When Do Biblical Nights Begin?

jamie

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In order to avoid confusion; I highly recommend working with the 12-hour day that Jesus Christ gave us in his statement at John 11:9, i.e. let Day be daytime and let Night be nighttime; viz: Days are when the sun is up, and Nights are when the sun is down.

So, the three days and three nights of Jonah 1:17, Matt 12:40, John 2:19-22 indicate three times when the sun was up, and three times when the sun was down.

And in Jesus' case the three days and three nights began with night.
 

WeberHome

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And in Jesus' case the three days and three nights began with night.

By beginning with a night, Jesus' triad would end with a day; which it did. (Matt 17:22-23, Mark 9:31, Luke 9:22, Luke 24:41-46, Acts 10:39-41, 1Cor 15:4)

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jamie

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By beginning with a night, Jesus' triad would end with a day; which it did. (Matt 17:22-23, Mark 9:31, Luke 9:22, Luke 24:41-46, Acts 10:39-41, 1Cor 15:4)

Let's say for the sake of discussion there were twelve hours in a day and twelve hours in a night in the first century.

Three twelve hour days would equal 36 hours.

Three twelve hour nights would equal 36 hours.

So Jesus would be buried for 72 hours. If Jesus was buried as the fifth day began he would jump out of bed as the first day began.
 

S-word

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Let's say for the sake of discussion there were twelve hours in a day and twelve hours in a night in the first century.

Three twelve hour days would equal 36 hours.

Three twelve hour nights would equal 36 hours.

So Jesus would be buried for 72 hours. If Jesus was buried as the fifth day began he would jump out of bed as the first day began.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, a day is a period of darkness followed by an equal period of Light, and Jesus died at the end of the three hours of Darkness, and was dead all that day of 3 hours of light, all Friday night and the day that followed, all Saturday night and the 12 hours of day that followed and all Sunday night, and came to life again, just as the sun was about to chase away the third night. 3 days and 3 nights.

Joseph and Nicodemus had time to get the spices to wrap in the burial cloth of Jesus, and so would have, the women. They rested on the Most High Sabbath of Friday the 15th day and first of the festival of Unleavened Bread, and on Saturday the weekly Sabbath, then went to the tomb which was close by, just as the sun was beginning to rise, only to find that Jesus had just risen.
 

S-word

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General use of the word "day" is somewhat ambiguous in the Old Testament. For example, at Gen 2:4, day indicates the entire creation endeavor.

I suggest we narrow the meaning of day down to just one relative to crucifixion week by falling in line with Jesus Christ. Who, than he, is better qualified to tell us how to understand a day as it was understood during the years when he himself was living in Israel?

John 11:9 . . Jesus answered: are there not twelve hours in the day? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light.

Days divided into twelve equal periods of sunlight were regulated by what's known as temporal hours; which vary in length in accordance with the time of year. There are times of the year at Jerusalem's latitude when days on earth consist of less than 12 normal hours of daylight, and sometimes more; but when Jesus was here; the official number of hours was always twelve regardless.

I don't exactly know why the Jews of that era divided their days into twelve equal periods of sunlight regardless of the seasons, but I suspect it was just a convenient way to operate the government and conduct civil affairs; including the Temple's activities (e.g. the daily morning and evening sacrifices)

John 2:19 . . Jesus answered and said to them: Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

In order to avoid confusion; I highly recommend working with the 12-hour day that Jesus Christ gave us in his statement at John 11:9, i.e. let Day be daytime and let Night be nighttime; viz: Days are when the sun is up, and Nights are when the sun is down.

So, the three days and three nights of Jonah 1:17, Matt 12:40, John 2:19-22 indicate three times when the sun was up, and three times when the sun was down.

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WeberHome wrote........General use of the word "day" is somewhat ambiguous in the Old Testament. For example, at Gen 2:4, day indicates the entire creation endeavor.

