Introduction

To tackle the life and death of Herod the Great using the writings of Josephus is to enter a morass of scholarly conjectures, an undertaking beset at times by blatant reading between the lines by academics to justify their pet theories. Nonetheless, some examination of Josephus’ Antiquities must be done, since Scripture itself gives us very little datable information about Herod. In doing my own examination of Antiquities and related extrabiblical histories, I hope to avoid the sort of speculation I fault in others. The reader must judge if I have succeeded.

This article will mainly examine what John 2:12–21 says about the 46 years Herod’s temple had been under construction as of the first Passover of Jesus’ public ministry, bringing in as needed reasons to assign the beginning of the reign of Herod to the traditional date of 37 BC, rather than the 36 BC date some researchers have recently promoted. The sheer volume of material will not permit us to investigate here the date of Herod’s death; I hope to cover this, in the detail it deserves, in a future article.

First, a word about my general approach. In the course of my research I discovered that, even among those who agree with me that an AD 30 Crucifixion best accommodates the diverse data bearing on the question, there are many different opinions out there about which inputs are most valuable. Different researchers may emphasize and/or interpret details in different ways, yet still arrive at the same final destination, just getting there by different routes. Some take into account information from coins, others ignore it. A 3-1/2 year ministry for Jesus is taken as a given by some, requiring an earlier baptism date for Christ than a 2-1/2 year ministry requires. Data derived from Josephus or other classical historians is viewed with various degrees of acceptance or skepticism. There are other inputs as well, these are just a sampling.

In tackling this study, I have brought together contributions from many sources into a hybrid of my own. I have a higher regard for certain types of data than others, and therefore leave unmentioned some forms of evidence which a truly comprehensive examination would be obliged to cover. For example, I purposely ignore evidence from numismatics, deeming it nonessential to making my points, and tending to clutter the case with inconsequential minutiae. Information from ancient historians is a mixed bag; on the whole, Josephus’ Antiquities seems to be solid because it is largely self-consistent, so I focus nearly exclusively on it. (It is not error-free, though; for example, I believe he erred in assigning Antiochus IV Epiphanes’ temple desecration to Kislev 25, 167 BC, whereas 1 Maccabees puts it on Kislev 15 of the same year; it makes a difference when understanding the 2300 “evenings and mornings” of Daniel, discussed in an earlier article.) So, I will pay the most attention to Antiquities when citing an extrabiblical source for establishing dates. Though it may seem I have over-weighted this study with Internet resources, they include citations from scholarly volumes which others can check as desired. And of course, the text of Scripture itself will be my go-to source for making critical points.

There is one other point to make before getting this study underway. I am sharply aware that some scholars, beginning with W.E. Filmer in 1966 (“The Chronology of the Reign of Herod the Great,” Journal of Theological Studies, pp. 283–298), and more recently including Andrew E. Steinmann (“When Did Herod the Great Reign?” Novum Testamentum 51 [2009], 1–29), Ernest L. Martin, and others, have rejected the conclusions laid out below—what Steinmann labels the “Schürer Consensus”—and chosen, for what I regard as dubious reasons, to date the start of Herod’s reign to 36 BC. They also reject the consensus for the death date of Herod, 4 BC, in favor of a 1 BC date—likely because it is more in keeping with the AD 33 Crucifixion they endorse. I considered approaching this study as a detailed negative critique of these scholars’ meandering intellectual journeys through varied classical histories, but in the end concluded that making a positive case from the Bible and the plain sense of Antiquities was the best approach. If the case for the traditional dates of Herod’s reign is as strong as I think it is, its merits will be apparent, and there will be no need to attack the work of others in order to support it.

The Forty-Six Years the Temple was “A-Building”

We will begin by letting the Scriptures speak. Unlike many scholars we will not start with extrabiblical records, since they are not inspired by God. We read the account of the apostle in John 2:12–21 (NASB, with notes in brackets):

¹² After this [the wedding at Cana] He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.
¹³ The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
¹⁴ And He found in the temple [hieros] those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.
¹⁵ And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple [hieros], with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables;
¹⁶ and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father's house [oikos] a place of business.”
¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE [oikos] WILL CONSUME ME.”
¹⁸ The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”
¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple [naós], and in three days I will raise it up.”
²⁰ The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple [naós], and will You raise it up in three days?”
²¹ But He was speaking of the temple [naós] of His body.

What Exactly was the “Temple”?

It will be noticed that two different Greek terms lie behind the word “temple” in this passage. The word naós is defined in the online Strong’s Concordance (G3485) (it can be accessed on BlueLetterBible.org) as “used of the temple at Jerusalem, but only of the sacred edifice (or sanctuary) itself, consisting of the Holy place [sic] and the Holy of Holies (in classical Greek it is used of the sanctuary or cell of the temple, where the image of the god was placed which is distinguished from the whole enclosure)” (emphasis added). On the other hand, hieros is defined by Strong’s (G2413) as “sacred, consecrated to the deity, pertaining to God.” It views the word as having a more general reference beyond just the inner sanctuary, one that encompassed the entire temple complex.

Strong’s, however, though very accessible and useful to many, is not exactly a respected source for scholars. We do well to check a “real” lexicon to see if it upholds Strong’s insistence that naós “only” refers to “the sacred edifice (or sanctuary) itself.” I have at hand a copy of the slightly-dated but still very useful second edition of Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (“BAG”). Rather than drawing a hard line between naós and hieron, this authority notes (p. 533) that naós can also refer to “the whole temple precinct,” and references John 2:20 as an example.

Notwithstanding this cautionary note, however, J. Dwight Pentecost and others have attempted to parse the word “temple” in this passage so as to minimize its implications regarding the date of the Crucifixion. They do this by asserting that the 46 years it specifies refers only to the years that had passed since the edifice, narrowly defined as Strong’s does—the holy place and the holy of holies, to which access was restricted to the priests—had been redone by Herod. Ron Wallace, cited last month for his blog comments (http://www.biblefragrances.com/studies/tiberius.html) about the 15th year of Tiberius, also quoted Pentecost’s opinion about the 46 years of building the temple:

“[Josef] Blinzler feels that A.D. 28 as marking the commencement of Christ's ministry is substantiated by John 2:20 where the Jews state that the temple had been in continuous construction for forty-six years since Herod began to build it in 20/19 B.C. But the Jews are talking about the temple edifice…which was completed in 18/17 B.C. as having stood for forty-six years, that is, the Passover of A.D. 30, rather than the temple precincts…which were still in the building process” (Pentecost, The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, p. 578, emphasis added).

Pentecost apparently wishes to use a specific interpretation of the temple building time to support placing the Crucifixion in AD 33. Thus, he narrowly defines “temple” to refer only to the refurbishing of the holy place and holy of holies (the naós, technically speaking), which was completed by 18/17 BC (assuming construction began in the fall of 20 BC). So the question before us is, does his assertion that the Jews were only talking about the temple edifice hold up to scrutiny? Was BAG mistaken?

Let us seek clarity by going now to Josephus. He tells us in Antiquities 15.11.1 (Whiston translation from the Greek):

And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign [counted inclusively from the death of Antigonus], and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work; that is to build of himself the temple [neon] of God, and make it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude: as esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really was, to bring it to perfection; and that this would be sufficient for an everlasting memorial of him… “Our fathers, indeed, when they were returned from Babylon, built this temple [naòn] to God Almighty, yet does it want sixty cubits of its largeness in altitude; for so much did that first temple which Solomon built exceed this temple; nor let any one condemn our fathers for their negligence or want of piety herein, for it was not their fault that the temple [naós] was no higher; for they were Cyrus, and Darius the son of Hystaspes, who determined the measures for its rebuilding; and it hath been by reason of the subjection of those fathers of ours to them and to their posterity, and after them to the Macedonians, that they had not the opportunity to follow the original model of this pious edifice, nor could raise it to its ancient altitude; but since I am now, by God's will, your governor, and I have had peace a long time, and have gained great riches and large revenues, and, what is the principal filing of all, I am at amity with and well regarded by the Romans, who, if I may so say, are the rulers of the whole world, I will do my endeavor to correct that imperfection…” [bracketed comments and emphasis added].

We see that Herod’s stated objective was to broaden (“make it larger in compass”) and increase in height the naós—the temple proper, the holy areas reserved for the priests—to its original Solomonic grandeur. The work began, as stated, in the 18th year of his reign (we will look more closely at this later). Antiquities goes on to note (15.11.6) that “the temple [naou] itself was built by the priests in a year and six months.” “By the priests” is a hint that the naós referred to here, which Pentecost latches onto as justification for his interpretation, is restricted to the holy place/holy of holies. Only priests specially trained in construction techniques were permitted to work in this area, not laymen. It is possible that the only work they did during that short time was on the immediate area around the holy of holies rather than on the holy place containing it, but there is not enough information to make that judgment.

However, our concern is with what the Scriptures mean, not Josephus. Was the naós indeed the limited focus of the whole John 2:12–21 passage, particularly the mentioned 46 years, as Pentecost contended? Many scholars disagree. Wallace cites several:

Merrill F. Unger writes of Herod’s temple in ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE NEW TESTAMENT, page 99. “This magnificent enterprise was begun in 20–19 B.C., and although the sanctuary proper was finished in a year and half, the larger plan envisioned by the monarch was not completed until A.D. 64. In Jesus’ day the Pharisees declared that the temple already had been in the process of construction for forty-six years (John 2:20).”

