Why He Rose on the Third Day

The death on the cross for us, then, has proved fitting and right, and its cause has been shown to be reasonable in every respect; and one may justly argue that the salvation of all ought to have come about in no other way than by the cross. For not even in this way, not even on the cross, did he leave himself hidden. Far from it: while he made creation bear witness to the presence of its Maker, he did not let the temple of his body remain long. Having merely shown it to be dead, by the contact of death with it, he raised it up at once on the third day, carrying off as the mark of victory and the triumph over death the incorruption and freedom from suffering that now belonged to his body. [a]

For he could have raised his body and shown it alive immediately after death. But in his wise foresight the Savior did not do this either. For someone might have said that he had not died at all, or that death had not fully touched him, if he had shown the resurrection at once. Then again, if the interval between his dying and rising had been only two days, the glory of his incorruption would have been obscured. So, in order that the body might be proved to be dead, the Word waited one day more in between, and on the third day showed it incorruptible to all. So then, that the death on the cross might be proved, he raised his body on the third day.

But he did not want to raise it after it had remained a long time and fallen completely into corruption, lest he be disbelieved, as though he had exchanged it for some other body; for with the passing of time a person might also distrust what he saw and forget what had happened. For this reason he did not wait more than three days, nor did he keep those he had told about the resurrection long in suspense. While the word was still ringing in their ears, while their eyes were still watching and their minds in suspense, and while those who had killed him were still living on earth, were on the spot, and could bear witness to the death of the Lord’s body, the Son of God himself, after an interval of three days, showed his body, once dead, immortal and incorruptible. And it was made plain to all that the body had died not from any natural weakness of the Word who dwelt in it, but so that death might be done away with in it by the power of the Savior.