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Updated r.2.9.

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10/6/2017
Vol. III Supplement, No.6
Passion Week Chronology

IRENT Vol. III. Supplement:


No. 1 (Words, Words, and Words)
No. 2 (Text, Translation, and Translations)
No. 3 (Names, Persons, and People)
No. 4 (Place, Things, and Numbers)
No. 5 (Time, Calendar, and Chronology)
No. 6 (Passion Week Chronology)

WALK THROUGH THE SCRIPTURE

No. 6 Passion Week Chronology

See the files in Collection #6A and #6B for this Supplement.

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Contents

A. Summary of Calendar Issues


B. Summary of Notes on Terminology
C. Examining Time-marker Biblical Passages
D. Timelines of the Passion Week
E. Event-by-event in the Passion Week

Appendix:

Biblical Lunar calendar system


Examining Time-marker Biblical Passages
References

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The aim of this paper is, among others, (1) to resolve the issue
of what day is of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, (2) to
present the biblical timeline of the Passover-Passion Week,
unaffected by the fictitious church liturgical Holy Week, and
(3) to urge people to look for the issue of calendar systems to
find the biblical lunar calendar to use it for their reading of
the biblical narratives kept in the correct timeline, which has
been obscured and muddled by use of non-biblical calendars
the rabbinic Jewish calendar (only since 4th century!) and
Gregorian calendar.

As the essential requirement for all sorts of our discussion and


debate, we need a basic vocabulary with words and terms to
be clearly defined. Otherwise all we say its good is nothing
more than its good to me or it seems good; our effort will
be in vain.

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Basic Vocabulary
Festival, Feast, Season

Passover an English translation word.

Pesach transliterate of Hebrew word. This should not be confused with Pascha (or
Pasch by some) which is transliteration of Greek and used in Orthodox Church to
refer to Easter.

The word Passover as in English N.T. translations denotes the historical memorial (from
Exodus) with the Pesach sacrifice (in the midafternoon) with the Pesach lamb (1Co 5:7) and
Pesach meal (in the evening). When the word Pesach alone is used in the Biblical texts as a
time-marker, it should be carefully distinguished between the Pesach Day and the Pesach Festival.
(a) the Pesach Day for the Pesach feast (on Abib 14)
(b) the Pesach Festival = the festival of the Matzah a = Pesach Week of 7 days.b

The Hebrew term Pesach is used in IRENT translation of N.T., by replacing the
traditional English word Passover. Here in discussion of the Passion Week timeline (>
chronology), it is always distinguished from Jewish Passover (which is on Nisan 15 of
the rabbinic Jewish calendar).

Passover meal (Jewish ritual Seder-type) with Nisan 14 vs. Nisan 15. c The Jewish
Passover of the rabbinic Judaism is a 7-day long festival (Pesach I to Pesach VII, from
Nisan 15 to 21), which corresponds to the Festival of the Matzah in N.T. and O.T. [Some
diaspora Jews keep Nisan 15 to 22 eight days]. The precursor of the rabbinic Jewish
liturgical Seder is the Passover meal on Nisan 15.

a
The festival of the Matzah (Heb. Chag Matzoth) = the Festival of the unleavened bread, the
Festival of the Unleavened Bread NWT-4, NIV; /x: the Feast of Unleavened Bread ESV; /x:
the feast of unleavened bread KJV.
with full expression is Lk 22:1, where it says it is (synonymously) called Pesach Festival.
as a festival season, but the term Pesach is not to be confused with and cannot be used as
interchangeable with this. Variously translated
unleavened bread (Heb. matzah/matzo, pl. matzoth): Exo 12:34 bread home-baked of dough
before it rises. Yeast, baking soda, baking powder (sodium bicarbonate), cream of tartar, eggs, etc.
all of these ingredients are only leavening agents, meaning they can cause or speed up the process
of making bread to become Chametz/Leaven, but they themselves are not leavening. What can be
shown from Scriptures is that Chametz/Leavening is simply the process that bread takes to Rise.
Simply put, If you have a dough ball and you let it sit until it rises, then it is Chametz/Leavened.
(e.g. Mt 13:33).
[ www.yhrim.com/Are_we_to_Keep_7_or_8_Days_of_Chag_Matzoth_11-25-5992.pdf ]
[An erroneous statement in AT Robertson (1922), A Harmony of the Gospels reads The feast of
the unleavened bread followed the Passover meal, beginning the next morning and lasting a week.
But the one term was used to include the other. The Passover was expanded to mean the entire
feast that followed, and vice versa. p. 280. (bold is not in his).]
b
7-days long. [the term Passover season may be useful to cover the period from before the Pesach
day to the end of the Pesach festival.
c
the Greek word , or , was by Josephus used interchangeably with the Festival of the
unleavened bread, and both together = Pesach.
(www.worldslastchance.com/yahuwahs-calendar/the-passover-puzzle.html).
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Without such clear distinction, the result is not only confusion of the biblical narrative,
but also misinterpretation (e.g. question/confusion on whether the Lords Last Supper
was Passover meal or not with apparent contradiction between G-John and the Synoptic
Gospels, from misreading and misinterpreting the Synoptic narratives), baffling to most
people. It cannot be overemphasized that, in any area of doctrinal or exegetical arguments
and conflicts, our improper choice and usage of the vocabularies is a seed of such
wrongheadedness, all being inescapably agenda-driven (of religious-political, doctrinal
and scholarly agenda) words without precision definition and without considering the
context of the text in locus as well as in whole.

Sabbath (vs. sabbath) on Day 7 of the biblical lunar week for Sabbath rest during
daytime. Not equivalent to Saturday which is 7th day of the solar week of the Gregorian
calendar. Sabbath-keeping from the Mosaic covenant. It is a lunar sabbath. The term
sabbath which is on Saturday in rabbinic Judaism (24 hours from Friday sunset) and
other Sabbatarians is solar sabbath. IRENT use the term sabbath as the translation
word in N.T. Outside N.T. it is helpful to distinguish two expressions: sabbath as of a
lunar sabbath and sabbath as of a solar sabbath, each means it is in the lunar and solar
week, respectively.

Three different calendar systems (1) Gregorian vs. (2) rabbinic Jewish vs. (3) biblical
lunar calendar employ words and terms differently.

See the section Summary on Terminology to follow below for the term day, week,
month, hour, etc.

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Question:
When was He crucified?
What day of the week was it?
Friday, Thursday, or Wednesday?

Answer:
The best reply should start with So?a with various tones, followed by How
son? So then? So what as if anyone should care about it as it does not
really matter which is to be correct. So then? Is there something to be at stake?
Nothing, except for the church liturgical tradition for those in position and
power.
When we remain stuck to follow the narrative in terms of those non-biblical
named day of the week, it actually distorts the narrative time-line.

Actually, we should not say He was crucified/resurrected on certain days (Friday-


Sunday or Wednesday-Saturday), nor He was raised on Sunday morning. This is in
reality how the Church has allocated on those days in their fictitious liturgical Holy
Week, deviated from the Biblical Passover-Passion Week.

However, there are a few we have to know in order to correctly follow the
narrative timeline of the Passion Week and to fully understand its narrative in
the Bible and get rid of all the accumulated baggage from traditions, being free
to return to the Scripture. The basic principles are straight forward; it is
unlearning which is actually harder. The fundamental problem is that it is the
church language (for doctrines, theologies, liturgies) people use it instead of the
biblical language to understand the biblical narrative.

The seed of the Passion Week timeline problem is the common mistake that the
sabbath as Saturday (the 7th day of the solar week), simply following the
rabbinic Jewish tradition. It has nothing common with the biblical Sabbath on
the Day 7 of the biblical lunar week (only for daytime period). There is no such
word Saturday used in the Bible. Nor we find it even in the early Julian
calendar, which had 8-day week!!
Arguments and counter-arguments on different scenarios for the day and date of
the Crucifixion and the Resurrection have shown some bits of facts, but they are
often used for wrong arguments as well, making things more confusing and
conflicting. Their source material is not precisely giving the needed data, but
their own claims without rigorous astronomical and chronologic clarification.
the New Testament is supposed to tell and proclaim is not found in the religious
language of the Church.

a
So? How so? So then? this is a best response to any statement or claim
asserted by anyone in any setting.
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Something to serve for the religious purpose of the Church may be fine in itself,
appealing, even essential for the conduct of religion, but it surely has nothing
to do with what the Bible teaches. What has compounded the problem is the
unbiblical convention in the rabbinic Jewish calendar which reckons a day to
start at sunrise quite contrary to the natural way of seeing day as a day light
period to begin with, before being defined as a unit of 24 hours, i.e. day + night.

Of all this, the Bible is here with us to liberate from all human ideas and speak
its own truth to those who are open to hear without presumptions and premature
knowledge. The take-home message is:
(1) that we should read the Biblical narratives with the biblical calendar (not
rabbinic Jewish, nor Roman calendar) using the terms of biblical
language, not religious church language,
(2) that He was crucified on 14th of Abib, the first month of the biblical year
the day of Pesach sacrifice serving as the typology of the Pesach lamb
of Elohim.
(3) and that the Gospels report He was raised to life on 16th of Abib at dawn
on the third day after his death; after 3 days and 3 nights in the
heart of the land in His suffering and death in their very city, Jerusalem,
in 30 C.E. not being buried in the ground.
When the Biblical Lunar Calendar is aligned with the proleptic Gregorian
calendar, we find it fell on Wednesday for the crucifixion and Saturday for the
resurrection ( with the resurrection at dawn, not in the late afternoon).
However, that it is found correctly with Wednesday-to-Saturday, not Friday-to-
Sunday would have a marginal effect on Church liturgical use. Even if it
becomes accepted, there is no impetus to make changes in the fond fictitious
Holy Week of the Church.

The purpose of my effort on this work is not so much to argue for truths, but to
help others to deal with those agenda-driven half-truths which people have
become enamored of.

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Passion-Passover Week Chronology

Clarifying the Passion-Passover Week Timeline


for the Last Week of the Mashiah

The scope of this paper is (1) to find a biblically sound solution on the question of day,
date, and year of the Crucifixion, and (2) to construct coherent a Passion Week timetable.
This has been done by clarifying several important issues, which has resulted in so many
different positions and arguments, adding confusion, contradiction and contention rather
than clarification and consensus-finding to this important subject.

The Passion-Passover narrative is the bulk of the Gospel and the only that which flows
on the precise timeline, while the rest shows the life teaching with healing ministry but
without tightly being bound to the timeline. a

Several issues to resolve: (1) different scenarios for the Crucifixion day (Friday,
Thursday, or Wednesday) and the Resurrection day (Wednesday or Thursday); (2) lack
of understanding precise meaning of the termsb and the idioms in the Scripture; and (3)
clear understanding of a week-long timeline in the Passion Week narrative. Note:
Chronology-related issue is about what year for the events. Calendar-related issues are
dates and days. The expression Passion-Passover Week Chronology is used here as
synonymous with Passion Week Narrative Timeline.

The ultimate solution cannot be found unless various issues of different calendar systems
the one in the biblical times and those in the modern times. It is at the core of
misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the biblical texts of the Passion Week
narratives. c It is futile like trying to open a door with wrong keys the sunset-to-sunset
day and the Saturday of the solar week instead of the 7th day of the biblical lunar week.

That it was Friday He was crucified? What difference does it make if it turned out to
be different day of the week? It should be reminded that it is something only for Church
liturgy in conjunction of keeping of the Easter. Which day for His crucifixion and
resurrection as such have no relevance to our belief, it is of no theological significance,
only ecclesial liturgical. The problem for the Bible readers is that it is without full
chronological support and evidence in the Biblical narrative itself. This paper is simply
a
Compared with chronology issue (not timeline issue) when we are concerned with His nativity
narrative, the duration of Yeshuas ministry, and the year of His Crucifixion.
b
Two examples: (1) A common but serious misunderstanding of Mt 12:40 phrase three days
and three nights in conjunction with a Hebrew idiom in the heart of the land, which started
the quest to find the correct Crucifixion day with arguments and counterarguments for timeline
and chronology issues.
(2) The word Passover itself used in various senses. Since they dont have a clear idea of the
calendar system used in that time, but imposing the Gregorian calendar on to the Scripture, they
remain confused even on the date, whether the Passover was on Nisan 14, or Nisan 15. They
have no clear way to find what year and what day of the week was the Crucifixion. Nor they are
sure of whether Lords Last Supper was a Passover meal or not. E.g. AT Robertson (1922), A
Harmony of the Gospels (Notes on Special Points:11. Did Christ Eat the Passover (p. 279) and
12. The Hour of the Crucifixion p. 384)
c
[The detailed on the topic of Time, Calendar and Chronology is the sister file WB#5 Walk
through the Scripture for IRENT Vol. III Supplement.]
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to provide the readers enough information and idea to avoid confusion and wrong
conviction on the biblical matters.

In the Bible, there was no such day named Sunday, Saturday, or Friday, etc. Its simply
non-biblical vocabulary. That a certain day is Saturday simply means it is between
Friday and Sunday; it has no meaning of Sabbath. It is only take it as Sabbath, which is
a solar sabbath. It doesnt belong to the Bible text, nor it is useful to follow any biblical
timeline. Here we are dealing with substantially different calendar systems. Dating an
event can be done to see how a certain day would fall on the other calendar. A solar
sabbath, that is, sabbath on a solar week, is not something which is translatable to the
biblical lunar sabbath. On the contrary, it brews confusion, conflict and contradiction in
the biblical text itself. The Roman calendar itself used 8-day week, not 7-day as now!
Its prudent to follow the Passion narrative by using the Biblical Lunar calendar (instead
of the Roman calendar mixed with Jewish calendar). Again, the Day 7 (of Sabbath) in
the biblical lunar week is Sabbath, but is not related to Saturday.

Only after one finds the valid Scriptural calendar to be applied to the Passion Week
timeline, it is possible to superimpose with the Roman calendar to see that the day was
Friday or any other named day of the week. We should not allow a wrong way by
thinking in terms of our named days of the week to reach a verdict on what date of the
month is to be for the Crucifixion. Finding a correct day of the week is a marginal
importance and not essential for following through the biblical narrative.

[Note: References are quoted for the materials I have found useful, not only to solve
problems but also to find challenges and raise questions. Not all things written there are
relevant to the topics under the discussion here. Not all written statement can be correct,
right, or accurate. The readers are to exercise their own judgment to make use of them.]

With not a few tasks to confront, which all are interlinked and tend to be
dovetailed, only after we take on the first thing first, then we should be able to
settle on what should have been only secondary issues. We are to take up different
competing and conflicting scenarios of the Crucifixion day Friday, Thursday,
and Wednesday (with Saturday dawn or Saturday afternoon resurrection). Each
tends to attack the problems which are not substantial but ghosts as result of
misunderstanding of the biblical terms and expression along with blinded
misinterpretation of the biblical texts. Not only we have to deal with bits, but also
to take methodically sound approach in order to bring all to the common ground
of understanding and knowledge.

Again to repeat, it is not what day in the week on which the Crucifixion falls that
really matters dating problem btw two calendar systems. It is what date in the
month Abib that should come first to consider. We should find and construct the
correct timeline of the biblical Passover-Passion Week, not the fictitious Holy
Week of the Church liturgy. The chronological issues (1) the year of the
crucifixion and the duration of His ministry. This paper does not have space for
this. The year 33 and the resultant Friday crucifixion theory is not worthy of
consideration); (2) the date Abib 14 of the crucifixion was it Wednesday or
Thursday in the year CE 30? It is not really weighty issue; (3) the timeline of the
Passion-Passover week day by day, especially the date and time of the Pilates
sentencing (Jn 19:14 sixth hour) to keep it in harmony with the timeframe
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when Yeshua was on the Cross (from third Mk 15:25, through sixth 15:33, to
ninth hour 15:34). This latter gives a clue that the Trial should be place the day
before Crucifixion and consequently to debunk the absurd traditional allocation
of quite a number of event from His Arrest to Sentencing impossible in a short
overnight period. [See details to follow below.]

Many issues, question and problems are interlinked. Unless we deal with them in
totality, it is futile to tackle each of them as if they stand alone. The day and date
problem are unsolvable without understanding of the proper biblical calendar,
setting aside the rabbinic Jewish and the Gregorian calendation. Without careful
and unbiased scrutiny of the time related expression in the Passion narrative, all
that has come out is the product of conjectures, unproven hypotheses, and
unsupported illogical arguments.a

The task presented here is not just to find correct answers, but how to
deal with the wrong positions and approaches and unconvincing
arguments.

a
E.g. taking absence of evident as the evidence of absent. That there has not been found any
evidence in the writings in the
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What are the issues in controversy?

The list of major issues with confusions and questions

(1) on the date and day of the Crucifixion, and


(2) on the timeline of the Passover-Passion week
While the first is of importance only for the church liturgy, the second is of great importance
for anyone who reads the Bible, as they are often confronted with the Holy Week of the Church
liturgy, which can stand independent of the biblical narrative.

The great hindrance to a no-nonsense approach (of common sense and logic)
relying on the Scripture to find solutions is lack of knowledge on the calendar
systems. Those theological and scholarly traditions often tend to hinder rather
than to help, with a plethora of conjectures, some are palatable and some are
outrageous.

Was it in 30, 31 or 33 CE?

It was 30 CE. This a chronology-related issue, not a timeline issue.

Was it Nisan 14 or Nisan 15?

It was Abib 14 (Nisan 14), the Pesach day.a

The is no room for confusion when Abib dates of the biblical lunar calendar
are used. However, a great confusion exits regarding which date Nisan 14 or
15 is for the Jewish Passover.b This also contributed unnecessary confusion
of the nature of the Last meal, what date, with some misreading it as the
Pesach meal. Even the date of Crucifixion (Nisan 14 vs. 15) gets mixed up
because of this. It is a confused calendar issue is confounded by the
unbiblical practice in the rabbinic Jewish calendar which reckons a day to
start at sunset. In addition, though it is a luni-solar calendar, it mixes with
elements of Gregorian solar calendar system (e.g. solar week), thus
confusing itself about which date is which. [See under *14 or 15 for
Passover]

a
Abib 14 = Nisan 14 for the daytime event. It was not Friday.
b
John Meier (1991), A Marginal Jews p. 389.
the day for the Passover meal was held in the evening after sundown (of the Nisan
14). The sabbath which followed was the 16th of Nisan. In Johns reckoning,
therefore, Thursday as the 13th of Nisan up until sunset; the Last Supper was held as
the 14th of Nisan began and so was not a Passover meal; Jesus was crucified, died,
and was buried on a Friday that was the 14th of the Nisan up until sunset; and Passover
Day began with the Passover meal at sunset on Friday, as the 15th of Nisan began.
Here in this typical confusing argument on the Nisan 14 vs. 15, the author unfortunately labelled
Nisan 15 as Passover Day proper, which is a confusing inappropriate term. All such confused
ideas of Jewish Nisan 14 vs. 15 is fundamentally caused by the Jewish calendar with a sunset-
to-sunset day.
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Where does the Bible tell when was the Crucifixion date? It is Mk 15:42
which says the preparation day, that is sabbath eve.a
The biblical sabbath (in contrast to Jewish sabbath) is not related to Saturday
of the solar week. The [sabbath] preparation day is on day 6 of the lunar
week, not related to Friday. Nor this text means that the Last Meal took
place on the evening before His death (Thursday). To find on what day of
the solar week of the proleptic Gregorian calendar would the Crucifixion
date fall is not much of a biblical issue, but of the tradition and liturgy of the
Christian churches. It only requires to know what biblical calendar and how
the biblical narrative followed in the Passover-Passion Week.

Gods Anointed One would voluntarily lay down His life at the appointed
time to die the death by crucifixion for the sins of man (Rm 5:6), His
death on any day other than the Pesach day is biblically impossible and
destroys the typology of the very Pesach lamb of Elohim (Jn 1:29, 36) as
Pesach sacrifice (1Co 5:7) delivered into the hands of men (Mk 9:31),
men of outcast sinners (Lk 24:7), been rejected by and suffered many
things from the Elders and chief kohanim and soferim (Mt 16:21; Mt 8:31;
Lk 9:22). The central teaching of the N.T. on who Yeshua is (1) the
Incarnate Logos of the Elohim (not God incarnate), (2) Mashiah, the one-
and-only Son of the Elohim, and (3) Mashiah our Pesach sacrifice all
through the infinite Love of the Creator. He came to lay down himself to be
what He was and to become who He will be the believers of the redemptive
of the Elohim. That Yeshua had Pesach meal on the day before His
crucifixion is what came out of the scholars ignorant and ignoring such
central teachings myopically focused on the bible verses here and there,
without ability to see in the context and with the whole Passover-Passion
Week narrative.

Was it Friday the day of His Crucifixion?

If we say His death was on Good Friday we may be forgiven


as the bible does not have a vocabulary of Gregorian named days of
the week. Biblically it does not mean a thing, be it Friday or Sunday!
Most are ignorant that the calendar system in the Bible is not like
Gregorian one, and not even the rabbinic Jewish calendar.
With the accurate astronomical data available for dates of the
astronomical new moon days (i.e. of conjunction) we then have to
determine when is the first day of the first month (i.e. the New Moon
Day) of the biblical year. By how it is to be determined the date may

a
Other Gospels express the same basic idea but in a more diffuse way:
Mt 27:57 when evening came Mt 27:62 Next day, when is [the day] after the day of
the preparation.
Lk 23:54 this had been the day of sabbath-preparation and there sabbath day was coming
to dawn. Lk 23:56 after they returned to their lodging they rested on the Sabbath
according to the commandment.
Jn 19:31. since it was sabbath-preparation [next day],
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be off one day. In 30 CE, it was found to fall on Thursday (Apr 6) or
Wednesday (Apr 5). [Note: a biblical Wednesday scenario is with
Saturday dawn resurrection, not like the non-biblical scenario with Saturday
late afternoon resurrection.]

When the Gregorian vocabulary is used to read the Bible it leads to


confusion, conflicts and contradictions on the narrative timeline. Day 7 of
the biblical lunar week in the bible is mistaken as Saturday in both Jewish
and Gregorian vocabulary, which is the day of Sabbath for them. The
Crucifixion was then put on Friday, which is the day before sabbath. With
proper understanding of various calendar systems to realize that how the
lunar and the solar weeks simply do not correspond. Gregorian vocabulary
actually hinders to clear grasping of the biblical narrative, just as with the
rabbinic Jewish calendar.

How and why should we find the correct day?

This requires to read the Passion-Passover Week with the calendar


used in the Bible, not the rabbinic Jewish calendar, without mixing up with
the Gregorian calendar vocabulary.

We only have to align the biblical calendar with a proleptic Gregorian


calendar to see what [named] day of the [solar] week it falls on.

The timeline in the Passion-Passover week should not be read with non-
biblical calendars, as is with the case of the Church Liturgical Holy Week
with unbiblical vocabulary of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, etc.

When does a day begin, at sunrise or sunset in the Bible?

At sunrise. Not to be confused with Jewish calendar reckoning


of a day (as a calendar date) to start at sunset. Even with the
Gregorian calendar a day does begin at sunrise, but simply a
calendar day is reckoned to start at 12 A.M.

Can the rabbinic Jewish calendar be used in for the biblical times?

No. It was only from 4th century CE and not in the Bible.

An outlandish claim was proposed that there were two calendar systems
being used in CE 30 and diffident groups of people were observing two
occasions of Pesach, one day apart. a

a
. Hoehner (pp. 84, 90-91) describes Billerbecks fanciful theory that the Galileans (incl. Jesus
and His disciples) reckoned a day of sunrise-to-sunrise while the Judean reckoned sunset-to
sunset. Both calendars were used at the same time, so that there were two consecutive days for
Passover observed by two different people groups!!
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How did we get the traditional Friday crucifixion scenario?

Not based on the biblical calendar. Its simply a result of


following the Jewish convention of their Sabbath to be on the 7th day
of the solar week, that is, Saturday (for 24 hours from evening of
Friday to evening of Saturday), without being exposed to the different
calendar system being used in the Bible.

After reading the biblical statement that the Crucifixion was on the before
sabbath, preparation day, they wrongly interpreted it as Friday. Sabbath
is Saturday for them, and the 1st day of their week is Sunday, which is taken
as the day of His resurrection. The Bible does not say the day was Sunday,
but plainly says His resurrection was on Day 1 of the (lunar) week in the
dawn.

Was the Last Supper of Yeshua the Passover meal?

No. It was a special fellowship supper for farewell and teaching on Abib
12. The confusion with the Pesach meal of Yehudim of Abib 14 Pesach.
is one of the major causes of a number of misunderstanding of the
biblical text and a variety of the Passover-Passion Week timeline
schemes.

The special occasion where He was going to use the common bread and
the fruit of vineyard (wine) to explain the significance of what he was
about to accomplish on the cross on the appointed time of the death of
the Mashiah, the Pesach day. His death on any day other than the
Pesach day is biblically impossible and meaningless. However, absence
essential components of the Pesach meal, such as unleavened bread
(matzah), bitter herbs (maror), and lamb roasted whole (with none of its
bones unbroken) tell us simply and plainly that the Last Supper was not
and was not meant to be the Pesach meal.

What is the main issue of concern? To see the day is correctly on a certain day of
the week, e.g. Friday Crucifixion or not? It would be something of importance
only for the tradition of Church liturgy. All of this is actually a non-issue, however,
for those who reads the Bible and want to follow the biblical narrative.

What we need and we have to concerned with is to find a correct and accurate
timeline out of the biblical texts, armed with the knowledge of calendar systems,
with the biblical lunar calendar to be used to read the Bible, not the rabbinic Jewish,
neither Gregorian calendar. These have been actually causing confusion, conflict,
and contentions, including some incredulous absurdity.

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Why and what confusion and conflict regarding the Passion Week narrative?

1. Most are not aware that is not the traditional rabbinic Jewish calendar is not
the calendar system used in the Bible.

In reading the Bible, one should always think in terms of the biblical lunar
calendar, which is so unlike our calendars which are for civil, astronomic,
or religious use. We are to understand the calendar systems without
preconceived ideas and to have a clear idea on the one used in the Scripture.a

2. Year as in the Bible is solar (as in Roman calendar), but Biblical month is
lunar. Hence, lunisolar calendar (same as in rabbinic Hebrew).

3. Day as in the Bible is that which begins at sunrise. It means a daylight period
[Gen 1:5a <Elohim called the light period day and the darkness period
night.>; Jn 11:19 twelve hours in the day]. It is sometimes used in the
sense of a calendar day (date) b

It is in this sense that a day is reckoned to start at different time depending


on the calendar systems. It is at sunrise in the Biblical calendar, but at
midnight c in Roman calendar and, at sunset in the rabbinic Jewish calendar,
which was Greek on origin. [See in the file Walk through the Scripture #1
for day. When does a day begin?]

4. Hour as in the Bible means an hour-period on a sundial, not oclock. d

5. Week as in the Bible is lunar. A full week has seven numbered days (1st to
7th). In the Gregorian and Jewish calendars, they are solar week, cyclic and
continuous.

In the Biblical lunar calendar, the weeks are not continuous and non-cyclic.
In any lunar month, there are 4 full weeks of 7 days e, with four days of
Sabbath (Sabbath); it is on day 7 of the full lunar week (on Day 8, 15, 22
and 29). (for keeping day-time only)

Then seventh day of the lunar week is not related and do not correspond to
Saturday of the solar week of our Gregorian Roman calendar. Equating Day
7 of the week to Saturday, and sabbath preparation day (= sabbath eve = on

a
It actually hinders to use a proleptic Gregorian calendar and its vocabulary to correctly follow the
timeline in the biblical texts.
b
[day + night = corresponding to the present 24-hour day], especially when counting off days.
c
[currently at 12 A.M., which is not same as midnight.]
d
E.g. in Jn 19:14 sixth hour is counted from sunrise, about 11 a.m. to noon. Not 6 a.m. Even in the
early Roman calendar where a day was reckoned to start at mid-night or sunrise, the hour was counted
from sunrise and sunset.
e
2nd to 8th, 9th to 15th, 16th to 22nd, 23rd to 29th days with first day (of New Moon Day) and 30th day
being special non-weekly days.
16 | P a g e
Day 6) to Friday is one of the main source of errors in following the timelines
of the narratives in the Bible. Another serious error is 24-hour sabbath
keeping (from sunset). The sabbath rest is only for day time period; day in
a sabbath day means day, that is, daylight period.

The named days of the week are not in the Biblical vocabulary like Sunday,
Monday, etc. of the named days of the Gregorian week. Sunday is not
equated to day one of the lunar week; Saturday is to day 7. A certain date in
the biblical narrative might be found to fall coincidently on a certain day of
the solar week on a proleptic Gregorian calendar. a

6. Sabbath (> sabbath) as in the Bible is on Day 7 of the biblical lunar week. It
does not correspond to the sabbath for Sabbatarians and Jewish kept on the 7th
day of the solar week, that is, on Saturday. There is only one sabbath day in a
lunar week of the Scripture.

The day of Resurrection in CE 30 was at the end of the day one of the lunar week
in the dawn (in the latter part of fourth watch of night, before sunrise).

Precious determination of the actual Crucifixion date in a proleptic Gregorian


calendar is not possible as we need to have a Biblical Lunar calendar to follow the
chronological Passion Week timeline. How the calendar is made precisely is
dependent on how the first day of Abib is determined [Hence CE 30 for Abib 14
on Apr 5 (Wed) or Apr 6 (Thu)]. See below in the Appendix: <Apr-5 Wed or Apr-
6 Thu?> below under the section of <Biblical Lunar Calendar System>.]

On what named day of the Gregorian week was the day of the Crucifixion? The
fact is, it is actually immaterial, but is important for Church tradition and liturgical
purpose. The day, month, year, festival, sabbath (sabbath) all these have no
meaning except for pointing to Him.

Even if the dates in the biblical times can be accurately determined proleptically with
Gregorian calendar without a single day in error, that itself wont be much use. It would
only give some help in following the timeline of the narratives in the Scripture.

The liturgical Holy Week of Constantine Catholic Church tradition is not same as
the Biblical Passion Week. The date of Easter Sunday is arbitrarily determined by
the Church authority without being chronologically and historical/y related to
Pesach (Passover) week.

a
Which day is the first day of a week in a calendar? Despite of Sunday being included in the notion of
week end, most of us takes Sunday as the first day in the calendar, but some cultures are noted to take
Monday as the first day of the week.
17 | P a g e
A. Summary of Calendar Issues
1. The most important thing is to understand difference of three calendar systems.
The rabbinic Jewish calendar is not a biblical calendar. People tends to bring a
non-biblical Roman calendar itself into the Biblical text and thereby are misled to
come up with wrong timelines. When we try to follow the timeline of the biblical
narratives, it should be read firmly with the Biblical Lunar calendar as a guide.
2. We have to pay careful attention to several points on the differences among
calendar systems. Whether it is in reference to a daylight period or a calendar
(date), the word day in the Scripture is that which begins at sunrise. a There are
different conventions to reckon a day to start at midnight (as in Gregorian
calendar), at sunset (as in the rabbinic Jewish calendar which was from the Greek
origin), and at sunrise (as in the lunar Biblical calendar).
3. The numbered days of the week in the Bible is of the lunar week. It is not like solar
week used in two other calendar systems. Seventh day (of Sabbath) is not related
to Saturday and the Day 1 of the lunar week is one is not related to the first day
of the Gregorian week, Sunday.b

4. Nisan is the 7th month of the year in the rabbinic Jewish calendar with a day
reckoned from sunset to sunset. Abib is the 1st month of the year in Biblical Lunar
calendar with a day from sunrise to sunrise. The month of Abib/Nisan falls in
March to April of the Julian calendar. c
[As Abib and Nisan dates are off 12 hours, day time events do not cause problems
since they are on the same date. However, night time events are one different date
one-day late on Nisan.]

5. The Biblical Lunar calendar is essential in understanding and following the


narrative timelines in the Bible correctly and accurately without confusion and
contradiction.d For resolving the Passion Week Chronology controversy, only a
few points from the biblical calendation is sufficient to keep in mind:
(1) a biblical day begins at sunrise with morning coming, not at sunset,
(2) a biblical week is a lunar week; its numbered days do not correspond to the
named days of the solar week in Gregorian calendar, and
(3) a biblical Sabbath is Day 7 of the lunar week, which does not correspond to
Saturday, the 7th day of the solar week. (Cf. a rabbinic Jewish sabbath is from
Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.)

a. Sunrise is a day-break. Cf. dawn vs. dusk = twilights. dawn is the last part of a night (fourth watch of
night). Cf. www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-dusk-and-vs-dawn; Cf. Different expressions of
different meaning - morning breaking at dawn break at dawn day is dawning).
b The terms, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, etc. are of a non-biblical vocabulary by used in the so-called Holy Week

of the Church liturgy. It should be realized that this is what actually produced the unbiblical traditional Friday
crucifixion scenario, creating confusion, conflicts, contentions, and contradictions. [Even the year CE 33 as the
Crucifixion year was determined that the year had Passover Day on Friday! It is like putting the cart before the
horse.]
c [Gregorian date = Julian date 2 (from 100 BC to100 CE). Julian dates are used throughout this file on Passion-

Passover Week Chronology.]


d
For the list of reference www.hope-of-israel.org/godscal.htm
18 | P a g e
Abib vs. Nisan
[In order to clearly follow the biblical narratives, it is not just useful, but also essential
to articulate in terms of Abib, instead of the Nisan month in rabbinic Jewish calendar.
Likewise, it pays to adopt always Abib dates, instead of the Gregorian days of the
solar week (Sunday, Saturday, Friday, etc.) which cannot apply to the biblical texts.
Once the notion of Abib month is firmly grasped, two others can be simply
superimposed.] [It pays to think always with Abib instead of Nisan to
read Biblical narratives.]
Abib the 1st month of Biblical Lunar Calendar with a day beginning with sunrise.
All month are numbered; only the first month is named with 12 to 13 months in a year.
Nisan the name of the 7th month of the rabbinic Jewish calendar which reckons a
day from sunset to sunset. It is not of a biblical calendation; the dates do not
correspond to Abib dates and are not directly applied to the Biblical texts, as its
calendation was by 4th century Hillel II and cannot apply for the 1st century CE
history.
Calendation of the rabbinic Jewish calendar which is different from that of the lunar Biblical
calendar cannot be used to follow any of timelines in the biblical texts. To locate the actual
date of the first day of Nisan in 30 CE as in a proleptic calendar is not possible. Nisan dates,
12 hours ahead of Abib dates, as shown here only in the Passover-Passion Week timelines in
IRENT, are for comparison purpose only.]

[See Appendix how does the first month begin]


www.avoiceinthewilderness.org/saccal/calbook.html
Mar April Abib Nisan
Biblical Lunar Calendar Rabbinic Jewish
Calendar
(only s i n c e 4th century)
Month 1st month of the year 7th month of the year
Day Sunrise to sunrise Sunset to sunset @
1st day With dawning after Dark Moon. Fixed by calculation and rules
Full moon On 14th On 15th (variable)
Lunar sabbath Solar sabbath
(for daylight period). (for night and day time)
Sabbath
On day 7 (of the lunar week); On every Saturday (of the
Always on Day 8, 15, 22, 29. continuous cyclic solar week)

It is essential to think always with Abib instead of Nisan to avoid confusion, conflict and
contradiction. Biblical narratives cannot be clearly followed with the rabbinic Jewish calendar since
4th century CE is not the calendar used for the Bible.
Date on Nisan and Abib do not match as both are of different calendation. All the Nisan dates are
for comparison purpose only. A date on a proleptic Gregorian calendar may fall on the different dates
on the proleptic rabbinic Jewish calendar and the biblical lunar calendar. [ Appendix how does
the first month begin]
@ Note: A day-long activity was described in O.T. to have begun at sunset. That should not
make believe that a day was then being reckoned sunset to sunset! (E.g. Lev 23:32).

