The date of the crucifixion is a hotly debated topic. There is not a consensus on the year or the day of the week. Recently, however, the Jewish Calendar of the First Century has been reconstructed using Archaeoastronomy and a precise date of a lunar eclipse, that is connected to the crucifixion, has been identified. This evidence points to Friday, April 3rd, 33 AD.
Let’s see how this fits with what we know from the Bible.
Mark 15:42 tells us that it was Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath. So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the Kingdom of God, boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
From here we can see that Jesus died on the Friday afternoon. I know there are further arguments here and I will address them in this post.
According to the Jewish Calendar, Friday, April 3rd, 33 AD was Nisan 14.
What other clues do we have? Let’s go back and look at the events of what we now call Holy Week.
In John 11, we find the story of Lazarus of Bethany. Jesus came to Bethany four days after Lazarus’ death and asked for someone to roll the stone away from the tomb. Over Martha’s protest, they did so and Jesus called him out and back to life. This did not make the Jewish leaders too happy. They actually had a plot going to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. So, Jesus and his followers withdrew to the wilderness to a village in the mountains called Ephraim. It was thirteen miles away from Jerusalem.
In John 12, we learn that Jesus arrived in Bethany, six days before the Passover. The Law forbids travel on the Sabbath of more than ⅔ of a mile, so Jesus would have had to have travelled on the Sunday. It was a little over half a day's journey from Ephraim to Bethany. With Nisan 14 being the Friday, that would make the previous Sunday the 9th.
At Bethany, he went to the house of Simon the Leper and they gave a dinner in his honour. Not really surprising, being that Jesus had recently brought Lazarus back from the dead. It is also not surprising that Mary of Bethany took a jar of nard, and poured it on Jesus' feet. It was not actually uncommon to wash your guests feet and put perfume on them when they enter your house as a guest, especially after a journey. But it was usually a task reserved for the lowest of servants.
Arriving on the 9th fits in precisely with the requirements of Jewish law. The next day would be Nisan the 10th. The Jews had much preparation to do for the Passover. According to Exodus 12, the Passover lambs had to be brought to the temple to be inspected on the 10th of Nisan, and on the 11th and 12th and 13th. On the tenth, there was to be a special procession each year. The High Priest would bring the lamb that he would slaughter into the temple and it was a big parade. As he came into the city, the people would cheer and shout Hosanna, to the Son of David, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Does this sound familiar? This is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. When Jesus rode into town on a donkey the people shouted Hosanna, to the Son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. This basically stole the thunder of Caiaphas.
That story is told in all four Gospels. Each of those four days, Monday to Thursday, Jesus came into the city to teach the people. He was questioned by the Jewish leaders each day and they could find nothing against him. This is a parallel to the command in Exodus, to bring the Lambs into the temple each day, to be examined. They had to be perfect. No one could find any fault in Jesus, identifying Him as our perfect Passover Lamb.
When Jesus came into the temple that Monday morning, Nisan 10, the blind and lame came to him at the temple and he healed them. After the Chief Priests and Teachers of the Law questioned him, he left and went back to Bethany.
On Tuesday, the 11th, he went back early in the morning. On the way, he saw a fig tree and cursed it, because it had no fruit on it. This is recorded in Matthew and Mark. Jesus again clears out the temple and teaches the people. He then goes back to Bethany.
On Wednesday, the 12th, he goes to the city for the third time. On this day, we learn from Mark that they passed the fig tree that Jesus had cursed and found it to be withered. On this day the Chief Priests questioned his authority. He asked them if John’s baptism was from Heaven or of human origin. They could not answer this, so he refused to answer their original question. So, they looked for a way to kill him.
I have listed the events that clearly mark the separate days. When reading the long passages of Jesus teaching on Tuesday and Wednesday, it can be difficult to work out which teachings happened on which days. It’s not uncommon for writers to do this and does not mean there is a contradiction.
On this Wednesday evening, it would be the last night He was to stay in Bethany, so they were having dinner again. A woman came and poured a jar of pure nard on Jesus' head. This is not the same event as the day Mary poured nard on Jesus’ feet. After this dinner, Judas goes to visit the Jewish leaders and agrees to betray Jesus.
On Thursday, the 13th, the whole group goes to Jerusalem. Now you must remember that the days were counted from twilight to twilight. The first thing you did, when the new day came, would be to have supper. The Passover supper, or the Last Supper, would occur on what we call Thursday Evening (and they would call Friday, Nisan 14, Passover). During the afternoon though, when it was still considered Thursday, Jesus sent his disciples into town to rent a room for Supper and to stay for several days, until the Festival was over. This is not the meal where they would eat the Passover Lamb, but it was called the Passover meal.
From the time of that infamous meal, the events of the next 24 hours are laid out quite clearly. They eat their meal and in the middle Judas leaves to meet the Jewish leaders. Jesus and the Eleven remaining Disciples go off to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. While they are there, Judas comes with a small army and greets Him with a kiss in betrayal. Jesus allows himself to be arrested and he is taken away to the home of Annas, father-in-law of the High Priest. They stayed there all night, with various people giving false testimonies against Jesus, but their statements did not agree with each other. This is where Peter famously denies Jesus.
Jesus was then passed around from Annas to Caiaphas to Pilate to Herod and back to Pilate. As all the important people lived in close quarters, near the temple, this did not take long. Jesus was flogged and the people demanded that he be crucified. And so he was, at about noon.
