"Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth"

Crucified on Friday,
Christ rose on Sunday morning.  
So he spent two nights in the tomb.  
But he had been arrested Thursday night,  
And taken to the basement
Of the High Priest's house(Luke 22.54).  
He spent that night in the holding cell(a dungeon)  
Which has been preserved to this day.  
(I saw it in 1973 while on a tour of the Holy Land.)  
So Christ spent three nights
below the surface of the ground:  
(1)Thursday night in the holding cell    
(while He awaited trial before    
The High Priest serving as Judge),  
(2)Friday night in the tomb,
(3)Saturday night in the tomb.  
 
So when Christ predicted that He would be  
"in the heart of the Earth for three days  
And three nights"(Matthew 12.40),  
We shouldn't insist on three nights in the tomb.  
For He didn't say "in the tomb,"    
Rather He said, "in the heart of the Earth."  
He used that phrase DELIBERATELY.  
Get that point into your head.  
   
According to the Hebrew/Jewish way of counting time,  
The day goes with the previous night.For example:  
"The evening and the morning were the first day"(Genesis 1).  
(NOT the morning and the evening).  
So Thursday night goes with Friday (the daylight hours).  
Christ spent the tail end of the daylight hours    
of Friday in the tomb.  
That makes one night/day pairing.  
Next, Friday night/Saturday makes    
another night/day combination.  
Finally, Saturday night/Sunday morning    
makes the third night/day union.  
   
Why is it important to see that Thursday night
in the dungeon is the first of the
"three nights in the heart of the Earth"?!  
Because some fools are going around  
Saying Christ must have been crucified    
not on Friday but on Thursday -    
Just so all three nights
could be spent in the tomb.    
Such revisionism is totally uncalled for.  
Church Tradition is NOT to be so easily discounted!