On more than one occasion in his early ministry, Jesus in reply to a demand for a sign from heaven had said, “There shall no sign be given but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew xii. 38 to 40; Luke xi. 29.) That he should be there only three days and three nights implied his resurrection. To any objection that he was not in the tomb any part of three nights, the customary[2] use of language among the Jews is a sufficient answer. In the _Talm hieros_, it is said that a day and a night together make up a period; and a part of such a period is counted as the whole. It is a received[3] rule among the Jews that a part of a day is put for the whole. Yet that the prediction was expressed in such terms, is strong evidence of the truthfulness of the record. As Godet well says, “Who would ever have dreamed of _falsely_ putting in the mouth of Jesus the expression three days and three nights, when in actual fact the time spent in the tomb did not exceed one day and two nights?” Jesus, when called to account for healing on the Sabbath day, answered: “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” For this cause, therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. In reply Jesus said: “For as the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will ... Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.... Marvel not at this, for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tomb shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment.” (John v. 1 to 29.) In his discourse in the Synagogue at Capernaum, concerning the manna, he said to the Jews: “The bread which I give is my flesh (that is, my life), for the life of the world.... For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.... Many therefore of his disciples when they heard, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can hear it?’ But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said unto them, ‘Doth this cause you to stumble? _What_ then if ye behold the Son of man ascending where he was before.’” (John vi. 30 to 63.)