The Heart of The Earth

THE HEART OF THE EARTH

Our Master and Savior spoke these words, “The Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”.  This is recorded in The Gospel according to Mittithyahu, “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from You.” But He answering, said to them, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Yonah. “For as Yonah was three days and three nights in the stomach of the great fish, so shall the Son of Aḏam be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

(Matthew 12:38-40 The Scriptures 1998+)

This is one of the most talked about verses in The Bible.  People who don’t buy into the Good Friday- Easter Sunrise thing quote this verse to show that there are not three days and nights in that time frame.  Some have explained this away by saying that the heart of the earth refers to Jerusalem, not the grave.  We will look in depth at each possibility.  Some say that the days and nights are not literal.   There are many possible explanations of this verse.  We will now look at some, and then question the reasoning.  If any readers have answers to the author’s questions, then please reply.

The first assumption is that the phrase “Heart of the Earth” refers to the grave.  If this is true, then Yahushua was clearly saying that HE would be in the grave for three days and three nights.  Question: where else in scripture is the grave described as the heart of the earth?  Since this author can find no such cross-reference, he cannot accept that the grave is the heart of the earth. 

The same Question applies to the theory that the heart of the earth refers to Jerusalem.  This author cannot find scriptural evidence of this.  He also questions the entire concept.  If Jerusalem were what was being referenced here, then how do the three days and nights fit?  According to Yohanan (John), Yahushua entered Jerusalem many times.  If this is only the last time, then we still have a problem.  The scriptures show that He entered into Jerusalem on the tenth day of the first month.  This is deduced by reading all the times that Yohanan wrote the next day, and the next day, then counting all the days.  Please read the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of The Book of John and check the count.  So, if HE entered into Jerusalem early morning on the tenth, and is hosting a dinner late evening on the thirteenth, then HE has stayed longer than three days and three nights.

What if the three days and three nights were not literal?  There could be many ways to interpret this.  If you have a day equal ten years, then this could be a reference to the length of time that Yahushua was in the flesh walking on the earth.   If you have a day for a year, then this could be a reference to the length of time that He was actively teaching and ministering.  This would involve taking the heart of the earth figuratively.  Is it possible that the phrase refers to the thoughts and feelings of people on the earth?   We will study this soon.  But first, there is still at least one more way to interpret three days and three nights.  If you have a day as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day, Yahushua could have been giving a hint to the time of His resurrection.  There are many questions to ask about this.  First, Yahushua said that no man knows the day or the hour.  That is not to say that we would not know the year, but we still have a severe lack of proof for this theory.  If this is the proper interpretation, then Yahushua is predicting that He will return in the third millennium of the Common Era.  This will only be established at the second coming.

So, none of the above explanations have an abundance of scripture backing them.  Yes, we have Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 which prove a day for a year, and we have 2Peter 3:8 showing a day for a thousand years; but is this the context of what Yahushua was saying?  If we can accept that Jonah was literally three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, then why should one think that Yahushua will not be literally three days and three nights in the heart of the earth?  The third millennium theory supposed that the heart of the earth was figurative of the thoughts of the earth. This seems to make sense. The word “heart” here is translated from the Greek “kardia”   G2588

καρδία

kardia

kar-dee'-ah

Prolonged from a primary κάρ kar (Latin cor, “heart”); the heart, that is, (figuratively) the thoughts or feelings (mind); also (by analogy) the middle: - (+ broken-) heart (-ed).

LXX related word(s)

  H990 beten

  H995 bin hi.

  H2403 chattat

  H3820 lev

  H3824 levav

  H4596 mei

  H5315 nephesh

  H6203 oreph

  H7130 qerev

It is the same word used in Matthew 11:29, Matthew 13:19, Romans 1:21, 1Peter 3:4, and others.  Following through with this concept, we also have scriptures which say “Midst of the land”.  Many scriptures show this to be figurative of the thoughts of the people.  Exodus 8:22 and Isaiah 10:23 are two examples, but there are many more.   Now we have Yahushua in the thoughts of the earth for three days and three nights.  Does this make sense, and agree with the rest of scripture?  Matthew 27:51-52 say that when the veil was torn, some graves were opened.  Mathew 27:53 says they came out of their tombs when HE was resurrected, and that they were seen by many.  Picture this, a great earthquake, the veil in the temple was torn, and graves were opened.  Certainly, this would be on your thoughts.  The Pharisees came to Pilot on the next day, and asked that a guard be placed till the third day.  Note to reader, they did not ask that a guard be placed till tomorrow.  This is the connection between the thoughts of Jonah and the thoughts of the people.  Jonah was in the belly of the fish wondering if he would live or die.  The people were watching all the graves, and their thoughts were to see if Yahushua would rise from the death.  The scripture in Matthew 12:40 says that the time they would be thinking on these things would be three days and three nights.  Matthew 27:53 says that the dead were seen by many after the resurrection of Yahushua.  If this took place at sunrise on the first day of the week, how many people would notice?  If this took place after the Sabbath, there would be many people on their way home from the Midrash , and the event would have been seen by many.  If we have the events of Matthew 27 take place after noon on the fourth day of the week, then exactly three days and three nights later would be the night after the seventh day of the week.  This works.