by Matthew Kruebbe

Jesus's 3 days in the tomb are literary symbol/myth, as a list of older literary 3's will help to show.

The Gospel of Matthew has Jesus say, 

"For as Jonah was 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three 3 and 3 nights in the heart of the earth" (12.40).

Everybody knows that there are not actually 3 days AND 3 nights from good Friday to Easter Sunday (using synoptic gospel chronology); it is 3 days and 2 nights. So who could take this completely literally, even as a fundamentalist?  Did the writer not think about it enough to realize that he was mistaken?  Or was it done on purpose, to exalt the symbol over a literal interpretation of the story?

What is far more fascinating is that the 3 measures of death and darkness before a resurrection/triumph are a symbolic literary/ mythological motif that runs through the history of human literature.  The earliest myths featuring this motif appear in ancient Egyptian and Sumerian literature long before Christianity, long before the bible, and before the Jewish people even existed yet.

The number 3 had been associated with death/darkness probably since prehistoric times, when people noticed that the moon 'died'/disappeared for 3 days out of every lunar cycle but always came back to "eternal life." Then 3 was also applied to the planet Venus ("morning star") and the sun, which also "die" and return to life in regular natural cycles.

If you are fascinated by symbols, myths, religions, and numbers as I am, check this list that I have been compiling over the years:

• The Sumerian goddess Inana, goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, descended through the 7 levels of the underworld and was missing for 3 days and 3 nights (as she had predicted), but came back to life and rose again after being given the food and drink of life (Sumerian, 3rd millennium bce).   [See Oxford's Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Inana's Descent to the Nether World, http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm.]  Inana was also equated with the planet Venus, which appears as the Evening Star until it disappears/dies, then is later seen again [resurrects] as the Morning Star heralding the dawn.  Because of this, the Morning Star became a symbol for hope, new life from death/destruction, or eternal life for thousands of years.  The Sumerians of the 2000s BCE worshiped her as "Inanna." Later the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians worshiped her as "Ishtar."  This symbol can be seen not only in the Sumerian literature of the 3rd millennium bce, but also lots of other later literature.  Here are a few examples:

In the Roman epic The Aeneid (end of Book 2), Aeneas sees the Morning Star rising as a symbol of new hope after the destruction of Troy.  Aeneas was considered the son of Venus and the father of Jiulus/Ascanius, the ancestor of Julius Caesar .

The Star was a symbol of Julius Caesar, who claimed descent from Venus, and whom the Romans said rose brightly into heaven after his assassination.

The birth narrative of Jesus in the gospel attributed to Matthew featured the famous Star of the Magi, a symbol of hope for a new king of Israel.

The book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament depicts its Jesus character as claiming to BE the Morning Star and promising to give the Morning Star to his followers (Rev 2.23-29; 22.16; also 2 Pet 1.19). 

Interestingly, around the same time period, Simon, the leader of the 3rd Jewish revolt against Rome (132-136 CE), was also hailed as the Jewish messiah and was given the surname "Bar Kokhba," which meant "Son of a Star" in Aramaic.  Jews of that day would likely have thought of this (just as with the Christian star symbol) in relation to a verse from Numbers 24.17, "There shall come a star out of Jacob." Although the passage in Numbers had likely originally been written in reference to King David, it seems to have been popular for Jewish leaders also to apply it to the messiah they hoped would deliver them from Rome.

• Ancient Egyptians mourned the death/ disappearance of Osiris on the 17th day of the month of Athyr, and they celebrated with joy his being found again on the 19th day of Athyr, that is, on the 3rd day after his disappearance/death (Plutarch On Isis and Osiris 13, 39, and 42; Moralia 356b-d, 366e-f, 367e).  Osiris was cut into pieces by Set, but Isis brought Osiris back to life, conceived Horus by him, and then Osiris became lord of the afterlife.  He was called "Lord of love," and "He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful," among other titles. Osiris' power of eternal life was celebrated in Old Kingdom Egypt in the Pyramid Texts (3rd millennium bce), rituals whereby the Pharaoh became unified with Osiris in his death so that he might, as Osiris, live forever.

• In Greek religion, the house of Dis/Hades/Death in the underworld was said to have 3 walls (Aeneid 6.548-627).

• Cerberus, the guard dog of the underworld has 3 heads (Vergil Georgics 4.483).

• Orpheus went to Hades to bring back his beloved Eurydice, who had died from a snake bite; his wish was granted on the condition that he not look back.  Just before he reached the upper world again, Orpheus looked back; Eurydice was taken from him again and the underworld thundered 3 times ("terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis," "and thrice a crash (of thunder) was heard among the stagnant Avernian waters," Vergil Georgics 4.493).  Orpheus mourned his beloved for 7 whole months, charming wild animals and trees with his beautiful music (Vergil Georgics 4).

