Your article concerning the “solution” to the three day and night controversy disregards the eyewitness testimony of the authors in the Bible, all of who agree (including our Lord) that Jesus Christ rose “on” the third day. This is repeated 13 times in one form or another. It also disregards the testimony of Flavius Josephus who was an annual eyewiteness to the Feasts of the Lord in Jerusalem. Jesus Christ was clearly crucified as the Lamb of God, on Nisan 14. If Firstfruits (as it testified to by the feasts of the Lord and Flavius Josephus) was held each year on a Sunday and is the 16th (after the Sabbath as stated by Josephus) then it was, just as the Bible says, a “3rd Day” resurrection. Paul confirms that Christ, our Firstfruits, is risen from the dead.
The Church (regardless of denomination) has been right all along and there is absolutely no need to “fix” Scripture because of the statement of Jesus concerning “three days and three nights” when every other time the Resurrection is mentioned is clearly stated as “on the 3rd day.”
The three day and three night “conflict” you perceive is no conflict at all. It has been long understood in Jewish teaching that any part of a day includes the entire day.
I’ve received several emails like yours, all just as certain of their opinion as you are of yours and all different from yours and each other’s. For example, some take the Lord’s clear statement of three days and three nights, which should frame the discussion, as meaning three full days and three full nights (not one minute less than 72 hours in the tomb, as one put it). They add the word “full” which doesn’t appear in the original, and disregard the tradition you mention of counting parts of days as if they were full days.
But even taking this tradition into account you can’t get three days and three nights into the Friday/Sunday scenario you propose. The 13 references to “on the third day” can not be used to negate the Lord’s clear statement of three days and three nights. They have to agree with it since the Bible can not say one thing in one place and something else in another.
Regarding the Josephus passage you cited, the Feast of First Fruits is day specific not date specific. In other words, while it can fall on the 16th of the month in some years, but not in others, it always falls on the day after the Sabbath after Passover, which is a Sunday morning (Lev. 23:11) If it was always on the 2nd day of Unleavened bread, wouldn’t Moses have explained it that way instead of the day after the Sabbath after Passover? And there’s no indication that Josephus was referring to the year in which Jesus was crucified when he explained the spring Feasts.
I’ll stand by my opinion, but thanks for offering yours.