How Long Was Yeshua In The Tomb?
by PJ
 Matit'yahu/Matthew 12 records an encounter of Yeshua with some of the scribes and Pharisees who were asking Yeshua for a sign or miracle proving His messianic identity. Yeshua responded by telling them that it is an evil generation that demands a sign and that the only sign that would be given was that of Yonah. Yeshua said as recorded in Matit'yahu/Matthew 12:40-41 (AMP) "For even 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."
Traditionally Good Friday through Resurrection Morning has been viewed as the time Yeshua was in the tomb but if you do the basic mathematics and rightly divide the scriptures, you quickly find this isn't true and doesn't work.
There were two Sabbaths the week Yeshua was crucified. One was a Holy Day Shabbat and one was a weekly Shabbat. Events happened on both days.
Yochanan/John 19:14-15 AMP says, "Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was about the sixth hour (about twelve o'clock noon). He said to the Jews, See, (here is) your King! But they shouted, Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! Pilate said to them, Crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar!"
Yeshua was crucified mid-afternoon on a Wednesday. Yochanan/John 19:31-42 describes Yeshua already being dead when the Roman Soldiers came to break the legs of those who had been crucified so instead they pierced His side with a spear and immediately blood and water flowed. Yeshua was entombed by sundown because the Feast of Unleavened Bread would begin at that time. It was the beginning of a Holy Shabbat.
Yeshua died on a Wednesday about 3 pm according to Matit'yahu/Matthew 27:46 and was buried by sundown when a Holy Shabbat began. (night one in the tomb.)
The next day was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Thursday (day one in the tomb.)
Thursday at sundown (night two in the tomb.)
Friday (day two in the tomb.)
Friday at sundown - weekly Shabbat began. (night three in the tomb.)
Saturday - Shabbat (day three in the tomb.)
Yochanan-Makabi/Mark 16:1 (AMP) says, "And when the Sabbath was past (that is, after the sun had set), Mary Magdalene, and Mary (the mother) of James, and Salome purchased sweet-smelling spices, so that they might go and anoint (Jesus' body). Here it was on Saturday night and they were purchasing spices to go anoint Yeshua's body in the tomb.
Yochanan/John 20 says, "Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been removed from (lifted out of the groove across the entrance of)the tomb." At this point on that Sunday morning, the tomb was empty. Sometime between sunset on Saturday and before dawn on Sunday, Yeshua arose.
In order for Yeshua to have given the perfect sign of Yonah, He couldn't have stayed in the tomb past sundown as it was this time of day when He was entombed. I, personally, believe He arose at sunset on Saturday when three stars were visible; that moment where Shabbat ended and the first day of the week began to join the two loaves into one since He is King of the Jews and King of the non-Jews.
“Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible."
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