04-24-2011, 06:54 PM
The idiom which the Hebrew teacher had in mind can be found in Exodus 4:10, 5:7 - kithmol shilshom. It literally means 'as-yesterday, third-day.' It's translated in the AV as 'as heretofore,' and that's its general meaning. The word meaning 'third-day' is a combination of its two component words, namely shalosh + yom (see Strong's Hebrew 8032).
The thing being attempted here is the application of this same idiom to Matthew 12:40 and similar verses. But instead of saying in these verses 'as-tomorrow, third-day,' it says 'for three days and three nights' ('for' and not 'as'), so the idiom does not exactly apply here. As far as I know, the idiom was only ever used to refer to the past. And the wording of the idiom is not mirrored in these verses, so it's a very far stretch to apply this idiom to this case.
The thing being attempted here is the application of this same idiom to Matthew 12:40 and similar verses. But instead of saying in these verses 'as-tomorrow, third-day,' it says 'for three days and three nights' ('for' and not 'as'), so the idiom does not exactly apply here. As far as I know, the idiom was only ever used to refer to the past. And the wording of the idiom is not mirrored in these verses, so it's a very far stretch to apply this idiom to this case.