A MORE SORROWFUL PASSION
In this paper, you will see for yourself a deeper dimension to the suffering of our Savior that has been lost to the centuries.
Three Days and Three Nights and the sign of Jonah
Jesus, also called Yahshua, said in Mathew 12 verse 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.”
Over the centuries, people have attributed this specific reference to 3 days and 3 nights as just a saying – a Hebrew idiom. Since most everyone accepts the truth that Yahshua was crucified on a Friday and rose on a Sunday morning, clearly a literal 3 days and 3 nights cannot be accounted for here.
The following scriptures say He rose “THE THIRD DAY”:
Mathew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19, 27:64; Mark 9:31, 10:34; Luke 9:22, 18:33, 24:7,21,46; Acts 10:40, I Corinthians 15:4. Here, the Third Day is not a problem because the Third Day from the crucifixion need not necessarily entail a literal full 3 days and 3 nights. It can easily mean from a Friday crucifixion to a Sunday morning resurrection.
Thus the only exception to the Third Day is His reference to the 3 days and 3 nights – the sign of Jonah – in Mathew 12:40. In the following scriptures, we will see that they are both literal and correct for they are referring to 2 separate events.
In the belly of the fish Jonah said:
"I Cried out to the Lord because of my affliction" (Jonah 2:2)
As Joseph (Genesis 37) he is alive in this "pit" (Jonah 2:6), not dead.
Jonah is in the "Heart of the Seas" (2:3)
Christ is in the "Heart of the Earth" (Mathew 12:40)
Sea weeds were wrapped around the head of Jonah (Jonah 2:5)
Thorns were wrapped around the head of Christ (Mathew 27:29)
All this was while the Savior and Jonah were still alive.No where else is the phrase "heart of the earth" mentioned. It can only be understood in the context of "the heart of the seas" of Jonah - also a phrase repeated no where else in scripture. 3 Days/3 Nights and The Third Day are two different sets of time. One followed the other.
The period of being alive in the flesh is the time of great suffering and anguish – for both Jonah and Yahshua – not the sleep of the dead. No where else is the phrase "3 days and 3 nights" referred to in relation to the resurrection. The Resurrection timeframe is always referred to as "the Third Day".
Between the time of His arrest and crucifixion, Yahshua went through 6 trials - 3 before the Jews and 3 before the Romans:
1) Preliminary hearing before Annas (John 18:12-24)
2) Hearing before Caiaphas (Mathew 26:57-67)
3) Trail before the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71)
4) First hearing before Pilate (John 18:28-37)
5) Hearing before (the Roman puppet) Herod (Luke 23:6-12)
6) Final hearing before Pilate (Mathew 27:15-26)
All this could not possibly have taken place in the time allowed by the traditional view of a late night arrest and following morning crucifixion
– a space of a mere 12 or 13 hours.
As a footnote it must be said that in the Mishna, "In capital cases, a verdict of condemnation may not be delivered until the following day [of the trial]. For this reason, no trials may be held on the eve of a Sabbath or on the eve of a festival." (Sanh.4:1). Thus, we see the rapid condemnation session the following morning (Mark 15:1). In the aftermath, no early Christian writings accuse the leaders with illegality.
Otherwise how do we explain these 3 scriptures?
“After two days is the Passover ….meanwhile, Yahshua was in Bethany … There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment …”
Mathew 26:2,6,7
“After two days is the Passover …and being in Bethany … there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; …”
Mark 14:1,3
“Then Yahshua six days before the Passover came to Bethany. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Yahshua.”
John 12:1,3
The seeming conflict of the Gospel of John with the Gospels of Mathew and Mark, hint at a deep truth: They are all 3 correct. Mathew and Mark are referring to the Passover kept by Yahshua:
The Gospel of Mathew
“Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Yahshua, saying to Him, ‘where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?’ And He said to them, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, “The Teacher says, ‘My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.’” So the disciples did as Yahshua had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. Now when evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating, …”(Mathew 26:17-21)
The Gospel of Mark
“Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, ‘where do you want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?’ So He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him. And wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, “the Teacher says, ‘Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’” Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us.’ And His disciples went out, and came in to the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover. In the evening He came with the twelve. Now as they sat and ate …” (Mark 14:12-18)
The Gospel of Luke
“Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.’ So they said to Him, ‘Where do You want us to prepare?”’ And He said to them, ‘Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, “The Teacher says to you, ‘where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’” Then he will show you a large furnished upper room; there make ready.’ So they went and found it as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. And when the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of YHWH’” (Luke 22:7-16)
The synoptic accounts of Mathew, Mark and Luke clearly say Yahshua ate the Passover meal. To say otherwise is to pervert scripture, yet John is correct in his Gospel account also. How can this be?
