This question has troubled many because of the proclivity to blend human traditions and philosophical thinking with the Bible’s own clear statements. Most often, they just don’t fit.

The whole question can be resolved by asking ourselves, Whom do we choose to believe—the inspired words of Jesus Christ Himself—or the traditions of men?

Rather than just making a brief statement, allow us to go into some detail, line upon line (Isaiah 28:9), and ponder some scriptures most traditional Christians fail to consider.

Turn first to Matthew 12:38. Here, we find some of the scribes and Pharisees asking Jesus for a SIGN to prove He was the Messiah. But Jesus told them that the ONLY sign He would give was that of the prophet Jonah: “For 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” (verse 40). In order to shoehorn their Good Friday/Easter Sunday tradition into the Scriptures, traditional Christianity must do violence to the Scriptures by cutting the amount of time Christ was in the tomb in half, allowing His entombment to be only a day and a half.

Many deny the only sign Christ gave by teaching that Christ’s “three days and three nights” statement does not require a literal span of 72 hours, reasoning that only a part of a day can be reckoned as a whole day, passing it off as a “Greek idiom.” But the book of Jonah, upon which Christ based His claim as Messiah, was written in Hebrew, not Greek! Still, to perpetuate their Good Friday/ Easter Sunday tradition, proponents claim that since Jesus died in the afternoon, they assume the remainder of Friday constituted the first day, Saturday the second, and part of Sunday the third. However, this reasoning fails to take into consideration that only two nights—Friday night and Saturday night—are accounted for in this explanation. Something is obviously very wrong with the traditional reckoning!

Jonah 1:17, to which Christ referred, states explicitly, “Jonah was in the belly of the fish THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS.” We have no biblical basis whatsoever for thinking that Jesus meant only two nights and one day, plus parts of two days. If Jesus were in the tomb only from late Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning, then the SIGN He gave that He was the prophesied Messiah was not fulfilled!

We must harmonize all the scriptures together regarding how long Christ was in the tomb. Let’s carefully examine the details from the Gospels. When we do, we will discover Jesus’ words were fulfilled precisely, proving Him to be the Messiah.

Notice the events outlined in Luke 23. Jesus’ moment of death, as well as His hasty burial because of the oncoming Sabbath that began at sundown, is narrated in verses 46–53. Verse 54 then states, “That day was THE PREPARATION, and the Sabbath drew near.” But which Sabbath?

Many have assumed that it is the weekly Sabbath mentioned here and that Jesus was therefore crucified on a Friday. But John 19:31 shows that this approaching Sabbath “was a high day”— not the weekly Sabbath (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset), but the first Day of Unleavened Bread, which is one of God’s annual, or high Sabbath days (Exodus 12:16–17; Leviticus 23:6–7). These annual holy days could—and usually did—fall on any day of the week other than the regular weekly Sabbath day.

This high-day Sabbath was Wednesday sunset through Thursday sunset since Luke 23:56 shows that the women, after seeing Christ’s body being laid in the tomb just before sunset, “returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils” for the final preparation of the body.

Such work would not have been done on a Sabbath day since it would have been considered a violation of the Sabbath. This is verified by Mark’s account, which states, “Now when the Sabbath was PAST, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices [which they would not have purchased on the high-day Sabbath], that they might come and anoint Him” (Mark 16:1).

The women had to wait until this annual “high day” Sabbath was over before they could buy and prepare the spices to be used for anointing Jesus’ body. Then, after purchasing and preparing the spices and oils on Friday, “they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). This second Sabbath mentioned in the Gospel accounts is the regular weekly Sabbath, observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

By comparing details in both Gospels—where Mark tells us the women bought spices after the Sabbath and Luke relates that they prepared the spices before resting on the Sabbath—we can clearly see that two different Sabbaths are mentioned. The first, as John 19:31 tells us, was a “high day”—the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread—which, in AD 31, fell on a Thursday. The second was the weekly seventh-day Sabbath.

After the women rested on Saturday, the regular weekly Sabbath, they went to Jesus’ tomb early on the first day of the week (Sunday), “while it was still dark” (John 20:1), and found that Christ’s body was already gone. He had already been resurrected (Matthew 28:1–6; Mark 16:2–6; Luke 24:1–3).

When we consider the details in all four Gospel accounts, the picture is clear. Jesus was crucified and entombed late on Wednesday afternoon, just before a Sabbath began at sunset. However, this was a HIGH-day Sabbath, lasting from Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset that week, rather than the regular weekly Sabbath, lasting from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. How plain!

He remained in the tomb from Wednesday at sunset until Saturday at sunset—exactly 72 hours—when He rose from the dead. While no one witnessed His resurrection (which took place inside a sealed tomb), it had to have happened NEAR SUNSET ON SATURDAY, three days and three nights after His body was entombed. It could not have happened on Sunday morning because when Mary Magdalene came to the tomb that morning before sunrise, “while it was STILL DARK,” she found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. When the women came to the tomb, the angel said, “HE IS NOT HERE: for He is [already] risen, AS HE SAID. Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:6). This was no “Easter sunrise” event!

Thus, we can be assured that the length of His entombment that Jesus gave as proof He was the Messiah was exactly as long as He foretold. Jesus rose precisely three days and three nights—72 full hours—after He was placed in the tomb. Do the math—it cannot be worked out any other way.

This understanding completely destroys the Good Friday/Easter Sunday myth, along with the Protestant excuse of keeping Sunday as “the Lord’s Day.” Because most people do not understand the biblical high days Jesus Christ and His followers kept, they fail to understand the chronological details so accurately preserved for us in the Gospels.