There is also one thing I noticed in the Hebrew bible whenever someone says "it's been this way for an extended past", they say "it was this way yesterday and the third day". For example, Moses tells God that he is not eloquent, and he was that way "from yesterday and from the third day" (Ex 4:10) I have two observations about this: 1. It seems clear that the literal meaning of "yesterday and the third day" is "yesterday and the day before yesterday" 2. The phrase itself is idiomatic of an extended past. I think it is interesting though, that if "day before yesterday" is "third day" (in the past), then this fits also perfectly with Christ being raised on Sunday while being killed on Friday "the third day (in the past) " It's likely that's how language worked (I don't know specifically about aramaic, but being a close cognate language, I bet it also used the conception of the day before yesterday as the third day)
Thanks for sharing 🙏🏿 His grace and mercy be upon you and your loved ones 🕊️🥛🍯
Dr Allison also talks about this in his book. It can be a complex topic
Based on Passover being a final advent of the year, the Priest would add a special day of preparation ,just as we add a Leap Year Day to our calendar, when the alignment of the hosts of heaven , are requiring it. So after certain years, the Priest would see the Full Moon was a day late to arrive, and they needed an alignment of the Full Moon the evening before the Morning Star appeared before the rise of the dawn of day on the FIRST DAY OF LIGHT, which by the Temple Israel calendar was in the Spring along the Vernal Equinox Sunday. So when Jesus died on the Sixth Day ,that Passover Week , ruled by the High Priest of Israel ,was needing one more Sabbath Rest Day than usual to align a DAY OF LIGHT which would be 24 hours without any darkness over the city of Jerusalem, So the Full Moon came at evening and the Morning Star rose as the Full Moon was waning. Then after another ten minutes or so, the Spring Vernal Equinox Sunrise of EASTER SUNDAY came, and you have it "VOILA" . the Day without Darkness. Thus Jesus was entombed during an EIGHT DAY PASSOVER WEEK , not a seven day week. The Extra Day of Preparation is noted in the Gospel of John , chapter 19 verse 31. "Now it was the day of Preparation and the NEXT DAY was to be a SPECIAL SABBATH DAY. " So you see, Jesus was in the tomb for 72 hours , including three days of night and day, a term of 72 hours because the High Priest of the Temple had the God Like Power to add an extra Day to the Passover to reach the agreement of the Full Moon , to shine all night , leading to the RISEN LORD who was termed " MORNING STAR" ( Planet Venus ) which filled in a brief period of time as the Moon waned and was setting, but yet the Morning Sunrise did not yet come. so the affluence of the Full Moon ,the Morning Star , and the Spring Vernal Equinox Sunrise "EASTER SUNDAY ' made up a continual LIGHT over the city of Jerusalem that heralded the FIRST DAY of LIGHT , repeating the FIRST DAY OF CREATION , repeating the FIRST DAY AFTER THE FLOOD , repeating the FIRST DAY OF EXODUS and the Moment of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to be called "MORNING STAR". So in the Psalms 119 verse 147 "I RISE before the Dawn and cry out for help , I have put my hope in your WORD ". that is the CRY of the RISEN LORD, the Priestly Messiah , who as the Morning Star has risen just before the Day Break to cry out to God for help. The theme is that the Devout Priest is a Shaman Figure of God, not counted as a man among Israel but like a dead man and like a worm , like an animal , not free willed as a man , but the flesh of the Priest so devout belongs only to God . Moses said the Sole Inheritance of the Devout Priest is GOD HIMSELF. So Jesus rose in the glory of a RISEN LORD and takes the title " MORNING STAR". There is no error in this report. Psalms 22 "BUT I AM A WORM AND NOT A MAN". cries the Priest who was pierced, this is the testament of a Priestly Messiah crucified. He was rejected by Men, he was a Priest from conception , not counted in Israel as a man. God said to Aaron ,YOU HAVE NO SHARE IN ISRAEL , YOU ARE MINE, I AM THE LORD , I AM YOUR SHARE". So the Shaman Priest was never counted as a "Man " among the Men ,he was rejected by Men. The Priest could not own land or inherit wealth of the Land of Israel , he was lock , stock and barrel ,the sole property of God to do so as God wills, to kill the priest as a propitiation for sin or let the Priest live forever, or both . To do so Jesus would be both God and Man . CASE CLOSED.
Both theories are fascinating, and plausible, I suppose. But what about the specific details in Matthew 12:40? "For just 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."