J.W. Shepard in his classic THE CHRIST OF THE GOSPELS, translates John 2:20 as "Forty-six years this temple was abuilding and will you raise it up in three days?” (p. 95, emphasis added).

A.T. Robertson confirms, “As a matter of fact, it was not yet finished, so distrustful had the Jews been of Herod.” (WORD PICTURES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, The Fourth Gospel, verse 2:20).

I find these and the other comments given by Wallace persuasive. Shepard’s translation accounts particularly well for the aorist tense used, giving the sense of a past action of unspecified duration—even still ongoing. This is why Wallace, citing Unger, Shepard and Robertson, emphasized that the temple had been in the process of construction (and was still unfinished) for 46 years. This is the understanding conveyed by other translations of John 2:20:

KJV: “Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?”

RSV: “The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’”

ASV: “The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?”

Context, Context, Context

In real estate, the aphorism for finding a valuable building or piece of land is “location, location, location.” In hermeneutics, the key to properly interpreting a passage is “context, context, context.” In the end, whatever meaning we assign to naós, it must be consistent with the immediate context in John 2. Look closely at verse 20 again: “The Jews then said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this temple [naós], and will You raise it up in three days?’” If they were indeed restricting their focus only to the edifice of the holy place, we would have expected them to say, “It took a year and a half to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But that is not what they said. Their reply encompassed much more than the time required for the corps of priestly stonemasons to do their job. In this context, I believe it is clear that the Jews were using the part to represent the whole—a figure of speech that grammarians term a synecdoche. As John clarifies in 2:21, Jesus used “naós” to refer to His body in a prophetic foreshadowing of His resurrection after three days. But His hearers could not grasp that meaning. They instead latched onto the word Christ used of Himself, naós, and incredulously threw it back at Him, but with a broader meaning taking account of the entire temple complex. It is the context that gives this broader meaning, not the strict dictionary definition of the word Strong’s limits itself to. Jesus opened the door for the Jews to adopt this broader meaning by calling the sacred precinct not by its technical term, hieron, but instead calling it “the house of God.” This encompassed both the hieron and the naós.

Reading through the entire passage, the focus began on the hieron, the sacred precinct which included all areas open to the public. It is this area of the temple where Jesus took His stand, making a scourge of cords and proceeding to wreak havoc among the commercial interests gathered there. And now, note how He refers to this area: He calls it “God’s house (oikos).” This was a blanket term not only applied to the publicly-accessible areas of the hieron, but encompassing the naós as well. For surely, if the public areas where the sellers plied their wares could be called the “house of God,” much more did the holiest areas qualify! Consistent with this understanding is what Wikipedia observes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple):

In Judaism, the ancient Hebrew texts refer not to temples, the word having not existed yet, but to a “sanctuary,” “palace” or “hall.” Each of the two ancient temples in Jerusalem was called in the Tanakh Beit YHWH, which translates literally as “YHWH’s House.”

It is this understanding that Jesus clearly has in mind. To Him the temple as a whole, both the naós and its surrounding public courtyards, constituted the house of God. He had a wider view of the term, and His hearers adopted it in their scornful response. Therefore, we conclude that John 2:20 should be understood as teaching that, at the time of His first Passover after being anointed by the Holy Spirit when John baptized Him, the temple work begun in Herod’s 18th year had begun 46 years previously, and was still in process.

Before moving on, I wish to draw the reader’s attention to a notable quotation from the Pulpit Commentary at http://biblehub.com/john/2-20.htm:

In forty and six years was this temple built as we see it today. This is one of the most important chronological data for the life of our Lord. Herod the Great, according to Josephus (‘Ant.,’ 15:11 1), commenced the rebuilding of the second temple in the autumn of the eighteenth year of his reign. We find that his first year reckoned from Nisan, A.U.C. 717–718 [37 BC]. Consequently, the eighteenth year must have commenced between Nisan, A.U.C. 734–735 [20 BC] and 735–736 [19 BC]. The forty-sixth year after this would make the Passover at which this speech was delivered—the spring of A.U.C. 781 [AD 28] (Wieseler, ‘Chronicles [sic] Synopsis of the Four Gospels,’ translation; and Herzog, ‘Encyc.,’ 21:546) [bracketed comments added].

The spring of AD 28 just happens to be the year this study already identified, for other reasons, as the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, following His baptism by John in the latter half of AD 27. This unsought correlation indicates that, since others have seen the same things, we are that much more likely to be on the right track.

How Do You Reckon?

Let us now dig down into the study by first clarifying some general dating issues. Calendar-related matters in Josephus are somewhat complicated. One might think a New Year would begin on what was regarded as the first month, but not so. Here is the numerical order of the lunar-based months of the Jewish calendar:

1 - Sevat (Jan/Feb)
2 - Adar (Feb/Mar)
3 - Nisan (Mar/Apr)
4 - Iyyar (Apr/May)
5 - Sivan (May/Jun)
6 - Tammuz (Jun/Jul)
7 - Av Jul/Aug)
8 - Elul (Aug/Sep)
9 - Tishri (Sep/Oct)
10 - Heshvan (Oct/Nov)
11 - Kislev (Nov/Dec)
12 - Tevet (Dec/Jan)

Each Jewish month covered a range of our months because, being tied to the phases of the Moon, it varied somewhat year-to-year. There were two main calendars used by the Jews. One was the civil calendar, with its New Year set to the first of Tishri in the fall. This calendar dealt with most agricultural matters, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years when the land was to lie fallow, and the reigns of foreign kings. The other, of greater importance to Josephus, was the ecclesiastical calendar, with its New Year on the first of Nisan in the spring. As the Mishnah—the compilation of Jewish oral law—teaches, Nisan reckoning was tied closely to the Jewish religious festivals, and also used for incrementing the passing years of the reigns of Jewish kings, which would have included Herod the Great:

On the first of Nissan is the [cut off date for the] New Year regarding [the count of the reigns of the Jewish] kings [which was used to date legal documents. If a king began his reign in Adar even if was only for one day that is considered his first year, and from the first of Nissan is considered his second year…]” (http://www.emishnah.com/moed2/Rosh_HaShanah/1.pdf, brackets original, emphasis added).

Thus, we see that the reigns of Jewish kings were reckoned on a spring-to-spring basis, incremented with the passing of each New Year on Nisan 1. In addition, the start date of a king’s reign was always reckoned as belonging to Year 1 of his reign, even if it only preceded Nisan 1 by a single day. This is the essence of inclusive reckoning: a part of a year is deemed to be a whole year for counting purposes. That this policy is enshrined in the Mishnah is strong reason to presume it applies to the reign of Herod.

Moreover, Josephus specifically tells us, in multiple places in Antiquities, that he himself viewed Nisan as the first month of the year:

Antiquities 1.3.3 – “But Moses appointed that Nisan, which is the same with Xanthicus [the Macedonian calendar name for the month], should be the first month, for their festivals; because he brought them out of Egypt in that month. So that this Month began the year, as to all the solemnities [sacred festivals like Passover] they observed to the honour of God: although he preserved the original order of the months [that is, by Tishri (fall-to-fall) reckoning, where the year begins with Rosh Hashanah] as to selling and buying, and other ordinary affairs” (bracketed comments added).

Antiquities 3.10.5 – “But in the month of Xanthicus; which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year.”

Antiquities 11.4.8 – “And as the feast of unleavened bread was at hand, in the first month; which according to the Macedonians is called Xanthicus; but according to us, Nisan.”

Therefore, in the sections of Josephus we are investigating, we can confidently expect the reigns of Jewish rulers will follow Nisan-based dating. Inclusive reckoning of time periods was part and parcel with this.

Roman Calendars

Roman emperors, in contrast to Jewish rulers, appear to have had their reigns measured from their actual dates of accession, rather than measured in reference to a default New Year’s date. Thus, Tiberius’ first official Roman year began with his Senate approval on September 18, AD 14, and each succeeding year was incremented on that anniverary.

The Roman consuls of record, however—the “ordinary” consuls—were reckoned as taking office at the start of each year. In this regard Wikipedia notes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_consul):

If a consul died during his term (not uncommon when consuls were in the forefront of battle) or was removed from office, another would be elected by the Comitia Centuriata to serve the remainder of the term as consul suffectus (suffect consul). A consul elected to start the year—called a consul ordinarius (ordinary consul)—held more prestige than a suffect consul, partly because the year would be named for ordinary consuls (emphasis added).

That the year was named for the ordinary consuls of that year explains why Josephus repeatedly mentions their names when providing dates. This detail was not simply a matter of political interest, but had specific pertinence to Roman dating conventions. The Wikipedia article also adds under “Consular Dating,”

Roman dates were customarily kept according to the names of the two consuls who took office that year, much like a regnal year in a monarchy. For instance, the year 59 BC in the modern calendar was called by the Romans “the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus”, since the two colleagues in the consulship were Gaius Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus…. The date the consuls took office varied: from 222 BC to 153 BC they took office 15 March, and from 153 BC onwards it was on 1 January.