• Jesus as Jesus turned water into wine at Cana "on the third day" (John 2.1, "On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee."), and that "miracle" was literary symbolism equivalent to the transformation from death to life in Jesus' 3 days in the tomb, it is noteworthy that Dionysus, whom the Greeks equated with Osiris, transformed nothing into wine in 3 previously empty jars.  The Dionysus story also uses the number 3 deliberately. 

  • Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.26.1-2:  "Of the gods the Eleans worship Dionysos with the greatest reverence, and they assert that the god attends their festival, the Thyia. The place where they hold the festival they name the Thyia is about eight stades from the city. Three pots are brought into the building by the priests and set down empty in the presence of the citizens and of any strangers who may chance to be in the country. The doors of the building are sealed by the priests themselves and by any others who may be so inclined. On the morrow they are allowed to examine the seals, and on going into the building they find the pots filled with wine. I did not myself arrive at the time of the festival, but the most respected Elean citizens, and with them strangers also, swore that what I have said is the truth."

  • Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 2. 34a (trans. Gullick) (Greek rhetorician, 200's CE):  "Theopompos of Khios [Greek historian, 300s BCE] relates that the vine was discovered in Olympia, on the banks of the Alpheios; and that there is a district in Elis a mile away, in which at the Dionysia (festival of Dionysos), the inhabitants shut up and seal three empty cauldrons in the presence of visitors; later, they open the cauldrons and find them full of wine."

  • Consider the images of Dionysus from this classical Greek pottery in view of the stories above and below. As with Christian communion, the followers of Dionysus ingested their divinity when they drank the wine which was his blood, the blood of the grape.

• When Odysseus goes to the underworld, he tries to embrace the shade of his mother Antikleia 3 times, and thrice she flutters out of his hands like a shadow (Odyssey 11).

• In the Roman Aeneid, Aeneas tries to embrace the spirit of his dead wife Creusa 3 times, and thrice he enfolded nothing, as her image slipped through his fingers like a dream or like the wind (end of Book 2).

• When Aeneas descended into the underworld, he tried to embrace the spirit of his father Anchises 3 times, and thrice his father's shade slipped through his hands like weightless wind or a fleeting dream (Aeneid 6).

• By the power of Zeus, the night Herakles (Hercules) was conceived was a 3-fold night, i.e. it lasted 3 times as long as any other night  (Apollodorus 2.4.8).  Herakles' birth symbolizes the birth of the sun after the solstice, and just as the sun proceeds through the 12 houses of the zodiac, so must Herakles perform 12 labors.  Herakles is called "trihesperos leon," i.e. the 3-night lion, referencing either the 3 nights in which his earthly mother conceived him from Zeus or the 3 nights he spent inside the Ketos monster, hacking at it from the inside out.  The lion may be the sun, the mane the rays of the sun, and the 12 labors the 12 signs of the zodiac.

• For his 12th labor, Herakles descended to Hades, overpowered Cerberus, the 3-headed dog of Hades (Death), and came back to the upper world. (Apollodorus II.5.12).  

• When Herakles brings Alcestis back from the dead, she is unable to speak for 3 days:  Once Herakles stayed in the home of Admetus, King of Pherae, Thessaly.  Admetus had been kind to Apollo, who had served him as a shepherd in mortal form.  In return, Apollo secured a promise from the Fates that Admetus might live past his allotted time for death if someone was willing to take his place.  Nobody would take his place, not even his aged parents, but finally his beautiful wife Alcestis said she would die in his place.  She died, and Admetus' whole house was in morning.  Hercules did not know why Admetus' household was so sad, but when he found out, he went and wrestled Death (Thanatos) and brought Alcestis back from the dead.  The resurrected Alcestis was unable to speak to her husband for 3 days.  (Euripides Alcestis, 400's BCE)

• For his 10th labor, Herakles defeated "triple-bodied" Geryon, a 3-bodied, four-winged giant who lived on the red island of Erytheia in the far west across the earth-encircling River Ocean (Okeanos). Geryon possessed a fabulous herd of cattle tinged red by the light of sunset. Herakles reached the island by sailing across the Ocean in a golden cup-boat borrowed from the sun-god Helios. Symbolically, this is another embodiment of the sun conquering death and rising again. (Apollodorus'  Library 2.5.10)   Death is here represented by the West.

• Similarly, in Herakles' 11th labor, the hero must travel to the far west to retrieve a golden apple of the Hesperides. The golden apple of the far west represents the life from death, or the return of the sun after night.  And to gain it, Herakles must defeat the serpent Ladon who guards the golden apples of the Hesperides.  

The serpent Ladon is probably linguistically connected with Lotan/Leviathan from Middle Eastern myth.  

Leviathan appears in the Bible as a being created or defeated by YHWH (Job 41; Ps 74; Ps 104; Isaiah 27:1).  

