spin

What is the current wisdom regarding the time Jesus was to remain dead?

My understanding of Mark was that it was first written without the passion, so that, when it has Jesus talking of the son of man after three days rising again, there was no conflict with the passion as it came to be presented, ie two nights and a day.

This notion of three days was also in circulation elsewhere, for the sign of Jonah is the only sign Jesus promises in Matthew 12:38, ie "as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth". We are fortunate this survives in Matthew, for where Mark mentions the three days for rising (8:31), its parallels have been adapted to the new timeline, "on the third day" he'll be raised.

We have a prima facae case for three days and three nights being in the traditions before the passion was committed to "paper".


spin

mountainman

There are at least 3 precedent resurrection citations; I am not sure whether they mention a specific period of days and nights.

(1) Elisha the prophet (2 Kgs. 4.32-35) rose before him.
(2) Lazarus rose before him (John 11:43f.),
(3) “many bodies of those who had fallen asleep” were raised (Matt. 27.52)

Chili

If the grave is not a physical grave and evening does not follow on the seventh day moon-day will never come again.

Clivedurdle

Just googled three days and three nights, and it seems to be all apologia to make two days equal three and references to Aramaic idioms.

Has anyone asked what is the symbolism of three days and three nights so that it is the central motif of the Jonah and Jesus stories? Is there a magical or astrological meaning?

Sheshbazzar

Yes, there are those who attempt to explain it away. Others have learned how to deal with it.
My initial posts on this forum years ago centered on these matters.
To summarise, the matter has to do with numbers, and the equality of numbers, with just balances, and with measures of lineal length, and subtly with the laws that determine units of time and distance.
I had devoted years to the study of the subject, but at that time I was yet very unacquainted with using a PC, and my obvious position as a believer made me an easy target of ridicule, which I am willing to confess, was somewhat deserved.
My position has radically changed since then, but those Biblical mathematical/geometrical observations that I was struggling so hard to get across, are still valid observations, the laws governing mathematics have not changed, and the ethical reasons standing behind the use or 'enshrinement' of particular numbers is still valid.

Many of The Bibles stories, although fabrications in a common sense, were constructed for the primary purpose of providing a framework to present numerical relationships in. (and of course much more is also lost in translation, in the loss of idiom, and of nuance, and the sharing of a common language, cultural background, and understanding)
If the subject is prejudged, and is arbitrarily dismissed (as it usually is by non-believers, and even by believers with a bias that requires conformity) there is little awareness of what is really being conveyed within texts that are only read as relating some trivial history or narrative.
I could go on for hours about this, even though I am now a confessed unbeliever (but I won't, better to simply encourage others to do their own homework and figure it out for themselves).

Its all right with me, if some, most, or even all who read this conclude that I'm a nut, Hell, I'll even laugh along with them at my foolishness.
So I'll just hang it out here yet again, perhaps someone will grasp the idea, but then if it just flies right over everyone's head yet again, what the hell, makes no difference to me.

Cesc

I think it has to do originally with the heavenly light of the moon. If you start your month off by the sign of the new-moon, then you'll have to observe the moon. And when you do that you'll see that she disappears completely for 2 nights and days before reemerging as the new-moon on the third day. This is arguably a theme in many myths (like the descent of the goddess), the moon disappearing into the "Underworld" for 2-3 days before being reborn anew. The story of Jonah in the whale/sheol has its archaic parallels in such myths, I believe.

the_cave

Hi spin--from whom do you get this understanding? Where do you think Mark originally ended?

truth_child

the jews had many different sabbaths but the seventh day for the jew was on saturday. JESUS AROSE ON THE FIRST DAY being sunday

Toto

t-c: this is not the place for preaching.

Sheshbazzar

I wonder, how many here have taken the time to look up all the usages of "three days" in the Bible?