1. "Three days and three nights" is a Jewish idiom meaning any part of three days. Jewish tradition counted any part of a day as a full day (e.g., Esther 4:16-5:1).

2. The women prepared spices before the Sabbath (Luke 23:56) and may have bought additional spices after the Sabbath (Mark 16:1). The "Sabbath" mentioned is the weekly Saturday Sabbath. The idea of a "high day" Thursday Sabbath (John 19:31) is speculative and not required by the text.

3. Sunday is "the third day." Read Luke 24.

   "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre." This is Sunday, continue reading until you get to the encounter on the road to Emmaus - "two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus" Now read down to verses 20-21 - "And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done."

   Sunday is included in the three days here. Even if one was to grant that the crucifixion day should not be counted in these three days (which does not align with Jewish tradition), it is impossible to synchronize this verse with a Wednesday crucifixion. If the crucifixion day is included, it would fall on Friday, if not, it would fall on Thursday at the earliest, not Wednesday.

The Emmaus account definitively rules out a Wednesday crucifixion.