I decided to post this new Chronology on my Main Bible Blog, but I'll also promote it here.
https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2022/04/passion-week-chronology-completely.html
Showing posts with label Passover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Passover. Show all posts
Friday, April 8, 2022
Passion Week Chronology Completely Rethought
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Christmas in Spring theories
My time on this blog spent defending the position that Jesus was born in December or January has usually been focused on the Fall Feast days as the popular alternative (all three Seventh Month Holy Days have been proposed).
However there are some arguing for Spring being when Jesus was born. Arguing that His birth should be either the same day He was Crucified (14th Day of the First Month) or the same day He Rose (The Sunday that falls during Unleavened Break). Then a third option could be to just have Him born on the First day of the First Month, the New Year.
There are Rabbinic Traditions that say the major Patriarchs and Prophets were all born the same day they died. Another Rabbinic tradition possibly relevant is a tradition that says during the wandering it took nine months to build the Tabernacle, and Exodus 40 says the first day of the first month is the day the Tabernacle was completed. There is also Julius Africanus saying the Incarnation was on March 25th with dispute on if that means Birth or Conception.
One Biblical argument that can be brought up is the instruction that the Passover Lamb should be a year old (same with the Lamb Sacrificed on firstfruits in Leviticus 23:12), that can be interpreted as meaning as close as possible to exactly a year, meaning the Passover Lamb's Birthday should in theory be Passover of the prior year. This has also been used as evidence for Jesus ministry being exactly a year, which is a view I basically support but don't like to make that particular argument for it.
What reasons are there to favor one Spring theory over the others? If Jesus was born on the 14th then that makes his Circumcision the Seventh day of Unleavened Bread, the only major day of the Spring Feasts that doesn't have an obvious corespondent in the Passion Narrative, though I like to theorize that is when the Doubting Thomas story happened, and maybe the Resurrection of Old Testament Saints refereed to in Matthew 27:51-53.
A major reason for favoring Resurrection Day would be that makes the Ascension the anniversary of when Jesus was presented in The Temple as the 40th day, the one lynchpin day of the Passion-Pentecost narrative that doesn't have an obvious antecedent in Leviticus 23 and Exodus 12. There is also how Resurrection is often refereed to as like a Birth, from Isaiah 26's "the Earth shall give Birth to her Dead" to the arguments for being "Born Again" actually being about the Resurrection, further Capstoned by my connecting the Resurrection and Rapture of the Church to the Birth and Resurrection of the Man-Child in Revelation 12. In that model His Circumcision is on the Eight day of the Omer.
The Resurrection version is the most attractive. But also the easiest to discredit.
The thing about people making the Pilgrimage Festival requirements an argument agaisnt some Nativity models is that they often forget that only Joseph would actually have been required to be in Jerusalem, because only he was an adult male. So events where only Mary and the Baby Jesus are directly refereed to as being present somewhere other then Jerusalem could happen on a pilgrimage feast day. but Luke 2:16 clearly places Joseph in Bethlehem on the day Jesus was born.
Firstfurits is a day that is almsot certain to fall on one of the seven days of Unleavened Bread, the 15th through 21st of Abib.
Passover itself, the 14th, is mentioned in Deuteronomy 16, but it is still strictly speaking not one of the days every adult male is required to be in Jerusalem. People who live far from Jerusalem generally chose to travel to the area by this point. But Bethlehem is close enough that Joseph being there on the 14th was probably going to work out fine.
Actually a fourth spring option popped into my head when thinking of this. The 10th day of the first month being the day the Lamb is selected. We typically view the Triumphal entry as being that day even though it isn't directly stated to be, so it's like that was Jesus' final Birthday party. That would make His Circumcision the 17th day of the month, the day on which I prefer to place the Resurrection because it fits being the 3rd day of Unleavened Bread and it's relevance to Esther. Then his presentation in The Temple could equate to Lag BaOmer potentially.
So I'm open to this model, more so then I am the Fall Feasts, since there is arguably Spring imagery in mind in Simeon's Prophecy. But I'm currently still leaning towards a Kislev or Tevet model.
What about the rest of the Nativity chronology?
John the Baptist was born six months prior so in this model probably on or near a Fall Feast day. Which would then place the time frame of the events that open Luke's Narrative around Hanukkah. Again, one of the things that annoys me about those who are so vehemently anti-Christmas is that about that time of year is when part of the Nativity narrative happened almsot no mater what. But it's interesting how this model allows you to literally begin the Christmas narrative at Christmas.
The Conception of Jesus is then placed in the month of Tammuz, in June or July. On the one hand I find it a little weird for Jesus Conception to be a less significant time of year Biblically then John's. But I like to emphasize Jesus as the Sun of Righteousness so being Conceived near the Summer Solstice fits that. Maybe it also fits that Mary and Elizabeth were given reason to rejoice when Pagan Women were weeping for Tammuz and Adonis.
Because I've looked at the Young's Literal Translation of Matthew 2:1 I no longer think the Magi had to arrive in Jerusalem the exact same day Jesus was born. But I still reject saying it had to be two years later. Maybe you could make when they presented their gifts to Jesus the role Pentecost plays in the nativity narrative?
However there are some arguing for Spring being when Jesus was born. Arguing that His birth should be either the same day He was Crucified (14th Day of the First Month) or the same day He Rose (The Sunday that falls during Unleavened Break). Then a third option could be to just have Him born on the First day of the First Month, the New Year.
There are Rabbinic Traditions that say the major Patriarchs and Prophets were all born the same day they died. Another Rabbinic tradition possibly relevant is a tradition that says during the wandering it took nine months to build the Tabernacle, and Exodus 40 says the first day of the first month is the day the Tabernacle was completed. There is also Julius Africanus saying the Incarnation was on March 25th with dispute on if that means Birth or Conception.
One Biblical argument that can be brought up is the instruction that the Passover Lamb should be a year old (same with the Lamb Sacrificed on firstfruits in Leviticus 23:12), that can be interpreted as meaning as close as possible to exactly a year, meaning the Passover Lamb's Birthday should in theory be Passover of the prior year. This has also been used as evidence for Jesus ministry being exactly a year, which is a view I basically support but don't like to make that particular argument for it.
What reasons are there to favor one Spring theory over the others? If Jesus was born on the 14th then that makes his Circumcision the Seventh day of Unleavened Bread, the only major day of the Spring Feasts that doesn't have an obvious corespondent in the Passion Narrative, though I like to theorize that is when the Doubting Thomas story happened, and maybe the Resurrection of Old Testament Saints refereed to in Matthew 27:51-53.
A major reason for favoring Resurrection Day would be that makes the Ascension the anniversary of when Jesus was presented in The Temple as the 40th day, the one lynchpin day of the Passion-Pentecost narrative that doesn't have an obvious antecedent in Leviticus 23 and Exodus 12. There is also how Resurrection is often refereed to as like a Birth, from Isaiah 26's "the Earth shall give Birth to her Dead" to the arguments for being "Born Again" actually being about the Resurrection, further Capstoned by my connecting the Resurrection and Rapture of the Church to the Birth and Resurrection of the Man-Child in Revelation 12. In that model His Circumcision is on the Eight day of the Omer.
The Resurrection version is the most attractive. But also the easiest to discredit.
The thing about people making the Pilgrimage Festival requirements an argument agaisnt some Nativity models is that they often forget that only Joseph would actually have been required to be in Jerusalem, because only he was an adult male. So events where only Mary and the Baby Jesus are directly refereed to as being present somewhere other then Jerusalem could happen on a pilgrimage feast day. but Luke 2:16 clearly places Joseph in Bethlehem on the day Jesus was born.
Firstfurits is a day that is almsot certain to fall on one of the seven days of Unleavened Bread, the 15th through 21st of Abib.
Passover itself, the 14th, is mentioned in Deuteronomy 16, but it is still strictly speaking not one of the days every adult male is required to be in Jerusalem. People who live far from Jerusalem generally chose to travel to the area by this point. But Bethlehem is close enough that Joseph being there on the 14th was probably going to work out fine.
Actually a fourth spring option popped into my head when thinking of this. The 10th day of the first month being the day the Lamb is selected. We typically view the Triumphal entry as being that day even though it isn't directly stated to be, so it's like that was Jesus' final Birthday party. That would make His Circumcision the 17th day of the month, the day on which I prefer to place the Resurrection because it fits being the 3rd day of Unleavened Bread and it's relevance to Esther. Then his presentation in The Temple could equate to Lag BaOmer potentially.
So I'm open to this model, more so then I am the Fall Feasts, since there is arguably Spring imagery in mind in Simeon's Prophecy. But I'm currently still leaning towards a Kislev or Tevet model.
What about the rest of the Nativity chronology?
John the Baptist was born six months prior so in this model probably on or near a Fall Feast day. Which would then place the time frame of the events that open Luke's Narrative around Hanukkah. Again, one of the things that annoys me about those who are so vehemently anti-Christmas is that about that time of year is when part of the Nativity narrative happened almsot no mater what. But it's interesting how this model allows you to literally begin the Christmas narrative at Christmas.
The Conception of Jesus is then placed in the month of Tammuz, in June or July. On the one hand I find it a little weird for Jesus Conception to be a less significant time of year Biblically then John's. But I like to emphasize Jesus as the Sun of Righteousness so being Conceived near the Summer Solstice fits that. Maybe it also fits that Mary and Elizabeth were given reason to rejoice when Pagan Women were weeping for Tammuz and Adonis.
Because I've looked at the Young's Literal Translation of Matthew 2:1 I no longer think the Magi had to arrive in Jerusalem the exact same day Jesus was born. But I still reject saying it had to be two years later. Maybe you could make when they presented their gifts to Jesus the role Pentecost plays in the nativity narrative?
Update December 25th 2023: I'm adding to this post even though I've retired this Blog because I felt I needed to add something.
My new theory about the Passion Week, would place Resurrection Day the day after the Seven Day Pilgrimage is over on the 22nd of Aviv. Meanwhile John 20:26 potentially places the Doubting Thomas incident on the anniversary of The Circumcision one week later which can make Thematic sense because of of that story's focus on the Wounds of Jesus.
And so if we place the visit of the Magi not two years later but still after the Presentation in The Temple on Ascension Day, perhaps Pentecost makes sense?
Monday, December 16, 2019
I'm starting to think the Biblical Day does begin at Sunrise
I still stand by my post arguing agaisnt the Lunar Calendar. But at the time I made that I still agreed with days beginning at Sunset.
Then I discovered some websites like these.
I am not at this time endorsing anything else on those sites. But the first one I notice does support a Rapture view similar to mine in being at the 7th Trumpet and before the Bowls. That site however is still assuming a Lunar Calendar for determining the Months, which I am now highly skeptical of. I also probably do not agree with their Passion Week chronology.
Both argue that during the Creation Week, the Day is when God does the work, and at the end of each day it describes the times of Sunset and Sunrise (evening and morning) following. The first act of Creation is the creation of Light, which thematically supports the day beginning at Sunrise. Then in Genesis 1:5, 15-16 and 18 the Day is listed before the Night. Like many other times later on when referring to "forty days and forty nights" or "three days and three nights", in fact almost any time you see "nights" plural, and there are 27 verses that refer to "day and night". Also the Sun is always listed before the moon in verses like Genesis 37:9, Deuteronomy 4:19. 17:3 and 33:14. And in Numbers 28 the daily sacrifices are listed as morning first then evening.
In Leviticus 23 a few things make more sense when you remove the Sunset to Sunset based assumptions. And this is the most important chapter to understanding the Torah Calendar.
What's said about the 14th of Nisan and Passover when compared to Exodus 12 and other Passover passages is a lot less confusing if the days begin and end at sunrise, since then the evening is the middle of the day.
But the Yom Kippur instructions are what's really revealing. The Day of Atonement is the Tenth day of the Seventh Month, that was determined already back in chapter 16. But in verse 32 the Ninth Day is mentioned for some reason. What the verse seems to be saying is this 24 hour period that functions like a Sabbath begins at the Sunset of the 9th and ends the next Sunset. The emphasis on that here clearly implying that's not when actual calendar days begin and end.
I have argued in the past agaisnt viewing Yom Kippur as a Fast day. But this understanding of verse 32 can negate my main argument, since it can allow the Fast to be from Sunset of the 9th to the Sunset of the 10th so that in the Evening of the 10th you eat the meat of Sacrificed Animals, similar to how the 14th as Passover works in this model.
Likewise is Exodus 12:18, everywhere else the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread are 15-21 of the first month, but in this passage it includes the Evening of the 14th.
