Posted on 04/12/2013 10:41:51 AM PDT by NYer
If we put the clues together, can we figure out precisely when Jesus died? Yes, we can!
We recently celebrated Good Friday and Easter, the annual celebrations of Jesus' death and resurrection.
We all know that this happened in Jerusalem in the first century.
That separates Jesus from mythical pagan deities, who were supposed to live in places or times that none could specify.
Just how specific can we be with the death of Jesus?
Can we determine the exact day?
We can.
And here's how . . .
The gospels indicate that Jesus was crucified at the instigation of the first century high priest named Caiaphas (Matthew 26:3-4, John 11:49-53).
We know from other sources that he served as high priest from A.D. 18 to 36, so that puts Jesus' death in that time frame.
But we can get more specific. Much more.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
“There is no evidence anywhere that the Jews had two Sabbaths and two Preparation Days.”
DUH... Jesus was the Passover Sacrifice for Christians.....
The Jewish Sabbath is always on a Saturday, and being both a sabbath and a holy day, the preparation day was a Friday. So being a Friday that Jesus suffered and died is right.
Remember, Jesus was a rabbi. He was Jewish. The event being celebrated was Jewish Passover.
Per Wiki:
More recently, Humphreys, who holds that the “Palm Sunday” entry of Jesus into Jerusalem occurred on Monday, not Sunday, argued that the Last Supper took place on the evening of Wednesday 1 April 33.[40][41] If the Last Supper was on Tuesday (Jaubert) or Wednesday (Humphreys), this would allow more time than in the traditional view (Last Supper on Thursday) for interrogation of Jesus and his presentation to Pilate before he was crucified on Friday.
40: Humphreys 2011, pp. 164 and 168
41: Staff Reporter (18 April 2011). “Last Supper was on Wednesday, not Thursday, challenges Cambridge professor Colin Humphreys.”. International Business Times. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
Jesus Christ’s Last Supper was observed on Maundy Thursday, but Humphreys suggests it took place on the Wednesday before his crucifixion. Prof Humphreys reconstructs the date to April 1, 33AD saying discrepancies in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke compared with John’s version essentially arose because they used an older calendar than the official Jewish one.
He also says it would mean Jesus’s arrest, interrogation and trials did not take place on the same day. Hence, the author argues for re-fixing Easter Day to the first Sunday in April.
While Matthew, Mark and Luke said the Last Supper coincided with the start of the Jewish festival of Passover, John claimed that it took place before Passover festival. This has puzzled Biblical scholars for centuries. In fact, someone said it was ‘the thorniest subject in the New Testament’, he told the BBC.
Unlike Matthew, Mark and Luke who used an old Jewish calendar that was adapted from Egyptian usage at the time of Moses, John used the official lunar calendar prevalent then to come to this conclusion, he argues in his book.
In John’s Gospel, he is correct in saying the Last Supper was before the Passover meal. But Jesus chose to hold his Last Supper as a Passover meal according to an earlier Jewish calendar, Prof Humphreys said and re-fixes the Last Supper on Wednesday, April 1, 33AD, based on the standard Julian calendar.
If you look at all the events the Gospels record - between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion - there is a large number. It is impossible to fit them in between a Thursday evening and Friday morning... But I found that two different calendars were involved. In fact, the four gospels agree perfectly, he said.
The Roman persecution of the Jews after the revolt led to persecution of the Christians who were utilizing the same worship days. In order to not be persecuted, the Christians adopted many of the feast days of Mithras, the religion of the Roman army.
By the time Constantine accepted Christianity it had merged with much Mithras worship. Easter, Christmas, Sunday Sabbath .......
“So being a Friday that Jesus suffered and died is right.”
The day before Passover is also a preparation day. Thus there were two preparation days that week.
Friday crucifixion does not not fit the 3 day time line in the tomb. Read my post earlier with timeline.
verga, if Passover began Wed at sundown, wouldn’t that make Wed. also a day of preparation?
“the Jewish reckoning of “a day and a night” is an idiom. it refers to any part of a 24 hour period”
I agree and would also add that the insistence upon three full days and nights also causes trouble with other verses that say he rose on “the third day.” I suppose you could call Thursday the first day (although Wednesday would be the day He died in this theory), but even then Saturday would be the third day. But you can’t really get around Luke 24:21, on the road to Emmaus, after the empty tomb has been found on the first day of the week, when the disciples say “today is the third day since these things happened.” Sunday is the third day, not Saturday.
