The heart of the matter
Ironically, we make greater progress toward resolving the difficulties when we shift our focus from chronology to topology. Therefore, rather than ask about the meaning of “three days and three nights” we will instead ask about “the heart of the earth.”
We begin with a relatively simple question, Are there precedents in biblical literature for the Matthean term “heart of the earth” (καρδία τῆς γῆς)? Even though the phrase does not occur elsewhere in biblical literature, we may still have the occurrence of analogous, and perhaps even synonymous terms. The first of these we shall consider is the phrase “middle of the earth.”