This also explains how confused the Rabbinic Jewish observance of Passover is. While Deuteronomy 16 and Ezekiel 45 provide Hebrew Bible precedent for expanding the use of the word Passover to cover the entire seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread, the change to a Sunset based observance causing the Evening of the 14th to become the Evening of the 15th explained why Rabbinic observance basically forgets that the 14th is Passover. Rabbinic tradition does call the 14th the Fast of the Firstborn. Originally that was clearly tied to the 14th being the day the Egyptian First Born were killed and Israel's spared, but that is supposed to be happening during the Seder so the Sunset based reckoning now has that happening on the 15th so why the 14th is called the Fast of the Firstborn is something the Rabbis struggle to explain.
Speaking of Rabbinic tradition, Fasts are still traditionally supposed to begin at Sunrise, so that sounds like a carry over from the original reckoning.
1 Samuel 30:17 also arguably makes more sense on a Sunrise to Sunrise calendar.
It also mirrors the Torah year better. Biblically the year begins in Spring, and Dawn is essentially the Spring of the day, hence Sunrise sometimes being refereed to as "dayspring".
1 Samuel 30:17 also arguably makes more sense on a Sunrise to Sunrise calendar.
It also mirrors the Torah year better. Biblically the year begins in Spring, and Dawn is essentially the Spring of the day, hence Sunrise sometimes being refereed to as "dayspring".
Malachi says Jesus is the Sun of Righteousness, and the Fourth Gospel says He is the Light, and Peter calls Him the Lightbearer, there is also the Womb of the Morning reference in Psalm 110. Revelation says Jesus is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega. So the day beginning and ending with Sunrise fits that typological pattern.
Which then leads to overlooked details of the Passion narrative. Matthew 27:57 and Mark 15:42 depict the evening following the Crucifixion as still the day before The Sabbath. And John 20:19 depicts the Evening following when Jesus had Risen and been seen Risen as still the First Day of The Week.
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Maybe the Torah's Calendar was never a Lunar or Lunisolar Calendar?
First some terminology clarification. The traditional Rabbinic Hebrew Calendar we're used to calling a Lunar Calendar is strictly speaking a Lunisolar Calendar, the phases of the Moon come first but synchronization is done with a Solar year so the seasons don't drift out of place. The same is true of the popular variants I've discussed already like the Samaritan Calendar, the Kariate reckoning and the proposed Lunar Sabbath model. A strictly Lunar Calendar would be something like the Islamic Calendar which makes no attempt to reconcile and so Ramadan has fallen all over the Gregorian Calendar.
But I've lately been questioning the traditional assumption that the Torah's Calendar is Lunar at all.
Let's start with the fact that the Torah has completely different words for Month and Moon, that is not what I'd expect from an ancient strictly Lunar month based culture. Month is Chodesh/Hodesh (Strongs Number 2320) while Moon is Jerah/Yerach (3394). There are a few places where the latter word is used of a passage of time, but that's because even without a lunar calendar the concept of a month is still tied poetically to the Moon somewhat as it's phases come at least close.
Japan for example had a Lunar Calendar until 1873, and that's why their language uses the same word for both Month and Moon, Tsuki. That's why in the English version of episode 6 of my favorite Anime, Noir, it sounds weird when Mireille says "so many Months and Years have passed", in a language where all the word "month" means is a fraction of a year my mind goes "why even include months in that expression?". But I'm pretty sure in the Japanese she's saying "so many Tsuki and Hi", Hi being an alternate word for both Sun and Year and sometimes Day. So a more poetic yet equally literal translation would be "so many Moons and Suns have passed" which sounds more right even if technically equally as redundant.
The phrase "Rosh Chodesh" gets translated "New Moon" sometimes because of our traditional assumptions, but Rosh means the beginning or head of something not quite "New". Colossians 2:16 is the one New Testament reference to the Jewish concept of the "Rosh Chodesh", and it again uses a Greek word for Month, not Selene the word for the Moon.
Because we think of it as the Crescent New Moon so much talk about Rosh Chodesh is spent on saying we don't know for certain exactly when it is till it happens. With Dispensationalists saying it typologically fits the Pre-Trib Rapture and "no man knowth the day or the hour" verses. But there is one clear Biblical reference to people knowing for certain the next day is a Rosh Chodesh, 1 Samuel 20:5.
The Torah never talks about the Full Moon, even in regards to the Holy Days that should happen about then on a Lunar or Lunisolar calendar. Two verses elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible are often translated as referring to the Full Moon, but those are highly disputable as I've discussed before. For Psalm 81 I don't know how to translate it but my hunch is it's about the Jubilee Yom Kippur sounded Shofar. The word for "feast" used here is sometimes used of Sacrificial animals like Exodus 23:18, Psalm 118:27 and Isaiah 29:1, so that could be the Yom Kippur Sin Offering in this verse. The root of the word thought to refer to the Full Moon appears in Leviticus 16:13 where it's translated "cover".
And then there is all the evidence that The Bible clearly thinks of a Month as being 30 days not 29 and a half. It's there when you do the math of the Flood chronology of Genesis 7 and 8 with 5 months being exactly 150 days beginning on the 17th of the second month and ending on the 17th of the seventh month. And it's also in Revelation with 42 Months, 1,260 days and three and a half years being treated as synonymous time periods.
However there is one thing often taken as evidence for a 365 day year in the Torah, and that is how that number happens to be the number of years Enoch lived. But that could be a coincidence.
Genesis 1:14-19 discuses the Sun (greater light), Moon (lesser light) and stars being made for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. But you'll notice in verse 16 the Sun is made and talked about first, it has priority. And months are seemingly missing from the discussion.
It is well known that the Hebrew Calendar was influenced by the Babylonian Calendar during the Captivity, the names we're now used to calling the months come from Babylon for one thing. Well the thing is Babylon had a Lunisolar Calendar, so even that aspect of it could be Babylonian in origin.
Lunar Calendars were more popular with the ancient Pagans then you might expect given the modern popular narrative that ancient Paganism always started with Sun worship. In fact the most prominent not at all Lunar Calendar used by Pagans in classical antiquity was the Civil Egyptian calendar, but even they originally had a Lunar one which they kept using for ceremonial purposes. Actually even in Greece the Attic Lunar Calender's main purpose was for how they observed Pagan festivals.
Now as much as we love to see all things Egyptian as bad, it wasn't the Egyptians much of the Torah is telling the Israelites not to be like, it was the Canaanites, (When Jerusalem is derogatorily called "Sodom and Egypt" it's about them being inhospitable to strangers not any particular customs.). One of the Canaanite tribes was the Amorites, Babylon first became a major player in Mesopotamia under it's Amorite dynasty, so that Babylonian calendar could be Canaanite in origin.
There is one indisputable difference between the Torah Calendar and the Civil Egyptian Calendar, and that is when to start it. Exodus 12 proclaims Aviv (the time of the Barley Harvest, early Spring) to be the first month while the Egyptian Calendar starts near the Autumnal Equinox.
It is a common traditional conjecture that before Exodus 12 the first season was Fall rather then Spring, and that in Exodus 12 YHWH is swapping the First and Seventh months. I'd been thinking of making a post on how we can't entirely prove that using Scripture alone and so shouldn't build so many theories on it. But since they were in Egypt for several generations it's very possible the Egyptian Calendar was their starting point and what month to make the first month was the only change YHWH is making in Exodus 12. Though different agricultural and climate circumstances in Canaan probably brought further differences, the Egyptian Calendar was organized around 3 seasons rather then 4 because of how much they were ruled by the flooding of the Nile.
In a hypothetical Torah based Solar Calendar the Intercalary month of five or six days (if that was the method used for synchronization) would go between Adar and Nisan rather then in September. (BTW, those 5 days were when the Egyptians observed the birthdays of Osiris and Horus, not anywhere near Christmas. And the Egyptian new year was September 11th on our calendar coincidentally enough.) Or maybe you would try to put them before the Seventh Month to keep Yom Teruah close to the Fall Equinox.
Genesis 1:14 is possibly using Signs in place of Months, I have over the years gone back and forth on the Mazzaroth/Gospel in the Stars theory. Maybe fellow Mazzaroth proponents like Rob Skiba should consider that the Star Signs can be an alternative to the Moon for how to determine the months of the year. Josephus did refer to Nisan as being when the Sun is in Aries, in the first century the Sun entered Aries around the Spring Equinox, and that month is indeed when the Barley Harvest happens. The Romans had a Seven Day Barley Festival similar to Unleavened Bread that was the 12-18th of April, but due to the awkwardness of Caesar's revisions that may be off from when in the Sun's journey it was supposed to be.
It is popular to theorize that Revelation 12:1 is describing some astronomical alignment involving the Moon. If it is it could be an exception and not proof the months are usually defined by the Moon. But I'm skeptical of that altogether, I think it's probably a purely supernatural vision and not something predictable using Stelarrium.
Now I do believe the Passover through Pentecost of Christ's Passion, Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit was likely based on what the Jews of the time were doing regardless of if it was still accurate. But it may be it happened to be a year when they did line up, or at least close enough that First Fruits was the right Sunday. Since I favor 30 AD and a Thursday Crucifixion on the 14th of Nisan followed by a Sunday Resurrection on the 17th of Nisan, I have long placed the Passion on the 6th of April 30 AD and The Resurrection of the 9th.
But maybe not all the Jews were already using the Babylonian Calendar in Christ's time? Maybe it was originally mainly the Pharisees, who became the only sect to survive the 70 AD war? It was the Sadducees who actually controlled the Priesthood and The Temple, and according to Josephus they were a Torah only sect.
The Qumran Community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls also rejected the Lunar Calendar, the Temple Scroll is our main source on their Calendar but it's discussed in other scrolls too. I don't think that Calendar is right either, like the Lunar Sabbath model it wants to synchronize the monthly and yearly cycle to the weekly cycle by giving every 3rd month an extra day creating a 364 day year. As I've talked about before the language in Leviticus 23 about Firs Fruits and Pentecost is clearly assuming they won't always line up. They make the first day of the year a Wednesday because that was the day the Sun and Moon were created. But at least they correctly placed First Fruits and Pentecost on Sundays. Weeks are not even remotely mentioned in the Genesis 1 account of the fourth day, so they aren't connected to the sun, moon or stars.
The Book of Jubilees was popular with them because it too rejected the Lunar Calendar (Chapter 6 verses 32-37). Something I bet Rob Skiba didn't notice when using the book for his agendas (This Calendar also seems to be endorsed by Enoch 72-82). But indeed Jubilees has the same problem as the Temple Scroll system. In fact it's criticism of the lunar system is a little hypocritical since it doesn't line up perfectly with the seasons either, being one day short of a solar year will inevitably create the same issue even if it'd take longer.
The Hebrew Roots movement has a lot of irrational fear of Sun Worship wrapped up into it. Obviously actually worshiping the actual Sun or Moon or any other inanimate object is a Sin. But Malachi does call Jesus the Sun(Shamash) of Righteousness, there is no equivalent title making the Moon a symbol of Jesus. So I have no problem believing Jesus Rose from The Grave at Sunrise on a Sunday Morning, or that he was born on or soon after the Winter Solstice. I'd rather base my calendar on the astronomical object that is explicitly a symbol of Jesus then one that is not and was frequently the basis for Pagan ceremonial calendars.
You might ask "are you gonna also question if Biblical days begin and end with Sunset?" Well I did consider it, but I concluded that they do. Genesis 1 lists them as Evenings and Mornings, and later Torah verses after Exodus 13 do the same, like Exodus 16 which is also the proper origin of the Sabbath. Also Exodus 27:21 and Leviticus 24:3. Instead I'm just going to point out that even that is also determined by the the Sun, when the Sun sets. [Update: on this paragraph I've had a change of mind since.]
But I'm not just disagreeing with the current Hebrew Roots movement here. This may shock you to learn but the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other mainstream Christian Churches do use the Moon to calculate "Easter". It's just that explaining why it doesn't always line up with Rabbinic Passover is complicated. In most Languages "Easter" is just called Pascha. If Catholic "Easter" was just a Christianized Spring Solstice festival as many allege it would consistently happen in the 20s of March.
Also remember that as a Six-Day Young Earth Creationist I do believe originally the Solar and Lunar cycles were in sync and there was no need to choose between them. I think that was the case at least until the Flood but maybe also till the time of Joshua or even Hezekiah.
I'm not ready to propose a specific calendar model just yet. I merely want to open up this line of discussion.
Or maybe I am. But take everything below with a grain of salt, it's all stuff I could easily abandon. What I've talked about above is the point of this post.
But I've lately been questioning the traditional assumption that the Torah's Calendar is Lunar at all.
Let's start with the fact that the Torah has completely different words for Month and Moon, that is not what I'd expect from an ancient strictly Lunar month based culture. Month is Chodesh/Hodesh (Strongs Number 2320) while Moon is Jerah/Yerach (3394). There are a few places where the latter word is used of a passage of time, but that's because even without a lunar calendar the concept of a month is still tied poetically to the Moon somewhat as it's phases come at least close.
