2023#2
When Jesus Died and Three Days in the Tomb, Part 2
“R” in Louisiana asks:
“In Jesus days, the Passover was on Wednesday. He was crucified and put in the tomb by that night. With that being the start of the 3 days and 3 nights count per the Bible. Why do people today and most of the churches don’t teach on this. We’ll been taught wrong.
Wednesday 1n
Thursday 1d, 2n
Friday 2d, 3n
Saturday 3d out by 6 pm. Mary sees him very early on the first day of the week. Sunday.
Wondering what he was doing in those 3 days and 3 nights.”
Mark Riser – Apologist responds,
That is a good post. I see two questions here, the first being about the date of the crucifixion and the resurrection. The second question seeks to discern what was going on between the death of Jesus and His resurrection. I would like to review and comment on the second question in this article.
Jesus Christ rose from the dead “on the third day” after His crucifixion on Friday. What happened during those three days?
The most significant attempt at an answer to this question comes from The Apostle’s Creed, a statement of core Christian beliefs from early in church history. One of the lines of that creed says, “He descended into Hell.” While some versions of that creed in history do not have that line and some denominations leave it as an optional line, there is no direct Scriptural evidence for this assertion.
The most direct evidence of Jesus’s location between His death and resurrection is in the gospel of Luke. To the dying thief who recognized who Jesus was, He said, “I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43, HCSB). The idea of paradise was the place where righteous souls would rest while waiting for the resurrection. From the construction of the language, Jesus was going to be in paradise that day and the repentant criminal was going to be with Him.
Given this evidence from Scripture, why did The Apostle’s Creed mention Hell in the first place? There are several Biblical passages that could be discerned to give that interpretation. The first is Ephesians 4:9, “But what does ‘He ascended mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth?” (Ephesians 4:9, HCSB). Paul is quoting Psalm 68:16 in the previous verse and applying it to Jesus Christ. The term “descended” can be applied to the Incarnation rather than Hell.
I Peter 3:19-20 states that Jesus “also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while an ark was being prepared…” (I Peter 3:19-20a, HCSB). While some interpret this as saying Jesus made a proclamation to those in Hell, it is also possible that the Spirit of God was preaching through Noah during the building of the Ark. Those people ignored Noah’s message and were lost in the Flood.
This does bring up an important question, why would it be necessary for Jesus to venture into Hell in the first place? Some preachers say Jesus suffered in Hell for those three days because of our sins. However, this is impossible because Jesus proclaimed “It is finished” while He was on the cross (John 19:30). The atoning work of salvation was done in that moment! God’s requirements for a perfect sacrifice and His wrath against sin were satisfied. There was no need for any more suffering on the part of Jesus Christ. If Jesus made any trip to Hell during those three days, it would have been to proclaim His victory over sin and death.
Attempting to discern where Jesus was during the period between His death and His resurrection is an interesting sideline discussion. However, we must temper our discussions with the knowledge that we are making interpretations of the text and speculating on passages that are not as clear as we would wish them to be at this point.
Mark Riser - Apologist 