Simple explanation of the three days and three nights in the heart of the earth:
“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt 12:40)
First, we need to consider a few questions about this verse. Was Jonah dead or alive in the belly of the whale? He was alive. So why does everybody assume that Jesus had to be dead for 72 hours? And why do people assume that the “heart of the earth” was the grave where Christ was laid?
We need to establish the answer to these two questions before we try to figure out where the three days and three nights fit. I find that most people are inserting their western definitions into the scriptures instead of taking the definitions of the people who lived at that time.
Where is the heart of the earth? How deep do you have to go underground before you reach the “heart” of the earth?
Did Christ really go to the heart of the earth when he died?
Many Christians today, who don’t understand the Bible teaching on the state of the dead, believe that when Christ died he descended into the world of the dead and preached to the lost souls who were imprisoned there. This is a misunderstanding based on 1 Peter 3:19. This belief has it’s roots back in the dark ages when priests and popes taught the people that the dead who needed to suffer for their sins would go down into purgatory or hell. This was sometimes vividly pictured as a subterranean cavern, deep in the heart of the earth; a place filled with fire and demons. This was a teaching borrowed from the pagan religions, which also pictured the world of the dead as being located somewhere deep in the earth. The English word “hell” is actually the name of the goddess that presided over the world of the dead. Her name was spelled “Hel” and the underworld over which she presided was also called “Hel”.
So with the mistaken beliefs that came out of the dark ages it was easy for Christians to misunderstand what the “the heart of the earth” was. They connected it to the idea that when Christ died he descended into the world of the dead and spent three days and three nights preaching to the lost souls.
There is probably no need to give a scriptural explanation of the state of the dead since most of those who read this already understand that concept well. Suffice it to say that there is no such thing as purgatory, and hell is not a cavernous land deep in the earth, filled with fire and demons. The dead simply sleep in their graves until the Second Coming, when they are called forth receive eternal life or final destruction by fire.
So where did Christ go when he died? He went nowhere. He slept peacefully on the rock-hewn shelf where his followers had laid his body.
So what did he mean when he said he would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights?
The phrase “in the earth” appears over 60 times in the Bible and it almost always refers to being “in the world”, not “under the ground”.
So what does “heart of the earth” mean?
Well, what does the word “earth” mean? It is the word “ghay” in Greek, and here is it’s definition:
1. arable land
2. the ground, the earth as a standing place
3. the main land as opposed to the sea or water
4. the earth as a whole
a. the earth as opposed to the heavens
b. the inhabited earth, the abode of men and animals
5. a country, land enclosed within fixed boundaries, a tract of land, territory, region
So this word is literally referring to the ground under your feet. It can refer to the whole planet, or it can refer to a certain country or territory. Many of the times it is used in the Bible it is referring to the land of Israel, the entire nation.
So what is the definition of the Greek word for “heart”:
1. the heart
a. that organ in the animal body which is the centre of the circulation of the blood, and hence was regarded as the seat of physical life
b. denotes the centre of all physical and spiritual life
c. the vigour and sense of physical life
d. the centre and seat of spiritual life
1. the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavours
2. of the understanding, the faculty and seat of the intelligence
3. of the will and character
4. of the soul so far as it is affected and stirred in a bad way or good, or of the soul as the seat of the sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, passions
e. of the middle or central or inmost part of anything, even though inanimate
(Thayer’s Lexicon)
So “heart” has to do with the center of physical and spiritual life, the soul, the seat of intelligence, etc. But that’s not how most people have taken this verse about the heart of the earth. The very last line says, “the middle or central or inmost part of anything”, so this is the part of the definition that many people have used when interpreting the three days and three nights. People in past times thought He went to purgatory which is somewhere at the center of the earth.
So was Christ in the center of the earth for three days and three nights – the center of the planet? No! He was barely under the “skin” of the earth – nowhere near the “middle” or “central” part of the earth! Even when He was buried He was only under about 10 feet of rock. The center of the earth is about 4,000 miles beyond that. If you were able to dig down to 25 miles underground the temperature would be about 1600 degrees Fahrenheit (870 degrees Celcius). From there you still have thousands of miles to go to reach the “heart of the earth”.
So how should we translate “the heart of the earth”?
Should it be, “the center of the planet”?
Or, the “heart of the land of Israel”?
We don’t believe Christ preached to souls in purgatory, and we know his grave was nowhere near the heart of the planet. So that would indicate that we should probably use the other definition for the word “heart” – “the centre of all physical and spiritual life”. This is the main definition of the word anyway, and this is how it is used all throughout the New Testament.
