The Sign of Jonah: How Long Was Jesus In the Tomb?
Last edited: February , 2026
Edits: Accuracy in Greek usage. Clarification.
A significant controversy exists in Christianity regarding the length of time Jesus was in the tomb, and the timing of the resurrection is actually quite important for many reasons.
One side opts for a literal 3 days and 3 nights; the other opts for parts of 3 days and 2 nights to align His death and resurrection with Good Friday and Easter.
Since we are once again approaching the season of Passover and the memorial of His death and resurrection, today, we are going to take a look at exactly this topic.
God did not leave us without the exact information we need to pin down the timing of His death and resurrection, almost to the very hour. We are told enough information in the Bible to pin down the exact day of the week on which He died and the almost exact hour of His resurrection.
As a side note, this post represents a crash course (mostly for myself) in the Greek language, so bear with me since it will contain more of it than my other posts, but it's all relevant.
I promise.
I'm no expert in Greek, and the Greek in this post mostly represents quite a few hours of research, not an expertise in the Greek language, just so we're clear.
Jesus prophesied His own death multiple times, and in fact, it was one of the things He talked about the most during His Earthly ministry. It was the main purpose for Him to be in the flesh in the first place, so it’s only natural and proper that He would devote a significant amount of time to laying the groundwork for what His disciples could expect to happen after He died.
When He spoke about His own death, Jesus stated that there would be only one sign that would be given—that of the prophet Jonah.
What exactly is the sign of Jonah, and why is the story of Jonah so important?
That’s what we’re going to examine first before we get to the timing of Jesus’s death and resurrection.
Jonah 1:17 NASB95 — And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
Hebrew consistently uses "day and night" together to refer to full 24-hour periods when stated explicitly like this. The phrase שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת ("three days and three nights") is a set phrase that refers to three full cycles of day and night.
Now, if God had just said "three days" (שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים) without "nights," it could potentially mean parts of three days, but adding "and three nights" eliminates that possibility. We can take this to mean that Jonah spent a literal three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish for a total of 72 hours.
Some other examples where the phrase “three days and three nights” is used in the Old Testament clearly demonstrate the literalness of this phrase.
1 Samuel 30:12 – The Egyptian servant had not eaten for three days and three nights, meaning a full three days.
Esther 4:16-5:1 – Esther fasted for three days, night and day, before approaching the king, and the fast ended on the third day (implying full periods of fasting).
Even in Esther, when it says she went before the king on the third day, it doesn't say when her fast ended, but we can assume it was for the whole period that she originally said it would be. Fasts in the Bible almost always began at sunset since that started the new day, and then it would end 24 hours later at sunset, or however many days later the fast was supposed to end.
The discussion of evening and morning is made difficult by the fact that “evening” does not exclusively refer to what we define as sunset. Indeed, it refers to the period of mid to late afternoon, clear up to and through the period we refer to as sunset, at which point the day is referred to as night or dark.
An example of this is in 1st Kings 18, where Elijah offers his offering at the time of the evening offering, and then still has time to kill a bunch of prophets, go pray for a while, see the sky darkened by a storm, and then run to the city.
The key here is that “evening” is modified by the sacrifice, which determines the timing to be mid-afternoon, about 3 PM. Further discussion on this topic will be presented in a future article, which I will link to here.
Anyway, to move on, most places where the word evening is used refer to sunset.
The pattern of night and day marking a full 24-hour period began with the creation of the Earth when God said evening and morning constituted a full day. In other words, a full day is referred to as the dark portion and the light portion, ending when the next dark portion begins.
Genesis 1:5 NASB95 — God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
God defines what a day is in this one verse, and we find the confirmation of this in other places in the Scriptures. I’ll just share a couple.
Exodus 27:21 NASB95 — "In the tent of meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the LORD; [it shall be] a perpetual statute throughout their generations for the sons of Israel.
Leviticus 23:32 NASB95 — "It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath."
A complete day runs from evening to evening in the Biblical reckoning of time, because the new day begins at sunset. There are places where ”a day” simply means the daylight portion, but a complete day is roughly 24-hours and encompasses the period between sunsets.
