Figure of speech/colloquialism?
Hello
1. The Messiah said that three nights would be involved with His time in the "heart of the earth".
2. There are some who believe that the crucifixion took place on the 6th day of the week with the resurrection taking place on the 1st day of the week.
3. Of those, there are some who believe that the "heart of the earth" is referring to the tomb.
4. However, those two beliefs allow for only 2 nights to be involved.
5. To account for the discrepancy, some of the above say that the Messiah was using common figure of speech/colloquial language of the time, i.e., that it is was common to forecast or say that a day or a night would be involved with an event when no part of the day or no part of the night could occur.
6. In order for someone to legitimately say that it was common, they would have to know of more that 1 example to make that assertion.
I wonder if there is anyone here that knows of examples?
'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.
(Mat 12:40)
Hello @restrats,
In my books on 'Figures of Speech found in the Bible' in regard to verse 40, I find that there are in fact three figures of speech in operation in this verse: but the words '
Three days and three nights' is found under the heading of 'Idioma', and the most appropriate meaning in this case is:-
the language peculiar to one nation.
* Biblical examples given:- 1 Samuel 30:11-12. Ester 4:16;
The New Testament is for the most part Hebrew in idiom, but Greek in language. The book of Matthew is a translation from a Hebrew original. This is one of the idioms. It is used in Jonah 1:17 (2:1), and by our Lord in Matthew 12:40. Yet many Scriptures say that He should rise, and did actually rise on 'the third day.' This could not have been if the expression were used in its literal sense. It must have been the fourth day and not the 'third'.
The fact is that the idiom covers any part of 'three days and three nights.' This method of Hebrew reckoning is as distinct from Gentile reckoning, as their commencing the day at sunset and our commencing it at midnight. All these different modes of reckoning are peculiar to the respective peoples and languages and must be duly taken into consideration.
The Lord's words in Matthew 12:40 do not disagree with the Scripture assertion that He should rise on 'the third day.
We have the expression 'after three days' once (Matt. 27:63), and ''in three days' once (John 2:19). But the common expression is 'on the third day', and it occurs ten times. But if the expression be literal and not an idiom, all these passages should say the fourth day! Paul preached the resurrection on 'the third day' according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:4), and this is the great Scriptural fact which we cannot get away from.
Neither can we alter the fact that He rose on 'the first day of the week'.
Neither can we alter the history which records His death and burial as taking place the day before the Sabbath. 'The Sabbath drew on' (Luke 23:54, Matt. 27:62); 'the day before the sabbath' (Mark 15:42); and yet the two disciples going to Emmaus on the first day of the week say, 'This is the third day (not the fourth) since these things were done' (Luke 24:21).
From all this it is perfectly clear that nothing is to be gained by forcing the one passage (Matt. 12:40) to have a literal meaning, in the face of all these other passages which distinctly state that the Lord died and was buried the day before the Sabbath and rose the day after it, viz., on the first day of the week. These many statements are literal and are history: but the one passage is an idiom which means any part of 'three days and three nights'. The one complete day and night (24 hours) and the parts of two nights (36 hours in all) fully satisfy both the idiom and the history.
We gave a similar usage in English. When a person is sentenced to 'thee days' - imprisonment,' It may be late in the evening of the first day what he arrives at the prison, but when the doors open on the morning of the third day (not the fourth) he walks out a free man. In other words, if a person is committed to prison for three days, and he reaches it on Monday night, he leaves it the first thing on Wednesday morning.