Japan for example had a Lunar Calendar until 1873, and that's why their language uses the same word for both Month and Moon, Tsuki. That's why in the English version of episode 6 of my favorite Anime, Noir, it sounds weird when Mireille says "so many Months and Years have passed", in a language where all the word "month" means is a fraction of a year my mind goes "why even include months in that expression?". But I'm pretty sure in the Japanese she's saying "so many Tsuki and Hi", Hi being an alternate word for both Sun and Year and sometimes Day. So a more poetic yet equally literal translation would be "so many Moons and Suns have passed" which sounds more right even if technically equally as redundant.
The phrase "Rosh Chodesh" gets translated "New Moon" sometimes because of our traditional assumptions, but Rosh means the beginning or head of something not quite "New". Colossians 2:16 is the one New Testament reference to the Jewish concept of the "Rosh Chodesh", and it again uses a Greek word for Month, not Selene the word for the Moon.
Because we think of it as the Crescent New Moon so much talk about Rosh Chodesh is spent on saying we don't know for certain exactly when it is till it happens. With Dispensationalists saying it typologically fits the Pre-Trib Rapture and "no man knowth the day or the hour" verses. But there is one clear Biblical reference to people knowing for certain the next day is a Rosh Chodesh, 1 Samuel 20:5.
The Torah never talks about the Full Moon, even in regards to the Holy Days that should happen about then on a Lunar or Lunisolar calendar. Two verses elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible are often translated as referring to the Full Moon, but those are highly disputable as I've discussed before. For Psalm 81 I don't know how to translate it but my hunch is it's about the Jubilee Yom Kippur sounded Shofar. The word for "feast" used here is sometimes used of Sacrificial animals like Exodus 23:18, Psalm 118:27 and Isaiah 29:1, so that could be the Yom Kippur Sin Offering in this verse. The root of the word thought to refer to the Full Moon appears in Leviticus 16:13 where it's translated "cover".
And then there is all the evidence that The Bible clearly thinks of a Month as being 30 days not 29 and a half. It's there when you do the math of the Flood chronology of Genesis 7 and 8 with 5 months being exactly 150 days beginning on the 17th of the second month and ending on the 17th of the seventh month. And it's also in Revelation with 42 Months, 1,260 days and three and a half years being treated as synonymous time periods.
However there is one thing often taken as evidence for a 365 day year in the Torah, and that is how that number happens to be the number of years Enoch lived. But that could be a coincidence.
Genesis 1:14-19 discuses the Sun (greater light), Moon (lesser light) and stars being made for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. But you'll notice in verse 16 the Sun is made and talked about first, it has priority. And months are seemingly missing from the discussion.
It is well known that the Hebrew Calendar was influenced by the Babylonian Calendar during the Captivity, the names we're now used to calling the months come from Babylon for one thing. Well the thing is Babylon had a Lunisolar Calendar, so even that aspect of it could be Babylonian in origin.
Lunar Calendars were more popular with the ancient Pagans then you might expect given the modern popular narrative that ancient Paganism always started with Sun worship. In fact the most prominent not at all Lunar Calendar used by Pagans in classical antiquity was the Civil Egyptian calendar, but even they originally had a Lunar one which they kept using for ceremonial purposes. Actually even in Greece the Attic Lunar Calender's main purpose was for how they observed Pagan festivals.
Now as much as we love to see all things Egyptian as bad, it wasn't the Egyptians much of the Torah is telling the Israelites not to be like, it was the Canaanites, (When Jerusalem is derogatorily called "Sodom and Egypt" it's about them being inhospitable to strangers not any particular customs.). One of the Canaanite tribes was the Amorites, Babylon first became a major player in Mesopotamia under it's Amorite dynasty, so that Babylonian calendar could be Canaanite in origin.
There is one indisputable difference between the Torah Calendar and the Civil Egyptian Calendar, and that is when to start it. Exodus 12 proclaims Aviv (the time of the Barley Harvest, early Spring) to be the first month while the Egyptian Calendar starts near the Autumnal Equinox.
It is a common traditional conjecture that before Exodus 12 the first season was Fall rather then Spring, and that in Exodus 12 YHWH is swapping the First and Seventh months. I'd been thinking of making a post on how we can't entirely prove that using Scripture alone and so shouldn't build so many theories on it. But since they were in Egypt for several generations it's very possible the Egyptian Calendar was their starting point and what month to make the first month was the only change YHWH is making in Exodus 12. Though different agricultural and climate circumstances in Canaan probably brought further differences, the Egyptian Calendar was organized around 3 seasons rather then 4 because of how much they were ruled by the flooding of the Nile.
In a hypothetical Torah based Solar Calendar the Intercalary month of five or six days (if that was the method used for synchronization) would go between Adar and Nisan rather then in September. (BTW, those 5 days were when the Egyptians observed the birthdays of Osiris and Horus, not anywhere near Christmas. And the Egyptian new year was September 11th on our calendar coincidentally enough.) Or maybe you would try to put them before the Seventh Month to keep Yom Teruah close to the Fall Equinox.
Genesis 1:14 is possibly using Signs in place of Months, I have over the years gone back and forth on the Mazzaroth/Gospel in the Stars theory. Maybe fellow Mazzaroth proponents like Rob Skiba should consider that the Star Signs can be an alternative to the Moon for how to determine the months of the year. Josephus did refer to Nisan as being when the Sun is in Aries, in the first century the Sun entered Aries around the Spring Equinox, and that month is indeed when the Barley Harvest happens. The Romans had a Seven Day Barley Festival similar to Unleavened Bread that was the 12-18th of April, but due to the awkwardness of Caesar's revisions that may be off from when in the Sun's journey it was supposed to be.
It is popular to theorize that Revelation 12:1 is describing some astronomical alignment involving the Moon. If it is it could be an exception and not proof the months are usually defined by the Moon. But I'm skeptical of that altogether, I think it's probably a purely supernatural vision and not something predictable using Stelarrium.
Now I do believe the Passover through Pentecost of Christ's Passion, Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit was likely based on what the Jews of the time were doing regardless of if it was still accurate. But it may be it happened to be a year when they did line up, or at least close enough that First Fruits was the right Sunday. Since I favor 30 AD and a Thursday Crucifixion on the 14th of Nisan followed by a Sunday Resurrection on the 17th of Nisan, I have long placed the Passion on the 6th of April 30 AD and The Resurrection of the 9th.
But maybe not all the Jews were already using the Babylonian Calendar in Christ's time? Maybe it was originally mainly the Pharisees, who became the only sect to survive the 70 AD war? It was the Sadducees who actually controlled the Priesthood and The Temple, and according to Josephus they were a Torah only sect.
The Qumran Community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls also rejected the Lunar Calendar, the Temple Scroll is our main source on their Calendar but it's discussed in other scrolls too. I don't think that Calendar is right either, like the Lunar Sabbath model it wants to synchronize the monthly and yearly cycle to the weekly cycle by giving every 3rd month an extra day creating a 364 day year. As I've talked about before the language in Leviticus 23 about Firs Fruits and Pentecost is clearly assuming they won't always line up. They make the first day of the year a Wednesday because that was the day the Sun and Moon were created. But at least they correctly placed First Fruits and Pentecost on Sundays. Weeks are not even remotely mentioned in the Genesis 1 account of the fourth day, so they aren't connected to the sun, moon or stars.
The Book of Jubilees was popular with them because it too rejected the Lunar Calendar (Chapter 6 verses 32-37). Something I bet Rob Skiba didn't notice when using the book for his agendas (This Calendar also seems to be endorsed by Enoch 72-82). But indeed Jubilees has the same problem as the Temple Scroll system. In fact it's criticism of the lunar system is a little hypocritical since it doesn't line up perfectly with the seasons either, being one day short of a solar year will inevitably create the same issue even if it'd take longer.
The Hebrew Roots movement has a lot of irrational fear of Sun Worship wrapped up into it. Obviously actually worshiping the actual Sun or Moon or any other inanimate object is a Sin. But Malachi does call Jesus the Sun(Shamash) of Righteousness, there is no equivalent title making the Moon a symbol of Jesus. So I have no problem believing Jesus Rose from The Grave at Sunrise on a Sunday Morning, or that he was born on or soon after the Winter Solstice. I'd rather base my calendar on the astronomical object that is explicitly a symbol of Jesus then one that is not and was frequently the basis for Pagan ceremonial calendars.
You might ask "are you gonna also question if Biblical days begin and end with Sunset?" Well I did consider it, but I concluded that they do. Genesis 1 lists them as Evenings and Mornings, and later Torah verses after Exodus 13 do the same, like Exodus 16 which is also the proper origin of the Sabbath. Also Exodus 27:21 and Leviticus 24:3. Instead I'm just going to point out that even that is also determined by the the Sun, when the Sun sets. [Update: on this paragraph I've had a change of mind since.]
But I'm not just disagreeing with the current Hebrew Roots movement here. This may shock you to learn but the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other mainstream Christian Churches do use the Moon to calculate "Easter". It's just that explaining why it doesn't always line up with Rabbinic Passover is complicated. In most Languages "Easter" is just called Pascha. If Catholic "Easter" was just a Christianized Spring Solstice festival as many allege it would consistently happen in the 20s of March.
Also remember that as a Six-Day Young Earth Creationist I do believe originally the Solar and Lunar cycles were in sync and there was no need to choose between them. I think that was the case at least until the Flood but maybe also till the time of Joshua or even Hezekiah.
I'm not ready to propose a specific calendar model just yet. I merely want to open up this line of discussion.
Or maybe I am. But take everything below with a grain of salt, it's all stuff I could easily abandon. What I've talked about above is the point of this post.
In Fact ignore everything below, I've revamped it all here.
[Update 2023: I have an even newer idea to add.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Debates about when to celebrate "Easter".
First, a reminder that "Easter" is a word used only in English and other Germanic languages. All of the Greek and Latin speaking ancients I'm about to talk about actually said "Pascha" everywhere modern English discussions/translations of them like Wikipedia say "Easter".
Also, by the First Century the word Peshach/Pascha was being used for all the Nisan Holy Days together and not just 14th which is the Proper Torah terminology, but this looser application is perhaps anticipated by Ezekiel 45 21-24. That's why in Acts 12 it's still Pascha after the Days of Unleavened Bread have started.
First I want to discuss how the Quartodecimanism debate that went on in the Second Century was not the same thing as the arguments modern Hebrew Roots/Torah Observant Christians have with mainstream Western Christianity, or even the same thing as the debate that was had at the Council of Nicaea.
Both sides of the original Quartodeciman controversy were using the same calendar, and it seems like it was a lunar Calendar, if it was exactly the same Calendar the Jews of the time were using or not I don't know for sure but I think it probably was. The debate was about whether the main celebration (Feast being the word used) should be on the 14th of Nisan (the position of the Quartodecimans) or the following Sunday which seems to be what most Christians were doing. The Sunday observers fasted through the 14th till Sunday morning.
It wasn't a debate between two entirely different methods of when to calculate anything, but a debate about whether the day Jesus was Crucified, or the Day He Rose from the Dead should be the day of the Feast. Or in the context of Leviticus 23, Exodus 12 and Numbers 28, the day the Passover Lamb is killed or First Fruits, which is always on the morning after the Sabbath hence Sunday.
Modern Torah observant Christians often assume the Quartodecimans were the ones on their side of the dispute, and anyone who wanted to do anything but hide under their beds on a Sunday must have been closet Pagan sun worshipers.
The truth is both sides of the dispute were adding to the Torah by seeing a full Fast as being required at all. But if you read Leviticus 23 more closely, specifically verses 9 through 14 which are about First Fruits. Verse 14 says.
Melito of Sardis' Passover teaching clearly teaches the Torah being done away with, so no the Quartodecimans were not the Hebrew Roots people of their time.
To Christians the two most important events in history are the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I would argue that the Resurrection is more important, in the Sermon on Mar's Hill in Acts 17 Paul's presentation of The Gospel to a gentile audience does not directly refer to the Death of Jesus at all, but the climax is definitely The Resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul refers to both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection at the beginning, but the rest of the chapter is primarily about the Resurrection.
Crucifixion Day is a day to mourn (which is often an appropriate time to Fast in Jewish thought), The Resurrection is what we celebrate.
Polycrates_of_Ephesus defended the Quartodeciman position by citing the long established traditions of the Churches in Asia. But I've already talked about how The Bible itself gives us reasons to suspect that region was where things first started going wrong.
The debate about Easter at the Council of Nicaea is also highly misunderstood. This debate was only about first if Christians should use the same Lunar Calendar as the Jews, and then if all Churches should use the same calendar. There was not even any disagreement that it should be a Lunisolar Calendar.
