h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Old timer hootooists will recognise this question which
I have asked before, but it occurs to me every year at
this time and I have never had a proper answer.

Prophecy said that the 'temple would be rebuilt in 3 days'
and this became a metaphor for the Resurrection of Christ.

My problem is that the number is not an accurate reflection
of the history as presented in the New Testyment.

Yes, the events occurred over three calendar days but if
Jesus succumbed late on a Good Friday afternoon and was
risen and missing from his tomb early on Easter Sunday morn
the total span would have been about 36 hours. That's just
a day and a half. Half the time.

Even if we extend it from say 3pm Fri to a lazy 9am on Sunday
it's still only 42 hours, less than two full days, and short of the
72 hours required to qualify as three proper 24 hour days.




~jwf~

I was taught that they counted Friday as one, Saturday as two, and Sunday as three, even though you are right, it's nowhere near 72 hours

They had no concept of zero in those days: A21897237

If you count a day as beginning at Sundown (as the Jews do, even today: Sabbath starts on Friday night, for example), then yes, the events do span three days. Not all of three days, but parts of them. The story says he was in the tomb before Sabbath, lay there for all of Sabbath, and rose the day after. That's enough: one complete day, and parts of two others.

Or it's not enough, and this is post hoc rationalisation. Which interpretation do you prefer?

TRiG.

Hmmmm jwf, it sounds like you want your pound of flesh, with hours and minutes counted and accounted, summed and wagered. Maybe in those days they were more a chillen out, bros in da deep chill, just awaiting for de light and de ectasy, nice and easy, floating off in de sky, high and mighty, with da magic puffing and huffing, and de angels sprinkling de fairy dust.

Verily it was good. And at half past the hour of reckoning did the heavens groan and tremble and the people did a wonder what was going on. But then, at a quarter to the twain of the following day wenst the moon did glimmer, the rock did tremble and began to move. But it would be yet another ten and four hours before Mary wouldst go up to the cave and behold something that wasn't there ...

I've seen so many different interpretations of the events of Jesus' life that I find it hard to be surprised by *anything." One interpretation was that someone was hired to take Jesus' place on the cross, after which Jesus hid away for quote a spell. If his mother and wife saw him in the tomb, it was as someone who was still very much alive. After that, Jesus and his wife may or may not have gotten in a boat and sailed for the coast of France. Jesus may have had a daughter [as speculated in
"The Da Vinci Code," or he may have had a son, as indicated in a family mortuary that was discovered under a condominium building in Jerusalem. No one knows for sure, and I'm not holding my breath waiting for confirmation.

If you think Biblical scholarship has uncovered everything that was there to uncover, you would be wrong. Not that long ago, a group of scholars came up with the discovery that Jesus' disciples did not know he was the Son of God. That realization came afterward. I am perfectly fine with that interpretation, but the fundamentalists are not.

Thank you all for the interesting responses.

May the Great Bunny bless you all with runny chocolate.

I was shocked yesterday to hear on many News Channels
that it has been 20 years since we have heard any serious
claims of the Shroud of Turin. Seems it is being trotted out
again this weekend with new proof of its authenticity. And,
of course, a whole new book to prove it. By 'scientists'
and 'religious scholars'. Sounds like a Jesuit fund-raiser.


~jwf~