If Jesus died just before the Sabbath and was resurrected just after, why did He claim that He would remain dead for three days and three nights?
Jesus did die just hours before the beginning of the Sabbath, and He rose bodily from the dead just hours after the end of the Sabbath. It would seem as though He could not have been dead any more than about thirty-six hours. But, Jesus Himself predicted that He would remain in the grave for three days and three nights just as Jonah had remained inside a great fish for three days and three nights. This problem becomes a non-problem by recognizing that Jesus was crucified in one of those Jewish calendar weeks containing not one Sabbath day, but two. (Thinking cap time!) Jesus, the Lamb of God, was crucified during Passover. Passover begins on the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month. Passover week begins with a special Sabbath and ends with a special Sabbath, not necessarily on the regular Sabbaths. In the year of Jesus’ death, there must have been a Passover Sabbath on Thursday and the regular Sabbath Saturday. If Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, and rose from the dead before Sund
