How Long Was Jesus in the Tomb?

Basic math shows you can’t fit three days and three nights into the narrow time period between afternoon on Good Friday and sunrise on Easter Sunday. Those are the times that most Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

So how long was Jesus in the tomb?

Was He wrong when He gave a sign about being in the grave for three days and three nights?

Or are the Good Friday and Easter Sunday traditions wrong?

Why the religious leaders asked Jesus for a sign

The religious leaders of the first century knew that God had promised to send a conquering Messiah. But the leaders overlooked prophecies that talked about a Messiah who would suffer and die to bear the sins of humanity (for example, Isaiah 53:4-6).

Since they didn’t understand that the Messiah would first come to die and only later return to rule, they saw Jesus as a fraud. They rejected Him and constantly looked for ways to entrap Him.

The context of Jesus’ “sign of the prophet Jonah”

In Matthew 12:38 we read, “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’”

The Pharisees had already seen plenty of signs from Jesus. But because Jesus didn’t fit their preconceived idea of the Messiah, they were already plotting to destroy Him.

No miracle, no sign, was going to convince them otherwise, and Jesus knew it. So “He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign 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’” (verses 39-40).

Would this be three full 24-hour days, or just parts of three days?

Look at a quote from E.W. Bullinger’s notes in The Companion Bible: “The fact that ‘three days’ is used by Hebrew idiom for any part of three days and three nights is not disputed . . . But, when the number of ‘nights’ is stated as well as the number of ‘days,’ then the expression ceases to be an idiom, and becomes a literal statement of fact . . . Hence, when it says that ‘Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights’ (Jonah 1:17) it means exactly what it says, and that this can be the only meaning of the expression in Matthew 12:40” (Appendix 144).

Jesus said that the only sign He would give them that He was the Messiah was that He would be entombed for three days and three nights—exactly 72 hours.

That poses a problem for the traditional counting from late in the day on Good Friday to the morning of Easter Sunday.

Adding it up

Let’s look at two “bookend” scriptures that set the time for us.

First, when was Jesus buried?

“Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed . . . This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near” (Luke 23:50-54).

Biblical days begin at sunset, which would have been around 6 p.m. in the Holy Land at that time of year. So just before 6 p.m. would start the count of three days and three nights.

Now look at John 20:1-2:

“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.’”

This doesn’t tell us when Jesus was resurrected, only that the tomb was already empty even before daybreak. That would have been around 6 a.m., marking the very latest the count could end.

Friday evening at 6 p.m. to Sunday morning at 6 a.m. would be only 36 hours. That’s two nights and one day. And that is a full 36 hours short of the required time in the tomb.

If Jesus were in the tomb for only 36 hours, then by His own words, He wouldn’t be our Messiah. How do we reconcile this?

Misunderstanding the weekly and annual Sabbaths

God’s weekly Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday night.

Luke’s Gospel account calls the day of Christ’s death “the Preparation,” with the Sabbath drawing near. Since the weekly Sabbath started at sunset Friday evening, many assume that Christ’s death was on Friday afternoon and He was buried just before sunset.

But what is often overlooked is that there was another Sabbath during this time.

John 19:31 states, “Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”

What’s a “high day”?

In addition to the weekly Sabbath, God also instituted a handful of annual holy days. They’re special Sabbaths that come once a year and can fall on other days of the week. These special Sabbaths are sometimes referred to as “high days.” We know that Jesus died on Passover. What holy day came after Passover?

Leviticus 23:4-7 tells us, “These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.”

The Passover is immediately followed by an annual high day: the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. An annual Sabbath can fall on different days of the week, and in the year Christ died (A.D. 31) the Feast of Unleavened Bread began at sunset on a Wednesday. So, the preparation day that John and Luke wrote about would have been that Wednesday—not Friday!

Jesus was buried just before 6 p.m. on a Wednesday, so three days and three nights later would put His resurrection on Saturday afternoon just before sunset. This means that when the ladies came to the tomb before sunrise on Sunday morning, Jesus had already been resurrected the previous evening.

The complete picture of the three days and three nights in A.D. 31

Joseph of Arimathea placed the body of Jesus in his unused tomb just before 6 p.m. The annual high day called the first day of Unleavened Bread began at sunset that Wednesday evening and ended at sunset on Thursday.

Let’s pick up the story in Mark 16:1:

“Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.”

The Sabbath here was the high day, the annual Sabbath. So, this was happening Friday, after the holy day, during the daytime when the shops were open.

In Luke 23:55-56, we read, “And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.”

They bought the spices and fragrant oils on Friday and prepared them, but then rested on the weekly Sabbath, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

They had to pause their activities and observe two different Sabbaths after Jesus was crucified. We can’t make sense of the story without understanding this. But when you understand the annual and weekly Sabbaths, it makes perfect sense and provides a logical explanation.

Continuing in Luke 24:1: “Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.”

They came to anoint Jesus’ body, but found an empty tomb because Jesus had already been resurrected Saturday afternoon.

This timeline fits all of the relevant scriptures. See it graphically displayed in our “Chronology of Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection Infographic.”

Yes, Jesus was the Messiah who came to die for the sins of humanity. His death paved the way for our reconciliation to God and eventually our entrance into His eternal Kingdom. And as He prophesied, He was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth—proof that He is our Messiah!