http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/was-jesus-in-the-grave-for-three-days-and-nights.html
The Good Friday Hoax
The Bible nowhere says or implies that Jesus was crucified and died on Good Friday! It is said that Jesus was crucified on
"the day before the Sabbath", (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14, 31, 42).
As the Jewish weekly Sabbath came on Saturday, scholars have assumed Jesus was crucified on Good Friday. This is poor reasoning because the Bible bears abundant testimony that the Jews had other Sabbaths beside the weekly Sabbath which fell on Saturday.
The first day of the Passover week, no matter on what day of the week it came, was always an annual Sabbath.
"And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein" (Leviticus 23:6, 7).
On the seventh day of this feast, the 21st of Nisan, was another annual Sabbath:
" . . . in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein" (Leviticus 23:8).
The day of Pentecost was an annual Sabbath Numbers 28:26. This is the reason we read about Sabbaths in the plural number in the Old Testament Leviticus 26:2, 34, 35, 43.
The Bible makes it plain, Jesus was crucified and buried on:
" . . . the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath" (Mark 15:42).
John tells us:
"And it was the preparation of the Passover" (John 19:14).
It was the preparation day on which the Passover Supper was made ready [editor's note: actually it was the preparation for the Holy Day, the Night to Be Much Remembered], the 14th of Nisan John 13:1, 29; 18:28. It was the preparation to keep the Passover Sabbath--the annual Sabbath which always came on the 15th day of the first ecclesiastical month. John 19:31 adds:
" . . . (for that sabbath day was an high day) . . . ."
Its greatness was due to the fact that it was the annual Sabbath of the Passover Festival.
Two Sabbaths that Week
Matthew makes it plain that two Sabbaths had passed since Jesus was crucified. The KJV has this rendering:
"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre" (Matthew 28:1).
On this verse nearly all translators have allowed tradition to control their translation. It is not "Sabbath" but "Sabbaths" in the Greek text (the genitive case and the plural number). The verse properly translated would read:
"In the end of the sabbaths . . . ."
This allows for an annual Sabbath on Thursday and a regular Sabbath on Saturday.
When Jesus was buried near sundown on the day of the Passover,
"Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary"
watched the burial Matthew 27:58-61. Immediately after the burial, Luke says:
"And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on" (Luke 3:54).
This Sabbath was an annual Sabbath on Thursday. The day after the annual Sabbath the women bought spices, Mark 16:1. Luke tells us that the women, after preparing the spices on Friday,
" . . . rested the sabbath day according to the commandment" (Luke 23:56).
Either you want to believe or you don't. It's like casting pearls after swine.