The Council's final decision was that it should be determined independent of the Jewish calendar, and that there should be a universal agreement. But what that final calendar was took a long time to form.
And it wasn't till centuries later that the Roman Church started making a deliberate effort to make sure Christian Passover never lines up with Jewish Passover, doing that is arguably just as much in violation of Nicaea's decision as adopting the Jewish reckoning would be, since that's not a truly independent decision.
Nicaea was addressing a disagreement that began in the late 3rd Century, so it predated Constantine's influence but was still a century after the Quartodeciman controversy.
One of the arguments against the Jewish Reckoning made at this time was that it sometimes had Passover happening before the Spring Equinox. Now that makes it seem to me like a form of the modern Rabbinic Jewish calendar is what they were breaking with here, and indeed it seems to have developed at the same time this Christian disagreement started. The modern Kariate reckoning has if anything the opposite problem, a tendency to happen maybe a little too long after the Equinox. My current opinion is that Nisan should begin with the Crescent New Moon closest to the Spring Equinox, whether it's before or after..
Did the Church's developing Anti-Semitism play some factor in why this happened? Possibly, but just as Anti-Semites criticizing Israel doesn't make criticism of the Israeli Government inherently Anti-Semitic, there is likewise disagreement even among Jews on if the Rabbinic calendar is correct.
I'm not a legalist, I don't think it's a big deal if we're technically observing things on the wrong day. But I wanted to clarify how neither of these disputes were an Ancient Hebraic Christian practice being suppressed by a Solar Calendar using organized Church. The origin of the current method the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant Churches use is much longer and more complicated.
Also, by the First Century the word Peshach/Pascha was being used for all the Nisan Holy Days together and not just 14th which is the Proper Torah terminology, but this looser application is perhaps anticipated by Ezekiel 45 21-24. That's why in Acts 12 it's still Pascha after the Days of Unleavened Bread have started.
First I want to discuss how the Quartodecimanism debate that went on in the Second Century was not the same thing as the arguments modern Hebrew Roots/Torah Observant Christians have with mainstream Western Christianity, or even the same thing as the debate that was had at the Council of Nicaea.
Both sides of the original Quartodeciman controversy were using the same calendar, and it seems like it was a lunar Calendar, if it was exactly the same Calendar the Jews of the time were using or not I don't know for sure but I think it probably was. The debate was about whether the main celebration (Feast being the word used) should be on the 14th of Nisan (the position of the Quartodecimans) or the following Sunday which seems to be what most Christians were doing. The Sunday observers fasted through the 14th till Sunday morning.
It wasn't a debate between two entirely different methods of when to calculate anything, but a debate about whether the day Jesus was Crucified, or the Day He Rose from the Dead should be the day of the Feast. Or in the context of Leviticus 23, Exodus 12 and Numbers 28, the day the Passover Lamb is killed or First Fruits, which is always on the morning after the Sabbath hence Sunday.
Modern Torah observant Christians often assume the Quartodecimans were the ones on their side of the dispute, and anyone who wanted to do anything but hide under their beds on a Sunday must have been closet Pagan sun worshipers.
The truth is both sides of the dispute were adding to the Torah by seeing a full Fast as being required at all. But if you read Leviticus 23 more closely, specifically verses 9 through 14 which are about First Fruits. Verse 14 says.
"And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for this age throughout your generations in all your dwellings."So, it sounds like a fast of sorts ends on First Fruits. It's also interesting that Esther's fast was at the time when Passover would normally be celebrated, but it lasted three days trough the 14th and 15th days of the month, leading to her final victory on the 17th.
Melito of Sardis' Passover teaching clearly teaches the Torah being done away with, so no the Quartodecimans were not the Hebrew Roots people of their time.
To Christians the two most important events in history are the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I would argue that the Resurrection is more important, in the Sermon on Mar's Hill in Acts 17 Paul's presentation of The Gospel to a gentile audience does not directly refer to the Death of Jesus at all, but the climax is definitely The Resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul refers to both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection at the beginning, but the rest of the chapter is primarily about the Resurrection.
Crucifixion Day is a day to mourn (which is often an appropriate time to Fast in Jewish thought), The Resurrection is what we celebrate.
Polycrates_of_Ephesus defended the Quartodeciman position by citing the long established traditions of the Churches in Asia. But I've already talked about how The Bible itself gives us reasons to suspect that region was where things first started going wrong.
The debate about Easter at the Council of Nicaea is also highly misunderstood. This debate was only about first if Christians should use the same Lunar Calendar as the Jews, and then if all Churches should use the same calendar. There was not even any disagreement that it should be a Lunisolar Calendar.
The Council's final decision was that it should be determined independent of the Jewish calendar, and that there should be a universal agreement. But what that final calendar was took a long time to form.
And it wasn't till centuries later that the Roman Church started making a deliberate effort to make sure Christian Passover never lines up with Jewish Passover, doing that is arguably just as much in violation of Nicaea's decision as adopting the Jewish reckoning would be, since that's not a truly independent decision.
Nicaea was addressing a disagreement that began in the late 3rd Century, so it predated Constantine's influence but was still a century after the Quartodeciman controversy.
One of the arguments against the Jewish Reckoning made at this time was that it sometimes had Passover happening before the Spring Equinox. Now that makes it seem to me like a form of the modern Rabbinic Jewish calendar is what they were breaking with here, and indeed it seems to have developed at the same time this Christian disagreement started. The modern Kariate reckoning has if anything the opposite problem, a tendency to happen maybe a little too long after the Equinox. My current opinion is that Nisan should begin with the Crescent New Moon closest to the Spring Equinox, whether it's before or after..
Did the Church's developing Anti-Semitism play some factor in why this happened? Possibly, but just as Anti-Semites criticizing Israel doesn't make criticism of the Israeli Government inherently Anti-Semitic, there is likewise disagreement even among Jews on if the Rabbinic calendar is correct.
I'm not a legalist, I don't think it's a big deal if we're technically observing things on the wrong day. But I wanted to clarify how neither of these disputes were an Ancient Hebraic Christian practice being suppressed by a Solar Calendar using organized Church. The origin of the current method the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant Churches use is much longer and more complicated.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Jesus wasn't Buried the same day He was Crucified.
Matthew 27:57-58 after Jesus had died says.
All the ongoing debates on what day to place the Crucifixion seem to not be aware of this detail. Typologically it can also fit Numbers 33:4 which says the 15th of Nisan was the day the Egyptians buried their First Born. Jesus is the Firstborn of Creation.
John 19 (verse 14) calls when Jesus was on The Cross the Preparation Day of the Passover, which was the 14th of Nisan, unambiguously. Later in John 19 (31 and 42), and in the Synoptic accounts, Jesus burial is described as being on the Preparation Day of the Sabbath. It seems people have assumed they must be the same Preparation, but they are not, if the Sabbath fell on the 16th of Nisan, then the first day of Unleavened Bread would also be the Preparation day for the weekly Sabbath.
The strongest argument the Friday Crucifixion people have is their insistence we're torturing the text in insisting the 15th of Nisan would be called a Sabbath regardless of the day it fell on. While Leviticus 23 does say not to do servile work that day, those restrictions have been interpreted as not as strict as the weekly Sabbath. The Tishri Holy Days use the word Sabbath to describe these days, but it's not used of the first day of Unleavened Bread, though you could argue it is of the seventh day of Unleavened Bread in that the word Seventh is essentially the same word.
The basis for defining Friday as preparation for the Sabbath goes back to the Manna account in Exodus 16.
The Friday Crucifixion people are also right that you don't need a full 72 hours to get to the Third Day. The desire of Wednesday proponents like Chuck Missler to mock that is unwittingly also mocking how the day for Circumcision and the Eight day of Tabernacles are counted. I personally see every reference to Jesus Rising on the Third Day as the Third Day of Unleavened Bread, the 17th of Nisan. The 17th of Nisan is also important in Esther and possibly in The Flood account.
However Friday proponents can't get three days AND three nights. They can only get two nights (Friday/Saturday and Saturday/Sunday). And it's similar with this new argument that every "First day of The Week" in the New Testament is really the Sabbath, I don't see how that model can get three nights either, because the third night has always been in Hebrew reckoning Sunday night.
Debating what day Jesus was Crucified I've seen rarely looks at the arguments typologically in Genesis 1.
Wednesday model supporters are also often people paranoid about doing anything on Sunday being Sun worship. Well in the Biblical Week the Sun and Moon were created on Woden's day.
I place the Crucifixion on Thursday, now with a different argument then I used to. That's the day God first Created Life, because Biblically plants aren't Life.
I now place Jesus burial on the Sixth day. The same day the First Adam was formed out of The Earth is the day the Last Adam was placed in it.
Then Jesus Rested on The Sabbath, and rose again on the Eight Day, a New Beginning. But also the Third Day of Unleavened Bread. It's also First Fruits and the day God made Light. It was also on a Sunday that the Manna first fell from Heaven.
"When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered."That is in the Hebrew reckoning the beginning of the next day, when the Evening had come. Mark's account of the same event in 15:42-44 also says this. It's lacking from Luke and John's accounts but isn't contradicted, maybe because they were writing for more gentile audiences.
All the ongoing debates on what day to place the Crucifixion seem to not be aware of this detail. Typologically it can also fit Numbers 33:4 which says the 15th of Nisan was the day the Egyptians buried their First Born. Jesus is the Firstborn of Creation.
John 19 (verse 14) calls when Jesus was on The Cross the Preparation Day of the Passover, which was the 14th of Nisan, unambiguously. Later in John 19 (31 and 42), and in the Synoptic accounts, Jesus burial is described as being on the Preparation Day of the Sabbath. It seems people have assumed they must be the same Preparation, but they are not, if the Sabbath fell on the 16th of Nisan, then the first day of Unleavened Bread would also be the Preparation day for the weekly Sabbath.
The strongest argument the Friday Crucifixion people have is their insistence we're torturing the text in insisting the 15th of Nisan would be called a Sabbath regardless of the day it fell on. While Leviticus 23 does say not to do servile work that day, those restrictions have been interpreted as not as strict as the weekly Sabbath. The Tishri Holy Days use the word Sabbath to describe these days, but it's not used of the first day of Unleavened Bread, though you could argue it is of the seventh day of Unleavened Bread in that the word Seventh is essentially the same word.
The basis for defining Friday as preparation for the Sabbath goes back to the Manna account in Exodus 16.
The Friday Crucifixion people are also right that you don't need a full 72 hours to get to the Third Day. The desire of Wednesday proponents like Chuck Missler to mock that is unwittingly also mocking how the day for Circumcision and the Eight day of Tabernacles are counted. I personally see every reference to Jesus Rising on the Third Day as the Third Day of Unleavened Bread, the 17th of Nisan. The 17th of Nisan is also important in Esther and possibly in The Flood account.
However Friday proponents can't get three days AND three nights. They can only get two nights (Friday/Saturday and Saturday/Sunday). And it's similar with this new argument that every "First day of The Week" in the New Testament is really the Sabbath, I don't see how that model can get three nights either, because the third night has always been in Hebrew reckoning Sunday night.
Debating what day Jesus was Crucified I've seen rarely looks at the arguments typologically in Genesis 1.
Wednesday model supporters are also often people paranoid about doing anything on Sunday being Sun worship. Well in the Biblical Week the Sun and Moon were created on Woden's day.
I place the Crucifixion on Thursday, now with a different argument then I used to. That's the day God first Created Life, because Biblically plants aren't Life.
I now place Jesus burial on the Sixth day. The same day the First Adam was formed out of The Earth is the day the Last Adam was placed in it.
Then Jesus Rested on The Sabbath, and rose again on the Eight Day, a New Beginning. But also the Third Day of Unleavened Bread. It's also First Fruits and the day God made Light. It was also on a Sunday that the Manna first fell from Heaven.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
The Lunar Sabbath issue
Earlier today (October 11th 2016) I watched this video. And this was the first time I heard of the Lunar Sabbath issue.
First assumption I had was this involved the Sabbath being kept on the multiple of 7 days of each month. As I looked it up elsewhere (the Hope For Israel site which I have many issues with starting with it's Racism) I saw that it actually involves not counting the New Moon as a work day (a detail Rob clearly missed) and making the Sabbaths the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of each month.
As I contemplated this I was reminded of how I'm always puzzled by all these often conflicting Rabbinic customs about what to do if the Sabbath falls on the 14th of Nisan or 10th of Tishri or some other inconvenient day, and would ask myself "why didn't God deal with that in The Torah?"
But then as I contemplated it more I remembered that Jesus said "God made The Sabbath for Man not Man for The Sabbath". Which means you really shouldn't stress about it.
