Dist. 22, Art. 1, Q. 3
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/22/q/bon-sent-III-d22-a1-q3
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### Question III. *Whether the body of Christ was in the tomb for three days.*

Thirdly it is asked concerning the rest of the body in the tomb, and the question is whether the body of Christ was in the tomb for three days. And that it was, seems [to follow]:

1. *Matthew*, chapter twelve: *As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth*: therefore his body was three days and three nights in the tomb.

2. Likewise, *John*, chapter two: *Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up*; and the Evangelist adds that he understood this *of the temple of his body*: therefore the same as before follows.

3. Likewise, in the Creed: « On the third day he rose again from the dead »: therefore his body lay in the tomb for three days.

4. Likewise, this very thing is proved by the common observance of the Church, which celebrates his death on the day of Friday and his resurrection on the third day, namely on the Lord's day: if therefore he lay in the tomb from death until the resurrection, it is clear, etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. The figure ought to correspond to the truth; but the resurrection of Christ was prefigured in Samson, of whom we read in *Judges*, chapter sixteen, that he slept until the middle of the night, and carried off the gates

of the city, etc.: therefore it seems that Christ did not rest in the tomb until the third day.

2. Likewise, *Acts*, chapter two: *Whom God hath raised up from the dead, according as it was impossible that he should be holden by it*; but if he could not be held: therefore it seems that he rose at once, otherwise he was held.

3. Likewise, the work of our redemption was consummated immediately after [his] death: therefore the glorification of Christ's body ought no longer to have been deferred, and so the body of Christ ought not to have been left in the tomb for three days.

4. Likewise, the soul of Christ in that three-day span either desired to be united to its body, or did not. If it did not desire it: therefore it did not have the nature of other souls; if it did desire it: therefore it was held back from perfect contemplation, if its body was not restored to it. But this is unfitting: therefore it seems that his body ought to have been raised at once.

There is therefore a question concerning the time and hour of the resurrection. For some Glosses seem to say that Christ rose in the middle of the night, but others that [he rose] in the morning. — Again, there is the question: why did Christ anticipate the resurrection of other dead persons, and his body was in the tomb only for three days, whereas the bodies of other men wait until the last day?

### Conclusion.

> Christ rested in the tomb for three days; but the three days are to be understood according to synecdoche.

**I respond:** For the understanding of the foregoing it must be noted that it was not fitting that the body of Christ be raised immediately after death; nor yet was it fitting that his being raised be deferred until the general resurrection.

And the reason for this is that the certitude of our faith, by which we believe that we shall rise again, is founded upon the true resurrection of Christ. For it to be established for us concerning the truth of the resurrection, two things concur: the first is that it is opportune that the truth of his *death* be established; the second is that it must be that the truth of the *renewed conjunction of soul and flesh* be established. The truth of his *death* would not have been established for us if Christ had risen at once, but someone could have suspected that he had feigned himself dead. — The truth of the *renewed conjunction* would not have been established if Christ had not yet risen; rather one might sooner despair than hope; indeed, surely, if he had not risen, faith in the Apostles would have utterly failed, nor would anyone believe that Christ had been God, but [merely] a mere man. It was therefore necessary, for the truth and firmness of our faith, that the resurrection of Christ be hastened, yet not so hastened that the truth of his death not be made manifest. Therefore he deferred it until the third day and no longer, because through that span of time it could truly be made manifest that he had been dead.

He rested therefore, as our faith says, in the tomb for three days, yet not for three whole and complete days, but for the last part of the day of Friday and for the first part of the Lord's day and for the whole day of the Sabbath, so that that resting through three days is to be understood by synecdoche. And in this all the Saints agree, although concerning the hour of the time there seems to be controversy. For some seem to say that he rose in the middle of the night, but others that he rose at dawn.

Now the reason for this diversity is that they consider in diverse ways the fittingness in that delay as regards the number of hours. For some begin to compute the time from the sixth hour, at which he was crucified, and *there was darkness over all the earth*; and these extend the time until the middle of the night between the day of the Sabbath and the Lord's day; and thus they compute thirty-six hours, because then it was the vernal equinox, when Christ the Lord suffered. — Others began to compute from the evening, in which he was laid in the tomb, and they extend the time until the dawn of the Lord's day; and both these and those consider the same fittingness of so great a delay. For the Lord deferred for thirty-six hours, so that by this it might be signified that the liberation and the victory is perfect. For that number is from

the senary number multiplied into itself, which number is indeed the first perfect number according to the arithmetician. — And there is another fittingness, because in thirty-six hours there are two nights and one day, so that there is preserved there the proportion « of the single to the double », as Augustine says, by which it is signified that Christ by his one single oldness took away our two oldnesses, which are understood by the two nights; and Augustine assigns this reason in the book *On the Trinity*. This same reason is assigned upon that text of *Luke*, chapter twenty-four: *It behoved Christ to suffer*; the Gloss: « Rightly did he lie in the tomb for one day and two nights, because the light, that is the grace of his death, which was only in the flesh, he opposes to the darkness of our double death, which was in flesh and soul ». And he says this same thing upon that text of *Romans*, chapter six: *Knowing this, that our old man*, etc.; the Gloss: « He rested in the tomb for one day and two nights, because by his single [oldness] he consumed our double oldness ».

And therefore, although they seem to differ in the *hour* of the time, they nevertheless agree in assigning the *fittingness* of the time. Nor yet do they contradict one another concerning the *hour*, because a thing is said to come about in two ways: either when it *comes about* according to truth, or when it *becomes known*. And those who assign the hour of the middle of the night to the resurrection determine the time as to when it first was; but those who assign the *morning* determine the time as to when it became known. — Or surely the resurrection was between the hour of the middle of the night and the morning of the Lord's day; and because a midpoint is named from its extremes, therefore some say that it was in the middle of the night, others in the morning, without any contradiction. — It is therefore to be conceded that Christ rested in the tomb for three days, in such a way that this be understood by synecdoche. The reasonings which show this are nevertheless to be conceded.

1. To that which is first objected concerning Samson, the answer is now clear: because, granted that he rose in the middle of the night, it does not however follow from this that Christ did not rest for three days in the tomb, because that middle night was part of the Lord's day, and by synecdoche by that middle night is understood the whole following day; for the night is computed with the following day after Christ's resurrection. — Moreover, it is not necessary that the truth correspond to the figure in all things, because no figure is so like the truth that it is not in some part of itself unlike it.

2. To that which is objected, that it was impossible for him to be held; it must be said that detention implies violence; but Christ deferred to rise until the third day not on account of violence, but on account of his mere will: and therefore it was not detention, but a rational waiting.

3. To that which is objected, that the work of our redemption was already consummated; it must be said that although it was consummated according to truth, it had not however become known to us. For it to avail us, it was necessary that it become known to us; and for it to become known to us with certainty, it was necessary to defer: therefore not without cause, but for our salvation, he deferred the resurrection until the third day.

4. To that which is objected, that the soul of Christ, if it desired to be united to its body, was held back from the perfection of contemplation; it must be said that this was not necessary, on account of its union to the Word and the so great fullness of grace which was in it, so that not only when separated from the body, but also when existing in the passible body, it was not held back from divine contemplation. But it is not so to be found in other souls; nor is it to be wondered at if that soul had among other souls a singular privilege.