.
It's sometimes proposed the hours of darkness that occurred while Jesus
was hanging on the cross count as one of the three nights predicted by
Matt 12:40
However, Matt 12:40 requires that Jesus be in the heart for three nights
rather than only two.
* Jesus' crucified dead body wasn't laid to rest in the heart of the earth,
rather, on the surface in a rock-hewn tomb. So then, the only way Jesus
could be in the heart of the earth while simultaneously on the surface was
for the man and his body to part company and go their separate ways.
It was essential that some part of Jesus' human existence be allowed to
survive his death because if every part of him that went into making Jesus a
sentient being were to be destroyed on the cross, then God would have to
first create the man back into existence before proceeding to restore his
crucified dead body to life.
According to Matt 10:28 the human body can be killed by most any means,
but the soul can only be killed by the hand of God; which tells me that when
the Romans crucified Jesus, his soul survived.
I'm content to believe that it was by means of Jesus' soul that he was confined
in the heart of the earth during the time his body was interred in a tomb up on
the surface.
_