Simply stated:
Mathew, Mark & Luke, the synoptic accounts, clearly show the events as unfolding from their own perspective, whereas John clearly shows them to the reader as an outsider looking in onto the “Passover of the Jews”
It has now been proven by the publication and translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls that the writers of the Scrolls – devout Jews, possibly of the Essene sect of Judaism – ALWAYS kept Passover on a Tuesday night. Yet the sect of Jews that crucified Yahshua, the Pharisees, were keeping Passover that year on a Friday.
The way the Pharisees kept the Passover and other holy days was by the lunar calendar and thus their holy days, including Passover, could move around and fall on any day of the week in a given year – NOT SO WITH THE ESSENES – THEIR PASSOVER WAS ALWAYS ON A TUESDAY EVENING.
Yahshua, who was always lambasting the Pharisees and telling others to beware of their doctrine, kept Passover on a Tuesday night with His disciples as did other sects of Jews that did not go along with the Pharisees. He was arrested after the Passover meal He ate with His disciples.
The difference between Tuesday night and His crucifixion on Friday afternoon: 3 days and 3 nights.
This is what the prophet Isaiah says:
He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment … (Isaiah 53:3-8)
In writing the Third Gospel, Luke quotes Peter saying he will follow Christ to prison (Luke 22:33). Luke wrote of these events after they had actually taken place. Why would Luke quote this if Christ’s impending imprisonment did not take place? Under the incorrect and artificially compressed timeline of 12 or 13 hours, the spurts of detention between trials would hardly qualify as prison.
We now see that our suffering Savior spent this anguished period of time in prison. One can only imagine the dread of Christ during that time. We all know that the anticipation of a dreaded event is almost as bad if not worse than the actual event itself.
It is said of the best torturers of the inquisition that just showing and describing the means and methods of torture were enough to break most people. The nights were surely full of anguish and foreboding as if in the belly of a great fish.
He was arrested on a Tuesday night and spent three days and three nights in prison (probably in a pit or dungeon) until his Friday Crucifixion. This time was only punctuated by the 6 trials.
Joseph as a type of Christ and his trials
The parallelism in the story of Joseph in the later chapters of Genesis with Yahshua is quite remarkable. In Chapter 37, Joseph is thrown alive into a pit by his brothers and then lifted up out of the pit by the Midianites and sold for twenty pieces of silver.
Later Joseph becomes the highest ranking man in Egypt, seated at the right hand of Pharaoh. Pharaoh is considered a god by the Egyptians. Pharaoh puts Joseph over all his possessions and is not recognized by his brothers at first. In the end Joseph saves the people of the land from famine and saves his brothers in particular. In the end they also recognize who he is.
However, back in the 40th Chapter of Genesis, we read the story of Joseph in prison with the king’s butler and baker. At the end of 3 days, each of these two men meets with a different fate. The baker is hung and birds eat his flesh. However, the butler is released from prison and given his freedom. Joseph asked the freed butler to “remember me” just as the repentant thief asked of Yahshua.
At first this seems to be a role reversal as Joseph should clearly represent Christ and the butler the repentant thief (who says “remember me”). However, in the butler's dream, the symbolism is the blood - grapes pressed into wine and given to Pharaoh. With the baker, the symbolism is the flesh - bread in a basket. After 3 days each man was "lifted up".
The one associated with the blood was "lifted up" by being "restored to his place". The one associated with the body or flesh was "lifted up" on a tree and died and his flesh is eaten by birds.
Do the two thieves like to two men imprisoned with Joseph represent the two symbols of the Passover and therefore the two parts of Christ (bread and wine/flesh and blood) that He shared with his disciples?
