“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?” (Isaiah 66:8)
Ask any conversant agnostic or engaging skeptic and they will likely tell you that there are several supposed miracles surrounding the life of Jesus Christ that they simply cannot accept. They unceremoniously reject His immaculate conception and virgin birth, deny the supernatural aspects of His various miracles, and refuse to accept His claim to be Immanuel—God with us.
But while they will accept that a man named Jesus of Nazareth lived and died—and specifically that He was crucified and buried—they scoff at the idea of His bodily resurrection. Simply put: the audacity of such a declaration far exceeds their willingness to politely acquiesce, given that they have never met someone raised from the dead.
Jesus understood the human psyche far better than cadres of trained psychologists and psychiatrists because He is the Creator who formed Man out of the dust of the ground. His Holy Spirit breathed life into Adam and He continues to uphold and sustain Mankind, ensuring that the miracle of life is transferred down to each new generation.
Jesus intentionally made claims He knew would be audacious—and sound downright impossible to men.
Three Days in the Belly of a Whale
Foretelling His death, Jesus cited a surprising prophetic encounter to preview what He would endure. When the Pharisees demanded further proof that He was the Messiah—ignoring the plethora of signs testifying to that obvious fact—Jesus called them a wicked and adulterous (or perverse) generation. He then declared, “But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40).
Ironically, these zealously religious men did not doubt the testimony of Jonah’s prophecy: that he was indeed swallowed by a great fish and spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish before being unceremoniously vomited up onto dry land (Jonah 1:17-2:10). The modern mind extrapolates immediate objections to this portion of Jonah’s account, but ironically it is easy to verify.
In 1891, newspapers throughout the English-speaking world ran the story of James Bartley. The account told how the sailor from a whaling ship named The Star of the East was swallowed by a whale in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands, only to be freed from his marine tomb when the beast was being butchered several hours later (reported to be between 15 and 36 hours). Bartley was hailed as a “modern-day Jonah” at the time, but further investigation revealed many inconsistencies in the account. Still, Bartley was not the only person documented to have been swallowed.
Lobster-diver, Michael Packard of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was swallowed whole by a humpback whale in June 2021. His experience did not last for hours—and did not result in the skin bleaching that Bartley supposedly sustained. But his testimony of a momentary sense of distress echoes Jonah’s hopelessness as recorded in Jonah 2. He, too, was vomited out to live and tell his tale.
Scripture never actually refers to the creature that swallowed Jonah as a whale. That was an assumption made by English translators as they tried to convey the immensity of a creature that might have swallowed Jonah. Marine biologists say that the largest Mediterranean Sea creature capable of swallowing a human would be the 80-ton sperm whale. They lack the ability to “chew” and, therefore, gulp their food whole. They also store air in their nasal cavity—theoretically providing enough oxygen for a human to survive for several days. They are famous for vomiting up large masses of ambergris, which is a solid waxy substance collected for use in medicines, potions, and fine perfumes.
All these anecdotal potentialities ignore two other facts regarding the creature and circumstance cited in Jonah. It could have been a creature that has become extinct with the passage of time. Jonah himself recognized his dire situation and the inevitable natural death that would result. That is why Jonah credited God alone for bringing his life up from the pit (Jonah 2:6). Yet he was unequivocal about being in the stomach of the great fish for three days and three nights.
One more fascinating angle to Jonah’s account. Pagan peoples around the Mediterranean Sea worshipped the fish god, Dagon (Judges 16:23–24; 1 Samuel 5:1–7; 1 Chronicles 10:8–12). Images of Dagon were found in the ruins of Nineveh. What better calling card for the prophet of God to arrive in Nineveh bearing the visual scars of his encounter with the great fish (and likely preceded by eye-witness accounts from people who saw him vomited up)? The prophet of the true and living God had encountered a manifestation of the false god and had miraculously prevailed.
This realization brings us full circle to the skeptics of today. It is not beyond belief that a man could be swallowed by a sea creature (whale or fish). The miracle is that Jonah was kept alive, “resurrected” from death to life by the power of God. That is what Jesus was conveying in Matthew 12:40, which affirms again His point: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
How Long in the Bowels of the Earth?