S-word.......“Universe after universe is like an interminable succession of wheels forever coming into view, forever rolling onwards, disappearing and reappearing; forever passing from being to non being, and again from non being to being. In short, the constant revolving of the wheel of life in one eternal cycle, according to fixed and immutable laws, is perhaps after all the sum and substance of the philosophy of Buddhism. And this eternal wheel has so to speak, six spokes representing six forms of existence.” ---- Mon. Williams, Buddhism, pp. 229, 122.*

The days and nights of Brahma are called Manvantara, or the cycle of manifestation, ‘The Great Day,’ which is a period of universal activity, that is preceded, and also followed by ‘Pralaya,’ a dark period, which to our finite minds seems as an eternity. ‘Manvantara,’ is a creative day as seen in the six days of creation in Genesis, ‘Pralaya,’ is the evening that proceeds the next creative day. The six periods of Creation and the seventh day of rest in which we now exist are referred to in the book of Genesis as the “GENERATIONS OF THE UNIVERSE.”*

The English word “Generation,” is translated from the Hebrew “toledoth” which is used in the Old Testament in every instance as ‘births,’ or ‘descendants,’ such as “These are the generations of Adam,” or “these are the generations of Abraham, and Genesis 2: 4; These are the generations of the Universe or the heavens and earth, etc. And the ‘Great Day’ in which the seven generations of the universe are eternally repeated, is the eternal cosmic period, or the eighth eternal day in which those who attain to perfection are allowed to enter, where they shall be surrounded by great light and they shall experience eternal peace, while those who do not attain to perfection are cast back into the refining fires of the seven physical cycles that perpetually revolve within the eighth eternal cosmic cycle.*

A series of worlds following one upon the other,-- each world rising a step higher than the previous world, so that every later world brings to ripeness the seeds that were imbedded in the former, and itself then prepares the seed for the universe that will follow it.

This is the true resurrection in which all from the previous cycle of universal activity, who still have the judgmental war raging within them, are born again into the cycles of physical manifestation.

Those scientists who are beginning to come to terms with the Big Crunch theory, believe that this universe has another 300 billion years to go before the next Big Crunch. (I don't) If that is correct, then this universal being is only an infant and has not yet brought to ripeness the seeds that were imbedded in it from the previous universal body, in which light beings evolved from mankind and which universe still exists out there in space-time.
 

WatchmanOnTheWall

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Jonah 1:17 . . The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Matt 12:40 . . As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

According to Gen 1:3-5, Gen 1:14-18, and John 11:9, "day" is when the sun is up, and "night" is when the sun is down.

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Sunset.

Genesis 1:5

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Evening is followed by Morning - The first day.

God then repeats this six times - one fore each day He created.
 

WatchmanOnTheWall

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Jonah 1:17 . . The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Matt 12:40 . . As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

According to Gen 1:3-5, Gen 1:14-18, and John 11:9, "day" is when the sun is up, and "night" is when the sun is down.

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Jesus was in the tomb for 39 hours from just before sunset on day 14 Aviv (aprox 6pm) to just as the sun rose on day 16 (aprox 6am).

The 'phrase three days and three nights' is only used once or twice while the phrase 'on the third day' is used more often. However, the 3 days + 3 nights phrase does not say Jesus would be in a tomb for that long, it says that he would be in 'the heart of the Earth'. So what is the Heart of the Earth? Does it literally mean He would be in the centre of the Earth thousands of miles under ground? No of cause not. So what does the Heart of the Earth mean? Well we only needs to look at what else Jesus refers to as the Heart and in what context:

Mark 7:21
For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come--sexual immorality, theft, murder,

This is also what Jeremiah said:

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

So if individuals have wicked hearts then what does the heart of Mankind have? A wicked heart! And it is this that Jesus was referring to; 'The heart of the Earth' is the collective wickedness of the World.

When Jesus had allowed Himself to be arrested it was this moment that we see Jesus going into the Evil heart of the Earth. The evilness of mankind. So here are the 3 days & nights:

Night on the 14th - Arrested
Day on the 14th - Killed
Night on the 15th - Decended to Hell
Day on the 15th - Took the keys back
Night on the 16th - Preached in Hell
Day on the 16th - Ressurected.

Three days and three nights.
 
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WatchmanOnTheWall

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Was that the sign Jesus gave the Judeans that he is the King?

The sign of Jonah was for wicked and adulterous people who needed to see Jesus dead before they would believe He was God who could come back from the grave:

Matthew 12:39
He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

(It also gave us the Turin Shroud for those who need a physical sign of proof, but even then people still doubt).
 