The man representing mortal flesh (baker, unrepentant thief) dies. (Hauntingly, a scene in the movie “The Passion” shows birds eating the flesh of this thief on a cross). The man associated with spirit (butler, repentant thief) is restored (“I say to you this day you will be with me in paradise”).That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Flesh cannot inherit the Kingdom. One man dying on a cross represented the flesh. The other represented the spirit. Christ hung between them representing and becoming the literal transition for mankind.
THE RESURRECTION IS A GLORIOUS EVENT
Yahshua quoted Jonah as saying the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights. This is not an idiomatic expression referring to part of 3 days and nights. Christ was referring to this terrible dreaded period of his imprisonment punctuated by his six trials and climaxing in his torture and death.
This period of 3 days and 3 nights of trial and imprisonment is the sign of Jonah - not the resurrection. The resurrection is a glorious event. Being vomited out by a fish bears no comparison to the resurrection. Such typology strains credulity beyond its limits. The sign of Jonah is not the same set of time referred to in so many other places where Yahshua is resurrected on the Third day.
Sunday is the THIRD DAY from the Friday crucifixion. This is a completely different subject than the 3 days and 3 nights of the sign of Jonah. The days of the sleep of the spirit are the days in the grave. These are the days covering the time from His death on Friday to the time of his resurrection on Sunday - the Third Day.
Death is referred to by Yahshua and others as the “sleep of the dead". Here Christ was dead to his pain and suffering. This is not the time of anguish (the 3 days and 3 nights in the Heart of the Earth).
Now we better understand what is meant by Christ’s reference to “the sign of Jonah”. Tellingly, it falls between the Pharisees seeking a sign and Christ’s warning to beware of their doctrinal leaven. The “3 days and 3 nights” between Tuesday evening and late Friday afternoon is the time referred to by Christ as the sign of Jonah.
There will be more writings on the subject of the calendar and the chronology of the crucifixion as well as some deeper meaning to the symbols of the Passover in the following weeks. Thank you for reading.
The Qumran Sojourner
In this paper, you will see for yourself a deeper dimension to the suffering of our Savior that has been lost to the centuries.
Three Days and Three Nights and the sign of Jonah
Jesus, also called Yahshua, said in Mathew 12 verse 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.”
Over the centuries, people have attributed this specific reference to 3 days and 3 nights as just a saying – a Hebrew idiom. Since most everyone accepts the truth that Yahshua was crucified on a Friday and rose on a Sunday morning, clearly a literal 3 days and 3 nights cannot be accounted for here.
The following scriptures say He rose “THE THIRD DAY”:
Mathew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19, 27:64; Mark 9:31, 10:34; Luke 9:22, 18:33, 24:7,21,46; Acts 10:40, I Corinthians 15:4. Here, the Third Day is not a problem because the Third Day from the crucifixion need not necessarily entail a literal full 3 days and 3 nights. It can easily mean from a Friday crucifixion to a Sunday morning resurrection.
Thus the only exception to the Third Day is His reference to the 3 days and 3 nights – the sign of Jonah – in Mathew 12:40. In the following scriptures, we will see that they are both literal and correct for they are referring to 2 separate events.
In the belly of the fish Jonah said:
"I Cried out to the Lord because of my affliction" (Jonah 2:2)
As Joseph (Genesis 37) he is alive in this "pit" (Jonah 2:6), not dead.
Jonah is in the "Heart of the Seas" (2:3)
Christ is in the "Heart of the Earth" (Mathew 12:40)
Sea weeds were wrapped around the head of Jonah (Jonah 2:5)
Thorns were wrapped around the head of Christ (Mathew 27:29)
All this was while the Savior and Jonah were still alive.No where else is the phrase "heart of the earth" mentioned. It can only be understood in the context of "the heart of the seas" of Jonah - also a phrase repeated no where else in scripture. 3 Days/3 Nights and The Third Day are two different sets of time. One followed the other.
The period of being alive in the flesh is the time of great suffering and anguish – for both Jonah and Yahshua – not the sleep of the dead. No where else is the phrase "3 days and 3 nights" referred to in relation to the resurrection. The Resurrection timeframe is always referred to as "the Third Day".