Here are some more examples of places where days and nights are used together to indicate full 24-hour periods of time (A mostly complete list, though some of the redundancies have been skipped).
1 Kings 19:8 NASB95 — So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Job 2:13 NASB95 — Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.
Genesis 7:4 NASB95 — “For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”
Genesis 7:12 NASB95 — The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Deuteronomy 9:18 NASB95 — “I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger.
One other example, which is the only place I can find where this usage of night and day exists, is when Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights (twice). An incredible story in its own right, it highlights the usage of this pattern of night and day as full 24-hour periods.
"So he was there with the Yehovah forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water."
Any place this pattern of equal nights and days is used in the Old Testament, it always refers to a literal period of full days and nights.
Every time, no exception.
Okay, so now we know that the period Jonah was in the belly of the great fish was quite literal. There is no way to explain it otherwise, because that is what we are told about the time he spent in the belly of the fish, and the wording used is a literal period of time.
Now, let's take a look at the New Testament to see what Jesus said about His own time in the grave.
Matthew 16:4 NASB95 — “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.
Luke 11:29-30 NASB95 — As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. “For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
No sign would be given except the sign of Jonah, and He repeats this three times in total. In the first place He says this, we find out exactly what the sign of Jonah is.
Matthew 12:39-40 NASB95 — But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The sign of three days and three nights is the one sign that He was going to give to that generation that He was truly the Son of God, and there are some interesting things to take note of in what He says there.
ὥσπερ γὰρ ἦν Ἰωνᾶς ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας, οὕτως ἔσται ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ τῆς γῆς τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας.
First, the phrase “just as” in Greek is “ὥσπερ” and it means in exactly the same way, or exactly the same.
So, in exactly the same way as Jonah was in the belly of the fish, that's how Jesus is going to be in the grave. The other underlined phrase essentially repeats this statement, which is “οὕτως” and means in like manner or in this same manner.
ὥσπερ
((cf. Tdf. Proleg., p. 110); from ὡς and the enclitic particle περ, which, "in its usual way, augments and brings out the force of ὡς Klotz ad Devar. 2:2, p. 768; see περ), adverb (from Homer down), just as, even as
οὕτω and οὕτως
(formerly in printed editions οὕτω appeared before a consonant, οὕτως before a vowel; but (recent critical editors, following the best manuscripts ("Codex Sinaiticus has οὕτω but fourteen times in the N. T." Scrivener, Collation etc., p. liv.; cf. his Introduction etc., p. 561), have restored οὕτως; viz. Treg. uniformly, 205 times; Tdf. 203 times, 4 times οὕτω; Lachmann 196 times, 7 times οὕτω (all before a consonant); WH 196 times, 10 times οὕτω (all before a consonant); cf. Tdf. Proleg., p. 97; WHs Appendix, p. 146f); cf. Winers Grammar, § 5, 1 b.; B. 9; (Lob. Pathol. Elementa ii. 218ff); cf. Krüger, § 11, 12, 1; Kühner, § 72, 3 a.), adverb (from οὗτος) (fr. Homer down), the Sept. for כֵּן, in this manner, thus, so:
1. by virtue of its native demonstrative force it refers to what precedes; in the manner spoken of; in the way described; in the way it was done; in this manner; in such a manner; thus, so
So the one sign that Jesus gives about the amount of time He will be buried in the ground is said to be identical to the amount of time Jonah was in the belly of the great fish. Knowing this, we can solidly conclude that the amount of time Jesus was in the tomb was exactly three days and three nights.
Addendum:
Before we move on, let's look at one more apparent discrepancy in the gospel accounts. It is the question of whether it was after three days or on the third day, and the answer is pretty simple: yes!
The answer is yes, it was both.
Mark's account clearly states that Jesus said after three days He would rise from the dead, and in Matthew, the Pharisees thought that is what He said too.
Mark 8:31 – "And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise from the dead."
Mark 9:31 – "For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, 'The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill Him, and when He has been killed, He will rise after three days.'"
Mark 10:34 – "And they will mock Him and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him, and after three days He will rise.