The problem with each of these variations is that they don't take into consideration something very important with the Jewish calendar and the feast day celebrations. Passover is a Holy day (a Sabbath to the Lord) and can occur on various days of the week. If I recall correctly, the one day it doesn't occur on is a Friday (in our calendar) as that would be two Sabbaths immediately following one another, the High Sabbath and a weekly Sabbath. Some clues as to which day it was that Jesus died is found in Matt 27: 57-66. Carefully reading this one sees that Joseph collected and entombed Jesus's body in the late afternoon before sunset (before the Sabbath - the High Feast Day). Now, it would appear that in Matt 27:62 that the following day is where the chief priests and the Pharisees met with Pilate. However, this interpretation would be wrong as the chief priests and the Pharisees would not have defiled themselves by meeting with Pilate on that High Sabbath. Instead it would be far more likely that this day of meeting would have been a non-Sabbath day (in this case, it could be presumed to be what we would call Friday). This would make far more sense with the chief priests and Pharisees making reference the third day. The timeline would be Wednesday afternoon the death and subsequent burial of Jesus in the Tomb (late Wednesday afternoon before sunset). Wednesday night/Thursday day (the first day), Thursday night/Friday day (the second day) and Friday night/Sabbath day (the third day). This would logically mean that late Sabbath day, Jesus would have arose from death. Now what is interesting is that I have an interlinear translation which contains the King James translation in the side notes, with the Greek and word for word English translation under each Greek word. Now just using the ASV in front of me, Matt 28:1 reads [Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.] In the interlinear, the translation of the word from Greek is [dusk] and not [dawn], which makes far more sense of the above verse as Matt is written for the Jews and not the Gentiles and the Jews considered a day starting at dusk and finishing at dusk. Make of the above as you will. Keep also in mind that the Jewish calendar is supposed to a 19 cycle which would mean that we can easily calculate the year and day for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Under the "temporal figure of speech," how long was Jesus dead? What day did Jesus die on, and what day did He rise? Under the popular view, it affirms the Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday tradition. Three days and three nights could mean the beginning and the end of a day. The Jewish reckoning may simply signify any portion of the day counts as a whole day as you pointed out.
I don't know how to get a response from Mike, so I'm going to leave this comment until he responds. (Sorry everyone if you find this as a spam) Hi Mike, thank you for your work. In the past year I've dug into proofs for Christianity. I've watched and read Lee Strobel, yourself, Gary Habermas and Nabeel Qureshi. (Also David Wood's testimony must be mentioned, he sparked my interest for Christianity) I still haven't read your and Gary's work but have watched videos. I definitely plan on reading it soon, but I must admit I've been most touched by Nabeel's speeches and books("Seeking Allah Finding Jesus" is the book where I've been introduced to your and Gary's work) I've heard he was doing a PhD at Oxford on the Gospel of Mark. That is something that sounds super interesting to me. My question is - Can Nabeel's work be found anywhere? Did he write anything on his study of the Gospel of Mark? I'm still assessing information and wouldn't call myself a Christian yet, but Nabeel's speeches touched my heart. I can't explain it. I want to learn more. Especially because I'm surrounded by mostly atheists who, because of people like Alex O'Connor, doubt deity claims from Jesus and reliability of Gospels and other NT sources. That's why Mark's gospel is so interesting to me. I've watch a video from Nabeel called: Nabeel Qureshi: Jesus in Islam vs. Jesus in Christianity - Apologetics to Islam Where he was talking about the dating of the Gospel of Mark and the famous "naked man" story and other interesting parts from that Gospel. Since it is the earliest Gospel written and since Nabeel have had such an impact on me and since Nabeel was researching the Gospel of Mark - I want to learn more! I must learn more! Are there any resources you would point me to, aside from your own work which I definitely plan to read thoroughly? I'm from Serbia, so I guess the resources would have to be online or available for worldwide shipping. Also, if there's any email I can post my questions to after I'm done reading your and Gary's work, that would be great. Thank you for your work and greetings from Serbia.
"40" is another common idiomatic time expression.
Paul and Luke made everything up.
It's amazing how you, so casually, cast aside the words of God, when He said, "as Jonah was 3 days & 3 nights in the belly of the great fish so will the Son of man be 3 days & 3 nights in the heart of the earth", as though it's some sort of afterthought, being inferior to the idiomatic ways of speaking of the time. "No no no, scripture isn't the truth, it's 'mytho history', it's just sayings to illustrate a point, God didn't really do those things, I mean hey, He probably didn't even say those things but, if He did, He was merely speaking in relative terms." That's what religion does to God, it makes Him, relatively speaking, not even a person, for He is actually a collective, three people, so how could you ever know who "He" is when "his" pronouns are "they them"? Carnal nonsense, that is the sum of conventional apologetics. But I repeat myself.
Ok this one is too deep in the weeds even for me. Have at it fellas, and I'll see you on another video.
I wonder if Mike even bothers to glance at the comments.
Small problem. The word, nights, is involved. There are at least 9 passages describing he would be killed and dead for 3 days and nights, before speaking to the thief on the cross. Nights, implying a full 24 hour day, and not in paradise, but dead. The basic tenant of Christianity resurrection of the dead, is destroyed by the idea Jesus was alive, when dead. He wasn't, or Christianity is bogus, and a liar for at least 9 previous passages.
If you're proposing “3 days” was just a figure of speech, Is it your position that we don’t know how long Jesus was dead for before rising?
This is ridiculous. This is because of the "traditional" belief that Jesus was crucified on Friday, which is wrong. There is more than enough proof in the Bible to prove He did NOT die on Friday. The day that fits PERFECTLY is Wednesday. I've seen many people, not just Mike come up with these so many different explanations to try and force the Friday crucifixion into the three days and three nights. I wish people would be more objective and not STUCK in their traditions.
@denisearmstrong77