Between the time of His arrest and crucifixion, Yahshua went through 6 trials - 3 before the Jews and 3 before the Romans:
1) Preliminary hearing before Annas (John 18:12-24)
2) Hearing before Caiaphas (Mathew 26:57-67)
3) Trail before the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71)
4) First hearing before Pilate (John 18:28-37)
5) Hearing before (the Roman puppet) Herod (Luke 23:6-12)
6) Final hearing before Pilate (Mathew 27:15-26)
All this could not possibly have taken place in the time allowed by the traditional view of a late night arrest and following morning crucifixion
– a space of a mere 12 or 13 hours.
As a footnote it must be said that in the Mishna, "In capital cases, a verdict of condemnation may not be delivered until the following day [of the trial]. For this reason, no trials may be held on the eve of a Sabbath or on the eve of a festival." (Sanh.4:1). Thus, we see the rapid condemnation session the following morning (Mark 15:1). In the aftermath, no early Christian writings accuse the leaders with illegality.
Otherwise how do we explain these 3 scriptures?
“After two days is the Passover ….meanwhile, Yahshua was in Bethany … There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment …”
Mathew 26:2,6,7
“After two days is the Passover …and being in Bethany … there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; …”
Mark 14:1,3
“Then Yahshua six days before the Passover came to Bethany. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Yahshua.”
John 12:1,3
The seeming conflict of the Gospel of John with the Gospels of Mathew and Mark, hint at a deep truth: They are all 3 correct. Mathew and Mark are referring to the Passover kept by Yahshua:
The Gospel of Mathew
“Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Yahshua, saying to Him, ‘where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?’ And He said to them, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, “The Teacher says, ‘My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.’” So the disciples did as Yahshua had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. Now when evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating, …”(Mathew 26:17-21)
The Gospel of Mark
“Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, ‘where do you want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?’ So He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him. And wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, “the Teacher says, ‘Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’” Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us.’ And His disciples went out, and came in to the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover. In the evening He came with the twelve. Now as they sat and ate …” (Mark 14:12-18)
The Gospel of Luke
“Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.’ So they said to Him, ‘Where do You want us to prepare?”’ And He said to them, ‘Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, “The Teacher says to you, ‘where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’” Then he will show you a large furnished upper room; there make ready.’ So they went and found it as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. And when the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of YHWH’” (Luke 22:7-16)
The synoptic accounts of Mathew, Mark and Luke clearly say Yahshua ate the Passover meal. To say otherwise is to pervert scripture, yet John is correct in his Gospel account also. How can this be?
Simply stated:
Mathew, Mark & Luke, the synoptic accounts, clearly show the events as unfolding from their own perspective, whereas John clearly shows them to the reader as an outsider looking in onto the “Passover of the Jews”
It has now been proven by the publication and translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls that the writers of the Scrolls – devout Jews, possibly of the Essene sect of Judaism – ALWAYS kept Passover on a Tuesday night. Yet the sect of Jews that crucified Yahshua, the Pharisees, were keeping Passover that year on a Friday.
The way the Pharisees kept the Passover and other holy days was by the lunar calendar and thus their holy days, including Passover, could move around and fall on any day of the week in a given year – NOT SO WITH THE ESSENES – THEIR PASSOVER WAS ALWAYS ON A TUESDAY EVENING.
Yahshua, who was always lambasting the Pharisees and telling others to beware of their doctrine, kept Passover on a Tuesday night with His disciples as did other sects of Jews that did not go along with the Pharisees. He was arrested after the Passover meal He ate with His disciples.
The difference between Tuesday night and His crucifixion on Friday afternoon: 3 days and 3 nights.
This is what the prophet Isaiah says:
He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment … (Isaiah 53:3-8)
In writing the Third Gospel, Luke quotes Peter saying he will follow Christ to prison (Luke 22:33). Luke wrote of these events after they had actually taken place. Why would Luke quote this if Christ’s impending imprisonment did not take place? Under the incorrect and artificially compressed timeline of 12 or 13 hours, the spurts of detention between trials would hardly qualify as prison.
