How long was Jesus in the tomb?

By the clock

Mark gives the hours. Jesus died at the ninth hour, about 3 in the afternoon on Friday (Mark 15:34–37). Joseph of Arimathea then had to ask Pilate for the body, take it down, wrap it and close the tomb before sunset, when the Sabbath began (Luke 23:54). On Sunday Mary Magdalene came “while it was still dark” (John 20:1); in Mark the sun had just risen (Mark 16:2).

So the body lay in the tomb from about 5 or 6 on Friday evening to about 5 or 6 on Sunday morning: some 36 hours, perhaps a little more. Notice what the Gospels do not say. Nobody in them sees the resurrection happen, and no Gospel gives its hour. They say only when the tomb was found empty.

Counting the ancient way

A Jewish day ran from sunset to sunset, and any part of a day counted as a day. Friday afternoon was day one. The Sabbath, Friday night and Saturday, was day two. At sunset on Saturday, day three began. Luke has a disciple say exactly that on Sunday afternoon, on the road to Emmaus:

But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

The Hebrew Bible counts the same way. Joseph puts his brothers in custody “for three days” and speaks to them “the third day” (Genesis 42:17–18). King Rehoboam tells the people, “Come again to me after three days,” and they come back “the third day, as the king asked” (2 Chronicles 10:5, 12). Esther asks for a fast of “three days, night or day,” then goes in to the king “on the third day” (Esther 4:16; 5:1).

Four phrases, one span

The New Testament describes the wait in four ways:

• “The third day”: the usual one, in Matthew 16:21, Luke 24:7 and Paul’s early creed, “raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4).
• “After three days”: Mark 8:31. Matthew, retelling the same saying, writes “the third day.”
• “In three days”: John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
• “Three days and three nights”: Matthew 12:40, matching Jonah in the fish (Jonah 1:17).

Did anyone hear these as different lengths of time? Matthew’s chief priests did not.

Sir, we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Command therefore that the tomb be made secure until the third day,

“After three days” is guarded “until the third day.” Even “three days and three nights” was an idiom: an Egyptian slave who had eaten nothing “for three days and three nights” says in the next breath that he fell sick “three days ago” (1 Samuel 30:12–13). A few groups read Matthew 12:40 as a strict 72 hours and move the crucifixion to Wednesday; most readers keep the Friday, as explained in what day Jesus died.

The day in between

Saturday is the Gospels’ silent day. The women rest “according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). The only event Matthew records is that very visit to Pilate, “on the next day, which was the day after the Preparation Day,” and a seal set on the stone (Matthew 27:62–66).

Christian tradition filled the silence. 1 Peter 3:19 says Christ “went and preached to the spirits in prison,” and the Apostles’ Creed says he “descended into hell,” meaning the realm of the dead. Eastern icons of the resurrection show him on that day, pulling Adam and Eve out of their tombs. Churches still keep Holy Saturday as a day of waiting, and begin the Easter Vigil after dark, when, by the old count, the third day had begun.