Pilgrim,

re: "It IS possible since I am not familiar with the term designating such a group."

I'm sorry. It's just that I've never come across anyone who hasn't heard of those (the majority of Christians actually) who think that the crucifixion took place on the 6th day of the week.


re: "Now on to the subject at hand, i.e., a proper exegesis of Matt 12:40."

Actually, the purpose of the OP is to find - if it exists - some writing from the first century or before that shows that a phrase stating a specific number of days and/or a specific number of nights was ever used when it absolutely couldn't have included at least parts of each one of the specific number of days and at least parts of each one of the specific number of nights.