Besides the Julian calendar, implemented by decree in 45 BC and having its New Year on January 1, there were other calendars used by the Romans. Olympiads, periods of four years, were an inheritance from the Greeks that were used frequently by classical historians, including Josephus. Each was divided into four one-year subdivisions, which ran from July 1 to June 30. The first olympiad spanned 776 to 772 BC. Then there were the AUC years. The acronym stands for ab urbe condita—alternatively, anno urbis conditae—signifying the number of years since Rome was founded. It was the usual way of expressing dates in the classical period, where each year was reckoned as beginning on our April 21st.

Inclusive or Non-Inclusive Counting?

Besides the need to account for varying calendars, matters were further complicated by having to determine whether inclusive or non-inclusive counting was followed. The evidence, as seen in the Mishnah, indicates that the Jews normally used inclusive reckoning. In an earlier study of this series we saw that Scripture itself uses it, notably in reference to the sabbatical years (see also the example of Cornelius in Acts 10, given at the end of this article). Kenneth Frank Doig (New Testament Chronology, http://www.nowoezone.com/NTC04.html) analyzed Josephus’ records and concluded:

Josephus reckoned the reigns of kings according to the Jewish Second Temple calendar that began in the spring. Scripture records that this occurred, “in the first month, which is the month Nisan” (Esther 3:7). This calendar continued in use and is preserved in second century CE Jewish oral tradition in the Mishna, which states, “on the first of Nisan is a new year for the computation of the reigns of kings, and for festivals” (Rosh Hashanah 1:1). Josephus did not use the Jewish civil calendar [with the New Year starting in Tishri] or the local Syro-Macedonian calendar, both of which began the year in the fall. For the Herodian rulers, or “kings,” he used inclusive, or non-accession reckoning. The Babylonian Talmud supports this: “If a king ascended to the throne on the twenty-ninth of Adar, as soon as the first of Nisan arrives he is reckoned to have reigned a year” (Rosh Hashanah 2a). He counted the first year of a reign as year one and any part of the first and last year as a complete year. He appears to have maintained this reckoning without regard to other local calendar systems or how these rulers actually recorded their own reign. Josephus used inclusive reckoning from Nisan [bracketed comments and emphasis added].

As valuable as this Mishnaic information is, though, we have to ask: What about Josephus? Can it be shown from his own writings that he himself followed inclusive dating practices?

A Contribution by Schürer

In the late 1800s, pioneering chronologist Emil Schürer published his five-volume masterwork, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ. That work set forth what was to be, for about 100 years, the standard understanding that Herod’s de facto (“in fact”) reign over Judea spanned 37 to 4 BC. His de jure (“in law”) start date, as reckoned by the Romans, was assigned to 40 BC (Ant. 14.14.5, “And thus did this man receive the Kingdom; having obtained it on the hundred eighty fourth olympiad; when Caius Domitius Calvinus was consul the second time; and Caius Asinius Pollio [the first time].”) We are not appealing to Schürer here as an authority to validate the dating in this study (that would assume what must first be demonstrated), but as a tool for analyzing Josephus. Schürer’s lengthy note 165, on pages 464–467 of Vol. 1, Div. 1 in his 1890 second edition (online at https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044023360308), presents logical evidence that Josephus did indeed use inclusive reckoning:

Herod died shortly before a Passover (Antiq. xvii.9.3; Wars of the Jews, ii.1.3), therefore in March or April. Since Josephus says that he reigned thirty-seven years from the date of his appointment [by the Romans], thirty-four years from his conquest of Jerusalem (Antiq. xvii.8.1; Wars of the Jews, i.33.8), it would seem as if, counting thirty-seven years from the year B.C. 40, he must have died in B.C. 3. But we know that Josephus elsewhere counts a year too much [i.e., he counts inclusively], according to our [non-inclusive] reckoning. Thus he counts from the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey [63 BC] to that by Herod twenty-seven years (Antiq. xiv.16.4), whereas the true number is twenty–six (B.C. 63–B.C. 37) [counting non-inclusively]. Again, from the conquest of Herod [37 BC] down to that by Titus [AD 70] he counts 107 years [with no year 0] (Antiq. xx.10), whereas there were only 106 (A.U.C. 717–A.U.C. 823). He reckons the spring of B.C. 31 the seventh year of Herod (Antiq. xv.5.2; Wars of the Jews, i.19.3), whereas it was only the sixth year (his reign beginning with July B.C. 37). The reason of this is that he counts portions of a year as a year... [i.e., he counts inclusively! Bracketed comments and emphasis added].

Let us now look closely at the references from Antiquities cited by Schürer.

Twenty-Seven Years from Pompey to Herod

Antiquities 14.16.4: “This destruction befel the city of Jerusalem when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus were consuls of Rome; on the hundred eighty and fifth olympiad; on the third month; on the solemnity of the fast. As if a periodical revolution of calamities had returned, since that which befel the Jews under Pompey. For the Jews were taken by him on the same day; and this was after twenty seven years time” [emphasis added].

This reference contributes a consular date unambiguously locked to 37 BC. Moreover, it is double-dated to the 185th olympiad; the latter half (Jan-Jun) of its third year and first half (Jul-Dec) of its fourth year line up with 37 BC as well. The “third month” refers to the Jewish month Sivan (May/June) as counted from Nisan. The nature of the fast is an interesting question on its own, with a variety of answers proposed (the one I like best is that it refers simply to the Sabbath day, following Dio Cassius 37.16.4 and the discussion at http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12264-pompey-the-great), but it lies outside the scope of this study. The takeaway is that every detail in this passage indicates Herod became de facto king of Judea in 37 BC.

107 Years before the Temple Fell

Antiquities 20.10.1: “Accordingly the number of the High Priests, from the days of Herod, until the day when Titus took the temple, and the city, and burnt them, were in all twenty eight. The time also that belonged to them was an hundred and seven years” [emphasis added].

Counting back 107 years inclusively from the sack of the temple in AD 70 brings one, once again, to 37 BC. (As an aside, the number of high priests specified by Josephus is also supported by the lists at http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-20.html#EndNote_Ant_20.20b and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_High_Priests_of_Israel. These lists differ only in that Wikipedia also mentions that Ananelus, Joazar ben Boethus, and Jonathan ben Ananus had short periods of restoration, a detail ignored in the margin note in Antiquities.)

The Seventh Year of Herod

Antiquities 15.5.2: “At this time it was, that the fight happened at Actium, between Octavius Cesar and Antony; in the seventh year of the reign of Herod” [emphasis added].

Here we have a universally accepted date solidly anchored in history in the Battle of Actium, when Octavian defeated Antony’s naval forces and cemented his sole rule over the Romans. This is known from multiple Roman historians to have taken place on September 2, 31 BC. Taking 31 BC as the seventh year of Herod, by inclusive reckoning, makes 37 BC his first year yet again.

Others have written about further considerations connected with Actium that reinforce the 37 BC determination for Herod’s first year. Someone named Alexander Frazier posted the following pithy comment in the “Add Your Comments” area on the Biblical Archaeology Review website (https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/herods-death-jesus-birth-and-a-lunar-eclipse/) on March 18, 2018:

Despite any counting methods that may be employed by various authors, whether Nisan to Nisan, Tishri to Tishri, or even January to January, it holds true nonetheless that if the spring of 31 BCE is his seventh year, then the spring of 32 BCE is his sixth year, the spring of 33 BCE is his fifth year, and so on, making the spring of 37 BCE his first year [emphasis added].

Another researcher, Bob Pickle, has a special focus on the sabbatical year cycles. He points out on his website (http://www.pickle-publishing.com/papers/sabbatical-years-more.htm#5):

Some scholars other than Wacholder [i.e., Filmer and those who follow him] would like to have Herod conquer Jerusalem in 36 BC instead, yet this is not possible. Twice Josephus informs us that the Battle of Actium (summer of 31 BC) occurred in the seventh year of Herod's reign (Antiq., bk. 15, ch. 5, sect. 2; Wars, bk. 1, ch. 19, sect. 3). If he took Jerusalem in 36 BC, then 31 BC would have been his sixth year by non-accession-year [inclusive] reckoning, not his seventh year. So the data Josephus gives us regarding the Battle of Actium mandates that Herod's taking of Jerusalem be in 37 BC, not in 36 BC [bracketed comments added].

In passing I will note that the sabbatical year determinations published by Benedict Zuckermann match up perfectly, from the time of Ezra on, with the results of my own independent study of Daniel 9. A chart of Zuckermann’s dates can be found at http://www.pickle-publishing.com/papers/sabbatical-years-table.htm.

The Eighteenth Year of Herod

In a roundabout way, this brings us back to considering the 46 years the temple was said to be “a-building” by the Jews in John 2:12–21. We have first established solid reasons, based on multiple converging lines of evidence, to regard 37 BC as the beginning of Herod’s reign, with 31 BC as his seventh. The same inclusive dating method used earlier makes the spring of 20 BC the start of Herod’s 18th year. Construction of Herod’s temple began in the fall of 20 BC (a conclusion indicated by the timeline seen in Antiquities 15—see also Pulpit Commentary, cited earlier).

