Luke 24:21

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“But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.”

The context of chapter 24 is the Sunday morning after Christ’s Wednesday crucifixion. People try to use this scripture to prove that a Friday crucifixion/Sunday resurrection fulfills the meaning of “the third day since these things were done.”

Several keys unlock this verse: (1) The Greek term used here means “at least three days,” and (2) this would have been a logical term to use, because “these things” is plural—and any number of events in the last week could have been the starting point for measuring all that had happened before, during and after Christ’s death! See Lk 24:18 for the key to the context. Cleopas and the group with him were saying to Christ, in effect, “Where have you been? It’s been at least three days since all of these things have occurred.” (Remember, Christ was unrecognized by them.) Lk 24:19-20 clarify what “things” of which Cleopas was generally speaking.