Today, I’m writing about an interesting tidbit related to how long Jesus was in the tomb. I have no goal to share it other than that I think it’s interesting and satisfying to my curiosity. Let me set the oddity of how long Jesus was dead on stage for you.
The traditional, face-value answer to the question of how long Jesus was dead is three days. Indeed, Jesus predicted His resurrection after being dead for three days. Note how it is written in Matthew 27:63: “and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’”
But it seems like He wasn’t actually dead for three days when you look at the timeline for His death and resurrection. We learn in Mark 15:42 that Jesus was buried on “the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,” which was Friday. Jesus died at “the ninth hour” (Mark 15:34) on Friday, which was about 6pm. Joseph of Arimathea likely had some servants hurriedly bury Jesus not long after, perhaps at dusk.
Commentators point out that the Sabbath began not at 12:01 AM on Saturday, but when the sun went down on Friday night. Combine this information with the fact the Jews wouldn’t have buried someone on the Sabbath (I presume out of obedience to the commandment) and we now understand why Joseph rushed to bury Jesus’ body so quickly.
The next we hear in Mark’s gospel after Jesus’ burial is about the women going to anoint Jesus’ body “very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen” (Mark 16:2). The first day of the week was Sunday–the day after the Sabbath. The sun rose probably around 6AM.
Let’s recap the timeline:
- Friday at the 9th hour (6PM)–Jesus dies and is buried quickly thereafter
- Saturday (Sabbath)–nothing happens
- Sunday (first day of the week, right after sunrise, approximately 6AM)–the women discover Jesus’ tomb is empty
The total maximum elapsed time, then, is around 36 hours from His death to His resurrection.
Thirty-six hours isn’t three days, but because of how the Jews counted their days, it was part of three days–Friday night–Sunday morning.
This explains how we can rightly say Jesus rose from the dead three days after His death. He didn’t mean 72 hours after His death, but the third day after his death–Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Thanks for nerding out with me! 🙂
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