Yeshua's Prophecy on His Burial and Resurrection

When was Yeshua crucified, buried, and resurrected? This question has not been answered since the beginning of Christianity. Almost all Christians have just followed the Roman Catholic Good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition, accepting that Yeshua was crucified on a Friday afternoon, buried just before sunset of that Friday, and resurrected on the following Sunday morning. This timeframe includes Friday night, the daylight portion of Saturday, and Saturday night. The time interval is clearly two nights and one day—not three days and three nights, as Yeshua promised as his only sign: "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, 'Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.' But 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.'" (Matthew 12:38-40).

Yeshua's own words clearly suggest that he would be three days and three nights in the grave just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly. How long did Jonah stay inside the whale's belly? The Scripture says: "Now Yehowah had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" (Jonah 1:17). The Scripture continues to say: "Then Jonah prayed unto Yehowah his God out of the fish's belly, ... And Yehowah spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." (Jonah 2:1-10).

Yeshua himself also said, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day he will rise again." (Matthew 20:18-19). Here, Matthew tells us that Yeshua would rise again the third day by directly quoting Yeshua's own words.

According to our current understanding of the language, "three days and three nights" and "the third day" are not the same. How could the same author write the same thing using apparently contradictory wordings? Did Matthew or Yeshua say something contradictory to each other? If this would be the case, how would this Gospel be inspired by the Almighty God and how would Yeshua be the Son of God and the Messiah?

Did the Gospel's writer make such an obvious mistake? Absolutely not! It is important to note that like the Romans, the Jews counted day and year exclusively, following Babylon's way during the second temple period. For the Jews, a day starts and ends from one sunset to next. For example, if today is Wednesday, "In the first day" means the day between today's sunset and sunset of Thursday, and "in the third day" means the day between sunset of Friday and sunset of Saturday. "The third day" without the preposition "in" means the end of the third day (see below). Therefore, if Yeshua was buried on sunset of Wednesday and rose just at sunset of Saturday, it is correct to say that he resurrected the third day. If Yeshua was buried at sunset of Wednesday and resurrected at sunset of Saturday, he had stayed in the grave for three days and three nights, just as what Yeshua said in Matthew 12:38-40. According to Matthew's account, Yeshua was indeed buried at sunset of his crucifixion day (Matthew 27:57). The fact that Yeshua was crucified during the daytime of that Wednesday and rose on sunset of that Saturday is indeed consistent with Matthew 27:63, "Sir, we remember while he was still alive, how that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise.'"

Yeshua's own words confirm that the Jews at his time followed the Babylonian counting of hour, day or year. Yeshua taught us how to count the hour in Matthew 20:1-16:

This passage tells us that a daytime is divided into twelve hours. The passage also implies that if the Sun rises at 6:00 am and sets at 6:00 pm, then "the first hour" of the day is at 7:00 am, "the third hour" at 9:00 am, "the ninth hour" at 3:00 pm, "the eleventh hour" at 5:00 pm, and "the twelfth hour" at 6:00 pm. Those who came at the eleventh hour worked only one hour toward the end of the day at the twelfth hour (verses 9 and 12).

Therefore, the Scriptures clearly teach us that "the third hour" means the time at which exactly three hours have passed from the beginning of a day. "The third hour" without the preposition "in" means the end of the third hour. By analogy, "the third day" means the day exactly three days after a new day starts, that is, at the end of the third day.

The Gospel of John recorded the detailed events day by day in John 1:28-51 and John 2:1-2. From these events, we can clearly see the meaning of "the third day." John 1:28 tells us that the testimonies of John the Baptist took place in the Jordan river. After this verse, John 1:29 recorded: "The next day John saw Yeshua coming toward him, and said, 'Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" John testified that Yeshua was the Lamb of God the next day, which was in the first day, relative to the day recorded in John 1:28. Then verses 35 and 36 say: "Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Yeshua as he walked, he said, 'Behold the Lamb of God!'" John introduced Yeshua the Lamb of God to two of his disciples in the second day. In the third day, Yeshua found Philip in Galilee, as recorded in John 1:43, "The following day Yeshua wanted to go to Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him, 'Follow Me.'" In the same day, Yeshua also found Nathanael (see verses 45-51). Then John 2:1 says, "The third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Yeshua was there." The wedding in Cana of Galilee should have taken place in the evening of the same day when Yeshua met Philip and Nathanael in Galilee. In the evening (at sunset) of the wedding ceremony, the third day was approaching the end, so John used "the third day" to tell us that the wedding started exactly at sunset of that day. From the day when John the Baptist made the testimonies in the Jordan river to the evening of the wedding ceremony, three days and three nights had passed.