Both key arguments Rob made against it are flawed. One I alluded to already, you never work more then 6 days because of the New Moon. The other about God creating the Moon on the 4th day is that I feel God created the Moon in it's 4th day (or 18th day in a Tabernacles Creation Week theory) position, I don't think the first New Moon was a Wednesday.
The biggest flaw to me is that this theory can't explain how Pentecost works, how can the Fiftieth day also be the day after a Sabbath?
In fact First Fruits and Pentecost as a whole weaken the argument. If those days were always supposed to be the same day of a Month then God would have just said that like he did with the other Holy Days. Instead he said the morning after the Sabbath. This is my same argument against the Rabbis starting the Omer on the 16th of Nisan.
A minor observation is everything I read so far seemingly ignores that sometimes a Hebrew month has 30 days, meaning a single work day between the 29th Sabbath and the New Moon in this model. I have long theorized that in God's original perfect creation all years were 360 days, 12 months of 30 days each. I do NOT however then interpret that to mean Daniel 9 should be counted as 360 day years.
This model also overlaps with the absurd Friday Crucifixion model. The Thursday model which I favor and even more the Wednesday model need the weekly Sabbath to NOT be the 15th special Sabbath in that particular Nisan. And as Greek students know the text itself refers to there being plural Sabbaths passing between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
Jesus was Crucified on the 14th, Liberated Sheol on the 15th, rested on the Weekly Sabbath on the 16th, and Rose again on the 3rd day of Unleavened Bread which was the 17th of Nisan, the day Mordecai was honored and Haman hanged in Esther, and probably the day Noah's Ark landed on Ararat.
I did once did calculations and concluded that IF the original first month was Tishri as many assume, and IF my originally months were 30 days theory is true. Then the 10th and 17th of of the first Nisan would have also fallen on Sundays and the 16th would have been a weekly Sabbath. That's an interesting observation but I wouldn't read anything profound into it.
Update October 28th 2016: Lunar Sabbath supports have often sought to say the synchronized week goes back to Babylonian Paganism. But it was actually Mesopotamians who used a Lunar cycle to determine their days of Rest. As discussed (with an Anti-Judeo Christian bias) on the Wikipedia pages for Week and Sabbath. We however don't need a Sumerian origin for the word Sabbath, it comes from Sheba, the Hebrew word for Seven.
First assumption I had was this involved the Sabbath being kept on the multiple of 7 days of each month. As I looked it up elsewhere (the Hope For Israel site which I have many issues with starting with it's Racism) I saw that it actually involves not counting the New Moon as a work day (a detail Rob clearly missed) and making the Sabbaths the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of each month.
As I contemplated this I was reminded of how I'm always puzzled by all these often conflicting Rabbinic customs about what to do if the Sabbath falls on the 14th of Nisan or 10th of Tishri or some other inconvenient day, and would ask myself "why didn't God deal with that in The Torah?"
But then as I contemplated it more I remembered that Jesus said "God made The Sabbath for Man not Man for The Sabbath". Which means you really shouldn't stress about it.
Both key arguments Rob made against it are flawed. One I alluded to already, you never work more then 6 days because of the New Moon. The other about God creating the Moon on the 4th day is that I feel God created the Moon in it's 4th day (or 18th day in a Tabernacles Creation Week theory) position, I don't think the first New Moon was a Wednesday.
The biggest flaw to me is that this theory can't explain how Pentecost works, how can the Fiftieth day also be the day after a Sabbath?
In fact First Fruits and Pentecost as a whole weaken the argument. If those days were always supposed to be the same day of a Month then God would have just said that like he did with the other Holy Days. Instead he said the morning after the Sabbath. This is my same argument against the Rabbis starting the Omer on the 16th of Nisan.
A minor observation is everything I read so far seemingly ignores that sometimes a Hebrew month has 30 days, meaning a single work day between the 29th Sabbath and the New Moon in this model. I have long theorized that in God's original perfect creation all years were 360 days, 12 months of 30 days each. I do NOT however then interpret that to mean Daniel 9 should be counted as 360 day years.
This model also overlaps with the absurd Friday Crucifixion model. The Thursday model which I favor and even more the Wednesday model need the weekly Sabbath to NOT be the 15th special Sabbath in that particular Nisan. And as Greek students know the text itself refers to there being plural Sabbaths passing between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
Jesus was Crucified on the 14th, Liberated Sheol on the 15th, rested on the Weekly Sabbath on the 16th, and Rose again on the 3rd day of Unleavened Bread which was the 17th of Nisan, the day Mordecai was honored and Haman hanged in Esther, and probably the day Noah's Ark landed on Ararat.
I did once did calculations and concluded that IF the original first month was Tishri as many assume, and IF my originally months were 30 days theory is true. Then the 10th and 17th of of the first Nisan would have also fallen on Sundays and the 16th would have been a weekly Sabbath. That's an interesting observation but I wouldn't read anything profound into it.
Update October 28th 2016: Lunar Sabbath supports have often sought to say the synchronized week goes back to Babylonian Paganism. But it was actually Mesopotamians who used a Lunar cycle to determine their days of Rest. As discussed (with an Anti-Judeo Christian bias) on the Wikipedia pages for Week and Sabbath. We however don't need a Sumerian origin for the word Sabbath, it comes from Sheba, the Hebrew word for Seven.
Monday, January 25, 2016
The Eschatological significance of The Spring Feasts
It is popularly said the Spring Feast of Leviticus 23 were fulfilled in the First Advent and the Fall Feasts will be the Second Advent. And that is mostly true, but the Fall Feasts do come up in the Gospel narrative.
Jesus' Crucifixion is the most important fulfillment of Passover. But I think it has post shadowings as well as foreshadowings. In the Book of Acts, Passover (incorrectly translated Easter once in the KJV) and Unleavened Bread continue to come up well after the Pentecost on which The Church was born.
This is a follow up of sorts to my recent post on the Fall Feasts. That was focused on the Midway Point, this post will deal with how the Week begins and ends. So like The Godfather Part II it is a prequel and a sequel at the same time.
I shall interpret the time periods from Revelation 11-13 (I'll mention Daniel's too, but I no longer feel Daniel's need to be Eschatological). The math I did with my current 2030-2037 theory in mind, but I did similar calculations before with other years. I encourage you to do your own calculations.
Revelation 11:1-2 says Jerusalem will be trodden under the foot of the Gentiles for 42 months. Many have come up with all kinds of convoluted explanations of what that means, but using Scripture to interpret Scripture this is explained by Luke 21:24 as clearly an expression of military occupation.
"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." and the next verse is the Second Coming and The Rapture. Luke 21:20 through the first part of this verse I believe was fulfilled in 70 AD and Revelation 11 is the last part of the times of the gentiles. But if it has a second fulfillment in the End Times, I believe it is at the start of the week not the midway point.
After the Two Witnesses are resurrected and ascend into heaven the people of the city (who we were told at the start are mostly gentiles) will believe and praise God, then the Last Trumpet sounds. That is when the Fullness of the Gentiles are come in (Romans 11:25).
The 42 months I don't think necessarily need to be fulfilled to the day, they're broadly the same time period as the 1260 days but different in the specifics. 42 months before Yom Teruah takes us to (assuming there is a second Adar in there) the New Moon of Nisan three and a half years before. Allowing wiggle room the siege could happen a little before or after.
The possibly that something will happen in the last month before the Week begins is logical, in the last month of the year the Barley Harvest is what lets Israel know the next New Moon will be the New Year. Ezra 6:15 tells us the Second Temple was finished on the 3rd of Adar. It is possible the Third Temple will be finished right before the Week begins, but I also think it possible it could last awhile before it begins.
The Two Witnesses will be killed three and a half days before Yom Teruah. 1260 days before that takes us to about, depending on when the proceeding Barley Harvest is, either the 7th of Nisan or 7th of Iyar. Ezra 3:8 tells us Iyar was when Zeubabel and Jeshua began their work, they are considered types of the Two Witnesses so the Witnesses beginning their ministry in Iyar makes sense. The 7th of Nisan is traditionally conjectured from the narrative of Joshua to be when his two spies were sent into Jericho, they too are types of the Witnesses.
I've argued before that the 1290 days are the first half of the Week not the second as usually assumed. I've gone back and forth on if the Abomination of Desolation should begin or end it. Either way what does happen at the beginning is the sacrifice and oblation being taken away.
If the 1290 days end on Yom Teruah then they could begin about either the 10th of Nisan or exactly a month before. I could also see when they end being 10 days before or 10 days after. If the earlier month for this is what happens it'd be the same with the Two Witnesses, and visa versa. The 10th of Nisan I think will be important either way.
My theory on the first 6 seals is they happen very quickly in the Nisan that begins the Week. The White Horseman might be the Antichrist before his death, or might be an anitchrist and/or a decoy antichrist. Christians who want to co-opt the Rabbinic concept of Messiah Ben-Joseph as someone separate from Jesus could easily see that figure in the White Horseman. The other three horseman will ride at about the same time, maybe as his allies or maybe as his enemies.
Whatever identity for him is true, I think he'll have his own Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on the 10th of Nisan. Maybe as someone many Jews and Christians will accept as a Messiah, or maybe as a conqueror. And then maybe given a Crown on the 14th of Nisan. And maybe killed on either the 14th or 26th of Nisan. Cause either way for most of the first half of the Week the First Beast isn't a factor.
The Fifth Seal is a heavenly event, it shows all Martyrs of the Church, not just victims of a specific persecution. But it's opening could still correlate to a specific persecution, like the one Jesus described in Matthew 24:9-14.
I've argued before that the Sixth Seal will open on the 14th of Nisan based on it's connection to Acts 2 and Joel 2 making the Earthquake and Darkness when Jesus was on The Cross it's near fulfillment.
I had argued then the 144,000 are sealed in Revelation 7 on Pentecost, I still feel they're connected to Pentecost but they're also called the First fruits in Revelation 14 so I now think their sealing will begin on First Fruits.
In one Seventh Trumpet post I talked about how Jewish custom has the Last Trump on Yom Teruh and the First Trumpet on Pentecost. Connecting Trumpets to Pentecost is justified by Exodus 19-20 where in the third month when the Decalogue was given on Pentecost the Trumpets were sounded.
I think on the Pentecost following the start of the Week the 144,00 will be saved sparking a massive revival, the latter rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a repeat of the Pentecost of Acts 2. Their Prayers will fill the golden Censor in the Heavenly Temple, it'll be thrown into the Earth causing more Earthquakes and thunder and lighting. Then the Trumpets will be given to their Angels and the first will sound burning up the green grass and trees right as the Harvest season is starting.
I have no theories yet on when the 2nd-4th Trumpets will sound. I have a post where I discus the timing of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets. Where I conjecture the Five Months the locust torment men will end on the 17th of Nisan, the day Jesus Rose, and Haman was hanged.
The text of Daniel 12 does not in any explicit way link the end of the 1290 days to the Sacrifices being restored. It could be they're are restored 2300 mornings and evenings (1250 days, about 37 lunar months, 3 years) after their taken away, like Daniel tells us was the case with Antiochus' Abomination. But in this case that wouldn't end on Hanukkah but in the Nisan that starts year four of the week. Or perhaps they never will be restored.
If one insists the 1290 days need to be the second half. If they begin on Yom Teruh they could end on the last day of Unleavened Bread, if they begin on Yom Kippur they could end on the New Moon of Iyar. Either way fitting what I already suspect that when the Week is over the Israelites won't be able to observe Passover at the proper time and will need to delay to Second Passover. If they begin three and a half, seven or ten days before Yom Teruah. Still not quite allowing everything to be cleansed in time for a proper Passover.
The 42 months the Beast is allowed to continue, if they begin in early Tishri or late Elul would end in about Adar, again not needing to be fulfilled to the day. Purim is when the sons of Haman were hanged.
The 1260 days Israel (The Woman) is in the wilderness begins right after The Rapture, even if they were fleeing in a sense already from the Abomination before. 1260 days from Yom Teruah takes us to about the 20th or 21st of Adar, and 1260 days from Yom Kippur takes us to about the end of Adar and Beginning of Nisan. This is when their Messiah, a namesake of Joshua, will lead them into the Promised Land from Edom, as shown in Isaiah 63.
I think we need to consider that how the Armageddon reference in the 6th Bowl ties into Revelation 19 isn't quite what we assume. And also that Satan being sealed in the Abyss is not the same day as Revelation 19 either.
I now respond to Post-Tribbers who say everyone else believes in more then one Second Comings by pointing out that Revelation 19 is never Biblically defined as the Second Coming. Revelation 14 is where the Greek word Paursia is used.