We now see that our suffering Savior spent this anguished period of time in prison. One can only imagine the dread of Christ during that time. We all know that the anticipation of a dreaded event is almost as bad if not worse than the actual event itself.
It is said of the best torturers of the inquisition that just showing and describing the means and methods of torture were enough to break most people. The nights were surely full of anguish and foreboding as if in the belly of a great fish.
He was arrested on a Tuesday night and spent three days and three nights in prison (probably in a pit or dungeon) until his Friday Crucifixion. This time was only punctuated by the 6 trials.
Joseph as a type of Christ and his trials
The parallelism in the story of Joseph in the later chapters of Genesis with Yahshua is quite remarkable. In Chapter 37, Joseph is thrown alive into a pit by his brothers and then lifted up out of the pit by the Midianites and sold for twenty pieces of silver.
Later Joseph becomes the highest ranking man in Egypt, seated at the right hand of Pharaoh. Pharaoh is considered a god by the Egyptians. Pharaoh puts Joseph over all his possessions and is not recognized by his brothers at first. In the end Joseph saves the people of the land from famine and saves his brothers in particular. In the end they also recognize who he is.
However, back in the 40th Chapter of Genesis, we read the story of Joseph in prison with the king’s butler and baker. At the end of 3 days, each of these two men meets with a different fate. The baker is hung and birds eat his flesh. However, the butler is released from prison and given his freedom. Joseph asked the freed butler to “remember me” just as the repentant thief asked of Yahshua.
At first this seems to be a role reversal as Joseph should clearly represent Christ and the butler the repentant thief (who says “remember me”). However, in the butler's dream, the symbolism is the blood - grapes pressed into wine and given to Pharaoh. With the baker, the symbolism is the flesh - bread in a basket. After 3 days each man was "lifted up".
The one associated with the blood was "lifted up" by being "restored to his place". The one associated with the body or flesh was "lifted up" on a tree and died and his flesh is eaten by birds.
Do the two thieves like to two men imprisoned with Joseph represent the two symbols of the Passover and therefore the two parts of Christ (bread and wine/flesh and blood) that He shared with his disciples?
The man representing mortal flesh (baker, unrepentant thief) dies. (Hauntingly, a scene in the movie “The Passion” shows birds eating the flesh of this thief on a cross). The man associated with spirit (butler, repentant thief) is restored (“I say to you this day you will be with me in paradise”).That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Flesh cannot inherit the Kingdom. One man dying on a cross represented the flesh. The other represented the spirit. Christ hung between them representing and becoming the literal transition for mankind.
THE RESURRECTION IS A GLORIOUS EVENT
Yahshua quoted Jonah as saying the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights. This is not an idiomatic expression referring to part of 3 days and nights. Christ was referring to this terrible dreaded period of his imprisonment punctuated by his six trials and climaxing in his torture and death.
This period of 3 days and 3 nights of trial and imprisonment is the sign of Jonah - not the resurrection. The resurrection is a glorious event. Being vomited out by a fish bears no comparison to the resurrection. Such typology strains credulity beyond its limits. The sign of Jonah is not the same set of time referred to in so many other places where Yahshua is resurrected on the Third day.
Sunday is the THIRD DAY from the Friday crucifixion. This is a completely different subject than the 3 days and 3 nights of the sign of Jonah. The days of the sleep of the spirit are the days in the grave. These are the days covering the time from His death on Friday to the time of his resurrection on Sunday - the Third Day.
Death is referred to by Yahshua and others as the “sleep of the dead". Here Christ was dead to his pain and suffering. This is not the time of anguish (the 3 days and 3 nights in the Heart of the Earth).
Now we better understand what is meant by Christ’s reference to “the sign of Jonah”. Tellingly, it falls between the Pharisees seeking a sign and Christ’s warning to beware of their doctrinal leaven. The “3 days and 3 nights” between Tuesday evening and late Friday afternoon is the time referred to by Christ as the sign of Jonah.
There will be more writings on the subject of the calendar and the chronology of the crucifixion as well as some deeper meaning to the symbols of the Passover in the following weeks. Thank you for reading.
The Qumran Sojourner
posted by The Qumran Sojourner at 12:33 PM
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