Matthew 27:63 – "Sir, we remember that when that deceiver was still alive, He said, ‘After three days I am rising.’”
The other three gospels just as clearly say that He was raised on the third day, so which is it? It can't be both, can it?
Well, yes, actually, it can. The word "on" is not in there in the Greek (It doesn't really change the meaning, it's just something I found interesting), which makes it read "the third day."
Now think about it, and this is also born out in the idiom of the day, if I said I would come after three days and I showed up right at the end of the third day, would you think I had lied?
No, but not only did I show up after three days, but I also showed up on the third day as well.
Accordingly, any time after the second day would be considered the third day, even the end of it, which makes it possible to be resurrected both after three days and three nights and the third day at the same time.
Matthew 16:21 – "...and be killed, and be raised on the third day."
Matthew 17:23 – "...and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day."
Matthew 20:19 – "...and they will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and flog and crucify, and on the third day He will be raised."
Luke 9:22 – "The Son of Man must suffer many things... and be killed and be raised on the third day."
Luke 18:33 – "And after they have flogged Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise."
Luke 24:7 – "...and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."
Luke 24:21 – "But we were hoping that He was the One who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened."
Luke 24:46 – "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day."
Acts 10:40 – "God raised Him on the third day and allowed Him to appear."
1 Corinthians 15:4 – "And that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures."
I could stop here with every bit of information necessary to figure out the day of the week Jesus died already firmly in hand. With the sign of Jonah firmly established, it just becomes a matter of simple math to determine the day of His death.
However, there are some more things of interest to examine, and while they don’t change the outcome, they are rather interesting, so we’ll examine them anyway.
So, let's take a look at the accounts of His death and resurrection to see if this math is born out in the narrative. We'll also see if we can pinpoint the exact day of His death and His resurrection using the information given to us in the gospel accounts.
First, let's establish the day of the month His death occurred. We know the day He died was Passover; that much is without dispute in most people's minds, but what day is the Passover?
Leviticus 23:5 NASB95 — ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’S Passover.
Regardless of how you define the phrase “between the evenings,” the sacrifice ends up on the 14th day of the first month, which is the Passover. The sacrifice is the Passover, and we can look at a few places to establish this.
Exodus 12:21 NASB95 — Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.
(Lamb is added by the translators for clarity)
Deuteronomy 16:2 NASB95 — “You shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to establish His name.
2 Chronicles 35:11 NASB95 — They slaughtered the Passover animals, and while the priests sprinkled the blood received from their hand, the Levites skinned them.
You'll notice the word “lamb” is italicized in Exodus and Chronicles, which means that it is not there in the Hebrew. Rather, it calls the slaughter of the lamb the Passover. We find this principle born out in the New Testament as well concerning Jesus.
1 Corinthians 5:7 NASB95 — Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
Jesus is the Passover, the one the whole ceremony with the lamb was pointing to all along. The Passover is clearly on the 14th day of the month, though it is not the purpose of this article to establish whether the original one in Egypt was at the beginning of the 14th or in the afternoon of the 14th.
The point is that by the time of Jesus's crucifixion, the majority of lambs were being sacrificed on the afternoon of the 14th day of the first month, also known as Nisan, and Christ, being the reality the shadow of the lamb had pointed to all along, must necessarily have been sacrificed at the same time the lambs were commanded to be sacrificed.
Thus, we can pinpoint the exact day of the month on which Jesus died, that is, the 14th of Nisan, and we are even able to pinpoint the exact hour of His death.
Another clue to this is the fact that the 15th of Nisan is a High Sabbath, according to Leviticus 23, and Jesus died on the preparation day before a “Great Sabbath,” once again giving us a firm fact for the day of His death.
Leviticus 23:6-7 NASB95 'Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
7 'On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.
John 19:31 LSV The Jews, therefore, that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, since it was the Preparation (for that Sabbath day was a great one), asked of Pilate that their legs may be broken, and they [are] taken away.