WeberHome

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So what is the Heart of the Earth?

At some point in Jonah's nautical adventure he went to a place called sheol (Jonah 2:2) which he sited at the bottoms of the mountains. (Jonah 2:6)

The bottoms of the mountains aren't located in the tummies of fish, no; they're located down deep in the earth.

Matt 12:40 . . For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

Now when you think about it, Christ's remains weren't interred in the heart of the earth. In point of fact his remains weren't even buried in the earth's soil. They were laid to rest on the surface of the earth in a rock-hewn tomb. So then, in order for Christ to be down in the heart of the earth while up on the surface too-- literally two places at once --he and his body had to part company and go separate ways.

Just before being cast ashore, Jonah prayed thus from inside the fish:

Jonah 2:6 . .To the bottoms of the mountains I went down. As for the earth, its bars were upon me for time indefinite. But out of the pit you proceeded to bring up my life, O Jehovah my God.

The Hebrew word for "pit" in that verse is the very same word for "pit" in Ps 16:8-10; which Acts 2:25-31 verifies is speaking of putrefaction. In other words: Jonah 2:6 is the language of resurrection; viz: though Jonah was alive in the fish at some point, he wasn't alive the whole three days and nights. In point of fact, it's been proposed that some of the language in the second chapter of Jonah suggests that he was already dead from drowning before the fish swallowed him; which, if true, makes sense seeing as how Jesus was already dead before he was buried.

So then, just as Jonah's soul was not left at the bottoms of the mountains, Christ's soul was not left in the heart of the earth. And just as Jonah's body was not left to decompose in the fish, neither was Christ's left to decompose in the tomb. And just as Jonah came back from his grave within three days and nights as a human rather than a spirit, so Jesus came back from his grave within three days and nights as a human rather than a spirit. If none of this were so, then the story of Jonah's death and resurrection would be a pretty useless parallel to the story of Christ's resurrection.

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WatchmanOnTheWall

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At some point in Jonah's nautical adventure he went to a place called sheol (Jonah 2:2) which he sited at the bottoms of the mountains. (Jonah 2:6)

The bottoms of the mountains aren't located in the tummies of fish, no; they're located down deep in the earth.

Matt 12:40 . . For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

Now when you think about it, Christ's remains weren't interred in the heart of the earth. In point of fact his remains weren't even buried in the earth's soil. They were laid to rest on the surface of the earth in a rock-hewn tomb. So then, in order for Christ to be down in the heart of the earth while up on the surface too-- literally two places at once --he and his body had to part company and go separate ways.

Just before being cast ashore, Jonah prayed thus from inside the fish:

Jonah 2:6 . .To the bottoms of the mountains I went down. As for the earth, its bars were upon me for time indefinite. But out of the pit you proceeded to bring up my life, O Jehovah my God.

The Hebrew word for "pit" in that verse is the very same word for "pit" in Ps 16:8-10; which Acts 2:25-31 verifies is speaking of putrefaction. In other words: Jonah 2:6 is the language of resurrection; viz: though Jonah was alive in the fish at some point, he wasn't alive the whole three days and nights. In point of fact, it's been proposed that some of the language in the second chapter of Jonah suggests that he was already dead from drowning before the fish swallowed him; which, if true, makes sense seeing as how Jesus was already dead before he was buried.

So then, just as Jonah's soul was not left at the bottoms of the mountains, Christ's soul was not left in the heart of the earth. And just as Jonah's body was not left to decompose in the fish, neither was Christ's left to decompose in the tomb. And just as Jonah came back from his grave within three days and nights as a human rather than a spirit, so Jesus came back from his grave within three days and nights as a human rather than a spirit. If none of this were so, then the story of Jonah's death and resurrection would be a pretty useless parallel to the story of Christ's resurrection.

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Yes I agree with all of that, Jonah did die but it is the phrase 'Heart of the Earth' and the three days a and three nights that people find hard to reconcile.
 

S-word

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The sign of Jonah was for wicked and adulterous people who needed to see Jesus dead before they would believe He was God who could come back from the grave:

Matthew 12:39
He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

(It also gave us the Turin Shroud for those who need a physical sign of proof, but even then people still doubt).