During the first Passover right after Yeshua performed the first miracle (changing water to wine) at Cana, he said to the Jews, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:19). Here, Yeshua spoke of the temple of his body, which will be raised up in three days (three days later) after it is destroyed.

Therefore, all these verses in the Gospels of Matthew and John consistently suggest that Yeshua resurrected exactly three days and three nights after his burial. In contrast, most Biblical scholars believe and teach a false idea that Yeshua was only buried for half that time. Even Clarke's Commentary, in explaining Matthew 12:40, follows this false tradition, established as early as the mid-second century AD. Despite many attempts of scholars and theologians to "prove" one day and two nights cannot mean three days and three nights.

Yeshua's crucifixion took place on the 14^th day of Nisan, the first month of a year assigned by God, which is the preparation day of the Passover (John 19:14). Yeshua was nailed on the cross around the sixth hour (John 19:14), in agreement with Matthew 27:45, "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour." The darkness should have started right after Yeshua was nailed on the cross.

Yeshua died around 3:00 pm (the ninth hour) (Matthew 27:45-50). With Governor Pilate's permission, Joseph of Arimathaea procured the body, wrapped it in linen (John 19:40), and placed it in the sepulcher. By evening (just before or at sunset) of that day, the burial was complete (Matthew 27:57). The burial took place on the preparation day of the Passover, shortly before or at sunset. The preparation day preceded the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was also called the Feast of Passover. The first day of the Feast was called a high Sabbath or "high day" (John 19:31), which is held annually to memorialize the day in which the almighty God brought the Israelites out of Egypt. The midnight of Nisan 15 is the Passover of Yehowah. John 19:31 especially emphasizes that the next day after Yeshua's crucifixion was a special Sabbath that is different from the weekly Sabbaths (in plural form). It was on this special Sabbath that the high priest and the Pharisees came to Pilate to ensure that Yeshua's tomb was securely guarded and sealed (Matthew 27:62-66).

John 19:31 also tells us that Yeshua cannot be crucified on a Friday. If his crucifixion were on a Friday, the next day would be the weekly Sabbaths rather than a high Sabbath. Below we will prove that Yeshua resurrected at the very beginning of the first day (Sunday), which was right after the end of the weekly Sabbaths. We have proved that the only year of Yeshua's crucifixion, which was consistent with the Gospels of Matthew and John, was 30 AD (see Chapter 12). According to the Hebrew lunisolar calendar of 30 AD (see Appendix D), the preparation day of the Feast of the Passover in 30 AD is indeed on Wednesday. From sunset of Wednesday to sunset of Saturday, there are exactly three days and three nights, in agreement with Yeshua's own prophecy about his resurrection.

Some Biblical scholars and theologians argued that the darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth hour during Yeshua's crucifixion, as recorded in Matthew 27:45, was related to a solar eclipse. This argument does not have any scientific foundation. First, solar eclipses only take place in either the first or the last day of a lunar month while Yeshua's crucifixion occurred in the middle of the lunar month Nisan. Second, solar eclipses last for less than 6 minutes, much shorter than 3 hours. Therefore, the darkness cannot be caused by a natural solar eclipse.

Another possibility is that God might have miraculously darkened the sky by darkening the sun or by heavy clouds. Yeshua prophesized that the sun would be darkened, and the moon would not give its light immediately after the end-time tribulation (Matthew 24:29). This type of darkness should not happen in a dark-moon phase when a solar eclipse can take place. This is because at this moment the moon does not give its light even if the sun is not darkened. This miraculous darkness prophesized by Yeshua shall happen in a day when both the sun and the moon are supposed to be seen by the people in different parts of the world. If the sun had been miraculously darkened from 12:00 to 3:00 pm during Yeshua's crucifixion, the full moon in China would not have given its light from 6:00 to 9:00 pm and Chinese chroniclers would have recorded such an unusual phenomenon in the sky. However, they recorded all the natural eclipses around the year of Yeshua's crucifixion (during the reign of Emperor Guang-Wu in the Later Han Dynasty) but nothing else. This fact suggests that such a phenomenon should never have taken place during Yeshua's crucifixion. Alternatively, the darkness recorded by Matthew should have been caused by heavy clouds.

The Book of Later Han recorded two solar eclipses in the 30^th day of the 9^th month in the 6^th year of Emperor Guang-Wu (30 AD) and in the 30^th day of the 3^rd month in Guang-Wu's 7^th year (31 AD). These two solar eclipses are predicted to have taken place in China around 7:00 am on November 14 of 30 AD and around 9:00 am on May 10 of 31 AD, respectively. The dates of the predicted solar eclipses perfectly match the ones recorded in the Book of Later Han (Volume 1b). Thus, the Chinese chroniclers accurately recorded these natural astronomical phenomena but no miraculous phenomenon in the sky around the year of Yeshua's crucifixion.

