Psalm 16:10 and the Resurrection of Jesus “on the Third Day” (1 Corinthians 15:4)

In 1 Cor 15:4, Paul apparently views the timing of the resurrection “on the third day” as a fulfillment of Scripture, but nowhere in the Old Testament is the resurrection of an individual associated with a third day. The reigning explanations for Paul's reference include a creative reading of Hos 6:2, a suggestion that Paul refers to a pattern of third-day deliverances within Scripture, and a denial that Paul's fulfillment formula was intended to include the reference to “on the third day.” These explanations all have their weaknesses, and it is worth reconsidering a solution offered by Douglas Hill in 1967. Hill argued that Paul refers to Ps 16:10, with its reference (in the septuagintal wording) to a “holy one” being preserved from (bodily) “corruption.” Although such a reference might seem cryptic to modern readers, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Paul's contemporaries associated the onset of bodily decay with the third day after the spirit leaves the body. Thus, Paul's original readers would have understood a promise that someone would “not see decay” as a promise to be raised within three days.