wales@cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) (05/27/91)
In article <May.26.02.26.54.1991.14077@athos.rutgers.edu> John_Graves@cellbio.duke.edu (John Graves) writes: This is not to question either but rather to ask which years in the 30 - 40 CE period did Passover fall on a Wednesday evening? It's impossible to be 100% sure, since we can't say with absolute cer- tainty which early crescent moons would or would not have been visible from Jerusalem (due to weather conditions, etc.). However, according to calculations I did a few years ago (while attempt- ing to double-check various published research which has attempted to date the crucifixion), the only year between AD 26 and AD 37 in which Passover =probably= started on a Wednesday evening is AD 34 (March 24). Advocates of a Wednesday crucifixion may also be interested in the pos- sible Tuesday evening Passovers of AD 28, 31, and 35. Here's a complete list of the most likely Passover dates from AD 26-37. (Hopefully I didn't make any errors transcribing from my notes.) AD 26: Sat Mar 23 (maybe Fri Mar 22) AD 27: Fri Apr 11 (maybe Thu Apr 10) AD 28: Tue Mar 30 AD 29: Mon Apr 18 AD 30: Fri Apr 7 AD 31: Tue Mar 27 AD 32: Mon Apr 14 AD 33: Fri Apr 3 AD 34: Wed Mar 24 AD 35: Tue Apr 12 AD 36: Sat Mar 31 (maybe Sun Apr 1) AD 37: Fri Apr 19 (maybe Thu Mar 21) All the above dates are with respect to a Julian calendar in which the day begins at midnight and the year begins on January 1. To get the corresponding dates in our present-day Gregorian calendar, go back two days -- e.g., March 24 (Julian) -> March 22 (Gregorian). Again, let me emphasize that the above dates are not absolutely reli- able (though I think they are pretty good). (1) Since the start of each month in 1st-century Judea was determined by actual eyewitness reports of the sighting of each lunar crescent (the current, precisely systematized form of the Jewish calendar didn't come into use until several centuries later), we can only make a very good guess as to how soon the crescent would have been visible after a given New Moon. Unpredictable weather conditions could have made an otherwise visible crescent not observable -- or exceptionally clear conditions could even have made it possible to see a crescent that would normally not have been noticed. The best model for predicting visibility of the new crescent moon, to my knowledge, has been done by Dr. Bradley Schaefer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. However, the last I had heard, Dr. Schaefer had decided to keep the details of his algorithm confiden- tial and proprietary. The visibility model I used for the above calculations is probably not as good as Schaefer's. (2) Really bad weather over an extended period of time could have resulted in the announcement of a leap month (so as to repair roads and/or give grain extra time to grow before the sacrifice of the firstfruits after Passover). This would have delayed Passover by a month (29 or 30 days). However, most scholars consider the likeli- hood of such untimely delays to be small. I should also mention that this article of mine should =not= be inter- preted as =advocating= a Wednesday crucifixion date. I personally do not believe the New Testament supports a Wednesday date; I have no real problems with the theory that "a day and a night" was an idiom meaning any part of a single day. I may post a second article outlining my objections to the Wednesday theory in more detail, if I have time. -- Rich Wales <wales@CS.UCLA.EDU> // UCLA Computer Science Department 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (213) 825-5683
hudson@athena.cs.uga.edu (Paul Hudson Jr) (05/28/91)
Which passover does this refer to? The first or second sedar?
chl@cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) (06/03/91)
In <May.26.23.18.07.1991.24665@athos.rutgers.edu> wales@cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) writes: >Here's a complete list of the most likely Passover dates from AD 26-37. >(Hopefully I didn't make any errors transcribing from my notes.) > AD 26: Sat Mar 23 (maybe Fri Mar 22) > AD 27: Fri Apr 11 (maybe Thu Apr 10) > AD 28: Tue Mar 30 > AD 29: Mon Apr 18 > AD 30: Fri Apr 7 > AD 31: Tue Mar 27 > AD 32: Mon Apr 14 > AD 33: Fri Apr 3 > AD 34: Wed Mar 24 > AD 35: Tue Apr 12 > AD 36: Sat Mar 31 (maybe Sun Apr 1) > AD 37: Fri Apr 19 (maybe Thu Mar 21) The interesting thing about this list is that there is no Thursday in it (apart from a couple of 'maybes'). Not only does this remove the possibility of a Thursday crucifixtion (slightly more probable than the Wednesday theory IMHO), but it has a considerable bearing on the traditional Friday view. John's gospel seems to imply that the date of crucifixion was the preparation for the Passover (and also for the normal Sabath if it was a Friday). The synoptic gospels suggest (without making it entirely clear, as some posters claim) that the Last Supper was the Passover meal. But in that case the Last Supper was on a Thursday, and the table above shows that it could not have been so. Therefore the table gives strong evidence for St John's view of events. Perhaps someone else had better check the calculations carefully.