The same phrase, great or high day is used in John 7:37 to refer to the last holy day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
With these facts established, we are now ready to look at the accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion. We have a bit of a challenge with this because the Jews referred to the whole feast and sometimes even the days surrounding it as “The Passover” or “The Feast of the Passover.”
This does nothing to clarify matters for us, and a lot of confusion has sprung out of these terms.
However, there are a few things we can examine to nail down just what exactly the writers of the gospels are referring to. Keep the things in mind that we have already covered because they will be relevant.
John 13:1 NASB95 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
John 18:28 NASB95 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.
John 19:14 NASB95 Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!"
John 19:31 NASB95 Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.
From John’s account, we clearly see that by the time Jesus was crucified, the Passover of the Pharisees was still in the future.
They had not partaken of it yet, and the following day was a High Sabbath, the first day of Unleavened Bread. The meaning of this demonstrates unambiguously that the day Jesus died was indeed the 14th of Nisan.
However, there is one fly in the ointment, and that fly is the other three accounts, often called the synoptic gospels.
Let’s go back to the other three accounts where we find a supposed contradiction and see if we can remove the fly.
Matthew 26:17 NKJV - Now on the first [day of the Feast] of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?"
Mark 14:12 NKJV - Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover [lamb], His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"
Luke 22:7 NKJV - Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.
The wording in these three places naturally presents an issue since it seemingly declares that the disciples are coming to Jesus on the first day of unleavened bread, the day after He was already supposed to be dead.
However, there are a couple of things to note here, and that is that the phrase, the unleavens, is a phrase that, while it can literally refer to the first day of unleavened bread if the context allows for it, it can be expanded to refer to the entire time surrounding the festival, including the day the lambs are sacrificed.
Addendum: We find this is the phrase used here, although for the sake of thoroughness, I will mention that in the LXX, Azymon, the Greek word for unleavened, is used to directly translate the Hebrew word Matzah, which is unleavened bread. Azymon does not have to be directly modified by the Greek word for bread to carry the meaning of unleavened bread.
A more literal reading of these three passages, with only the words that are present translated, reads as follows.
Luke 22:7 Then came (or arrived) the day of the Unleaveneds on which the Passover was required to be sacrificed. ...
First, the phrase “the first day of Unleavened bread” does not exist here in the Greek.
It just doesn't.
The phrase is more accurately the “day (or time) of Unleaveneds,” and that is how I will translate it throughout the rest of the document, more or less.
It can refer to the general time period around the festival and encompasses both Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, which is how it seems to be used in all three gospel accounts.
Mark 14:12 NASB95 And, on the first day of the Unleaveneds, when they were killing the Passover, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?" ...
Matthew 26:17-20 NASB95 Now, on the first of the Unleaveneds, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?"
Between the three accounts, we have a pretty good idea of how to pinpoint the timing of His disciples' coming and asking where to prepare for them to eat the Passover.
It couldn’t be the first day of Unleavened bread because, according to John, Jesus was already dead and buried. It could not have been during the daytime portion of the 14th either, because again, that was the time when Jesus was in the process of being crucified.
Between the time of His crucifixion and the time the disciples are preparing, there has to be at least one nighttime portion in which Jesus is betrayed, tried, and then taken to the Roman authorities.
However, the phrase “first of the Unleavends” could not be stretched back further than the day of the sacrifice, so it cannot extend back to the 13th.
That leaves us with very few options, but the answer lies in where we began this article, with what starts the day. When does a day begin in the Bible?
The day begins at sunset, which means that for the disciples to come to Jesus and inquire about where they would prepare the Passover on the first of the Unleaveneds, the timing for their inquiry could be no further back than the sunset which begins the 14th.
So, the only possible timeline is as follows:
The disciples inquire of Jesus where to prepare the Passover shortly after sunset.
They made ready, whatever that meant, because the room was already furnished and prepared according to Mark.
Jesus comes in with the rest of the disciples shortly thereafter, while it is still evening.
The preparations they made could have been for the entire week, since by this period of time, the whole season was interchangeably referred to as either Passover or Unleavened Bread.
