible, and here is my conclusion.
Our starting point is the fact that Jesus died on the day of Passover, in fulfillment of the typology of the Old Testament which represents Jesus as the sacrificial lamb of God. This is revealed in Exodus Chapter 12:
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house... Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening...
And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it... it is the Lord's passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt."
God further explains this feast and how it is to be celebrated every year as a memorial for future generations, as follows (Leviticus 23:1-2, 4-5; Exodus 12:3, 5-6, Leviticus 23:6-7; Exodus 12:18, 17, abbreviated for clarity):
The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts, which ye shall procaim in their seasons... In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's Passover. They shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day thereof ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
[Thus a special holiday occurs on the day after the Passover, that is, on the 15th. This is called a "high sabbath day," a special sabbath day that is not necessarily on Saturday, which is to be observed each year on the 15th of that month].
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
[Which makes a total of eight days for eating unleavened bread; the same term, "feast of unleavened bread," was applied to the 7-day Feast alone, which begins on the 15th, and also to the entire eight-day festival that further includes the Passover, the day of the 14th].
Thus ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day [the 14th] have I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever.
In ancient Israel, the Jews reckoned each calendar day to begin, not at midnight, but at "even," the evening or eventide, which is our 6:00 PM, give or take an hour. This means Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples, his "Last Supper," in the night of the 14th prior to him being crucified in the day of the 14th.
Mark 14:12
And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?
That 14th day, Passover, was also called the Day of the Preparation, or just "The Preparation." But the calendar timeline was always the same every year: the 14th day begins in the late afternoon at the end of the 13th day, at even (i.e., when the sundial strikes 6:00 PM, or thereabouts, at sunset), and it ends 24 hours later at even, around sunset; and then immediately the 15th day begins as night falls. Then the 15th day is a holiday, a special sabbath day celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
John 19:31-36
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled.
Jesus was crucified on a "Thursday," the 14th day. The next day being a "Friday," the 15th, was a sabbath day, the special "high sabbath day" marking the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then, the 16th day was the regular weekly sabbath day, a "Saturday." And the 17th was the first day of a new week, a "Sunday," when Jesus was resurrected before dawn.
Matthew 28:1-8
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
SUMMARY
Jesus died in the daytime of Thursday the 14th at 3:00 PM, or thereabouts; and Jesus was resurrected on Sunday the 17th before dawn. Therefore Jesus was dead on exactly three days: Thr, Fri, Sat; and he was dead on exactly three nights: Fri, Sat, Sun. (Don’t forget that Sunday night comes before Sunday morning in the Hebrew system, and that Thursday night comes before Thursday afternoon).
The Jews' calendar system was terminated long ago, and it has no continuity with our present Gregorian system, so it is impossible to count backwards from today to confirm that these dates fell on those days of the week back then in Israel. If you try, you will not get a correct result, because the days of the week on the calendar have been shifted several times during the past 2,000 years, by various emperors and authorities. We cannot "walk back" along the calendar from today, because the chain of weeks and months has been cut and spliced and redefined too many times since the first Century.
But Exodus (Chs. 12-14) and Leviticus (Ch. 23) unequivocally demand the above timeline for the events in the week of the Crucifixion. No alternative chronology can satisfy all the laws and facts involved.
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