The evidence and testimony of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is woven together across the New Testament in one of the most detailed and comprehensive accounts in the Bible. The purpose of the next few posts is to focus on the timeline of the resurrection to determine if the traditional “Good Friday” account is accurate according to the scriptures.

My intent is not necessarily to convince people who hold fast to the “Good Friday” tradition to abandon that tradition. However, the facts I will present from the bible over the next few posts will challenge the timeline between the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection as understood from the traditional view held by the institutional church for centuries.

I have three goals: 1) to show the power of tradition, even when its challenged by biblical facts, 2) to demonstrate how important it is to conduct a detailed analysis of the scriptures, and 3) I need to own this. Other people have done similar analysis, which convinced me, but I want to do it myself. My analysis is not that much different than others already out there, although this first post may contain some original content that I’ve not seen before. I could be wrong about that; I just haven’t seen it.

These [Berean] Jews were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to see if these things were so. Acts 17:11

The Jonah Prophecy

We have to start with the Jonah prophecy (as I call it) because its what Jesus said about the timeline of His burial and resurrection. Here is what he said:

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Matthew 12:39-40

The timeline must precisely comply with the Lord’s words. Two very important details:

1. The word translated “just”. More later.
2. “In the heart of the earth” for the entire period.

As we will see, these details make it problematic to use partial day recokoning.

The Traditional Timeline Between “Good Friday” and the Resurrection

The traditional view the church has held for centuries is that Jesus died on “Good Friday” and the resurrection occurred on Sunday, the third day. Jesus died approximately the 9th hour (3pm), and the body had to be in the tomb before sundown in keeping with the Sabbath. Joseph of Arimathaia didn’t have much time before the Sabbath. He had to get permission from Pilate, get back to take the body down, get it in the tomb, and wrap it in accordance with burial traditions, and then close the tomb. All this had to be completed before about 7pm (sundown beginning of the Sabbath).

In order for the math to support the “Good Friday” timeline, partial days must count as whole days (based on reckoning that Jews sometimes use). But is this consistent with the scriptures? We’ll see later. I’ll lay out the timeline using partial day reckoning in two ways. In the first example, we must apply not only partial day reckoning but include a western definition of a day (midnight to midnight), because that is generally the mindset of western culture, even though this is not consistent with the bible which uses Jewish measurement from sundown to sundown (still used by Jews to this day). Just for the sake of argument, lets apply this accounting (assumptions are partial day counting and midnight to midnight definition of a day):

1. Day 1 and night 1 – Friday and Friday night (using our partial day approach, Friday counts as a whole day even though Jesus wasn’t in the tomb until about sundown).
2. Day 2 and night 2 – Saturday and Saturday night.
3. Day 3 and night 3 – Sunday and Sunday night (with partial day reckoning, we take credit for Sunday night as the 3rd night, even though the resurrection occurred Sunday morning). Jesus rose on the 3rd day (Sunday) just prior to sunrise.

Partial day accounting is necessary to make this timeline work however, in this example, we mix the western definition for a day with the Jewish application of partial day. We have taken credit for Sunday night as the 3rd night to fit the Jonah prophecy of Jesus. This is problematic given that the prophecy is specific about 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb (or in the heart of the earth). So it becomes a logical stretch to count time outside the tomb as if it were time inside the tomb.

Lets try another approach that uses the Jewish definition of a day as given in the bible. A Jewish day in the New Testament is measured sunset to sunset, not midnight to midnight as we do in western culture. This definition is confirmed in the burial account in the gospels:

He [Joseph of Arimathea] went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut out of the rock, where no one had yet been buried. 54 It was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning. Luke 23:52-54

Lets apply this biblical definition of a day to the “Good Friday” tradition and see if partial day counting works:

1. Day 1 and night 1 – Sunset Friday (when Jesus was buried), to sunset Saturday. (24 hours)
2. Day 2 and night 2 – Sunset Saturday to sunset Sunday. However, Sunday morning before dawn is when the tomb was discovered empty, so we are still in the 2nd day, with a max of 12 hours from sunset Saturday to Sunday dawn. The 3rd day does not begin until sunset on Sunday, so based on the biblical definition of a day, the timeline doesn’t work.

