The answer
In order to count these days, we must affirm the following truths:
Firstly: In the numbering of days, some of the day, or part of it, is considered as the whole day. This is similar to the figure of speech-known in grammar as “synechdoche”38- where a part expresses the whole, and the whole expresses a part.
Secondly: The body of the Lord was placed in the tomb on Friday, before the setting of the sun. He rose early Sunday morning. So, the duration spent by the Master Christ in the tomb is as follows:
Part of Friday is counted as a day.
All of Saturday is counted as a day.
Part of Sunday is counted as a day.
The time span, then, is considered as three days and three nights. This is according to the Talmud, which is deemed by the Jews as the holiest book after the Book of God, which says,
The adding of an hour to a day is counted as another day. The adding of a day to the year is counted as another year.
This expression is valid until this very day. Based on this, it can be rightly said that the Master Christ remained in the tomb three days and three nights.
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II
Notes
38 Translator’s note: “synechdoche (/sɪˈnɛkdəkɪ/), n.: (Grammar and Rhetoric) A figure by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vice versa; as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, etc.” (OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. 16 October 2013.).
Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 104–105.
The pages in the book (104–105)
