The Third Day

The Jews were not the last ones to refer to this time period. Three times it reappears in Luke’s final chapter (and not in any of the other gospel parallels). The angel reminded the women of what Jesus Himself had said, that on the third day He would rise again (Luke 24:7); the two disciples on the Emmaus road must have had this in mind when they said to the unrecognized Jesus, “It is now the third day since this happened” (v. 21). In one of His very last appearances Jesus directed the attention of His disciples to this theme when, opening their understanding, He said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead” (v. 46). Twice again does this appear in the early records of the apostolic church. Peter, in preaching in the house of Cornelius, affirmed that it was this Jesus whom “God raised him on the third day” (Acts 10:40); and in the ch. on the Resurrection by Paul is a statement of great significance, that Christ “was raised on