So a good translation for “the heart of the earth” could be, “the heart of the nation”. Where was the “heart” of the nation of Israel? Jerusalem, of course! It was at the center of the land of Israel, and it was also the source of religion and government for the entire nation. Hence this is the reason authors have already used the phrase “heart of the nation” when referring to it (DA, 30).
So when did the three days and three nights start and end?
Jesus had told His disciples many times that He would die, and rise again the third day.
“Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.” (Luke 9:22)
“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” (Matt 16:21)
Note the parallel between these verses:
Matt. 16:21 says, “Jerusalem” / “three days”
Matt. 24:40 says, “heart of the earth” / “three days and nights”
Jesus mentioned the three days a number of times. So when did it start? Was it when he began to “suffer many things”? In both the above two verses the context of the three days includes, not just his death, but also him suffering, being rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and being slain, and then rising again. The disciples on the road to Emmaus also included these things in the three days. They said, “how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him….and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.”
So the context of all these verses seems to indicate that the three days was not just the time he spent in the tomb. It also includes his suffering, arrest, and trial.
So let’s now trace the three days and three night, using scripture itself…..
We will look at events starting with Christ’s visit with the disciples on the road to Emmaus and count backwards from there. The Bible says this took place on the “first day of the week”. This Greek phrase is “μιαν σαββατων” which basically means “one towards Sabbath”. This is how the Jews named the days of the week – “First day towards Sabbath”, “Second day towards Sabbath”, “Third day towards Sabbath”, etc. This is still how many in Israel call them even to this day. I remember the Jewish leader Nehemiah Gordon mentioning this in one of his talks, saying that this is how they referred to the days of the week in his home growing up.
So “One towards Sabbath” was the first day of the week, which people today call “Sunday”.
We should also determine which Sabbath is being spoken of, since some people have thought that in several places where the word “Sabbath” is used in the crucifixion story it was referring to a Feast day sabbath – the first day of Unleavened Bread.
In both Hebrew and Greek there is a different word for the Seventh-day Sabbath than there is for the Feast day sabbaths. You can see this reading the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament, and you can see that the Jewish translators of the Septuagint carried that over into the Greek as well. (The Septuagint is the Old Testament translation that was apparently used in New Testament times and which Jesus and the apostles seem to have quoted from.) So we need to find out which word is being used when referring to the Sabbath in the crucifixion story.
The answer is, the Seventh-day Sabbath! It is not the word for a Feast day sabbath. It is the word for the Seventh-day Sabbath.
If you search carefully you will see that every time the word “Sabbath” is used in this story, throughout all the gospels, it is always the word for the Seventh-day Sabbath in Greek. The word for the Feast day sabbaths is never used.
And that day was the preparation, and the [Seventh-day] sabbath drew on. (Luke 23:54)
And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. (Luke 23:55)
And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the [Seventh-day] sabbath day according to the commandment. (Luke 23:56)
“After the close of the [Seventh-day] Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” (Matt 28:1)
Let’s take a closer look at the wording of Matt. 28:1. The first word can mean “After the close of the day” according to Michelson’s Lexicon. The word for Sabbath is the Seventh-day Sabbath, as we have already noted. And the word for “dawn” means “to begin to grow light”. It comes from the base word that means “to illuminate”. Some people have supposed that this word should be translated “dusk”, but I have not found any lexicon that gives it that meaning, and that is opposite of the meaning of the root word that it comes from.
So the dawn of the first day of the week is the setting for this verse. Sunday morning the women came to the tomb very early. Let’s read the rest of it.
“After the close of the [Seventh-day] Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” (Matt 28:1)
And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. (Matt 28:2)
His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: (Matt 28:3)
And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. (Matt 28:4)
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. (Matt 28:5)
He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” (Matt 28:6)
It’s important to read the parallel passage in Luke as well, because that gives us more clues:
“Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. (Luke 24:1)
And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. (Luke 24:2)
And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 24:3)
And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: (Luke 24:4)
And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? (Luke 24:5)
He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, (Luke 24:6)
Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” (Luke 24:7)
Here again the “third day” is mentioned, this time by the angels; and again, the context includes being delivered into the hands of sinful men, being crucified, and rising again. Each time we read about the three days, it includes these specific events.
If we keep reading the chapter we find:
“And, behold, two of them [the disciples] went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs [about 7 miles]. (Luke 24:13)
And they talked together of all these things which had happened. (Luke 24:14)
And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. (Luke 24:15)
But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” (Luke 24:16)
Jesus asked them why they were so sad. So they told Him what had happened (they still didn’t recognize who they were talking to). And they ended with:
“But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.” (Luke 24:21)
Ok, so this makes things fairly simple. Sunday was the third day, both by the angel’s testimony and the disciples testimony. So all we have to do is count backwards. Sabbath would have been the second day, and Friday would have been the first day – in other words, the day He suffered and was taken by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and was crucified.