19 | P a g e
A calendar date
Month of Half-day point
A day of date Difference
@
Nisan is reckoned from sunset 6 hrs ahead at sunrise
March April is reckoned from 12 a.m. at 12 p.m. a
Abib begins at sunrise 6 hrs behind at sunset
@
Nisan dates, mentioned in this paper for the purpose of comparison only, is 12
hours ahead of the corresponding Abib dates of the Biblical Lunar Calendar. For
daytime same date in both Abib and Nisan; for night-time Nisan is one day ahead.
E.g.
Abib 14 daytime for the Crucifixion = Nisan 14 daytime
Abib 14 evening for the Pesach meal = Nisan 15 evening for Jewish Seder.
Abib 16 dawn (before day-break of Abib 17) = Resurrection
Abib 17 morning the Risen Lord to the disciples on Abib 17 morning.

A diagram of day
Sunrise, morning, sunset, evening; dust and dawn; forenoon and afternoon; midday;
and midnight.
[Cf. *evening = Heb. ereb and Gk. opsias (Mk 15:42 etc.); opse. A few examples of
hesperan (Lk 24:29; Act 4:3; 28:23)]
[cf. midday noon, high noon. Cf. noon time (or noon hour) = 12 P.M.]

[This diagram needs editing to convert 1st hour to 1st hour-period etc. There should
be no zero hour.]
Diagram from www.thecreatorscalendar.com/day-genesis-genesis-1-1-5/

a 12 p.m. is not identical to midday (noon) which is the mid-point of daytime when the sun is at
highest point. Nor the midnight is 12 a.m. Reckoning events in the night gets easily confused because
the date changes past 12 p.m.
20 | P a g e
B. Summary on Terminology
General terms:

*Entombment; burial; anoint;

*secondary burial in ossuaries: This practice involved collecting the deceaseds bones and
placing them inside an ossuary after the flesh had been left to decompose and desiccate. The
ossuary was then placed into a loculus.
www.jesusfamilytomb.com/back_to_basics/burial_practices/jewish_law.html

*shroud burial clothes


*tomb, grave, memorial-tomb

Time-related terms:
day; date; dawn; twilights morning and evening; midnight and
midday; hour-period vs. hour; week; month.

[See the detail cover in the IRENT Vol. III Supplement, the file Walk through the
Scripture 5 Time, Calendar, and Chronology.]
The common time-related terms used in the Scripture have meanings different from what
they are in English usage:
A biblical day is that which begins at sunrise with coming of morning, and it is how
people of every linguistic and cultural background do naturally experience. This is how the
word is used in the Bible throughout. Usually it refers to the daylight period between
sunrise and sunset (= dawn to dusk). Syn. daytime (Ko. ). It is distinguished from
night. The word is sometimes used in the sense of a calendar day (as of a date on a
calendar with a day + a night)a (Ko. ). [*night is that which begins at sunset with coming
of evening (Gk. opsias; Heb. ereb).]

A 24-hour day may be reckoned to start at various time point. The present universal
Gregorian calendar reckons to start at 12 A.M. b which is not same as midnight which is
at midpoint between the sunset to sunrise. Reckoning events occurring in the night is
confusing because the date changes past 12 p.m.

In the rabbinic Jewish calendar (since 4th c. CE) it is reckoned to start at sunset with a
careless reading of Gen 1:3-5 which serves as proof-text. Such erroneous idea has a serious
biblical and practical implication, including confusion when following timelines in the
Biblical narratives found.c

a Day as 24-hour day, which does not exist in the biblical world, is a term for unit of time in physics, corresponding
to a rotation of the earth on its axis (solar day). Cf. civil day. Note: 12 a.m. is not same as midnight. 12
p.m. is not identical to midday (noon) which is the mid-point of daytime when the sun is at highest point.
b [Cf. Local time zone vis--vis UTC. The problem with a single time zone for a large country like China; in

contrast to the problem with multiple time zones for a large country like USA.]
c Note that the difference between Abib and Nisan date is not just 12 hours, but date for the daylight period may

not same, since the first date of the Abib (1st month of the biblical year) and of Nisan (7th month of the Jewish year)
are determined differently.
21 | P a g e
In the Bible, hour is not used as the duration of 60 minutes. It is not the hour on the clock,
but an hour-period which is 1/12 of a day (or a night).a [E.g. Sixth hour on a sundial is an
hour period before midday (noon; not 12 P.M.). Third hour is the period of time on a
sundial 8 to 9 a.m. It does not mean 9 on the clock.]

A biblical week is a lunar week, not a solar week [which is for Gregorian calendar and
for rabbinic Jewish calendar]. Unlike cyclic continuous solar weeks. The weeks in the
Biblical Lunar calendar are discontinuous and non-cyclic. The 7-numbered days of the
lunar week are independent of the 7-named days of the Gregorian week.b Note: a week in
early Julian calendar has 8 days (labeled A to H), not 7days.

Month in the Scripture is a lunar month (29 or 30 days); with its first day to begin a
month with new moon [which literally means new month]. [See References on Moon
Phase]

After dark moonc (which occurs at lunar conjunction and may be precisely determined
by astronomical calculation), the crescent of the rebuilding (waxing) moon light then
becomes visible [how many hours later?]. Thus, full moon is on the Abib 14 (Nisan 15)
of the lunar month.
Using the dawn after conjunction for ones specific location is the only method to be
used for the New Moon of the month with Day 1 to begin with sunrise. d The First
Visible Crescent vs. First Dawn After Conjunction method:
www.worldslastchance.com/yahuwahs-calendar/new-moon-day-the-dawn-
after-conjunction.html New Moon Day: The Dawn After Conjunction [Note:
the article says Beginning a Day at Dawn (as opposed to sunrise?).]
It is NOT the day after the first visible crescent of the moon. But the only lunar
phase can be the New Moon is the moment immediately following the dark
phase, otherwise called astronomical New Moon, or conjunction.
https://youtu.be/tZGkk3yahAU How to Identify New Moon Day
www.worldslastchance.com/luni-solar-calendar-guide.html
https://youtu.be/qTvN7Sxhgxg
Calculating Conjunction: No Computer? No Problem!

a The length of a biblical hour that is, hour-period varies since the daylight period by itself varies according to the
latitude and the season.
b
Moreover, some countries have other than Sunday as the first day of their week e.g. Saturday in
Arabic usage; Monday in Eastern Asia and European countries. [ www.cjvlang.com/Dow/SunMon.html]
c
= so-called astronomical new moon
d
[Some makes a bizarre claim that it is the day of full moon that should be taken as the New Moon day
(1st) of the month!!]
22 | P a g e
Dawna = dawn-watch = The last fourth watch of night, dawn-watch, belongs to the last part of
a night in the Scripture. (1Chr 23:30-31 dawn and dusk). Cf. The phrase early morning
should be located in the first half of the period from sunrise to noon (about 6 to 9 a.m.);
forenoon is a period before the noon from morning [break].

Morning twilight (dawn) before sunrise vs. Evening twilight (dusk) after sunset.
dawn vs. dusk = twilights. dawn is the last part of a night (fourth watch of night). Cf.
www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-dusk-and-vs-dawn;

To grasp the Passion narrative clearly it is essential to follow its internal timeline in the
Scriptural narrative, which should be followed with the Biblical Lunar calendar. One
cannot mix it up with external timeline using the Gregorian calendar system without
getting bogged down with confusion. With Rabbinic Jewish calendar (with sunset-to-
sunset reckoning) there is one more degree of complexity.

(To align the Biblical Lunar calendar of 30 CE with a proleptic Gregorian calendar
cannot be accurately made, since the assumptions used to calculate in constructing our
modern calendar system may not be same as those used by the people in the ancient times
where it was an observational calendar system they used, not a calculated calendar
system (astronomical and data and mathematical calculation) as we do have now. All we
can say, as is now, that the day of Pesach Abib 14 of 30 CE for the Crucifixion date
is to fall either on Wednesday (with the Resurrection on Saturday dawn, not at evening)
or on Thursday (with Resurrection on Sunday dawn).

If Sunday is the day of His Resurrection, the day of His crucifixion cannot be on Friday,
but Thursday. If Friday was for the crucifixion, His resurrection cannot be on Sunday,
but Monday. Biblical narrative in the Passion Week should not be confused with the
traditional liturgical Holy Week of Constantine Catholic Church tradition.

a
Cf. various expressions of different meaning - morning breaking at dawn break at dawn day is
dawning). Cf. in the dawn vs. at dawn since dawn is not a point of time, but a short period (until
sunrise toward the end of the pre-dawn watch (=fourth watch) of night.
23 | P a g e
Biblical special terms:
sabbath (> sabbath); 7th day of the week; preparation; festival vs.
feast; Pesach and Pesach feast; Pesach festival, unleavened bread;
Festival of the Matzah (festival of the unleavened bread);

Sabbath; High Sabbath


(Biblical lunar) Sabbath is on Day 7 of the lunar week. There is only one sabbath
day in a 7-day long week, on its seventh day.

In 7-day long Festivals, such sabbath of Day 7 always fall on the first day of the
Festival, and thus it is called High Sabbath [Heb. Sabbath ha-Gadol, great
sabbath], not because it is another different or a doubled-up sabbath. (Cf.
www.triumphpro.com/jesus-in-grave-new-truth.htm)

That there were two different (kinds of) sabbath days in the Passover week, one
is weekly and another is annual, is simply from ignorance on the biblical calendar;
it was used to explain away the problem on timeline on the Passion week for
various Crucifixion scenarios.

This should not be confused with nonbiblical solar Sabbat of Saturday (of Jewish
and other Sabbatarians).
Solar sabbath (Jewish) Saturday (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset).
Lunar sabbath daytime of Abib 8. sabbath in the biblical lunar calendar is
unrelated to and does not corresponds to Saturday
High Sabbath (Day 7 of the lunar week on the first day of the 7-day long festival)
daytime Abib 15.
Weekly sabbath is unrelated to the only annual sabbath rest on Yom Kippur (Day of
Atonement). [There is no such thing called annual sabbath as if a separate and
different one exists in the Passover Week.

(Cf. Lev 16:31 sabbathh sabbathhon) Day of the Atonement the only
annual Holy day, which can be rightly called an annual Sabbath.
The term sabbathhon in Lev 23:24 and 39 is applied to the Day of the Trumpets
and to the first and last days of Succoth, respectively, but they are not a Sabbath
Sabbathon as is the weekly Sabbath and the Day of Atonement. [Finch, The
Passover Papers, p. 148]

Day 7 of the lunar week vs. 7th day of the solar week

The Julian week at the time of the Crucifixion was an eight-day week system (nundinal
cycle) and cannot be equated with the Biblical week and the modern week.
What is called Saturday Sabbath (7th day of the solar week) has nothing to do with the
biblical seventh-day Sabbath (day 7 of the lunar week). This fundamentally faulty conviction
that their assumption that the sixth day of the Biblical week was identical to Friday is one of
several fatal causes of chronological confusion. This feeds back to find some text verses
interpreted to support their position.

24 | P a g e
As to the 14th of lunar months in the Scripture is always the sixth day of the lunar week,
which is the preparation day for sabbath which is on Day 7 for every month in the biblical
lunar calendar.
Preparation:
(1) making ready for something;
(2) As preparation day the day before sabbath (Mk 15:42 prosabbaton sabbath eve).
(2) preparing of Pesach begins on Abib 10 with presentation of Pesach lambs;
(3) As to the day of preparation in the Pesach season, it is It is for preparation of High Sabbath of
Abib 15. It is Erev Pesach (Pesach eve) of Abib 14 the Day of Pesach (e.g. Jn 19:14 where most
translates as preparation of the Passover and interprets as Friday (as the preparation of Saturday
sabbath)!! See on significance of Jn 19:14.

feast vs. festival Two are distinguishable words in English in different sense and
usage. Note: KJV has the word feast, but not festival.

Festival of the Matzaha (Heb. Chag Matzoth) = synonymous with Festival of Pesach;
It lasts 7 days Abib 15 to 21 and no bread other that unleavened bread is allowed.
Act 12:3; 20:6 during the days of the Matzah Festival.
Mk 14:1; the Pesach and the Matzah festival
Lk 22:1 the Festival of the Matzah, the one called Pesach.

Cf. the beginning day for eating the unleavened bread (Lk 22:7; //Mt 26:17 //Mk 14:12) [the
word beginning rather than first as usually translated, is important and it removes confusion and
misinterpretation of this time indicator from the different expression the first day of the Matzah
Festival (Abib 15), which is the day for removing leaven from the house [ = the very day of Pesach
sacrifice and meal, Abib 14].
[www.truthsearch.org/ContentsFirstDayofUnleavenedBread.html (Juan R. Rains)!! a copy in WB
#6 Collection for IRENT Vol. III]

unleavened bread [Heb. matzah, matzot (pl.)] [Gk. ta azuma (pl.)] [unleavened (=
not risen) means that bread is baked of freshly made dough without letting it ferment and
rise. It does not mean made with no yeast in it.]

C. Events from Arrival at Bethany to Entombment:


Nisan in the manner of 7th month of rabbinic Hebrew calendar - sunset-to-sunset day.
Abib 1st month of the Scripture-based calendar with a day of sunrise-to-sunrise.

Flow of the events follows G-Mk with <Temple Incident>. Cf. G-Mt and G-Lk
place on the same day as <Jerusalem Entry> to affect the timeline to allow one
more full day for Sanhedrin II.
Flow of the events ( 21 ) Sanhedrin I (Interrogation) & II (judgment) and
17 to

Pilate I & II more than one day for the Passion


long segments - interrupting the narrative flow. (Jn 12:20-36a; 36b-50; Jn 14:1
17:26)
Note: the events 4 to 9 are on the dates as read from G-Mk. G-Mt involves
different dates for these (with G-Lk possibly similar to it), which can result in a different
timeline for the Passion Week from Abib 10 to Abib 12 in this reconstructed timeline!

a Heb. Chag Matzoth (Festival of unleavened bread). Variously translated Festival of the Unleavened Bread
NWT-4, NIV; Feast of Unleavened Bread ESV; feast of unleavened bread KJV.IRENT consistently
translate as Festival of the Matzah and the phrase unleavened bread is used as in an idiomatic phrase, which
is eaten during the season, not necessarily for 7 days of the festival.
25 | P a g e
See in the Table following, separates columns are made for G-Mt and G-Lk with
highlighted entries.

26 | P a g e
Table: List of 26 events from Arrival at Bethany to Resurrection:
(dates in Abib) Events
9 B-1
1 Arriving at Bethany [6 days before Pesach Festival (Abib 15)] (Jn 12:1)
[Fri]
B-2
2 Supper and Anointing (Jn +12:2-8) + Crowd came (Jn 12:9-11)

11 Anointing (Mk 14:3-9; Mt 26:6-13) (flashback)]


= [M-4
B-3 3 Anti-triumphal Jerusalem Entry [Palm Day] Pesach Lamb
10 (Mk 11:1-10; Mt 21:1-11; Lk 19:28-40, 41-44; Jn 12:12-19#);
4 Temple visit; return to Bethany (Mk +11:11)

B-4 5 Barren Fig Tree (Mk +11:12-14)


11
B-5 6 Temple Incident (Mk +11:15-19) 6 Mt +21:12-17 6 Lk +19:45-48

5 Mt +21:18-19

M-1
7 Withered Fig Tree (Mk +11:20-26)
7 Mt +21:20-22

M-2
8 Confrontation & Teaching

(Mk +11:27-33; 12:1-44; Mt +21:23 23:39; Lk +20:1 21:4)


12 M-3 Olivet Discourse (Mk +13:1-37; Mt +24:1 25:46; Lk +21:5-36)
9

D

10 [2 more days to Abib 14 (Pesach day) Mk 14:1a; Mt 26:1-2]

Yehudim plot (Mk +14:1b-2; Mt +26:3-5);


11 Anointing (Mk +14:3-9; Mt +26:6-13)] ( B2)
M-4 [

12 Judas (silver money) (Mk +14:10-11 //Mt +26:14-16; Lk +22:2-6)

M-5
13 Upper Room Preparation (Mk +14:12-16; Mt +26:17-19; Lk +22:7-13)

M-6 14 Last Supper (Mk +14:17-26; Mt +26:20-30; Lk +22:14-30; Jn 13:1-35)

<Kefas warned> (Mk +14:27-31; Mt +26:31-35; Lk +22:31-38; Jn +13:36-38)


12
15 Gethsemane (Mk +14:32-42; Mt +26:36-46; Lk +22:39-46; Jn 18:1)

N M-7
16 Arrest (Mk +14:43-52; Mt +26:47-56; Lk +22:47-53; 63-65; Jn +18:2-12)

M-8
17 Hannan (Jn +18:13-14Peter 18:19-24) (Mk Mt Lk )

M-9
18 Sanhedrin I (Mk +14:53-65; Mt +26:57, 59-68) (Lk )

<Kefas whereabouts> (Mk +14:54; Mt +26:58; Lk +22:54-55; Jn +18:15)


<Kefas denial> (Mk +14:66-72; Mt +26:69-74; Lk +22:56-62; Jn +18:16-18, 25-27)
M-10 19 Sanhedrin II (Mt 27:1-2; Mk +15:1a; Lk +22:66-71)

<Judas suicide> (Mt +27:3-10. Cf. Act 1:18-20)


13 M-1120 Pilate I (Lk +23:1-7); Herod Antipas (Lk +23:7-12);

M-12 21 Pilate II (Mt +27:11-26; Mk +15:1b-15; Lk +23:13-25; Jn 18:28 19:16@)


*** [In custody]
***
[To be continued on next page.]

27 | P a g e
[Continued:]

*** [In custody]


A-1
22 < Via Dolorosa>
Pesach Day
14 A-2
23 Crucifixion 3rd hour (Mk 15:25)

24 Death 9th hour (Mk 15:34; Mt 27:46)


[Wed] A-3 Pesach Sacrifice
A-4
25 Entombment evening into night; Pesach Meal

[High Sabbath] <Posting Roman guard> (Mt 27:62-66) Pesach Festival begins
15

[Wave sheaf of the Firstfruit]


16
A-5
26 Resurrection in the dawn
<to the Roman guard> (Mt 28:4, 11-15);
17 <to the Women> (Mt 28:5-10; Mk 16:9-11; Jn 20:11-18)
<on the road to Emmaus> (Lk 24:13-49; Mk 16:12-13)
<to the Eleven> (Mk 16:14-18) (Jn 20:19-25)

Events numbering and notation symbols

Events numbering and notation symbols in the Charts


B for Beginning; M for Middle A for After
Lamb presented; taught Last Supper; Arrest; Trial Crucifixion; Death; Resurrection
B-1 <Bethany arrival> M-1 <fig tree withered> A-1 < Via Dolorosa, bearing the cross>
B-2 <Anointing G-Jn> (M-4) M-2 <Confront and Teaching> A-2; A-3 < - Crucifixion & Death>
M-3 <Olivet Discourse>
M-4 <Anoint G-Mt, MK> (B-2) A-4 <Entombed>; <P-m> Passover meal
<Judas silver money>
B-3 < Palm day; &
M-5 <Upper Room Prep> <In the tomb>
Yerusalem Entry>
M-6 <Last Supper>
B-4 <Barren Fig tree >
<Gethsemane>
B-5 <Temple Incident> M-7 <Arrest> A-5 < Resurrection (dawn of Abib 16)
M-8 <Hannan> w/ Empty tomb (morning of Abib 17)
& <Peters denials>
M-9 <Sanhedrin I> A-6 <risen Lord> to the Disciples
M-10 <Sanhedrin II> (, resurrection proposed
M-11 <Pilate I>
other than on Abib 16)
M-12 <Pilate II>
<In custody overnight>

28 | P a g e
D. Timelines of the Passion-Passover Week

All happened in one week,


that momentous events in the history.
[About the term Nisan:a In all the subsequent tables for the Passion-Passover
week, the entry under Nisan is simply to show what it would have been when
a day was taken 12 hours ahead of an Abib date, in the way of the Jewish
reckoning of a day from sunset. See in detail for Abib vs. Nisan]

[It is the Passion-Passover Week to be known, rather than the Passion Week
since His Passion cannot be without being meshed in the Passover week on
that year.]

[For the Crucifixion and Resurrection dates, see below under the heading of
<Table for the list of scenarios>.]

The week called Passion Week, more accurate Passion-Passover Week for
which the church liturgical Holy Week is a pale resemblance. The anchoring
events in the timeline of the week, which allocates all the events in a coherent
timeline of the week:

(1) Palm Day with the presentation of Yeshua as the Pesach lamb (Abib 10),
(2) the trial by Pilate; time of sentencing midday (Jn 19:14) (Abib 13),
(3) the Pesach lamb laying down Himself in the mid-afternoon at the very
appointed time by Elohim (Abib 14), and
(4) the Resurrection (Abib 16) in the dawn as the Firstfruits to be offered.

Aside from finding correct days on which the Crucifixion and Resurrection
fall, the more pressing need is to have the timeline of the Passover-Passion
week constructed out of the Gospel narratives. As we often do not clear-cut
time indicators to arrive at an unequivocal timeline, we have to accept some
variations (within different scenarios of crucifixion day) as long as these three
are fit in the timeframe from the Arrival at Bethany on Abib 9.

A Gospel book consists of His life teaching (with teaching, Gods mighty
works, and healing, and challenging and confronting the established religion
of that time) and the narrative of His life. One may say a Gospel is Jesus story.
But is it about Him? What about from and by Him and on Him? The first
division of the Gospel book deals with the His life teaching mostly. There is

a
Nisan dates in all the Passover-Passion Week timelines the word has * are for comparison
only. A Nisan date is 12 hours ahead of Abib date. Its date itself, however, cannot be fixed
since calendation to locate the first day of this month in a proleptic rabbinic Jewish calendar is
different from Abib of the Biblical calendar.]

29 | P a g e
the story of His nativity. By and large, narrative is not of its picture. However,
when we move into the second and final division we are presented by the
narrative of the Passion-Passover Week. It is the literary work of narrative
genre par excellence. It cannot be read properly and profitable with following
its timeline correct and accurate one, which is only feasible with the correct
biblical lunar calendar (the rabbinic Jewish calendar actually hinders for
properly understand the text).

The task for the readers is then how to grasp the whole picture of this week
with the timeline presented by the Gospel itself. As a practical purpose, it is
found to be very useful to divide the 9-day period in three segments, adding
Abib 9 & 17 to the Passion-Passover Week (Abib 10 to Abib 16).

First 3 days Abib 9 (Anointing), Abib 10 (Palm Day), Abib 11 (Temple


Incident)
Middle 2 days Abib 12 (Olivet Discourse Last Supper) to Abib 13 (Trial)
Last 4 days Abib 14 (Crucifixion), Abib 16 (Resurrection), Abib 17 (Risen
Lord)

To revisit and construct the correct and accurate timeline of the Passover-
Passion-Week, the first task is to deal with the last half from the Crucifixion
to the Resurrection. Once its timeline is fully grasped, unshackled from the
frame of the Church Holy Week, the clear picture is formed for the first half
of the week to the closing with the Trial. The crucial point here to realize is
that (1) the Crucifixion cannot be allocated on the same day as the sentencing
by Pilate and (2) the breath-taking run of quite a number of events from the
Last Supper to the Road to Golgotha cannot be squeezed into a short time-
period of single overnight from night to morning. The inevitable conclusion is
that His trial before Pilate cannot be other than on the day before the
Crucifixion. That means that the Last Supper itself is to be placed two days
earlier (in terms of Gregorian dates) than His Crucifixion. There wont be a
day like the so-called Silent Wednesday as in the Holy Week. [See a separate
file in the Collection #6 <Significance of John 19.14>.

We cannot discredit what the Bible tells for the several important time-
markers (time indicators) and leave them standing contradictory. We
cannot read and interpret the Bible to justify the tradition explanation of the
Church Holy Week timeline. A product of religious mind is not only useless
but also misleading.

30 | P a g e
List of the Charts in vertical and horizontal formats:

Below is a collection of several charts in tables in two formats:


[V -- in a vertical format and H -- in a horizontal format]

V-0 Horizontal Timeline: Seven days


from Arrival (9th) to Resurrection (16th Abib)
V-1 Last 3 days from Crucifixion (14th) to Resurrection (16th Abib)
H-0 Vertical Timeline from Arrival (9th) to Risen Lord (17th)
H-1 From Arrival (9th) to Crucifixion (14th)
H-2 From Crucifixion (14th) to Resurrection (16th)

Annotation to the charts:


L.S. Last Supper (DoW 4); Trial (DoW 5)
the bearing the cross to Golgotha
Crucifixion (3rd to 9th hour-period)
w.s. Wave sheaf offering
Resurrection in the dawn, Day 1 of the lunar week
Resurrection in the morning, Sunday
Resurrection in the evening
*** [from two-day Passion chronology = a day for Trial + next day Crucifixion]

31 | P a g e
S-W a biblical Wednesday Crucifixion scenario (w/ Sat. dawn resurrection). CE 30 Abib 14
on Wed (Apr-5). Both and fell on Sat (sabbath??).
S-X a non-biblical Wednesday Crucifixion scenario. similar to S-W but with erroneous
interpretation to wrongly place in the late afternoon, ignoring the plain biblical statements.

S-T Thursday Crucifixion Scenario (w/ Sunday dawn resurrection). CE 30 Abib 14 on Thu
(Apr-6). Both and on Sundays. Difference of one day from S-W scenario is due to
determining the New Moon day ( For how the New Moon Day is determined, see IRENT Vol.
III Supplement - Walk through the Scripture 5 - Time, Calendar and Chronology.). A different
Thursday scenario is common one (See Boice, John - commentary) all the events Thu-Friday
night and Friday daytime (i.e.Last Supper/Arrest/Trial/Crucifixion/Death) are moved one day
backward and placed to Wed-Thu night and Thu daytime.
S-F Traditional Friday Crucifixion scenario with Sunday morning resurrection). CE 33. [The
Palm Sunday in the church liturgical Holy Week does not fall on Nisan/Abib 10! It is not possible
to see both and on the same day of the week (Sunday).]
(Blue colored Saturday as sabbath day as in the rabbinic Jewish convention).

The internal timeline within the Passion narrative shows


(1) Abib 14 (the preparation of sabbath) for Pesach sacrifice and Pesach meal;
(2) Abib 15 High Sabbath - (on Day 7 of the lunar week for daytime period only);
(3) Abib 16 as the Firstfruits (Day 1 of the lunar week)
(1Co 15:20, 23; Lev 23:10-12. Cf. Lev 23:20).
Day of Week = Numbered day of the lunar week (here, in the 2nd week of the month Abib).
The numbered Day of the Passion Week = Day No. of the lunar Week.
The date in April for Thursday scenario is same as the numbered Day of the Passion week.
12 Last Supper> to M-
Into such a short period of time ( ), so many events [from M-6 <
21 Pilates sentencing>] are impossible to be crammed the fatal Achilles heel in the
12 <
one-day Passion chronology. [Note: In Friday scenario, Last Supper is interpreted as the A-4
<Pesach Meal> in their poor understanding the Bible text.]. A few suggest unattainable three-
day Passion chronology by Annie Jaubert (1965) and (2) Eugene Ruckstuhl (1963) vide infra.

Mnemonic with initials of the words Mnemonic works only with a Thursday and the Friday
crucifixion scenarios only.
Sat for Start into Sun for Mounted on a colt into Mon for Temple
into Tue for WWW (withered, watch, wait; triple warnings) into Wed for Trial
into Thu for Final into Fri for Silent into Sat for Start into Sun for Meet.]

Day of the Week (DoW):


It is for the day of the lunar week (Day 1 to Day 7) and totally unconnected to the named
days of the Gregorian solar week.

In the Pesach week (the 2nd full week of Abib CE 30 day 2 to 8), the numbered Days
of a lunar week (Day 1 to Day 7, instead of Sunday to Saturday) correspond to the days
of the Passion week (1st day to 7th day before the resurrection on 8th day). This makes
it easier to grasp the narrative timeline.

32 | P a g e
First 3 Days of the Passion
Arrival 9th to Temple Incident (11th Abib)
B-1 Bethany Arrival; B-2 Anointing ( M-4)
B-3 Palm Day (Jerusalem Entry)
B-4 Barren fig tree; B-5 Temple Incident

Middle 2 Days of the Passion Week


From Olivet Discourse (12th) to Trial (13th Abib)
M-3 Olivet Discourse
M-6 Last Supper M-7 Arrest;
M-9 & 10 Sanhedrin M-11 & 12 Pilate & Sentencing

Last 3 Days of the Passion Week


From the Crucifixion (14th) to the Resurrection (16th Abib)

A-1 < Via Dolorosa> A-2 Crucifixion


A-3 Death; A-4 Entombed; P-m <Pesach meal>
A-5 < Resurrection; Empty Tomb
A-6 Risen Lord

33 | P a g e
V. Seven Days from Arrival to Resurrection Abib 9th to 16th:
[A timeline in a biblical Wednesday/THURSDAY Crucifixion Scenario] [sabbath]

*Nisan Apr Abib Events (*Nisan 15 = Day 0)


8 Thu 8D [Sabbath for the daytime period]
/FRI (Day 7 of the lunar week)
8N
9 Fri (Day 1) (-6
d)* [6 days before Pesach festival (Abib 15)]
9D
/SAT B-1
1 <Arriving> at Bethany before sunset (Jn 12:1)
B-2
2 <Anointing> (Jn 12:2-8) ( M-4 11 Mt; Mk)
9N

10 Sat (Day 2) (-5


d) Pesach lamb
/SUN 10 D B-3
3 Palm Day <Anti-triumphal Jerusalem entry>


4
10 N
Sun (Day 3) (-4 d)
11 /MON 11 D B-4
5 <Barren fig tree> (Mk) [Cf. Mt]; B-5
6 <Temple Incident>

11 N
(Day 4) (-3 d) M-1 7 <Withered Fig Tree> (Mk)

Mon M-2 <Confront & Teaching>;


8 9 M-3 <Olivet Discourse>
12 D
12 /TUE
10 2 more days to Pesach day (Abib 14); <Plot>; M-4
11
12 <Judas Money>

M-5 <Upper Room Preparation>


13

M-6 15 <Gethsemane>; M-7


14 <Last Supper>; 16 <Arrest>
12 N
M-8
17 <Hannan>+ <Kefas Denials>; M-9
18 <Sanhedrin I>

Tue (Day 5) (-2 d) <Trial day> Pesach eve


13
/WED 13 D
M-10 <
19 Sanhedrin II>
M-11/12 21 <Pilate - I & II> (Sentencing noon)
20

13 N <In custody>#
Wed
14
Apr 5 (Day 6) (-1 d) A-1 22 <Via Dolorosa> Pesach day
14 D
/THU A-2 23 <Crucifixion>; A-3 24 <Death>; Pesach sacrifice
Apr 6 A-4
25 <Entombed>; Pesach Meal
14 N
15
Thu
/FRI 15 D High Sabbath [Festival begins] [Posting the Roman guard]
15 N
16
Fri
16 D
/SAT
17 Sat 16 N
/SUN A-5 26 <Resurrection> (in the dawn)

# See More Than One Day Passion chronology.

34 | P a g e
V-2 -- Last Days in the Passion Week

*Nisan Abib Events


14 N 13 N [In custody]
14 D (Day 6) A-1 < Via Dolorosa> Pesach day
14 D A-2 <Crucifixion> (3rd hour);
A-3 <Death> (9th hour); Pesach sacrifice

15 N A-4 <Entombed>; Pesach Meal


14 N
15 D
(Day 7 = High Sabbath) Pesach Festival begins
15 D
[Sabbath (for daytime period); unrelated to Saturday]
16 N
15 N
16 D (Day 1) (unrelated to Sunday)
16 D Day of First-fruits with Wave Sheaf Offering and
Omer countdown to Shavuot (> Pentecost).
17 N
16 N
A-5 < Resurrection> (dawn = end of Day 1 of the lunar week)
17 D (Day 2) A-6 <Risen Lord> morning
17 D
A <Empty Tomb> the women (Mk 28:9-10; Mk 16:9-11; Jn 20:11-18)


B on the Emmaus Road (Mk 16:12-13; Lk 24:13-49)

18 N
C to the Eleven (Mk 16:14-18) (Jn 20:19-25 Thomas absent)
17 N
Abib 15 colored for High sabbath.

35 | P a g e
H. Timeline from Arrival to the Risen Lord (Abib 9 to 17)

Day Night

Day of Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2
Mnemonic Start Mounted Temple WWW Trial Final Silent Start Meet
13 14 15 16 17
Abib 9 10 11 12
Erev Pesach Pesach** Matzah 1 Matzah 2 Matzah 3
*Nisan 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
High
Pesach + + Lamb + Eve Prep. ++Meal Sabbath
Wave Sheaf
B A Y F T f DOJ S < II n t h e t o m b> Risen Lord

Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30 (Thu) S-T
Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

[ For comparison One-day Passion chronology]



(B&A) F T fDOJ (silent Wednesday) S -
Mar-31 Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
30 (Wed) S-W
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Mar-31 Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
30 (Wed) S- X
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30 (Thu) S-T
Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Mar-29 30 31 Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6
33 (Fri) S-F
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon

Abib 14 sabbath preparation day (= sabbath eve); **Pesach = Pesach sactrifice + Pesach meal.
[Note: *Nisan date, which is 12 hours ahead, in all the Passover-Passion Week timelines, is for comparison only. Its date cannot be fixed since
calendation to locate the first day of this month in a proleptic rabbinic Jewish calendar is different from Abib of the Biblical calendar.]
[Btw two, a Wednesday and a Thursday scenario on biblical calendars it depends on what day of the solar week was Abib 1 (the New Moon Day).]

36 | P a g e
H-1 -- From Arrival to Crucifixion
day night
Day of Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
10 13 14
Abib 9 Pesach lamb
11 12 Pesach eve Pesach Matzah
BA Y FT fDOJ S <in the tomb>

CE 30
Mar-31 Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6
S-W

CE 30 Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6 7
S-T Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed <Thu> Fri
[Nisan] 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

CE 33 29 30 31 Apr-1 2 3
S-F Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu <Fri> Sat
Y FT fDO J (silent)
(Hoehner) (crowd) Y FT f DOJ S


Pesach = Pesach sacrifice + Pesach meal (on the same date in Abib)

H-2 -- From Crucifixion to Resurrection

Day of Week
(lunar) 5 6 7 1 2
Trial < I n t h e t o m b >

Preparation High Sabbath Wave Sheaf

13 14 15 16 17
Abib
Pesach eve Pesach Matzah 1 Matzah 2 Matzah 3
[*Nisan] 13 14 15 16 17 18
S-W 5 Wed 6 Thu 7 Fri 8 Sat
CE 30
S-T April 6 Thu 7 Fri 8 Sat 9 Sun
CE 33 S-F 3 Fri $ 4 Sat @ 5 Sun 9 Mon

[Sat Jewish Sabbath; $ preparation day = sabbath eve; @ doubled-up sabbath; full moon]
[ to Golgotha; Resurrection correctly placed; resurrection incorrectly in late afternoon]

37 | P a g e
E. List of Timeline tables of different scenarios
[Nisan starts at sunset; solar sabbath (solar) on Saturdays;
[Abib begins at sunrise; lunar Sabbath on Day 7 of the week (8, 15, 22, & 28th day of a month).]