Most Christians believe that Yeshua resurrected in the early morning of Sunday. Most English translated Bibles explicitly say that the women (several Mary's) went to the tomb of Yeshua in the early morning shortly after he was resurrected.

If the Gospels of Matthew and John are all inspired by God, they must be consistent with each other. John 20:1 (NKJV) says: "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."

The Greek word "prior" in John 20:1 was translated into "early," which means the early part of the first day of the week. Since a day starts from sunset to the Jews, the early part of the first day of the week could have corresponded to the time just after sunset of Saturday.

If the Greek word "prior" is translated into "early," then John 20:1 can be translated as: "Now at the early time of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, while it was yet (already) dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb." The Greek word "ἔτι" in John 20:1 should best match the English word "yet" rather than "still." The adverb "yet" has the meanings of "now," "right now," "at this time," and "already."

The Gospel of Matthew even provides a precise time of Yeshua's resurrection. Matthew 28:1 has also been mistranslated. The original Greek text reads: "Oψὲ δὲ σαββάτων, τῇ ἐπιφωσκούσῃ εἰς μίαν σαββάτων (after then, the Sabbaths it being dawn towards the first day of the week)." Here, Saturday is written in the plural (sabbaton), while Sunday is written as eis mian sabbaton. These two phrases have exactly the same meaning and specify the hour that falls on the Saturday evening when the Sunday is about to begin. The first word of the phrase, opse (ὀψὲ), when it is used with a day of the week, means: "at dusk," "at nightfall," or "at evening." The word "opse" can also mean "at the end" of an event.

Now, let's take a look at the second phrase of the Ancient Greek text of Matthew "epiphoskouse eis mian sabbaton (ἐπιφωσκούσῃ εἰς μίαν σαββάτων)," which is usually translated as "it began to dawn toward the first day of the week." This is where the serious misunderstanding occurs. This particular translation leads to an entirely incorrect understanding, since the modern reader thinks that it is referring to dawn (early morning). This is not the case. When the Jews used the expression "the break/light of a new day," they did not mean at daylight in the morning, but "the night of the new day has come to light." Consequently, for the Jews, the "daybreak" of the new day corresponds to the evening time. In the Gospel of Luke, Luke specifies the time of Yeshua's burial with the phrase: καὶ ἡμέρα ἦν παρασκευῆς, καὶ σάββατον ἐπέφωσκεν, i.e., "it was the day of Preparation, and Sabbath was about to begin (literally, it began to dawn toward Sabbath)" (Luke 23:54). This phrase in Luke "it began to dawn toward Sabbath" and the phrase in Matthew "it began to dawn toward the first day of the week" use the same verb "epiphosko" and specify the same time, right at sunset (at daybreak). This means that the women departed to see the tomb just at sunset of Saturday right after the weekly Sabbaths. Before they arrived at the tomb, an angel of Yehowah descended from heaven, rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it right after sunset (Matthew 28:2). After the women arrived in the tomb at the beginning of Sunday and entered the tomb, the angel clothed with a long white robe talked to them that Yeshua had risen (Matthew 28:5-6).

Mary Magdalene saw the empty tomb at the beginning of that Saturday night when there was already darkness, but she did not see the risen Yeshua—unlike the Virgin Mary, who saw him and touched him. Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb later that night, along with Peter and another disciple whom Yeshua loved (John 20:1-2), and when she remained alone after the two disciples had left, she then saw the risen Yeshua.

It is interesting that our correct translation of these verses is backed up by all the ancient translations of the New Testament, such as the Latin translation by St Jerome (Vulgata), the Syriac Peshitta, the Ethiopian, the Arabic, the Armenian translation of the fifth century, etc. They attest that Yeshua resurrected just at sunset of Saturday and Mary Magdalene and the other Mary's visited the tomb afterward.

In "The Report of Pilate the Procurator Concerning Our Lord Yeshua Christ", sent to the August Cæsar in Rome, Pilate stated:

Pilate's letter to August Cæsar tells us that on the evening of the first day of the week there was a sound out of the heaven and that the heaven became enlightened sevenfold more than all the days. His statement is consistent with Matthew 28:2-3: "And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of Yehowah descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow." Pilate's report, if reliable, confirms that Yeshua had already resurrected in the evening of the first day of the week.