Now technically, Jesus was in the tomb at the latest possible moment before Sabbath began at sundown Friday (in this example), so by partial reckoning – even though maybe by just a few minutes – the Sabbath preparation day (Friday) counts as the first day and night. But again, for this to work, we must count time when Jesus was not in the tomb as if it were time in the tomb. Also, based on this accounting, Jesus would have been in the tomb only 36 hours. This stretches the words of Jesus regarding 3 days and 3 nights to the breaking point. How can we count 36 hours as 3 days and 3 nights? We need to be careful.

The fact is 36 hours does not equate to 3 days and 3 nights. I will now explain why we cannot use partial day accounting because of one word Jesus uses in His prophecy about the resurrection.

The Sign of Jonah and Hosper

The Jonah prophecy about the resurrection is obviously a reference to the Old Testament, so we need to go back and take a look at that account. Why? Because Jesus uses a very important but overlooked word in His prophecy: the word translated “just“. This word is the Greek word “hosper“, a word used by Jesus to establish a direct link back to the original account of Jonah. What does the word mean?

The word hōsper is derived from two words (Strong’s 5613 and 4007). Combined, it forms the word used which means: just as, i.e. exactly like. Not “kind of like” or “sort of like”. Exactly like. Lets look at the original passage in Jonah:

Jonah 1:17 (2:1) The LORD sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

There is no partial day reckoning implied in the original story of Jonah. In fact, no day of the week is identified. It simply says 3 days and 3 night in the belly of the fish. We must take this wording at face value since there is no indication of the day he went in the fish and the day he was spewed out of the fish. Therefore we must logically deduce that Jonah was in the fish for 72 hours – a literal 3 days and 3 nights.

We thus cannot apply a different timeline between the burial and resurrection. The clock starts when the tomb is sealed (Jonah swallowed by the fish), and the clock stops at the resurrection. To be faithful to His prophecy, we must conclude, because of the Holy Spirit inspired word “hosper”, that it was a literal 72 hour period as it was with Jonah in the fish, and yet I’ve shown that the 36 hour timeline of the “Good Friday” tradition is only half the time identified in Jonah.

We have no choice (because of hosper – exactly like) but to apply the 72 hour requirement from the time the tomb was sealed to the time of the resurrection. A 72 hour period applied to the “Good Friday” tradition puts the resurrection well beyond the “first day” when the tomb was discovered empty, which violates the scriptures.

Now after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. Matthew 28:1

He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said. Come and see the place where he was lying. Matthew 28:6

When Did the Resurrection Happen?

Interestingly, we are not given the exact time of the resurrection, but we can calculate it pretty close. We are given a few clues:

Now very early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been moved away from the entrance. John 20:1

Our first clue is Jesus was sealed in the tomb for 72 hours. Our second clue is that the tomb was discovered empty BEFORE sunrise Sunday morning. Our 3rd clue is that the scriptures say that the resurrection occurred on the 3rd day. But is the 3rd day Sunday? No. That’s not what the scriptures say. The verse above says that Mary discovered the stone rolled away on the first day (our Sunday). NOTE: In ancient Jewish culture, the days of the week were not named, but instead numbered (for example, Sunday is called Yom Rishon which means “the first day”). There is no indication in the bible that Sunday (the first day) was when the resurrection happened. None of the gospel accounts say that the resurrection was on the first day of the week. The bible says that it happened on the 3rd day (following His burial).

From that time on Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Matthew 16:21

Is the “Good Friday” tradition consistent with the biblical details of the burial and resurrection of Jesus? Based on this analysis, its very difficult to reconcile this tradition with the scriptures which are very detailed on this topic.

If this did not convince you, there are other aspects of the story that might. Next, two Sabbaths, spices, and the Marys who visited the tomb. I will also show on what days of the week these events occurred in a way that is consistent with the 72 hour timeline. Regardless of whether or not you accept the analysis, I hope you at least find it interesting and worthy of your own research from the bible to reach your own conclusions.