Torah Times Messianic Ministry

The Relation Of Matthew 12:40 To The Pattern Of Sound Words [1]

The Pattern Of Sound Words is a short phrase for the concept of systematic truth, the pattern of truth. We can also call this "the big picture" or a "faithful world view." The Pattern of Sound Words represents the systematic theology of the whole, the grand pattern of truth.

Inasmuch as sound words have been lost or corrupted by Christianity and Judaism, it is up to us, the faithful remnant in Messiah Yeshua, to restore and explain the truth according to the pattern of sound words. This is so that each truth is correctly perceived in the overall context of the whole truth. Also, for the defense of a truth, it is better to defend it as an integrated piece of the whole truth, the pattern of sound words. An individual truth may be easily explained away by its opposition, but if you understand it and explain it according to all of its fellow truths, then it may stand up and support the whole.

"Three days and three nights" is part of a bigger picture. So we do not want to get bogged down on just this phrase. We want to relate it to the whole truth. It means that there must have been three days that alternated with three nights for the time that Messiah Yeshua was in the grave. How does this relate to the other points of truth we know? The purpose here is not to defend the phrase from the skeptic who must count two nights in his false chronology, but to show how it fits with other truths we know. Further, the skeptics will challenge every part of the pattern of sound words I will relate to Matthew 12:40. But we will not be able to see the big picture if we get bogged down in their diversionary attacks. The purpose here is to relate Matthew 12:40 to the big picture. Our thinking is not complete until we relate everything else to the whole pattern, but in this article, it will only be Matthew 12:40.

You may think this may be rather limiting, but wait and see.

Matthew 12:40 does not state in counting three days and three nights if a night should be counted first or a day should be counted first. One may think day should come first because it is listed first, but we need not rely on this too much to know that day does come first in the counting.

According to Luke 23:54a, the Messiah was laid in the tomb on the preparation day. So this day was the beginning of his time in the tomb. Therefore, it counts as the first day. Clearly, any day that he was in the tomb should be counted, since if it were not, he would be in the tomb longer than the stated period of time.

All the time he was in the tomb should be included in Matthew 12:40, and since he was in the tomb part of the preparation day, the principle is established that part of a day may be counted in a counting of days and nights. The Jewish sources actually agree with this conclusion, stating that a part of a day is to be counted. But, logically, we see this is taught by Matthew 12:40 in combination with Luke 23:54a because we must not omit time in the grave from time counted.

From the fact that he was entombed on the preparation day, it is clear that the counting must end with the third night. It is stated in John 20:1 that it was "still dark" when they came to the tomb. A third night must be counted, and clearly the only thing that follows a third night would be a fourth day. As per Luke 23:54a, the preparation day was counted first.

How do we relate the fact that the Messiah said he would rise "on the third day" to Matthew 12:40? One of the passages saying this is Luke 24:7. There are five others. See page 114, GNM. When speaking of a day, the scripture may speak of a 24-hour period or it may speak of a literal daylight day. Matthew 12:40 is counting daylight days. Luke 24:7 is counting calendar days, which are 24-hour periods.

The literal day is defined in Genesis 1 as "light," so from dawn to dusk, but the days counted there include the following night. "Then it is evening. Then it is daybreak, one day." The Most High created during the day, and in each case, this is followed by a period between evening and daybreak in which no work is done, and then the day, meaning a 24-hour period is counted.

So, according to the Genesis pattern, and the statement that he would rise on the third day, Matthew 12:40 must be counting a day and a night for each calendar day. The three days are calendar days composed of a day and a night. And the third day and third night are accordingly called "the third day."

There are many Scriptures that show three days are to be counted: "today, tomorrow, the third day," and even going backwards, "today, yesterday, the third day." This is only evident from the Hebrew text and was somewhat preserved in the Old Greek (LXX, Septuagint), but subsequent translations have removed this Hebrew idiom. It is called inclusive counting. It means the day that Messiah was buried counts first as "today." So the first day and night, on which Messiah was buried, count as the first day, and the third day and night are the third day. In Genesis 1, God creates during the day part of the third day; the evening and the next daybreak follow this, and then the third calendar day is counted, so that the third day is from dawn to the next dawn. A literal day and a literal night are put together to make the third day.

