“On the third day he rose again.”
But have you ever wondered how it works out to three days, when the chronology of Jesus’ death and resurrection–Friday afternoon to the early hours of Sunday morning–only takes 36 hours or so? And doesn’t Jesus compound the problem when he foretells his death and resurrection in Matthew’s gospel: “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”?
Over at Zondervan’s Koinonia blog, Walter C. Kaiser Jr. explains that “three days and three nights was a stereotypical phrase that allowed the full day and night to be counted when any part of that time was included.”