However, in contrast to the normal method of counting inclusively, in this case we are looking at elapsed time. For us to say the temple had been “a-building” for 46 years, we must count the passing years not inclusively, but non-inclusively, like counting birthdays—in other words, we need to look back over 46 already-completed years of construction. We basically want to know when the temple became 46 years old. We are not dealing here with the reign of a king, where the conventions expect inclusive dating from Nisan, but with elapsed time after an event. This means year 1 of the count begins with the fall of 19 BC, after the first anniversary of the start of construction had passed, and continues through the spring of 18 BC. To this we add 45 additional years (with no year 0). This brings us to the spring of AD 28—the 46th year counted non-inclusively, which began the fall of AD 27—the year our previous studies indicated that Christ began His public ministry, and when he cleansed the temple near Passover. The analysis is a bit complex, but I have been over this multiple times, and it seems to fit; the chart below may help. Non-inclusive counting of elapsed time seems to be the key.

“An Hundred, Twenty and Six Years”

In addition to the previous three examples of inclusive dating Schürer described in Josephus, we can mention another detail found near the end of Antiquities 14.16.4 that points to 37 BC as the beginning of his actual reign: “And thus [after Herod had Antigonus, the last of the Hasmonean dynasty, put to death by Antony] did the government of the Asamoneans cease; an hundred, twenty and six years after it was first set up.”

This statement is kind of tricky to figure out. If we assume Herod put Antigonus to death just after he took Jerusalem, then using the 37 BC date for the start of Herod’s reign, counting inclusively 126 years back in time takes us to 162 BC. History knows nothing of note for that year. What about if non-inclusive reckoning is used, and Josephus, as in the case of the 46 years of the temple’s construction, was dealing with elapsed time? In that case, 37 BC counts back to 163 BC. In the spring of that year, Antiochus IV Epiphanes died in Persia, vacating the Seleucid kingship over Judea (his death is given in 1 Maccabees 6:16 as the last half of the year 149 of the Seleucid Era, matching with the first half of 163 BC).

My suggestion, therefore, is that Josephus’ words, “after it was first set up,” signify that he is here counting elapsed time non-inclusively from an event, as we do today: i.e., 163 BC-126 years=37 BC. He is counting the passing of actual years in reference to an event. The word “after” almost seems to be a signal to look at what follows as a non-inclusive count of elapsed time. Understood this way, the 126 years from the spring of 163 BC takes us to the spring of 37 BC. This end date fits perfectly with the three examples given by Schurer previously, increasing our confidence in this approach.

We will have other occasions in the future to put this idea—that elapsed time is reckoned non-inclusively—to the test. In particular, it seems to be the way we must deal with counting the 70 years of the Babylonian exile. The Talmud Mas Arachin 12a validates this approach: “What you must therefore say is that [the counting] excludes the year in which they were exiled.” So the start of the 70-year count—elapsed time—is the year after the exile began.

A Succinct Summary

A succinct summary of the case presented above was given by “Alexander,” cited earlier in reference to the seventh year of Herod. He lists many original source references for the “irrefutable facts” he cites for establishing the start date of Herod’s reign in 37 BC. I highly recommend all who are really interested in this subject to read his comments and check his references. Leaving most of those references out for brevity, here is the case he makes:

We know that Herod traveled to Samosata in 38 BCE to aid Antony in his campaign against Antiochus....Once Antiochus surrendered, Herod returned to Judaea that same year, arriving in the winter of 38/37 BCE (Joseph AJ 14.447, 461; Joseph BJ 1.321). He began his siege of Jerusalem shortly thereafter, in the month of Shebat, as soon as the rigor of winter had passed (Joseph AJ 14.465-466). Jerusalem was then taken in Sivan, the third month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, in late spring of 37 BCE (knowing that the five-month siege of Jerusalem ended in “the third month” of 37 BCE, or Sivan, this siege began at some point in Shebat of 37 BCE)….

We can further determine by this information that Herod’s reign from the time the Romans declared him king is counted from Nisan to Nisan in the spring. His fourth year of this enumeration has to coincide with his first year from his conquest of Jerusalem, which we know deduces to the spring of 37 BCE. Since the winter preceding the siege of Jerusalem in Shebat of 37 BCE is stated as his third year from his Roman appointment (Joseph AJ 14.465), and it was his fourth year in Sivan of 37 BCE at the conclusion of the siege according to the regnal parallel, we can say with confidence that the transition from one regnal year to the next occurred in the spring. And with Herod’s fourth year from the time the Romans declared him king established as beginning in the spring of 37 BCE, his first year, by deduction, is counted from 40 BCE, reckoned ex post facto to the spring of that year.

These facts are in perfect agreement with Josephus, who tells us that Herod was made king by the Romans in [August of] 40 BCE, during the 184th Olympiad, when Caius Domithis Calvinus was consul for the second time and Caius Asinius Pollio the first time (Joseph AJ 14.389), and that Herod then captured Jerusalem in June of 37 BCE, during the 185th Olympiad, when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus were consuls (Joseph AJ 14.487-488, 14.66), which was twenty-seven years, inclusively, from the time that Pompey captured Jerusalem in June of 63 BCE, during the 179th Olympiad, when Caius Antonius and Marcus Tullius Cicero were consuls.

By these facts, the starting points for his two lengths of reign are unquestionably and unambiguously 40 BCE and 37 BCE respectively, as is further corroborated by other datable events.…With Herod’s third year from his Roman appointment being in the winter of 38/37 BCE, and his seventh year from his conquest of Jerusalem falling in the spring of 31 BCE, an accession year method of counting is blatantly incorrect, as is progressive counting rather than inclusive.

The third point I’d like to make is that it shows poor scholarship to refer to inclusive counting as “so-called.” That IS how they counted in the first century. Evidence of it is readily available in any Roman calendar still extant. There are also examples of it in Acts 10:1–33, where Cornelius says four days had passed when it had been only three by modern, non-inclusive counting.

The example of Cornelius which “Alexander” cites is a particularly clear example of inclusive reckoning in Scripture. Here is the Reader’s Digest condensed version of Acts 10:1–33, summarized from the NASB, with the transitions between days highlighted:

Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion.…About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God…When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier and…sent them to Joppa. On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter…fell into a trance…the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you”….Peter went down to the men and…invited them in and gave them lodging….And on the next day he got up and went away with them…On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them…Cornelius said, “Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour…”]

Three days had passed as we count them, but four as Cornelius reckoned them. This is inclusive counting clearly on display in inspired Scripture. This corroborates it as a normal way of counting for both the Romans and the Jews. At the same time, it does not rule out elapsed time being reckoned non-inclusively on occasion. We have to take the full picture of each situation into consideration.

Conclusions

When all is said and done, one of the great strengths of Josephus and the straightforward treatment of his data epitomized by Schürer lies in how his presentation is self-consistent, indicating it most likely represents true history. In contrast, when we try to adopt other modern, questioning reinterpretations of Josephus, the synchronisms found in Josephus’ writings, apparent when they are read in a straightforward manner, break down. Trying to synchronize all of the various classical historians, as Steinmann (Herod, p. 28), for one, has attempted to do, means picking winners and losers when conflicts arise between their data and that of Josephus. That Josephus is the one whose data gets reinterpreted in the recent scholarly rebellion against the “Schürer Consensus” indicates he has consistently gotten the short end of the stick. I am unable to see a truly objective reason for singling him out this way.

For those who would like to see a graphical representation of the synchronisms discussed, below is a truncated chart derived from my master Excel spreadsheet, covering the Herodian data and things already discussed in previous articles in this series. (As of December 2018, this chart is no longer entirely accurate. Please see my later article, Pinpointing the Date of Christ's Birth, for a more precise accounting that places His birth in the spring of 6 BC.)

With these observations on the beginning of the reign of Herod the Great and the 46 years that passed from the time he began construction on the temple, we have said as much as we can for the moment. I plan to discuss the death of Herod in the next installment of this study.

An Overview of Previous Articles in the Series

The February 2018 issue of the ABR Newsletter introduced my ongoing chronology-related research. One of its key long-range objectives is to show how the “70 Weeks” prophecy of Daniel 9:24–27 illustrates the inspiration of the Scriptures, showing how human history is controlled by an all-wise, all-powerful, infallible God Who declares in advance mysteries which are yet to unfold. His objective existence and interaction with the world He created is the only explanation for the way all the pieces of that prophecy can come together over a vast span of time.

In order to lay out the case for the inspiration and (partial) fulfillment of Daniel 9, other chronological points have to first be independently established and backed up by both Scripture and history, since they are inextricably linked to the Daniel 9 prophecy. That is why I have focused so much recently on the date of the Crucifixion. Get that date wrong, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to fit together the details given in Daniel 9 and other passages without either embracing some questionable exegesis of Scripture, or casting unjustified doubt on the accuracy of original source material such as Josephus’ Antiquities. Efforts have been made by others to cobble solutions together with varying degrees of success. My own research indicates that positing an AD 33 Crucifixion date and forcing other details into conformity with it does not permit Daniel 9:24–27 to be interpreted in a straightforward manner that is faithful to its grammar and context, and indeed destroys the apologetic value of this prophecy as a witness to the inerrancy of Scripture. This is why I have endeavored to present the evidence for an AD 30 Crucifixion as the first step in the process of unpacking Daniel 9.

