(Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 12:00 PM)
Coptic Icon of Jonah and the Fish
According to a well rooted tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and was risen on the following Sunday morning. But it is ONLY a ... well rooted tradition.
In fact, the Feast of Passover, the Pesah, always begins on the 15th Day of the Month of Nisan (also called Abib), and lasts for a week, so, depending of the year of the crucifixion, the day of the crucifixion would have been different if, according to the Synoptic Gospels, it had to coincide with the "day of preparation", the parasceve. [#]
To understand fully why our solar calendar with which we are familiar, is of no use here, you would have to be fully familiar with the Hebrew calendar. If you don't feel like you want to spend/invest your time in this task (the Wiki article is ca. 28 pages long ...), herebelow are few essential facts.
Hebrew calendar facts
• The Hebrew calendar, unlike our solar calendar, is a Lunar calendar.
• Each of the 12 months of the "normal year" of the calendar lasts 29 or 30 days, for a total of 353, 354, or
355 days.
• Because of the difference with the solar year, with a cycle of 19 years (the Metonic cycle of 235 lunar months), a "leap month" of 30 days (Adar II) is intercalated 7 times, so the corresponding "leap years" are respectively of 383, 384, or 385 days.
• Because the week is of 7 days, and only the leap year of 385 days is exactly divisible by 7, the festivals, and in particular, the Pesah, which begins on the 15th day of Nisan, fall asynchronously with respect to the days of the weak.
• Nevertheless, a festival day (in particular 15th Nisan) is considered a Sabbath ("annual" Sabbath, as opposed to the ordinary weekly Sabbath), so, unless the 15th Nisan coincides with the regular weekly Sabbath, in the week of the beginning of the Pesah (and also the following week, when the Pesah ends, 21th Nisan) there are two Sabbaths (one annual and one regular weekly).
How are all the above facts going to help us with the apparent discrepancy between Jesus "sign of Jonah" prophecy ("three days and three nights" - Matt 12:38-42; Matt 16:4; Luke 11:29-32), and the apparent "fact" that, according to the solar calendar and our tradition, Jesus stayed in the tomb, between his death and his Resurrection, only one full day (Saturday) and two nights (Friday and Saturday)?
The answer is in the ... Hebrew Calendar. There is no reason whatsoever to assume that, the year when Jesus was executed, the 15th Nisan, the First day of the Pesah, (or, as also the Evangelists call it the First day of the Mazzoth, "unleavened bread") coincided with a weekly Sabbath, and therefore that Jesus was executed on a Friday.
A little known Matthaean fact
The proof that the year of Jesus Crucifixion was one with two Sabbaths, is in the Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew. This is the NETBible translation Matthew 28:1
As can be seen, ALL translations write "Sabbath", singular. The Greek text of the phrase translated as "Now after the Sabbath" (singular), though, is ...
What happened is that ALL translators, confused by the discrepancy between the Greek plural, Sabbaths, and the Church tradition of the Friday-to-Sunday, translated Sabbath (singular), starting with Jerome, with his Latin Vulgate (vespere autem sabbati ...)
Can all the above facts help us reconcile the discrepancy? Yes, if we make the following ...
The year 31 AD, for instance, satisfies the above hypothesis.
In that year, assuming that it was a leap year, the 14th of Nisan, the Eve of Passover day on which Jesus would have been crucified, fell on Wednesday, April 25th. The next day, Thursday, would have been the high feast day, and therefore it would have been a Sabbath. [§]
NOTES
[#] Parasceve (Greek paraskevé/Παρασκευή), means "Day of Preparation". As such it it can refer NOT ONLY to the Friday, the day before the ordinary weekly Sabbath (= day of rest), BUT ALSO Day of Preparation (perhaps a Friday, perhaps not) before a yearly Festival, and in particular the Passover.
So, in conclusion, while it is true that "ALL Fridays were Days of Preparation", the reverse is false: some "Days of Preparation" were not (ordinarily) Fridays.
[§] C. J. Humphreys & W. G. Waddington, in their paper The Date of the Crucifixion, JASA (March, 1985, @ asa3.org) have used computer-generated new moon calculations and, among other things, have derived a table with the dates of 14 Nisan for the decade 26-36 AD, corresponding to the tenure of Pontius Pilate as Roman Prefect of Judaea. Here it is:
NOTE: The table does not take into account the possible shift of 14 Nisan due to the intercalation of a "leap month" of 30 days (Adar II)
The Passover, the First Day of the Mazzoth, (unleavened breads), unquestionably falls on 15 Nisan, so, according to the traditional "Friday Passover" (which is followed by Humphreys & Waddington), the only possible year is one in which 14 Nisan falls on Thursday.
OTOH, if we consider "Jonah's Three Full Days Hypothesis" the year 31
AD fits the bill for a 14 Nisan, "Wednesday Crucifixion". In fact,
looking at the above Table 1, we have even two candidates:
NOTE ADDED 25/05/2020
I have just found the article The Ancient Math That Sets the Date of Easter and Passover (@ theatlantic.com). It provides a rather different perspective on the facts that I have examined here.
Coptic Icon of Jonah and the Fish
According to a well rooted tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and was risen on the following Sunday morning. But it is ONLY a ... well rooted tradition.
In fact, the Feast of Passover, the Pesah, always begins on the 15th Day of the Month of Nisan (also called Abib), and lasts for a week, so, depending of the year of the crucifixion, the day of the crucifixion would have been different if, according to the Synoptic Gospels, it had to coincide with the "day of preparation", the parasceve. [#]
To understand fully why our solar calendar with which we are familiar, is of no use here, you would have to be fully familiar with the Hebrew calendar. If you don't feel like you want to spend/invest your time in this task (the Wiki article is ca. 28 pages long ...), herebelow are few essential facts.
