Savoia
Yoel, I concur with your assessment of the inanity of the forced
interpretation of 3 days/3 nights. I still wonder, though, how the
early "church fathers" allowed themselves to acquire such a glaring
swollen thumb of belief. I'm curious as to what your opinion is on
the other option which has been given (by some minor Christian
groups), i.e. that the "sabbath" which is referred to (by which time
the body had to be laid) was not the weekly sabbath, but the 1st day
of Unleavened Bread, which was presumedly on a Thursday somewhere
around 4 BC or 3 BC. That would mean he was in the tomb Wed night,
Thurs night and Fri night, and Thurs day, Fri. day and Sat day (which
would mean he was resurrected Sat night after sundown, and was able
to appear to the women the next day "while it was yet dark" (i.e.
before sunrise). The other dovetailing element provided by this
explanation is that the biblical Jesus would have then been crucified
precisely on Passover (Wed), which makes for nice symbolism and all
(as JC is also referred to as the "Passover Lamb"). Is it not
likely that this was the actual scenario, since the apostles and
Jesus were Jews and naturally would have referred to the 1st day of
UB as the sabbath?
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Michael Savoia
msavoia@iac.co.jp