This is the sequence of the burial and resurrection in Luke:
Luke 23:55–24:2 And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. (NKJV)
There is a chapter break right before “Now on the first day of the week” which makes it easier to get away with trying to add another regular day and another sabbath day in between, but the chapter is an artificial break added after the fact. They were on the way to the tomb at the absolute first opportunity to do their work.
The writier is correct though.
Hey, guys! How’s it going?
Listen, I don’t know if you knew this, but...ahh...(geez, this is awkward!)
No, no - I’ve got it, I’ve got it. You see, while this really isn’t a caucus thread, per se, the thing is...well, it’s kind of reserved for people who want to have a rational discussion of an interesting little bit of anthropological research. It’s cool if you don’t get that, it really is - mistakes happen, and no hard feelings!
I’m going to help you out. You may not believe this, but there’s a whole community of you deep thinkers around here! I’ll give you an example - some folks around here believe that every illness - a cold, herpes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, EVERYTHING - is caused because we’re sinners. Pretty groovy, eh? (I don’t get it myself, but who am I? Silly old Catholic!) Certainly not a theological heavyweight like you two, what with all that “Cult of Mithras”/”Catholic Invention of Good Friday” stuff you were throwing around - geez, I thought I was on a discussion board with Augustine and Thomas Aquinas themselves! Anyway, the point is that there are plenty of you folks around FR, and I think you all would hit it off FAMOUSLY.
I suggest you all get together tonight, have a little tipple of Prestone, maybe handle a water moccasin or two...have a ball.
Making friends is hard, I know, so you’re welcome! Pay it forward.
All the best, HoosierDammit
Sabbath Saturday, Second day
Rose on the first day of the week Sunday, Third day.
What are you the hall monitor?.....shalom
Here is a summary:
The Death of Jesus
Mark 15: The Death of Jesus
33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)
John19: 31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.
The Burial of Jesus
Mark 15: 42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath)
John19: 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
The Guard at the Tomb
Matthew 27: 62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
Mark 16: 1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.
Luke 23: 55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
I ask... If Jesus was crucified on the Day of Preparation, and the women went the day after the Sabbath to purchase and prepare the herbs, that day could not have been Sunday as they arrived at the tomb at sun up on the first day of the week!
There were two Sabbaths. Note in John 19:31 above that this day of preparation was for a special Sabbath, not a regular Sabbath. It is very clear that the special Sabbath was Passover. The second or regular Sabbath was Saturday and preceded the first day of the week when Mary went to the tomb to apply the herbs at sun up and Jesus WAS gone.
Thus:
Wednesday: Preparation Day for Passover (Crucifixion)
Thursday: Passover Sabbath
Friday: Preparation Day for Regular Sabbath (Purchase & Preparation of Herbs)
Saturday: Regular Sabbath
Sunday: First Day of the Week (Mary Went to the Tomb at Sun Up & He Had Risen)
That's silly. Why would we need to get our affairs in order within the next 21 years just because we would be coming to the end of the millennium? This isn't another one of those 'end of the world' alarmist theories is it?
Perhaps.
The says he rose on the first day of the week, and the passover was on the day of preparation.
I never have the patience to read these sorts of articles - e.g. Jesus’ real birthday, when the Angel Gabriel came, the real date of Easter, etc. Can someone tell me why I should concern myself with this sort of stuff when our Church provides us with a perfectly good liturgical calendar that will ensure we commemorate all the significant Biblical history? I’m not trying to be argumentative, I really am curious.
When it comes to scripture, if you look broadly enough, there is no consensus about anything. Loose thematic and strict chronological ordering, or strict chronological ordering and loose thematic ordering are quite compatible. Strict chronlogical ordering accompanied by strict thematic ordering require both a solid mastery of a large body of material and careful selection thereof, but in the case of John, I would not rule out the possibility (I am just wrapping up teaching a course on this Gospel, so I have been giving the issue a great deal of thought-—in fact, if I had to lay money, it would be on this position).
It seems more interesting than attending to what we are actually meant to be doing at the moment (aka sloth)?
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