How long was Jesus in the grave?

Answer 1

"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew xii, 40). How long did he remain in the grave? Synoptics: Being buried on Friday evening, and having risen on or before Sunday morning, he was in the grave, at the most, but two nights and one day. The Gospel accounts actually note that Jesus was crucified "before the Sabbath;" which is why the Romans broke the legs of the other two. (Crucifixion was a long and torturous death; usually the subject would take days to die by strangulation, due to the position in which they were hanging. The only relief was by pushing oneself up on the nail in the ankles, allowing the pressure in the chest to be relieved enough to take some breaths. By breaking their legs, they couldn't push themselves up on their legs to breathe, making death come quicker.) We assume "the Sabbath" was the weekly one, which leads to the tradition of Jesus dying on Friday. There were other Sabbaths, though. One of them would be the Passover Sabbath, which would've occurred during the week in which Jesus was crucified. Thus, one possible timeline is that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, before the Passover Sabbath, was in the grave for three days, and arose on the first day of the week, after the weekly Sabbath. This also allowed one day, Friday, for the women to purchase the spices they brought to Jesus' gravesite on the first day of the week. Luke: "They returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath Day" (xxiii, 56). Mark (New Ver.): "And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices that they might come and anoint him" (xvi, 1). According to Luke they prepared the spices before the Sabbath began, that is, before the end of the sixth day, according to Mark, they did not procure them until "the Sabbath was past," that is, not until the beginning of the first day. When did they go to embalm the body? Mark and Luke: "When the Sabbath was past,...the first day of the week" (Mark xvi, 1, 2; Luke xxiv, 1). Is it reasonable to suppose that in that warm spring climate (Dr. Geikie speaks of the fierce heat that prevailed at the time), they would let a wounded body lie two days, until decomposition had commenced, and then attempt to embalm it?

Answer 2

Jesus was in the grave for three days, then He resurrected.

Additional Answer:

The only sign Jesus gave to His Messiahship was being in the belly of the earth for three full days and three full nights like Jonah was in the belly of the great fish:

Matthew 16:4New International Version (NIV)

4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away.

Answer 3

A:This is best answered from the Gospel of Mark, which was the original gospel on which the others were directly or indirectly based. Mark takes its readers through the events following the last supper in eight intervals of just three hours each.

• The Last Supper began "when it was evening" (Mark 14:17), or when the sun went down: approximately 6 pm.
• Mark knew that the duration of the Passover meal was three hours and that it concluded with the singing of a hymn, so the first thing Jesus did was to sing a hymn with his disciples. Then Mark says, "And when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives". It was about 9 p.m.
• Mark then has Jesus and the disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went to pray. His disciples, Peter, James and John, were not able to remain awake. "Could you not watch one hour?" Jesus asked. The process was repeated two more times. The disciples could not watch one, two or three hours. It was now midnight.
• The act of betrayal, the darkest deed in human history, came next, occurring at the stroke of midnight.
• At 3:00 a.m., Jesus was led away for a trial before the high priest and other senior priests and elders. This governing body then judged him, on the basis of his messianic claim, to be worthy of death.
• The watch of the night between 3 am and 6 am was called cockcrow. Peter's threefold denial of Jesus, once each hour until the cock crowed, marked the end of that phase of the night. That makes it 6 am.
• "As soon as it was morning", which would be 6 am, Jesus was led by the chief priests, scribes and elders to Pontius Pilate for judgement.
• "It was the third hour when they crucified him," that is, 9 o'clock.

  When "the sixth hour had come" (12 noon), darkness covered the whole earth, reflecting the betrayal at 12 midnight.

• After three hours of darkness, at 3 p.m., Jesus cried out and gave up the ghost.
• Joseph of Arimathea then asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that he could be buried before the Sabbath began. Jesus was buried in the final period from 3 to 6 pm, before the sun went down.

Answer 4

According to many people's beliefs he was buried for 3 days before rising from the dead.

Answer:

As Jesus gave only ONE sign of His Messiahship, He was in the tomb exactly 72 hours or 3 full days and 3 full nights as Jonah was:

Matthew 12:40New King James Version (NKJV)

40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Answer 5

He was place in there on the Friday evening, and the tomb was discovered empty early Sunday morning. Jesus was seen shortly after.

Answer 6

3 days. Went in on Friday night, Sat, Sun and actually rose on Monday. If you lived in Europe they celebrate Easter on Monday instead of Sunday.

Answer 7

Sometime between 4:00 and 6:00 pm on the day he was crucified.

Answer 8

Three days