I LAST crossed theological swords with Canon John Young in 1958!

Reading his Good Friday article, there is quite a lot that I agree with but I cannot for the life of me understand why he and countless other Christians insist on calling Jesus Christ a liar.

In Matthew chapter 12 verse 40 Jesus states clearly without any ambiguity that He will be "in the heart of the earth" for three days and three nights.

He cannot therefore have been crucified on Friday and resurrected on Sunday.

There is no error in the biblical account. The Jews have other sabbaths than their seventh day of the week, which are called High Days - the Passover being one such day.

Jesus was killed on the day of preparation for the Passover and His body had to be taken down before the start of the Passover, the Sabbath of Luke 23 verse 54, which commenced at six o'clock in the evening.

Accepting that Jesus was not a liar, and that the resurrection took place on the first day of the week, that is after six o'clock Saturday evening by our reckoning, and as it is acceptable in Jewish chronology to count part of a day as a day, Jesus died at three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon.

Amazing that such a deception has been carried on for nearly 2,000 years.

K Barnes,

North View,

Catterton,

York.

Updated: 11:32 Tuesday, March 29, 2005