My initial article, “How the Passover Illuminates the Date of the Crucifixion,” looked at how the Passover was first observed on the night before the Israelites left Egypt, then at how God commanded His people to commemorate it each year as a memorial to His great deliverance (Ex. 12, Lev. 21, Nm. 28). Applying this information from the Word to initially narrow down the options for the date of the Crucifixion—it ruled out any days other than a Friday, or any duration other than from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning—the study then looked at records of lunar eclipses, concluding that lunar eclipse information was insufficient on its own to distinguish between two possible candidate dates—April 7, AD 30 and April 3, AD 33.

The theme of that first article was then taken further in the March 2018 ABR Newsletter, which presented a detailed look at the books of Acts and Galatians. That exegetical study of Scripture concluded that, when data from Galatians 1–2 is linked with the AD 44 death of Herod Agrippa I during Paul’s second post-conversion visit to Jerusalem (Acts 11–12), it strongly indicated our Lord was crucified in AD 30. (If you have not read that paper, may I encourage you to do so.) When the exegetical conclusions from that second article are combined with calendar observations covered in the first, a strong case is made that the date for the Crucifixion that best fits the data is April 7, AD 30.

Last month, we took a detour from the Crucifixion-centered theme of the first two articles, turning our attention instead to the 2,300 “evenings and mornings” of Daniel 8:14. We saw how that passage deals only with the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and contributes nothing to understanding the timing of the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, or the unfolding of events in the Last Days. The 2,300 evening-mornings of that prophecy refer to the number of twice-daily regular sacrifices that were lost during the time of Antiochus’ desecration of the Temple. They do not signify some obscure period of 2,300 years we somehow need to account for in our eschatology.

With this review concluded, we now resume the main thrust of this phase of the overall study, setting on a yet more firm foundation the contention that Christ was crucified in AD 30. We are going to look at something Luke reports: the ministry of John the Baptist coincided with the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar (Lk 3:1). This is often cited as evidence the Crucifixion took place in AD 33, but it will be shown it can very reasonably be reconciled with AD 30—for which, we must not forget, the previous studies in this series have already shown strong scriptural support. Everything must fit together without depending either on questionable interpretations of Scripture, or requiring us to suppose that extrabiblical historical source materials we depend on are wrong.

Though a number of dating indicators derived from the Roman/Jewish historian Josephus are pertinent to the study, we will not focus on them in this brief article. To begin examining Josephus is to enter a quagmire of scholarly subjectivity, where the plain sense of his records in Antiquities is frequently questioned and reinterpreted in a forced way to support an AD 33 Crucifixion. For now it will suffice to say that, when they are accepted at face value, Josephus’ writings support an AD 30 Crucifixion with little difficulty.

Luke’s Historiography

Luke 3:1–2 gives us several chronological indicators in a single sentence. In the NASB:

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

The first thing we notice here is that all of these people, in their various offices, had various degrees of overlap with the start of the ministry of John the Baptist. It is apparent that Luke is attempting to firmly anchor John’s ministry to a particular point in history. A look at Wikipedia yields the following generally accepted date ranges for key individuals:

Tiberius Caesar, Roman emperor—AD 14–37
Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea—AD 26–36
Herod, tetrarch of Galilee—4 BC–AD 39
Annas ben Seth, high priest—AD 6–15
Joseph Caiaphas, high priest—AD 18–36

An oddity is apparent here, which gives us insight into the way Luke thinks about chronology matters. It is his mention of “the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.” If Luke’s only purpose was to provide chronological hooks on which to hang the ministry of John the Baptist, why would TWO high priests be mentioned, only one of whom was actually in office during John’s ministry? As far as official records go, Annas and Caiaphas were high priests at different times with no overlap, with only Caiaphas serving while John baptized in the wilderness.

There seems to be only one way to explain this, since the record-keeping of the Jews concerning their high priests was too precise for us to suppose Luke had made an error: Luke was recognizing practical political realities in Judea. He was not slavishly repeating official records, but taking a pragmatic approach in his reporting that recognized the real-world impact certain people had on the lives of the Jews. Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the influential patriarch of the family, the politically-savvy “power behind the throne,” so to speak. For all practical purposes he was a co-high priest, influencing the decisions of his son-in-law and the Sanhedrin, and having a marked impact on the religious life of the Jews even though his formal tenure in office ended before the Baptist came on the scene.

The above observation was first brought to my attention by Ron Wallace at http://www.biblefragrances.com/studies/tiberius.html. (Although I do not agree with every point it makes—in particular, its placing the 15th year of Tiberius in AD 11 seems too early—the entire article is a wealth of thoughtful information that I encourage everyone interested in this subject to read carefully.) He repeatedly references the work of theologian William Hendriksen. On page 194 of his New Testament Commentary volume on Luke, Hendriksen labels as the “traditional view” that which dates the 15th year of Tiberius to AD 26, while the “popular view” assigns it to AD 28–29. Wallace quotes Hendriksen:

“And during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.” Annas (or “Ananus” as Josephus calls him) had been appointed high priest by Quirinius in the year A.D. 6, and was deposed by Valerius Gratus, about A.D. 15. But though deposed, he remained for a long time the ruling spirit of the Sanhedrin. Five sons and a grandson followed him in the high priesthood; also a son-in-law, the very one mentioned by Luke, namely, Caiaphas. The latter held the high priestly office from A.D. 18 to 36....

It may seem strange that Luke assigns the beginning of the Baptist’s ministry to the high priesthood not only of Caiaphas but “of Annas and Caiaphas.” Annas, after all, was deposed from that office in A.D. 15, long before John’s ministry began, whether according to theory (a) [the traditional view] or (b) [the popular view]. That Luke assigns the beginning of John’s ministry to the high priesthood of Caiaphas (A.D. 18–36) we can understand, but why to that of Annas?

Nevertheless, Luke is correct. He is thinking of the actual situation, not the merely formal one. The actual situation was that both Annas and Caiaphas were “in the drivers’s seat” during the entire period of John’s ministry and during the entire length of Christ’s ministry; Annas as well—perhaps even more than—Caiaphas [page 197, emphasis added].

Implications of the 15th Year of Tiberius

You may wonder, why am I belaboring this point? For this reason: The date Tiberius officially became Emperor shortly after the death of Augustus was September 18, AD 14. Counting inclusively, per the Roman norm, 15 years from this date yields the start of the Baptist’s ministry in AD 28. An AD 30 Crucifixion is too early to fit this. AD 33, on the other hand, appears to fit just fine—once appropriate, if somewhat conjectural, padding is added to stretch out the baptism > crucifixion timeline to 3-1/2 years (many scholars feel there should be a fourth Passover somewhere in there to accommodate everything that happens, though none of the Gospels mentions one). Furthermore, since this approach also places the Passover on a Friday, many scholars stop their analysis of the crucifixion date right there.

The problem is, they are then forced to seek out various workarounds and awkward interpretations of both Scripture and information from Josephus to make other details—such as Galatians 1–2 and the death of Herod Agrippa, discussed in the March ABR Newsletter article—harmonize with it. J. Dwight Pentecost is one of those scholars; as Wallace notes, “Pentecost…rejects the traditional view as ‘unacceptable’ (The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, 1980, page 80) and ‘untenable’ (page 578). But he is influenced by insisting on a 33 AD date for the crucifixion” [emphasis added]. More recently and in the same vein is the approach of Andrew Steinmann. His exegesis of Galatians 1–2, found on pp. 306–320 in his From Abraham to Paul: A Biblical Chronology, is governed by a prior commitment to an AD 33 Crucifixion. He states (p. 317):

A final objection [to equating Galatians 2:1–10 with the “famine relief visit” of Acts 11:29–30] has to do with chronology. The advocates of equating Gal 2:1–10 with the famine relief visit usually date this visit to AD 46.  This means that Paul’s conversion came fourteen years earlier in AD 32 or, perhaps, AD 33, if Paul was reckoning the span of years inclusively (Gal 2:1). However, we have already seen that the most likely date for the crucifixion is AD 33, which of necessity places Paul’s conversion several years later. (See the discussion of the dates of Jesus’ ministry and crucifixion in chapters 12 and 13 and especially the discussion of the year of the crucifixion beginning on page 280.) [Emphasis added.]

By saying “we have already seen” and referring back to a discussion about the year of the Crucifixion found on earlier pages of his book, it is clear that before he ever dealt with his exegesis of Galatians 2:1–10, Steinmann had already drawn a red line that could not be crossed. He regards his Crucifixion date as “of necessity” placing Paul’s conversion after AD 33, regardless of exegetical indications to the contrary in Galatians and Acts. He had already committed himself to interpreting Galatians 2:1–10 in harmony with an AD 33 Crucifixion, even though, as my previous article on Acts and Galatians hopefully made clear, the plain sense of Galatians 2:1–10 matches up best with the (misnamed) “famine relief visit” described in Acts 11:29–30. This requires the conversion of Paul to take place not later than AD 32, and rules out an AD 33 Crucifixion.