Luke gives us the starting point of the time in the grave as the day of preparation. He does not fail to immediately mention the ending point. In fact, it does so twice. And from one point to the other, Matthew 12:40 fits exactly:

See Luke 23:54 states the period of Matthew 12:40 exactly from the day of preparation to the following weekly Sabbath at the Dawning. Then Luke ends the chapter. His abrupt summation of the time at the end of chapter 23 is a literary method of building up the readers anticipation. Then in Luke 24, Luke repeats the whole matter in more detail, teaching us that there were two Sabbaths in view.

This is a bigger part of the picture that Matthew 12:40 fits into. The third night is Friday night, the night beginning the Sabbath, and the women came upon the tomb at deep dawn, at the end of the night part of the seventh Day Sabbath. The day of preparation at the beginning of the period of Matthew 12:40 was a preparation for an annual Sabbath. The annual Sabbath was the first night and the second day.

Mark 16:1 tells us, they bought the spices after the Sabbath, which is after the annual Sabbath. Then they came to the tomb on the following weekly Sabbath, according to Mark 16:2. So we see that Matthew 12:40 covers the preparation day, an annual Sabbath, a second preparation day, when they bought spices, and then the night part of the weekly Sabbath.

Matthew 12:40, in conjunction with these other texts, fixes the preparation day upon which Messiah was entombed as as the fourth day of the week, a Wednesday according to the Roman week.

The consequence of Matthew 12:40 leads to identifying the Sabbath after the first day as the Annual Sabbath associated with the passover preparation. Including the third night shows that the Sabbath after the preparation day was an annual rest day, Nisan 15, followed by a day between it and the following weekly Sabbath. As mentioned before, the time after dawn on the weekly Sabbath, that is, the time after the night part of the weekly Sabbath, counts as a fourth day. So the resurrection of Messiah was on the Sabbath before the day part of it began.

The third calendar day ended at dawn on the Sabbath. The third calendar day was the third day and third night of Matthew 12:40, and so the "third day" spans the time between dawn on the Roman Friday, and dawn on the weekly Sabbath.

The resurrection was at the very end of the third calendar day, toward the end of the third night. It is then that the Messiah goes forth from the grave at the earliest dawn. I cite Hosea 6:3 here, "His going forth is at the early dawn." Also, Hosea 6:1-2 relates to Matthew 12:40. Israel was smitten by the Most High for its transgression. In cleansing our transgressions, the Messiah was smitten by our sins. After two days, he will raise us up, and on the third day, he will restore us. In terms of Matthew 12:40, the first two calendar days are a day and a night and a day and a night. In terms of Hosea 6:1-2, the third day, after two calendar days, is the third day and third night.

In relation to Matthew 12:40, the men on the road to Emmaus state:

So, as stated previously, the third calendar day terminated on the weekly Sabbath at dawn. And the men had noted on that Sabbath day that the third day had expired with the dawn. So this was their reasoning for abandoning all hope. They knew that the terminus ad quem for the prediction had come and gone at dawn on that day. Please note that I am relating Luke 24:21 here to the ending point of Matthew 12:40. I am not here entering into a defense of my translation, which is correct. The mistranslation in the usual versions is quite impossible. It is discussed in the notes of GNM. The correct translation explains why the men lost hope in the third day prophecy. But as we know, they were hasty to leave the scene when they should have heeded the words of the women.

It may be further pointed out that, in conjunction with Matthew 12:40, Luke 24:21 refutes the theory that attempts to place the resurrection about 3 p.m. on the Sabbath, because then Luke 24:21 would have taken place on the 5th day. It also implicitly refutes the traditional Sunday morning theory because then Luke 24:21 would have been stated before the third day was actually finished, making their cited reason for giving up hope nonsensical.

Matthew 12:40 is an essential part of the framework, the pattern of sound words. It fits with "the later of the Sabbaths" (Matthew 28:1a, GNM). It fits with "the first of the Sabbaths," passages, the first day of the "week" translations all being corrupt. It also has the effect of proving that the rest day in Lev. 23:11 and 15a refers to the first day of Passover. That is, it leads us to conclude that Nisan 15 is "the Sabbath" in that passage.