Zechariah 12-14 is one vision but it has pieces, 9-11 are a separate vision. Chapter 12 has the reference to Meggido/Armageddon, Chapter 13 has a possible illusion to the Idol Shepherd of chapter 11 being dealt with, and I think maybe the two thirds who are cut off and die are the armies following the Beast in Revelation 19 not Israelites as people often assume, two thirds of all gentiles, or the world's total population.
And Chapter 14 depicts Jerusalem still under siege, perhaps from Satan directly this time. And Jesus Second Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. This one will also be on the 10th of Nisan, this time He'll be riding on a White Horse. And given a Coronation on the 14th or 15th of Nisan. And perhaps raise from the dead whoever among the saved are still not yet raised on First Fruits (Ezekiel 37). So this Nisan will be important even though the Passover won't be kept till the following month.
The 1335 days is the one number form Daniel I'm most certain on. It begins on the Yom Teruah that finished Revelation 11 and ends early in Sivan. There is a strong possibility of it ending on Pentecost or the Sabbath the day before Pentecost. No matter what the next Sunday after will be the Biblical date of Pentecost.
Pentecost as the day the Church Age began, and the Day Israel as born as a Nation with the giving of the Covenant in Exodus 19-20, fits perfectly as the day to formally begin The Millennium, or the Government that will rule The Millennium and a little after. Because as I said before the only event that happens right when the Thousand years expire is Satan being released. So I think the end of the 1335 days will be when Satan is bound in The Abyss.
Will the Spring Feats have relevance after The Millennium? Well I think Satan will be released the same day he was bound, on if not near Pentecost. I have a hunch the Gog and Magog war will involves the 17th of Tammuz, 9th of Ave and 3rd of Tishi, because God said in Zechariah he'd make their Fast Days joyous celebrations.
Seven years after 3rd of Tishri fits what I said on the Fall Feasts about New Jerusalem and Tabernacles. Seven months later may mean they'll be finished cleaning up the dead bodies after Passover and need to do one last Second Passover.
So that is my view of the End Times relevance of the Spring Feasts.
Jesus' Crucifixion is the most important fulfillment of Passover. But I think it has post shadowings as well as foreshadowings. In the Book of Acts, Passover (incorrectly translated Easter once in the KJV) and Unleavened Bread continue to come up well after the Pentecost on which The Church was born.
This is a follow up of sorts to my recent post on the Fall Feasts. That was focused on the Midway Point, this post will deal with how the Week begins and ends. So like The Godfather Part II it is a prequel and a sequel at the same time.
I shall interpret the time periods from Revelation 11-13 (I'll mention Daniel's too, but I no longer feel Daniel's need to be Eschatological). The math I did with my current 2030-2037 theory in mind, but I did similar calculations before with other years. I encourage you to do your own calculations.
Revelation 11:1-2 says Jerusalem will be trodden under the foot of the Gentiles for 42 months. Many have come up with all kinds of convoluted explanations of what that means, but using Scripture to interpret Scripture this is explained by Luke 21:24 as clearly an expression of military occupation.
"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." and the next verse is the Second Coming and The Rapture. Luke 21:20 through the first part of this verse I believe was fulfilled in 70 AD and Revelation 11 is the last part of the times of the gentiles. But if it has a second fulfillment in the End Times, I believe it is at the start of the week not the midway point.
After the Two Witnesses are resurrected and ascend into heaven the people of the city (who we were told at the start are mostly gentiles) will believe and praise God, then the Last Trumpet sounds. That is when the Fullness of the Gentiles are come in (Romans 11:25).
The 42 months I don't think necessarily need to be fulfilled to the day, they're broadly the same time period as the 1260 days but different in the specifics. 42 months before Yom Teruah takes us to (assuming there is a second Adar in there) the New Moon of Nisan three and a half years before. Allowing wiggle room the siege could happen a little before or after.
The possibly that something will happen in the last month before the Week begins is logical, in the last month of the year the Barley Harvest is what lets Israel know the next New Moon will be the New Year. Ezra 6:15 tells us the Second Temple was finished on the 3rd of Adar. It is possible the Third Temple will be finished right before the Week begins, but I also think it possible it could last awhile before it begins.
The Two Witnesses will be killed three and a half days before Yom Teruah. 1260 days before that takes us to about, depending on when the proceeding Barley Harvest is, either the 7th of Nisan or 7th of Iyar. Ezra 3:8 tells us Iyar was when Zeubabel and Jeshua began their work, they are considered types of the Two Witnesses so the Witnesses beginning their ministry in Iyar makes sense. The 7th of Nisan is traditionally conjectured from the narrative of Joshua to be when his two spies were sent into Jericho, they too are types of the Witnesses.
I've argued before that the 1290 days are the first half of the Week not the second as usually assumed. I've gone back and forth on if the Abomination of Desolation should begin or end it. Either way what does happen at the beginning is the sacrifice and oblation being taken away.
If the 1290 days end on Yom Teruah then they could begin about either the 10th of Nisan or exactly a month before. I could also see when they end being 10 days before or 10 days after. If the earlier month for this is what happens it'd be the same with the Two Witnesses, and visa versa. The 10th of Nisan I think will be important either way.
My theory on the first 6 seals is they happen very quickly in the Nisan that begins the Week. The White Horseman might be the Antichrist before his death, or might be an anitchrist and/or a decoy antichrist. Christians who want to co-opt the Rabbinic concept of Messiah Ben-Joseph as someone separate from Jesus could easily see that figure in the White Horseman. The other three horseman will ride at about the same time, maybe as his allies or maybe as his enemies.
Whatever identity for him is true, I think he'll have his own Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on the 10th of Nisan. Maybe as someone many Jews and Christians will accept as a Messiah, or maybe as a conqueror. And then maybe given a Crown on the 14th of Nisan. And maybe killed on either the 14th or 26th of Nisan. Cause either way for most of the first half of the Week the First Beast isn't a factor.
The Fifth Seal is a heavenly event, it shows all Martyrs of the Church, not just victims of a specific persecution. But it's opening could still correlate to a specific persecution, like the one Jesus described in Matthew 24:9-14.
I've argued before that the Sixth Seal will open on the 14th of Nisan based on it's connection to Acts 2 and Joel 2 making the Earthquake and Darkness when Jesus was on The Cross it's near fulfillment.
I had argued then the 144,000 are sealed in Revelation 7 on Pentecost, I still feel they're connected to Pentecost but they're also called the First fruits in Revelation 14 so I now think their sealing will begin on First Fruits.
In one Seventh Trumpet post I talked about how Jewish custom has the Last Trump on Yom Teruh and the First Trumpet on Pentecost. Connecting Trumpets to Pentecost is justified by Exodus 19-20 where in the third month when the Decalogue was given on Pentecost the Trumpets were sounded.
I think on the Pentecost following the start of the Week the 144,00 will be saved sparking a massive revival, the latter rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a repeat of the Pentecost of Acts 2. Their Prayers will fill the golden Censor in the Heavenly Temple, it'll be thrown into the Earth causing more Earthquakes and thunder and lighting. Then the Trumpets will be given to their Angels and the first will sound burning up the green grass and trees right as the Harvest season is starting.
I have no theories yet on when the 2nd-4th Trumpets will sound. I have a post where I discus the timing of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets. Where I conjecture the Five Months the locust torment men will end on the 17th of Nisan, the day Jesus Rose, and Haman was hanged.
The text of Daniel 12 does not in any explicit way link the end of the 1290 days to the Sacrifices being restored. It could be they're are restored 2300 mornings and evenings (1250 days, about 37 lunar months, 3 years) after their taken away, like Daniel tells us was the case with Antiochus' Abomination. But in this case that wouldn't end on Hanukkah but in the Nisan that starts year four of the week. Or perhaps they never will be restored.
If one insists the 1290 days need to be the second half. If they begin on Yom Teruh they could end on the last day of Unleavened Bread, if they begin on Yom Kippur they could end on the New Moon of Iyar. Either way fitting what I already suspect that when the Week is over the Israelites won't be able to observe Passover at the proper time and will need to delay to Second Passover. If they begin three and a half, seven or ten days before Yom Teruah. Still not quite allowing everything to be cleansed in time for a proper Passover.
The 42 months the Beast is allowed to continue, if they begin in early Tishri or late Elul would end in about Adar, again not needing to be fulfilled to the day. Purim is when the sons of Haman were hanged.
The 1260 days Israel (The Woman) is in the wilderness begins right after The Rapture, even if they were fleeing in a sense already from the Abomination before. 1260 days from Yom Teruah takes us to about the 20th or 21st of Adar, and 1260 days from Yom Kippur takes us to about the end of Adar and Beginning of Nisan. This is when their Messiah, a namesake of Joshua, will lead them into the Promised Land from Edom, as shown in Isaiah 63.
I think we need to consider that how the Armageddon reference in the 6th Bowl ties into Revelation 19 isn't quite what we assume. And also that Satan being sealed in the Abyss is not the same day as Revelation 19 either.
I now respond to Post-Tribbers who say everyone else believes in more then one Second Comings by pointing out that Revelation 19 is never Biblically defined as the Second Coming. Revelation 14 is where the Greek word Paursia is used.
Zechariah 12-14 is one vision but it has pieces, 9-11 are a separate vision. Chapter 12 has the reference to Meggido/Armageddon, Chapter 13 has a possible illusion to the Idol Shepherd of chapter 11 being dealt with, and I think maybe the two thirds who are cut off and die are the armies following the Beast in Revelation 19 not Israelites as people often assume, two thirds of all gentiles, or the world's total population.
And Chapter 14 depicts Jerusalem still under siege, perhaps from Satan directly this time. And Jesus Second Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. This one will also be on the 10th of Nisan, this time He'll be riding on a White Horse. And given a Coronation on the 14th or 15th of Nisan. And perhaps raise from the dead whoever among the saved are still not yet raised on First Fruits (Ezekiel 37). So this Nisan will be important even though the Passover won't be kept till the following month.
The 1335 days is the one number form Daniel I'm most certain on. It begins on the Yom Teruah that finished Revelation 11 and ends early in Sivan. There is a strong possibility of it ending on Pentecost or the Sabbath the day before Pentecost. No matter what the next Sunday after will be the Biblical date of Pentecost.
Pentecost as the day the Church Age began, and the Day Israel as born as a Nation with the giving of the Covenant in Exodus 19-20, fits perfectly as the day to formally begin The Millennium, or the Government that will rule The Millennium and a little after. Because as I said before the only event that happens right when the Thousand years expire is Satan being released. So I think the end of the 1335 days will be when Satan is bound in The Abyss.
Will the Spring Feats have relevance after The Millennium? Well I think Satan will be released the same day he was bound, on if not near Pentecost. I have a hunch the Gog and Magog war will involves the 17th of Tammuz, 9th of Ave and 3rd of Tishi, because God said in Zechariah he'd make their Fast Days joyous celebrations.
Seven years after 3rd of Tishri fits what I said on the Fall Feasts about New Jerusalem and Tabernacles. Seven months later may mean they'll be finished cleaning up the dead bodies after Passover and need to do one last Second Passover.
So that is my view of the End Times relevance of the Spring Feasts.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Jesus ministry was only about a year
I argued for that when arguing for a 30 AD Crucifixion. Other have btw argued for a 30 AD Crucifixion while keeping a 3-3.5 year ministry, but there are other chronological reasons I can't accept that.
Problem is others out there are arguing for an only 1 year ministry but doing so in a completely different way, that ignores the not so chronological nature of John and still thinks the John 2 Passover was a separate Passover from the Passion which is absurd as I argued before.
But worse then that, they argue that John 6 has a scribal error thus casting doubt on the preservation of God's Word. Which is why I fear this is a Satanic ploy to discredit arguing for a 1 year ministry at all.
The verse in John 6 mentioning Passover is apparently missing from some manuscripts, but I'll bet as usual these are chiefly the Alexandrian Manuscripts. I base my view of Scripture on the Received Text.
They say this can't actually be Passover because Jesus would have to be in Jerusalem if it's Passover. The wording in John 6:4 doesn't say it is on Passover exactly, it says the Passover is nigh. For the Passion week Jesus entered Jerusalem on the preceding Sunday, which I believe fell on the 10th of Nisan, the day the Passover Lamb is presented.
Passover could be nigh certainly if it's Nisan already, but in time Jewish tradition came to think of the Passover Season as beginning in a sense as soon as Purim ended around the 15-17th of Adar. Not unlike how in modern America the Christmas season begins as soon as Thanksgiving ends. Also the Samaritans had developed a tradition of having a build up to Passover that begins 10-11 weeks in advance, recounting the entire Exodus narrative from when Moses first came before Pharaoh.
For all these reasons I have decided, though I hadn't decided this firmly yet when I first made the 30 AD post, that I believe the Passover of John 6 is also the same Passover as the Crucifixion. But I do think for reasons explained elsewhere Jesus Baptism was possibly near the Passover of the previous year.
