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§0         When Yayshua was asked to provide a sign of the ultimate truth, he answered in the following passage:

        Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:  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.  The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.  The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here (Matthew 12:38-42).

§1          The Sabbath-Sunday issue has plagued Christendom ever since it severed its ties to Judaism in the second and third centuries.  The Nazarene Jews, or Jewish faithful in Messiah continued to keep the Sabbath Law (as commanded by God, Exodus 20:8-11), while the Gentile Christians walked off into idolatry and created their own version of religion and history.  After expropriating the functions of the Aaronic Priesthood for itself, the centralized churches began to ignore, subvert, and persecute those believers connected with the nation of Israel.   As part of that subversion, they corrupted the facts about the death and resurrection of the Messiah.
             The most important of  its corruptions is the chronology of the Yayshua's last week on earth.  Not only has Christendom staked its very survival as a religion independent of the Jews on the Sunday Resurection, but the Sunday Resurrection lends itself well to the unique identity of Christianity as separate from its roots.  It leads to Sunday Worship, the Sunday Pentecost, and Easter Sunday.  Yet, none of these "holy days" are mentioned in the scripture.
             Now, as a reader of this book, you will witness the shattering of the Sunday myth, a myth so pervasive, that it is obscenely considered normal by most of the world.   The vast majority of Christians believe that Yayshua, the Anointed (Jesus Christ) died on “Good Friday” and rose on “Easter Sunday.”  Most accept this tradition, as taught through the Church, even though the scripture does not mention “Friday” as the day of the crucifixion or Sunday as the day of the resurrection.  This lack of  evidence for the traditional chronology has caused one respected commentary to state concerning the resurrection in Matthew 28:1, “The notes of time in our gospels make it hazardous to say whether the evangelists wished us to understand Saturday or Sunday at this point (The Anchor Bible, Mt. 28:1).
§2        Not only is a Sunday resurrection not mentioned in the scripture: it is contradicted by a number of passages: Matthew 12:40, 28:1; Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:34, 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19.  Note the presence of the passages usually translated “first day of the week,” highlighted in bold.  We will show where each of these passages is not properly translated, and when properly translated, how they contradict the Sunday resurrection.  We will analyze these texts later on also, but for now we mention that  these six passages teach a Saturday morning resurrection when translated correctly  “one of the Sabbaths” ().

§3         Of the above passages, Matthew 12:40 is perhaps the most famous.  It is the passage which says Christ would be “three days and three nights” in the grave.  On the basis of this passage alone, many have concluded that Christ was crucified on Wednesday, the fourth day of the week and raised on Saturday afternoon.  This view we will refer to as the “Saturday afternoon resurrection.”
§4         The Saturday Afternoon resurrection has numerous critics.  Some of the criticism it receives is well justified.  “Three days and three nights” do not necessarily mean 72 hours.  The fatal passage to the Saturday afternoon resurrection is Luke 24:21  (see §16½), which we take up later.  Finally John 20:1 flatly contradicts an afternoon resurrection.
§5             As we move through this study, it will become clear to the reader why the Wednesday-Saturday Afternoon resurrection sequence is impossible.  Most readers will assume that the resurrection was in the morning.  This view is more or less correct, although the resurrection was before sunrise (John 20:1).  Since it is usual to assume the resurrection was in the morning, we will refer to the resurrection as “The Sabbath Resurrection” with the implied understanding of a morning time frame.
§6             The figure is typical of those throughout this book (see Fig. 1).  The light rectangles are periods of daylight (sunrise to sunset), and the black rectangles are periods of darkness (sunset to sunrise).  The first solid dot marks the burial of Christ, and the second the resurrection.  The Roman planetary  days of the week are named under the graph, and they always run from midnight to midnight.
§7             A graph of the Sunday resurrection is shown (see  Fig. 2).  This traditional view  teaches that Christ died on the sixth day of the week, and rose from the dead on the “first day of the week.”  That is, he is said to die on a Friday afternoon, and to resurrect on a Sunday morning after sunrise.
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            For as Jonah 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.

        And on the first of the Sabbaths, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark, and she saw the stone taken away from the tomb. (John 20:1, cf. Young's Literal Translation).

§16½         This passage is argued by Rev. Smith B. Goodenow, Bible Chronology, (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, c. 1896, pp. 42-51, and Joe Crews, 3 Days and 3 Nights, Frederick, MD: Amazing Facts, Inc., c. 1985, pg. 9.

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