One of the subtle accommodations many Christians make regarding the account of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is the timing of these earth-shattering events. The Catholic interpretation of the Gospel’s description of Jesus’ crucifixion on the “day of preparation” reflects a Gentile understanding of the phrase. The assumption is that the Jews were preparing for the Sabbath—which must fall on a Saturday, thus placing the crucifixion on a Friday. The substitutionary death and atonement that were finished at Calvary makes the unspeakable tragedy of that day good news for those who believe upon Him—thus “Good Friday.”
There are two problems with this interpretation: 1) Jews commemorated other holy days that were referred to as Sabbaths even if they did not fall on Saturday, and 2) placing Jesus’ death and burial on Friday only results in two nights in the tomb since we know that He was resurrected prior to Sunday morning.
With this realization, faithful Christians have asserted three possible days for His crucifixion, death, and burial: Friday, Thursday, and Wednesday. Let’s consider each very briefly.
Friday
Friday is clearly the traditional view ascribed to by Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and many mainline denominations. Mark 15:42 says that Jesus was crucified on “the day before the Sabbath,” and adherents to this position take that as a straightforward reference to the weekly Sabbath. They assert that this would have been in the year AD 30, when the Passover would have taken place on Friday, Nisan 14. This position seems to fit with 1 Corinthians 5:7, where Paul refers to Jesus as “our Passover lamb.”
The obvious challenge to this position is the length of time Jesus would have been in the tomb: a small portion of Friday, the night and day of Saturday (Jewish days begin at sundown), and the night and possibly the earliest daytime portion of Sunday. It is impossible to describe this as “three days and three nights,” so advocates of Friday claim that any portion of a day counts as a full day. They ascribe Jesus’ arrest during the nighttime hours of Friday morning as part of His Jonah-esque darkness and confinement. They point to Matthew 16:21 and Luke 9:22, which prophesy that Jesus will arise on the third day.
While most Christians have adopted the language of Good Friday, increasing numbers find the arguments for a Friday crucifixion lacking.
Thursday
Departing from the Friday tradition, Thursday has emerged as a strong contender for the day of crucifixion.
This position asserts that there were two Sabbaths the week of Jesus’ death—a “high Sabbath” marking the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the day after the Passover Seder) and the regular Saturday Sabbath (Luke 22:1). John 19:31 even documents that the Sabbath immediately following Jesus’ crucifixion was a special Sabbath. As described in Leviticus (16:29-31; 23:7, 24-32, and 39), a Sabbath was simply a day ordained by God as a day of rest and worship. This was prescribed for the seventh day of the week and for other special days.
In the Berean Literal Bible (think, “Bereans” who tested every claim against the Word of God), Matthew 28:1 describes the resurrection as taking place “after the Sabbaths”—affirming that there were at least two Sabbaths surrounding the Crucifixion.
A Thursday crucifixion and death seem to be supported by Jesus’ prophecy in John 2:19, where He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” Also, in the text of Luke 24:21, the two disciples on their way to Emmaus tell Jesus, “It is the third day since all this took place.” Both would indicate a Thursday to Sunday passage of time (three days).
Finally, Thursday advocates point to the reality that the day prior to the high Sabbath was the “preparation day”—meaning the day when the Passover lamb would have been slain. Jesus’ death on the same afternoon when lambs throughout the land were being slain fulfilled His role as our perfect Passover Lamb.
Even today, Jews observe the Passover Seder meal the day prior to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Jesus and His disciples simply did so on the first day of the Passover week (Matthew 26:17-19).
Wednesday
Over time, advocates for a Wednesday crucifixion have grown. They agree with the Thursday viewpoint that there were two Sabbaths surrounding Jesus’ death—one a “high Sabbath” (Passover) and the other the regular weekly Sabbath (Saturday). But instead of compressing those Sabbaths into consecutive days, placing the crucifixion on Wednesday separates them by a single day—Friday. There is good Biblical support for doing so.