By logical deduction, three days and three nights lead us directly to the conclusion that the firstfruits offering, the wave sheaf, is to be and was offered on the day after the annual Sabbath, Nisan 16, and not on the day after the weekly Sabbath. It demonstrates that the Pharisees position on the matter was correct vs. the Sadducees. This is because Matthew 12:40 aids us in identifying the Sabbath following Messiah Yeshua's entombment. It identifies it as the annual Sabbath. John 19:31 also confirms this. Also, counting the first Sabbath after Passover as the first of the Sabbaths (per Lev. 23:15) confirms that the sheaf was waved after the annual Sabbath and not the weekly Sabbath.

The third day and third night of Matthew 12:40 make up the third calendar day. This third day is the same as Nisan 16, the day of the wave sheaf. The offering was made during Messiah's time in the grave at about 9 a.m. on Friday, and with it were the burnt offerings. According to the Law, these were to remain on the altar that day and night (the third day). See Lev. 6:9–10. So the offering ascended all night on the third night and was considered to be finished at dawn. So Messiah stated that he would be "finished" on the third day. This relates to Paul's statement, Messiah, the firstfruits has been raised.

Matthew 12:40 is based on Yonah 1:17, and in that passage are many literary allusions to Messiah's suffering. I should not neglect to say that there are many literary allusions to Messiah's suffering in the other three days and three nights passage in 1 Samuel 30:12. That passage is no less than the Yonah passage.

Matthew 12:40 makes an important contribution to the Daniel 9 prophecy. Since it is key in identifying Nisan 15 as an annual Sabbath falling between sunset on the Roman Wednesday and the Roman Thursday. This allows us, by astronomical calculation, to pin down the year of Messiah's suffering. Only in AD 34 does Nisan 15 fall on the required day of the week. This is the result of paying attention to the "three nights." AD 34 yields up the solution to the Sabbatical Years of Daniel 9, which eludes all those who pick an earlier year. And finally, Matthew 12:40 and its results allow a general solution to the overall biblical chronology to be obtained. This is something that those outside the pattern of sound words have never achieved.

Let us move on to the theological implications of Matthew 12:40. The three days and three nights are called the "sign of Yonah." This is the only sign given to Israel. No sign is given except the sign of Yonah. The sign of Yonah is the same sign as the sign of the seventh day Sabbath between Israel and the Most High. It is the sign of the Creator, he who makes be, YHWH. He makes creation, and he makes be the resurrection of the dead.

The sign of Yonah leads us directly to the sign of the Sabbath at its climax. And these signs are one witness and one sign to the faithful.

The consequences of Matthew 12:40 in relation to the pattern of sound words in Scripture are most profound. We must understand why the Church does not heed it, and will not. Every change made by the Church has been motivated by Satan's attack on the holy people, the remnant faithful. It is both an attack on the Torah, and the seventh-day Sabbath, in particular.

But rejection of Matthew 12:40 also conceals an attack on the meaning of Messiah's death itself, which I have explained is a ransom and not an appeasement of divine wrath. The transgression of rejecting the Levitical Law and the Sabbath leads to corrupt teaching concerning the meaning of sacrifice, which is sin's cost and cleansing, not propitiation. It leads to teachers saying that God justifies the wicked rather than speaking the truth that God forgives those found guilty who repent of their sins. It leads to teachers claiming that God gives legalistic righteousness to the faithful so that they may be righteous without being righteous. It presents God as demanding payment rather than true forgiveness of sins. It turns people away from the faithfulness that God does require. It turns people toward legally justifying themselves rather than repenting and renewing their faithfulness to Messiah Yeshua.

So, brothers and sisters, I have written with great zeal for the truth here because it is the foundation of our rescue and deliverance from sin. Messiah Yeshua cleanses us from all unrighteousness so that the sin that leads to death may not be found in us when He judges the world.

---

[1] 2 Tim. 1:13, "Be holding fast the pattern of sound words which you have from beside me, in the faithfulness and love, according to love in the Anointed Yeshua" (GNM).