1. With a biblical Wednesday/THURSDAY scenario based on the biblical lunar calendar:

Apr *Nisan Abib (Counting back from Abib 15 = 0)


8 [Sabbath daytime]

9 (-6) <Journey from Yericho>


Fri
/SAT
1 <Arriving> at Bethany (Jn 12:1)
9 2 <Anointing> (Jn 12:2-8) [
11 Anointing (Mk; Mt)]
10
Sat (-5)
3 <Jerusalem Entry> [Palm Day]; Pesach Lamb
/SUN

4 <Temple court visit>
10
Sun 11
/MON
(-4)
5 <Barren Fig Tree>;
6 <Temple Incident>
11
(-3)
7 <Withered Fig Tree>; 8 <Confront & teaching>
12
Mon
9 <Olivet Discourse>; 12 <Judas Money>
11 ;
10 <Yehudim plot>;
/TUE 12
13 <Upper Room Preparation>


14 <Last Supper>; 15 <Gethsemane>; 16 <Arrest>; $
<Hannan> (Jn); <Kefas denials>; 8 <Sanhedrin I>
17 1
13 $
Tue (-2) 19 <Sanhedrin II>;
20 <Pilate I> + <Herod Antipas> (Lk);

/WED 21 <Pilate II> [sentencing: 6th hour ( noon) Jn 19:14]


$
13 <In custody>

Wed (-1)
22 < Via Dolorosa>;
Pesach Day
5th 14
23 <Crucifixion> 9 AM (Mk 15:25);

/THU 14
24 <Death> 3 PM (Mk 15:34; //Mt 27:46); Pesach Sacrifice

6th 25 <Entombed>;
Pesach Meal
15
Thu (-0) <Posting Roman guard> [High Sabbath] Pesach festival begins
/FRI
15
16
Fri
/SAT [Wave Sheaf of the Firstfruit]

16
26 < Resurrection> (dawn)

Sat 17
/SUN <to the Roman guard> (Mt 28:4, 11-15); <to the Women> (Mt 28:5-10; Mk 16:9-11; Jn 20:11-18)
<on the road to Emmaus> (Lk 24:13-49; Mk 16:12-13)
17 <to the Eleven> (Mk 16:14-18) (Jn 20:19-25)
Note: Wednesday Scenario (with Palm Saturday and Resurrection Saturday)
Thursday Scenario (with Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday)

38 | P a g e
2. With a non-biblical Wednesday scenario with the resurrection in the afternoon.

Apr *Nisan Abib (counting back from Abib 15 = 0)


9
F (-6) <Journey from Yericho>
R 1 <Arriving> at Bethany (Jn)
I 9
2 <Anointing> (Jn)

S 10
A
(-5)
3 <Jerusalem Entry> [Palm Day] (Saturday) Pesach Lamb
T
4 <Temple court visit>
10
S 11
U (-4)
5 <Barren Fig Tree>;
6 <Temple Incident>

N
M 11
12 (-3)
7 <Withered Fig Tree>;
8 <Confront & Teaching>
O
N
12
T 13 (-2) 10 <Yehudims plot>;
9 <Olivet Discourse>; 12 <Judas money>

U
13 <Upper Room Prep>
13 14 <Last Supper>; 15 <Gethsemane>;
E 16 <Arrest>;
$
17 <Hannan> (Jn); <Kefas denials>;
18 <Sanhedrin I>;
$

19 <Sanhedrin II>
$
W
20 <Pilate>+<Herod>; 20 <Pilate > [sentencing: 6 A.M. ]
14
E
(-1) 22 < Via Dolorosa>; Pesach Day
23 <Crucifixion> 9 AM (Mk)
14
D 24 <Death> 3 PM (Mk //Mt); Pesach Sacrifice
25 <Entombed>
Pesach Meal

T 15
H <Posting Roman guard> [Annual sabbath] Pesach festival begins
U 15

F
R 16
I 16
S 17 [Weekly Sabbath]
A
T 17 26 < Resurrection> Saturday (late afternoon )

<to Roman guard> (Mt 28:4, 11-15); <to the Women> (Mt 28:5-10; Mk 16:9-11; Jn 20:11-18);
<on the road to Emmaus> (Lk 24:13-49; Mk 16:12-13)

[Note: Events 18 are not covered in detail in Torreys.]


5 to

39 | P a g e
3. With a Thursday scenario after Boice with the non-biblical calendation:
[Yellow colored events are the only portion for the events sequence different from the biblical Thursday scenario, aside from those
related with the calendar issues.]

Apr *Nisan Abib (Counting back from Abib 15 = 0)

S
9 (-6) <Journey from Yericho> [sabbath violation ]
A
T 1 <Arriving> at Bethany (Jn);
9 2 <Anointing> (Jn 12:2-8) [ 11 ]
10
S (-5)
3 <Jerusalem Entry> [Palm day] (Sunday) Pesach Lamb
U
N 10
4 <Temple court visit>

M 11
O (-4)
5 <Barren Fig Tree>;
6 <Temple Incident>
N
11
T (-3)
7 <Withered Fig Tree>;
8 <Confront & Teaching>
U 12
10 <Yehudims plot>;
9 <Olivet Discourse>; 12 <Judas Money>
E 12
W (-2)
13
E
13 <Upper Room Preparation>

D
15 <Gethsemane>;
14 <Last Supper>; 16 <Arrest>;
$
17 <Hannan>; <Kefas denial>; <Sanhedrin I>;
1 8
T 13 $
14
19 <Sanhedrin II>; $
H
20 <Pilate>+<Herod>; 21 <Pilate II> (sentencing 6 a.m. )

U (-1)
22 < Via Dolorosa>;
23 <Crucifixion> 9 AM (Mk 15:25)
Pesach Day

24 <Death> 3 PM (Mk 15:34; //Mt 27:46); Pesach Sacrifice
6th 14
25 <Entombed>
Pesach Meal
F 15
R <Posting Roman guard> [Annual sabbath] Pesach festival begins
I 15
16
S
A [Weekly sabbath]
T
16
17
26 < Resurrection> (Sunday dawn)

S
U <to Roman guard> (Mt 28:4, 11-15); <to the Women> (Mt 28:5-10; Mk 16:9-11; Jn 20:11-18);
<on the road to Emmaus> (Lk 24:13-49; Mk 16:12-13)
N 17
<to the Eleven> (Mk 16:14-18) (Jn 20:19-25)

40 | P a g e
4. With the Friday scenarios with the non-biblical calendation:

A Friday Scenario (CE 33 Apr-3) (Counting back from Nisan 14/15)


Apr Nisan Abib Traditional Hoehner (further adjusted)
(-6)
S
8 <Journey from Yericho> [sabbath violation ]
A 8
T
1 <Arriving> at Bethany (Jn)
(-5)
2 <Anointing> (Jn);

S 9 3 * [Palm Day] (Sun) Pesach Lamb (-6)



U
9 <Crowd came>
N
4 <Temple court visit>

1 <Arriving>
(-4)
2 <Anointing>

M 10 (-5)

5 <Barren Fig Tree>
O
3 [Palm Day] (Mon) Pesach Lamb
N 10
6 <Temple Incident>
(-3)
T 11
7 <Withered Fig Tree>;
8 <Confront & Teaching>

5 <Barren Fig Tree>
(-4)
U 11
9 <Olivet Discourse>
12 <Judas Money>
10 <Yehudim plot>;

6 <Temple Incident>
E
(-2)
W
12 7 <Withered Fig Tree>; 8 <Confront & Teaching>(-3)
E 12 [Silent Wednesday] 9 <Olivet Discourse>

D
10 <Yehudim plot>; 12 <Judas Money>

(-1)
T (-2)
13
H
13 <Upper Room Preparation>
13
U (0)
14 <Last Supper>;
15 <Gethsemane>;


16 <Arrest>;
17 <Hannan> (Jn);
18 <Sanhedrin I>
F

19 <Sanhedrin II> 21 <Pilate II> (sentencing at 6 A.M. );
20 <Pilate I>;
R (-1)
14
22 < Via Dolorosa>; 23 <Crucifixion> 9 AM (Mk) Pesach Day
I
24 <Death> 3 PM (Mk //Mt); Pesach sacrifice
3rd
14 25 <Entombed>

Pesach meal
S 15
(0)
A <Posting Roman guard> [sabbath (Doubled-up? )] Pesach festival begins
T 15

S 16 26 < Resurrection> (Morning) [Easter Sunday]



U
N 16 <to Roman guard> (Mt 28:4, 11-15); <to the Women> (Mt 28:5-10; Mk 16:9-11; Jn 20:11-18);
<on the road to Emmaus> (Lk 24:13-49; Mk 16:12-13)
17 <to the Eleven> (Mk 16:14-18) (Jn 20:19-25)

(-6) counting from Nisan 14;


(-6) counting from Nisan 15.
[Note: *Palm day on Sunday does not fall on Nisan/Abib 10.]

41 | P a g e
5. Examples of some other timeline schemes:
[Yellow highlighted and green font dates divergent from a common pattern.
[Sabbath; High Sabbath Note: All schemes follow the Jewish calendar (with Saturday = Sabbath).]
[Colum of Abib for reference only after the biblical scenario timeline. D & N Day and night-time]

CE 33 CE 30
Hoehner Finch Sherrill Coulter
Abib
Fri Fri Fri Wed
Nisan 8 Sat Nisan 9 Nisan 9
Group 1: Arrival at Bethany.
9D Nisan 9 <crowd> [Apr 3 Sun] Mar-29-Fri Nisan 8
and Anointing Nisan 10 Nisan 10 Nisan 10 [Mar-30 Thu]
9N
[Mar 30 Mon] [Apr 3 Mon] [Mar-31 Sun]
Group 2: Palm Day
10
Nisan 11 Nisan 11 Nisan 11 Nisan 9
[Mar 31 Tue] [Apr 4 Tue] [Apr 1 Mon] [Mar-31 Fri]
Group 3: Temple Incident.
11 Nisan 10
[Apr-1 Sat]
Temple visit
Nisan 12 Nisan 12 Nisan 12 Nisan 11
[Apr 1 Wed] [Apr 5 Wed] [Apr 2 Tue] [Apr-2 Sun]
Group 4: Confront/Teaching
and Olivet Discourse;
Judas money Nisan 13 Nisan 12
12D [Apr 3 Wed] [Apr-3 Mon]
Nisan 14 Silent
[Apr 4 Thu]
Group 5: Upper Room Prep Nisan 13 Nisan 13 (Bethany dinner)
Nisan 13
[Apr 2 Thu] [Apr 6 Thu] [Apr-4 Tue]
Group 6: Last Supper & Arrest Nisan 14 Nisan 14 Nisan 15 Nisan 14
12N Group 7: Trial Sanhedrin I [Apr 3 Fri] [Apr 7 Fri] [Apr 5 Fri] [Apr-5 Wed]
13D Group 8: Trial Sanhedrin II
and Pilate I & II.
13N [In Custody]
14D Group 9: Via Dolorosa;
Crucifixion; Death;
14N Group 10: Entombment
15N <In the tomb> Nisan 15 Nisan 15 Nisan 15
[Apr 4 Sat] [Apr 8 Sat] [Apr 6 Thu]
16D <High Sabbath> Nisan 16 Nisan 16 Nisan 16 Nisan 16
[Apr 5 Sun] [Apr 9 Sun] [Apr 6 Sat] [Apr 7 Fri]
Early morning Early morning Nisan 17 Nisan 17
16N Group 11: Resurrection [Apr 7 Sun] [Apr 8 Sat]
Early morning Late afternoon

Can any of these discrepant timelines be the right one? The answer is Hardly. Without clear
knowledge of various calendar systems and the astronomical date, proper construction and explanation
of each one example is incomplete and inaccurate with confusion, contradiction and conflicting; it is
impossible to be close to the biblical timeline of the Passover-Passion week.
Harold W. Hoehner (1978), Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (pp. 74-76)
(http://books.google.com/books?id=fS28b9GC1dcC)
F.R. Coulter (2001), A Harmony of the Gospels (pp. 216-217, 320-321 timeline tables) has
the Palm day wrongly placed on Nisan 8.
Also it has Nisan 10 eventless (other than Mk 11:20 finding the fig tree withered); and Nisan 12
left eventless, claiming to be sabbath (Jn 19:28-41).]
Paul Finch, The Passover Papers (2009, 2nd Ed.) [Ch. 8 Chronology of Passion Week., pp. 93-
118.] [Note: The date Apr. 7 Friday for Nisan 14 is only once shown in p 151 citing data from
Fotheringham, Parker and Dubberstein, and O.T. Olmstead.]
Nathaniel Huntting Sherill (2012), The Laymans Gospel Harmony (p. 343)

42 | P a g e
Various Timelines compared:
The aim here is to make the task of all those having interests and questions easer in
challenging any claim for its validity vis--vis the biblical Wednesday scenario presented in
this work.

Solar sabbath (Jewish) Saturday (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset).


Lunar sabbath daytime of Abib 8. sabbath in the biblical lunar calendar has
nothing to do with Saturday
High Sabbath (Day 7 of the lunar week on the first day of the 7-day long festival)
Abib 15 (only for daytime period). [The only annual sabbath is on the Day of the
Atonement - Lev 16:31 sabbathh sabbathhon)].
[some events not possible on Sabbath e.g. long-distance journey]
<Palm Day> = on Abib 10. [Sun, Mon, or Sat]
<Upper Room Preparation > = it is to have the place ready with necessary provisions. It is
not about the disciples themselves were preparing the festival celebration (including the Last
Meal and Pesach meal) by the disciples. Allocating it to take up a whole day(time) is a pure
conjecture.
problems with sabbath violation (of Saturday).
$$$ traditional timeline cramping so many events in one overnight. %% Pilates Trial is
allocated from the morning to noon, not in the fourth watch of the night. Yeshua was in
custody till next morning to begin His journey to the Golgotha. The time indicators in all
four Gospels also show a break in the time flow of events: (1) the formal Sanhedrin session
in the morning and Pilate v. Yeshua (till noontime) and, on next day, (3) the road to Golgotha
to Crucifixion. [See above for significance of Jn 19:14.]
Most follow the G-Mk sequence of events for <Barren Fig Tree> and <Withered Fig Tree>,
placing them on consecutive days. day> and <Temple incident>. G-Mt put them on the same
day after <Temple Incident>, chronologically and thematically awkward. G-Lk does not
have the Fig Tree pericope.
Most places <Upper Room Prep> on the day after <Olivet Discourse>. The narrative itself
is continuous and follows the Mark and Matthean <Anointing>. However, that it is on
another day is by the pericope starting with a time indicator phrase toward the beginning
day for the unleavened bread.
Scenarios with Palm Day and Resurrection Day both happen to be on Sunday the
traditional Friday crucifixion scenario and a Thursday scenario.
The date of His arrival on Abib 9. That would be six days before the Pesach festival (Abib
15). On Nisan dates, however, it is may not be straightforward, depending whether He
arrives before or after sunset. It takes about 8 hours hike from Yericho. If Yeshua arrives
before sunset, the date of Arrival at Bethany itself would be not Nisan 9, but Nisan 8.
Whether counting inclusive or exclusive, or counting from Abib 15 or Abib 14, it does not
materially affect the timeline (with sequence of events) in the first few days of the Passover-
Passion Week, as long as the anchoring events <Anointing> (on Abib 8 / Nisan 9) and
<Palm day> (on Abib/Nisan 10) are correctly placed.

43 | P a g e
Our purpose is to examine handful variations of the timeline in several Crucifixion day
scenarios for comparison purpose vis--vis the biblical model in order to show how and
how much they deviate from the Scriptural evidences and harmony, not only the major
anchoring events and date, but also detailed flow of events.

For our evaluation of different timelines, the major event groups are checked for their date
allocation and alignment.

Group 1: Arrival at Bethany and Anointing.


Group 2: Jerusalem entry on Palm Day.
Group 3: Temple Incident.
Group 4: Confrontation/Teaching and Olive Discourse
Group 5: Upper Room Preparation
Group 6: Last Supper/Arrest
Group 7: Trial Sanhedrin I (interrogation)
Group 8: Trial Sanhedrin II (judgment) and Pilate I & II.
Group 9: Via Dolorosa; Crucifixion; Death;
[Group 10: Entombment]
[Group 11: Resurrection]

Several points are needed to find whether any scenario and its different schemes of timeline are in
error and to allow to draw a valid conclusion.

1. The day of the Crucifixion cannot be other than Abib 14 (Nisan 14).
2. The year of the Crucifixion cannot be CE 33, since the year was determined to have
Nisan 14 on Friday, when the Bible has no such idea. Most were mistaken the day of
Sabbath as Saturday by simply follow the non-biblical rabbinic Jewish calendar.
3. CE 30 Abib 14 is Apr. 5 Wednesday or Apr. 6 Thursday, according to the astronomical
data for biblical calendation to determine the New Moon Day of Abib.
4. In the timeline, it is out of biblical ignorance the <Upper Room Preparation> to take
up a whole daytime period.
5. <Palm day> and <Temple Incident> are on two consecutive days as in G-Mk. The
cannot be on the same as G-Mt has it unclear.
6. Multiple <Trial Sessions> cannot be placed into one overnight period. It is impossible
and impractical, though the biblical text itself for narrative reads as if contiguous.
7. The bible explicitly says the entombment was taken place not late in the afternoon, but
in the evening., not completed in the late afternoon in fear of sabbath coming at sunset.
[//Mt 27:59; //Mk 15:42; //Lk 23:54]
8. Sabbath is on Day 7 of the lunar week, not Saturday which is the 7th day of the solar
week, and it is only for the daytime. People dont need rest in the night, which is the
time for resting.
9. These have the time of Entombment in the late afternoon, despite the biblical witness
of the evening time.

44 | P a g e
1. Scenarios with the biblical calendar: Wed vs. Thu for Abib 14.

Wednesday Scenario (with Palm Saturday and Resurrection Saturday dawn)


Thursday Scenario (with Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday dawn)

[Compared to the tradition Friday scenario, no Silent Wednesday (day and night);
additional day between the Sentencing and the Crucifixion; entombed in the evening, not in late afternoon.]

2. Wednesday scenario as suggested by Torrey (with non-Biblical calendation):


[Compared to the tradition Friday scenario, the events (Upper Room Prep to Olivet Discourse) are pushed back
by one day filling up the Silent Wednesday;
Crucifixion to Resurrection one additional day.]

The fatal error in the timeline of their theory is the Resurrection being placed on the
later afternoon. This also results the Resurrection day to be put on Nisan 17 (of
Saturday sabbath), and the Wave Sheaf Offering to be put on the sabbath. [Cf.
sheaf of the Firstfruit Lev 23:10-11 on the day after the Sabbath).
Palm day cutting palm leaves is not fit for Sabbath.
No different Sabbaths of annual vs. weekly.
Burial is entombment, not be confused with buried in the ground as in a grave.
Torrey does not give a detail on the events following <Jerusalem Entry>.

3. Thursday scenario after Boice (with non-biblical calendation).


[Compared to the traditional Friday scenario, the events of Thu to Friday daytime (Upper Room Prep to Olivet
Discourse) are pushed back by one day filling up the Silent Wednesday; Crucifixion to Resurrection one
additional day.]

Boice, p. 931 found to have the Crucifixion on Thursday solves the several issues while
keeping the Resurrection on Sunday no hint of calendar or astronomical data used to find
Nisan 14 itself as Thursday.
A whole day is allocated solely for Upper Room Preparation of Passover.
See under the Biblical Lunar Calendar system the related calendar <Abib 14 in 30 CE: Apr-
5 Wed or Apr-6-Thu> for competing Wednesday vs. Thursday Crucifixion scenarios. Correct
astronomical data for the New Moon and Full Moon, but the date for Abib 14 (Nisan 15) was
determined the untenable method of the first visible crescent.
Journey to Bethany not fit for Sabbath.

4. Friday scenarios

The Friday crucifixion scenario is basically the result of mistaking the biblical phrase
Preparation (day) for Sabbath as Friday, a Gregorian calendar vocabulary which is
not in the Bible. Then, they choose CE 33 as the year to show Nisan 14 as Friday.
Once they have the year CE 33, that used it as an evidence of Friday being the day of
the crucifixion a circular logic par excellence!
2 N and 1 D for His being remained in the tomb.

# Resurrection on Sunday (Easter) in the morning. It should have been pushed


down to Monday, if Friday is for the Crucifixion. If Resurrection is for Sunday, the
Crucifixion is to be Thursday (i.e. a Thursday scenario). Note: Dawn and morning
are on the same day of the solar week and same Nisan date, but they are of different
Abib dates.

45 | P a g e
(A) Traditional Friday scenario as in the Church Liturgical Holy Week: (CE 33 Apr-3)
The word Passover in Jn 12:1 six days before Passover is rather wrongly taken
as the Passover feast day (Abib 14) (why?) instead of its usual sense of Passover
festival (Abib 15) in G-Jn.
Problem of the so-called Silent Wednesday how is it acceptable in the narrative
timeline???
To place its Palm Sunday on Abib 9 simply ignores what the bible says (i.e. Abib 10)
and good only for the Holy Week of the Church liturgy.
(B) Friday scenario after Hoehner (CE 33)
(Chronological Aspects, pp. 90-93)
This is the only thing he altered the traditional timeline of Friday scenario is to
allocate <Crowd coming> (Jn 12:9) in one whole day, making Palm Monday, in
place of Palm Sunday. Was it his attempt to get rid of the so-called Silent
Wednesday of the Holy Week of the Church liturgy disappeared in his timeline?
He does not mention the significant time indicator ninth hour in Jn 19:14 for Pilate
sentencing, apparently accepting the conventional interpretation as 6 A.M.

(C) Friday scenario after Finch, CE 30: [Not CE 33!]


Ref. Paul Finch, The Passover Papers (2009, 2nd ed.)
Ch. 8: Chronology of Passion Week., pp. 93-118
Ch. 9: The day of the Week of the Crucifixion (a section The calendar and the year
of crucifixion pp. 149-151)]
Ch. 11: Did Jesus spend a night in jail? pp. 171-178 [Unfortunately the author
maintained the traditional treatment of the issue as in Friday Crucifixion scenario and
dismissed this very idea without carefully examining its merit and validity.]
The flow of the events is basically same as in the Hoehners modification of Friday
scenario which removed the so-called Silent Wednesday, except it corrects to place
<Arriving> and <Anointing> on Sunday after removing <Crowd came in>. Thus, to arrive
at Bethany the counting back correctly starts from Nisan 14.
However, his actual numbering is curiously shown to be from Nisan 15. E.g. He says
<Nisan 13 as second day before Nisan 14>. How can 13 be second day after 14? is it
due to his arithmetical confusion on counting (inclusive vs. exclusive)? Was he confused
of which date (Nisan 14 vs. 15) to be beginning counting?
Note: He uses the term Nisan. With a sunrise-to-sunrise day, it is not Nisan of the Jewish
calendar, but rather Abib as used in the Biblical Lunar calendar.

His claim of Nisan 14 to be on Friday (Apr-7-CE) is should corrected. That year, Nisan
14 is on Wednesday, not Thursday, nor Friday. So, it is basically similar a Wednesday
and a Thursday scenario, with only date and days of a different year.

Despite having accurate astronomical data on the conjunction in CE 30 - Wed. Mar-22,


8 p.m. (Jerusalem) they have Apr-7 Friday as Nisan 14 simply claiming that it was by
the Jewish calendar, not having known that the calendar used in the Bible is different.
www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q867.html
www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1985/JASA3-85Humphreys.html
www.judaismvschristianity.com/passover_dates.htm
www.nowoezone.com/NTC24.htm (vide supra in *14th or 15th day for
Passover?)

46 | P a g e
(D) more than one day chronology:

Eugen Ruckstuhl (1963 in German, 1965 English trans.), Chronology of the last days of Jesus:
A critical study

Annie Jaubert (1965), The date of the Last Supper, (Ch. 2. The Events of the Passion
in the Chronology of Three Days, pp. 111-113)

In contrast to the model timeline of a Thursday crucifixion scenario with Sunday dawn
resurrection, both Ruckstuhl and Jaubert add two more days are to cover Sanhedrin I & II and
Pilate I & II, coming up with a three-day Passion chronology.

Eugen Ruckstuhl (1965), Chronology of The Last Days of Jesus A Critical Study
[Trans. from German 1963] [for The Chronology of More Than One Day.

Ch. V. From the arrest of Jesus to His Crucifixion Timetable and Duration of the Events.
A. Survey of the Events (pp. 32-35)
B. How long did the Passion last? Reasons in favor of the More Than One Day theory.
(pp. 35-55)

[For a copy of relevant portion from his book, see a file ((For WB #6 )) More than one day chronology
in IRENT Vol. III Supplement (Collection #6B Trial Time and Duration.)]

His conclusion: By scrutinizing several secessions of His Trial in the Passion narrative
(Sanhedrin session I for interrogation in the night, Sanhedrin session II for judgment in the
day time, Pilate I, and Pilate II) the Passion story requires more than one day.

His proposal is to add two more days, making it a three-day Passion chronology: (1)
Tuesday Arrest; (2) Wednesday Sanhedrin; (3) Thursday Sanhedrin + Pilate; and (4)
Friday Crucifixion. This may account well for the multiple sessions enough time allocated
to each. However, there are just not many extra days to spare in the timeline from the events
from the Bethany Arrival to His Arrest, with only one day which would be available for such
a purpose the so-called Silent Wednesday in the traditional Friday Crucifixion scenario.

In contrast, the biblical Wednesday scenario allocates in the timeline for the Trial of Yeshua
vs. Pilate on a separate day (early morning to noon), with the Crucifixion to follow next day.
We have to look for hidden time indicators (which the narratives demand) as well as the
explicit ones in order to examine various timelines to deal with.

47 | P a g e
F. Event-by-event in the Passion Week timeline

This is important to scrutinize and identify each event so that they can be put them in their proper positions
in the timeline in the whole perspective at one glance, rather than struggling with them to understand their
meaning in a piece-meal fashion worse with eisegesis mind set. It has to be logical non-contradicting
and kept in harmony with biblical and historical (astronomical) data and information.

Once the issue of which days were the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, the remaining issue is the narrative
timeline of the ever in the Passover-Passion Week. Once the several anchor points are (1) Abib 10 as the
Palm day and (2) Abib 14 as the Crucifixion day are set in the timeline, as well as (4) Abib 16 of the Wave
sheaf (Lev 23:10-11) of the Risen Lord as the Firstfruit, we come to what the conventional scenario and
the alternatives all fail to pay attention on the time-indicator in Jn 19:14 (the time for Pilates sentencing)
and the literarily impossible task of allocating so many events in a short overnight period following His
arrest at Gethsemane.

Not just the time of events but the flow of events. One example is <Crowd coming> Jn 12:9-11 to see
Yeshua when He arrived at Bethany belongs to the same day, not a separate whole day as Hoehner broke
the flow of narrative, without any suggestive time indicator. More important example is a crucial one for
the middle third of the Passover-Passion Week is the need of clear break between the night time of Abib
13 for <His Arrest>, <Sanhedrin v. Yeshua>, <Pilate v. Yeshua I and II>. Usually, quite a number of
events are crammed into less than 6 hours of night to the dawn with Yeshua brought to crucifixion to
Golgotha at the supposed time of 6 a.m. This is despite clear indicators of flow of events in the biblical
text in all four Gospels (Mk 15:1; //Mt 27:1; //Lk 22:66; //Jn 18:28-29)! [See also significance of Jn
19:14.]

Table: Events numbering and notation symbols

Events numbering and notation symbols in the Charts


B for Beginning; M for Middle A for After
Lamb presented; taught Last Supper; Arrest; Trial Crucifixion; Death; Resurrection
B-1 <Bethany arrival> M-1 <fig tree withered> A-1 < Via Dolorosa, bearing the cross>
B-2 <Anointing G-Jn> (M-4) M-2 <Confront and Teaching> A-2; A-3 < - Crucifixion & Death>
M-3 <Olivet Discourse>
M-4 <Anoint G-Mt, MK> (B-2) A-4 <Entombed>; <P-m> Passover meal
<Judas silver money>
B-3 < Palm day; &
M-5 <Upper Room Prep> <In the tomb>
Yerusalem Entry>
M-6 <Last Supper>
B-4 <Barren Fig tree >
<Gethsemane>
B-5 <Temple Incident> M-7 <Arrest> A-5 < Resurrection (dawn of Abib 16)
M-8 <Hannan> w/ Empty tomb (morning of Abib 17)
& <Peters denials>
M-9 <Sanhedrin I> A-6 <risen Lord> to the Disciples
M-10 <Sanhedrin II> (, resurrection proposed
M-11 <Pilate I>
other than on Abib 16)
M-12 <Pilate II>
<In custody overnight>

48 | P a g e
B-1 to B-5

B-1 <Bethany arrival> (Jn 12:1)


B-2 <Anointing> (Jn 12:2-8) [ M-4 (Mk 14:3-9; Mt 26:6-13) - flashback]
B-3 <Yerusalem Entry>. [Palm Day]
(Mk 11:1-10; Mt 21:1-11; Lk 19:28-40; 41-44; Jn 12:12-19); (cf. Jn 12:20-36a; 36b-50)
Temple court visit (Mk +11:11; +Mt 21:10-11)

B-4 < Fig tree cursed> (Mk +11:12-14; Mt 21:18-19)a


B-5 <Temple Incident> (Mk +11:15-19; Mt 21:12-17; Lk 19:45-46)

B for Beginning with Bethany Arrival:

B-1 <Bethany arrival> (Jn 12:1) ( Jn 11:54)

six days before Abib 15 of the Pesach Festival)


On Abib 9, Day one of the lunar week; it is the first day of the Passion Week
The crowd came (Jn 12:9-11).

Here the Pesach refers to the Festival of Pesach = the Festival of the Matzah (starting
on Abib 15), not the Pesach (on Abib 14 for Pesach sacrifice and meal).b

Returning from Ephraim (Jn 11:54) after finishing his Judean mission, Yeshua was now
heading to his final destination, Jerusalem. There he was to be the very Pesach sacrifice
to die on the cross at the appointed time by his Elohim.

Journey from Yericho to Yerusalem takes about 8 to 9 hours hiking on a steep ascent.
This cannot be placed on any day of Sabbath [= Saturday in the case of the conventional
Friday crucifixion scenarios].

B-2 <Anointing> (Jn 12:2-8) [Cf. M-4 (Mk 14:3-9; Mt 26:6-13)]

[Typologically and chronologically fit here since it was time to prepare His body
selected for the Pesach lamb, presaging the anointing for entombment. The placement
of the pericope in the G-Mt and G-Mk (with no parallel in the G-Lk) on the day for Last
Supper and Arrest is a flashback to thematically combining with <Judas Silver Money>
(Mk 14:10-11 //Mt 26:14-16). The text of G-Jn does not say it was at the house of Lazarus and his
sisters. Cf. G-Mk and G-Mt told it was at the house of Simon, the leper.]

Quite a number of Yehudim came to see while a plot was cooking in the Yehudim of authority
[Jn 12:9-11] this was allocated in Hoehners modification onto next day, a single day, Sunday,
to push down the Palm Day onto Monday.

a See under M-1for the sequence of the events Barren Fig Tree, Withered Fig Tree, and Temple incident.
b
as in Coulter, Harmony (pp. 216-7).
49 | P a g e
50 | P a g e
B-3 <Yerusalem Entry>. [Palm Day]

(Mk 11:1-10; Mt 21:1-11; Lk 19:28-40; 41-44; Jn 12:12-19); (cf. Jn 12:20-36a; 36b-50)


( return to Bethany Mk 11:11b)

Abib 10 It was the day of His anti-triumphal entry to Jerusalem. The traditional known
as Triumphal Entry has nothing triumphal about it in the theme of the Passion narrative. It
would be more appropriate to call it anti-triumphal as Yeshua were standing against the
triumphant world power, religious and political, as Pilate relocates from his usual residence in
Caesarea Maritimaa to Jerusalem to have control of the City to keep secure during the Festival;
he would be entering from the west, while Yeshua was from the east starting from Bethany.

It is the day the Pesach lambs were selected to be kept till Abib 14 [Exo 12:3, 6] with
Yeshua presenting Himself as the Pesach Lamb.

The name for this day should simply and accurately as Palm Dayb. The traditional term Palm
Sunday is a day in the Holy Week of the Church Liturgy.

[Note: Hoehner, without showing any source, tweaked the first few days of the Week to push
this event onto Monday (which would be called Palm Monday) for the otherwise conventional
scenario with < Friday + Sunday > in CE 33. Ostensibly it removes the so-called Silent
Wednesday in the Holy Week timeline.

Palm Sunday the traditional Friday scenario; Thursday scenario


Palm Monday in Friday scenario (Hoehner)
Palm Saturday in Wednesday scenario

The traditional Friday scenario is unacceptable and unbiblical as it places Palm Sunday
incorrectly on Abib 9, unlike the modified ones by Hoehner and others have it on Abib
10.

Note: After B-3 <Y>, G-Jn does not record the events shown in the Synoptic Gospels until it
resumes with M-6 <L-s>.

B-4 <Fig tree cursed> (Mk +11:12-14) [See M-1 <Withered Fig Tree>.
B-5 <Temple Incident> (Miqdash incident); (Mk +11:15-18; Mt 21:12-17; Lk 19:45-46)
It has been traditionally called Temple Cleansing, which is thematically a misnomer. It
is not about cleansing, but about foretelling destruction of the Temple-based Judaic
religious system. The Temple is not something that could be cleansed to keep Elohim
honored. [Cf. This pericope is similar to but distinct from the one in Jn 2:13-17, which
places it very early in the Yeshuas ministry.]

a
On the Mediterranean coast, 85 miles NNE of Jerusalem [between Tel Aviv (Yafo) and Haifa of modern Israel].
bThe neutral term Palm-day (instead of Palm Sunday) is the one used in Frederick Godet (1886), The Commentary
on the Gospel of John (Vol II) http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002051184100;view=1up;seq=9.]
[Boice (p. 930) for a Thursday crucifixion scenario mentioned Frederick Godet for the Palm Day to be on Monday.]
[Note: when re-stated in term of Abib with Abib 14 as their Friday (for the crucifixion scenario), this Monday for Palm
day = Abib 10. ARJ]
51 | P a g e
M for Middle (btw <Bethany Arrival> and <Pilates sentencing>)
M-1 to M-10
M-1 < fig tree withered> (Mk +11:20-26) (cf. Mt +21:20-22)
M-2 <Confront & Teaching> (Mk +11:27-33; 12:1-44; Mt +21:23 23:39; Lk +20:1 21:4)
M-3 <Olivet Discourse>; (Mk +13:1-37; Mt +24:1- 25-46; Lk +21:5-38)
M-4 <Anointing in G-Mt & G-Mk> (Mk 14:3-9; Mt 26:6-13) ( B-2)
+ <Judas silver money> (Mk 14:10-11 //Mt 26:14-16)

M-5 <Upper Room Prep>. (Mk +14:12a; 12b-16; Mt +26:17a; 17b-19; Lk +22:7; 8-13)
M-6 L-s <Last supper>; (Mk +14:17-26; Mt +26:20-30; Lk +22:14-30; Jn 13:1-35)
[verses in red Judas betrayal foretold]
Mk +14:17-21; 14: 22-26;
Mt +26:20-25; 26:26-30;
Lk +22:14-20; 22:21-30;
Jn 13:1-17; 18-30
<Foretelling Kefas denial> (Mk +14:27-31; Mt +26:31-35; Lk +22:31-38; Jn +13:31-38)
<Gethsemane - Agony & Prayer> (Mk 14:32-42; Mt 26:36-46; Lk 22:29-46; Jn 18:1)

M-7 <Arrest> (Mk+14:43-52; Mt +26:47-56; Lk +22:47-53; 63-65; Jn +18:2-12).


M-8 <Hannan>
<Kefas denial>;
Kefas whereabouts Mk +14:54; Mt +26:58; Lk +22:54-55; Jn +18:15
Kefas denial Mk +14:66-72; Mt +26:69-74; Lk +22:56-62; Jn +18:16-18, 25-27
1st denial Mk 14:66-68; //Mt 26:69-71a; //Lk +22:56-57; //Jn +18:17-18
2nd denial Mk +14:69-70a; //Mt +26:71b-72; //Lk +22:58; //Jn 18:25
3rd denial Mk +14:70b-72; //Mt +26:73-74; //Lk +22:59-62; //Jn +18:26-27
M-9 <Sanhedrin session I> (for interrogation) (night-time) (Mt 26:59-66; Mk 14:53-72)
M-10 <Sanhedrin session II> (for judgment) (morning/day) (Mt 27:1-2; Mk 15:1a; Lk 22:66-71)
M-11 <Pilate I> (Lk 23:1-7); <Herod Antipas> (Lk 23:7-10);
M-10 <Pilate II> (Mt 27:11-26; Mk 15:1b-15; Lk 23:13-25; Jn 18:28 19:16)

The Trials of Yeshua1


1 Before Hannan (>Annas) Jn 18:13-14; 18:19-24 Abib 12
2 Before Kayafa (Sanhedrin I) Mt 26:57, 59-68; Mk 14:53, 55-65 night /Nisan 13
3 Before the Sanhedrin -II Mt 27:1-2; Mk 15:1a; Lk 22:66-71
4 Before Pilate I Lk 23:1-5 morning
5 Before Herod Antipas * Lk 23:6-12 Abib 13
Mt 27:11-14, * 15-26; /Nisan 13
6 Before Pilate II //Mk 15:1b-5, * 6-15
Till midday
Jn 18:28-38; * 18:39 19:16
Lk 23:13-25
Mt 27:32-33; //Mk 15:21-22; Abib 14
To Golgotha //Lk 23:26; //Jn 19:17
Next morning
/Nisan 14

* - placement of the Lukan pericope (Lk 23:6-12) in the narrative in G-Mt, G-Mk, & G-Jn.

