Decypher

(Matthew 12:40) - "for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."


Are there any debates on this issue around?

gagundathar

Well, the usual apologist 'explanation' for the discrepancy between the Friday afternoon death and the Sunday morning resurrection is to imagine that the crucifixion actually happened on Thursday.

Really.

Let us assume JC died on Friday afternoon at 1500 local time, and came back to life before dawn (0500) on the following Suinday. That gives him a half of an afternoon (first day maybe), then a full night, then a full day (2 days now), then Saturday night is the second night and assuming you start counting Sunday day as beginning before dawn (why not, remember this is Christian apologetics we're talking about here), then you get the third day but you still only have two nights. Now if you start on Thursday afternoon and count Thursday as the first day, you will get 3 days (Thur, Fri, Sat) and 3 nights (Thur, Fri and Sat) and the 'prophecy' will work out.

Only problem is that there is no reason to assume that JC was crucified on Thursday given the textual evidence. Mark 15:42 says that he died on Preparation Day, the day before the Sabbath (which was Saturday, of course).

So, once again we have a significant contradiction in the gospels that can not be logically reconciled and yet most Christians choose to ignore this.

Decypher

One explanation is that there was a special sabbath, something like that:

Are there any responses to this idea around?

Styrofoamdeity

Scientifically speaking, it was impossible to survive on the cross for three days. Death generally came within hours. Hanging on a cross compressed the chest, making it difficult to draw breath. The process was almost always sped along by having one's feet ankles broken before a crucifixion in order to make it impossible for the executed person to "push off" the cross. Somehow the breaking of the feet is not mentioned in the Bible, probably because the writers were too distant any sort of direct knowledge of such events.

I recall that the average time to die was less than three hours or so.

naturalist.atheist

Not from what I have read. That the whole point of crucifixion was a long, drawn out, very painful and very visible death. According to the gospels, people were surprised that he died so quickly, it could not have been more than a few hours. And there have been reported cases of people surviving crucifixion even after being on the cross for a few days.

What is even fishier about the story as it is reported is that just before Jesus "dies" he is given something to drink by a possible accomplice. And of course, the medical opinion of a roman soldier must be taken as fact in terms of the actual death of Jesus. I mean it never happens even to this day that even medically trained doctors pronounce people dead and they later get up off the slab in the morgue and walk out. And of course when that happens everyone thinks it is a resurrection.

xaxxat

Well, since a day is a thousand years, that would explain his absence...

Eldarion Lathria

How long Jesus be dead? Nigh two t'ousan' year. And he not comin' back. De houngan dead. An' when de houngan die, de zombi die.

Eldarion Lathroa

mojuang

that fellow died for less than two days.for the sake of complition of 'prophecy' theists with their warped logic will insist on three days.but they did not break his legs as it is written in Isaiah....Am sure that sonofabitch did not die!!!there cant be any ressurection!

chieftain

But at least it gets you out in the open air...

naturalist.atheist

If it were a nice day some might have even come out for a picnic to watch the human shish kabobs.