We have when they were in the upper room, eating the last supper, nailed down, so now let’s go look at the actual crucifixion of Jesus, which we now know happened on the 14th day of the first month at or shortly before the time they would have been sacrificing the Passover lambs (Though some accounts have them sacrificing the lambs from the 13th in the afternoon clear to the afternoon of the 14th, it was supposed to be done at the time of the evening sacrifice on the 14th), roughly from noon to 3 PM.
Matthew 27:45-46 NASB95 Now from the sixth-hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.
46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"
Now, there’s something we need to realize about Jesus' crucifixion. The only one who expected it to happen was Jesus.
Really!
Everyone else was surprised at His crucifixion and death, shocked beyond words, because they expected Him to set up His kingdom right then and there and liberate them from the Romans! Obviously, His liberation went far beyond the Roman oppression, but that’s what they expected of Him.
We’re going to go back to the gospel of John to lay out the timing of a few important events, but the thing to keep in mind is that He died on the day right before the High Holyday, or the First Day of Unleavened bread.
John 19:25-27 NASB95 Therefore the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the [wife] of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"
27 Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour the disciple took her into his own [household.]
The disciple mentioned here is John, the author of this gospel.
He didn’t like to write in the first person for whatever reason, so we end up with him referring to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
That’s a side note, but the main point is that the women and the disciple John were standing close enough to talk to Jesus. John is the only one with this perspective; the other authors just mention that they were standing at a distance. Likely, they moved back when the soldiers brought something for Him to drink.
Mat 27:55-56 NASB95 Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to Him.
56 Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
Mark 15:40-41 NASB95 There were also [some] women looking on from a distance, among whom [were] Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome.
41 When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and [there were] many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.
Luke 23:49 NASB95 And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, seeing these things.
The women who would later be the first ones to see Jesus resurrected were standing around the cross, close enough at one point to be able to hear Jesus’s last words, and they stayed right there with Him until the end.
The relevance will become clear in a minute.
John 19:31 NASB95 Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.
So, once again, we see that the day Jesus died was a preparation day for a High Sabbath, and the Jews didn’t want Him to be on the cross past sunset since that would be a violation of the law.
Now, it’s evening, almost sunset by the time they get Jesus off the cross, and the Sabbath is swiftly approaching, so they need to do whatever they have to do to get Jesus in the ground before the Sabbath begins. We see this haste in the next verses of John.
John 19:38-42 NASB95 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret [one] for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body.
39 Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds [weight.]
40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.
42 Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Matthew 27:57-61 NASB95 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.
58 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given [to him.]
59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.
61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.
Mark 15:42-43, 46-47 NASB95 When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
43 Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. ...
46 Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the [mother] of Joses were looking on [to see] where He was laid.
Luke 23:50-54 NASB95 And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man
51 (he had not consented to their plan and action), [a man] from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God;
52 this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
53 And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.
54 It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
From Matthew, we find out that the tomb they laid Jesus in was Joseph's own tomb that he’d had carved for himself, and John tells us that they chose this tomb because of its proximity to the crucifixion site.
Everything about this burial was hasty, and they used about a hundred pounds of spices that another rich man provided for the task, but without preparing them the way they would need to be prepared for a proper embalming.
The reason for the haste was the coming Sabbath and the fact that they planned to return after the Sabbath was done to finish the job.
It was temporary!
Notice something else that’s of interest: the women never left Jesus from the time He was on the cross until the time He was placed in the tomb right as the Sabbath was about to begin.
Matthew 27:62-66 NASB95 Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate,
63 and said, "Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I [am to] rise again.'
64 "Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last deception will be worse than the first."
65 Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go, make it [as] secure as you know how."
66 And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.
The Pharisees sneak in to see Pilate either on the Sabbath (in violation of their own law) or right after sunset, and they ask him to set a guard on the tomb because they are afraid the disciples of Jesus will sneak in and steal His body so they can claim He has risen from the dead. It’s likely they do so after sunset.
Three days are important because, after three days, you are declared to be legally dead in that culture. Before that time, there was a chance you were just in a coma and might pull out of it without actually having been dead.
John 11:1, 4, 6, 11, 14, 17, 44 NASB95 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ...
