Let’s address one of the "difficult" passages first. Jesus said in Matthew 12:40
"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."
The question is how long is "three days and three nights?" Is it 72 hours, as some would propose? Where is that supported in scripture? There are two other references in the Bible that use the term "three days and three nights." They are I Sam 30:12 and Jonah 1:17. A cursory reading of both of these references would give no better indication of how long three days and three nights are either. And it would seem that now would be a good time to jump to a commentary or marginal notes, but let’s look around the passage and see if the context reveals anything new…
Finding anything related to the use of “three days and three nights” in Jonah requires a little more than looking at the context immediately surrounding the verse. Reading to Jonah chapter 3 one finds:
Jonah 3:3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.
What does three days’ journey mean? It probably means that it takes three days to cross Nineveh, not necessarily 72 hours, but three normal travel days. In those days, probably in daylight and probably walking. So what? Maybe not much, but it could be that the time that God had Jonah in the whale was to parallel the journey through Nineveh. He could not go in during the day and spend the night outside. But he could start his journey the first day, and exit the third day, three days journey…three days and three nights.
There is another verse in I Sam 30 that discusses a time frame.
ISam30:12-13 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.
13 "And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick."
“Agone” is only used once in the Bible. What does “agone” mean? It is probably some variant of ago, most every source available simply says, “it means ago.” It is not clear if substituting “ago” for “agone” violates any grammatical rules, or if “agone” actually mean something a little different, or if perhaps it was used to draw attention to this verse. [Agone is an adjective, Ago is a adverb] There are 13 uses of “ago” in the bible, so that word was available. In fact, one of the uses is in ISam9 with the same time frame.
1 Samuel 9:20 And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them; for they are found.
Another use is in the book of Acts.
Acts 10:30 And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,
This passage is revealing, here are the events…
Cornelius has a vision and sends for Peter. Day 1
The next day, they travel to get Peter. Day 2
Acts 10:9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey
The men stay with Peter and leave the next day back to see Cornelius. Day 3
Acts 10:23 Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them…
The day after they are back in the city, they see Cornelius. Day 4
Acts 10:24-25 And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea…. 25 And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, …
That same day Cornelius says, “…four days ago…”, albeit partial days, is the forth day from when he had his visions.
From this “three days ago” would be the day before yesterday, and would give the time frame for three days and three nights.
"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."
The question is how long is "three days and three nights?" Is it 72 hours, as some would propose? Where is that supported in scripture? There are two other references in the Bible that use the term "three days and three nights." They are I Sam 30:12 and Jonah 1:17. A cursory reading of both of these references would give no better indication of how long three days and three nights are either. And it would seem that now would be a good time to jump to a commentary or marginal notes, but let’s look around the passage and see if the context reveals anything new…
Finding anything related to the use of “three days and three nights” in Jonah requires a little more than looking at the context immediately surrounding the verse. Reading to Jonah chapter 3 one finds:
Jonah 3:3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.
What does three days’ journey mean? It probably means that it takes three days to cross Nineveh, not necessarily 72 hours, but three normal travel days. In those days, probably in daylight and probably walking. So what? Maybe not much, but it could be that the time that God had Jonah in the whale was to parallel the journey through Nineveh. He could not go in during the day and spend the night outside. But he could start his journey the first day, and exit the third day, three days journey…three days and three nights.
There is another verse in I Sam 30 that discusses a time frame.
ISam30:12-13 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.
13 "And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick."
“Agone” is only used once in the Bible. What does “agone” mean? It is probably some variant of ago, most every source available simply says, “it means ago.” It is not clear if substituting “ago” for “agone” violates any grammatical rules, or if “agone” actually mean something a little different, or if perhaps it was used to draw attention to this verse. [Agone is an adjective, Ago is a adverb] There are 13 uses of “ago” in the bible, so that word was available. In fact, one of the uses is in ISam9 with the same time frame.
1 Samuel 9:20 And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them; for they are found.
Another use is in the book of Acts.
Acts 10:30 And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,
This passage is revealing, here are the events…
Cornelius has a vision and sends for Peter. Day 1
The next day, they travel to get Peter. Day 2
Acts 10:9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey
The men stay with Peter and leave the next day back to see Cornelius. Day 3
Acts 10:23 Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them…
The day after they are back in the city, they see Cornelius. Day 4
Acts 10:24-25 And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea…. 25 And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, …
That same day Cornelius says, “…four days ago…”, albeit partial days, is the forth day from when he had his visions.
From this “three days ago” would be the day before yesterday, and would give the time frame for three days and three nights.
No comments:
Post a Comment