Long before the Bible even existed, Ugaritic (Phoenician/Canaanite) literature from the 1,000's BCE spoke of the serpent Lotan, "the mighty one with 7 heads," one of the helpers of Yamm (the sea) against the Lord, Baal.  Baal defeats the sea and the serpent with 7 heads.  Interestingly enough, Baal also later defeats Mot, Death, either by dying and coming back to life, or by dying in effigy, i.e. appearing to die, and then coming back to his throne.  This is like Jesus defeating the 7-headed dragon, Satan, in Christian myth.  But even Ugaritic literature is not the oldest to feature this concept.  In Sumerian art of the 2000's BCE, a hero-god is represented overcoming a 7-headed serpent/dragon.  Similarly, the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh overcame Humbaba, demon/monster guardian of the cedar forest, by crossing 7 ranges. And Humbaba had 7 auras or 7 coats of armor.

• The sea monster, Ketos, that Hercules overcame had 3 rows of teeth.  (Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2.450ff.; and Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 12, describing an ancient Greek painting). 

  • When wicked King Laomedon was going to sacrifice his daughter Hesione to Ketos (sea monster), Herakles saved her by killing the sea monster.  According to Hellanikos of Lesbos (c. 480-395 BCE), Herakles entered through the mouth of Ketos and attacked it from inside its belly (Hellanikos FGH 4 F 26b).  Lycophron (or pseudo-Lycophron), in lines 33-37 and 468-78 of his Alexandra, says that Herakles lost his hair because of the heat inside Ketos.  

(cf. Samson losing his hair in Hebrew myth.  Both figures may well represent the death and rebirth of the sun.) 

(cf. also the Hebrew story of Jonah, swallowed by the great fish. Jonah spent 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the sea monster.)

• • Athena aided Herakles in his labors (Iliad 08.363); she helped him when he went to the underworld to get Cerberus (Iliad 08.367); she helped him against Ketos (Iliad 20.145).

  • A proto-Corinthian krater from c. 550 BCE (found in Etruria) shows Herakles shooting 3 arrows at the giant skull-headed Ketos (sea monster) while Hesione stands nearby throwing rocks.  A charioteer to the left has 1 white and 3 black horses.   The skull is a representation of death, as the 3 black horses may well be also.

• c. 475 BCE, the Greek vase painter Douris created an Attic red-figure vase that seems to depict Jason emerging from the dragon that guards the golden fleece.  Athena is standing nearby.  This appears to parallel the Herakles/Ketos story.  The hero is swallowed by a monster representing death, but emerges victorious.   

• Other parallels may also be worthy of note here:  

  1. Jason was an anointed one, having been anointed by Medea with a special herb sprung from the blood of Prometheus, who suffered for bringing light to mankind. (Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica).  

  2. The golden fleece is the fleece of the ram that saved Phrixus from being sacrificed by his father Athamas (just as a ram was said to appear and be sacrificed by Abraham in place of Isaac).  After the golden ram saved Phrixus, taking him to Colchis, it was sacrificed to the gods.  This is another  substitutionary sacrifice story.  (cf. also Agamemnon and his daughter Iphigenia, saved by a golden stag).  

  3. The substitutionary sacrifice is hung on a tree.  Interestingly enough, Inana was said to be hung on a hook in the underworld for 3 days and 3 nights.  Dummuzi became her substitute in the underworld for part of the year, then his sister took his place for the other part (cf. the Persephone story).  Jesus was said to be hung on a cross as a substitute sacrifice.  

  4. A possible Norse parallel is Odin. In a sacrifice to himself, the highest of the gods, he was hung from the world tree Yggdrasil for 9 days and nights (9 - sacred number in Norse stories) and pierced by his own spear in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds.

     • Perseus similarly rescues Andromeda from the sea monster Ketos, sent by Poseidon to destroy the country to King Cepheus of Ethiopia after Queen Cassiopea boasted of being more beautiful than the Nereids.  In some versions Perseus cuts off its head.  In Lycophron's telling of the story, the Ketos eats Perseus, but Perseus attacks its liver from the inside, kills it, and emerges triumphant. (Lycophron, Alexandra 834-841).

     • The story of Perseus' rescue of Andromeda became associated with Joppa/Joffa, the same harbor mentioned in the book of Jonah.  Herakles and Perseus and Jonah and their 3 nights are mythical parallels.  According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the rocks in the harbor at Joppa still showed the marks from the chains that once bound Andromeda.  Pausanias describes a nearby fountain where Perseus washed off his bloodstains.  Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) tells how the Roman aedile Marcus Scaurus brought the bones of the Ketos from Joppa to Rome in 58 bce in order to display them.

     • Jerome (347-419 ce) noted that both Perseus and the Hebrew Jonah were associated with Joppa, and Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria (400's ce), thought that the Jonah story and the Perseus story shared a common mythic origin.