52 | P a g e
M-1 f <Withered fig tree> (Mk 11:20-26)

G-Lk does not have the Fig Tree pericope.

The two events B-4 <Fig tree cursed>and M-1 <Withered Fig tree> are placed as in
G-Mk on two consecutive days flanking B-5 <Temple Incident> between them
chronologically accurate to read the timeline. The effect is to enable the readers to see
the same symbolism for the fate of unrepentant Israel in both <Temple Incident> and
<Withered Fig Tree>.

In contrast to G-Mk, however, a literary editorial work in G-Mt is not polished in. Both
episodes F (B-4) <Barren Fig Tree> and f (M-1) <Fig Tree>are merged into one. Thus,
it is made to follow B-5 <Temple Incident> without an interruption. That the tree
withered right in before their eyes is a crude and awkward literary work.

The text seems to give an exaggerated report of the tree withered instantly (instead of
got withered or withered already) as if withering happened right in front of their eyes.

G-Lk does not have the Fig Tree pericope.

M-2 <Confrontation & Teaching>;

(Mk +11:27-33; 12:1-44; Mt +21:23 23:39; Lk +20:1 21:4)

Widows offering (Mk +12:41-44; //Lk +21:1-4)

(Not Jesus predicts the future. Nothing Yeshua did was a prediction, but
pronouncement and proclamation.)

M-3 <Olivet Discourse>; (Mk +13:1-37; Mt +24:1- 25-46; Lk +21:5-36)


concerning about the imminent future of Yerusalem in apocalyptic imagery; not
about the so-called end-time eschatology.

Note: <Two more days until Pesach Day> (Mk 14:1; Mt 26:2; cf. Lk 22:1); Plot against
Yeshua (Mt +26:1-5; Mk +14:1-2; Lk +22:1-2)

= It is Abib 12 now with two more days until the Pesach, which in the context means (the day
of) Pesach (on Abib 14 with a Seder-type meal). Not to be confused with the sense used as
Pesach festival (Jn 13:1), which begins on Abib 15.

53 | P a g e
M-4 <Anointing in G-Mt & G-Mk> (Mk 14:3-9; Mt 26:6-13)
+ <Judas silver money> (Mk 14:10-11 //Mt 26:14-16)

G-Mk //G-Mt place this <Anointing> on DoW 4, in tying it thematically with <Judas
silver money>, giving a picture of presage of anointing the body after death of
Yeshua. Here it was by an unnamed woman in the house of Simon the lepera.

Note: It should be same as the <Anointing according to G-Jn> (B-2) which is


chronologically accurate in the timeline as it was placed before the day of His anti-
triumphal Yerusalem Entry, thereby typifying it as the preparation for the Pesach
Lamb on Abib 10. G-John alone gives the name of the woman, Mariam, a sister of
Eleazar (Lazarus).

Cf. Lk 7:36-50 has a different anointing pericope outside the Passion narrative with
the presage of anointing Yeshua by an unnamed woman at a Pharisee named Shimon
possibly a prequel.

M-5 <Upper Room Preparation for the Pesach season>.

(Mk +14:12-16; Mt +26:17-19; Lk +22:7-13)

Here, preparation (of the upper room) was for celebration of the coming Pesach festival
season; not meant for one day activity, nor for the Pesach meal of the Pesach day of
Abib 14. The preparing was not something done by the disciple taking a whole day.
Relying on the master of the house, they simply had the room and other things to be
ready for the celebration of the Pesach festival season.

The text gives a time-marker in Mk 14:12 //Mt 26:17 the beginning day (>> first day)
for the unleavened bread and, in //Lk 22:7, the beginning day for the unleavened
bread. It is not the first day of the 7-day long Festival of the Matzah (Abib 15 which
is the day after Pesach sacrifice and meal), but the day for removing leaven from the
house [ = the very day of Pesach sacrifice and meal, Abib 14].

[In this phrase only, IRENT uses unleavened bread instead of Matzah which is reserved for
the Festival name.] [Cf. day of (removing leaven for) the unleavened bread vs. the first day of
the Festival of the Matzah called Pesach Festival Lk 22:1.]

The setting is on the same day (Abib 12) of the opening of the section Mk 14:1a, Mt
27:1-2; Lk 22:1. Here the narrative has it move heading towards the day not on the
day of the beginning day for the unleavened bread as leaven is being removed from
the house.
The idiom here to eat the Pesach should be clearly understood simply equivalent to celebrate the
Pesach festival with the unleavened bread. It should to be not taken to indicate only the particular

a
Leper - The epithet the leper probably from his history of contracting leprosy and got healing from
Yeshua. Was he the same Pharisee who hosted Yeshua before as recorded in G-Lk and now appears
again in the Mt-Mk pericope of his spreading a table of hospitality to Yeshua in his gratitude, to make
the Lukan pericope as a prequel?
54 | P a g e
Pesach meal (as in the Jewish ritual Seder in which roasted lamb is an integral part). The verbal
phrase is rendered in IRENT as eat the festival meals for the Pesach season.

The translated phrase eat the Passover (or Pesach) is not in English diction and fail to make its
meaning clear. More importantly, reading the phrase in the Synoptic texts is easy for the readers to
associate the Lords Last Supper with the Pesach Seder itself, contradictory to Johannine narrative.
The Last Supper was NOT the Pesach Seder, but a farewell meal of Yeshua and His disciples, as
they were waiting the Pesach season to come upon soon.

As for the disciples, they would not be aware of Yeshuas plan for this special Pesach in which He
Himself was to be offered as the Pesach lamb.]

M-6 L-s<Last supper>; (Mk 14:17-26; Mt +26:20-30; Lk 22:14-30; Jn 13:1-35)


[See under the subheading Last Supper vs. Pesach meal (Cf. Jewish ritual Seder)]
[Cf. Christian jargon Eucharist.] [The common expressions New Testament Passover (after
Coulter) and Christian Passover are misnomers and nonbiblical.]

(Mk +14:17-21 14: 22-26; Mt +26:20-25 26:26-30; Lk +22:14-30 (22:21-23) (cf. Jn


13:1-20 13:21-30) [red font Judas betrayal foretold]

The so-called Lords Last Supper. [The expression Last meal should be avoided
as it gives a wrong picture of a meal as the Passover meal.] It was not the Pesach
meal (of Seder-type as in later rabbinic Judaism), though many wrongly interpret it
that way, and as a result the Johannine testimony is left contradictory to the Synoptic
narrative. [See below A-4 <P-m> coming on Day 6 of the Week]

Foretelling Kefas denial (Mk +14:27-31; Mt +26:31-35; Lk +22:31-38; Jn +13:36-38)

<Gethsemane Prayer> (Mt 26:36-46; Mk 14:32-42; Lk 22:29-46; Jn 18:1)

M-7 <Arrest> (Mt +26:47-56; Mk+14:43-52; Lk +22:47-53; 63-65; Jn +18:2-12).


M-8 <Hannan> and <Kefas denial>;

M-9 + M-10 <Sanhedrin I & II>;


M-9 <Sanhedrin session I> (interrogation) (Mt 26:59-66; Mk 14:53-72) (Night time)
M-10 <Sanhedrin session II> (judgment) (Mt 27:1-2; Mk 15:1a; Lk 22:66-71) (Daytime)

It was not on the Pesach day, nor on the first day of Pesach festival (= Festival of
the Matzah).

55 | P a g e
A typical example of misunderstanding and misinterpretation (strike-out
words):
It was against Jewish custom to begin a trial on Passover day. The arrest of
Jesus and his appearance before the Sanhedrin are recorded in Mark as having
taken place on the Passover night, so that we are to presume that instead of
celebrating the great Passover festival in a normal way, all those in authority were
milling about the city involved in a criminal case. The crucial point remains
that in John too the Sanhedrin sits in judgment at night, though Jewish custom did
not allow nocturnal judgment, nor could be a sentence of guilt handed down on the
same day as the interrogation itself. From Joel Carmichael (1962), The Death of
Jesus. pp. 37-38)

Note: The erroneous statement of his is crossed-out, which are simply out of his
confused interpretation of the Gospel text. Here he uses Passover in the sense usually
taken. In truth, the event of his Trial cannot be on the Pesach night (Abib 14; Nisan
15), but it is before. In IRENT the whole of formal phase of <Sanhedrin v. Yeshua> is
located in the early morning Abib 13 (Mk 15:1) and the following session of <Pilate
v. Yeshua> is from morning to midday (Jn 19:14).

M-11 + M-12 <Pilate I & II>; <Trial and Sentencing> Pilate v. Yeshua.
M-11
19 <Pilate I> (Lk 23:1-7); <Herod Antipas> (Lk 23:7-10);

M-12
20 <Pilate II> (Mt 27:11-26; Mk 15:1b-15; Lk 23:13-25; Jn 18:28 19:16)

Roman scourging of Yeshua Mt 27:26 = Mk 15:15 (at the end of trial); Jn 19:1 (in mid trial);
Cf. Lk 23:16

www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume44/v440106010.htm ...The victim of a scourging


was bound to a post or frame, stripped of his clothing, and beaten with the flagellum from the
shoulders to the loins. The beating left the victim bloody and weak, in unimaginable pain, and
near the point of death.

In the usual scenario, in contrast to the scenario of His trial into the night, He was forced to
carry the cross in his near exhausted condition right after scourging!

Bleeding from scourging would not have fresh blood from the wounds left on the body and
be transferred to a shroud as in the case of Shroud of Turin of a medieval relic!
https://ptl2010.com/2012/03/22/the-scourge-its-role-in-biblical-history-and-jesus-
execution/
www.cbcg.org/scourging-crucifixion.html

Note: Importantly, most commentaries have the many events from the ending of
M-6 <Last supper> to the final sentencing M-12 <Pilate> cramped into such a short
period of one overnight from the midnight to the next morning before the beginning
of A-1 < Road to Golgotha> in a breakneck speed people going through all!

The correct timeline accounts for all the events which were taking up considerable time and
the setting of the scene which cannot possibly occur in the night (cock-crow and dawn-
watch).a

a
Some dismisses the possibility of placing the Trial on a day before the Crucifixion. In the otherwise
excellent book by Paul Finch (2009, 2nd Ed), The Passover Papers Controversy, Myth, Fairly Tales
56 | P a g e
Most commentators do not see the flow of the events which shows that it took
more than one day for the Trial and Crucifixion of Yeshua. The trial of Sanhedrin
v. Yeshua and the trial of Pilate vs. Yeshua took place from the early morning to
noon.

Note: This timeline of the week is reconstructed here in keeping with the biblical
lunar calendar. It allocates the Pilates Trial of Yeshua on a separate day Abib 13
(Tue). After final sentencing in 6th hour period not 6 a.m. as most interpreted, the
crucifixion was carried out on the next day, Abib 14 (Wed).
Consider two important observations of (1) Jn 19:14 6th hour which cannot be
manipulated to be interpreted as 6 A.M., and (2) of the physical impossibility to keep
all the actors move one place to another in an incredible frantic pace in one short
overnight period of about 6 hours the events from His arrest to the final Pilates
sentencing. Moreover, the Scripture texts are plain and clear to give the time indicator
for the Trial by [the final session of] the Sanhedrin to be in the morning Mt 27:1;
Mk 15:1a, Lk 22:6, after which they brought Yeshua to Pilate.
[Quote from Finch, p. 171 a capital crime was not to be conducted on a day before a Feast
day and that it required two days to convict a person of death penalty by Jewish Law. based
on the rule Mishnah.
William F. Dankenbring, "The Mystery of Mysteries: John 19: 14 - What Do You Mean,
'About the Sixth Hour'?", Prophecy Flash! (Triumph Prophetic Ministries, vol. 12, no. 1,
April-May, 1998): 41-54; "A New Look at: Jesus' Last Week and the Sufferings of
Messiah!", Prophecy Flash! (vol. 11, no. 2, April-May, 1997): 3-36
www.triumphpro.com/sixth-hour-of-john-19.htm [he asserts that, since it is impossible
to be 6 A.M. (allegedly Roman reckoning), it cannot be other than noon. He failed to
consider another alternative, i.e. midnight (6th hour by counting from sunset both in
Jewish and Roman reckoning, regardless how a calendar date begins (at sunset, at sunrise,
or at midnight.] [The other example of time in the night in this way is Act 23:23 third
hour-period of the night which is 8-9 p.m. if sunset is 6 p.m. [This is the only example
of an ordinal number for Roman reckoning of hour-periods of the night with a night
period divided by 12, same as a day was. Jewish reckoning is to divide a night into four
watches and to divide a day into 12 hrs.]
Glen Myers (August 20, 1999), 'Hebrew Time vs. Roman Time' - Did the Apostle John
use Hebrew Time or Roman Time in His Writings in the New Testament: (6 pp.)
https://web.archive.org/web/20151026162000/http://churchofgodcount.com/timehr.html

[See the separate file in Supplement (Collection #6) for <Significance of the 6th
hour in Jn 19:14>.]
Ruckstuhl - More than One Day chronology
Glenn E Weeks (with a modified Friday crucifixion scenario) he
interprets 6th hour in Jn 19:14 as midnight. Yeshua vs. Pilate occurring
through the night. About 18 hours from Thu morning to mid-night, with
the Crucifixion next day (Friday).] http://christiantext.com/chapters.php
Ch. 4 (Establishing Time Elements of the Trial of Jesus) & Ch. 5 (The
Trial and Elapsed Tim of Trial Events) a copy to locate in Collections
for WB #6.]kkk

and Nonsense! Ch. 11: Did Jesus Spent a Night in Jail? pp.171-178, the author concludes that there
is no discrepancy between Jn 19:14 and Mk 15:25!]
57 | P a g e
A for After Pilates sentencing: Abib 14-17

A-1 to A-7
A-1 <Via Dolorosa>; A-2 Crucifixion
A-3 Death; A-4 Entombed; P-m <Pesach meal>
A-5 In the Tomb A-6 Resurrection; Empty Tomb
A-7 Risen Lord

A-1 <Via Dolorosa> [Bearing His cross to Golgotha. Cf. So-called Stations of
the Cross in the ecclesial liturgy.]
Mt 27:32; Mk 15:21; Lk 23:26; Jn 19:17

The horizontal cross-bar (patibulum) of the execution stake (cross) was carried to
the place of execution where an upright post (stipes) is in place.
www.frugalsites.net/jesus/crucifixion.htm

Where was He crucified and buried?


Ref. EL Martin (1996, 2nd Ed.), Secret of Golgotha www.askelm.com/books/book001.asp
[Reviews: www.leaderu.com/theology/stunning.html http://reconciliationoutreach.net/wp-
content/uploads/2016/01/Introduction.pdf ]
http://triumphpro.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/where-did-jesus_-die1.pdf

A-2 - <Crucifixion> on the day of Pesach


The Crucifixion day (Abib 14) falls on Thursday in CE 30 (Apr-6).
Put on the execution stake in third hour-period (8 9 a.m.) (Mk 15:25).
Darkness covered of the land in the 6th hour period (towards noon) (Mk 15:33; //Mt
27:45; //Lk 23:44).
His death in ninth hour-period (2 3 p.m.) (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34; cf. Lk 23:44). It was
the time the Pesach lamb was scarified it in O.T. the Heb. phrase ben haArbayim Exo
12:6; Num 9:3, 5, 11; Lev 23:5 *between the two setting-times (i.e. mid-
afternoon). [See below under a separate heading - Sabbath, Pesach (Passover), and
Last Supper in the time-related terminology.]
His side pierced Jn 19:34.

Cf. different chronological scenarios: Apr. 25, Wed in CE 31; Apr. 3 Fri in CE 33); Apr 7
Fri CE 30 (after Finch, which ignore that it was Nisan 16);
The execution cannot occur during the Festival (of Pesach = of the Matzah) (Mt 26:5). The
prevalent conjecture of taking the Last meal as the Pesach meal (as in Fri scenarios) is
simply untenable, just as G-Jn telling unequivocally that it was preparation of Pesach (Jn
19:14).
To find out what year was of the Crucifixion, they searched out one year (btw the extremes
of CE 26 and 36 p. 99 Hoehner, Chronology) which had Nisan 14 fall on Friday because
of their presupposition (they knew it was Friday because thats how it was on CE 33). Voila,
they found CE 33 a circular reasoning actually to prove nothing! It was reinforced by
interpreting Daniels 70-Week prophecy to give the support for CE 33. In fact, others have
done even to for 30, 31, 32, 34, etc. of their choice!

58 | P a g e
Seven Sayings from the Cross:

"Father, forgive them..."


"Truly I say to you today: with me youre going to be in paradise"
"Woman, behold thy son..." [darkness: noon 3 pm]
"My Elohim, My Elohim ..."
"I thirst"
"It is completed"
"Into Thy hands..."

Yeshua foretells His suffering and death:

On three occasions before entering Jerusalem,

1st Time 2nd Time 3rd Time


G-Mt 16:2123 17:2223 20:1719
G-Mk 8:31 9:3032 10:3234
G-Lk 9:2122 9:4345 183133
G-Jn 12:2036

A-3 <Entombment>
All four Gospels cover it clearly //Mt +27:59-61; //Mk +15:42-47; //+Lk 23:53-56; //Jn 19:38-42.
[Cf. Unique in Jn 19:39 is There along with him also came Nicodemus, the man who had on a former
occasion paid a visit to Yeshua by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes about seventy-five
pounds.]

(His *burial was by *entombment, not burying in a grave. Cf. interment)

http://craigaevans.com/Burial_Traditions.pdf Craig Evans, Jewish Burial Traditions


and the Resurrection of Jesus

The so-called burial of him should not be confused with the body to be buried in a grave
dug underground. Yeshua was NOT buried; but his body was entombed. The body was
prepared with anointing (washing and spices); no embalminga as customary in Christian
countries and in the ancient Egypt.

[See below a separate entry <*Mt 12:40 three days and three nights and Jonahs
sign> under Examining Time-indicators and terms in the Biblical passages].

The so-called Shroud of Turin, an ancient genuine product, a medieval Catholic relic,
but a modern hoax for the real burial cloth (shroud) of Yeshua. [See in the Appendix
below on the shroud relics.]

a
https://bartonfuneral.com/funeral-basics/history-of-embalming/
http://americacomesalive.com/2010/08/03/wars-drive-advances/
Alvin J. Schmidt (2015), Cremation, Embalmment, or Neither? A Biblical/Christian Evaluation.
59 | P a g e
His entombment was not in the late afternoon before sundown (as a big issue for those with
the non-biblical solar sabbath of Saturday), but in the evening as the time-indicator in the text
shows:
Lk 23:54 Thus, [all] this had been the day of sabbath-preparation [Abib 14], and there
sabbath day was coming to dawn sabbath is for daytime period.
Mt 27:57 Now evening having arrived ~~ Yosef of Ramathayim came to Pilate to ask
for the body of Yeshua to be taken down.
Mk 15:42 It was already evening there arrived Yosef of Ramathayim ~~.]

Most ignore what the Bible plainly says, and they picturesquely explain that the burial process
was in haste before sabbath sets in with sunset, ignorant of Sabbath which has nothing to do
with Saturday. Some would say the burial was a temporary one and to be completed by the
women group when Sabbath was over, little knowing that the burial was not a task for women.
Some would believe the Shroud of Turin would keep the image with the blood on the body
left unwashed!

The process taking time was fully completed by Yosef, having taken place in the evening into
night (not in haste). Often a fanciful imagination carried people to think it was temporary so
that someone else would come back to finish the job when their Jewish Sabbath from sunset
to sunset is over. Preparing the body consists of a ceremonial washing (called taharah) and
wrapping. No women were allowed for this task.

A-4 P-m <Pesach meal>


Yehudim were to take it in the evening of Abib 14, at the very time the body of
Yeshua was being entombed.

[When the sacrificial system and Temple worship is no longer a part of the rabbinic Judaism
of today, the only remaining practice of the ancient Pesach is what is now called the Seder
ritual and meal, which is observed on the (beginning) evening of Nisan 15, which
corresponds to Abib 14 evening]

[Cf. A second Seder is a Diaspora Jewish practice on the evening of Nisan 16]
[Note: Yehudim, not Jews, who are in the modern setting in diaspora after the Fall of Yerusalem
in 70 C.E.

Abib 14 is Pesach Day the day of Pesach sacrifice (late afternoon) and Pesach meal (in the
evening). [Cf. the expression to eat the passover (Mt 26:17 //Mk 14:12, 14; //Lk 22:8, 11;
also Jn 18:28) should be taken as an idiom for to eat festival meals for the Pesach season,
that is, to keep the Pesach festival celebration as in Mt 26:18;]

Last Supper is interpreted as the Pesach Meal, without clear solution to resolve apparent
contradiction to John 13:1, etc. compounded by inadequate understanding of the Synoptic
time-makers (Mk 14:12 and parallel). It is hopeless to attempt to construct any sensible
timeline from there on, as it takes that the Crucifixion was to come after the Passover day!

Note: 18<High Sabbath>


The women rested on Sabbath (daytime period only) Lk 23:56b (Exo 20:8-11)
The women bought spice after Sabbath Mk 16:1

60 | P a g e
Abib 15th is Sabbath (on Day 7 of the lunar week in the lunar month) in the biblical calendar
This special one is called High Sabbath; the week-long annual festival begins always on
the Sabbath of Day 7 of the lunar week. [Note: Sabbath rest is for the period of daytime only,
not 24 hours. Night is by itself a period of rest, whether sabbath or not.] [Abib 15 is the first
day of the Matzah Festival (Lev 23:6-7; Exo 23:15; 34:18, etc.)

In a full 7-day week, whether the week is festival or ordinary, there is always only one
Sabbath day. There is no another separate different Sabbath for annual (festival) or weekly.
The Friday crucifixion scenario has two different Sabbaths fall on the same date (doubled-
up sabbath). Neither we have two sabbath-days back-to-back in that week as explained away
by a Wednesday crucifixion scenario.

A-5 <Resurrection in the dawn> (= the risen Lord Yeshua Himself presented as
the First-Fruits) w/Empty tomb. It is not in the morning hour. The expression
resurrection morning refer to the time setting of the risen Lord appearing to the
disciples.

His death: From the ninth hour of Abib 14 (Wed 3 p.m.) to the dawn of Abib 16 (Sat
6 a.m.) 3 hours short of than 72 hours.

Coulter claims that full three days are required for ones being legally dead. Hence,
Jesus was being dead more than 72 hours from the death as in Mk 15:25 to the time
the later afternoon (or early evening) as the resurrection time which he had to come
up to meet this requirement. [eisegesis and proof texting.]a

In the Gospel narratives, the Resurrection was in the dawn, not in the morning, of Day 1 of
the lunar week Abib 16 (which was the day after High Sabbath of Abib 15). It should be
clear that dawn is the last waning part of a day, ending the fourth watch of night (= dawn-
watch), before a new day to begin at sunrise.

<Day of Wave Sheaf of First-fruits> with Wave Sheaf Offering. Abib 16. The day after
High Sabbath, is the first day to begin counting down (seven full sabbaths + 50 days) to find
the day of Shavout (Pentecost) to fall in the summer harvest for wheat, grapes, etc. in the
fourth month of the lunar year. It has nothing to do with Sunday.
[www.worldslastchance.com/yahuwahs-calendar/pentecost-calculation-restoration.html ]

<At the Empty Tomb>


The women group set out to go back to the tomb in the dawn before morning break. [Lk 24:1
(with the spice prepared) //Mk 16:2.] It was not to anoint the boy for (permanent) burial, as
the job was not for women and it was completed by Yosef and Nicodemus taking quite a time
in the evening to the night period of the same day Abib 14 (as the day of Crucifixion).

a
Quoting from him: Jesus statement that He would rise three days after He had died is acutely
significant. According to Jewish law to be declared legally dead, a person had to be dead for three full
days or more. Therefore, if Jesus had risen from the dead before 3 PM on the afternoon of Nisan 17, a
weekly Sabbath. He would not have been considered legally dead. As a result, His return to life would
not have been considered a true resurrection from the dead.
If He had been crucified on a Friday and restored to life on Sunday morning at sunrise. His death
would not have been "valid'' since only two nights and one day would have passed between Friday
sunset and Sunday morning. In order for His death to be publicly recognized and acknowledged, it
was necessary for Jesus to remain in the tomb grave for three nights and three days before He was
raised from the dead.
61 | P a g e
Cf. Jn 20:1 Mariam Magdalene (possible with others) went to the tomb and found empty.

In the morning they encountered the risen Lord it was now Day 2 of the lunar week (Abib
17). As no date changes with sunrise in Jewish or Gregorian calendars, it is still in the same
named day of the Gregorian week. That means, the Resurrection fell on Saturday for the
Wednesday crucifixion scenario; Sunday for the Thursday scenario, and, alas, Monday for
the Friday crucifixion scenario when the two events are correctly placed in harmony with
the whole of the biblical narratives.

A-6 <risen Lord> to disciples [on Abib 17; Day 2 of the week]
(1) The women;
(2) The two disciples on Emmaus (> Emmaus) road;
(3) The rest of disciples;
(4) The Disciples w/ Thomas (a week later).

Post-resurrection period
After Resurrection in the dawn of Abib 16 He showed Himself:

Shortly with sunrise, now was Abib 17 (Day 2 of the week): It was in the morning
and day time that the Risen Lord appeared to the women group and other disciples.

Abib 17
1. (morning) to Mariam Magdalene and other women Mk 16:9-11; Mt 28:5-10; Jn
20:11-18.
2. (afternoon) to two disciples on the road to Emmaus Lk 24:13-49; Mk 16:12-13;
3. (evening) to the Eleven Mk 16:14-18 //Jn 20:19-25 (Thomas being absent);

The risen Lord Himself later:


1. to the eleven disciples including Thomas Jn 20:26-29;
2. to the Eleven (in Galilee) (Mt 28:16-20) (Jn 21:1-24)
3. Ascension Mk 16:19-20; Lk 24:50-51; Act 1:9-10;
4. Pouring of the holy Spirit to the Mashiahn people Act 2:1-4;
(Disciples acts Lk 24:52-53; Act 1:12-26)

Five appearances shortly after He was risen Abib 17:

1. To Mary Magdalene [given a message to the disciples]


2. To the other women who come to the tomb [intending to complete the burial
preparation of His body]
3. To two disciples on the Road to Emmaus
4. To Simon Peter [nowhere recorded, but alluded to in Lk 24:33 and 1Co 1:5]
5. To the astonished disciples [Thomas is absent]

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The women who followed Yeshua in His ministry and Passion narratives:

Mt 27:55 many women who had followed Yeshua from Galilee


Mk 15:40 there were women from distance looking on
Lk 23:27 women beating on their chest and wailing in Via Dolorosa (a legend of
Veronica, if a true story, it is possibly Yeshuas mother)
Lk 23:49 they watched as Yeshua breathed His last.
Lk 23:55 at the scene of the tomb (Yosef)
Lk 24:10 Mariam the Magdalene, Yohanah, Mariam the mother of Yaakob and other
women reports to the apostles.
Cf. Lk 8:2-3 Mariam the Magdalene, Yohanah the wife of Kuza, Susanna and others.

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F. Liturgical Holy Week vs. Passover-Passion Week

Liturgical Holy Week vs. Passover-Passion in 30 CE

Abib 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

*Nisan 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30 C.E.
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

Lazarus* Palm Maundy Good Holy Easter


Holy Week
Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

The Passion Week 30 CE in the Scripture and the Holy Week in the Church liturgy of the current year are not same;
dates do not mach. Sabbath is on Saturdays (Friday evening to Saturday evening) from the Jewish tradition.

Current years for the Passion week

Current years for the Passion week

2008 Apr-14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue
2011 Apr-13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
2012 Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Palm Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Good Fri Sat Easter Sun# Mon
2013 Mar-20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
2014 Apr-9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
2015 Mar-29 30 31 Apr-1 2 3 4 5 6
Palm Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Good Fri Sat Easter Sun# Mon
2016 Mar-17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Thu Fri Sat Palm Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Good Fri
Abib 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Nisan <varied depending on which year>

The liturgical Easter Sunday is not same as Resurrection day (Abib 16).
Nisan dates of the rabbinic Jewish calendar cannot be aligned here, since each year is different.
The liturgical Holy Week is not parallel to the biblical Passion-Passover Week.

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The Church liturgical Holy Week is a period of one week, Sunday to Sunday, before
Easter Sunday, beginning with *Palm Sunday. It is a church construct and its timeline
does not correspond to that of the internal timeline in the passion narrative in the Scripture.

Good Friday is not related to Crucifixion Day (Abib 14)


Easter Sunday is not related to Resurrection day (Abib 16). [Sunday
morning Resurrection is a nonbiblical term.] originates from Constantine Catholic
Church since early 4th century
Maundy Thursday [fr. Latin mandatum = commandment (to love each other as He
loved)]
So-called Silent Wednesday by some. Hoehner tweaked the first few days of the
Holy Week, resulting in Palm Monday and erasing Silent Wednesday in the
timeline.
Cf. *Lazarus Saturday 1st day of the Holy Week in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Paschal Triduum (Easter Triduum, Holy Triduum) - the period of three days that
begins with the liturgy on the evening of Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) and ends
with evening prayer on Easter Sunday.

The liturgical Resurrection is in the morning of Sunday, which is at the beginning of a


day of the Holy Week in Gregorian calendar; while the biblical Resurrection was in the
dawn, which was at the end of a day for the Passion Week in the biblical lunar calendar.

Biblical Lunar calendar: with a day beginning at sunrise - Abib as 1st month.
[Seven numbered days of the lunar week are not related to seven named days of the
Gregorian week which Jewish calendar uses.]. Non-cyclic weeks.
Rabbinic Jewish calendar: [not the calendar used in the Bible] with a day reckoned
from sunset - Nisan as 7th month; sabbath on Saturday, being tied with the Gregorian
week of seven named days.
Julian-Gregorian calendar: date in Julian = 2 + Gregorian (in 100 BC to 100 CE).
[Note: All dates for the Passover-Passion week throughout this file is in Julian dates.]
Julian date is 6 hrs behind the rabbinic Jewish; 6 hrs ahead of the Biblical Lunar
calendar; with a difference of 12 hours btw the Biblical and Jewish becomes significant
for dating of night-time events (from evening to dawn before sunrise).
Pesach season (inclusive 8 days): Abib 14 + Abib 15 - 21.
Pesach I to VII in Jewish Passover for Nisan 15 to 21 (Nisan 14 as Erev Pesach).
Passion Week: [Day # of the lunar week = Day # of the Passion Week]
from Abib 9 to Abib 15 (Day 1 to Day 7 of the Week)
CE 29/30 = AM 3790 = SC 4012;
CE 2013 = AM 5773 = SC 5995;
CE 2014/2015 = AM 5775 = SC 5997. www.yhrim.com/Calendars/5997_GMT.pdf
CE 2015/2016 = AM 5776 http://antipas.net/heb_cal_2015-16.htm

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Sources of errors in Passion Week chronology
confusion, conflict and contentions galore

On the calendar system problems:


1. Gregorian and rabbinic Jewish calendars were not in the first century. They
differ fundamentally from the biblical lunisolar calendar. Using the correct and
proper calendar is essential for understanding biblical narratives.
2. Using the named days of Gregorian solar week, rather than the numbered days
of lunar week is the stumbling block.
3. There are 4 full 7-day weeks (2nd day to 29th day with both 1st day and 30th
day), with four Sabbath days in a lunar month; it is on day 7 of the full lunar
week (on 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th day of the month). It is not related to
Saturday, which itself is 6th day of the week in some oriental culture. Sabbath
rest is for day-time period, not 24 hours.)
4. Mistaking day 7 of the lunar week equating to Saturday (7th day of the solar
week), and sabbath preparation day (= sabbath eve) is taken to be same as
Friday No.1 culprit for the mistaken un-Scriptural Friday Crucifixion and
Sunday Resurrection.
5. Gregorian cyclic continuous solar weeks instead of the biblical non-continuous
lunar weeks.
6. A biblical day is that which begins with sunrise. A Hebrew day from sunset to
sunset (which was taken over from the ancient Greek practice) is about 12
hours off from the biblical day. Daytime remains same date; however, events
in the nigh time belongs a day later in Hebrew calendar The No. 2 culprit for
confusion, conflict and contradictions in understanding the timeline of the
Passover-Passion Week. The biblical timelines and narratives cannot be
followed without confusion when the vocabulary of the Roman calendar is -
use (with day from midnight to midnight, but counting 12 hour-periods of
daytime beginning from sunrise).
7. Confusion on the New Moon to begin the lunar month and on the date to begin
a new year in lunisolar calendar.a
8. With the Gregorian calendar, to determine what date the events in the middle
of a night occurs is easily confused. Similarly, it is easy to get confused for the
events in the late afternoon and evening with the rabbinic Jewish calendar.

a
[Cf. The Sabbatarian issue which is the weekly sabbath is to be on.] [The so-called Postponement
Rules in calendation by Hillel II should not be our concern for fixing the lunar calendar for the
year of the Crucifixion.]

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On the chronology-related issue: the year:

The year of His crucifixion was 30 CE (he was 33-year old) not 31 or 33 CE.
The month was Abib, corresponding to April [spring season; barley harvesting]
Using Nisan dates of rabbinic Jewish calendar does harm to read the narrative
of the events almost half century before their calendar was devised. It is
amazing to see how people interpret Daniels 70-week prophecy to support the
year of their favorite 33, 32, 31, and even 30 CE.

On the calendar-related issue: dates and days.

1. Crucified on the day of Pesach (Abib 14/Nisan 15). The Lords Last Meal was
not a Pesach meal (Cf. rabbinic Jewish ritual Seder)
2. The resurrection was in the dawn (before sunrise), the last portion of Abib 16.
3. Instead of following the biblical Passover-Passion Week with events in correct
timeline, the liturgical Holy Week is chronologically and thematically
disconnected from what the Bible shows, favoring traditional interpretation of
their canonical Bible. It cannot show adequately and correctly the narratives on
a timeline.

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Summary and conclusion on the Passover-Passion Week Timeline:

In a nutshell:

To follow the Passion Narrative in CE 30


just follow the dates
from Abib 14 [afternoon] to Abib 16 [dawn];
from His Death to His Resurrection.

Abib 14 Crucifixion and Death


Abib 15 High Sabbath
Sabbath = the day one of the lunar week [not on Saturday]
Sabbath rest is for the daytime period, not 24 hours.
For celebration, commemoration, or memorial are kept
on the anniversary dates, not on certain days of the week.
Friday and Sunday (of the Gregorian solar week) of the Holy Week are
nothing more than what the church had assigned to Crucifixion and
Resurrection, not that they occurred on those days. There is no prospect
of this Church tradition of the Holy Week in the Church liturgy to
change to reflect the correct date we can find with the Biblical lunar
calendar.

When we try to decipher the Passion Week timeline in terms of the named days of the
Gregorian solar week it actually hinders the proper understanding of the narrative.
Which day it was or should be for the Crucifixion or the Resurrection is actually of a
marginal importance except one which is of liturgical tradition.