Hebrew calendar facts
• The Hebrew calendar, unlike our solar calendar, is a Lunar calendar.
• Each of the 12 months of the "normal year" of the calendar lasts 29 or 30 days, for a total of 353, 354, or
355 days.
• Because of the difference with the solar year, with a cycle of 19 years (the Metonic cycle of 235 lunar months), a "leap month" of 30 days (Adar II) is intercalated 7 times, so the corresponding "leap years" are respectively of 383, 384, or 385 days.
• Because the week is of 7 days, and only the leap year of 385 days is exactly divisible by 7, the festivals, and in particular, the Pesah, which begins on the 15th day of Nisan, fall asynchronously with respect to the days of the weak.
• Nevertheless, a festival day (in particular 15th Nisan) is considered a Sabbath ("annual" Sabbath, as opposed to the ordinary weekly Sabbath), so, unless the 15th Nisan coincides with the regular weekly Sabbath, in the week of the beginning of the Pesah (and also the following week, when the Pesah ends, 21th Nisan) there are two Sabbaths (one annual and one regular weekly).
How are all the above facts going to help us with the apparent discrepancy between Jesus "sign of Jonah" prophecy ("three days and three nights" - Matt 12:38-42; Matt 16:4; Luke 11:29-32), and the apparent "fact" that, according to the solar calendar and our tradition, Jesus stayed in the tomb, between his death and his Resurrection, only one full day (Saturday) and two nights (Friday and Saturday)?
The answer is in the ... Hebrew Calendar. There is no reason whatsoever to assume that, the year when Jesus was executed, the 15th Nisan, the First day of the Pesah, (or, as also the Evangelists call it the First day of the Mazzoth, "unleavened bread") coincided with a weekly Sabbath, and therefore that Jesus was executed on a Friday.
A little known Matthaean fact
The proof that the year of Jesus Crucifixion was one with two Sabbaths, is in the Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew. This is the NETBible translation Matthew 28:1
Now after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. (Matthew 28:1 NET)
As can be seen, ALL translations write "Sabbath", singular. The Greek text of the phrase translated as "Now after the Sabbath" (singular), though, is ...
οψε δε σαββατων, opse de sabbatôn, after the Sabbaths (plural)
What happened is that ALL translators, confused by the discrepancy between the Greek plural, Sabbaths, and the Church tradition of the Friday-to-Sunday, translated Sabbath (singular), starting with Jerome, with his Latin Vulgate (vespere autem sabbati ...)
Can all the above facts help us reconcile the discrepancy? Yes, if we make the following ...
Jonah's Three Full Days Hypotesis
IF, the years that Jesus was Crucified, Nisan 15 (a "yearly Sabbath"), the First day of the Mazzoth, of the Unleavened Breads, was a Thursday, and consequently Jesus was Crucified on a Wednesday, and was resurrected before
the night between the "weekly Sabbath", the Saturday, and the Sunday,
he would have been raised exactly after three full days (three nights
and three days).
The year 31 AD, for instance, satisfies the above hypothesis.
In that year, assuming that it was a leap year, the 14th of Nisan, the Eve of Passover day on which Jesus would have been crucified, fell on Wednesday, April 25th. The next day, Thursday, would have been the high feast day, and therefore it would have been a Sabbath. [§]
NOTES
[#] Parasceve (Greek paraskevé/Παρασκευή), means "Day of Preparation". As such it it can refer NOT ONLY to the Friday, the day before the ordinary weekly Sabbath (= day of rest), BUT ALSO Day of Preparation (perhaps a Friday, perhaps not) before a yearly Festival, and in particular the Passover.
So, in conclusion, while it is true that "ALL Fridays were Days of Preparation", the reverse is false: some "Days of Preparation" were not (ordinarily) Fridays.
[§] C. J. Humphreys & W. G. Waddington, in their paper The Date of the Crucifixion, JASA (March, 1985, @ asa3.org) have used computer-generated new moon calculations and, among other things, have derived a table with the dates of 14 Nisan for the decade 26-36 AD, corresponding to the tenure of Pontius Pilate as Roman Prefect of Judaea. Here it is:
NOTE: The table does not take into account the possible shift of 14 Nisan due to the intercalation of a "leap month" of 30 days (Adar II)
The Passover, the First Day of the Mazzoth, (unleavened breads), unquestionably falls on 15 Nisan, so, according to the traditional "Friday Passover" (which is followed by Humphreys & Waddington), the only possible year is one in which 14 Nisan falls on Thursday.
• The only candidate year, according to the above Table 1, is 27 AD: in that case 15 Nisan would have been Friday, April 11.
• If we accept the Pharisee "sunrise option", also 30 AD would fit the bill: in that case 15 Nisan would have been Friday, April 7.
• If we consider the possible intercalation of a "leap month", also 34 AD would fit the bill: in that case 15 Nisan would have been Friday, April 25
• The only "direct" candidate year is 34 AD: in that case 14 Nisan would have been Wednesday, March 24.
• If we consider (as I have done) the possible intercalation of a "leap month", also 31 AD would fit the bill: in that case 14 Nisan would have been Wednesday, April 25
NOTE ADDED 25/05/2020
I have just found the article The Ancient Math That Sets the Date of Easter and Passover (@ theatlantic.com). It provides a rather different perspective on the facts that I have examined here.
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