Next, let’s count the nights. The night between Sabbath and Sunday would have been the third night. The night between Friday and Sabbath would have been the second night. And the night between Thursday and Friday would have been the first night.
So now we know when the three days and three nights are. This lines up exactly with 3SP, 205, which says that Christ died on the sixth day of the week.
So what happened the first night – what we call Thursday evening?
Well, Jesus had apparently been staying at the village of Bethany, according to Mark 14:3. Bethany was a short distance from Jerusalem. As evening was coming on, the disciples asked Jesus where He wanted to eat the Passover:
“And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? (Mark 14:12)
And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. (Mark 14:13)
And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?” (Mark 14:14)
(Note that the entire feast, including the day of Passover, was many times called Unleavened Bread, so that’s why the “first day of unleavened bread” is the same as “passover” in the above verse.)
Notice that Jesus was still outside Jerusalem, and He sent His disciples “INTO the city” to prepare the Passover meal.
And when the Passover meal was ready, what did Jesus do? He entered into the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. What was Jerusalem? The “heart of the nation”! This took place just before what we call Thursday evening – the night between Thursday and Friday. So this is when Jesus entered the heart of the nation of Israel, and three days and three nights later He was resurrected and appeared to His disciples.
So now we have a simple and Biblical explanation of the three days and three nights and where the heart of the earth is.
So what happened to Jesus Thursday evening, to begin the three days and three nights? First He ate the Passover with His disciples. Remember that God had instructed that the Passover lamb was to be roasted with fire. This symbolism is very important because it was fulfilled by Jesus. During the meal Jesus began to be very troubled (John 13:21). After the meal was over He led the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He began to pray. He knew He was the Passover Lamb! The sins of the world must be placed upon Him.
“And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matt 26:39) ….
He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” (Matt 26:42)
“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. (Luke 22:43)
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)
This literally means that He was in such great agony of spirit that His blood vessels were bursting under His skin. When women are giving birth they sometimes break blood vessels under the skin, but for Christ it was so bad that it actually came out of His pores! I can’t even imagine what He must have been going through, with the guilt of all the sins of the world being placed upon at once. He probably would have died right there in the garden if the angel hadn’t come to strengthen Him (DA, 693-694).
This experience in the Garden, of having the guilt of world placed upon him, was the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb being roasted with fire. The Passover Lamb was given to die in place of the sinners. The sinners who don’t repent will be destroyed by fire at the end of the world. But Christ took the place of all those who repent and He experienced the agonies of the second death so that we don’t have to. In the Garden of Gethsemane He began to die for our sins. Inspiration tells us that he would have died right there if an angel hadn’t come to strengthen him to still go to the cross. So the mob then came and took Him to be tried, and the next day, to be crucified. All these events took place in and around the city of Jerusalem – the spiritual heart of the nation. Even the Garden of Gethsemane and the tomb were likely within “the holy ground, which extended some furlongs outside the city walls” (GC 26.1).
Just like the heart of man, this “heart of the nation” was “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9) Christ had tried to cleanse the national Temple at Jerusalem, as well as the soul Temple of each individual, but most of the people refused to be cleansed. Instead they killed Him. He was in the heart of the nation for three days and three nights, but only a few allowed him to become a permanent resident of their hearts.
Now the question comes to us, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” (Matt. 27:22). Will we accept Him into our hearts or crucify Him afresh?
Note: If you’d like more information or have questions or comments, you can write me at SeekBibleTruth@gmail.com
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL:
For those who believe that Ellen White was an inspired messenger of God, here are some quotes verifying which day of the week the death and resurrection of Christ took place:
“That was a never-to-be-forgotten Sabbath to the sorrowing disciples, and also to the priests, rulers, scribes, and people. At the setting of the sun on the evening of the preparation day the trumpets sounded, signifying that the Sabbath had begun. The Passover was observed as it had been for centuries, while He to whom it pointed had been slain by wicked hands, and lay in Joseph’s tomb.” DA 774.2
“They were terribly depressed by the events that had crowded upon them. On the sixth day they had seen their Master die; upon the first day of the succeeding week they found themselves deprived of his body, and the stigma resting upon them of having stolen it away for the purpose of practicing a deception upon the people.” 3SP 205.3
“The Father and the Son rested after their work of creation. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested.” [Genesis 2:1-3.] The death of Christ was designed to be at the very time in which it took place. It was in God’s plan that the work which Christ had engaged to do should be completed on a Friday, and that on the Sabbath He should rest in the tomb, even as the Father and the Son had rested after completing Their creative work. The hour of Christ’s apparent defeat was the hour of His victory. The great plan, devised before the foundations of the earth were laid, was successfully carried out.” 13LtMs, Ms 25, 1898, par. 11 (3MR 425.3)
Which year Christ died:
“Three and a half years after his baptism, Christ was crucified, in the spring of A. D. 31.” (GC88 409.3)
Answers to Some Objections:
Objection: “But a Friday crucifixion doesn’t work in 31 AD.”