What we have to do in order to follow the biblical timeline is to keep track of the dates
in terms of Abib month and the numbered day of its lunar week. Our well-accustomed
terms and concepts associated with the solar calendar is alien to the Biblical times.
After fully comprehending the true Biblical calendar and read the narrative, the day of
the solar week on which a certain event falls can be found, but it should be based on
the astronomical data in order solely to find what the date of the proleptic Gregorian
Calendar is Abib 14 in 30 CE to fall on. It is essential then to have the two calendars
compared, the proleptic Gregorian Calendar and the Biblical Lunar calendar, the latter
which requires to fix the date of the New Moon Day with the time of dawn and the
conjunction. Sunday fixed for worship is not based on the Bible but simply the Church
tradition as it divorced itself away from the Judaic mindset.
Many important events in the past of human history are being remembered in
anniversary, that is, on the same date and month; why would anyone be obsessed about
keeping it on the same named day of the week? Would anyone want to keep a birthday
not on the anniversary date, but on the same day of the week? That it was found to fall
68 | P a g e
on, say, Wednesday, does not compel us to keep a memorial or a celebration on
Wednesday, as the named days of the week have no meaning in the Biblical text and
context. It is also entirely different matter to see what is to be kept Last Supper,
Pesach, Resurrection, or any festival, etc. It has thrived and will survive the way
people are hooked on because religious things would not go out of those in power for
control.

Questions and issues with different scenarios:

Doesnt the Bible say He was crucified on Friday?


Doesnt the Bible say He resurrected on Sunday?
What is about three days and three nights?

[See elsewhere in this file for the phrase *three days and three nights]

The Friday crucifixion scenario with Sunday resurrection of the liturgical Church
Holy Week was based on the reading the Bible in terms of the Roman calendar
with a solar week. For them, the expression 7th day of the week is Saturday for
sabbath and the preparation day is Friday. This is the rabbinic Jewish calendar
convention, which they took it in, without its validity to support. They chose CE 33
as the year since it was the one choice among several years which had Nisan 14 on
Friday (Apr-3). Some even chooses CE 30 Apr 7 = Friday as the day of the
Crucifixion without flimsy astronomical data.

But the Bible does not use our modern vocabulary such as the 7 named days of the
week. It does not say something happened on such and such day (Friday, Sunday,
etc.) and it does not say something is done on Saturday, etc. The calendar used in
the Bible is a lune-solar and its week is of lunar; not solar. This scenario explains
away the three days and three nights, on the basis of idiomatic reckoning a portion
of day as one day, that is, taking is simply three days (in Gregorian days of the
week)

A Wednesday crucifixion scenario came out that, when people realized from
reading Mt 12:40 in the so-called sign of Jonah, the Friday scenario cannot come
up with three full days from Friday late afternoon to Sunday dawn only two nights
(Fri/Sat night and Sat/Sun night) and one day (Sat daytime), plus a few afternoon
hours if any in Fri late afternoon). The Friday scenario could do nothing other than
explaining away by falling on a Hebrew idiom of counting a part of day as one day.
Their interpretation led them to find Wednesday as Nisan 14. However, it is not by
counting 3 D and 3 N = 72 hours, but the astronomical data that showed them
Wednesday to be for the day of Nisan 14.

Abib 14 in 30 CE was found to fall on Wednesday based on their calculation for the
New Moon day. Further on, they tackled on a task to account for the duration of
three days and three nights, as 72 hours precisely for that. It is universally agreed
that the terminal endpoint for counting interval is something to do with the
Resurrection. By taking the time of His death of ninth hour (Mk 9:33, 34) as the
initial endpoint, they convinced that His resurrection had to be late afternoon (or
69 | P a g e
evening) of Saturday. That way, they showed it would account for full three nights
(Wed/Thu, Thu/Fri, Fri/Sat) and three days (Thu, Fri, Sat) to their satisfaction. They
seem to have become deaf to what the Bible plainly tells that He was raised in the
dawn! As for them, the 72-hour-in-the-grave theorist, such was a sign of such
importance that Jesus himself gave it as a supernatural proof of His Messiahship!
Some would even say THE MESSIAHSHIP OF JESUS AT STAKE on the proper
interpretation of this phrase!

As to the duration itself it may be satisfied in several ways:

(1) In addition to the Wednesday crucifixion with Saturday afternoon


resurrection,

(2) The Sunday resurrection (dawn) scenario with Friday crucifixion does not
explain the meaning of the Matthean unique phrase of in the heart of the
earth three days and three nights.

(3) Friday crucifixion but with Monday resurrection (dawn). This would not
be entertained for them, simply because they believe the Bible says the 1st
day of the week is Sunday, without knowing that these named days of the
Gregorian solar week do not correspond to the Biblical numbered days of the
lunar week. [The subject is found in detail in the file, IRENT Vol. III
Supplement Walk through the Scripture 5 - Time, Calendar and
Chronology.

(4) However, the Sunday resurrection with Thursday crucifixion can account
for a period of three days and three days.

(5) That the period should be for His public ministry of 3 years, rather than 3
days in the last past of His Passion week. -
www.yhrim.com/Teaching_Documents/The_Third_Day_-
_After_Three_Days___Sign_of_Yonah_~_2-5996_-_may_2014.pdf

The Thursday Crucifixion scenarioa (Apr-6 Thu 30 CE) came out to counter the
Wednesday scenario, rebutting its erroneous, illogical and unbiblical claim for
Saturday afternoon Resurrection.

As the Thursday scenario was proposed it was in the right direction, but it had to
make clear how the New Moon day be determined (Cf. astronomical calculation vs.
by the untenable method of sighting the first visible crescent), the important issue

a
Thursday crucifixion scenario proponents as they proposed, have made an error with an
unbiblical two-sabbath theory of the Passion Week (annual sabbath and weekly sabbath
back-to-back). It is unavoidable since they would not have known the fact that the vocabulary
of the named days of the solar week does not belong to the Bible and should not be used to
interpret the time-related expressions in the Bible.
www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/what-time-day-did-crucifixion-happen (Here, it is
Thursday Crucifixion on Nisan 14 (AD 31?). Note: it reads Pilate sentencing of 6th hour
incorrectly as 6 a.m.).
70 | P a g e
which concerns the issue of the calendar itself the true biblical lunar calendar
against the unbiblical rabbinic Jewish calendar.

Though based on the accurate astronomical dataa on the Conjunction date/time and
sunrise date/time which are same as used in the Wednesday scenario, they determine
the New Moon Day (Nisan 1) with an untenable impractical method of first visible
crescent moon, with the result of Nisan 15 on Apr-6 Thursday.

This corrective proposal appears as if we only have to simply move Nisan 14 in the
Wednesday scenario on to next day (Thursday). Thus, the Resurrection remains
same as in the traditional scenario, correctly placed in the dawn of Sunday.

As for the 3 D and 3 N, a Thursday scenario does satisfactorily account for it once
they take the duration three days and then three nights to cover His suffering AND
His death from His bearing His own cross to His resurrection, which falls in the
dawn of Sunday. If understood this way, the resurrection in case of the Wednesday
scenario would have fallen on dawn of Saturday, not on late afternoon contrary to
the Biblical narratives.b

The issue of the unique Matthean phrase three days and three nights is something
to be understood biblically and simply. It does not give anything of the important
special sign of his Messiahship. It is nothing worth to be hung up on. It is a sign or
a pointer to tell who He was and what He will be doing. It has nothing to do with the
proof of His Messiahship, which is the person Himself in His life-teaching (incl.
healing and mighty works), suffering, death, and resurrection. Nothing in one single
verse in the Bible, interpreted out of the way to offer the sign of his Messiahship.

Crucifixion day scenario has gone through evolution: from the traditional Friday (in
Catholic tradition), to a Wednesday, to the Thursday, and then finally to the biblical
Thursday scenario. Yes, the 72-hour-buried-in-the-gave theorists failed to
understand the Hebrew idiom, and thought the period was meant for the duration of
being him dead or buried, and believed that the Jonah sign was something special
sign for prophecy and proof of His messiahship. However, in proposing Wednesday
crucifixion scenario, they were the ones who started earnestly to look for a
Crucifixion day scenario different from the Church tradition of Friday Crucifixion.

It is not quite accurate to say on such and such day He was crucified (be it
Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday). We can only say that the day of His Crucifixion

a
Elsewhere is dealt: the conjuction date/time Mar-22-Wed 30 CE at 17:32 UTC
(www.triumphpro.com/jesus-in-grave-new-truth.htm).
Also H. Goldstine (1973) New and Full Moons.
[One-day discrepancy between the two scenarios of the Crucifixion date is due to different way
of determining the New Moon day. The method of sighting first visible crescent would be only
feasble in the ancient time for the people living in the limited geographic area of Judea.]
b I wonder what have prevented them from simply placing the resurrection event at the biblical correct time
of dawn. Then they would have arrived at the true biblical Wednesday scenario (with Saturday dawn
resurrection).
71 | P a g e
was found to fall on a certain named day of the solar week on the proleptic Gregorian
calendar. There is no such Gregorian vocabulary in the Bible Sunday, Friday,
Saturday, etc.a The biblical text cannot be and should not be interpreted in terms of
seven named days of Gregorian solar cyclic week, which is in sharp contrast to the
seven numbered days of the lunar non-cyclic week. With the Scripture based luni-
solar calendar, it is not difficult to see that how a certain biblical scenario would
correctly fit the internal timeline of the biblical Passion narrative. The readers will
see how it is essential to have firm grip on the calendar systems and to find the one
which is used in the Scripture. Without it, it is hopeless to make sense out of the
timeline of the Passion-Passover Week.

As a part of arguments and counterarguments for their positions, it is an issue of


counting interval we need to summarize here. To count interval, the two endpoints
need to be defined clear and what is counted for dates or duration. All agree that
terminus ad quem is the time of His resurrection. But it is the problem of terminus a
quo, which is the time of His death from incorrect interpretation of the idiom.

Were people not obsessed with their literalistic interpretation to read in the earth
as buried in the ground, they should have rightly spotted that His bearing the cross
is the very terminus a quo, not His death. Then the whole day-time period of the
Crucifixion day Abib 14 (Wed) is what was needed to complete full three days (72
hours).

Note on counting days inclusive vs. exclusive


A Jewish custom of reckoning a part of a day as a whole day is being cited. It ignores
the difference in the convention of counting off (how many dates) dates and duration
of a period (how many days). The interpretation of *three days and three nights
(fully three days) of Mt 12:40 text is not a matter of taking into account the subtle
difference between inclusive vs. exclusive reckoning.b The literary context points
that it alludes to the period from His carrying the cross to His resurrection. Often the
issue of fixing the endpoints (initial and terminal) for interval counting is completely
ignored, though the consensus for the terminal endpoint is the Resurrection. That
way, most of Wednesday crucifixion scenario are hooked on three days and three
nights (of full three days) for His being buried in the grave which the story of
Yonah itself does not suggest at all!
https://snoworld.one/inclusive-versus-exclusive-calendar-counting/
interval ; www.mathwords.com/i/interval.htm

The set of all real numbers between two given numbers. The two numbers on the
ends are the endpoints. The endpoints might or might not be included in the interval
depending whether the interval is open, closed, or half-open (same as half-closed)
Inclusive interval including the endpoints.
Exclusive interval excluding the endpoints

aAn unbiblical modern easy-read paraphrase-type Bible translation, GNB, has Sunday in place of the first day
of the week as in all other translations. In the early Julian calendar, it should be noted, that it was with eight-day
week (nundinal cycle), designated as A to H.]
b
www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=10&article=756&topic=139#
www.wednesdaycrucifixion.com/inclusive-reckoning.html Wednesday Crucifixion Theory
72 | P a g e
Much more than finding the correct day of the solar week on the proleptic Gregorian
calendar, but this controversy helped to appreciate the importance of calendar issue
when dealing with the timeline of the Passion-Passover Week.

Three scenarios - Table for the list of scenarios to consider:


[a few others are not worthy of consideration]
Year CE Crucifixion Resurrection*
30 Wed (Apr-5) Sat (dawn) #1
30 Wed (Apr-5) Sat (evening) #2
30 Thu (Apr-6) Sun (dawn) #3
33 Fri (Apr 3) Sun (dawn) #4
* dawn is the last port of night with morning being the first part of day.

#2 Resurrection at late afternoon/evening contradicts the Bible.


#3 If New Moon Day is one day later than (#1).
#3 [Ref. Doig (1990); Boice (1999)]
#4 Traditional scenario of CE 33 for the Crucifixion is the year simply chosen as it has
Nisan 14 on Fri! And to prove that day was Friday, their answer is that it was Friday on CE
33 a fallacy of circular logic. The idea that Friday and Sunday were for Crucifixion and
Resurrection has resulted from a single source of error - misinterpreting a biblical Day 7 of
the week as Saturday [This is from Jewish tradition.]

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First Three Days of the Passion Week A Timeline

First Days of the Passion Week




DoW 2 3 4 5

LS TRIAL
9 Abib 10 Abib 11 Abib 12 Abib 13 14
Nisan 10 Nisan 11 Nisan 12 Nisan 13 Nisan 14

Apr 2 (Sun) Apr 3 (Mon) Apr 4 (Tue) Apr 5 (Wed) Apr 6 Thu
30 CE
Apr 1 (Mon) Apr 2 (Tue) Apr 3 (Wed) Apr 4 (Tue) Apr 5 Wed

33 CE Mar-30 (Mon) Mar-31 (Tue) Apr-1 (Wed) Apr-2 (Thu) Apr-3 Fri

sunrise; sunset; midday; midnight


LS Last Supper; TR Trial; Golgotha and Crucifixion;
ET Entombed; R - Resurrection

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Last Three Days of the Passion Week A Timeline

H-Chart comparing three scenarios:

Last Days of the Passion Week



DoW 5 6 7 1
Passover -meal High Sab. Wave-sheaf

LS TRIAL < I n t h e t o m b>


12 Abib 13 Abib 14 Abib 15 Abib 16 17
*Nisan 13 14 15 16 17

Apr 5 (Wed) Apr 6 Thu Apr 7 (Fri) Apr 8 (Sat) Apr 9 (Sun)
30 CE
Apr 4 (Tue) Apr 5 Wed Apr 6 (Thu) Apr 9 (Fri) Apr 10 (Sat)

Apr-3 Fri Apr-4 (Sat)


33 CE Apr-5 (Sun)
Preparation day Doubled-up sabbath

[full moon 33 CE Apr. 3 at 15:00]

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A summary diagram Last Three Days

Comparing three scenarios


from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection

Scenarios for Crucifixion-Resurrection days


Abib 13 Abib 14 Abib 15 Abib 16 17


Day 6@ Day 7 Day 1

Nisan 14 Nisan 15 Nisan 16 Nisan 17

Wednesday Scenario**

Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

Thursday Scenario

Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Friday Scenario

Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

To Golgotha; Crucifixion; Resurrection;


**wrong resurrection time in a popular non-biblical Wednesday scenario;
Full Moon; Pesach meal; @ Day of the lunar week

It is prudent and sensible to follow the timeline in terms Abib dates and the numbered days of
the lunar week. However, below is a diagram for those insist to compare the two scenarios in
term of the named days of the solar week.

Above is a diagram provided for those who want to compare the two scenarios in term
of the named days of the solar week. Note: Some noted that Apr-7 was Friday in CE
30 (but no other Friday scenario has been proposed).
Note: See the Pesach day to keep is Abib 14 (Nisan 14), and the Pesach meal is
on the evening of that Abib 14, which is confusingly on Nisan 15 evening by Jewish
reckoning. It is how Jewish Seder is kept on Nisan 15, even though Torah commands
to keep Pesach on the 14th of the month in O.T.
Confusion of whether Passover is on Nisan 14 or 15 is not because of a possibility of
two different calendars being used at that time by two groups of people (an absurd
proposal), but from the Jewish unbiblical convention of reckoning a day to start at
sunset so that the events in the night period belongs to a day later than the date in
Abib.

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Middle Three Days of the Passion Week A Timeline:
Once the last three days are in place in the timeline, our next task is with the middle
three days from the Temple to the Crucifixion.
Abib 11 12 13 14
B WWW LS AR
F xxxx
*Nisan
A x
11 12 13 14
Gregor Day J Day K Day L

WWW: LS: Last Supper; AR: Arrest;


Yehudim vs. Yeshua; Pilate sentencing;

The only sensible timeline is shown in the [Row B] (B for Biblical). It is futile and impossible to fill
events in the slot marked xxxx of a short overnight period as in the [Row F] (F for false) after the
midnight 18 Arrest with
19 ex-Chief kohen Annas; 20 Sanhedrin; 21 w/ Pilate; w/ Herod Antipas

to the dawn with 22 Pilate. Some pushes as in the [Row A] (A for absurd) 22 Pilate into night
(before the crucifixion day). But how the Roman governor should conduct the trial in the evening to
bring down the final sentencing towards midnight???

Counting days and dates of the interval:


Once we get acquainted with this table, which may only need a quick glance at it,
we will see the timeline in the biblical lunar calendar in the last part of the Passion
Week involves three days/dates (of Abib 14, 15, 16 as colored) from the crucifixion
to the resurrection.

Because of different reckoning of a day to start, if we count with Nisan, the same
period should involve four days and dates. It is same also when counted with the
Gregorian days of the week. The except is the Friday scenario which in correctly
involve only three days and dates. It is because of its wrong interpretation of the
biblical terms and phrases that one day comes shorter than it should.

We can see it makes much sense if we follow the timeline in the Bible simply in
terms of Abib dates and the numbered days of the week (that is, the biblical lunar
week with Day 7 as the day of sabbath, which is for the daytime period). The church
vocabulary, such as Friday, Saturday, Sunday, etc. is nonbiblical and it has led into
erroneous understanding and interpretation of the biblical narratives.

It is only with the biblical lunar calendar, you can realize how easy and
uncomplicated to figure out the sense with several phrases of time interval in the
Bible these are on the third day, in three days, after three days and, yes, even
three days and three days.

The Resurrection serves as the terminal endpoint of an interval, while the initial
endpoint is dictated plainly by the context, whether it is to count off the number of
dates or to see a duration (in days) of the interval.

77 | P a g e
The following is different ways to tell the same period:
When reckoned with the biblical lunar calendar, the period from the
Crucifixion to the Resurrection covers three days in Abib:
Abib 14 = Day 1;(Pesach day) [Crucifixion - from 3rd to 9th hour-period]
[= Pesach meal in the evening of Abib 14
= in the evening at the beginning of Nisan 15 in Jewish reckoning.]
= the beginning day for unleavened bread.]
Abib 15 = Day 2; (High Sabbath = Festival of the Matzah (from Abib 15-21)
Abib 16 = Day 3 (Day of First-fruits) [Resurrection on third day in the dawn*]

[*with the dawn ending for morning break for Abib 17, the Day 2 of the
lunar week when the risen Lord appeared to His disciples.]
When the time period is reckoned not by the Scriptural calendar but by
the rabbinic Jewish calendar it involves four dates in Nisan (from Nisan
14 to Nisan 17) as its calendar day is 12 hours ahead of the Biblical
calendar by reckoning a day to start at sunset.

Counting dates in a Wednesday scenario with resurrection at dawn


three dates (Abib 14, 15, and 16)
four dates (Nisan 14, 15, 16 and 17)
four days (Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat)

Counting days in Gregorian vocabulary (with a calendar day from midnight to


midnight)
in Thursday scenario four days/dates (Thu, Fri, Sat, and Sun)
in Wednesday scenario four days/dates (Wed, Thu, Fri, and Sat).
in Friday scenario only three days/dates (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).

Three dates (Day 1 to Day 3) are involved in the period of three days and
three nights, a Matthean unique expression, which covers from His
suffering to His death in the hands of Gentile power to the resurrection;
specifically, from His carrying the cross in the morning. It was in
Yerusalem, the navel [= heart] of the earth under the Roman empire in
those days. It is not about how long His being buried in the ground in a
grave, nor how long He remained dead. As for Yonah (Jonah), he was not
dead nor buried in a grave.
Controversy, confusion, and contradiction in the various scenarios are
because their understanding and interpretation of the Gospel Passion
Narrative is due to non-biblical calendar system applied to biblical
timeline. It is with anachronistic conflation of Easter liturgy of
Constantine Catholic Church tradition. Again, one should not forget that
there were no such days called or known as Sunday, Saturday, and Friday
in the time of Yeshua. Sabbath day has nothing to do with Saturday as
such the real culprit and seed of all the confusion and contradiction in
the Biblical chronology, esp. of the Passion-Passover Week timeline. The
history must be read with the calendar system of that time. The
traditional Holy Week is a liturgical invention, being disconnected from
the historical Passion-Passover Week.

78 | P a g e
To construct the timeline diagram from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection

Though it is simply and easy to understand the diagram, a better way is to draw
up a table with hand and pencil to find days/dates for the events the result is,
the whole thing will get impressed on your mind.

1. First, take a rectangular box divide vertical lines:


Two columns to represent a day (24-hour period).


DAYTIME NIGHT-TIME

2. Make a table with three such columns:


The shaded represent the night period; unshaded is for the daytime period.

The dividers are at (1) sunrise ; (2) midday ; (3) sunset ; (4) midnight .
Sun Sun Sun
Rise Set Rise

DAYTIME NIGHT-TIME

Midday Midnight

79 | P a g e
3. Make a table with three such columns:
This covers 3 days (of D & N). Write in three dates 14, 15, and 16 - these are
Abib dates. (Shaded box for Night Period)
Abib 14 15 16

4. Extend vertical diving lines at sunset for one row:


Write down 14, 15, and 16 these are dates in Nisan (after Jewish reckoning)
It is 12 hours head start.
Abib 14 15 16

Nisan 14 15 16

5. Extend vertical diving lines only at midnight for another row:


Abib 14 15 16

*Nisan 14 15 16
Gregor. Day J Day K Day L

Notice that day time events belong same date; events in the night will be in a
different date.

6. Now enter the three crucial events:


carrying His stake; Crucifixion; Resurrection
According to the biblical narrative timeline follow with the biblical lunar calendar:
See how each event is being found in their right place.


Abib 14 15 16

*Nisan 14 15 16 17
Greg Day J Day K Day L Day M

At one glace, whether you are counting off days/dates or counting how many
days in the interval, you dont have to struggle any more the various expression
on third day, in three days, after three days (and even the phrase three days
and three nights), all having different senses and different endpoints for interval
counting should become clearer in the whole context with the properly
constructed timeline, without piece-by-piece analyzing. This is a secret weapon
to expel all the confusion in the Passion Week Chronology. What counts is not
what days of the solar week, but what dates in the month of Abib. Only on these
dates, can dating be possible to see on what day does an event fall.

7. Only then, you may want to bring Gregorian named days. (e.g. Sun,
Mon, etc.) for referencing:
Replacing Day J, K, L with actual date will give you a picture of different
Crucifixion scenarios in terms of Gregorian dates.

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Time-related terminology
Preliminary considerations:

Arguments and counterarguments:

With pros and cons, it is not possible for both can be right. That does not mean that one side
is to be right. Usually both are wrong and we are to look for a better solution to answer to
both positions. Those trying to refute the other has valid points which are not with answers;
however, the alternatives provided by them on their own do not remain sacrosanct and
irrefutable neither.

Everything can be accepted when it is taken as if; the proof is in the pudding. Every claim
can get easily exonerated should it come with a universal disclaimer, according to one
source.

Twelve points (criteria) to fix the date of the Crucifixion:

[See the Supplement III, Walk through the Scripture 5 Time, Calendar, and Chronology.] a

To determine the date on the proleptic Gregorian calendar:


1. Year = 30 C.E. [Note various proposals for CE 31, 32, 33, etc.] [This affects
the timeline of the Passover-Passion week, but is the issue of the chronology,
not timeline.] [Note As interpretations are galore on Daniels 70 Weeks
prophecy, it is hard to believe any one of them turn to be right. Rather, it is
much more sensible to take that they all are wrong. Different interpretations
were made to support for CE 30, 31, 32, and 33, in the manner of circular
reasoning. Thus, Daniels prophecy cannot be used to arrive at the year of His
crucifixion, or even of His birth.]
2. Month = Abibb;
3. Season = spring (late March to early April) of harvest of barley, which is to
be available for Wave Sheaf offering.

a
Note: Whether it is for the year of His Crucifixion or present years with a reconstructed calendar
applicable to the modern days (esp. for a Sabbatarian issue), the main point to clear up for a calendar
system is (1) how to fix the first day of the lunar month in terms of the moon phase, and (2) how to fix
the first day of the year affected by various factors (a) embolic year, (b) tropical vs. sidereal year for
intercalary month (Cf. Metonic cycle). To be checked is the moon rise and sunrise time on the particular
day as a new day begins on sunrise in the Scripture based calendar. Once the detail is settled, the last
step is to superimpose the luni-solar calendar on to the Roman calendars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar
(what is the biblical new moon www.yrm.org/whatisbiblicalnewmoon.htm)
www.triumphpro.com/calendar-god_s-true-calendar-new-expanded-book.pdf
b
The Hebrew word abib = ripening ears Lev 2:13, not green ears as in KJV, NWT, etc. /fresh ears
ESV; /fresh grain NIV; etc. [JB shows no hint of this word.]
[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abib
an ear of barley or flax (x: corn), the month of newly-ripened (not green as in KJV translation) grain
(Exo 13:4; 23:15); the first of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, and the seventh of the civil year. It began
about the time of the vernal equinox, on 21st March. It was called Nisan, after the Captivity (Neh.
2:1). On the fifteenth day of the month, harvest was begun by gathering a sheaf of barley, which was
offered unto the Lord on the sixteenth (Lev 23:4-11). - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary]
81 | P a g e
4. New Moon day for Abib = after conjunction nearest to the spring equinox.
[The Jewish calendar itself does not follow consistently.
5. First Day of a new month [New Moon Day], the day with dawning after the
conjunction (astronomical new moon; Dark Moon. [Sighting the first visible
crescent cannot be reliable and consistent method the source of date
discrepancy resulting from different calendation.]
6. Pesach day (= Crucifixion day) = 14th of Abib = Day 6 of the lunar week =
Preparation day of High Sabbath (= sabbath eve) = the beginning day for the
unleavened bread (Mk 14:12 parallel). Pesach sacrifice in the afternoon;
Pesach meal in the evening [of Abib 14, but of Nisan 15]. The date falls from
the late March to early April (unlike Jewish Passover)
7. Next day is Day 7 of the lunar week (not Saturday) is High Sabbath
(sabbath day on 1st day of 7-day long Festival to Abib 21).
8. Full Moon (Abib 14) [On different dates in Nisan in the rabbinic Jewish
calendar.]
9. The hour of the Crucifixion: from in third hour-period to in ninth hour-period.
[Final sentencing by Pilate cannot be in the night (dawn watch) on the same
day.]
10. Entombed in the evening; not by burial in a grave at the time for Pesach meal
for Yehudim.
11. His body resting in the tomb in the High Sabbath (Abib 15): The Festival of
Pesach (= Festival of the Matzah) begins to Abib 21.
12. Wave sheaf offering Abib 16 (Day one of the lunar week) and Resurrection
in the dawn. [The coming morning is Day 2 of the week = Abib 17 for the
Lord with the disciples.]

Basic Sources of common chronological errors in Passion Week


chronology, which in turn create errors in timeline.

Using Gregorian and rabbinic Hebrew calendar which were not in the first
century, instead of the biblical calendar.
Using the named days of Gregorian solar week, rather than the numbered days
of lunar week.
Mistaking 7th day of the week as Saturday, and sabbath preparation day (=
sabbath eve) as Friday.
Gregorian cyclic continuous weeks instead of the biblical lunar weeks.
Biblical day of sunrise to sunrise is replaced with rabbinic Hebrew day of
sunset to sunset (which was copied from ancient Greek practice), mixing with
Gregorian day (midnight to midnight).

82 | P a g e
*Sabbath; sabbath
A sabbath day is always on the Day 7 of the lunar week, 4 times a month on the same
dates in every lunar month. Unrelated to Saturday of the solar week. Biblical lunar
Sabbath is only for the daytime period of 12 hours, not 24 hours from evening the day
before to evening as in a Jewish solar sabbath.

There is no separate and different sabbaths of weekly vs. annual one, the latter being
simply in a sabbath in the annual festival weeks. [Cf. A special day of sabbath rest

Lev 16:29 [Day of Atonement Yom Kippur]


In the seventh month, on the tenth day
you shall humble your souls and not do any work of labor,

Lev 23:24 Also on the first day of this seventh month


you are to have sabbath rest for holy assembly,
a day to remember with loud blasts of a trumpet.

Lev 23:27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month


there shall be Yom Kippur (/of Atonement);

Num 29:7 And on the tenth day of this seventh month


ye shall have a holy convocation;
and ye shall afflict your souls:
ye shall do no manner of work;

Lev 23:32 sabbath rest from evening to evening

Lev 23:32 It is to be a sabbath of sabbath rest for you


and ye shall humble yourselves;
In the ninth day of the month by the evening [ba ereb],
from evening to evening [of next day],
ye are to have your sabbath rest.

This verse is not about weekly sabbath day, but sabbath rest on the special day
Yom Kippur (v. 27, 28). It is to keep sabbath rest is from sundown to sundown.

Often misinterpreted to be used a proof text that sabbath begins at sunset just as a
day is reckoned to start at sunrise in the rabbinic Jewish calendar. Nor does it say
or hint at a 24-hour sabbath. A weekly sabbath is for the duration of daylight
period.

83 | P a g e
*preparation

The Gk. word paraskeue translated as preparation occurs 6x in the


Gospels all in the narratives of the Passion-Passover Week:

All are in the sense of sabbath-preparation day [i.e. Day 6 of the lunar week.]

Mt 27:62 after the preparation [day]


Mk 15:42 [the] preparation [day], that is, sabbath-eve
Lk 23:54 [a] day of preparation
Jn 19:31 [the] preparation [day]
Jn 19:42 the preparation [day] of Yehudim,

except one:

Jn 19:14 preparation of the Pesach [= rendered as Pesach eve


in IRENT in order to avoid confusion with the expression sabbath
preparation day (=sabbath eve).]

It has nothing to do with Friday of the Gregorian solar week, which is also used in
rabbinic Jewish calendar (taking their 7th day to be Saturday. Lack of such calendar
knowledge has been one of a few main causes of contention, conflict, and contention
in the Passion Week chronology.

84 | P a g e
A Myth of two Sabbaths in a week

The proponents of the Wednesday Crucifixion (with Saturday afternoon


Resurrection) resort to the idea of two consecutive Sabbaths in the festival week
in order to explain away the problem in the time-frame in their scenario. The rebuttal
by the Friday scenario is the double-up Sabbaths, two different Sabbaths falling on
the same date. [Cf. In that sense, the day of sabbath rest should be distinguished
when it comes not on every 7th day of the lunar week, but on the particular day
the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:29, 23:27), once a year, 7th month, 10th day.

It is actually a byproduct of using rabbinic Jewish calendar and modern Gregorian solar
week. If the idea of two consecutive Sabbaths were ever possible and they suppose Nisan
15 happened to be Friday, then they have a festival sabbath on 15th, and Saturday
sabbath on 16th; and then another festival sabbath on the last day of the festival Nisan 21
(which is Thu).
Thus, they have Saturday Sabbaths on Nisan 16th, 23rd and 30th in one 7-day week, plus
preceding Saturday Sabbaths on Nisan 2nd and Nisan 9th. They have total three Sabbaths
in that week, not two!!
And they have total Seven Sabbaths in a month!! (5 Saturday Sabbaths and 2 festival
Sabbaths). Such a grotesque result from their thinking!

rabbinic Jewish calendar


an example of Nisan month
(7th month of the Jewish year) (30 days)
Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
1
2 8
9 15
@ 22
16 21
23 29
30

Blue Saturday sabbath;


green Festival Sabbath;
@ Red last day of Festival (Nisan 21) as Sabbath, which is
the 7th day of Festival.
Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri - (of Gregorian solar week
We have an absurd illogical picture of total 7 Sabbaths in this
month! according to rabbinic Jewish calendar which with the solar
week (as in Gregorian), not lunar as it should be in the Bible.

85 | P a g e
Compare with the Biblical Lunar Calendar

Biblical Lunar calendar


Abib (1st month of the biblical year) (30 days)
D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 14 15
16 21 @ 22
23 24 28 29 30
D 1 to D 7(numbered days of the lunar week)
Red Day 7 of the full lunar week = sabbath.
(Festival of the Matzah = Abib 15-21),
@ - last (7th) day of the Matzah festival
named days of Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri no applicable)
There are only 4 Sabbaths in any month, (whether it is 29- or
30-day long.) Abib / Nisan is 30-day long
Cf. Lev 23:36 for the 7-day Festival of Booths on the 8th day
is the day one of the lunar week after completion of 7-day long
festival.

Pesach (Passover) and Last Supper


*Feast vs. Festivals

Festival vs. Feast [KJV uses only the word feast, not festival (the word English is from
14th century) The English word feast (which is from 12nd century) as used now is something to
do with festive meals.

The two are often used interchangeably. It is less confusing if we use the word festival only for
a week-long celebration such as the Festival of the Matzah (Exo 23:15) or the Festival of Sukkot
(Lev 23:34) while feast is reserved for a single day event, as a festival gathering, such as the
Feast of Shavuot (> Pentecost) or the Feast of Pesach (Exo 34:25). [Note: The phrase Festival of
Passover in most translation is still rendered in a few places as Passover feast in Jn 2:23 (ESV,
NET); Jn 13:1 (NET).]

[Three pilgrimage festivals of Judaism Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Weeks or Pentecost), and
Sukkot (Tabernacles, Tents or Booths).] [ Exo 23:14 H2287 chagag keep feast] [Feast of the
Pesach (e.g. Exo 34:25 as in KJV; /x: festival of ~ - NWT) is not to be confused with Festival of
the Pesach in N.T. which is syn. of the Festival of the Matzah.]

[Two different words in Hebrew words:


H2282 chag (LXX heorte feast, festival e.g. Exo 13:6; 34:25)
H4150 moed (LXX kairos festival; appointed times; festival; seasons; e.g.; Gen 1:14]

86 | P a g e
*Pesach; *Passover
Pesach (> Passover)
1. In the Exodus history, Pesach event; a Pesach meal and Pesach vigil
overnight.
2. Pesach memorial service (Exo 12:25) (service: abodah H5656 labor, work,
service: LXX latreia /service - KJV; /xx: rite - NASB; /xx: ritual HCSB; /x:
ceremony NIV)

IRENT renders Gk. pascha as Pesach (transliterate of Hebrew word), not with
Anglicized Passover which itself is from inaccurate and biased reading of the
meaning in the OT text in Exodus:

Hebrew noun pesach (H6454) is derived from the verb pacach (H6452 Exo 12:13
and 12:23), which does not mean to pass (over), but rather to protect.

Exo 12:13
And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I shall [pacach] you,
and let the plague not come on you to destroy you
when I smite the land of Mitsrayim (Pharaohs Egypt)
Exo 12:23
Then when YHWH passes through (abar H5674)
to strike the Egyptians,
and sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts,
YHWH will certainly [pacach] over the door,
and he will not let the destroyer (the plague of death) come
into your houses to smite you.

The word Pesach (/Passover) are used in several senses and it is the context that makes it
clear Pesach sacrifice, festival season, meal, etc.
The word used in N.T. carries several different senses (metonymically):
(1) Pesach sacrifice [Heb. Korban Pesach]; Pesach lamb (figuratively for
Yeshua Mashiah); [Cf. Lev 23:5] 1Co 5:7 Mashiah our Pesach
(2) Pesach Day = Abib 14 with (A) Pesach sacrifice (in the midafternoon) and
(B) Pesach memorial service (with meal in the evening) (Cf. Nisan 15 in
Jewish Passover). Pesach meal (Cf. rabbinic Jewish Seder ritual with lamb
roasted whole, bitter herbs, unleavened bread. Esp. Jn 19:14 where the context
requires it to be read as [eve of] Pesach day.
(3) The Festival of Pesach for 7 days (Abib 15 a to 21). The days of the
unleavened bread ( see below) last total 8 days. In G-Jn: 9 verses Pesach
Jn 2:23; 11:25; 12:1 (before the Pesach): 12:1; 18:39; Pesach of the
Yehudim Jn 2:13; 11:55; Festival of Pesach Jn 6:4; 13:1 before the
Festival of the Pesach].
(4) An idiom: to eat the Pesach = to eat meals in the festival of Pesach season
(festive meals): Jn 18:28;

a
Abib 15 is High Sabbath; it is call as such simply because it is on the first day of the
festival.
87 | P a g e
Pesach itself is a memorial service, not a feast, after the Exodus event in the history (Exo
12:23). (Cf. Jewish Seder ritual in the rabbinic Judaism is eaten in the evening of Nisan 15 in
their calendar.) www.wwcog.com/10_proofs_passover_is_a_memorial.htm
The Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 13, p. 169: "The feast of Passover consists of
two parts: The Passover ceremony and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Originally,
both parts existed separately; but at the beginning of the [Babylonian] exile they
were combined."