At 3:00, the bible clearly records that Jesus shouted, It Is Finished, and then died. At that moment, there was an earthquake. The veil in the temple was torn in two, from the top to the bottom. Everything was in disarray. Here is what was supposed to happen. At 9:00 in the morning, the Priests would begin slaughtering the Passover Lambs as the people brought them in. They would enter the temple in up to three groups. First come, first serve, as we would say. You were expected to come early. If you did not make it in time, missing the first two groups of people entering the courts, you had to go in the last group and it was called the Group of the Lazy. Then, by 3:00 pm, the High Priest would sacrifice the lamb that was for the whole Nation, the last one of the day, and he would shout, It Is Finished. Again, Jesus stole his thunder.
It is interesting to note that Christians celebrate the Triumphal Entry of Jesus on a Sunday and then, they have officially declared there to be a silent day during the week when nothing happened. There was no silent day, but the Triumphal Entry happened on a Monday. It is not a problem to celebrate this on a Sunday, but just know that there was no silent day.
The Gospels, taken together, lay out the events of six consecutive days. What would happen if we take on the argument that Jesus died on what we call Thursday and not Friday? Well we would have to slide our six day block back one day. That would put Jesus and his company travelling thirteen miles on the Sabbath. That would not have happened. For this holiday, they would be required to present their lambs on the 10th, so they would arrive on the 9th, near Jerusalem. In a year where the 9th is a Sabbath, they would arrive earlier.
Back in 1984, Oxford scientists Colin J. Humphreys and W.G. Waddington, presented evidence that on April 3, 33 AD there was both a lunar eclipse, visible from Jerusalem, and a huge sandstorm that made the sky dark and the eclipse to appear blood red. The science of this day matches with scripture.
So, what happened after that? As we noted earlier, Mark tells us that Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus before it got dark and the Sabbath started. He and Nicodemus took the body to Joseph’ tomb, washed it and placed it inside. The women of Jesus’ company looked on from outside the tomb. Then they all went home to eat the Passover lamb and rest for the Sabbath. I imagine that was a pretty sombre affair.
The day after Jesus died was Nisan 15th, and it was the First Day of Unleavened Bread and it happened to be a Sabbath. The Jews had to eat unleavened bread for the seven days of the Unleavened Bread festival. As leaven is a symbol of sin, this was a picture of Jesus’ sinless life.
The High Priest, Caiaphas, had an interesting job to do. His lamb would have been cooked in the ovens beneath the temple and eaten there as well. He would then go alone out of the city, in secret, to the field owned by the Temple where the barley grew. He would find the best portion of grain and tie off the chosen section with a cord. This was to be the official offering of the nation on Sunday morning, the Feast of Firstfruits. Matthew records that when Jesus died, there was an earthquake, the tombs broke open and many holy people were raised to life. They came out of the tombs on Sunday after Jesus did. Just as the High Priest guarded his offering to the Lord during that Sabbath, Jesus guarded those who had risen from the dead when he died. On Sunday, they would appear in Jerusalem while the Priests were waving the sheafs of the people. This is why Paul calls Jesus the Firstfruits of those who rose from the dead.
Once the Sabbath was over in the evening, the people would go out of the city, in a big procession to join the High Priest in the barley field for a ceremony. Caiaphas would ask the people three times if the sacrifice was good and if he should cut the grain. After cutting the grain, everyone would go back to the city and prepare. The people were required to bring sacrifices from their own fields, or buy some from nearby. First, they took some of the barley and ground it to make bread. Then they took a bunch of barley stocks and tied them in a sheaf. These would be waved before the Lord in the temple in the morning. Along with the bread they would bring wine and a lamb. This offering was called a Bikkurim.
On the third day was the Feast of Firstfruits. There was a parade through town. Emissaries from all the cities or districts in Israel would come and bring their offerings. These would be farmers. The artisans that lived in the city lined the streets and welcomed each group that arrived. The point was supposed to be for each group, city folk and country folk, to remember that they each relied on each other. Welcome to our brothers from Jericho, Welcome to our brothers from Bethlehem. And so on. King Herod was known to march in the parade carrying his own offerings to present at the temple. The people would each bring their offering to the Priest, who would wave the offering before the Lord. The temple choir would sing from Psalms 30.
Read Psalms 30 out loud. Then realise that this was all happening when Jesus rose from the dead.
I think that’s a great place to end this article, but it leaves out the big argument of the three days. How do you get three days from Friday to Sunday? The first thing to remember is that there was no concept of zero at this time. That is a really hard thing to wrap your mind around. The day of an event was the first day.
A second thing to know is how the Jews named their days. They were literally named One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Sabbath. When they said, on the third day, it was the same as what we call, the day after tomorrow.
Another thing to remember is that we are usually trying to reason this out in English, from a modern standpoint.
In three days
After three days
On the third day
Three days and three nights.
The one thing we know, from the scriptures, is that these phrases were all used in regards to the Resurrection. They all mean the same thing. Therefore, the argument about what they mean to us, now, in English, is moot.
So there are our reasons for using April 3, 33 AD in our book. In later articles, I will talk about how this date matches up with other events in scripture and history.
Oxford Scholars Consult the Stars to Date Crucifixion to 33 A.D. - The Washington Post
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