The Co-Princeps of Tiberius

At any rate, Luke’s approach to the high priests means it is distinctly possible that he may have taken a similar pragmatic approach to the 15th year of Tiberius, viewing it differently than did the Romans. Is there any indication that this is the case? Yes, and it lies in the fact that we have evidence Tiberius was made “co-princeps,” with powers equal to those of Augustus over the Roman provinces, including Judea, prior to the death of Augustus. (Princeps civitatis, “First Citizen,” is the official title of the Roman Emperor.)

The ancient historian Suetonius recorded the following information:

After two years he [Tiberius] returned to the city from Germany and celebrated the triumph [for his military victories in Germany and Pannonia]....Since the consuls caused a law to be passed soon after this that he should govern the provinces jointly with Augustus and hold the census with him, he set out for Illyricum on the conclusion of the lustral ceremonies [which culminated the census]; but he was at once recalled, and finding Augustus in his last illness but still alive, he spent an entire day with him in private (Augustus 97:1; Tiberius 20–21, online at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/suet-tiberius-rolfe.asp; emphasis added).

Similarly, according to Velleius Paterculus (2.121.1–2, online at http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Velleius_Paterculus/2D*.html), a soldier who served under Tiberius,

After he had broken the force of the enemy by his expeditions on sea and land, had completed his difficult task in Gaul, and had settled by restraint rather than by punishment the dissensions that had broken out among the Viennenses, at the request of his father that he should have in all the provinces and armies a power equal to his own, the senate and Roman people so decreed. For indeed it was incongruous that the provinces which were being defended by him should not be under his jurisdiction, and that he who was foremost in bearing aid should not be considered an equal in the honour to be won. On his return to the city he celebrated the triumph over the Pannonians and Dalmatians, long since due him, but postponed by reason of a succession of wars.

While both passages agree that Tiberius did indeed receive authority equal that of Augustus in the provinces prior to Augustus’ death, it is slightly ambiguous exactly when they were granted. Paterculus seems, at first glance, to be saying that Tiberius was first granted the co-princeps powers at his father’s behest, then the triumph took place afterwards. According to the Fasti Praenestini inscription (http://www.attalus.org/docs/cil/add_8.html), on October 23, 12 AD “Tiberius rode a chariot in triumph from Illyricum.” This implies he received co-princeps authority in AD 12. However, the way the passage is written allows one to interpret it as Paterculus first presenting the big picture, then adding, as an afterthought, the observation that “on his return to the city”—i.e., right after his return from his military campaigns—he celebrated his triumph. This would make the granting of co-princeps authority follow shortly thereafter, in agreement with Suetonius. That makes good sense; after all, the high honor of virtually unlimited authority over the Empire seems to be such that would not have been granted in absentia while Tiberius was still in the field, but in his presence, to public and senatorial acclamation, following his return to Rome.

On the whole, then, the weight of scholarship seems to favor Suetonius’ timeline. Tiberius celebrated his triumph in October, AD 12. Co-princeps power was then granted him in the first half of AD 13; the census-taking and lustral ceremonies occupied the latter half of AD 13; then early AD 14 saw his trip to Illyricum, followed by a quick recall home for Augustus’ final illness. Highly-respected scholar Theodor Mommsen views the situation that way, noting in A History of Rome under the Emperors (online at https://web.archive.org/web/20110930110717/https://www.scribd.com/doc/42999229/A-History-of-Rome-Under-the-Emperors) that “Only months prior to the death of Augustus the same powers that were invested in the Emperor were conferred on him in all the provinces.” “Only months prior” implies less than a year, seemingly making AD 12 too early.

What we may take away from these co-princeps details, considered together with Luke’s pragmatic attitude toward the high priesthood of Annas, is that Luke may well have regarded the first “year of Tiberius,” so far as Judea was concerned, as beginning in AD 13. By inclusive reckoning, this would assign the 15th year of Tiberius, when the ministry of John the Baptist began, to AD 27.

The Passovers of Jesus’ Ministry

There is one more thing I wish to draw our attention to. It is generally conceded that the timeline of Jesus’ ministry encompassed three Passovers. The first is mentioned in John 2:13; the second in John 6:4; and the third, when Christ was betrayed and the Crucifixion took place, from John 11:55 through the end of chapter 19. As mentioned earlier, some scholars think there should be another Passover and another year in there, because they subjectively feel Jesus was involved in too many things to squeeze it all into the reported space of time. But the fact remains: this idea of a missing Passover is based on nothing more than scholarly conjecture, not biblical revelation. We are on safe ground if we stick to what God tells us in Scripture. Since John mentioned three Passovers, it stands to reason that if there was a fourth Passover somewhere in there, John would have mentioned it for completeness.

Prior to the first Passover we have the start of John the Baptist’s ministry, Christ’s baptism, the 40 days and nights of fasting and temptation, the calling of the earliest disciples, the wedding at Cana, and a period of baptizing ministry during which Jesus gave His disciples personal attention and nurturing. Those events can be expected to have taken several months prior to the first-mentioned Passover. For these reasons, I conclude that Jesus was baptized in the fall of the year before His first Passover.

Let us now put this all together. Luke pragmatically dated the 15th year of Tiberius according to when Tiberius obtained co-princeps authority over Judea. The evidence, drawn largely from Suetonius, is that Tiberius exercised imperium control over Judea in AD 13, making his 15th year, by Roman inclusive reckoning, AD 27. This would be the year when, in the fall, John baptized Jesus. Then the early events laying the groundwork for His public ministry take place, leading into His first Passover in the spring of AD 28. The second Passover of His ministry cited in John 6:4 took place in the spring of AD 29. Finally, the third Passover, when Jesus was crucified, came around…on April 7, AD 30. That was the conclusion arrived at in the previous installments of this study for entirely independent reasons.

Thus, there is no basis for dogmatically dismissing an AD 30 date for the Crucifixion as some do. We have to be fair to all the data, not just some of it. At the same time, we have to avoid reading our own biases into the narrative, whether by adding to it (like extra time padding the timeline of Jesus' ministry) or taking things away (like dates supported by the plain sense of extrabiblical historical records, such as those reported by Josephus pertaining to Herod the Great).

Conclusion

To wrap up this segment of the larger study, I feel obliged to adopt Wallace’s conclusion that Luke is taking a practical, Judea-centric view of the reign of Tiberius rather than a Rome-centric one:

In conclusion, the weight of probability lies with view (a). It seems that the only reason one would reject (a) in favor of (b) is an insistence that the year of the crucifixion must be 33 A.D. instead of 30 A.D. However, it seems to me that one cannot start with a preferred crucifixion date and go BACKWARD to establish the date of Tiberius' 15th year. And yet, once one accepts a particular year for Tiberius' 15th, it is reasonable then to use that to help establish the year of the crucifixion.

The phenomenon of reckoning a ruler’s reign differently when viewed from different perspectives is known in other cases, notably that of Herod the Great. Ignoring for the moment the debate about precisely when Herod’s reign began (traditionally 40 BC, by Roman reckoning), Josephus records (Ant. 17.8.1; Wars 1.33.8) that the Romans deemed it took effect when Antony and Octavian jointly declared him king over Judea, but the Jews did not acknowledge his rule until three years later, when Herod finally defeated the forces of the last Hasmonean, Antigonus, and had Antony put him to death. The Romans thus viewed the start of Herod’s reign from a date that existed only in Roman records, while the Judeans viewed it from the perspective of practical authority exerted over them. This is apparently what took place in the case of Tiberius as well. Although the Romans recorded Tiberius as sole head of state beginning in AD 14, his maius imperium (highest authority to command) power over the province of Judea was actually exercised from the time he was named co-princeps with Augustus in AD 13. And this, in keeping with his recognition of the status of Annas as a de facto high priest, appears to be how Luke reckoned Tiberius’ 15th year, from AD 13 rather than 14.

In sum, the significance of the 15th year of Tiberius given in Luke 3:1 is its specific connection to the start of the ministry of John the Baptist. We know that Christ was baptized prior to the Passover recorded in John 2:13, and a baptism during winter or early spring is less likely due to chilly weather. Moreover, time was needed prior to His first Passover to deal with the 40-day fast and other things. Therefore, we conclude that Jesus was most likely baptized in the early fall of AD 27. This synchronizes perfectly with the AD 30 Crucifixion our previous studies showed was most likely, and requires no conjectural padding of the timeline. It is consistent with the practical approach of Luke to dating things that we saw in his mention of both Annas and Caiaphas as high priests. The plain sense of Scripture in Acts and Galatians is also allowed to stand as written, rather than being subjected to awkward alternative interpretations to force it to fit with an AD 33 Crucifixion.

In the end, as John H. Rhoads pointed out in his excellent analysis of the date of the Quirinius census in Luke 2:1–2 (“Josephus Misdated the Census of Quirinius,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 54.1 [2001], 65–87), “When faced with such conflicting accounts, reconstructing history consists in establishing the most plausible, rather than the absolutely certain, account of what really happened.” That is what we are attempting to show in this study. In the material we have covered it is not as if there is conflict within the data, but in the interpretations; and an AD 33 Crucifixion date appears to involve jiggering with source information not required by the alternative.

