09-06-2007, 03:20 AM
Peace.....
Wel, There's much I could say about your theory and how it goes totally against what the Bible teaches about the death and resurrection of Christ. The fact that we aren't disputing if Christ was crucified or not is a good foundation on which to build. What I will focus on however is the understanding of the phrase "three days and three nights". In order to understand the phrase, one must understand Jewish idiom. An Idiom, as explained in the American Heritage Dictionary is:
1. A speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements, as in keep tabs on.
2. The specific grammatical, syntactic, and structural character of a given language.
3. Regional speech or dialect.
a. A specialized vocabulary used by a group of people; jargon: legal idiom.
b. A style or manner of expression peculiar to a given people
An example of an American idiom would be: "I'll be glad when hump day is over". "Hump Day" here being Wednesday as the middle of the work week...which as I think about it is another idiom. Everyone knows a week is seven days, regardless of when one begins counting the week. However the "work week" is five days or from Monday to Friday. We do not discount Monday and begin counting Tuesday as the first day. The same is true about the statement Christ made. The Jews of that time understood his words because to the Jews, a half was a whole. Jonah was swallowed by the fish during the day time and was vomited out during the day time (Jonah 1:17—2:10). In order for that to be three days, only two nights could have been involved. Yet it is called three days and three nights. Similarly, in Esther 4:16—5:1, there is a fast for ‘three days and three nights’ that begins on the first day and ends on the third day, which means only two nights were involved. So we must conclude that this is an idiom. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are three days....not three 24 hour periods.
Christ used this same idiom again in John 2:18-21:
John 2:18-21
(18) Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
(19) Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
(20) Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
(21) But he spake of the temple of his body.
And also in Luke 13:32,33:
Luke 13:32-33
(32) And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
(33) Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
It is through the confirmation of these verses, and the very point that Christ was indeed crucified and resurrected that we can say with all certainty that Christ was speaking about his death at the hands of the Jews in Matthew 12:39&40. At his trial his words were used against him (see Matthew 26:61 & Mark 14:58).
Wel, the actions of the disciples of that time show and prove that Christ did indeed die. You stated the disciples wanted to bring the body of Christ down quickly because Sabbath was approaching and that they were taught it was not lawful to allow a dead body to hang during the Sabbath....you then quote the chapter and verse that teaches this. You then say that they prepared the body for burial....none of this would have been done had they believed their master still lived.
Shamms