a.
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The chief priests came to Pilate saying: "Sir, we remember
that that deceiver said, whilst he was yet alive, After three days I will
rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third
day . . ." (Mt. 27:63,64). Here they interpreted the first phrase by the
second; or was their mathematics so lamentably weak that they were unable to see
that the guard should extend to the fourth day?
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b.
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Esther bade the Jews fast with her "three days, night and
day/'; yet it was "on the third day" that she went in to the king (Es.4
:16,5:1). Again the second phrase interprets the first.
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c.
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"They continued three years without war between Syria and
Israel," and yet the war broke out again "in the third year" (1
Kgs.22:l,2).
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d.
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Shalmanezer began the siege of Samaria in the fourth
year of Hezekiah, and took it "at the end of three years" in the
sixth year of Hezekiah (2 Kgs.18 :9,10).
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e.
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Rehoboam said to the deputation: "Come again unto me after
three days". But this is also reported as: "Come again to me on the third
day "(2Chr.l0:5,12).
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f.
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It was "after six days" that Jesus took the three disciples to
the mount of transfiguration (Mt.17 :1). But in Luke 9 :28 it is "about an eight
days after." The one period is reckoned exclusively (with allusion to Ex.24 :16)
and the other adopts the more usual inclusive reckoning.
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g.
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"After three days" in Mark 8 :31 becomes "the third day" in
Matthew 16 :21, which is unquestionably the parallel passage.
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h.
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The freeing of slaves in Jeremiah's day is described as taking
place "at the end of seven years" (34 :14); yet the same verse says "when he
hath served thee six years."
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i.
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Enoch is only "the seventh from Adam" (Jude 14) when the names
are reckoned inclusively.
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