In the next installment of this study, I hope to examine the significance of the mention in John 2:13–20 of the 46 years Herod’s temple had been under construction, along with evidence why the beginning of the reign of Herod should be assigned to the traditional date of 37 BC. The fashionable approach of the last half century of assigning it to 36 BC, which began with the work of W.E. Filmer and was subsequently adopted by Jack Finegan and Andrew Steinmann among others, is a new kid on the block that, though enthusiastically embraced by a few scholars who adopt an AD 33 Crucifixion, has for good reason failed to displace the traditional AD 30 date in the minds of most.

NOTE: This article has been superceded by the later research in A Closer Look: Daniel 8:14 Re-examined. It has been left online as a legacy post. Please refer to the newer article for important insights not covered here.

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At the 2017 Evangelical Theological Society meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, I had a conversation with a friend about the meaning of the 2,300 “evenings and mornings” mentioned in Daniel 8:14. The subject came up as we were discussing some aspects of the eschatology research I began in August 2017, which, among other things, has taken me into a deep study of the entire book of Daniel. This conversation brought home to me that there were differences of opinion as to how the 2,300 “evenings and mornings” should be understood.  I decided to undertake a focused study on the passage and its surrounding context to hopefully understand it better, and would like to share with you some insights that came out of that work.

What Matters is What the Bible Says

We could spend considerable time evaluating what various Bible commentators have had to say about the 2,300 “evenings and mornings.” One website (https://www.wake-up.org/time-periods/2300-days-daniel-8-14.html) observed that, of an assortment of “prominent scholars” between the years AD 430–1781 that dealt with the meaning of the 2,300 “evenings and mornings,” 21 claimed the 2,300 days represented years; six said they denoted the number of days to reach the end of the world; three claimed the period was 2,300 literal days; and one opined that the time represented 1,150 24-hour days. Folks, this diversity of opinion—which continues to our day—does not exactly engender confidence that a solution can be easily found! Nor does it mean that I, who would boldly sally forth into theological territory the prudent avoid, can come up with a better alternative than those who have gone before me. Nevertheless, when I stumble upon a workable solution offered by others to a seemingly intractable exegetical problem, as I did in this case, it seems good to pass it along.

The Text of Daniel 8

Let us first see what Daniel 8:3–14 says (NASB; a few phrases have been emphasized in bold for special attention):

³ Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last.
⁴ I saw the ram butting westward, northward, and southward, and no other beasts could stand before him nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified himself.
⁵ While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.
⁶ He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath.
⁷ I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power.
⁸ Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken; and in its place there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
⁹ And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the glorious land.
¹⁰ And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and some of the host and of the stars it cast down to the ground, and trampled upon them.
¹¹ It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down.
¹² And on account of transgression the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice; and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper.
¹³ Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, “How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?”
¹⁴ He said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be properly restored.”

The angel Gabriel then explains in verses 8:20-26 the meaning of the above vision:

²⁰ “The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia.
²¹ The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
²² The broken horn and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation, although not with his power.
²³ In the latter period of their rule, when the transgressors have run their course, a king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue.
²⁴ His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; he will destroy mighty men and the holy people.
²⁵ And through his shrewdness he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency.
²⁶ The vision of the evenings and mornings which has been told is true; but keep the vision secret, for it pertains to many days in the future.”

What is clear to virtually all conservative interpreters is that Daniel 8:20–22 refers to Alexander the Great, the “large horn” king of Greece, from whose empire his four generals arose and parceled it out among themselves. This was an event that took place “many days in the future” from Daniel’s time, about four centuries later. Normal hermeneutics would lead us to expect that verses 20–22 establish, simply as a matter of context, that their era sets the time frame for understanding the entire prophecy covered by Daniel 8:3–26: that in the absence of any clear indications to the contrary, the whole passage deals with the time of Alexander the Great and its immediate aftermath.

This impression is apparently confirmed by Daniel 8:23, “in the latter period of their rule.” Whose rule? Contextually, the rule of the four generals of Alexander who arose out of Alexander’s broken-up realm. When was the “latter period” of these generals? Known history indicates it was just prior to the Maccabean uprising, which spelled the effective end of that rule as far as the Jews were concerned. And what instigated the Maccabean rebellion? The desecration of the Second Temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a descendent of Alexander’s general Seleucus. The description of Antiochus Epiphanes in v. 23, as “insolent and skilled in intrigue,” is consistent with what is known about him: his political machinations, his pride, the warfare he waged, his persecution of the Jews, the placing of the desolating abomination in the Second Temple (where he in effect opposed “the Commander of the host,” “the Prince of princes,” God), and his being “broken without human agency,” which is consistent with his death from disease as reported in 2 Maccabees.

The Vision about the “Evenings and Mornings”

These details indicate that the context for understanding “the vision of the evenings and mornings” is the time of Antiochus, not an eschatological time some 2,300 years later. Viewing “evenings and mornings” (note well, it does not say “days,” and we cannot assume without analysis that the phrase means this) as figuratively meaning “years” is contextually unsupported, and amounts to subjectively reading onto the passage a theological/eschatological viewpoint developed from outside it. We must not set aside the immediate context of Scripture, regardless of whether respected commentators may have done so.

The six days of Creation are described thus in Genesis 1: “and there was evening, and there was morning.” To most conservative interpreters, an evening-and-morning period in Genesis is a 24-hour day, so in the absence of any clear indications to the contrary, we should default to that understanding of the evening-mornings in Daniel 8. Provisionally taking the 2,300 evening-mornings as 2,300 days obliges us to look for a significant anchor point about six years prior to Antiochus' desecration of the Second Temple.

However, we cannot identify a known historical event to provide such an anchor. The best guess of conservatives seeking to understand the 2,300 period as literal 24-hour days—the solution promoted in the ESV Study Bible, following such commentators as Matthew Henry and Keil—is that there is an approximate fulfillment between the time of the murder of the high priest Onias III by the corrupt usurper Menelaus until Judas Maccabeus rededicated the Temple. But this is only approximate, which appears to be out of keeping with the evening-morning precision applied to the number 2,300. It seems we must search for a better answer, one that understands the “evenings and mornings” as meaning something other than “days.”

The Vision about the “Regular Sacrifice”

As explained above, verse 8:11 indicates that the one who removes the “regular sacrifice” from God, and through this act metaphorically “throws down” (desolates) His sanctuary, is Antiochus. This sets the stage for understanding these words in 8:13: “How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?” The bolded phrase is an exact analogue to what we read in 8:26, “the vision of the evenings and mornings”; both verses speak of the same vision, emphasizing different aspects. Therefore, we should be looking for an understanding of the 2,300 “evenings and mornings” as something connected with the resumption of normal Temple sacrifice practice after its interruption by the desecration wrought by Antiochus.

I recently found a proposed solution that takes into account both the context of the passage in Antiochus' time—the interruption of the regular daily sacrifice—and the evening-morning precision of the 2,300 period. First, we need to understand what Scripture says about the “regular sacrifice,” that is, the continual burnt offering referred to in Daniel 8:11. Exodus 29:38–42 gives us the details (NASB, emphasis added):

Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two one year old lambs each day, continuously. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning [Heb boqer] and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight [Heb 'ereb]; and there shall be one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering with one lamb. The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD. It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.

We learn from this that the regular offering, the “continual,” involved one sacrificed lamb in the morning and another in the evening. The continual regular sacrifice thus was not one sacrifice per day, but actually two, involving an 'ereb and a boqer. Now, compare this with the Hebrew words used in Daniel 8:13-14: “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings ['ereb in the singular] and mornings [boqer in the singular]. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.” In other words, 2,300 evening-mornings. The same two words. Is this significant?

I think it is. Look again at the context of verses 8:13 and 14. The question asked is not, “How far in the future will the vision start to be fulfilled?”, which would expect an answer in years (since 8:26 tells us that the vision as a whole “pertains to many days in the future”). Rather, it is “How long will the regular sacrifice be disrupted?”, which looks for an answer connected with the actions of Antiochus. The NIV agrees with the NASB in affirming that this is the meaning of verse 13: “How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the LORD's people?” It is not about the “many days in the future” when the vision starts to be fulfilled, but how long the process of fulfillment plays out.

In short, we have to stay anchored to the context of the passage, both in terms of its time frame and its subject. The time frame in question is the aftermath of Antiochus' desolating the Temple, while the subject is the regular “continual” sacrifice. Since we know that the “continual” involved sacrifices in the evening and the morning (the Jews reckoned their days as beginning in the evening), we ask, “Might the 2,300 evening-mornings refer to 1,150 days of twice-daily sacrifices?”

A Precise Solution to the 2,300 Evening-Mornings

In what follows I am indebted to Fred P. Miller for the keen insights into the prophecy of Daniel 8 in the following analysis, posted at http://www.moellerhaus.com/2300.htm. He points out that precise dates for the beginning and end of Antiochus' desecration of the Second Temple are known. 1 Maccabees 1:54 gives us the date of the abomination as Kislev (December) 15, 167 BC, while 1 Maccabees 4:52–53 tells us the Temple was rededicated on Kislev 25, 164 BC. (The Jews remember this date in their celebration of Hanukkah.) These two dates span a total of 3 years and 10 days.

