Key Verse: Luke 9:22

22 And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

A short answer to the question is yes and it is the common view of church history and is a common consensus of the Church Fathers. Let's study some scriptures to support this view. Luke 23:54-56 tells us that Jesus died on a Preparation Day which is the day before a Sabbath. The Preparation Day is the sixth day of a Jewish week. It is called a Preparation Day because Jews will not do any work on the Sabbath and life's necessities such as cooking of food and spiritual purification are completed before the start of Sabbath which is at about 6:00 PM Friday. Please note that a Jewish day ends and a new day begins at sunset. After burying Jesus' body by Joseph, the women who saw the tomb went home to prepare spices and perfumes for Jesus burial and rested because of the coming of Sabbath. Therefore we can conclude from studying these verses that Jesus was crucified and died on Friday.

Luke 23:54-56

54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Moreover, Jesus resurrected on the third day (Matthew 16:21) and was witnessed by the women who wanted to put spices on Jesus' body on the first day of the week (Luke 24:1-3) which was a Sunday according to Jewish custom.

Matthew 16:21

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Luke 24:1-3

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

However, one common difficulty in holding this view is due to Matthew 12:40 which says that Jesus was supposed to be in the tomb for three days and three nights contradicting to the view that Jesus was crucified on Friday and raised on the third day therefore the duration of Jesus' death was less than three days. In addition, according to Matthew 27:63, Mark 8:31,9:31, 10:34, Jesus' resurrection occurred after three days.

Matthew 12:40

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

Matthew 27:63

63 "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.'

Mark 8:31

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

Mark 9:31

31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise."

Mark 10:34

34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

The question is whether there is inconsistency in the phrases about the time of resurrection: "on the third day", "three days and three nights", and "after three days". There is no inconsistency when we understand it in the context of Jewish thinking at that time which suggests that a part of a day is counted as a whole day. To substantiate this thinking, we can study Matthew 27:63 again and also verses 64 to 66 in continuation.

Matthew 27:63-66

63 "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first." 65 "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

This two verses recorded the fact that the Pharisees asked Pilate to send soldiers to guard the tomb of Jesus againist any possibility of Jesus' disciples stealing his body and spread the lie (that is according to these Pharisees) of resurrection. Notice that the duration of security was until the third day. Therefore, we can see an example of a equivalence of "after three days" and "thi third day". Otherwise, the Pharisees would have asked for guarding the tomb until the fourth day. One could argue that the Pharisees came to Pilate to ask for tomb security the next day after Jesus' death (Matthew 27:62), therefore, guarding the tomb "until the third day" could mean the fourth day after Jesus' death. But, judging from the context of verse 63, "until the third day" was reckoned from date of Jesus' death to make a more reasonably coherent point. Moreover, the following Old Testament references also suggest the equivalence of a part of a day and a whole day: Genesis 42:17-18, 1Kings 20:29, 2Chronicles 10:5, 12; Esther 4:16, 5:1; 1Samuel 30:12-13:

Genesis 42:17-18

17 And he put them all in custody for three days. 18 On the third day, Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God:

1 Kings 20:29

29 For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day.

2 Chronicles 10:5

5 Rehoboam answered, "Come back to me in three days." So the people went away

Chronicles 10:12

12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days."

1 Samuel 30:12-13

12 part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights. 13 David asked him, "To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?" He said, "I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I became ill three days ago.

In conclusion, it is reasonable to view that Jesus was crucified and died near the end of Friday when the Sabbath was about to begin and resurrected early on Sunday morning. The phrases "on the third day", "after three days", and "three days and three nights" are all referring to the same time span betweeen Jesus' death and resurrection based on the Jewish thinking that part of a day was regarded as a whole day. Therefore, "three days and three nights" referred to the three nights according to our concept of a day as Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. And the three days referred to Thursday/Friday, Friday/Saturday, and Saturday/Sunday in our conecpt of day. This view is supported overwhelmingly by scholars throughout the church history.[1]