Every citation was checked against the text itself before it was used, and corrected where the usual reference was wrong. The Fathers are quoted from the Schaff edition; the Catechism is described in our own words, with a link to each paragraph.
FatherSt Cyprian, Testimonies against the Jews
Book II, chapter 25, "That He should rise again from the dead on the third day" (tr. Wallis)
In Hosea: "After two days He will revive us; we shall rise again on the third day." Also in Exodus: "... For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai."
Three proofs under one heading: Osee 6, the third day at Sinai (Exodus 19:10-11), and the sign of Jonas (Matthew 12:39-40).
Checked in the Schaff edition, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5
FatherOrigen, Homilies on Genesis
Homily 8, section 4, on Abraham sighting the place on the third day (tr. Heine)
The third day, however, is always applied to mysteries.
He names the third days of Israel leaving Egypt, and the day of the Lord's Resurrection.
Checked in R. E. Heine, Origen: Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, Fathers of the Church 71 (1982), p. 140. The homilies survive in Rufinus's Latin; the translation is in copyright, so only one line is quoted.
FatherTertullian, Against Marcion
Book IV, chapter 43, on the women at the sepulchre (tr. Holmes)
For of this incident it is said by Hosea: "To seek my face they will watch till day-light ... after two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up."
He reads Osee 6 of the women who came to the tomb before daybreak.
Checked in the Schaff edition, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3
FatherSt Irenaeus, Against Heresies
Book III, chapter 20, section 1
God permit man to be swallowed up by the great whale, who was the author of transgression, not that he should perish altogether when so engulphed ... that man, receiving an unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the dead, and glorify God
CorrectedOften cited as Jonas swallowed by death. In Irenaeus it is man swallowed by "the great whale, who was the author of transgression", and brought out to rise from the dead.
Checked in the Schaff edition, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
FatherSt Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho
Chapter 86 (tr. Dods and Reith)
when he cast a tree into the waters of Marah, which were bitter, he made them sweet.
The wood of Mara, found at the end of three days without water (Exodus 15:22-25), is one of a list of rods and trees that Justin reads of Christ crucified.
Checked in the Schaff edition, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
FatherSt Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word
Section 26, "Reasons for His rising on the Third Day" (tr. Robertson)
For one might have said that He had not died at all ... if He had manifested the Resurrection at once.
Not sooner, lest His death be doubted; not later, lest the body be thought another or those He had told of the Resurrection be kept long in suspense.
Checked in the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 4
FatherSt Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures
Lecture XIV, sections 17 to 20 (tr. Gifford)
And when we examine the story of Jonas, great is the force of the resemblance.
He answers the objection that one three days dead cannot rise, and calls Jonas the type of the Saviour (XIV.20).
Checked in the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 7
FatherSt John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew
Homily 43, sections 2 and 3, on Matthew 12:38-40
Now is He striking the first note of the doctrine of His resurrection, and confirming it by the type.
He adds that the three days were allowed "that the fact of His death might be believed".
Checked in the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 10, and New Advent
FatherSt John Chrysostom, Homilies on John
Homily 62, section 1, on Lazarus (John 11:6)
Wherefore tarried He? That Lazarus might breathe his last, and be buried; that none might be able to assert that He restored him when not yet dead
CorrectedUsually cited as Homily 63. The passage on why He waited is in Homily 62; Homily 63 takes up Martha's "he hath been dead four days".
Checked in the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 14, and New Advent
FatherSt Augustine, The City of God
Book XVIII, chapter 28, on Osee (tr. Dods)
This prophet has also foretold the resurrection of Christ on the third day, as it behoved to be foretold, with prophetic loftiness, when he says, "He will heal us after two days, and in the third day we shall rise again."
Checked in the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 2
FatherSt Augustine, The City of God
Book XVI, chapter 32, on the sacrifice of Isaac (tr. Dods)
he was caught by the horns in a thicket. What, then, did he represent but Jesus, who, before He was offered up, was crowned with thorns by the Jews?
CorrectedOften given as a ram caught "in thorns". The translation says a thicket; the thorns are Augustine's reading of it.
Checked in the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 2
FatherSt Augustine, On the Trinity
Book IV, chapter 3, section 6 (tr. Haddan)
The one death therefore of our Saviour brought salvation to our double death, and His one resurrection wrought for us two resurrections
Checked in the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 3
FatherSt Augustine, The Harmony of the Gospels
Book III, chapter 24, section 66 (tr. Salmond); compare On the Trinity IV.6.10
For the space of three days, which elapsed between the Lord's death and resurrection, cannot be correctly understood except in the light of that form of expression according to which the part is dealt with as the whole.
How Friday to Sunday is three days and three nights: the first and third days are counted whole from a part of each.
CorrectedSometimes summarised as the whole taken for the part. Augustine says the reverse: the part is taken for the whole.
Checked in the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vols. 3 and 6
DoctorSt Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae
Part III, question 53, article 2, "Whether it was fitting for Christ to rise again on the third day?"
For if He had risen directly after death, it might seem that His death was not genuine and consequently neither would His Resurrection be true.
An interval proves the death was real; a short one shows His Godhead; the article also gives the number three and Augustine's one day and two nights.
CorrectedMatthew 12:40 is not treated in this article. It is answered at III, question 51, article 4, reply 1, from Augustine's Harmony of the Gospels.
Checked in New Advent (English Dominican translation), with question 51
CouncilThe Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
Latin of the Roman Missal, as sung at Easter 2026
et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas
The words are St Paul's at 1 Corinthians 15:4 in the Vulgate.
Checked in the Vatican's Easter Sunday booklet
LiturgyThe Apostles' Creed
Latin profession of faith
tertia die resurrexit a mortuis
The same words head the Latin Catechism's article on the Resurrection.
Checked in a Vatican consistory booklet and the Latin Catechism
LiturgyThe Easter Vigil, Roman Rite
Lectionary 41
Seven Old Testament readings: creation (Genesis 1), the sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22, which contains "on the third day"), the crossing of the sea (Exodus 14 and 15), Isaias 54 and 55, Baruch 3 and 4, and Ezechiel 36; then Romans 6:3-11 and the Gospel of the Resurrection.
Checked in the USCCB readings for the Easter Vigil, 2026
LiturgyHoly Saturday, Byzantine Rite
Vespers with the Liturgy of St Basil
Fifteen Old Testament readings. The first is Genesis 1:1-13, which ends "And the evening and the morning were the third day"; the fourth is the whole book of Jonas; the tenth is the sacrifice of Isaac; the epistle is Romans 6:3-11, as in the Roman Vigil. In many parishes today only some of the readings are read.
Checked in the Orthodox Church in America and the Metropolitan Cantor Institute, Pittsburgh (Byzantine Catholic)
CatechismCatechism of the Catholic Church, 627
Christ's death was a real death, but divine power kept His body from corruption; His rising on the third day was the sign of this, since decay was held to set in on the fourth day after death.
Checked in the Catechism, paragraph 627; described here in our own words
CatechismCatechism of the Catholic Church, 652
"According to the Scriptures" means that the Resurrection fulfilled what the Old Testament and Christ Himself had promised.
Checked in the Catechism, paragraph 652; described here in our own words
CatechismCatechism of the Catholic Church, 994
Christ called His coming Resurrection the sign of Jonas and the sign of the temple, and foretold that He would rise on the third day.
Checked in the Catechism, paragraph 994; described here in our own words