Almost everybody agrees however, that His resurrection took place some time between sunset Saturday evening and sunrise on Sunday morning. This much is clear from the fact that when Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James came to the tomb to dress His body at sunrise Sunday morning He was already risen (See Luke 16:1, 2).
The discrepancy lies in the question of how long He remained in the grave and on what day He was crucified. It is argued that you can't count three days and three nights from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning so Jesus must have been crucified before Friday.
Yet, Mark 15:37, 42 makes it clear that Jesus died on the day before the Sabbath, called the Preparation Day. However, since John 19:14 refers to it as 'the preparation of the passover', the argument is that the Passover Sabbath of that week was a Thursday and Jesus must have been crucified on a Wednesday. This would see Him in the grave during Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night (three nights), and Thursday, Friday and Saturday (three days). His resurrection would then have been somewhere around sunset on Saturday evening.
One of the greatest problems with this interpretation is that it contradicts the very Bible which it seeks to prove right. Only two verses in the new Testament suggest that His resurrection would take place 'after three days'. These are Mat 27:63 and Mark 8:31. Neither of these was made by Jesus and the first was made by His enemies, (Chief priests and Pharisees).
Only one verse says it would be 'three days and three nights' and that is found in Matthew 12:40 (quoted at the beginning of this document). In contrast, the following twelve verses point to Him being raised "the third day", with eight of them being direct quotes from Jesus Himself.
Mat 20:19, Mark 9:31,
Mark 10:34, Luke 9:22,
Luke 18:33, Luke 24:7,
Luke 24:21, Luke 24:46,
Acts 10:40, 1 Cor. 15:4
Assuming first that there is a contradiction, the only reasonable position to take would be on the side of the weight of evidence. If twelve statements say He was raised on the third day and only three can be found to contradict this, it would seem that the twelve would have more validity; especially when Jesus Himself made eight of them. (Of the other four, one was said by an angel at the tomb, two by His disciples and one by the apostle Paul.)
However, it is even easier to reconcile the seeming contradiction when we understand that the Jews generally referred to any portion of a time period (day, night, year, etc.) as a whole or completed period, so that the period between November 1998 to February 1999 may be counted as two years, even though it spanned just four months. In the same way, from 3:00 p.m. on Friday to 6:00 a.m. Saturday could be considered two days and to the same time on Sunday would be three days. This would answer the question of Jesus being in the earth for three days with no contradiction.
Where the three nights are concerned, one reasonable explanation is that because His suffering and torture started from Thursday night it can also be reckoned as one of the nights when He was "in the earth", thus, Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night.
There would now be no contradiction between the 'third day', 'after three days' and 'three days and nights', Simply a question of concept.
The more pressing question after all this however, is "what is the importance of all this debate?" What does it matter whether Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or even Saturday? Was He crucified? YES!
Why was He crucified? He was crucified because He wanted to end the sin which leads men to argue and strive about unimportant things; the sin which makes us seek to win arguments rather than to win souls; the sin which leads us to study the Bible to prove our "great" wisdom rather than to become acquainted with the wisdom of God. The merits of His death are available to all men but not everyone will accept them. As a result, a large percentage of mankind will continue striving until Jesus comes and will lose out on the gift which He offers: eternal life.
But what about YOU? Have you considered the importance of Jesus' death; to you? Do you realize that you are saved once you really want to be? It's as simple as that.
Why not ask Him now to accept you as a part of His family? He will save you immediately