4 But when Jesus heard [this,] He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it." ...
6 So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days [longer] in the place where He was. ...
11 This He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep." ...
14 So Jesus then said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, ...
17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. ...
44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
It’s thought that Jesus waited as long as He did to allow the legal bounds of death to pass by so that there would be no question that He resurrected Lazarus from the dead. Just an interesting side note.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.
Luke 23:55-56 NASB95 Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid.
56 Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Mark 16:1 NASB95 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the [mother] of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him.
Here, we have two seemingly conflicting narratives, but again, there is nothing conflicting about them if you understand the timing of events.
They bought spices once the Sabbath was past, and then they rested on the Sabbath according to the command. Well, they couldn’t have purchased the spices the day Jesus was crucified; they were with Him the whole time!
He was put in the tomb shortly before the Sabbath began, so they wouldn’t have had time after they left the tomb either. Shopping was hardly the convenience it is now with everything in one place; no, it would have taken a lot longer, plus the travel time alone would have carried them well into the Sabbath. Well, maybe they bought the spices after sundown, once the Sabbath was past, in time to prepare them for getting to the tomb early Sunday morning.
Again, shopping was not like it is now, and it is extremely unlikely that the shops would open after the Sabbath because it was dark!
Technically possible, but unlikely.
Something to keep in mind is that this was one of the three pilgrimage festivals commanded by God, so the whole Jerusalem area would have been packed.
Deuteronomy 16:16 NASB95 "Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.
Now, if we consider that the Sabbath they went out shopping after is the High Holyday and the Sabbath they rested on was the weekly Sabbath, this gives us a pretty good indicator of the day of the week Jesus was crucified.
The 14th of Nisan (Passover) can only fall on a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, or Monday according to the Hebrew Calendar, and in order for the sequence of events to align that year, it’s pretty easy to see that it was a Wednesday.
We’ll see this even more clearly in a minute.
Now, if they were shopping for the ingredients to make this embalming material on a Friday, why didn’t they just go straight to the tomb on Friday to complete the embalming process?
Why wait until Sunday?
Two reasons.
The crowds were so big that shopping for all the ingredients took way longer than normal, and with travel time, preparing the materials, etc., they were lucky to finish before sunset.
The guards who had been set on the tomb were not allowed to break the seal for at least three days after Jesus had first been placed in it. This would make the women's job impossible before those three days were up. All they could do was purchase the spices and prepare for the third day. However, as we’ll see, they got there as quickly as they could after the third day to finish the process, and they didn’t expect anyone to be there.
The three days are really quite important because, if we think about it, what are the chances that the Pharisees would take any chances with that period of time by only having the guards there for a portion of three days?
Another thing to consider is that if they were setting the guards in the traditional Friday to Sunday narrative, and it is most likely that they did not approach Pilot about it until after the Sabbath, then they would have been setting the guards after sunset on Saturday.
However, in the Wednesday to Saturday evening scenario, the guards would have been preparing to finish their watch at sunset, and Jesus would have risen shortly before that, making the guards some of the most important witnesses of His resurrection, the only humans to be present when it happened.
So, the pattern we have thus far has Jesus being put into the tomb at the start of the High Holyday (Wednesday), everyone resting on the Sabbath (Thursday), except possibly the Pharisees, the women purchasing and preparing the spices on Friday, then they rested on the weekly Sabbath.
We have now arrived at the pivotal moment, that of Jesus’s resurrection.
Luke 24:1 NASB95 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
Mark 16:2-4 NASB95 Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. (Or was rising. From the other accounts, we know that it was still dark, but it indicates it was quite likely the period of darkness just before it gets fully light.)
3 They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" (They weren’t expecting the guards to still be there since three days had passed over the Sabbath.)
4 Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.
Matthew 28:1-2 NASB95 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
John 20:1 NASB95 Now on the first [day] of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone [already] taken away from the tomb.
The women arrive at the tomb as soon as it is light enough for them to see their way, but it is still dark out. The phrasing used suggests that this was the period of time in the morning when the sky changes from pitch black to just a touch of gray, so it was very early in the morning.