Mark 16:1 documents that the women purchased spices to anoint Jesus’ body after the Sabbath was over. Luke 23:56 says that after they had seen the tomb and how His body was laid, they returned and prepared the spices and then rested before the Sabbath. How could they have purchased spices after the Sabbath but prepared them before the Sabbath? Only if there were two Sabbaths. Accordingly, they purchased spices on Friday morning after the Passover Sabbath and prepared them on Friday afternoon before the Saturday Sabbath. Then, they returned to the tomb early Sunday morning to anoint Jesus’ body, hoping someone would roll the heavy stone away (Mark 16:2-3).
Placing Jesus’ death on Wednesday accepts as literal His prophecy regarding “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). We know that He died at about 3 in the afternoon and was being laid in the tomb around sunset (Matthew 27:45-46). He was then in the tomb:
Wednesday nighttime – Night 1
Thursday daytime – Day 1
Thursday nighttime – Night 2
Friday daytime – Day 2
Friday nighttime – Night 3
Saturday daytime – Day 3
We do not know what portion of Saturday night Jesus was in the tomb, but we do know that He resurrected sometime after dark on Saturday night and prior to dawn on Sunday morning. The tomb was then discovered to be empty when the women arrived “very early” on Sunday morning. Matthew records that while they were interacting with the risen Jesus, some of the guards rushed into the city to report to the chief priests what had happened. To be clear, Roman soldiers would not have merely fallen asleep on duty—on pain of death. Their appeal to the chief priests testifies to their desperation and to the miraculous nature of what had happened at the tomb.
To Western readers, the only challenge with this timing is the disciples’ testimony en route to Emmaus. They described Jesus’ crucifixion and death and said, “It is the third day since these things happened” (Luke 24:20-21). But, again, to a Jewish mind, Thursday would have begun at sunset on Wednesday. As such, three days would have passed (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) since the events that consumed their conversation.
What It All Means
Our Western minds think in very chronological terms. Whether recounting an episode or recording a biography, we tend to recount events sequentially and in linear order. The Eastern mind thinks more thematically and is not as concerned with specific times or sequences (as Westerners often learn when endeavoring to engage in business).
A Wednesday timeframe for Jesus’ death fulfills the Lord’s own prophecy—connecting His death to Jonah’s experience in the belly of the great fish. And, just as God miraculously delivered His anointed one from a watery grave in the depths of the sea, it demonstrates the power of God to miraculously resurrect His Anointed One from the bowels of the earth.
There is one other aspect to the three days and nights of Jesus’ time in the grave. Jewish tradition held that a person’s spirit lingered near their body for three days. Jesus delayed His own resurrection for the same reason He delayed going to Bethany for four days after Lazarus died—because He did not want anyone to deny the miraculous nature of Lazarus’ resurrection or His own resurrection. But, just as scoffers scoff, deniers will inevitably deny.
Religious leaders denied and denounced Lazarus’ resurrection, then bribed the soldiers who guarded Jesus’ tomb to offer false testimony about His resurrection. This is why Jesus closed the parable of the rich man and Lazarus with an observation about skeptical human nature. From his comfortable position in Paradise, the Lazarus of the parable responded to the rich man’s plea to send someone to warn his brothers with this discerning insight: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
As important as the timing of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection is to fulfill all prophecy, the fact of His resurrection is even more critical. For, as Paul said, if He is not risen from the dead then our preaching, our faith, and our hope is in vain and “we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:13-19).
Wayward men and women have been denying Jesus’ miraculous resurrection for almost 2,000 years. Instead of repenting in the face of the manifest power of God as the men of Nineveh did, they denigrate the One who is far greater than Jonah (Matthew 12:38-41).
But for those of us who are saved, the testimony of the Cross—validated by the fulfilled promise of the resurrection—is the power of God for salvation. And that is a true tale that never grows stale.
That Matthew, Mark and Luke use one Greek word for the Thursday preparation of the Passover meal Jesus observed and all 4 gospel writers use a different Greek word for the next (crucifixion) day’s preparation for the seventh-day Sabbath is evidence to me that the crucifixion was on a Friday.