5 - The date of the crucifixion

Summary

for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

(1 Corinthians 5:7)

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

(1 Corinthians 15:20)

In the last chapter I argued that we can use astronomy to reconstruct the first-century ad Jewish calendar. In this chapter we will see if it is possible to use our reconstructed calendar, together with biblical and historical clues, to determine not only the year but also the precise day and month on which Christ died. If we know this date, this enables us to start to answer the question of whether or not the last supper was a Passover meal. In particular, in Chapter 3 we gave four possible interpretations of the gospels concerning the date and nature of the last supper. In this chapter we will show that we can reject two of these interpretations. As we will see, both biblical and non-biblical clues fit together in a most remarkable way.

DETERMINING THE DATE OF THE CRUCIFIXION

Let us start by reminding ourselves about what we already know. In Chapters 2 and 3, I showed that the crucifixion was in the period ad 26–36, it was on a Friday and it was on either Nisan 14 or 15 in the official Jewish calendar, depending on the correct interpretation of John's gospel and the synoptics. Virtually all biblical scholars agree with these three statements, and I believe they are correct, beyond reasonable doubt.