We aren’t told exactly when Jesus rose from the dead, but He’d already been risen for a bit by the time the women got there. There are some fun things in the Greek to accompany the word used for week, but we won't get into that right now.
Luke 24:17-21 NASB95 And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?" And they stood still, looking sad.
18 One [of them,] named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?"
19 And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to Him, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,
20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.
21 LSV and we were hoping that it is He who is about to redeem Israel, and also with all these things, this third day is passing today since these things happened.
The easiest way to read this is that, rather than being a strict and specific chronological marker of time, the statement made by these men represents emotional disappointment and hope for Jesus to be the Savior they hoped He was.
The timing of this conversation was likely very early in the morning; the third day had just passed for them, and they were wandering mournfully down the road, hoping beyond hope that Jesus would still rise, extending every benefit of the doubt in their statement about how long it had been.
There is nothing here to require us to read this as an accurate statement by these men, since the authors of the gospels do not affirm their statement.
The next passage we’ll look at appears to be problematic, but that is only because of a few translational errors.
Mark 16:9 NKJV - Now when [He] rose early on the first [day] of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.
There’s a long Greek explanation to go along with this, but the short answer is that this is not a descriptor of the time of His rising; rather, “early on the first day of the week” is modifying the main verb “appeared.” The topic of the sentence is His appearance, not His resurrection.
The misunderstanding here is simply a matter of punctuation, which does not exist in Greek.
ἀναστάς (anastas): This is an aorist active participle of ἀνίστημι (anistēmi), meaning "having risen." The aorist tense emphasizes a completed action, marking Yeshua’s resurrection as something that occurred prior to His appearance. The participle sets the stage for what follows—the appearance to Mary Magdalene.
νωρίς (nōrīs): This adverb means "early." It directly modifies the verb ἐφάνη (ephanē), meaning "He appeared." So, "early" refers to the timing of the appearance, emphasizing that it occurred in the early hours of the first day of the week, likely before most people were awake.
τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς ἑβδομάδος (tēi prōtēi hēmérai tēs hebdomados): This phrase translates to "on the first of the weeks." It uses the dative case to mark the specific time of His appearance, aligning it with Sunday (and the wave sheaf day) in our calendar.
Thus, we get: Now, after having risen, [He] early on the first [day] of the weeks first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
We can get the same answer simply by moving the comma to after the word risen, and the Greek supports such a move.
Mark 16:9 But having risen, early in the morning of the first of the week He appeared first to Mary the Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons;
There's no contradiction in our narrative thus far, so now we can establish a timeline of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Let’s look back at what I said about the timing of His resurrection.
“We aren’t told exactly when Jesus rose from the dead, but He’d already been risen for a bit by the time the women got there.”
While this is mostly true, we aren’t told the moment of His resurrection; we are given the sign of Jonah, and we are told when He was buried.
Recalling our exploration of the sign of Jonah, Jesus was supposed to be in the tomb for three full days and nights, or a period of 72 hours, give or take a few minutes. From right about sunset on Wednesday to right about Sunset on Saturday is exactly that period of time, and we’ll count it out here in a minute.
He is crucified on the afternoon of the 14th, that is, Passover.
He is buried around sunset on Wednesday (With the rock rolling into place right at sunset).
Everyone rests on the High Sabbath, which is also Thursday.
The women purchase and prepare spices on Friday.
Everyone rests on the weekly Sabbath.
Jesus is resurrected roughly around sunset.
The women come to the tomb sometime before sunrise on Sunday morning.
Well, there you have it. The sign of Jonah was given so that we would know Jesus was who He said He was, and in order for the sign to be fulfilled, it must be done literally.
Otherwise, it’s pointless as a sign. Friday to Sunday is only part of three days and parts of two nights, which does not fulfill the qualifications to be the sign of Jonah, no matter how you slice it. Remember, when nights are mentioned in conjunction with days in the Bible, it is always a literal full 24-hour period of time.
Either the sign of Jonah was a sign, or it wasn't. Simple as that. This also creates a problem for Easter and the bunny hatching from an egg.
For another explanation of the timing of the resurrection, please see this article by Brett Gray
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