Cf. AT Robertson (1922), A Harmony of the Gospels reads The feast (< festival) of the unleavened
bread followed the Passover meal, beginning the next morning and lasting a week. But the one term was
used to include the other. The Passover was expanded to mean the entire feast (<festival) that
followed, and vice versa. p. 280. (bold is not in his). Here, the author keeps the terminology of feast
and festival confused.]

the Festival of the Pesach (he erote tou Pascha The exact phrase the
Festival of the Pesach occurs only twice in NT in Lk 2:41 and Jn 13:1.)
Cf. Jn 2:23 in the Pesach, in the Festival.
Not to be confused with the Feast of the Pesach in OT (e.g. Exo 34:25 as in KJV;
/x: festival of ~ - NWT), which is Pesach memorial service.

[Feast of the Pesach (e.g. Exo 34:25 as in KJV; /x: festival of ~ - NWT) is not
to be confused with Festival of the Pesach in N.T. which is syn. of the Festival
of the Matzah.]

Lk 22:1 the Festival of the Matzah, which is known as Pesach (festival season).
[Cf. Mt 26:1 //Mk 14:1]

It is used as synonymous as the Pesach season, which covers the entire 8-day
period, consisting of
(1) Abib 14, day of Pesach (not feast) (the Pesach lamb to be sacrificed in
the afternoon and for the Pesach memorial service with the meal in the
evening) as well as
(2) Abib 15 to 21, Festival of the Matzah (Lk 22:1 a 7-day long period
of eating the matzah).

Note: the word Pesach itself is often used in this sense, lumping both together
as one single period. Hence, the expression before the Festival of Pesach is
similar to before the day of the Pesach, but the exact data referred to should be
determined by the timeline in the context.

Pesach: 27 (29 matches)

the festival of the Pesach Lk 2:41; Jn 2:13;


the Pesach, the festival of the Yehudim Jn 6:4
in the festival, the Pesach Jn 2:23
the Pesach lamb Mk 14:12; //Lk 22:7;
our Pesach 1Co 5:7
after the Pesach Act 12:4

88 | P a g e
keep the Pesach Mt 26:18; Heb 11:28
prepare the Pesach Mt 26:19 //Mk 14:16 //Lk 22:8, 13;
eat the Pesach Mt 26:17 //Mk 14:12, 14 //Lk 22:11, 15. Jn 18:28;
the Pesach of the Yehudim was near ~~ before the [Festival of] Pesach Jn 11:55 (x2)
the Festival of the Matzah, the Pesach festival, is approaching Lk 22:7
at the Pesach Jn 18:39;
eve (preparation) of the Pesach Jn 19:14

in two days it will be the Pesach [day] Mt 26:2;


//after two days was the Pesach [day] and the Festival of the Matzah Mk 14:1

six days before the Pesach [festival] Jn 12:1


before [coming of] the Festival of the Pesach Jn 13:1 (not the day before)

*14th or 15th day for Passover?


O.T. text says Pesach sacrifice to be Abib 14 between the two setting-
times (/x: between two evenings) [ in the mid-afternoon]; with the
Pesach meal in the ensuing evening (of same Abib date). As the Jewish
Nisan date changes at sunset it would be Nisan 14 evening. [In the first
month, on the fourteenth day, between the two setting-times, is the Pesach
of YHWH. (Lev 23:5 ben haArbayim)]

An example of confused statement and argument is seen in Doig, New


Testament Chronology - The 30 CE Crucifixion www.nowoezone.com/NTC24.htm
[A copy in IRENT Vol. III Supplement (Collections #6A)]

Chart XXIX
Possible Astronomical Date of the Crucifixion
Day Day Jewish Day Calendar
30 CE, Apr 6 Thu Nisan 14 Sunrise*
30 CE, Apr 7 Fri Nisan 14 Sunset
30 CE, Apr 7 Fri Nisan 15 Sunrise*
31 CE, Mar 28 Wed Nisan 15 Sunset
33 CE, Apr 3 Fri Nisan 14 Sunrise*
33 CE, Apr 3 Fri Nisan 14 Sunset

The Passover supper is eaten in the evening of Nisan 14 according to the


sunrise calendar (i.e. Abib 14 in the biblical calendar*), and on Nisan 15
according to the sunset calendar (i.e. in the rabbinic Hebrew calendar, 12
hours ahead of Abib date).

Note that the alignment of the sunset and sunrise calendars on April 7, 30 CE
allows both Nisan 14 and Nisan 15 to fall on the same Friday. This alignment
is not possible for the other dates considered. [What does it mean at all??
ARJ] This consideration is critical to the possibility of their having been two
Passovers observed, [as he discusses].

89 | P a g e
In 30 or 31 CE, the sunrise month began first, and it is possible for Passover
to fall on two succeeding evenings, depending on the calendar used. [He
offers a usual unbiblical two-calendar theory.]

In 30 CE, the Last Supper fell on the first Passover, and John's words are
fulfilled by there being a Passover Seder after Jesus' crucifixion. But, in 31
CE the Last Supper would have to be the second Passover, and John's words
must be explained away. In 33 CE, the sunset month began first and Passover
could only occur on the same evening, by either sunrise or sunset reckoning.
If one accepts Jesus' words that the Last Supper was a Passover supper, and
John's words that another Passover meal followed the crucifixion, then the
year must be 30 CE.

Considering calendar arrangement, what are the choices? Friday, April 7, 30


CE uses two possible Passovers, and Jesus was crucified on both Nisan 14
(sunset reckoning) and Nisan 15 (sunrise reckoning).

A crucifixion on Thursday, April 6, 30 CE and Friday, April 3, 33 CE share


a common problem. They can be satisfied only by the death of Jesus having
occurred on Nisan 14. Then it must be demonstrated that the Last Supper was
not a Passover meal. Such a proof has been repeatedly, and unsuccessfully,
attempted over the years. Such remains a major weakness of these dates.

Only with the crucifixion on Good Friday, Nisan 15, according to sunrise
reckoning, does the preceding Nisan 10 fall on Palm Sunday (See Chart
XXVI). Only the April 7, 30 CE date fully supports such a [Palm Sunday]
tradition.

Although the crucifixion on Thursday, Nisan 14, would have Palm Sunday
on Nisan 10, the crucifixion is not on Good Friday and the resurrection not
on Sunday. With a crucifixion on Nisan 14 in 33 CE, Nisan 10 must be
renamed Palm Monday. The Wednesday crucifixion has the preceding Nisan
10 on Friday. These dates must all be rejected, or the traditional Palm Sunday
must be rejected.

Two calendar theories to explain away the problem of Passover on 14 and 15.
A comparison table [Cf. Hoehner p. 89.]
Nisan-G -S Abib
12
13 <Upper Room Prep>
12 <Olivet Discourse>
<Last Supper><Gethsemane>;
<Arrest>;
13 <Pilate> 6th hour.
<Upper Room Prep>
14 13 <Last Supper><Gethsemane>;
<Arrest>;
<Pilate> 6 A.M.
14
22 <Crucifixion> 9 AM
23 <Death> 3 PM

15 14
24 <Entombed>

90 | P a g e
15
[High Sabbath - daytime]
16 15
16

Nisan-S after Sadducean calendar with a day of sunset to sunset; 12


hours ahead of Abib.
Nisan-G after Galilean calendar with a day of sunrise-to-sunrise, but no
like Abib as it is one whole day ahead of Abib. The Crucifixion was
groundlessly put on Nisan 15 in this two-calendar theory advocated in
Hoehner. An attempt to explain away the dilemma of Passover on Nisan 15.
It is one thing that the same day is on different dates in the different calendar.
It is entirely bizarre to have two different groups were keeping the Passover
on different days!

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Passover phrases in Gospels
Mt 26:2; //Mk 14:1 two days later Pesach to come

Here in G-Mt //G-Mk, Pesach refers to Abib 14 of Pesach day [for Pesach
sacrifice in the afternoon and for the Pesach meal in the evening], not Abib 15 (the
first day of Festival of the Matzah).].

Mt 26:2 \meta duo hemeras to pascha ginetai; comes after two days the Pesach
//Mk 14:1 \to pascha kai ta azuma after two days Pesach and the Festival of the
unleavened bread (Greek word kai - and then, not that is.);

It is in contrast to G-Lk where the term Pesach (as festival season) is described as
synonymous with Festival of the Matzah.
//Lk 22:1 h heorte tn aumv he legomene pascha. getting near was the Festival of the
Matzah, the one called Pesach [festival].

1 (the word festival does not appear in KJV) ;/the feast of the passover KJV /the
Passover Feast NIrV! (- actually meaning festival), (Bishops); /the feast of the
Passover Cass, (Bishops); /(there are another two days and) the Pesach is coming
Delitzsch;
2 /xxx: the Passover Festival GNB, AUV, GSNT; /xxx: the Festival of the Passover
TCNT; /xx: the Passover Festival ~~~ [Note: This was the annual Jewish festival
commemorating Israels deliverance from Egyptian bondage under Moses leadership] ,
AUV; /

eat the passover; Mt 26:17; Mk 14:12, 14; Lk 22:11, 25

eat meals for the Pesach season IRENT so renders the Greek phrase phag to
pascha (also in Mt 26:17; //Mk 14:12, 14; //Lk 22:8, 11). Most renders as eat the
passover or eat the Passover, which is not natural English idiom, but a typical
Biblical jargon, unintelligible to most people. This applies equally to Jn 18:28 on the
part of Yehudim in authority.

The phrase is to be understood as eat festival meals for the Pesach season in
IRENT renders it, not just the particular Pesach meal (in the memorial service from
the Exodus event in Exo 12:23). The expression eating meal refers to any festive
meal through the season, including the Pesach day itself. Thus, the phrase should
be taken as an idiom of to celebrate of the Pesach and its season with the festive
meals, even right before or after the Pesach day.

This point is very important to help avoid misinterpretation of the Gospel texts in
their futile attempt to make the Synoptic Last Supper as the Passover meal on the
evening of Abib 14 (Nisan 15). That leaves in contradictory to the Johannine
statements on the for the chronological issue as well as in the nature of the Last
Supper itself, in effect, finding the Scripture in error.

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prepare for the Passover Mk 14:15, 16 //Lk 22:8, 9, 13

Mk 14:16 //Lk 22:8, 13 (prepare for the Passover); Mk 14:15; //Lk 22:9 (prepare)

In two places in G-Mark and G-Luke, most misreads and misinterprets the expression
prepare the passover as if it is meant for the Passover meal (of Abib 14 evening); some
grossly mistranslating it as prepare the Passover meal (Lk 22:13 GNB). This is self-
serving for those who take the Lords Last Supper as the Passover meal, and consequently
the crucifixion was put a day later than the Pesach day (Abib 14), Gods appointed day
for the Mashiah death!

The text should be carefully read to say preparation for the celebration of the Pesach
festival/season, not about preparing the Pesach meal on Pesach day.

Jn 18:28 eat the passover

Thus, in this setting of G-Jn the Yehudim in authority refers a festive meal on
Abib 13 [the same day as of the Pilate sentencing] which was a day before
Crucifixion and a Seder type meal on Abib/Nisan 14 to come.
Jn 18:28 They led Yeshua from Kayafa to the Governor's Praetoriuma. By
now it was early in the day. They themselves did not enter the Praetorium to
keep themselves undefiled and thus be able to eat meals for the Pesach
season.

Entering the Governors Praetorium which was off limits to Yehudim. The
Yehudim in authority wanted to avoid getting ritually defiled by entering the
Gentiles place, especially so during the Festival. The phrase eat the passover
in the context cannot only be just the Passover meal.

Thus, it takes in this setting of G-Jn as the Yehudim in authority to refer to a


festive meal on the same day Abib 13 [the day of the Pilate sentencing], a day
before Abib/Nisan 14 of coming Crucifixion and Seder.

For those who see that the Last Supper as narrated in the Synoptic Gospels was the
Passover meal itself that had already taken before, and take this v. 28b to refer to
something of a meal of Chagigah (the festive and its offerings)] [See a winding
commentary in Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible
Commentary.

[In terms of the Passover-Passion narrative timeline, this verse by itself would
not give something definite about the nature of the Last Supper. Nor does it offer

a
Note: Pilates Praetorium (a Roman camp) of the Fort Antonia [about 36 acres 1,500,000
sq. ft. (about 1200 x 1200 ft.)] was connected to the south by a pair of colonnades to the Temple
platform (of 600 x 600 ft.) which was at the summit of 450 ft. high from the floor of the Kidron
Valley. (Two bridges 600 ft. long x 45 ft. across with a narrow space between.) Ref: EL Martin
(2000), The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot.
93 | P a g e
more information about the date and time of the Trial and the Crucifixion (Abib
14 vs. Nisan 14 vs. 15), whenever it was the time Yehudim in authority had faced
Pilate early in the morning of Abib 13 or 14, or Nisan 15. It is only when read
in the context it helps to clarify the timeline of the Passion week narratives.]

unleavened bread and the Festival of the unleavened bread

Unleavened breada: Heb. matzah (or matzo); matzot (pl.), Gk. (artos) azumos the bread
which was home-baked without having let it rise.b Any leaven was to be removed from
the house on Abib 14, which is the beginning day for the unleavened bread, to be
followed by 7 days of Festival of the Matzah (Abib 15 21). No common bread was
allowed. (Exo 23:15; 34:18; Lev 23:6; Deu 16:16, etc.)

In the NT text of Lk 22:1 the Festival of the Matzah is called Pesach [festival].
Cf. Mk 14:1 the Pesach [feast] and the Matzah [festival], where two entities are
connected with Gk. kai (and), not as appositive.

the first day for the unleavened bread


Mt 26:17 = Mk 14:12 [//Lk 22:7 the day for the unleavened bread]

The IRENT renders as the beginning day for the unleavened bread to remove
confusion and misunderstanding of the phrase. Typically, the text is erroneously
translated as the first day of the Festival of the Unleavened Breadc. There is no Greek
word for Festival (or feast).

It should not be confused with, the expression by itself not found in the NT.

Moreover, in Deu 16:4, the first day refers to Abib 14 when no leaven should be found in
the house. Any leaven in the house is to be removed in Abib 14 and then 7 more days of the
Festival (Abib 15-21) to eat unleavened bread.

The text is further elaborated with the specific explanatory clause in Mk 14:12 hote to
pascha ethuon (when the Pesach [lamb] would be sacrificed), and in Lk 22:7 he edei
thuesthai to pascha (when it was necessary to sacrifice the Pesach [lamb]). That clearly
tells us that it cannot refer to the first day of the Festival of the Unleavened Bread. It can
only mean the first (as a start) day for the unleavened bread, which is Abib 14, the very
day of Pesach [sacrifice and feast] itself.

Most have been baffled by these verses read in the translation which itself was from
misinterpretation. Without having placed the events in their correct places on the timeline,d
they erroneously conclude that the Last Supper in the Synoptics was the Passover meal
itself. As the Johannine text Jn 13:1 clearly indicates that it was (coming) before the

a
It is not unleavened bread, but common bread (artos) that was eaten during the Passion Week by
Yeshua and his disciples - Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22, Lk 22:19; 24:30 (cf. Jn 13:27).]
b
not quite like matzo crackers
c
(with or without capitalization) [Cf. In case of Mk 14:12 the literal translation of KJV is quite
accurate the first day of unleavened bread.]
d
It is only possible with the biblical lunar calendar.
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Pesacha , the result is that they let stand contradictory to the Synoptic timeline. The event
of preparing the Upper Room was made to occur even when the Pesach was already over!

The opening time indicator begins

Mt 26:2
meta duo hemeras to pascha ginetai
after 2 days was the Pesach.
Mk 14:1
en de to pascha kai ta azuma meta duo hemeras
after 2 days was the Pesach and the [Festival of] the Matzah.
Lk 22:1
eggizen de he heorte tn azumn he legomene pascha
approaching was the Festival of the Matzah,
which is called Pesach [festival season].

Then comes this explanatory description of the setting of the [same] day:
Mt 26:17
tei de prtei tn azumn,
the beginning [day] for the unleavened breadb
Mk 14:12
kai tei prtei hemera tn azumn hote to pascha ethuon,
the beginning day for the unleavened bread in which the Pesach is sacrificed,
Lk 22:7
helthen de he hemera tn azumn en hei edei thuesthai to pascha
came* the day for the unleavened bread in which its necessary to sacrifice the Pesach

The Greek text has in G-Lk elthen de he hemera, while G-Mt and G-Mk has it a
dative adverbial noun phrase, te de prte tn azumn (Mt 26:17a); te prte hemera
tn azumn (Mk 14:12a). *The verb in aorist is used in Lk 22:7.

[It is important to see that the opening verse set (Mt 26:2 //Mk 14:1 //Lk 22:1) belongs to the
same date as the subsequent explanatory verse set (Mt 26:17 //Mk 14:12; //Lk 22:7).]

a
before the Pesach, not on the day before, regardless Pesach was either as Abib 14 or the Matzah
Festival.
b
[no word festival. should be here]
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Then the final mopping up is how to see the flow of timeline from the beginning
clauses of Mt 26:17 //Mk 14:12 //Lk 22:7 backward to the preceding event (on the
same day of Abib 12) and forward to the coming event on timeline of the narrative
(Abib 14). It is the point that most has failed with the traditional translation and
interpretation dealing with the phrases on the first day (Mt & Mk) and the day came
(Lk).

The date setting of this verse (which is the same date for getting the Upper Room
ready) is found in the opening verse of the Chapter (2 days before the Pesach Mt
26:2; Mk 14:1; Lk 22:1).

The narrative in its correct setting of Abib 12 for this verse occupies the same date
which goes as far back as in Mk 11:27; Mt 21:23; Lk 20:1 with <the Withered Fig
Tree> episode to begin the day.

Clearly these have to be read in the context of placing each event on the correct place
in the narrative timeline with a proper biblical calendar.

About Greek prtos (in Mt 26:17a; //Mk 14:12a):

(adjectival) first, earlier;


(adverbial) before earlier
Cf. Gk word prote in Lk 2:2;
Cf. Gk. pro Jn 13:1; (www.worldslastchance.com/YHWHs-calendar/the-
Passover-puzzle.html - it should not mean an adverb before)

www.yhrim.com/Are_we_to_Keep_7_or_8_Days_of_Chag_Matzoth_11-25-
5992.pdf

*first day concordance search in N.T.

1. The expression first day of the month (or the year) does not appear in NT text.

2. the beginning day for the unleavened bread: //Mk 14:12;


(the beginning day for the unleavened bread //Mt 26:17);
(the day for the unleavened bread //Lk 22:7).

Note: this should not be confused as the first day of the Festival of the unleavened
bread. To remove confusion, IRET renders it as the beginning day for the unleavened
bread.

3. the first day of the week (day 1 of the lunar week)

Mt 28:1; Mk 16:2; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1;


Jn 20:19 the first day of the week - a week later);
Act 20:7 (one of the sabbaths);
1Co 16:2 (every first day of a week)
Mk 16:9 (the first day of the week);

96 | P a g e
Last Supper vs. Pesach meal vs. festival meal:
(Mt 26:26-29; //Mk 14:22-25; //Lk 22:17-20; Cf. Jn 13:1-20)

That the Last Supper was not the Pesach meal of Abib 14. (Passover meal; Seder, etc.) This
is one of a few important topics of such a fundamental importance in clarifying the Passion-
Passover Week timeline. Once it is settled with its proof; it is easier to put a stop on a
fruitless exchange of arguments and counterarguments for one scenario to another
crucifixion. www.triumphpro.com/john-19-sixth-hour.htm

Jn 19:14 Eve of the Pesach day (not Pesach Festival), about sixth hour Pilates
sentencing
Jn 13:1A supper before the Festival of the Pesach (= 8-day season)
Jn 18:28 Early in the morning ~ wanted to avoid getting defiled for them to eat for the
festival of Pesach season may not be referring to the Pesach meal itself.
Bread - Mt 26:26; //Mk 14:22; //Lk 17:19 a loaf of bread (Gk. artos), not
matzah/matzo (Gk. [artos] azumos) (also in 1Co 11:23, 26); no lamb roasted whole.
As to Pesach meal it was the occasion for each family.

To resolve apparent conflict between G-Jn and Synoptics concerting the nature of the
Last Supper, a few proposed an absurd two-calendar theory, that two deferent people
groups had calendars with sunrise-to-sunrise vs. with sunset-to-sunset and thus kept
Jewish Passover it each on two different days! [See in Hoehners for reference.]

Last Supper vs. Pesach meal: (Cf. Jewish ritual Seder)

This is a problem which is not possible to solve in the Friday Crucifixion Scenario
with Nisan dating of Synoptic reckoning.

To harmonize both the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John over the issue of the
Last Supper vs. the Pesach meal, Hoehner wrote, . it was felt that the most
tenable solution is to recognize that the Galileans [and Pharisees], and with
them Jesus and His disciples, [as in the Synoptic reckoning] reckoned from
sunrise-to-sunrise while the Judeans and Sadducees [as in the Johannine
reckoning] reckoned from sunset to sunset. [See Hoehner (1978), p. 90, bold is
not in the original].

The alignment of calendar dates shown in the chart in his book the Reckoning of
Passover does not make sense and impossible to accept, because, by some the day
was Nisan 14, but by others the same was Nisan 15! Moreover, one group had Pasch
day one day and the other group on the next day! Just mumbo-jumbo all
gobbledygook of theology out of fertile human minds! The date Nisan 15 for the
Galilean Method should have been Nisan 14, as the Crucifixion is to be on no other
day than Nisan/Abib 14, the day of Passover (which is the day the Passover lamb is
slaughtered and the Passover meal is to be eaten) regardless of reckoning methods.
Significance of recognition of a day beginning at sunrise eluded him and a possibility
of Biblical Lunar calendar did not come to their mind, which has the key to
understand the Passion narrative timeline. There are no other verifiable sources

97 | P a g e
including Biblical texts (to fit Hoehners modification) to claim that Passover
howsoever they may have understood the sense of the word is used is on Nisan 15,
in which lambs were slaughtered and the meal of the feast was eaten.

Thematically and theological it cannot be the meal of Pesach. Yeshua here was not
the one who had to eat it. Why, He himself is our Pesach Lamb! (See 1Co5:7). That
He might have died after having taken the Pesach meal would negate all the reason
for His suffering and Crucifixion to death to be in the very week of Pesach. He could
have died any day of the year! It would abolish raison d'tre of the biblical Passion
narrative. The profound symbolism, typology, and motive rooted in the Exodus event
is at the core of the Passion narrative in the setting of the Pesach week.

Each people group using their own calendar systems should not prevent people to
look into the biblical calendar to follow correct timeline.

Joseph Shulam has suggested that it may not have been the Seder but a se'udat-
mitzvah, the celebratory banquet accompanying performance of a commandment
such as a wedding or b' rit-milah. [fr. David H. Stern, the Jewish New Testament
Commentary] (p. 77) http://kifa.kz/eng/bible/stern/stern_matfey_26.php

Quoting from David H. Stern:

"The Last Supper is considered by most scholars to have been a Pesach meal or Seder.
Many Pesach themes are deepened, reinforced and given new levels of meaning by events
in the life of Yeshua the Mashiah and by his words on this night. However, Joseph Shulam
has suggested that it may not have been the Seder but a se'udat-mitzvah, the
CELEBRATORY 'BANQUET accompanying performance of a commandment' such as
a wedding or b'rit-milah.

"Here is the background for his argument. When a rabbi and his students finish studying
a tractate of the Talmud, they celebrate with a se'udat-mitzvah (also called a se'udat-
siyum, banquet of completion, i.e., graduation). The Fast of the Firstborn, expressing
gratitude for the saving of Israel's firstborn sons from the tenth plague, has been
prescribed for the day before Pesach, Nisan 14, at least since Mishnaic times. When it is
necessary to eat a se'udat-mitzvah, this takes precedence over a fast.

" But, Shulam reasons, and if the si'udat siyum custom applied in the first century
to the completing of any course of study, then Yeshua might have arranged to have
himself and his talmidim [students, disciples] finish reading a book of the Tanakh on
Nisan 14. Or, since Yeshua knew he was going to die, he may have regarded it as
appropriate to complete his disciples earthly course of study with a BANQUET. This
solution would also resolve the perceived conflict between Yochanan [John] and the
Synoptic Gospels over the timing of the Last Supper" JNT, p.77).

[Note: the translation in The Jewish New Testament has made a serious error by rendering
as matzah for what should have been bread, even Mt 26:23, in the occurrence in the
context of the Lords Last Supper.]

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Jn 19:14 eve of the Pesach

This chronologically important verse tells about the date and time of Pilates
sentencing. [See above for the term preparation]
Jn 19:14 Now it was eve of the Pesach sometime in the sixth hour
( )
Eve of the Pesach day, not of the Pesach Festival
sixth hour-period as on a sundial; not six on the clock.
sometime in sixth hour, not about sixth hour as if somewhere
imprecisely btw 5th to 7th hour.]

Here Pesach is NOT Pesach Festival (=Matzah Festival) (by the narrative
context, not with Gk. paraskeue being anarthrous). The setting cannot be in
the eve of the Pesach Festival nor eve of Pesach Week, which is rather
an imprecise term unclear on whether Pesach day of Abib 14 is included
or not. Also, importantly not to be confused with use of the same phrase Erev
Pesach as well as the word Pesach (of the festival) as used in rabbinic Judaism
parlance. With them the feast falls on Nisan 15 (day of Pesach) as it is taken to
refer to preparation of 7 (8) days of the Festival which are called Pesach I to VII
(VIII).]

eve of the Pesach [Heb. Erev Pesach]


This important verse is very important because it flatly tells that the Lords Last
Supper could not be the Pesach meal. Compare Jn 13:1 (Last Supper) before the
Festival of the Pesach.

Gk paraskeue (preparation) is used as metonymic of day of preparation (i.e.,


eve the day before). It usually refers to the day of preparation specifically for
sabbath (as the day before sabbath as in customary expression).

In a single instance, however, here in Jn 19:14, the context tells that it is not
preparation for sabbath day in the Pesach season (Jn 19:31), nor about preparing
the Festival as such (along with interchangeable expressions, Pesach Festival and
Festival of the Matzah (unleavened bread), but preparation for the Pesach
sacrifice and meal. IRENT renders it here as eve (instead of preparation) to keep
differentiated and help avoid automatic association of preparation with
preparation only for sabbath.]

Pilates sentencing was on the same day of His crucifixion (on the day of Pesach)
and moreover they are forced to opt for reading sixth hour as 6 a.m. instead of
noon time so as not to become contradictory to the Synoptic timing, while
remaining contradictory to the Synoptic dating. [See word study on festival, feast
esp. with different Hebrew words in WB #1 Words, Words, and Words of IRENT
Vol. III Supplement.]
Abib 12 Before coming of the Pesach Festival (Jn 13:1); [= Last Supper]; Arrest
at Gethsemane.
Abib 13 Eve of Pesach day (Jn 19:14); [= Day of His Trial]

Abib 14 Pesach Day the lamb to be slaughtered Preparation day for High
afternoon Sabbath (Jn 19:31) = sabbath eve [= Day of His Crucifixion]
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Abib 14 Pesach meal for Yehudim. Yeshua being entombed.
evening
Abib 15 High Sabbath of the Festival of the Matzah; day 7 of the lunar week.
[Resurrection in the dawn (in 4th watch of night = last part of the Abib
Abib 16
16] Wave Sheaf offering
Abib 17 Risen Lord to the women and the disciples (with Thomas absent)
The Festival of the Matzah: 7-day (Abib 15 21) with its 1st and last 7th days as
special days. The Festival of Pesach (Jn 13:1): the entire 8-day season; unleavened
bread to be eaten.

Examples of English translations:


1 /preparation for the Pesach;
2 /Day of Preparation of the Passover Festival AUV; /the day of the Preparation
of the Passover NIV2011, TNIV;
3 /the day before the Passover GNB; /the day before Passover CEV;
4 /x: Preparation day in Passover Week NIrV; /x: Preparation day of Passover
week ERV; /x: the day of Preparation of Passover week NIV-old;

A. T. Robertson (1922) [Southern Baptist scholar; not John Arthur T. Robertson,


Anglican Bishop], A Harmony of the Gospels
p. 393 Gutenberg online Ed
p. 279 print edition

Note: Cross-out for wrong info; editorial notes in purple ARJ

11. Did Christ eat the Passover meal?


(3). Testimony of John
(d) John 19:14, "Now it was the Preparation of the Passover." This is claimed to mean
the day preceding the Passover festival. Hence Christ was crucified on the 14th Nisan,
in opposition to the Synoptics (- what do they say?). The afternoon before the Passover
was used as a preparation, but it was not technically so called. This phrase
"Preparation" was really the name of a day in the week, the day before the Sabbath,
our Friday. We are not left to conjecture about this question. [Completely misguided!]
The Evangelists all use it in this sense alone. Matthew uses it for Friday (Mt 27:62),
Mark expressly says that the Preparation was the day before the Sabbath (Mk 15:42),
Luke says that it was the day of the Preparation and the Sabbath drew on (Lk 23:54),
and John himself so uses the word in two other passages (19:31, 42), in both of which
haste is exercised on the Preparation, because the Sabbath was at hand. The New
Testament usage is conclusive, therefore, on this point. This, then, was the Friday of
Passover week [this vocabulary doesnt mean anything.] And this agrees with the
Synoptics. Besides, the term "Preparation" has long been the regular name for Friday
in the Greek language, caused by the New Testament usage. [it is caused by the church
adopting Jewish calendar practice; not by the N.T. usage] It is so in the Modern Greek
today. It was the Sabbath eve, just as the Germans have Sonnabend for Sunday eve,
i.e., Saturday afternoon. [Etymologically derived from the wrong understanding of the
Bible word and expressions.] So this passage also becomes a positive argument for
the agreement between John and the Synoptics [on what point?]. [folk etymology;
anachronism]

100 | P a g e
Jn 19:31 High Sabbath
en gar megale he hemera ekeinou tou sabbatou the day of that sabbath was high [sabbath]

First and last days of the week-long festival are special (high, great, important). The
first day of the Festival of the Matzah is known as high sabbath [Sabbath haGadol in
Heb.], since it is sabbath (day 7 of the lunar week).

[Not because it was a double-sabbath (sabbath happened to fall on the first day of the
Festival at that time), nor sabbath was the one falling in the middle of the festival, but
because the first day of the festival is set in the biblical calendar on the 15th, which is
always day 7 of the lunar week, i.e. sabbath. Note that the numbered days of the lunar
week (in the Scripture) does not correspond to the named days of the solar week (as in
Gregorian, and even rabbinic Jewish calendars). In short, Day 7 of the lunar week is
unrelated to Saturday.

seasons

Hebrew word moed means appointed (times) often translated as seasons festivals (/feast
KJV).

N.T. evening
The word evening in English is used in different sense (incl. as afternoon in
Southern American accent). A common Gk. word opsios in GNT is translated as
evening (but in NWT late in the afternoon Mt 27:57; //Mk 15:42). (Related to opse
Mk 11:19; 13:35; Mt 28:1). Cf. hespera (Lk 24:29; Act 4:3; 28:23)

O.T. *evening; in the evening; between two setting-times; /x:


between the two evenings; *ereb;
See in IRENT III Supplement - Walk through the Scripture 5 - Time, Calendar and Chronology

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Examining time-indicators and terms in the Biblical passages

Listed below are some verses in the Gospels which deserve further scrutiny for they
serve as important time indicators in the Passion narrative.

Lords Last Supper vs. Pesach meal


Mt 26:17; //Mk 14:12; //Lk 22:7
Mt 27:1; Mk 15:1a, Lk 22:6 in the morning day came
Mt 12:40 three days and three nights; Jonahs sign
Mt 28:1 sabbaths (pl.)
Mt 28:1 as the dawn coming in the day one of the week
Mt 26:2; //Mk 14:1 two days later Pesach day to come
Mt 26:17; //Mk 14:12; //Lk 22:7 the [beginning] day for the
unleavened bread (= Abib 14) which is to come up in 2 days later.
Lk 22:1 //Mk 14:1 Festival of the Matzah (Abib 15-21) (called
Pesach [festival season] together with Pesach day itself on Abib
14). Also on the unleavened bread [festival] vs Pesach
Mk 14:14; //Lk 22:8 eat the Pesach (< eat the meals in the
Pesach season = celebrate the Pesach festival season)
Mk sixth hour third hour ninth hour
Mk 16:1 after this sabbath had past
Mk 16:2 at suns rising
Mk 16:9 after having risen
Mt 27:57Now evening having come
Jn 12:1 Six days before the Pesach
Jn 13:1 before the festival of the Pesach
Jn 18:28 eat the Pesach
Jn 19:14 eve of the Pesach day
Jn 19:14 sixth hour
Jn 19:31 High Sabbath
Jn 19:42 sabbath preparation day (sabbath eve Mk 15:42)
Jn 20:19 evening that same day, after the day one of the week

103 | P a g e
Veil of Mishkan torn: Mt 27:51a {//Mk 15:38; //Lk 23:45b}
[Cf. Heb 10:20]

The veil of the Mishkan torn [30 CE. www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/48/48-2/48-2-


pp301-316_JETS.pdf 5Robert Plummer, Something Awry in The Temple? The Rending of
the Temple Veil and Early Jewish Sources That Report Unusual Phenomena in the Temple
Around AD 30 JETS 48/2 (June 2005) 30116]

Mt 12:40 three days and three nights in the heart of the earth

[See a separate file on this subject. The text does not provide any clue on what day
of the week the Crucifixion day.]

on the third day three days later after three days in three days:

As for the counting of a time period, it should be with the first day on Abib 14. Only the
biblical lunar calendar for the last three days of the Passion Week can show the proper
sense in a straightforward manner, each expression in its timeframe context.

te trite hemera
I will shall be raised up on the third day
Mt 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Lk 9:22; 18:33; 24:7, 46;
(Mk 9:31; 10:34 only in mss)
meta treis hemeras
put to death. And after three days I shall be raised up
Mk 8:31; 9:31, and 10:34.
This Markan expression carries a different sense, that is, after suffering and
death, not being dead three days, as the proponents of a Wednesday
crucifixion + Saturday evening resurrection ardently claim of his being dead for
a little longer than 72 hours, which they claim to be required for legally
authenticated death!]
He said, he will be raised up after three days
Mt 27:63
Rebuild the Temple in three daysa
(Gk. en) Mt 27:40; Mk 15:29; Jn 2:19, 20
(Gk. en); (Gk. dia) Mt 26:61; Mk 14:58.

[Cf. A strange and inconsistent way of interval counting in WNT translation: after two days for
meta treis emeras Mt 27:63; Mk 8:31; but in three days in Mk 9:31.]

a
The English phrase in three days is ambiguous and does not have same sense in the biblical
narrative. Cf. http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/95697/within-and-in-when-referring-
to-time
104 | P a g e
Mt 28:1 after Sabbaths (pl.); after Sabbath

[/after the week; /after the sabbath was over; /after Sabbaths were over; /late on the sabbath;
/late on the week. IRENT after Sabbath]

The Greek phrase (opse de sabbattn) only once here in Mt 28:1 (not in the
parallel pericope of the Empty Tomb in other three Gospels), but seems to
correspond to the statement in Mk 16:1 when the Sabbath was over.

The anarthrous plural Gk word does not refer to the two sabbaths. Plural
Sabbaths is also used in the sense of week, as in the day one of the week.

The word in the text is usually treated as a singular and renders as after the Sabbath as
many translation render (NKJV, NET, HCSB, ESV, NRSV, NIV trio, NASB); after the
sabbath (RSV, NRSV, NWT). Same is said of rendering such as the sabbath having
passed (Wuest), the Sabbath day was now over (NIrV), the Sabbath was over (CEV),
when the Sabbath was over (PNT), the day after the Sabbath day was ~ (ERV), at the
close of the sabbath (Mft), and as the Sabbath day ended (AUV). [For the examples of
Sabbath in plural vs. singular, see Mt 12:1-2, 5.]