I believe the break between chapter 6 and 7 should be moved up a verse, that 7:2 starts the Tabernacles narrative and 7:1 ends the John 6 narrative. So I feel justified in speculating that John 7 took place 5 or 6 months before John 6.
They say the Synoptic accounts of the same Miracle that is the centerpiece of John 6 clearly place it at the end of Summer, I disagree, I don't see that. The basis seems to be thinking the Synoptics account refers to the Feast approaching after this account correlates to John 7 depicting Tabernacles next. As I feel the cleansing of The Temple issue proves, John isn't always chronological, even if a face value reading of his transitions seem that way.
The Synoptics unlike John are only concerned with that one Passover where he was Crucified, no other Feasts. So any reference to a Feast or Festival approaching in the Synoptics I'm certain means that Passover not any other.
I'll go ahead and repeat what I said before on the cleansing.
____________________________________________________________________
The biggest chronological mistake made when dealing with the Crucifixion is when people incorrectly state that John refers to three or four Passovers occurring during Jesus's ministry. (The discrepancy between three and four is a Feast being refereed to that isn't identified.) John 2 (It's second story), John 6 and 12 all refer to Passover clearly, the last the Passover season of the Crucifixion. John 5 refers to a Jewish feast but doesn't identify which, many then assume this is Passover. Since the Passover is largely the thematic heart of John's narrative I believe he would have identified it if it was Passover. I believe the one in John 5 is possibly Purim or Pentecost.
So John has three at most. The problem is the basic narrative of the Synoptic Gospels does not seem to allow more then a Year and a few months for Jesus' Ministry. The thing people overlook is that John's Gospel is the most Mystical of the Gospels, and because of that it's not always purely Chronological, sometimes events are described next to each other for symbolic reasons, not because they actually happened side by side.
John 2 describes two stories. The first is the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding banquet. That story clearly seems to be at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, since it's presented as his first public miracle. The second story involves The Temple. I believe they're told side by side because together they make John 2 a Beth chapter. Beth is the second letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, and it also means house. So John 2 deals with both The House as in the Family and The House as in the House of God. Both also refer to a three day period of time.
What is so often and to me annoyingly overlooked is that John 2 gives clearly a more detailed account of the Cleansing of The Temple. Which the Synoptics clearly place in the same week as the Crucifixion. Some would suggest it happened twice, but in the Synoptics it's clearly the last straw that drives the Scribes and the Pharisees and the Priesthood to want Jesus dead, if he'd done the same thing 2 or 3 years before that wouldn't make much sense. It's also interesting that the Synoptic account alludes to what only John records Jesus saying here, (About destroying this Temple and rebuilding it in 3 days) in the form of false witnesses misrepresenting it. But my point here is it's presented as something he recently said.
So in truth John gives a Ministry of only just over a year (many Atheists criticize the Gospels by saying the Synoptics clearly depict a ministry of only about a year and that John's three year model is then a contradiction. I've provided the means to refute that,) or maybe even less. And since John 2 is recording the Passover season of the Crucifixion, that is very useful since John 2 dates itself."Forty and six years has this temple been in building". The renovation of the Temple Herod started wasn't finished till the 60s, so this is referring to them speaking 46 years after Herod's renovations began. 20/19 BC is when Herod first announced the project, but as a careful study of Josephus shows it really began in late 18 or early 17 B.C. So 46 years latter on Passover brings us to 30 A.D. Ussher dated John 2's Temple incident to the same year, but repeated the error I explained above.
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Luke 4:19 refers to the acceptable year of The Lord. Exodus 12 said the Passover Lamb should be of the first year.
What annoys me is how the 3 to 4 year ministry continues to be accepted by people who do not have a preterist view of the 70th Week. Since it's origin (yes even among Early Church Fathers who taught it, Eusebius was the first) is in trying to justify a Preterist view of the 70th Week, that Jesus ministry was the first half.
But it's mistaken even as a Preterist view, I've decided a Preterist interpretation of the 70 Weeks isn't impossible (I see it as a dual fulfillment), but that when you clarify certain misunderstandings there is still no doubt that the Crucifixion was where the 69th ends and 70th begins, not the middle of a Week.
The Crucifixion being in Nisan makes it being the middle of a year impossible.
Problem is others out there are arguing for an only 1 year ministry but doing so in a completely different way, that ignores the not so chronological nature of John and still thinks the John 2 Passover was a separate Passover from the Passion which is absurd as I argued before.
But worse then that, they argue that John 6 has a scribal error thus casting doubt on the preservation of God's Word. Which is why I fear this is a Satanic ploy to discredit arguing for a 1 year ministry at all.
The verse in John 6 mentioning Passover is apparently missing from some manuscripts, but I'll bet as usual these are chiefly the Alexandrian Manuscripts. I base my view of Scripture on the Received Text.
They say this can't actually be Passover because Jesus would have to be in Jerusalem if it's Passover. The wording in John 6:4 doesn't say it is on Passover exactly, it says the Passover is nigh. For the Passion week Jesus entered Jerusalem on the preceding Sunday, which I believe fell on the 10th of Nisan, the day the Passover Lamb is presented.
Passover could be nigh certainly if it's Nisan already, but in time Jewish tradition came to think of the Passover Season as beginning in a sense as soon as Purim ended around the 15-17th of Adar. Not unlike how in modern America the Christmas season begins as soon as Thanksgiving ends. Also the Samaritans had developed a tradition of having a build up to Passover that begins 10-11 weeks in advance, recounting the entire Exodus narrative from when Moses first came before Pharaoh.
For all these reasons I have decided, though I hadn't decided this firmly yet when I first made the 30 AD post, that I believe the Passover of John 6 is also the same Passover as the Crucifixion. But I do think for reasons explained elsewhere Jesus Baptism was possibly near the Passover of the previous year.
I believe the break between chapter 6 and 7 should be moved up a verse, that 7:2 starts the Tabernacles narrative and 7:1 ends the John 6 narrative. So I feel justified in speculating that John 7 took place 5 or 6 months before John 6.
They say the Synoptic accounts of the same Miracle that is the centerpiece of John 6 clearly place it at the end of Summer, I disagree, I don't see that. The basis seems to be thinking the Synoptics account refers to the Feast approaching after this account correlates to John 7 depicting Tabernacles next. As I feel the cleansing of The Temple issue proves, John isn't always chronological, even if a face value reading of his transitions seem that way.
The Synoptics unlike John are only concerned with that one Passover where he was Crucified, no other Feasts. So any reference to a Feast or Festival approaching in the Synoptics I'm certain means that Passover not any other.
I'll go ahead and repeat what I said before on the cleansing.
____________________________________________________________________
The biggest chronological mistake made when dealing with the Crucifixion is when people incorrectly state that John refers to three or four Passovers occurring during Jesus's ministry. (The discrepancy between three and four is a Feast being refereed to that isn't identified.) John 2 (It's second story), John 6 and 12 all refer to Passover clearly, the last the Passover season of the Crucifixion. John 5 refers to a Jewish feast but doesn't identify which, many then assume this is Passover. Since the Passover is largely the thematic heart of John's narrative I believe he would have identified it if it was Passover. I believe the one in John 5 is possibly Purim or Pentecost.
So John has three at most. The problem is the basic narrative of the Synoptic Gospels does not seem to allow more then a Year and a few months for Jesus' Ministry. The thing people overlook is that John's Gospel is the most Mystical of the Gospels, and because of that it's not always purely Chronological, sometimes events are described next to each other for symbolic reasons, not because they actually happened side by side.
John 2 describes two stories. The first is the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding banquet. That story clearly seems to be at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, since it's presented as his first public miracle. The second story involves The Temple. I believe they're told side by side because together they make John 2 a Beth chapter. Beth is the second letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, and it also means house. So John 2 deals with both The House as in the Family and The House as in the House of God. Both also refer to a three day period of time.
What is so often and to me annoyingly overlooked is that John 2 gives clearly a more detailed account of the Cleansing of The Temple. Which the Synoptics clearly place in the same week as the Crucifixion. Some would suggest it happened twice, but in the Synoptics it's clearly the last straw that drives the Scribes and the Pharisees and the Priesthood to want Jesus dead, if he'd done the same thing 2 or 3 years before that wouldn't make much sense. It's also interesting that the Synoptic account alludes to what only John records Jesus saying here, (About destroying this Temple and rebuilding it in 3 days) in the form of false witnesses misrepresenting it. But my point here is it's presented as something he recently said.
So in truth John gives a Ministry of only just over a year (many Atheists criticize the Gospels by saying the Synoptics clearly depict a ministry of only about a year and that John's three year model is then a contradiction. I've provided the means to refute that,) or maybe even less. And since John 2 is recording the Passover season of the Crucifixion, that is very useful since John 2 dates itself."Forty and six years has this temple been in building". The renovation of the Temple Herod started wasn't finished till the 60s, so this is referring to them speaking 46 years after Herod's renovations began. 20/19 BC is when Herod first announced the project, but as a careful study of Josephus shows it really began in late 18 or early 17 B.C. So 46 years latter on Passover brings us to 30 A.D. Ussher dated John 2's Temple incident to the same year, but repeated the error I explained above.
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Luke 4:19 refers to the acceptable year of The Lord. Exodus 12 said the Passover Lamb should be of the first year.
What annoys me is how the 3 to 4 year ministry continues to be accepted by people who do not have a preterist view of the 70th Week. Since it's origin (yes even among Early Church Fathers who taught it, Eusebius was the first) is in trying to justify a Preterist view of the 70th Week, that Jesus ministry was the first half.
But it's mistaken even as a Preterist view, I've decided a Preterist interpretation of the 70 Weeks isn't impossible (I see it as a dual fulfillment), but that when you clarify certain misunderstandings there is still no doubt that the Crucifixion was where the 69th ends and 70th begins, not the middle of a Week.
The Crucifixion being in Nisan makes it being the middle of a year impossible.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Kings were Crowned in Nisan not Tishri
I used to believe the 70th week would probably be Tishri-Tishri years
in-spite of the first 69 clearly being Nisan-Nisan years in my
interpretation (as explained in my 30 A.D. study). Because of the fact
that the Fall Feasts are about the Second Advent while the Spring
Feasts were the First Advent.
But I point out in my Jewish Holy Days post that the Fall Feasts did have relevance to the First Advent. And there is no Biblical basis for God ever intending a return to Tishri-Tishri years, Ezekiel 45 clearly sees the future messianic era as Nisan-Nisan years.
Even when I did feel pretty strongly that the 70th week would be Tishri years I still considered that both the Rosh Hoshana view and Seventh Trumpet view of the Last Trump could both be correct. That the Seventh Trumpet isn't the exact half way point like the Abomination is, but perhaps the beginning of the 4th year, or the end of the 4th year. Now however I've decided the 7th Trumpet must be close to the Resurrection of The Witnesses and thus to the Abomination of Desolation.
I still think it could be Tishi-Tishri years, we'll know once the Temple is rebuilt, because I'm not currently negotiable on that the consecration of the rebuilt Temple is what officially begins the 70th week. Those who think The Temple will still be under construction during the first 3 and a half years are unwittingly setting the stage for The Beast to device people with a counterfeit 70th Week.
The main thing that had me firmly viewing them as Tishri-Tishri years was that Solomon's Temple was consecrated on Yom Kippur, and so I figured both the Third Temple and "Millennial Temple" (which I still assumed was Ezekiel's), will likewise be consecrated on Yom Kippur. But now I view Ezekiel 40-48 and certain other assumed OT Prophecies of the Millennium as actually being the new Heaven and New Earth, I have a thread on that.
The Second Temple had a history firmly linked to Nisan as studying the 70 Weeks shows, even the incorrect views on it, pretty much all the possible decrees were issued in Nisan. And for many reasons, the next Temple is more like the Second then the First. The 3rd of Adar was the day the second Temple was completed, just in time to begin a Biblical year.
One extra Biblical assumption about the Feast of Trumpets/Rosh Hoshanna/First of Tishri, that I can't find actual Biblical Support for is the commonly stated claim of it being a day affiliated with Coronations.
In fact Biblical clues seem to show Nisan as being the "New year for Kings". The following quote from The Jewish Voice further clarifies this view:
At the beginning of the 70th Week, The White Horsemen is given a Crown when the First Seal is opened. And at the end, when Jesus returns also riding a White Horse he will have many crowns upon his head.
What all this means is we may need to consider the Prophetic significance of the Fall Feasts as being in the Middle of the 70th Week, not it's end. Hence possibly in the fulfillment of the Mid-Trib/Seventh Trumpet view of The Rapture.
