The Messiah entombed – three days, three nights

09.APR.09

Editor: Some leaders or members of Christian denominations try desperately to defend their untenable Friday impalement and Sunday resurrection doctrine. They attempt to minimize the clear statement regarding the three days and three nights in the tomb by calling it merely “a theory.” There is no way that anyone can harmonize the plain statement – 72 hours, three days and three nights in the tomb, with the faulty doctrine that Yahshua was in the tomb only approximately 36 hours. That shortened period is only half the time He Himself had declared- (Matthew 12: 40).{{more}}

Yahshua the Messiah was impaled on the preparation for the Passover (John 19: 31 – 42) The Sabbath following the preparation was a HIGH DAY. This was not the weekly Sabbath but the preparation for the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:5 – 8). Luke 23: 54 – 56 mentions two Sabbaths “And it was the day of the PREPARATION [the Passover], and the SABBATH [the feast holy day] drew on. … And on the SABBATH [the weekly seventh day] they rested according to the commandment.”

Yahshua died at approximately 3 o’clock in the afternoon. According to the Jewish time reckoning, this was the ninth hour of the day (Luke 23: 44 – 49). Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to request Yahshua’s body for burial. As Joseph of Arimathea, with Nicodemus, hurriedly placed Yahshua’s body in the garden tomb, the women who had followed Yahshua from Galilee watched the process to mark the place where He was laid. It was impossible for them to procure spices and ointments and then prepare them for embalming, because this was an annual Sabbath and holy day.

On the day after the annual Sabbath, the women had to buy spices and ointments and prepare them, and then rest on the following day which was also a Sabbath -the weekly Sabbath day. In Matthew 27: 62 – 66 the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate on the day after the preparation (First High Day of the feast) asking that “the sepulchre be made sure until the third day.” It is clear that the women could not have entered the tomb on the day between the Sabbaths (the annual holy day and the weekly Sabbath) to embalm Yahshua’s body; Roman soldiers standing guards were to remain in place until after the third day of Yahshua’s entombment. Yahshua died on Wednesday afternoon and rose on Saturday – 3 days and 3 nights.

When the women arrived, the resurrection had already taken place sometime earlier. The women did not see Yahshua being resurrected! Matthew 28: 6; Mark 16: 6; Luke 24: 6. (Now consider the folly and irony of so many churches conducting Easter sunrise services!)

Assemblies of Yahweh

Sheldon Govia