How come Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday? That's not 3 days and three nights.
Last Updated: 21.06.2025 09:59
Mark 16:9 (KJV) says, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast out seven devils.”
In Luke 9:22 (KJV), He says, "...and be slain, and be raised the third day."
7 In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.”
40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”
In Luke 18:33 (KJV), He says, "...the third day he shall rise again."
5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s passover.
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In Matthew 17:23 (KJV), He says, "...and the third day, he shall be raised again."
If Jesus had been crucified on a Friday there would not be three nights before Sunday morning. And if Jesus had been crucified on a Wednesday, Wednesday evening until Thursday evening would have been a day of rest (first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread), but Friday morning would be clear (not a day of rest). If they had waited until Sunday morning to work with a dead body (instead of Friday morning), the body (or so they thought) would have been dead 3½ days. Besides that a Wednesday crucifixion would have Jesus in the sepulchre more than 3 days and 3 nights, it would make no sense for the women to wait 3½ days to work with a deceased body instead of waiting 1 day to work on the body while it is fresh.
As to why there is a sabbath right after Jesus is crucified and a sabbath before he rose:
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Luke 23:54-46 (KJV)
40 For as Jonah 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.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre."
9 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
“3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is a sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
So there were two days of rest back-to-back: the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the 7th day Sabbath.
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Matthew 12:40 (King James Version)
Women who came to the sepulchre came to embalm Jesus, they would have been working with a dead body (or so they thought), and they prepared spices on the evening that Jesus was taken down off the cross.
In Mark 10:34 (KJV), He says, "...the third day he shall rise again."
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John 11:39–40 (KJV):
10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
That word ‘after’ is translated from the Greek word ‘meta’ which means ‘midst.’ Jesus said he would rise in the ‘midst’ of the third day, or ‘sometime on the third day.’
Here are the relevant verses:
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment."
The day after passover, beginning in the evening at the end of passover, is a day of rest; it’s the first day of the feast of unleavened bread and always a day of rest regardless of which day of the week it falls on.
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Gospel of John 11:9–10 (King James Version)
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Mark 16:1–2 (KJV) says, “1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2 And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.”
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Genesis 1:5 (King James Version)
“How come Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday? That's not 3 days and three nights.”
4 These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.
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That’s three evenings and Jesus rose on the morning of the first day of the week (the Sabbath at the end of the week is celebrated from Friday evening until Saturday evening).
Jesus was using the Biblical definition of ‘night’ and ‘day’ when he said:
In Mark 9:31 (KJV), He says, "...and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day."
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"54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
Thursday evening to Friday morning, Friday evening to Saturday morning, Saturday evening to Sunday morning (when Jesus arose).
In Matthew 20:19 (KJV), He says, "...the third day he shall rise again."
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55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
Matthew 28:1 (KJV) says, “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”
Luke 24:1-2 (KJV)
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Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus would be 3 full 24-hour days in the earth. The definition that Jesus used was ’12 hours in a day,’ and he said he would rise ‘sometime on the third day.’ The gospels indicate that he rose on the morning of the third day, around the time of daybreak, so he was in the earth less than 3 24-hour days (it was closer to 60 hours according to the definition that Jesus used and what’s worded in Mark 16:9 and the verses above this paragraph).
“39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
"1 Now upon the very 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.
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Luke 24:1–2 (KJV) says, “1 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. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.”
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
John 20:1 (KJV) says, “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.”
Jesus was not crucified on a Friday. And you have to look at the definition of a ‘day’ and ‘night’ in the Bible.
Leviticus 23:3–7 (KJV):
The day of passover has no work restriction written in the Torah, as far as I’m aware, but it has restrictions on what you should eat. You can read more in Exodus chapter 12.
Jesus rose ‘early’ on ‘the first day of the week’ which implies that he rose at around dawn, and that fits with the narrative in Matthew 28:1–8, Mark 16:1–8, Luke 24:1–10 and John 20:1–2.
Mark 8:31 (KJV) says, "And he began to teach them, that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."