The Greek conjunction tells that this phrase begins a new topic, that is, it does not belong
to the end of the last verse of the preceding chapter (27:66) as some tries to read.

Nor the Gk phrase means late on the sabbath day (ASV); late on the Sabbath
day (UPDV); late on the Sabbath (BBE, MRC); late on sabbath (Darby), late
in the sabbaths (LITV); or late in the week (MKJV), in the end of the sabbath
(Geneva), in the later ende of the Sabboth day (sic Bishops). Other wrong
rendering at the end of sabbath (KJV), on the eve of the sabbaths (YLT) and
it is the evening of the sabbaths (CLV). These are frivolous rendering - after the
day of worship (GW) and Early on Sunday morning (NLT). Some takes these
translations to claim that But before Saturday night (the weekly sabbath) was
complete HE ROSE ON THE SABBATH! (with a Wednesday crucifixion
scenario).

Nor can it mean after two sabbaths (an eisegesis to prove their faulty
interpretation) as if there can be more than one Sabbath day in a week. This is what
the Wednesday crucifixion scenario had to fall back, to justify the timeline they
have come up. [Neither the idea of double sabbath in the Passion week that two
Sabbaths happened to fall on the same day on that year a claim by the proponents of the
traditional Friday crucifixion scenario.]

105 | P a g e
Such a wrong idea of two Sabbaths consecutive in the Passion week came up to
serve their misunderstanding of chronology and calendars. They claim that there are
two Sabbaths of different kind in the week-long festivals
(1) annual festival Sabbath (Nisan 15 Exo 12:16; Lev 23:7; Num 28:16-18 15th
of Nisan; in CE 30), and
(2) weekly Sabbath (Nisan 16).
Mt 27:62 the next day (i.e. the day after the crucifixion) which was after the
Preparation in other words, the crucifixion was on the preparation day. Here
preparation means sabbath preparation (not preparation of the Festival per se; nor
preparation of Pesach sacrifice and meal. Cf. eve of the Pesach in Jn 19:14) And
the First day of the Festival of the Matzah falls always on the Day 7 of the lunar
week, also because simply the date Abib 8, 15, 22 and 29 are sabbath days in the
Biblical calendar.
Again, it should be emphasized that there is only one kind of Sabbath day on the
day 7 of the lunar week one Sabbath day in a week. The 7-day long festivals have
its first day set on the day 7, hence called High Sabbath one and same Sabbath,
not another Sabbath in that week.

Mt 28:1 as the dawn coming on in the day one of the week

[See also Appendix in G-Mt for IRENT]

This Mt 28:1 is an important example for the setting of time for the term
dawn:

as the dawn coming in the Day one of the (lunar) week (IRENT
rendering).

[KJV translation as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week is
misleading. It wrongly suggests the first day was to come at dawn (with date
changing in the Biblical calendar, but remaining same in Jewish and Roman
calendars. Cf. ISR literal rendering, toward dawn on the first day of the
week is acceptable.]

Here it refers to the dawn period of the day one of the lunar week in its
waning part, not to the dawning/beginning part of the first day of the (solar)
week (Sunday in the Friday Crucifixion scenario). After the Resurrection
in the dawn of the first day; soon the 2nd day of the week comes with
morning break. It was when the risen Lord appeared to the rest of His
disciples after shown to a group of women (Sunday). In the RBC
(Recovered Biblical Calendar), the Resurrection was Abib 16 (= Day one of
the lunar week = on the third day after the Crucifixion on Abib 14); the
morning for His disciples to see the Risen Lord was on Abib 17 (Day 2 of
the lunar week).

106 | P a g e
Mk 16:1 after this sabbath had past

The women group bought spices not just after the sabbath or after the sabbath
was over which was for the daytime period, now evening has come.

Reading with the Biblical Lunar calendar, it was after this sabbath had past,
referring to the day 7 High Sabbath. And now it was on the day one of the lunar
week. It was only after daytime, evening, early night and late night had past, they
set out to the tomb in the dawn.

Mk 16:2 with the sun about to rise; at suns rising

anateilantos tou heliou the sun was about to rise


with the sun about to rise \anateilantos tou heliou; (>VPAA-GMS >anatell) (? Absolute
genitive like Jn 13:2) The exact same phrase is seen in Mt 13:6 (heliou de anateilantos ekaumatisthe
of suns rising it was scorched cf. //Mk 4:6 hote aneteilen ho helios ekaumatisthe when the sun
rose up, it was scorched.); [a time-marker of their arrival at the tomb. Cf. Jn 20:1c Mariam the
Magdalene is coming early, still dark,] (of suns rising/having risen; x: having risen up giving
a wrong picture of the sun high up); (Cf. Lk 24:1b; Jn 20:1c);/[all these time-markers in the Gospel
has no hint of the resurrection itself (which was not observed by humans) was anytime earlier than
the dawn itself Cf. Wednesday crucifixion scenario with Saturday-evening resurrection by Torrey,
etc.] /as the sun was about to rise ARJ; /> at the rising of the sun KJV+;

Mk 16:9 after having risen

Syntax issue anastas de pri prte sabbatou ephane prton Maria te


Magdalene
16:9 Now after having risen [to Life] in the dawn on the first day after Sabbath,
Yeshua appeared first to Mariam the Magdalene,

Understanding the syntax of the verse (9a & 9b) is needed to see how it affects
translation and interpretation on the time of His crucifixion confusingly so when
the narrative is followed with Gregorian calendar, instead of Biblical Lunar
calendar. [Note: This is an example of punctuation problem where to put a
comma.]

AT Robertson in Word Pictures argued that the phrase pri prte sabbatou
could conceivably be construed with ephane.]
1 (resurrection early morning of Sunday): (Cf. = in the dawn at the end of
1st day of the lunar week in the Biblical Lunar Calendar.)
/Now when He rose early on the first day of the week,
He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, - most;
2 (resurrection time left undetermined, but leaves room to much earlier time
the ardent proponents of Wednesday crucifixion scenario have it in
the afternoon, not dawn.)
/After having risen, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
early (in the morning) on the first day of the week.
/After rising from the dead, Jesus appeared early on Sunday
107 | P a g e
morning to Mary Magdalene MSG
/>Early on the first day of the week, after he arose, he appeared
first to Mary Magdalene NET
Compare the syntax in Mt 28:1
Mt 28:1 ,
After but of-Sabbaths [pl.],
,
to-the-[day] lighting-up into one of-Sabbaths,

came Mary the Magdalene and the other Mary

Here the phrase opse de sabbatn stands by itself in the beginning, but it is a
prepositional phrase with a conjunctional de in the middle. In contrast, anastas
de in Mk 16:9 is a clause - a dative verbal participial clause. [Cf. the syntax of
1Co 11:32 for the expression chrinomenoi de hupo tou kuriou being judged by
the Lord]

Most confusion is the result of misunderstanding the expression day one of the
week as Sunday. The resurrection was in the dawn at the end of Abib 16 which
was 1st day of the lunar week. The morning for the next day, Abib 17, is to break
soon. It was not early on the first day (NET), but in the dawn, which is the last
part of the night in fourth watch (pre-dawn watch) of night.

Taking this phrase connected to v. 9c, a Wednesday crucifixion and Saturday


evening resurrection scenario insists that early means right after sunset at the
beginning of a new day by rabbinic Jewish calendar reckoning which was not
present in the first century CE.

[Note:]
1. The verse Mk 16:2 tells about the womens visit to the empty tomb
already. It was early morning when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and
encounters Yeshua already risen, also in Jn 20:1ff.
2. The phrase having risen occurs only here in the Marks long ending;
no parallel in the Gospels. Some take anastas as an independent time
clause in itself and disconnects it from the subsequent time phrase.
3. Nowhere else the time of His resurrection has been stated; it reflects the
reality that the resurrection per se was not eye-witnessed. Only the empty
tomb was. (Is there any extra biblical source or extracanonical source to
tell what time was the resurrection itself?)
4. Placement of a comma either before or after the phrase early on the first
day of the week is simply a translators idea and by itself cannot give a
clue about what day and what time the crucifixion should have been on
Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday evening or dawn. As to the exact time
He appeared to Mary (other than early in the day one of the week) is not
specified here; it just says (in G-John) that He appeared first to Mary.
However, the fact that His resurrection was none other than in the dawn is
well evidenced through the rest of the narratives in all Gospels.

[Note: Such strange questions to the Wednesday crucifixion scenario with the
resurrection in the late afternoon from wrong interpretation of Mt 12:40 phrase
(see elsewhere here dealt in detail) in the heart of the earth three days and three
nights as being buried in the ground for full 72 hours. If he was risen in the late
108 | P a g e
afternoon, where would He be waiting out until He make Himself to show in the
morning to the disciples?! [Or could the time for the dramatic scene of visiting
the empty tomb be in the evening of Saturday, the time the Jewish day would
dawn?]

Mt 27:1; Mk 15:1a, Lk 22:6 in the morning day came


The time for the final Sanhedrin v. Yeshua is clearly stated in these texts to be in the morning,
after which Yeshua was brought to Pilate. Most commentators simply ignore the plain biblical
statement.
The Trial and the Crucifixion cannot be on the same date. [See More than one day chronology
after Eugen Ruckstuhl.]

In the flow of the events in the timeline, Mt 26:5-67 and Mk 14:53-65 Sanhedrin v. Yeshua
should belong to Mt 27:1 and Mk 15:1, respectively, keeping them in harmony with Lk 22:66-
71.

Mt 27:57 Now evening having come


Mt 27:57 Now evening having come /~ having arrived; \opsias (de) genomenes (also in8:16;
14:15; 14:23; 16:2; 20:8; 26:20) [that is, the sun has set. Still Abib 14.] [cf. Nisan 15, the new day
(High Sabbath) begun as in Rabbinic Jewish reckoning. the High Sabbath yet to come next
morning. See Jn 19:38 for exegesis of Deu 21:23]

It is not evening was approaching, or evening approached (NIV trio), not late in the afternoon
(NWT).

Not to be confused Hebrew expression between the two setting-times (commonly translated as
between the evenings).

Lk 22:14 had desired to eat ~ this Pesach


Much I had desired to eat with yo this Pesach [coming up]

Most misinterpret the Pesach to eat to refer to the very Last supper Yeshua was having with His
disciples (on Abib 12 evening with an alternative of Nisan 14 to fit the common Holy Week
timeline), when the whole context of narrative in all four Gospels indicates that is the Pesach
which was to come in a few days [Abib 14].

109 | P a g e
Pesach in G-Jn

Pesach in G-Jn 9 verses


as metonymic of the Festival of the Pesach: 2:13, (23); 6:4; 11:55; 18:39;
before the Festival of the Pesach: 13:1; [The exact expression in the phrase of the
Festival of the Pesach in N.T. occurs here and only one other place in Lk 2:41.]
before the Pesach: 12:1
eve of the Pesach day 19:14 and
in the idiom in to eat for the festival of Pesach season (festive meals): 18:28;

Cf. Lk 22:1 Now the Festival of the Unleavened Bread was nearing, which is simply called Pesach.

The Pesach season, which covers the entire 8-day period, consisting (1) of Abib 14 Pesach Day (for
the Pesach lamb sacrifice in the afternoon and for the Pesach meal in the evening) as well as (2) of
Abib 15 to 21 for a seven-day long period of the Festival of the Matzah (a Synoptic Hebrew phrase)
(//Mk 14:1).]

Jn 12:1 Six days before the Passover

Jn 12:1 six days before the [Festival of] Pesach


ho oun Iesous pro hex hemern tou Pascha
Yeshua, then, six days before the [Festival of] Pesach, ...
This verse opens the beginning of the Passion narrative proper. This is the third
and last Pesach in Yeshuas public ministry of two and half years (with total of
three Pesach) Jn 11:55 and 12:1 (CE 30). [Note: The duration of His ministry
and the year of His Crucifixion are the issues of chronology, whereas the day
is an issue of timeline.]

Since Abib 8 was Day 7 of the lunar week, the journey back to Bethany could
not occur on that lunar sabbath day. To arrive at Abib 9 for the date of Yeshuas
arrival at Bethany, counting back needs to be from Abib 15 (the day before
sabbath) in the Pesach season, not the Pesach Day of Abib 14.

Some (using a rabbinic Jewish calendar with solar sabbath = Saturday) propose
to count back from Pesach Day (Nisan 14), thus to arrive at Nisan 8, which
then results in different timelines of events leading to the Crucifixion.

110 | P a g e
Jn 13:1 before the Festival of the Passover
This verse opens the Johannine account of the Lords Last Meal:

Jn 13:1 pro de tes heortes tou pascha eids ho Iesous hoti


Then, before the Festival of the Pesach, Yeshua knowing that

Before [coming of] the Festival of the Pesach is simply before the
Festival meaning before coming of the Festival, not on the day
before the Festival (which puts it on the day of Pesach memorial service).
The actual date setting this refers is the day (Abib 12) before Abib 13 of
the Trial and Pilates sentencing Jn 19:14) [which is eve of Abib 14 (eve
of Pesach day).]

[This verse unambiguously tells that the Lords Last Supper (which is narrated
from 13:2 on) cannot be the Pesach meal as such. That was to be taken in 2 days
on Abib 14 /Nisan 15 evening (= the precursor of Seder ritual of the rabbinic
Judaism) by Yehudim, when Yeshua was as the Pesach lamb scarified on the
cross. Note also that the nature of meal is incompatible with the Pesach meal -
the text does use of the word artos (common bread), not azuma (unleavened
bread), in the Synoptic accounts of the Last Supper. In addition, the absence of
lamb to be eaten on the table is significant as Yeshua Himself was our Pesach
sacrifice. It is the reason why Yeshua could not have died other than on Pesach
day.]; /the Festival of the Passover NRSV; /> the feast of the Passover
KJV; /the Feast of the Passover NKJV;
[Note: The use of wafer of unleavened bread used in Eucharist for church
liturgy as practiced in Christian religions is a result from conflation of the Last
Supper with eating unleavened bread (for the Festival of the Matzah).]

111 | P a g e
Jn 20:19 evening on the very same day, the Day one of the week
[a week later],
Jn 20:19-25; [on Abib 23, on the Day one of the lunar week a week later after the
Resurrection on Abib 16 at dawn.]

Strange it may sound, in the biblical lunar calendar this cannot be on the same
Day one of the week, the day of Resurrection, which was just past. If reckoned
with a Jewish or Roman calendar the day remains same (as Sunday) on the
date same as the resurrection.

ouses oun opsias te hemera ekeine; /evening on that day


te mia tn sabbatn; /on the day one of the week


Being t= of-evening to-the day that
[] ,
to-the [day] one {the} of-week,

20:19 evening on that day past the day one of the lunar week Gk. ouses (oun)
opsias te hemera ekeine te mia [tn] sabbatn;

past Not a week later (Abib 23). [on the Abib 17 (after the first day of the week 20:1).]
[Here, it is unlikely G-Jn was thinking in Roman way with reckoning of a day from
midnight so that the event was put on the same first day of the solar week (in Jewish or
Roman calendar). Note that the Julian calendar then had an 8-day week system.]
sabbaths (pl.) = week

[the day one of the week is of the lunar week and does not correspond to Sunday, the first
day of the Gregorian solar week. Abib 16, the day one of the lunar week, was for the Resurrection
at dawn, and the risen Lord showed Himself to the women in the morning of Abib 17 (Day 2 of
the lunar week).]

Jn 19:42 sabbath-preparation day


since it was the sabbath-preparation day of the Yehudim (> Judeans, Jews)
\ ; [The time is late evening of Abib 14;
(not late afternoon, since it was already evening for them to have approached Pilate -
Mt 27:57; //Mk 15:42). The High Sabbath of next day Abib 15 was to come at sunrise.]

[The word preparation (day) is usually (day of) preparation for sabbath, that is, day
6 of the lunar week. The Pesach day (Abib 14) is the preparation day for the (High)
sabbath of Abib 15. Cf. Eve of Pesach Jn 19:14]

112 | P a g e
*Mt 12:40 three days and three nights and Jonahs sign

in the heart of the earth *three days and three nights

As to Mt 12:40, the poorly understood controversial statement by Yeshua Himself, the


phrase heart of the earth does not allude to tomb or grave, but the city Jerusalem.
As to the controversial biblical phrase three days and three nights means exactly
what it says:
Daytime period #1; Night period #1 on Abib 14;
D #2 and N #2 on Abib 15 (High Sabbath);
D #3 and N #3 on Abib 16 (Wave Sheaf Offer).

Not three nights and three days. Not with a part of a day but a full day. An English
idiom of three days itself is unclear. He rose at the dawn of Abib 16 before morning
break into Abib 17. The period from the time He began carrying the cross to the time
He rose to Life in resurrection would cover 3 D and 3 N.

It is NOT about <the length of our Lords in the tomb> (a title of an entry in A Harmony
of the Gospels (1922) by A.T. Robertson.

The unique Matthean phrase in the heart of the earth three days and three nights in Mt
12:40 is much debated in dealing with the various scenarios of the date of the Crucifixion
and the Resurrection. The phrase was what prompted people to question the validity of the
Friday Crucifixion scenario of the Church tradition (with and Sunday Resurrection). A
scenario of Wednesday Crucifixion was proposed as an alternative.

However, two points they have been wrong are to be made clear:
(1) in the heart of the earth not in the ground being buried.
(2) three days and three nightsa not simply three days.

To begin with, the phrase in the heart of the earthb is a Hebrew idiom of in Jerusalem,
as the center of the world for the mind of people in that era. It has nothing to do with the
idea of being buried in a grave in the ground.

The expression three days and three nights means plainly 3 D and 3 N, not 3 N and 3 D.
It is full three days; and it cannot be other than three full days and full nights (not in the
sense of 72 hours). Note that 'day' in the Bible refers to 'daylight period'c [as is defined in
Gen 1:5].
a
[The phrase for three days and three nights is a different expression than other related phases
on the third day, three days later, after three days, and in three days found related to the
Passion Week narrative. Each one expression is to be understood with the properly identified initial
and terminal endpoints for the interval counting as the context in the biblical narrative demands for
the timeframe. See in <Examining Time-marker Biblical Passages>.]
b
Note that the word translated as earth in the text (as in the heart of the earth) does not mean
the planet earth, ground or grave; but land, world. I have not yet found a single English
bible that translates as land as in IRENT two words are of totally different sense and picture.
c
Not to be confused with a day as a calendar day or the duration of 24 hours. See
www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/day one of the periods of time that a week
is divided into, equal to 24 hours]
113 | P a g e
It is NOT about how long He has been dead or buried in a grave in the ground. The period
of 3 D and 3N can cover for His suffering AND death three full days (not 72
hours) from His bearing the cross and his death to His resurrection, a not remaining
buried full 72 hours in a grave.

This text in G-Mt itself does not tell something about how to find which days of the solar
week the Crucifixion and the Resurrection to fall on. If we try to find the correct days for
His death and resurrection based on this text; it is like putting a cart before a horse,
fallen into a fallacy of circularity. By itself it does not dismantle the so-called
Wednesday crucifixion (with Saturday late afternoon resurrection). To do so it
requires a different way of the looking into the problem of the Passion Week
chronology and timeline.

What events are covered by the phrase three days and three nights should be found from
the biblical narrative. This is, by the way, only possible when a correct Passion week timeline
is found with proper chronological data and calendation, which are unaffected by the Church
Holy Week tradition and man-made calendars (either the rabbinic Jewish or Roman
Gregorian).

To find the dates for the Crucifixion and Resurrection on the biblical calendar is our first step.
Then, we can locate the dates on a proleptic Gregorian calendar, to see which day of the solar
week it is. It is only feasible when we firmly hold the biblical lunar calendar in our grip. Only
then, all the time-marker phrases in the Passover-Passion Week narrative can be interpreted,
including this very text in G-Mt.

In Thursday-crucifixion Sunday-resurrection scenario it can be shown:

Thu day 1 Thu-Fri night 1


Fri day 2 Fri-Sat night 2
Sat day 3 Sat-Sun night 3

This simple counting of three days and three nights is not possible with the
traditional scenario of Friday crucifixion, which builds a wrong narrative timeline.

The Wednesday scenario saw that it means full three days (precisely 72 hours for that
matter) as the duration of His being buried in a grave in the ground, (from Wednesday-
afternoon death to Saturday-afternoon resurrection).

The traditional Friday Crucifixion scenario cannot offer any satisfactory explanation,
other than blaming on the custom of counting a portion of 24 hours as a day! Their
confusion is compounded by using non-biblical calendar, the Gregorian, with the solar
week and a day reckoned to start at 12 A.M.

a It was a fatal mistake on the part of the Wednesday scenario proponents to take the time of His death as
the initial endpoint of this interval and it led to their inconceivable unbiblical idea of the resurrection being
in the late afternoon, instead of dawn.
114 | P a g e
Boice, John [p. 929] Ch. 153 Jn 12:12-19 When Did Jesus Die?

[p. 929] It is the difficulty of squaring a Friday crucifixion with Christ's prophecy (its not
a prophecy ARJ) that the Son of Man shall "be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth" (Matt. 12:40). It is true that according to Jewish idiom the phrase "three
days" does not necessarily mean a period of seventy-two hours. It can mean merely one
whole day plus parts of two others. But while this observation helps us in dealing with
texts that actually say "three days", it hardly helps us in dealing with this important
prophecy (its not a prophecy) from Matthew. "It is possible that parts of one day and one
night are involved, rather than three full days and three full nights; nevertheless, three
periods of light and three periods of darkness must be accounted for. And this, regardless
of anything else, is fatal to a Friday crucifixion theory. As one writer says, "Add to this
indictment of Friday the statement of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, spoken on
the afternoon of Sunday (Luke 24:21), 'Today is the third day since these things were
done', and the case looks black indeed against Friday. Sunday is not the third day since
Friday." [Ref. Roger Rusk The Day He Died, Christianity Today, 29 Mar 1974, 63]

[p. 930] April 6, A.D. 30 (Thursday)


First, it clearly allows for the required three days and three nights in the tomb in line
with Christs prophecy. Jesus had spoken of a period beginning with daylight and
comprising the whole of three days and nights, with the possible qualification that the
opening period of day and the closed period night need not necessarily be a full twelve
hours. This is provided for as follow. Jesus died on Thursday afternoon about three
oclock; hence, the hours from 300 p.m. until dusk qualify as the first day. This period is
followed by Thursday night, Friday, Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night; that is, a
total of three days and three nights in that precise order. In this scheme of things Jesus
could have risen from the dead at any point after dark on Saturday evening. We know that
he had been raised before the women got to the dam at dawn on Sunday morning.
[p. 931]
Thursday: Jesus is tried and eventually crucified. The trial begins on what we would call
Wednesday night (but which is actually the early hours of Thursday by Jewish reckoning
and is completed in the morning. Jesus sis buried that evening by Nicodemus and Joseph
of Arimathaea. The women observe where Jesus is buried and buy spices, but as it is now
the start of the Jewish Passover (that is, the Friday Passover Sabbath that began at dusk
on Thursday evening), they are unable to attempt to anoint the boy until Sunday morning.
Friday and Saturday: The boy of Jesus remains in the tomb. The women and disciples
observe the two Sabbaths Jesus rises from the dead sometime between the coming of
darkness on Saturday evening and the coming of the dawn on Sunday morning.

The internal timeline which the Passion narrative gives us unambiguously:

He suffered and crucified on Day 1 (Abib 14),


He was rested the High Sabbath in the tomb on Day 2, (Abib 15) and
He was raised to Life at the end of Day 3 (Abib 16) in the dawn at the close of
fourth watch of night), just as He foretold the disciples on three occasions that
He is to be raised to Life on third day.
He was seen to the disciples in the morning after His resurrection (Abib 17).

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Counting days in hours for three days and three nights:

The phrase three days AND three nights it has to be full three days (though not
precisely 72 hours)!! It cannot be three nights and three days (N 1, D 1, N 2, D 2, N
3, D 3). It cannot be shorter, e.g. three nights and two days (N 1, D 2, N 2, D 3, N 3).

The duration for this period from His taking up the cross in the morning (via dolorosa)
of Abib 14 (Pesach day) to the dawn of Abib 16 (the resurrection)

Taking it differently by checking how many hours are involved with three day and
three nights. All added up, the duration of interval in the Friday crucifixion scenario
comes far short of 72 hours.
From To hours hrs
Crucifixion Death 6 6
Death Fri midnight 9 15
Fri midnight Sat midnight 24 39
Sat midnight Sunday 6 a.m. 6 45

A commentary of mumbo jumbo by Friday crucifixion scenario proponents:

Here is one absurd example of commentary which actually discredits the


Scriptural integrity and validity: claiming that this statement was not the
words of Jesus, but the explanation of Matthew by Barclay who
continues The fact is that Matthew understood wrongly the point
of what Jesus said; and in so doing he added a strange mistake,
for Jesus was not in the heart of the earth for three nights, but
only for two. He was laid in the earth on the night of the Good
Friday and rose in the morning of the first Easter Sunday.

[William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, the New Daily Study Bible, p. 58 as
quoted in Wishons the Only Sign Given, pp. 5-6]

Counting a portion of a day as one full day is a common practice many examples can
be found even in O.T., but the phrase three days and three nights concerns the
duration (of how many days), and counting off dates between two endpoints does not
apply here.

E.g. Day 1, 2, and 3 three dates involves three days, but the duration is 2 full days
(of 24-hour day).

In terms of interpretation of the Bible text, this text itself is not what we rely to
determine the chronologic data on the crucifixion and resurrection. It should be the
other way: when we have a grip on the day/date of His crucifixion and it can make the
sense of such expressions come out clear.

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Once it is shown how confusing and conflicting are the arguments from both
sides and once the correct date has been found, we can see how all the things
claimed and explained are found wanting with quite waste of time and effort.

In short, the text proves to be not a time-maker as many thought for the solution
on chronological issue, which itself is only relevant to the Church liturgy, not
biblical truth.

[See a separate file in the Collections #6 for IRENT Supplement III Reviews on Three
Days and Three Nights review and critiques I have made on the several published
articles on this subject.]

Note on sign as in the so-called Jonahs sign:

The so-called Jonahs sign.a It is not the sign given by Jonah, nor a sort of sign
for his Messiahship to prove or show that Yeshua was the prophesied Mashiah.b
It is a sign of coming Kingdom of God, a symbolism or typology of His suffering
and death as in Jonahs suffering (Yonah did not die, nor was buried).

As for Yonah for full three days, he was Jonah was in the belly of a whale,
neither buried, nor dead. Jonah himself, serving as a typology with analogy of
the suffering, was not dead having swallowed up by a whale. As for Yeshua, it
is a symbolic period to stand for His suffering and death to resurrection NOT
for His being buried dead. It would serve as a sign for the Kingdom of God in
Him. The belly of a whale cannot be symbolic of the tomb for Yeshua.

During His earthly ministry [with His life-teaching, His suffering, and His death], what
Yeshua did not have in mind is that He should look for a public acclaim to promote His
being the Mashiah the anointed one for the task of king, priest, and prophet, not to
reveal that He is the Mashiah of the Elohim for Israel. On the contrary, the Gospels tell
us often that that it is should not be divulged until all is accomplished. A sign is a pointer.
Yeshua had shown many signs (often confused with and erroneously translated as
miracle, for which Greek word means mighty works). Here He was giving a pointer
pointing to the coming of Gods kingdom reign in and through the person of who He
is. The Gospels tells us that Yeshua was not on proving to others that He was the
Mashiah, but what he did and said by itself was showing He was the very one who was
to come as the Mashiah. The real of His messiahship was shown in the very Pesach-
Passion Week in which the Suffering Servant of Elohim the Son of Elohim laid
down Himself to be the very Pesach lamb at the appointed time of the Elohim to become
the Firstfruit of Resurrection.

a
The phrase Jonahs sign is misleading. It should properly be a sign as Jonah was. And
nowhere in the text appears the phrase the only sign.
b
It is not the sign of who He was (the Mashiah) on which one hangs on doctrines! A shallow
understanding of the Scripture is shown, as many do similarly, in www.ucg.org/doctrinal-
beliefs/son-man-will-be-three-days-and-three-nights-heart-earth/ writes: If Jesus were in the
tomb only from late Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning, the sign He gave that He was
the prophesied Messiah was not fulfilled .... Cf. A presumptive statement by a typical 72-hour-
in-the-grave theorist, H. Armstrong: Now, if Jesus was in the grave only 36 hours, then He
failed to fulfill the ONLY SIGN which He said would be given to the generation, proving that
He was the Christ the Messiah the Saviour of the world. quoted by Finch, p.121]
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Text of G-Mt 12:39-40
12:39
But in reply he said to them,
An evil and adulterous generation
it keeps on looking for a sign [+ of coming of the Kingdom reign]!
No, no [such] sign shall be given to it
unless it be such sign as Yonah the prophet was:
12:40
Indeed, just as Yonah was three days and three nights
in the belly of the whale;
so shall the Son-of-man be three days and three nights
in the very heart of the earth
[+ putting Himself there through His suffering].
Text of Jonah Ch. 2
2:1 (1:17) Now YHWH prepared a great fish
to swallow up Yonah,
and Yonah was in the belly the fish [belly /> stomach; /x: bowels YLT; /x:
inward parts NWT]
three days and three nights. [not three days, nor three dates]
Then Yonah prayed to YHWH his Elohim
from inside the belly of the fish
2:2 and said:
Out of my distress I called out to YHWH,
and He answered me.
Out of within the belly of Sheol [Gk. Hades] I cried out for help.
and You heard my cry.
2:3 When You threw me into the depths,
into the heart of the open sea, [/middle NET]
Then the currents engulfed me:
all the breakers and waves You sent they swept over me.
2:4 And I said [to myself],
<I have been driven away from in front of your eyes!
How shall I gaze again upon Your holy Heykal [Gk. naos]?
2:5 Waters encircled me clear to [the] soul;
the watery deep itself kept enclosing me.
Seaweeds were wrapped around my neck.
2:6 To the bottoms of [the] mountains I went down.
As for the earth, its bars were upon me forever.
But out of [the] pit
You brought up my life, O YHWH my Elohim.
2:7 When my soul ebbs away within me,
YHWH was the One whom I remembered.
and my prayer came up to You, into Your holy Heykal.
2:8 As for those who are observing the idols of untruth,
they leave their own loving-kindness.
2:9 But as for me, with a voice of thanksgiving
I will offer sacrifice to You.
What I have vowed, I will surely keep.
Salvation belongs to YHWH.>
2:10 Then YHWH spoke to the fish,
and it threw up Yonah onto the dry land.

118 | P a g e
Significance of Jn 19:14 sixth hour

Jn 19:14 \ [] ; sixth hour {/mss third hour}


The expression 6th hour (more accurately, hour-period) a in Jn 19:14 of Pilates
sentencing is a crucial time-marker for the Passion Week timeline.

This stands in contrast to the time-marker (time indicator) in Mk 15:25 of the Crucifixion
beginning about 3rd hour ( 8 to 9 a.m.). This would be incompatible with the time-marker
for Pilates sentencing as sixth hour as long as these two time-marker are interpreted to
belong to same day as on His crucifixion.

[See attachments of the files On Jn 19:14 to this PDF - http://triumphpro.com/john-19-


sixth-hour.htm http://triumphpro.info/]

With an internal time-marker of sixth hour-period (about 11 a.m. to noon) in Jn 19:14, the
trial with Pilate cannot be placed on the same day of the crucifixion (Abib/Nisan 14). b It has
to be located on the day before, that is, on Abib 13.

Along this line, the text of Jn 19:14 should read it was eve of the Pesach day (not sabbath-
preparation of Pesach festival) and it was about sixth hour-period (i.e. near the noon) to
bring us to the correct understanding of the timeline here.

Several conflicting and contradictory interpretations have appeared. c A common


interpretation takes this as 6 a.m. d in order to avoid contradiction with the Synoptics offered
by Friday scenario proponents. They see it by counting hours from midnight (as is the case
in the modern Roman calendar we use). However, all the time-makers in G-Jn for counting
the hour-period in the day time-period is from the sunrise no calendar at that time (both
the early Julian Roman as well as Jewish convention) counts from mid-night.

The events of Yeshua vs. Sanhedrin (Lk 22:66) and Yeshua vs. Pilate, then, belong to the
period from morning to midday of Abib/Nisan 13, the day before the Crucifixion. This
makes the Last Supper to be located on the previous day - Abib 12 evening [which
confusingly corresponds to Jewish Nisan 13 evening]. Yeshuas Arrest around midnight
was followed by Yehudim authority vs. Yeshua + Peters denial through the night (cock-
crow watch) to the early morning.

a
Gk. hora hour is not hour-on-the-clock, but hour-period on a sundial, with a day being divided
into 12 periods (hour-periods). Thus, sixth hour is a time-period 11 a.m. to 12 noon, variable
depending on the season as daylight length varies between 10 to 14 hours (on the clock) in Israel.
b
Hoehner p. 89, describes someones proposal for co-existence two different calendars (with a
day difference) of the Galilean method for Synoptic reckoning used by Jesus, His disciples, and
Pharisees (with biblical reckoning of a day sunrise-to-sunrise) in contrast to the Judean method
for G-Johns reckoning used by Sadducees), thus the two were keeping two Passovers, each a
day apart, in the same place Jerusalem!!]
c
Cf. the Lords Last Supper (a farewell meal of fellowship) which took place before Pesach day
(Jn 18:28).
d
Someone proposes in his ignorance that John must be using the counting hours from midnight
here after Roman reckoning, seeing that on the use of litra by John (as a unit of weight measure
in Jn 12:3 and Jn 19:39). However, in early Julian calendar, though reckoning a day from
midnight became fixed later, the counting hours is from sunrise for daytime period and sunset
for night period. It is same way in Jewish reckoning. [This contrasts Gregorian calendar: a 12-
hour period from midnight to noon and another 12-hour period from noon to midnight.]
119 | P a g e
[Humphreys (2011), The Mystery of the Last Supper (download), has one observation
correctly that is, the Last Supper cannot be the night before the Crucifixion, but a day
earlier. That way, he allocates a little more than one days span (from midnight arrest till
the morning Crucifixion) to His trial that is, from Wednesday Last Supper Thursday
Trial Friday Crucifixion (p.172). This may be compared with the Biblical Wednesday
scenario present here in Passion Week Chronology in which the sequence is Monday Last
Supper, Tuesday Trial, and Wednesday Crucifixion.

If we were to follow any scenario having the Last Supper the day before the Crucifixion,
these seven events from <His Arrest> to <Trial with Pilate> are cramped in a period of
about 6 hours during night, while a whole daytime before the Last Supper has nothing
allocated other than the preparing an upper room! Whether in the Friday scenario (e.g.
Hoehner, Chronological Aspects p. 92, and in the Thursday scenario (e.g. Boice, Gospel of
John pp. 929-32.)

The fact is that it is simply impossible to compress these events and activities within such a
limited time-period, expecting a large number of people bearing a physically demanding
schedule (Torrey, Difficulties p. 158).

Once we give up the traditional interpretation of 6th hour-period (during Pilates trial before
sentencing) as 6 a.m., but read it just as something of 12 oclocka, the narrative can be read
smoothly and uncomplicated with presupposition, we can get out of our exegetical dilemma
with confusion, controversy, contradiction, conflicts and contention from conjectures and
circular logic, with claims and counter-claims. The one thing we cannot allow is to end up
with having Pilates sentencing on in the middle of the Crucifixion on the same day (Abib
14). When we have Pilates trial-and-sentencing completed the day before the crucifixion,
it allows enough time in Abib 13 morning allocated for Sanhedrin activity with only brief
accounts taken place during night time after His arrest at the same time for Peters denials
with formal and final Sanhedrin decision early in the morning before bringing to Pilate.