David had two Coronations, one in Hebron when he was 30, and one 7 years later in Jerusalem. Also Ish-Bosheth was crowned around the same time as David's first coronation. So the Eschatological Week having Coronations in Nisan at it's beginning and ending could be interesting. Ish-Bosheth could arguably be viewed as a type of the Antichrist.
Jesus also had a Coronation, with a Crown of Thrones, at the end of 69 Weeks. So perhaps His formal Millennial Coronation will be in Nisan when the Eschatological 7 years are over.
The Karaites also know that the year begins and ends with Nisan.
But I point out in my Jewish Holy Days post that the Fall Feasts did have relevance to the First Advent. And there is no Biblical basis for God ever intending a return to Tishri-Tishri years, Ezekiel 45 clearly sees the future messianic era as Nisan-Nisan years.
Even when I did feel pretty strongly that the 70th week would be Tishri years I still considered that both the Rosh Hoshana view and Seventh Trumpet view of the Last Trump could both be correct. That the Seventh Trumpet isn't the exact half way point like the Abomination is, but perhaps the beginning of the 4th year, or the end of the 4th year. Now however I've decided the 7th Trumpet must be close to the Resurrection of The Witnesses and thus to the Abomination of Desolation.
I still think it could be Tishi-Tishri years, we'll know once the Temple is rebuilt, because I'm not currently negotiable on that the consecration of the rebuilt Temple is what officially begins the 70th week. Those who think The Temple will still be under construction during the first 3 and a half years are unwittingly setting the stage for The Beast to device people with a counterfeit 70th Week.
The main thing that had me firmly viewing them as Tishri-Tishri years was that Solomon's Temple was consecrated on Yom Kippur, and so I figured both the Third Temple and "Millennial Temple" (which I still assumed was Ezekiel's), will likewise be consecrated on Yom Kippur. But now I view Ezekiel 40-48 and certain other assumed OT Prophecies of the Millennium as actually being the new Heaven and New Earth, I have a thread on that.
The Second Temple had a history firmly linked to Nisan as studying the 70 Weeks shows, even the incorrect views on it, pretty much all the possible decrees were issued in Nisan. And for many reasons, the next Temple is more like the Second then the First. The 3rd of Adar was the day the second Temple was completed, just in time to begin a Biblical year.
One extra Biblical assumption about the Feast of Trumpets/Rosh Hoshanna/First of Tishri, that I can't find actual Biblical Support for is the commonly stated claim of it being a day affiliated with Coronations.
In fact Biblical clues seem to show Nisan as being the "New year for Kings". The following quote from The Jewish Voice further clarifies this view:
"How do we know that Passover is Rosh HaShanah for the Kings? It is in the Tanach [Old Testament], though somewhat hidden. How do we know that the Kings of Israel are crowned at Passover? In I Kings, it says this: ‘… in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the House of Adonai.’ (I Kings 6:1) It is repeated in II Chronicles 3:2 as well. The second month of the reign of King Solomon – which means Solomon was crowned the month before! The month of Zif is now known as the month of Iyar, which comes after the month of Nisan, when Passover is. From this understanding, we can check it with the other kings of Israel as well. There was a debate between the House of Hillel and the House of Shamai, whether it was on the 15th or the 1st of the month, but the 15th is Passover night, and this became the common understanding."The notion of Coronations being affiliated with Passover should be very interesting to Christians. Because it was on the 14th of Nisan 30 AD that Jesus was Crowned with a Crown of Thorns, and given a Royal Robe and mocked for being a King. And on the Cross was officially proclaimed by Pilate Jesus of Nazareth, King of The Jews.
At the beginning of the 70th Week, The White Horsemen is given a Crown when the First Seal is opened. And at the end, when Jesus returns also riding a White Horse he will have many crowns upon his head.
What all this means is we may need to consider the Prophetic significance of the Fall Feasts as being in the Middle of the 70th Week, not it's end. Hence possibly in the fulfillment of the Mid-Trib/Seventh Trumpet view of The Rapture.
David had two Coronations, one in Hebron when he was 30, and one 7 years later in Jerusalem. Also Ish-Bosheth was crowned around the same time as David's first coronation. So the Eschatological Week having Coronations in Nisan at it's beginning and ending could be interesting. Ish-Bosheth could arguably be viewed as a type of the Antichrist.
Jesus also had a Coronation, with a Crown of Thrones, at the end of 69 Weeks. So perhaps His formal Millennial Coronation will be in Nisan when the Eschatological 7 years are over.
The Karaites also know that the year begins and ends with Nisan.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
The Crucifixion happened in 30 AD
30 AD I
believe is the year of the Death and Resurrection of Yeshua of
Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, Jesus Christ. At the time, it was known as the Year
of the Consulship of Vinicius and Longinus (or, less frequently, year
783 Ab urbe condita). I'm aware 33 AD is a more common date to cite, so
I'm going to explain all the reasons I favor 30 AD. I won't bring
Daniel's 70 weeks into it, in order for the Prophetic significance of
that to be impressive we must prove independently that it points to the
same date, so I'll do address that in a separate study.
The first chronological mistake made in dealing with the time of Jesus is how people read Luke 3. It does not date when Jesus "Began to be about 30 years old" to the 15th year of Tiberius, it dates his Baptism and 40 days in the Wilderness to when he was "about 30". And it dates the beginning of John The Baptist's ministry to the "15th year of Tiberius". People tend to assume those two events were very close to each other, but Acts 13 says John "completed his course" before Jesus came to be Baptized. The 15th year of Tiberius is usually assumed to be dating from the death of Augustus in August of 14 AD. But Augustus had effectively made Tiberius co-ruler in 12 AD after his return from Germania. If we count from that then 26-27 AD was the 15th year of Tiberius.
The biggest chronological mistake made when dealing with the Crucifixion is when people incorrectly state that John refers to three or four Passovers occurring during Jesus's ministry. (The discrepancy between three and four is a Feast being refereed to that isn't identified.) John 2 (It's second story), John 6 and 12 all refer to Passover clearly, the last being the Passover season of the Crucifixion. John 5 refers to a Jewish feast but doesn't identify which, many then assume this is Passover. Since the Passover is largely the thematic heart of John's narrative I believe he would have identified it if it was Passover. I believe the one in John 5 is possibly Purim or Pentecost.
So John has three at most. The problem is the basic narrative of the SynopticsGospels
do not seem to allow more then a Year and a few months for Jesus'
Ministry. The thing people overlook is that John's Gospel is the most
Mystical of the Gospels, and because of that it's not always purely
Chronological, sometimes events are described next to each other for
symbolic reasons, not because they actually happened side by side.
John 2 describes two stories. The first is the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding banquet. That story clearly seems to be at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, since it'spresented
as his first public miracle. The second story involves The Temple. I
believe they're told side by side because together they make John 2 a Beth
chapter. Beth is the second letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, and it also
means house. So John 2 deals with both The House as in the Family and
The House as in the House of God. Both also refer to a three day period
of time.
What is so often and to me annoyingly overlooked is that John 2 gives clearly a more detailed account of the Cleansing of The Temple. Which the Synoptics clearly place in the same week as the Crucifixion. Some would suggest it happened twice, but in the Synoptics it's clearly the last straw that drives theScribes Pharisees Pharisees
and the Priesthood to want Jesus dead, if he'd done the same thing 2
or 3 years before that wouldn't make much sense. It's also interesting
that the Synoptic account alludes to what only John records Jesus
saying here, (About destroying this Temple and rebuilding it in 3 days)
in the form of false witnesses misrepresenting it, but my point here is it's presented
as something He said recently.
So in truth John gives a Ministry of only just over a year (many Atheists criticize the Gospels by saying the Synoptics clearly depict a ministry of only about a year and that John's three year model is then a contradiction. I've provided the means to refute that,) or maybe even less. And since John 2 is recording the Passover season of the Crucifixion, that is very useful since John 2 dates itself.
"Forty and six years has this temple been in building". The renovations of the Temple Herod started wasn't finished till the 60s, so this is referring to them speaking 46 years after Herod's renovations began. 20/19 BC is when Herod first announced the project, but as a careful study of Josephus shows it really began in late 18 or early 17 B.C. So 46 years latter on Passover brings us to 30 A.D. Ussher dated John 2's Temple incident to the same year, but repeated the error I explained above.
Even John 6 might actually have the same Passover season in mind, since the preparation for Passover in a sense begins an entire 30 days before in Rabbinic custom, around Purim. And in John 6 they're not in Jerusalem yer. But that could go either way for my current theory to work. John 6 is either the 30 or 29 AD Passover.
--Lactanius, "On the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died", .2, tells us that only "25 years" lapsed, "until the beginning of the reign of Nero". Nero became Emperor in 55 A.D.
What else can give further support to 30 AD? In the Talmud Yoma 39b it says
The first chronological mistake made in dealing with the time of Jesus is how people read Luke 3. It does not date when Jesus "Began to be about 30 years old" to the 15th year of Tiberius, it dates his Baptism and 40 days in the Wilderness to when he was "about 30". And it dates the beginning of John The Baptist's ministry to the "15th year of Tiberius". People tend to assume those two events were very close to each other, but Acts 13 says John "completed his course" before Jesus came to be Baptized. The 15th year of Tiberius is usually assumed to be dating from the death of Augustus in August of 14 AD. But Augustus had effectively made Tiberius co-ruler in 12 AD after his return from Germania. If we count from that then 26-27 AD was the 15th year of Tiberius.
The biggest chronological mistake made when dealing with the Crucifixion is when people incorrectly state that John refers to three or four Passovers occurring during Jesus's ministry. (The discrepancy between three and four is a Feast being refereed to that isn't identified.) John 2 (It's second story), John 6 and 12 all refer to Passover clearly, the last being the Passover season of the Crucifixion. John 5 refers to a Jewish feast but doesn't identify which, many then assume this is Passover. Since the Passover is largely the thematic heart of John's narrative I believe he would have identified it if it was Passover. I believe the one in John 5 is possibly Purim or Pentecost.
So John has three at most. The problem is the basic narrative of the Synoptics
John 2 describes two stories. The first is the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding banquet. That story clearly seems to be at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, since it's
What is so often and to me annoyingly overlooked is that John 2 gives clearly a more detailed account of the Cleansing of The Temple. Which the Synoptics clearly place in the same week as the Crucifixion. Some would suggest it happened twice, but in the Synoptics it's clearly the last straw that drives the
So in truth John gives a Ministry of only just over a year (many Atheists criticize the Gospels by saying the Synoptics clearly depict a ministry of only about a year and that John's three year model is then a contradiction. I've provided the means to refute that,) or maybe even less. And since John 2 is recording the Passover season of the Crucifixion, that is very useful since John 2 dates itself.
"Forty and six years has this temple been in building". The renovations of the Temple Herod started wasn't finished till the 60s, so this is referring to them speaking 46 years after Herod's renovations began. 20/19 BC is when Herod first announced the project, but as a careful study of Josephus shows it really began in late 18 or early 17 B.C. So 46 years latter on Passover brings us to 30 A.D. Ussher dated John 2's Temple incident to the same year, but repeated the error I explained above.
Even John 6 might actually have the same Passover season in mind, since the preparation for Passover in a sense begins an entire 30 days before in Rabbinic custom, around Purim. And in John 6 they're not in Jerusalem yer. But that could go either way for my current theory to work. John 6 is either the 30 or 29 AD Passover.
--Lactanius, "On the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died", .2, tells us that only "25 years" lapsed, "until the beginning of the reign of Nero". Nero became Emperor in 55 A.D.
What else can give further support to 30 AD? In the Talmud Yoma 39b it says
Our Rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-coloured strap become white; nor did the westernmost light shine; and the doors of the Hekal would open by themselves, until R. Johanan b. Zakkai rebuked them, saying: Hekal, Hekal, why wilt thou be the alarmer thyself? I know about thee that thou wilt be destroyed, for Zechariah ben Ido has already prophesied concerning thee: Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.
40
years before The Temple's destruction takes us to 30 AD The
reference to Johanan ben Zakkai confirms this is the second destruction,
not the first. Why link the beginning of this period to the Crucifixion? Because the Veil was torn when Jesus died.
On the Roman calendarcalendar years were always named after the Consuls at the year's start. The
solider who pierced the side of Christ came to be named Longinus in
extra Biblical tradition. It is often explained as only a pun on the
Greek word for spear John used, Logche (long'-khay). But Longinus was a
real Roman name, as a family name of the Cassius who killed Caesar, so
that Longinus's feast day in Catholic tradition becomes the 15th of
March is interesting. The Longinus who was Consul for 30 AD was a
great Nephew of the killer of Caesar, however a direct descentent of him became Suffect Consul later in the year. Perhaps the name became linked to
the Crucifixion because it was linked to the year it happened.
On the Roman calendar
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