Recognizing the True Messiah
Recently, I came across an exchange between an atheist and a Christian. The atheist asserted that the Bible cannot be trusted, and as his evidence, pointed to the four “conflicting” gospel versions of resurrection morning. The Christian went through all kinds of reasoning to explain away the different stories, but they both missed the point. Yes, the four accounts of the resurrection differ, and yes, there is a reasonable explanation. But that explanation is far different that those that the Christian was putting forth.
Let me start by stressing how very important this topic actually is. Do you realize that Yahshua (Jesus) himself said that there would be only one sign given of whether or not he was the Messiah? We must look for that one sign, nothing else. We can’t just take his word for it, because every mental institute has someone who says they are the Messiah. We can’t just base it on his miracles, because any good magician can recreate something that appears miraculous. We can’t even take a dead person being raised to life, because that would make Lazarus a candidate for the Messiah.
What was the one and only sign that he himself prophesied? And how does that one sign also help explain the apparent discrepancies in the resurrection account? Matthew 12:40 reads “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.” Not 36 hours, as the traditional understanding of a Friday to Sunday crucifixion/resurrection story would have you believe, but three full 24 hour periods. In fact, if he was only in the tomb 36 hours, then according to this prophecy, he is not our Messiah.
Often the confusion starts with John 19:31 where it talks about removing the bodies from the cross because it was the preparation before the Sabbath. People assume this refers to Friday and Saturday, but John 19:14 makes it clear that this refers to the preparation of the Passover, not the weekly Sabbath. The only day that Scripture ever refers to as the preparation day is the day of Passover, which is the day before the first day of Unleavened Bread. The preparation being spoken of was that every household was to thoroughly search and remove every speck of leavening.
Scripture leaves no doubt that the day the tomb was found empty was the first day of the week (Sunday). It is also important to remember that by Biblical reckoning, the dark part precedes the light part of the day (as in the creation week statements, “the evening and the morning were the first day”, etc). By counting backwards using Yahshua’s own prophecy of three days and three nights, and the fact that he was definitely not in the tomb on the first day of the week, you would find that the day of the crucifixion was a Wednesday (Passover, and the preparation day for tomorrow’s annual Sabbath), and his body was removed from the cross just before sundown. He was in the tomb the dark and light part of Thursday (the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread), the dark and light part of Friday, and the dark and light part of Saturday, resurrecting just as it began to start the first day of the week. This was the dark part that we Gentiles using our Roman calendar would call Saturday night, but Biblically is the start of the first day of the week.
It is the gap of 12 hours between the time Yahshua arose at sunset Saturday and the time it became sunlight Sunday morning, which accounts for the gospel differences. The gospel writers are all telling the same story, it is just that they focus on different parts of this 12 hour period.
To see this, it is helpful to look in the Greek for clarification. For example, the word “dawn” in Matthew is not the same word as “rising of the sun” used when Mark speaks of Sunday morning. The word used in Matthew refers to the onset of the day, which Biblically is at sundown. As such, it was after sundown on Saturday when Matthew tells his portion of the story, and sunup Sunday when Mark tells his. When you combine all four stories together, along with the understanding of the three days and nights and the 12 hours of the empty tomb during which the resurrection accounts are given, you’ll have a more complete picture, although there is still room for conjecture as to exactly how things occurred.
Here is a likely scenario. As soon as the sun set on Sabbath, the women hurried to the tomb. Perhaps Mary outran the ladies, which could be why one account focuses on her by herself. Then, with the onset of darkness, being shaken by an earthquake, seeing angels, and discovering that Yahshua was not in the tomb, they were fearful and confused. They went back to the disciples, and again ran to the tomb. Perhaps they decided they could do nothing until morning to find him, and remained at their gathering place to discuss the events and try to get some rest. Either Mary stayed behind when the other women went for the disciples, or she was first on the scene in the morning, when she had her private encounter with Yahshua. But in all of the accounts, Yahshua was already risen before they ever arrived on the scene. The rolling of the stone on Saturday night was not done for His benefit, but rather to allow his followers to see that he had risen. (To see a color-coded article putting all four gospel accounts into a single story, click here.)
Yahshua is our Messiah. He did fulfill the only sign given – the three day and three night prophecy. It is only misunderstandings and tradition of man that have caused us to believe otherwise. If you hold to the Friday through Sunday scenario, then based on the one sign we were given to identify the Messiah, the only remaining conclusion would have to be that Yahsuah wasn’t really the Messiah after all.
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For part two of this article, please click here.
For an in-depth video presentation on this same topic, please visit http://www.thinkredink.com/new-media/video/RR/index.htm .
For more information, you can also read a detailed article at: http://www.ucg.org/booklets/HH/easterbiblicaltruth.asp