John 20:6-7; New International Version (NIV) 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.

Strips of linen in which his body had been wrapped and the cloth that was used to wrap around his head, which was folded up neatly apart from the linen strips. No Mention of no shroud, so we can safely assume that the Turin Shroud is a fake.
 

WatchmanOnTheWall

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Yes, I know why the sign was given, I'm asking what was the sign?


Matthew 12
39He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jesus says the sign will the fact He would be in the Heart of the Earth for exactly the same length of time Jonah was in the belly of the whale. Three days and three nights.
 

WatchmanOnTheWall

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John 20:6-7; New International Version (NIV) 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.

Strips of linen in which his body had been wrapped and the cloth that was used to wrap around his head, which was folded up neatly apart from the linen strips. No Mention of no shroud, so we can safely assume that the Turin Shroud is a fake.

The strips of linen is the shroud, it is a strip of linen (and the cloth that had been around His head is the Sudarium Cloth, now housed in the Oviedo Cathedral, in northern Spain). This has all been proven scientifically beyond any doubt what so ever, here is the evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4c4812XA9A
 
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jamie

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Jesus says the sign will the fact He would be in the Heart of the Earth for exactly the same length of time Jonah was in the belly of the whale. Three days and three nights.

So what were you referring to in post 28 when you said, "Jesus was in the tomb for 39 hours from just before sunset on day 14 Aviv (aprox 6pm) to just as the sun rose on day 16 (aprox 6am)"?

And where do you get Jesus was buried before sunset?
 

WatchmanOnTheWall

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So what were you referring to in post 28 when you said, "Jesus was in the tomb for 39 hours from just before sunset on day 14 Aviv (aprox 6pm) to just as the sun rose on day 16 (aprox 6am)"?

And where do you get Jesus was buried before sunset?

Surly you're aware of the 3 days + 3 nights confusion that so many Christians have over this scripture as Jesus was only in the tomb for approximately 36 hours.

Jesus was put in the Tomb before sunset as it says:

John 19:31
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.

42Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Mark 15:42
It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.

Luke 23
53Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. 54It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
 
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jamie

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Luke 23
53Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. 54It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. (Luke 23:54 NIV)​

The NIV translation is not based on the text, it is an interpretation of the text.

But what if we go by an accurate translation of the text?

It was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning. (Luke 23:54 NET)

It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning. (Luke 23:54 RSV)​

How do we know what is correct, drew on KJV, drew near NKJV, about to [x]begin NASB.

The x footnote for the NASB says: "Luke 23:54 Lit dawn."

The correct translation of epiphosko is dawn.

Dawn can refer to the beginning of a 24-hour day as in Luke 23:54 or it can refer to the beginning of a 12-hour day as in Matthew 28:1.
 

WatchmanOnTheWall

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It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. (Luke 23:54 NIV)​

The NIV translation is not based on the text, it is an interpretation of the text.

But what if we go by an accurate translation of the text?

It was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning. (Luke 23:54 NET)

It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning. (Luke 23:54 RSV)​

How do we know what is correct, drew on KJV, drew near NKJV, about to [x]begin NASB.

The x footnote for the NASB says: "Luke 23:54 Lit dawn."

The correct translation of epiphosko is dawn.

Dawn can refer to the beginning of a 24-hour day as in Luke 23:54 or it can refer to the beginning of a 12-hour day as in Matthew 28:1.

If you would like to use a more accurate Bible translation then I would recommend the Interlinear Bible which is the most accurate available.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=b...hUlB8AKHQtoDW4Q_AUIBigB#imgrc=Si1bjQ0jtRWolM:

Also you are taking the last verses I posted (from Matthew) as the one you are looking at alone but I posted that last because it is not as descriptive as John or Mark. And when all three accounts are put together it is very clear and unequivocal that Jesus was put in the tomb before the sunset when the Sabbath began.

Besides, you may also not be aware that while Jesus was being put in the tomb before sunset hundreds of lambs that had been killed and skinned were being put into the hundreds of ovens that were next to the temple, they also had to be put into the ovens before sunset in order to be kosher. This had happened every year for over a thousand years as a prophetic foreshadowing of what would happen to the Lamb of God.
 
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