|
||||||||||||||||
|
Event |
Days |
Nights |
"Good Friday " |
- |
one |
Saturday (the sabbath) |
one |
one |
Sunday morning |
- |
- |
Total |
one day |
two nights |
As you can see, it is impossible to add up the days and nights so that they equal "three days and three nights." Assuming that Jesus (pbuh) waited until just before the arrival of Mary to leave the tomb, the Bible tells us that Jesus (pbuh) was in the ground for ONE day and TWO nights. Has the prophesy been fulfilled? Has the ONE "be all end all" sign to the Jews been established?
Further, it is important to remember that Jonah was swallowed alive by a whale and remained in its belly alive for three days. His miracle was not that the whale swallowed him, nor that it swallowed him whole, nor yet that he remained in it's belly for three days (If I eat a piece of food and it remains in my stomach for three days, is this a "miracle"?). The miracle of Jonah was that HE DID NOT DIE. For Jesus to have properly fulfilled the prophecy, he would need to enter the tomb alive and come out alive just as Jonah entered the whale's belly ALIVE and came out of it's belly ALIVE. Why should Jesus give this of all signs if he was to die and be resurrected? Where is the "miraculous" similarity with the miracle of Jonah?
A Christian gentleman from Canada once asked us: "Why do Muslims doubt that the scriptures always taught the death and resurrection of Jesus." Can we now see why Muslims recognize such claims to be later insertions and not the words of Allah's elect messenger Jesus (pbuh) nor his most honorable apostles? Have we made anything up? Have we not been quoting directly from the same Bible every Christian has at home? For more, please read Mr. Ahmed Deedat's book "Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction."
Indeed, Christian scholars are beginning to recognize that the text of Matthew 12:38-40 was in fact embroidered by the church in order to be able to claim that Jesus (pbuh) himself had prophesied the crucifixion. The original form of this verse can be seen in Mark 8:11-12, where we read:
"And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation."
... and that is all. There is no mention of "three days and three nights" nor "the sign of Jonah" nor anything else. These were all added on later (please read Section 2.1 for more on this topic).
As a side note regarding the renting of the veil of the temple and resurrection of the dead, Mr. Tom Harpur says
"The story of the saints' being resurrected from the tombs to the east of the city, just below the Mount of Olives, and going into Jerusalem is also the result of an attempt to give mythical form to the belief that Jesus was the "first fruits of them that slept," Surely an event of such stupendous dimensions, had it actually occurred, would have not only found its way into other Gospels (than Matthew) and letters in the New Testament, but would also have been recorded in some other Jewish or Roman historical source. Yet the record is silent."
For Christ's Sake, Tom Harpur, p. 102
It is also interesting to note that while those who were not apostles (such as Luke) give detailed descriptions of all of these most stupendous and earth-shaking events, in spite of that, the "Gospel of John," which was supposedly written by the apostle John the son of Zebedee, found it completely unnecessary to mention any "renting of the veil of the temple", or any "rising of the dead", or any earthquakes, or any eclipses of the sun, or any of these other most stupendous events. Did the apostle John feel all of these events to be inconsequential and undeserving of mention, or has the church been "embroidering" the events of the crucifixion? Did the apostle John "not notice" the earth shaking beneath his feet, or the sun being blotted out above his head? Did he "not notice" the dead coming out of their graves? It is interesting to further note that such "mourning of all of creation" for the death of an important figure was not restricted to Jesus (pbuh). Only seventy years earlier, Julius Caesar's death was documented to have been accompanied by similar stupendous acts of nature, as well as many members of the clergy after that. (Go back and read chapter three for more on this topic).
When prophet Muhammad's infant son Ibraheem died, his death happened to coincide with an eclipse of the sun. All of the Muslims came running to him exclaiming "It is a miracle, the sun itself is mourning the death of your only son." Upon hearing this, prophet Muhammad became very angry with them and said
'The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of the death of any among mankind. They are but two signs among the signs of Allah. When you see them stand up and pray.'
Narrated by AbuMas'ud in Sahih Al-Bukhari
The priest and scholar Anselm Turmeda*, who later became a Muslim says:
"This description of the tragedy you have already read has been completely derived from an old book. This record was written by a Jewish historian when Titus conquered and destroyed Jerusalem. Now we see the same phrases in the book of Matthew. In other words, somebody has inserted these words into the Book of Matthew."
(for more on Anselm, please read Section 6.3 of this book)
Please direct any suggestion to Media Team