Copied from EE Jn 19:14 it was about sixth hour {/mss}

[ noon (11:30 a.m. 12:30 p.m.) Abib 13] [Gk. sixth hour (so renders KJV) usually
rendered as noon. [This cannot possibly be on Nisan 14 the day of His crucifixion as
most commentaries take it rendering the Scriptural witness contradictory to each other
when read time-markers shown on the Crucifixion day the Synoptic accounts.] \ []
; [ different interpretations in support of various Crucifixion-Resurrection
dates scenarios twelve oclock midnight (of Nisan 13); 6 a.m. (of Nisan 14); 6 p.m.; or
taking v.l. of third hour-period, etc.)/
1 /the sixth hour LITV, MKJV; /the sixth hour LITV, Murdock, NIV, BBE, ESV,
KJV++; /As to the hour, it was about the sixth - Wuest;
2(noon none makes clear that it cannot be on Abib/Nisan 14, the same day of the
crucifixion): /noon NET, JNT, CEV, GNB, ERV, AMP mg, NLT, ISV, NIrV, NRSV,
TNIV, TCNT, GSNT, MSG; /the sixth hour (twelve o'clock noon) AMP; /midday
Cass, SourceNT; /it was now getting on towards midday PNT; /
3(x: 6 a.m.by a mistaken Roman reckoning): /six in the morning , HCSB, /six o'clock
in the morning WNT, GW; /six oclock in the morning [Note: This was according to
Roman time, but if Jewish time were meant, it would have been 12 noon] - AUV; /
4 (/x: midnight counting hours of night time period from sunset. That Sanhedrin
convened in the morning as plainly stated in Lk 22:66 and the setting of the Pilates trial
as narrated in the Gospels, esp. in G-Jn, do not allow this to be occurring during night-
time): /about sixth hour [midnight] ARJ;

[Note: {/mss} {/} (flimsy textual support. /third hour - CLV, Wesley. (If taken as
9 a.m., it does not solve the dilemma. Another alternative would be suggested is 9 p.m.!);

a
12 p.m. (noon). 12 a.m. (midnight) is untenable for any day in the period.
120 | P a g e
[A wrong claim found in Companion Bible fn.
(Bullinger www.companionbiblecondensed.com/NT/John..pdf The hours in all the
Gospels are according to Hebrew reckoning: i.e. from sunset to sunset.)]

See IRENT Supplement III- #5 Time, Calendar, chronology for *counting hours Jn 1:39;
4:6; 4:52; 19:14]

http://trimphro.com/john-19-sixth-hour.htm William F. Dankenbring

[Ref. Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels (1922), pp. 284-7 <12. Hour of the
Crucifixion> in Notes on Special Notes.
www.gutenberg.org/files/36264/36264-h/36264-h.htm in Text format.]
https://ia801006.us.archive.org/1/items/harmonyofgospels00robeuoft/harmonyofgospels00robe
uoft.pdf (scanned image)
www.gospelharmony.vear.info/GospelHarmony.pdf

[This text is very crucial in telling that the trial had to be on the day before the
crucifixion and it is impossible to be on the day of the crucifixion in the wee hours of
the day. That also means the Last Supper be Monday evening of Abib 12 (= Nisan 13
evening) This way, it allows to reconstruct the timeline of the Passion Week prior to the
crucifixion without need of juggling to make sense out of nonsense. See two attached
files on this subject.]

[On the expression sixth hour = the period of time on-sundial 11 a.m. to noon.a
An hour-period = a period on a sundial with 12 hour-period in a day (light time). /the
sixth hour KJV, and many; /noon some; /xxx: 6 a.m.]

Perplexed by apparent contradiction to Mk 15:25 which tells specifically the crucifixion


began at third hour-period (8 to 9 a.m.), several explanations have been proposed:

Rodney Whitacre (1999), John IVP NT Commentary Series, p. 455


The sixth hour would be noon, which seems to conflict with Marks statement
that Jesus was crucified at the third hour, that is, 9 a.m. (Mk 15:25).
/x: Again there is a division of opinion, with some take the two accounts simply
contradict one another (Robinson 1985:268).
/x: Perhaps due to a corruption in the text (Alford 1980: 837-98; Barrett
1978:545) or
/x: because both John and Mark cite an hour that has symbolic significance for
them (Barrett 1978; 545. Brown 1994; 1:847).
/x: Others think the imprecision of telling time in the ancient world accounts
for the discrepancy (Augustine In John 117.1; Morris 1971:800-801).

All four Gospels, however, add that Yeshua was brought after Sanhedrin session to
Pilate early in the morning (Mk 15:1 //Mt 27:1; //Lk 22:66 + 23:1; //Jn 18:28) (not
afternoon or evening), telling that the trial scene cannot be placed even in the period of
fourth watch of night before morning.

a
[Cf. A sole example of the night period divided by 12 in Roman reckoning is in Act
23:23 (third hour of night).]

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William F. Dankenbring (http://triumphpro.info/ ) succinctly and convincingly shows
in John 19:14 What Do You Mean About the Sixth Hour?

1. No one can logically compress all the events of that previous night and morning
the appearance of Christ before Annas, and Caiaphas, and in the morning the full
Sanhedrin, and then Pilate the first time, and then Herod, and then Pilate once again,
the second time all of these before 6 A.M. in the MORNING! That is an utter
rubbish and preposterous nonsense!
2. According to G-Mark, And it was the THIRD HOUR [9:00 AM], and they
crucified him (Mark 15:25). It should be obvious that the "third hour" comes before
the "sixth hour."

Since Yeshua was already nailed to the stake at the third hour, or 9:00 AM in the morning
according to G-Mk, it is obvious that He could not appear before Pilate at the sixth hour --
three hours later on the very same day! IMPOSSIBLE!

Judging from the crucifixion account itself, we see that the "sixth hour" clearly refers to
NOON-TIME! [It is also not possible to see the trial to have occurred night time, from
evening to midnight ARJ] Since Christ was on the cross at the "sixth hour" on the day of
His crucifixion, therefore the "sixth hour" which He made His final appearance before
Pilate had of necessity to be on the PREVIOUS DAY! Since He was crucified on Nisan
14, the very day the Jews were killing their Passover lambs, and died at the very time in
the afternoon when the Passover lambs were being slain, then the sixth hour when He
appeared before Pilate for final sentencing had to be the "sixth hour" of Abib 13 [= Nisan
13] the previous day! This means that the "Last Supper," or final meal Jesus had with His
disciples, also had to be on the previous evening.

Time in G-Jn is always by Jewish reckoning [of time], not a [modern] Roman one. [Jn
1:29, 35, 38-39; 4:3-7, 49-53. See also Mt 20:1-7.] The sixth hour was not by (modern)
Roman reckoning of a day to start at midnight. [Early Julian calendar was same as Jewish
in counting hours from dawn and dusk, which was of Greek origin. This is not to be
confused with reckoning a day to start for a calendar day.]

The "SIXTH HOUR" when Jesus was condemned by Pontius Pilate to be crucified, had
to be about NOON-TIME on NISAN 13, the day before the crucifixion occurred! It could
not have been NOON-TIME on Nisan 14, because Jesus was hanging on the cross from
9:00 AM until 3:00 PM on that day! Therefore, it had to be the previous day, NOON-TIME
on Nisan 13!!!

The expression "SIXTH HOUR" clearly refers to HIGH NOON! Jesus appeared before
Pontius Pilate for His final sentencing about 12:00 NOON -- in the middle of the day!
Therefore, the "Lord's Supper" had to be the PREVIOUS DAY (day before the Trial) -- at
the END [evening] of Nisan 12 and [before] BEGINNING of Nisan 13 -- not the beginning
of Nisan 14, when He had been judged and sentenced by Pilate, and was in the dungeon,
awaiting His crucifixion early the next morning! [Here, beginning a date means
beginning at sunset as he was following Jewish reckoning]

in the very Mishnah that two days were required in all capital cases where a man was
determined to be "guilty", for him to be sentenced. Therefore, since the Sanhedrin found
Jesus guilty early in the morning, soon after sunrise (see Mt 27:1-2, Lk 22:66), they would
not have been able to execute Him until the FOLLOWING DAY!

Therefore, if Jesus Christ was brought before the Sanhedrin on Nisan 14, by Jewish law
itself, His crucifixion could not have occurred until Nisan 15 the next day. But this is

122 | P a g e
impossible, since the Scripture tell us He was put to death BEFORE the high holy day
the 15th of Nisan arrived (see Jn 18:28; 19:14, 31). Jewish law would have required that
they at least hold Him over to the next day, following their determination of His guilt,
before they could carry out the sentence. But, since He was plainly condemned on a
preparation day BEFORE the high holy day, this requires that His final appearance before
the Sanhedrin be the PREVIOUS DAY on Nisan 13th and that He was condemned by
Pilate on Nisan 13 and executed the next day, on Nisan 14!

https://bible.org/article/time-jesus-death-and-inerrancy-harmonization-plausible various
explanations of Jn 19:14 sixth hour.

Events Time Indicator Passages that Support


Mt 26:74-75; Mk 14:72;
Peters denials Before the cock-crow watch
Lk 22:60-61; Jn 18:27
Sanhedrin to Early in the morning (pri) Mt 27:1; Mk 15:1; Lk 22:66;
Pilate v. Yeshua I Jn 18:28-29
Pilate v. Yeshua II
Sometime in the sixth hour Jn 19:14
sentencing

With the Sentencing toward noon (G-Jn)


Crucifixion from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (G-Mk, MK)
cannot be logically on the same Abib date;
cannot be on the same Date on Nisan and Gregorian day
unless one is blinded and willing to go beyond the texts
and believes that the texts are corrupt or inaccurate.
Crucified third hour Mk 15:25
Darkness falling sixth to ninth hour Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33;
over the land Lk 23:44 [hsei about]
Death ninth hour M 27:46-50 [peri about]
Mk 15:34-37

Absurd claims that Roman time-reckoning was used by G-Jn:

G-Jn John does not use so-called civil Roman time-reckoning of a day from midnight
to midnight: Like all other time-markers in G-Jn, in the case of Yeshuas healing
episode at Jn 4:52 in seventh hour, the setting in the narrative does not allow other
than the time around noon to 1 p.m. not 7 a.m. It needs to be read together with the
beginning v. 51 of this segment to clearly follow the narrative. Regardless when a day
is reckoned to start, Jewish or Roman (of early Julian calendar) counting hours always
start from dusk or dawn, unlike our modern convention of counting from middle of
night or day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_timekeeping#Beginning_of_the_Roman_day

It is amazing to see how far people [e.g. Jack Finegan books on Biblical chronology]
can be carried away with their preconceived idea: Someone finds this verse Jn 4:52
as a proof to claim that John was using a (civil) Roman reckoning method where the
expression seventh hour uttered by a Roman centurions servant. Completely
ignored are other instances of time-markers in the same G-Jn.

123 | P a g e
Here is a short quote from a web page still adhering the wrong idea Another thing
that makes sense in light of all this, is that in John it is mentioned the "Seventh hour"
(Jn 4:52). Unless it's mistaken, there was no "seventh hour" in New Testament Jewish
time of day, but indeed there is in Roman time of day!
www.workmenforchrist.org/Bible/BC_Jesus_Nets.html <When was Jesus crucified?
(Mark 15:25 and John 19:14) - Explained!>

Summary on sixth hour in the Pesach eve:

The time of Pilate was giving out sentencing, sixth hour-period of Jn 19:14, could
not be logically possible to be on the day of the Crucifixion Abib 14, since G-Mk tells
Yeshua was already on the cross from around 9 a.m. to give much confusion for the
Friday crucifixion scenario proponents. The solution for this would not be found unless
one comes to grasp the correct internal timetable in the Passion narratives; it is only
possible with the biblical calendar used in the Bible.

In order to resolve the apparent conflict (Synoptic vs. Johannine data), many opted to
read as sixth hour = 6 a.m. by falling back on the assumption that John was using
an alleged Roman reckoning for this particular verse.

However, (1) by doing so they are simply ignoring all other instances of time-maker,
such as Jn 1:39; 4:6; 4:52. Nowhere G-John shows any example of such a practice.
Moreover, (2) such a method of counting hours from midnight is only in our late-
Julian-Gregorian calendar. In the early Julian calendar which was at the time of the
N.T., counting was from sunrise and sunset both Roman as well as Jewish reckoning!
To their chagrin, they hopelessly leave the Synoptic-Johannine contradiction
unresolved, taking one of them in error in the Bible!

The sentencing around midday (not same as 12 noon)a by Pilate cannot be other than
on the eve of Pesach, that is, Abib 13, the day before the crucifixion. That means, the
Last Supper is logically required to be a day earlier (= Abib 12 eveningb; Day 4 of the
week). His arrest and confrontation to Yehudim in authority were through the night to
be followed by His trial by Pilate.

Grasping clearly this way, it is seen that, after sentencing around the midday, Yeshua
spent the remainder of day and through the night in their custody before they finally
set Him out on the road to Golgotha morning of next day (Abib 14). There the
crucifixion itself was to begin about 3rd hour ( around 9 a.m.) with darkness to cover
the land from sixth hour on Mk 15:25.
Though no obvious break in narrative timeline in the Bible text, but we have to be
cautious with the text we know any verse, paragraph, and chapter break in the text
with apparent uninterrupted progression of events is not integral to the Greek text itself.

a
It is not feasible to see it as 12 at mid-night as some tried to entertain without specifying which
date. The biblical scene of trial as narrated by G-John cannot be something possible during
evening to night.
b
The same time-period of Abib 12 would be Nisan 13 evening, In Jewish reckoning, the
beginning of their day.
124 | P a g e
Biblical Lunar Calendar system:

Passover dates in 30 to 33 CE
Jewish Passover is Nisan 15 with the Seder ritual for a 7-day festival (for some, 8-
day). It begins at sunset the day before the Gregorian date. [Jewish Passover is on
Nisan 14/15]

Biblical Pesach is on Abib 14.

Year (CE) 30 31 33
http://jesus-messiah.com/html/passover-dates-26-34ad.html
Full Moon Abib 14 Apr-6 Mar-27 Apr-3
Julian date to midnight Thu Mon Fri
Time of full moon 22:00 13:00 17:00
Passover Abib 15
Apr-6 Mar-27 Apr-3
at sundown of

Note: www.jstor.org/stable/3262201 G. Amadon, Ancient Jewish Calendation (p. 232)


contains some inaccurate data!

This is another example of the first visible crescent method for determining the New
Moon Day of Abib 1.
www.judaismvschristianity.com/Passover_dates.htm
Mar-22 Wed Mar-23 Fri. Mar-22 Sun.
Vernal Equinox
00:00* 05:00 17:00
Conjunction (Astronomical Mar-22 Wed. Apr-10 Tue Mar-20 Fri 09:00
New Moon) 20:00 14:00 Apr-17 Fri 21:00**
(Near or first after vernal Equinox)??
First evening of Mar-21 Sat.
Mar- 24 Fri Apr-11 Wed
visible crescent Apr-19 Sun.
Mar-22 Sun.
1st day of Nisan Mar-25 Sat Apr-12 Thu
Apr-20 Mon.
Apr-7 Fri. Apr-4 Sat.
14th day of Nisan@ (Passover) Apr-25 Wed.
May-3 Sun.
First evening of visible crescent: Gregorian: Midnight to midnight
@Nisan date: Beginning at sundown the evening before

* Midnight at the end of the given day

The first three columns were obtained from the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical
Applications Department. The pertinent file may be accessed on the Internet at
www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services/spring-phenom .

Note. The times of day given in the second and third columns have been adjusted UT +2 for
Jerusalem time.

It should also be noted that the first evening of a visible crescent moon (column 4) always occurs
only minutes after sundown, which is at the very beginning of a new day on the Hebrew calendar.
This Hebrew day correlates to the following day on our Gregorian calendar as noted in the chart
below (column 5). Column 6 is Passover dates for the given years.

How the 1st day of Nisan was determined is not explained. Apparently based on visible crescent
method of Jewish calendation. This must be the source of Friday Crucifixion CE 30 Apr-7-Friday
(as Nisan 14).

125 | P a g e
Abib 14 in 30 CE: Apr-5 Wed or Apr-6 Thu?

We have astronomically accurate data on astronomical new moon date (dark moon
or lunar conjunction) available online. The New Moon Day, the first day of the
lunar months of the biblical calendars, is differently determined and would result in
a Wednesday or a Thursday scenario for the Crucifixion day.

Jerusalem 30 CE
(UT+2) Equinox Mar 23 (02:00)
Mar-22-Wed (New Moon 19:46) Date in Jewish
Calendar
#1 #2
Mar-23-Thu Abib 1* Nisan 1
Mar-24-Fri Abib 2 Abib 1*
Mar-25-Sat Abib 3 Abib 2 @
Mar-30-Thu Abib 8 Abib 7
Mar-31-Fri Abib 9 Abib 8
Apr-1-Sat Abib-10 Abib 9
Apr-4-Tue Abib-13 Abib-12
Apr-5-Wed Abib-14 Abib-13
Apr-6-Thu Abib-15 Abib-14 Nisan 15
Apr-7-Fri Abib-16 Abib-15
Apr-8-Sat Abib-17 Abib-16#
Apr-9-Sun Abib-18 Abib-17
Abib 6 hours behind Julian date. Nisan 6 hours ahead of Julian date.
Full Moon on Apr-6 at 21:42 at Jerusalem 30 CE]

Column #1 New Moon Day as the day after the dawn following the
conjunction.
Column #2 (as in Thursday crucifixion scenario) is following sighting first
visible crescent. [www.triumphpro.com/jesus-in-grave-new-truth.htm
(Witness #1)]. Here, Abib 14 afternoon is on the same date in Julian (i.e.
Thu), however, Abib 16 dawn is on the next date on Julian, i.e. Sun.

www.worldslastchance.com/yahuwahs-calendar/new-moon-day-the-
dawn-after-conjunction.html New Moon Day: The Dawn After
Conjunction

http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/phasescat/phases0001.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20140909184037/http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/phase/phases0001.html
www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?year=30&month=4&country=34 ) (w/ incorrect Full
Moon date of Apr-7)
www.fullmoon.info/en/fullmoon-calendar_1900-2050.html

126 | P a g e
30 CE Dark Moon Full Moon
Jerusalem Mar-22 (Adar 29) Apr-6 (Nisan 15)
Chicago Mar-21 Apr-6
31 CE Dark Moon Full Moon
Jerusalem Mar-12 (Adar 29) Mar-27 (Nisan 15)
Chicago Mar-11 Mar-27

Roger Rusk, The Day He Died Jesus died during a Passover Festival in the early
part of the first century. Which Passover? Which year? Christianity Today, March
29, 1974. [A copy in IRENT Vol. III Supplement (Collection) #6B] [Thu Apr 6, AD 30.]

https://web.archive.org/web/20110709062802/http://user.txcyber.com/~wd5iqr/tcl/dayhedie.htm

[Note: His article is often cited for a Thursday crucifixion scenario. However, he
uses data from Goldstine, Herman H. (1973). New and Full Moons: 1001 B.C. to
A.D. 1651. As shown in the table below is nothing more that time and date of the
four moon phases. Further arguments are needed to assert Thursday for the
Crucifixion.]

[Jerusalem time = UT+2]


Year New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Last Quarter
30 Mar-22 19:46 Mar-31 00:18 Apr-6 21:42 Apr-13 13:34
31 Mar-12 00:19 Mar-19 23:41 Mar-27 12:55 Apr-3 06:30
33 Mar-19 12:38 Mar-26 12:33 Apr-3 16:51 Apr-11 05:45
[The data are extracted (for the relevant portion) from (UT used)
http://web.archive.org/web/20090301015349/http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/phase/phases0001.html

[Jerusalem time = UT+2]


Year New Moon Full Moon
30 Mar-22 19:59 Apr-6 21:47
31 Mar-12 00:29 Mar-27 13:01
33 Mar-19 12:41 Apr-3 17:02
Goldstine, Herman H. (1973), New and Full Moons: 1001 B.C. to A.D. 1651 @
Table of Julian dates and time (it was in UT+3 Bagdad)
@ https://books.google.com/books?id=lgsNAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

127 | P a g e
[The Conjunction and New Moon Day date is location-dependent. Only different one
shown in red for USA.]

Year Dark Moon Full Moon


CE
Israel USA Jerusalem USA
2017 Mar-28 Mar-27 Apr-11 -
(Nisan 1) (Nisan 15)
2016 Apr-7 - Apr-22 -
(Adar II 28) (Nisan 14)
2015 Mar-20 - Apr-4 -
(Adar 29) (Nisan 15)
2014 Mar-30 - Apr-15 -
(Adar II 28) (Nisan 15)
2013 Mar-11 - Mar-27 -
(Adar 29 (Nisan 16)
2012 Mar-22 - Apr-6 -
(Adar 28) (Nisan 14)
2011 Apr-3 - Apr-18 Apr-17
(Adar II 28) (Nisan 14)
2010 Mar-15 - Mar-30 Mar-29
(Adar 29) (Nisan 15)
2009 Mar-26 - Apr-9 -
(Nisan 1) (Nisan 15)

In conclusion: This study should challenge and help find the day and date locatable
in the proleptic Gregorian calendar for the Crucifixion. Whatever actual date we may
find the correct one (for the calendation we choose to use), nothing is at stake at all,
aside from religious liturgical tradition. This is what we should be able to do: to
correctly follow the timeline of events in the Passion-Passover week narrative with
the Abib 14 of CE 30 for the Crucifixion day. Any event worthy for commemoration
is done on the anniversary date, not on a certain day of the week artificially settled.

128 | P a g e
How to find a Scripture-based scenario with Biblical Lunar Calendar?

The Year in the rabbinic Jewish calendar (not in the Biblical Lunar Calendar)
begins at the moment of sunset at Jerusalem, on the evening of the first potentially
visible crescent moon beginning Day 1 of Month 1. A Year can begin before or
after the spring equinox. The rule of the equinox always places Day 15 of Month
1 on or after the Hebrew Day of the spring equinox. A Hebrew Year always contains
12 Hebrew Months in a regular year or 13 Hebrew Months in a leap year. The Year
begins on Day 1 of Month 1 based on the rule of the equinox and the typical Civil
Year begins on Day 1 of Month 7.

It ensures that Unleavened Bread will always be kept in its season from year
to year as Exodus 13:10 instructs.

Elohim created the sun and the moon for calculating years, and the equinoxes and
solstices are His demarcation points in the solar cycle. In calculating a Hebrew
Year, the spring equinox governs the start of a Hebrew Year according to Exo 12:1-
2. The spring equinox is the demarcation point governing the solar cycle. The first
day of Unleavened Bread on Day 15 of Month 1 is the critical day for calculating a
Hebrew Year. In the Creation Calendar, the first day of Unleavened Bread on Day
15 of Month 1 always occurs on or after the Hebrew Day of the spring equinox.
The first day of Unleavened Bread never occurs before the spring equinox. This
ensures that all three festivals take place within a single year as YHWH specified.

This rule is called the rule of the equinox, and it always places Day 15 of Month
1 on or after the Hebrew Day of the spring equinox. If, at the moment of sunset at
the end of Month 12, on the evening of the first crescent moon at Jerusalem, there
are 15 Hebrew Days or less until the spring equinox, then Month 1 is declared. If
there are 16 Hebrew Days or more until the spring equinox, then Month 13 is
declared. The spring equinox will always occur on or between Day 16 of Month 12
in a Spiritual Regular Year, and Day 15 of Month 1 in the year following. The
spring equinox will always occur on or between Day 16 of Month 13 in a Spiritual
Leap Year, and Day 15 of Month 1 in the year following.

The Creation Calendar only intercalates, or inserts an extra month, at the end of
Month 12. The intercalary month is called Month 13.

www.torahcalendar.com/ORBITS.asp?HebrewDay=2&HebrewMonth=2&Year=2015

How do we find one amoung various scenarios on the proposed dates of His
crucifixion and resurrection, based on the Biblical Lunar calendar (as shown
above) to follow the biblical Passover-Passion week, which is not same as the
church liturgical Holy Week?

1. To determine the year His crucifixion was - which year, CE 30, 31, 33 on what
basis?
(1) An interpretation of Daniels 70-week prophecy simply cannot be the proof
for the year of His death. (Some finds CE 31 to fit the prophecy as they
interpreted. Cf. Abib 14 to fall on Mon, not Wed. For some it is for CE 33, all
in manner of circular reasoning.). Daniels prophecy as in various
129 | P a g e
interpretations are of course different from Jewish exegesis for the Hebrew
Scripture. Thus, it cannot be used to arrive at the year of His crucifixion, or
even of His birth.
(2) To look for the year in which Nisan 14 falls on Friday is not the proof of
CE 33 as the year. Its sole aim is to support the traditional ecclesiastical Holy
Week which is based on erroneous understanding of Gregorian Saturday = 7th
day sabbath of the rabbinic Judaism. [Note: with the Friday crucifixion, the
resurrection should fall on Monday if read as in the Biblical narrative.]

2. With the astronomical data on the date and time of dark moon. [Dark Moon
from conjunction of the sun and the moon is a less confusing term than
astronomical new moon, as the moon is not visible from the earth.] To
determine the biblical New Moon Day of the 1st month (Abib) (crescent new
moon) around the time of spring equinox and ensure the Pesach to fall in the
barley harvest season late March to April in the solar year, not rainy season of
early March. This process of finding the first month is unrelated to Gregorian
calendar and is independent of the rabbinic Jewish calendar systems, both of
which were not used or existed in the time of Yeshuas time.

3. Abib 14 is the Pesach day with the Pesach full moon. It varies on Nisan dates
(14 to 16) if followed a rabbinic Jewish calendar reckoning.

130 | P a g e
One calendar for all the months in the true Biblical Calendar
[See Supplement III Walk through the Scripture #5 - Time, Calendar and Chronology]

New Work Days Weekly


@
Moon Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 sabbath
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14
15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 (30)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 (new moon); @ 30 (transitional day); 14 ( full moon)

The Biblical Lunar calendar (diagram)

131 | P a g e
30 CE Abib calendar (Abib 14 = Apr-5)

(as in a Wednesday Crucifixion scenario)

Gray Abib; Pale blue Nisan; Red - Sabbath


Abib 14 = Apr-5 (Wednesday)
[4 Sabbath days in a month = on day 7 of the lunary week, non-cyclic]
[Spring equinox Mar 22 (19:28); Dark Moon Mar 22 (22:40)]
[Sighting of the first visible cresent moon cannot be used to fix the New Moon day
which globally unifies.]

132 | P a g e
30 CE Abib Calendar (Abib 14 = Apr-6) for comparison
(as it would be for a Thursday Crucifixion scenario)

Note: Given the accurate data on the conjuction date/time Mar-22-Wed 30 CE at 17:32
UTC (www.triumphpro.com/jesus-in-grave-new-truth.htm), if the New Moon Day is
determined by other methods, such as sighting of the first visible crescent, it brings Nisan
1 and Nisan 15 a day later than in the Wednesday scenario.

2016 CE Abib calendar for comparison:


[Cf. Spring equinox Mar-20. Note. Nisan 15 of Jewish Passover on their calendar is on Apr. 23]
[Pesach (sacrifice) is on Abib 14. In 2016, it is on Mar-22.]
[14 days after a New Moon will always be a Full Moon.]

133 | P a g e
Note: If the New Moon Day is determined differently, another calendar is possible to see
Mar-8-Tue as New Moon day; Mar-21-Mon as Abib 14.
Note: in rabbinic Jewish calendar, in AM 5776 (for CE 2015/2016) [in the year 19 of the
Metonic cycle], there is a leap month before Nisan; thus, Nisan 15 of Jewish Passover is
a month later on Apr-23-Sat (it is kept from the sunset of Apr-22). Thus in this year the
(Jewish) Passover is during the 2nd Full Moon of spring. equinox. Some who follow
Judaic customs keep it in March, on the date closely connected to the Easter date.

134 | P a g e
Appendix
Questions on Jewish Passover vs. Christian Easter dates:

How the dates are determined?


List of earliest and latest Easters (with Passover dates). List of earliest and latest Passovers
(with Easter dates)
List of Easters dates coming before Passover, or rather Passover coming later than Easters.
Difficult Easter dates to fix when the equinox comes right after a full moon.
Jewish Passover date coming in late April in the presence of a leap month before Nisan.

The time setting of Easter approximates the biblical Pesach having Paschal Full Moon as the
reference point. [cf. astronomical vs. ecclesiastical Paschal Full Moon. Cf. astronomical equinox
vs. ecclesiastical (approximation) of equinox]
day

13 14 15 16 17
Abib
Erev Pesach Pesach Matzah 1 Matzah 2 Matzah 3
14 15 16 17 18
Nisan 13 Erev Pesach Pesach I Pesach II Pesach III IV

[The date of Abib and Nisan cannot match, since the latter is based on a different calendation which
has been 4th century. Nisan dates, 12 hours ahead, are listed for comparison purpose.]

*Easter

[See <WB #5 Time, Calendar and Chronology> of IRENT Vol. III Supplement]

Pesach meal (Abib 14 evening); cf. Seder ritual of modern Rabbinic Judaism (Nisan
15 evening)
Easter celebration kept by majority of Christians - a tradition from Constantine
Catholic Church.
Quartodecimanism Keeping of Passover in the early Christian churches of Jerusalem
and Asia Minor (instead of Easter celebration). Quartodeciman controversy -
Suppressed by anti-Judaism of anti-Semitic Catholic Church history.
www.keithhunt.com/Quarto.html www.triumphpro.com/passover-quartodeciman.pdf

Computus Determining dates of Easter vs. Passover


www.rayfowler.org/writings/articles/determining-the-dates-for-easter-and-passover/

Daniel 9 70 weeks of Daniel prophecy; Daniels 70th week

Interpretation of this prophecy has been used also to find the year of Yeshuas crucifixion. It is
a chronology-related issue, not calendar-related issue which concerns days of the week and dates
of the month. Many have offered various interpretations on Daniel prophecy for their use, even
for the year of the Crucifixion (30, 31, 32, 33 CE you pick!); not worthy to be consider for the
purpose of the Passion-Passover Week Chronology. See in <Walk through the Scripture 5
Time, Calendar and Chronology>

135 | P a g e
References
[Listed here the various reference and reading material used for this work pertaining to the
problem of Passion Week Chronology/timeline.]

Abundant intriguing material is within our easy reach in this information technology age.
Some give challenges, some present inaccurate data, some offer helpful or insightful
information, and some pull us down with biased interpretations its up to us to take up and
scrutinize them before we should accept what they can offer.

Reading material:

http://goo.gl/CU1wCr - [Got stuck with Gregorian mindset of seven numbered days of the
solar week and Jewish mindset of day of sunset-to-sunset to refute Friday crucifixion
scenario!]
http://thechronicleproject.org/PDF1/calendarfraud.pdf
www.thejournal.org/issues/issue63/nelte.html [on calendar issue challenges]

General references

1. Reviews on *Three Days and Three Nights see the attachment to this PDF
file.

Materials reviewed:
Fred R. Coulter (2004), The Day Jesus the Christ Died The Biblical Truth
about His Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection [pp. 71-79; a table in 80-81.]
Reuben Archer Torrey (1996), Difficulties in the Bible, Ch. 21 (pp. 155-164),
Was Jesus Really Three Days and Nights in the Heart of the Earth?
[Wednesday Crucifixion scenario. Basic on the mislead literal interpretation it
claims that the resurrection had to be late afternoon (!) of that Saturday.]
Larry M. Wishon (2010), The Only Sign Given [Misreading it as the sign of
Jesus being Messiah is this 3D and 3N thing!] (pp. 125-9) (Wednesday
Crucifixion scenario)
Ralph Woodrow, Three Days and Three Nights Reconsidered in the Light of
Scripture [it debunked the Wednesday scenario, but failed to go beyond,
missing a chance to look for the answer.]
Ralph Woodrow, Three Days and Three Nights (June 2013)
www.ralphwoodrow.org/articles/three-days.pdf
Harold W. Hoehner (1978), Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ
(http://books.google.com/books?id=fS28b9GC1dcC) [Arguments for Friday
scenario are not convincing at all. The year 33 A.D. scenario is with too facile
arguments. It can be seen that once he made up his mind on the day of Nisan 14
as Friday, he looked for the candidate year to fit. That would in turn be used to
reinforce the unproven idea of so-called Crucifixion Friday.]
McRay and Eoff (2013), Was Jesus *Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the
Earth. (www.eschatologyreview.com/) They claim Scripture actually shows the
resurrection to have occurred at the same time (of day) as the burial
[Check an ad in BAR magazine (www.biblicalarchaeology.org) which contains non-
scholarly material.]
136 | P a g e
2. Ernest L. Martin (1996), Secrets of Golgotha (2nd Ed), pp.414-437 Addendum One: The
Year of Jesus Death. [Detailed study to show the year to be 30 CE. Note, in pp. 430-432
he was shown to still adhere to the traditional Friday crucifixion scenario.]
Paul Finch, The Passover Papers (2009, 2nd Ed.) [Esp. Ch. 8 Chronology of Passion Week.,
p. 93-118.] This is a must read. Excellent coverage and writing with abundant references.
It major fault is that he sticks to a Friday crucifixion scenario with his own tweak of CE 30
stead of CE 33 for the crucifixion year (Ch. 8 Chronology of Passion Week., p. 93-118).

For his rather unusual CE 30 for the crucifixion with a Friday scenario (p. 151), by retro-
calculating the Easter Canon to the year 30 CE yielding a date of Sunday, Apr-9, then the
Crucifixion occurred Apr 7. Aa reference was given to someone named A.T. Olmstead.
Hogwash! Easter of Constantine Catholic Church tradition itself has nothing to with biblical
historical Passover-Passion week. No discussion on astronomical data and calendation is
found on this issue as they seem to have been beyond his research. Apr-9 CE 30 itself was
not Abib 14, but Abib 16 (Nisan 16).

As such he dismisses the idea of having the Trial day in the daytime and the crucifixion day
the day after.

3. Eugen Ruckstuhl (1965), Chronology of The Last Days of Jesus A Critical Study
[Trans. from German 1963] (pp. 35-71 for The Chronology of More Than One
Day)
[the Crucifixion date on Friday Apr. 7, AD 30. Nisan 14 (p. 2, 4)

4. Numerous publications on this subject. Here are some older and recent ones:
Kstenberger, Taylor, Stewart (2014), The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important
Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived
It follows the traditional scenario of Thursday Last Supper, Friday Crucifixion,
Sunday Resurrection, year 33 CE.

Kenneth F. Doig (1990), New Testament Chronology,


www.nowoezone.com/NT_Chronology.htm
www.nowoezone.com/NTC17.htm

James Montgomery Boice (1999), Gospel of John, (Vol. IV, p. 929) (pp. 929-932)
When did Jesus Died? copy to be found in the WB #6 Collections for IRENT
Vol. 3 Supplement.

137 | P a g e
www.truthontheweb.org/calendar.htm (on calendation)

James Davis (2013)

Wrong interpretation of the biblical texts reinforced by the lack of understanding the
calendar systems:
https://bible.org/
James Davis (2013), The Time of Jesus Death and Inerrancy: Is Harmonization
Plausible?

Wrong view One: John 19:14 had an original reading of the third hour which was
confused for the sixth.
Wrong view Two: John is using a roman civil reckoning that started the day at
midnight John 19:14.
Wrong effort: View Three: Marks Reference to Crucifixion is a General Statement
that included some event(s) that led up to the lifting of Jesus on the Cross
Wong effort: View Four: Time approximation allows for adequate harmonization of
Mark and John.

Note: This article gives a good summary of the issue, presenting the predicament the
traditional understanding faces with several different views but offering no solution to
contradiction and confusion. All four viewers have missed the genuine solution.

138 | P a g e
Jean Meeus, Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon and Planets

[book review: by Hurl, R. F. Monthly Notes of the Astron. Soc. Southern Africa, Vol. 44, p. 37
SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data Systems (ADS)
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1985MNSSA..44...37H ]

[End of File]

1
Trials of Jesus Ref. Farrar (1891), Life of Christ, p. 465 -- the three successive trials which our Lord
underwent at the hands of the Jews, the first only -- that before Annas is related to us by G-John; the
second -- that before Caiaphas -- by G-Mt and G-Mk; the third -- that before the Sanhedrin -- by G-Luke
alone. That of Annas was the authoritative praejudicium, that of Caiaphas the real determination, that of
the entire Sanhedrin at daybreak the final ratification.
139 | P a g e

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