• Odysseus is in the cave of the Cyclops for 3 days before he emerges safe, having gotten the Cyclops drunk on 3 servings of wine and then put out his single eye.  Thrice the Cyclops had snatched up 2 of Odysseus' men and eaten them.  Odysseus had taken 12 men with him (so 7 emerge).  (Odyssey 9)

• Achilles dragged the dead Hector 3 times around the walls of Troy (as Aeneas sees depicted on the bronze doors of the temple of Juno in the Aeneid 1).

• It was a Roman custom to call 3 times the name of the deceased.  Two examples occur in the RomanAeneid --  once in book 11, at the funeral of Pallas, another at Aeneid 6.477-547. When Aeneus is talking to Deiphobus in the underworld, he explains that he had made an empty tomb for Deiphobus and had called 3 times to the manes (spirit/s of the departed), i.e. he had performed the proper funeral rituals which had allowed Deiphobus' spirit/soul/animus to cross the River Styx.  

• Hebrew myth makes similar use of the number three. Here are some of the more salient examples:

• • Abraham travels 3 days to sacrifice Isaac. (Gen 22.4)

  • 3 days of darkness in Egypt before the Exodus.  (Ex 10.22-23)

  • 3 times Delilah fails to trick Samson (& his 7 braids of hair) (Jdg 16).

  • 3 times Elijah lies on top of the son of the widow in order to bring him back from the dead (1 Kings 17.21)

  • After a chariot of fire and horses of fire separate Elijah and Elisha and Elijah goes up to the sky / heaven (shamayim) in a whirlwind, men search for the risen Elijah for 3 days, but they cannot find him.

  • 3 days Jonah is in the belly of the sea creature (Jonah).

• Christian literature uses 3's for the same symbolic effects.  Here are some of the more interesting parallel examples:

• • 3 days Jesus is lost from his parents at age 12 (Luke 2:39-52).

  • 3 hours of darkness "over the whole land" at the crucifixion (Mk 15:33).  [Not an actual historical event, but a mythic symbol, just as with the alleged darkness at the deaths of Romulus, Julius Caesar, and Augustus, in Roman stories.

  • 3 days Jesus in the tomb, dead, or "in the heart of the earth" (Mt 12:40).

  • 3 times Peter denies Jesus (Mk 14:30, 72; Mt 26:34, 75; Lk 22:34, 61).

  • 3 times in secret Jesus predicts his own death and resurrection in the gospel of Mark (Mk 8:29-32; Mk 9:30-33; Mk 10:32-34)

  • 3 women go to the empty tomb of Jesus in the gospel of Mark (Mk 16:1).

  • 3 days Paul is blind and fasting after the Damascus incident, before the scales fall from his eyes (Acts 9:9).

  • On the 3rd day, Jesus turns water into wine (John 2). [symbol of resurrection/transformation]

• In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, in the final book, during the Battle of Hogwarts just before Harry faced Voldemort (the Will of Death) for the last time (and his own death and resurrection), he turned the Resurrection Stone over in his hand 3 times.   The Resurrection Stone was one of the 3 Deathly Hallows.  An owner of the 3 Deathly Hallows becomes the Master of Death.   Rowling was a classicist, and her use of numbers brilliantly mimics the way the Greeks, Romans, and other ancients used those numbers in their myths.

 Conclusion

The regular death and rebirth/resurrection of the moon (and Venus, the Morning Star) became but one symbol attached to the larger solar/vegetation cycle that recurs every year.  The old sun, the light of the world, is taken captive by the forces of darkness at the fall equinox, the days shorten, night lengthens, the weather turns increasingly cold, vegetation dies.  At the winter solstice, the sun dies, the power of darkness reigns, cold and death are more evident.  But then the new year's sun is born around Dec 25, and grows in status, as the days lengthen again, until at the spring equinox (March 20-22), when light once again triumphs over darkness, and day is longer than night, and the world turns green with spring, and flowers bloom.  Yet not all nature is caught up.  We must wait for the moon to become full again too!  Only then can all nature be revived and on the 1st Sun-day after the 1st full moon after the spring equinox, we celebrate Easter, spring, life from death, nature's yearly miracle.

So we celebrate Easter and life and spring and colored eggs (going back at least as far as 500's bce Persian customs) and magic bunnies that bear chocolate goodies !!!

. . . but I suggest -- to all who can receive it -- that we not get caught up in religious doctrines or theologies or take the stories overly seriously, as if they were history rather than myth and symbol.

- - - 

The above was originally part of a larger paper on Numerology in the Bible.  For other good reasons no one should take the resurrection story too literally, see also:

• "Problems within the Resurrection Accounts of the Bible," and

• "Caesar and Christ: Did Christianity borrow certain concepts/themes from Roman imperial cult?"