Elder Bruce R. McConkie:
“Decomposition was well under way; death had long since been
established as an absolute certainty. … To the Jews the term of four days had
special significance; it was the popular belief among them that by the fourth
day the spirit had finally and irrevocably departed from the vicinity of the
corpse” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 1:533).
