207 ON JESUS’ LAST WEEK(S) night begins when Judas goes out during the Last Supper; the three hours of darkness by the time of Jesus’ death are the second night; the third is the Sabbath night. And after each night, there is a “day”: Friday morning, Friday afternoon, and Saturday; for him, Sunday begins on Saturday evening, as in Acts 20,7, but he does not mention any Lord’s day liturgy. He further explains that Jesus ate the Passover “on the night of the 14th ” for the Passover of the Jews falls on the 14th “ night and day”. So he understands that the 14th began on Thursday evening. This is a distortion of the Jewish calendar, but it matches the Johannine chronology. However, he says in the following section (§ 8) that the great day of the Passion is “Friday 15th, night and day”. This is in accordance with the Syn- optic chronology, but the contradiction is blatant. Maybe “Friday” is simply a mistake for “Saturday”, for elsewhere he stresses the significance of Jesus’ visit to Death (Demonstration on Death, § 4). Interestingly enough, he compares the significance of the days of Unleavened Bread for the Jews and for the Christians, indicating that the latter kept the rite, but he does not make any connection be- tween this and the custom of the Eucharist. To sum up, Aphrahat’s explanation underlines the problem instead of solving it. So the tension between the Biblical three days and the Gospel narratives remains. As for the Jonah reference, it appears to be a broad allusion to the aim of his mission in the conversion of the people of Nineveh. Another passage maybe helpful, although it is not quoted in the NT 4. In Hos 6,1-2, we read: “[God] has stricken, he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” A midrash uses it to give some perspective to a particular detail in the account of Abraham: “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off” (Gen 22,4). It is explained that, at that moment, Abraham was given a glimpse of salvation, after the anxiety of traveling with his condemned son (Gen Rabba 56 :1) 5. This is con- sistent with the next verse, in which Abraham indirectly tells his servants that Isaac is not to die: “Stay here [...] I and the lad will go [...] and we will come back to you”(Gen 22,5). In a number of The first Christian writer to adduce it as a proof text for “the third day” 4 was TERTULLIAN, Praescriptiones contra hereticis, § 43. See M. REMAUD, Évangile et tradition rabbinique (Bruxelles 2003) 5 125-130.