So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them. Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
Matthew 27:66-28:1 (RV).
Matthew is obviously referring to the weekly sabbath in 28:1 and not the high sabbath on Wednesday 15th Nisan, therefore there must be three days and three nights (a full 72 hours) between Matthew 27:66 & 28:1.
And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where He was laid. And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him.
Mark 15:47-16:1.
Mark obviously means sabbaths plural, for he couldn't have meant only the Sunday sabbath, else how could the women have obtained the spices in so short a window of opportunity? So there is a full three days and three nights between the two verses in regard to the high sabbath, but not the weekly sabbath, which was just ending, and at the crack of dawn the women hastened to the tomb with the spices they had previously prepared on the Preparation day.
And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments: And on the sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn they came unto the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared.
Luke 23:56-24:1 (RV).
Luke's narrative also has a clear three day and three night, 72 gap between the verses under consideration.
There then because of the Jews Preparation (for the tomb was nigh at hand) they laid Jesus. Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet dark, unto the tomb, and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb.
John 19:42-20:1 (RV).
Again, we can see a clear three day and three night, literal 72 hour gap between the entombment of Jesus very early on the Wednesday high sabbath (15th Nisan) and His rising very early on the first day of the week, Sunday.
The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke) have the Lord's entombment, and rising from the tomb narratives, between the very end of their respective penultimate chapters and the beginning of their last chapters, whereas John has one extra chapter.
When the regular Saturday sabbath expired, on the very next day (Sunday), the two Mary's and Salome came to the tomb at the crack of dawn to anoint the Lord. There are exactly 72 hours from very late on the Preparation, the 14th/15th Nisan on Wednesday evening and very early on18th Nisan, Sunday morning. The Lord having been crucified "between the two evenings" (14th & 15th Nisan)** fulfilling the type perfectly as depicted in Exodus 12:6. In Luke 23:53-55, we read that the Lord's body was in the tomb very late on the Preparation, for we are told "the sabbath drew on", that is it was fast approaching. The women witnessed "how His body was laid." But there is a considerable difference between being in a tomb, and being entombed, So the question remains; at what point in time was the stone rolled into position? Would any venture to say this didn't happen even one second into the new day? Mark 16:9* certainly confirms His resurrection took place "early on the first day of the week." Those with a Judaizing tendency (therefore denying the plenary inspiration of Mark's long ending in the Received Text), tend to argue for a very late seventh day Saturday resurrection from the standpoint that the Jews, including their leaders (Chief priests and the Pharisees) would have rested according to the commandment (Luke 23:56), yet we find these hypocrites engaging with Pilate on their very own high day (John 19:31) about making the tomb sure with a guard! (Matthew 27:62-66). Such was the inveterate and implacable nature of Christ's enemies who chided His disciples for plucking a few ears of corn on the sabbath!
There are two sabbaths in the Gospel crucifixion, burial, and resurrection narratives; the high sabbath on the Thursday, and the weekly sabbath on the Saturday, and also a literal 24 hour "three day and three nights" entombment. The Scripture doesn't say if the two Mary's and Salome intended to anoint the Lord at His burial, but Matthew and Luke confirm their presence at the tomb when the stone was rolled in its place, so it is possible they may have done so (Matthew 27:61, Luke 23:55-56). I believe there is a three day (literal 72 hour) "gap" between Luke 23:56 and 24:1, as the context reads that "the sabbath" in verse 56 is not the seventh day sabbath. This is more obvious in John 19:42-20:1, as there is no mention at all of the weekly sabbath, but not Mark 16:1-2, for Mark says "when the sabbath was past" (the Greek plural: sabbaths were past) the latter sabbath being the weekly sabbath, this is because if he meant only the high sabbath, when it had expired, it would bring us on to Monday 18th Nisan. Likewise, with Matthew 28:1(RV), it reads "late on the sabbath day as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week"; the simple reading makes it clear that the sabbath referred to in this verse is the weekly sabbath (the AV omits day).
The three day and three night gap in the Gospel narratives mirror perfectly what the Lord proclaimed in Matthew 12:40; confirming a literal 72 hour entombment demolishing the apologetic very small part of Friday, whole of Saturday, and very small part of Sunday theory.
Many Reformed exegetes were at pains to explain the verses under consideration, Dr. Gill said of Mark 16:1 that they may have "came to anoint the sepulchre; His body being anointed before, and wound up by Joseph and Nicodemus." But Gill confesses "it seems most likely, that they came to anoint His body", just as Mark says! Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Matthews Henry and Poole, likewise had great difficulty with this, for they didn't see a three day gap in the Gospel narratives under consideration, as they believed in the Friday crucifixion. Notwithstanding, it is evident that the women intended to have His body anointed again as Luke 24:1 confirms, such was their love for Him.
Here in 2022, the night being far spent, we latter day Christians can be somewhat dumbstruck at the lack of faith in the Lord's resurrection by His disciples, and also the women who came to His tomb expecting to anoint a dead body! We may think to ourselves "why were you so dull of hearing? The Lord plainly said He would "after three days rise again." Mark 8:31. Nevertheless, when His glorious Holy Spirit came down after the Lord's ascension in Acts 2: they were but changed men.
If the aforesaid disciples and the women had the hindsight of the knowledge subsequently bequeathed to us in the ensuing centuries since passed, then they could be rightly charged with folly, but we can lay no such charge upon them.
*The two oldest Greek manuscripts and some other authorities, omit from ver. 9 to the end. Some other authorities have a different ending to the Gospel.
The above is taken from the margin in the 1881 Revised Version (Interlinear Bible).
16:9-20 OMITTED or bracketed in most Bibles (with variations). Although missing in the Vatican and Sinai manuscripts, it is found in almost every Greek manuscript which contains Mark's Gospel. In addition it is quoted by Church Fathers including Irenaeus and Hippolytus in the second and third centuries (thus predating the two 'old' manuscripts, Vatican and Sinai).
The above is taken from A Textual Key to the New Testament, A list of Omissions and Changes. (Trinitarian Bible Society).
To those who would reject the "long ending" in Mark's Gospel in order to support the Saturday sabbath, I would ask, do you find anything else in the so-called long ending you disagree with? More than this, the whole tenor of the New Testament supports the Sunday resurrection. Certainly Mark 16:9 is the only verse in the entire NT that says categorically "He was risen early on the first day of the week." But, as said elsewhere, I cannot believe for one single second that God would have let a spurious text remain in the Received Text down through the centuries, all the Martyrs, Reformers, and others believing on it. Mark was a very concise writer, whose Gospel was shorter by far than the other evangelists, yet some would shorten it further!
**Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at even. Exodus 12:5-6 (RV).
In the Hebrew at even means between the two evenings. What two evenings? Clearly, this is between the two evenings the Lord Jesus was crucified, that is between the evening of 14th & 15th Nisan, fulfilling perfectly the Passover sacrifice in Exodus! The 14th Nisan was Wednesday, so the Great Sacrifice had to take place on the evening of this day, and before the next evening on 15th Nisan.