So if you are calculating the beginning of the year by the first new moon after the vernal equinox, then Passover seems to fall on a Wednesday instead of a Friday in April of 31 AD.
But historical records indicate that at the time of Christ they were not calculating the year solely by the first new moon after the vernal equinox. The Jerusalem Talmud tells us that they had a number of other factors that they would consider as well, including the ripeness of the barley and the maturity of the fruit on the trees. Whether we believe this was right or not, we still have to acknowledge that it’s a fact of history. This was what they were doing whether we like it or not.
“The Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta 2:2): The court may intercalate the year for three matters: For the ripening of the grain, if it is not yet time for the barley to ripen; for the fruit of the trees, if they have not yet ripened; and for the equinox, i.e., to ensure that the autumnal equinox will precede Sukkot. If two of these concerns apply, the court intercalates the year even if the third factor does not apply; but for only one of them the court does not intercalate the year. The baraita continues: And when the ripening of the grain is one of the concerns, everyone is happy.” (Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 11b) (https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.11b.5-6?lang=bi)
The Talmud also preserves a letter written by Gamaliel II to the Jews in Babylon and Media:
“We herewith inform you that we, in conjunction with our colleagues, have deemed it necessary to add thirty days to the year, since the doves [to be offered in sacrifice] are still too tender, and the lambs [for the Passover] too young, and the time of Abib [barley] has not arrived”
Again, you may or may not think it was correct for them to do this, but we still have to acknowledge the facts of history that this was how they calculated Passover around that time in history.
So if the barley had not yet reached full maturity by the month of April, they would have intercalated an extra month into the year, to make it possible to present the wave sheaf of barley as the law commanded. So this would have put Passover in the month of May instead of April, and we find that a Passover in May would line up perfectly with a Friday crucifixion! This was indeed the conclusion that the early Adventists came to in 1845.
“We see, then, that as in A. D. 33 the full moon was on the 3rd of May, it must have occurred on the 25th of May in A. D. 31. The true passover day must therefore have been either the 25th or 26th of May in that year [i.e. in A.D. 31].” {May 29, 1845 SSSe, JUBST 93.5}
There is another possibility we should also consider. Historical records also indicate that they were visually sighting the new moon (see Mishna Rosh Hashanah ch. 2 which talks about how the Jewish Sanhedrin would consult with all the witnesses who had sighted the new moon.), so there is the possibility that it was hazy or cloudy for a night or two and so the sighting of the first sliver was delayed enough that Passover could have ended up on a Friday in April of 31 AD.
Either of these two are possibilities. And if you want inspired confirmation that Christ died on the sixth day of the week in 31 AD it can be found in 3SP, 205 and GC, 410. So that is a fact. Whether it was in April or May we don’t know for sure.
Objection: “But maybe ‘the first day of the week’ is actually the first Sabbath in the count of seven Sabbaths to Pentecost.”
This isn’t very likely because on this day the two disciples and Jesus walked about seven miles to the city of Emmaus. They didn’t make long journeys like this on the Seventh-day Sabbath.
In addition, Mark 16:1 says the Sabbath was already past before the first day of the week came. This word for “Sabbath” is the Greek word that is used for the Seventh-day Sabbath, not the one that is used for the Feast day sabbaths. So the Seventh-day Sabbath had already passed before the “first day of the week” came, when the disciples took their seven mile walk to Emmaus.
Objection: “The ‘preparation day’ was only for the Passover”
In the gospel narrative the “preparation day” is spoken of several times. One person who claims to know a lot about Jewish tradition said the Jews never used the phrase “preparation day” to refer to the day before the weekly Sabbath. She claimed they only used the word to refer to the day before the Passover. I don’t know what source she read that from, but when I looked up “preparation day” on the internet, just about every source I found said it primarily referred to the preparation day before the Seventh-day Sabbath (i.e. Friday), but can also refer to the day before Passover as well. So to say that it can never refer to the day before the Seventh-day Sabbath seems to be in error. Even Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”) speaks extensively on the preparations to be made the day before the weekly Sabbath (Sefer Zemanim, Shabbat, Ch. 30). And if you go look at a Greek calendar, the name for Friday in Greek literally means “Preparation”.
So it seems fairly clear that “preparation day” in the gospels many times refers to the preparation day for the Seventh-day Sabbath. And all the evidence indicates that Christ indeed died on Friday, rested in the tomb over Sabbath, and rose to life on Sunday, which we are told was the third day.