Now, if we compare the “time, times and half a time” expression used in Daniel 7:25 with the “forty-two months” of Revelation 13:5 for the same period when the Antichrist exercises authority, we see that Daniel reckoned a year to be 360 days long:

Dan 7:25 He [Antichrist] shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they [the saints] shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

Rev 13:5 And the beast [Antichrist] was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.

Comparing Revelation 12:6 with Revelation 12:14 yields the same result:

Rev 12:6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Rev 12:14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.

When we plug this 360-day year into the three full years spanned by the desecration of Antiochus, we account for 1,080 days. To this we must add the intercalary (leap) months used by the Greeks to periodically get their calendar synced up with the seasons. How long were those months? Herodotus, the Greek “Father of History,” helps us answer that question. Writing around the year 445 BC, in a dialogue about happiness between Croesus and Solon, he states:

Seventy years I regard as the limit of the life of man. In these seventy years are contained, without reckoning intercalary months, twenty-five thousand and two hundred [25,200] days. Add an intercalary month to every other year, that the seasons may come round at the right time, and there will be, besides the seventy years, thirty-five [35] such months, making an addition of one thousand and fifty [1050] days. The whole number of the days contained in the seventy years will thus be twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty [26,250], whereof not one but will produce events unlike the rest (https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/herodotus-creususandsolon.asp).

Let’s follow along with Herodotus to find out how long the year and intercalary months were in his day. Dividing 25,200 days by 70 years yields 360 days per year, just as in our Scriptures above. The length of an intercalary month in the Greek system—probably that followed in Antiochus’ day, since he was a Greek—is found by dividing 1,050 days by 35 months, yielding 30 days per intercalary month. Over our 3 years and 10 days period, having a 30-day intercalary month in the first and third years (“every other year,” as Herodotus put it) adds 60 days. We then total it all up—years, intercalary months, plus 10 extra days: 1,080 + 60 + 10 = 1,150 days.

This is exactly the number of days covered by 2,300 evening-morning regular sacrifices. It is yet another indicator of the inspiration of Scripture, a marvelously precise fulfillment of what Gabriel revealed to Daniel about the duration of Antiochus Epiphanes' desolation of the Second Temple. I commend this solution to you for understanding the 2,300 “evenings and mornings” of Daniel 8:14. Adopting it also eliminates giving the false impression that we somehow need to accommodate 2,300 years into our eschatological understandings. We can thereby avoid an unfruitful rabbit trail as we try to think God’s thoughts after Him, as we study Daniel and other eschatology-focused Scriptures.

For quite a long time there has been an active debate amongst scholars devoted to the study of New Testament chronology concerning the date of the Crucifixion. Some say AD 30 AD, others AD 33, and a minority have suggested other years. It might all seem to be purely academic to the man or woman in the pew, and in one sense it is; those who have been born again by the Spirit of God know He indwells them, and the specific date of the redeeming act pales in significance to this sublime fact.

To those who have not experienced the deep peace and sense of assurance that comes from being indwelt by the Spirit of God, however, the question has some importance, because it bears on whether the Bible can be trusted when it addresses the eternal “things which are not seen” (2 Cor. 4:18). How so? Because people without the spiritual insights afforded by a personal relationship with the Savior must look to external indicators to weigh whether its truth claims are believable. Such externals include the testimony of nature; the testimony of the changed lives of Christians around them; the testimony of historical records and archaeology; and the testimony of the Bible itself. Those immersed in a secular worldview can dismiss the marvels of nature as either an accident of random chance or perhaps due to the intervention of “aliens” (actually demons); those who know individual Christians with an inconsistent or immature walk with Christ can tar Christianity in general with such labels as “hypocrites” or “judgmental”; those who know something about biblical history and archaeology may say “no one knows for sure” due to the clamoring skeptical voices filling social media and academia, which vigorously push a negative slant on the facts; and those who find in the Bible “unbelievable” miracles and “rigid, outdated” moral standards they deem inappropriate for our “enlightened, tolerant” age of near-total individual freedom, readily point to perceived errors in its pages to claim that its moral precepts and its testimony that Jesus is the only Savior of the world can be ignored.

Yet, it remains true that no sane person doubts that Jesus of Nazareth once walked the dusty roads of ancient Israel, and His life left a mark on the human race that has endured for two millennia. But notwithstanding this acknowledgement, most people are content to heed the voices of skeptics, supposedly authoritative scholars who question the biblical text, or in-name-only “cultural Christians” who embrace a vague “spirituality” that encompasses all religious aspirations but is devoid of objective substance. As a result, they refuse to seriously wrestle with what those truly committed to the Bible’s message have to say – particularly when they say a bunch of different things about the Book they all claim as Truth! To the point of this article, many people realize that believers can’t even agree on the year when their Savior was crucified. If they can’t get their facts straight on that key event, how can they be expected to get right anything the Bible teaches? In their rational minds, their skepticism seems well-justified.

In last month’s issue of the ABR Newsletter, I discussed some of my research regarding the date of the Crucifixion. That article, “How the Passover Illuminates the Date of the Crucifixion,” looked at how the Passover was first observed on the night before the Israelites left Egypt, then at how God commanded His people to commemorate it each year as a memorial to His great deliverance (Ex. 12, Lev. 21, Nm. 28). Applying this information from the Word to initially narrow down the options for the date of the Crucifixion – it ruled out any days other than a Friday, or any duration other than from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning – the study then looked at records of lunar eclipses, in the hope that such objective, science-based information could tie the date of the Crucifixion to a specific year. We left that investigation with the observation that lunar eclipse information contributed nothing of substance in making a determination, leaving us with two possible candidate dates – April 7, 30 AD and April 3, 33 AD. We concluded that further information was needed to try to choose between them.

This installment picks up from where we left off last month, looking at additional factors which may help us choose between these two options. Here we will delve into some chronological details in the books of Acts and Galatians. The reader will notice our approach is to go directly to Scripture whenever possible, and when datable extrabiblical events are taken into account, to only use those which have virtually unanimous acceptance. If the resulting conclusions match up with what the scholars say, well and good; if not, the reader is encouraged to evaluate them by the straightforward sense of Scripture, not by filtering them first through the opinions of scholars. As a wise friend, an engineer, told me in an email, “As erroneous historical scholarship seldom results in death or malpractice lawsuits, far too many liberties are taken with scholarly presumptions. I find many (not all) scholars are often in error but never in doubt...” This is a sentiment I agree with; there is a lot of scholarly arrogance out there. For this reason, we do well to base our conclusions directly on the biblical text and original source material, unfiltered by the opinions of others. If the scholars can read the original material and render opinions on it, so can you and I! Although their studies may be helpful from time to time, we need not slavishly depend on them to interpret Scripture for us, since God has promised to send His Spirit to give us insight if we are sincere seekers:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come (Jn. 16:13, ESV).

My goal in this paper is to look closely at details in Scripture itself that point to a clear-cut date for the Crucifixion. I believe that many commentators have eschewed their own careful exegetical work and have overlooked the immediate context of the passages from which they derive their chronological understandings, piggybacking instead on fashionable academic trends and adopting erroneous conclusions as a result. We can avoid these errors if we are sensitive to scriptural context on the one hand, yet at the same time embracing a whole-Bible perspective. This we will attempt to do below.

Luke’s Consecutively Ordered Events

Having a series of events presented in consecutive order would be a big help in establishing a timeline surrounding the Crucifixion. We have excellent cause to expect we can derive a reliable sequence of events from Scripture itself, because we have the records of a first-rate historian, Luke, to work with. He states in Luke 1:3 (NASB): “It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus...” Acts 1:1-2 begins in similar fashion: “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven...” A straightforward reading of these verses indicates that Luke’s intent in both books was to set forth a chronological, consecutive ordering of events.

Since a straightforward reading of the biblical text has never discouraged academics from questioning it, it is necessary to support the contention that Luke aimed for a chronological ordering in his account. As scholars are wont to do, some have argued in recent years that the apparent sense of the text is not the correct one; that Luke had no qualms about rearranging his material in logical order to tell his story. When a detailed study is done, however, it strongly supports the idea of explicit chronological ordering conveyed by the NASB translation. I commend to you a carefully done exegetical paper by Benjamin Fung, Aida Spencer and Francois Viljoen (2017), “What does kαθεξῆς in Luke 1:3 mean? Discovering the writing order of the Gospel of Luke,” In die Skriflig 51(1), a2218, online at https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v51i1.2218. It concludes that an in-depth study of the word kathexes in Luke 1:3, “in consecutive order” (NASB) or “an orderly account” (ESV), indicates chronological order was intended. As they write near the beginning of their lengthy analysis:

In Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (Montanari 2015:1002) kαθεξῆς indicates ‘in succession, one after another, in order’. According to BDAG (2000:490) kαθεξῆς has a similar but more elaborative meaning, namely ‘pertinent to being in sequence in (1) time, (2) space, or (3) logic’. In the Bible kαθεξῆς usually refers to sequence of time, and when Luke uses kαθεξῆς to describe time, he describes chronological order, as will be demonstrated (emphasis added).

Summarizing their section on the etymology of kαθεξῆς, the authors observe:

In summary…in Luke 1:3 Luke intends to write one event after another according to their time of happening (next, or next in order to and down) for everything he has investigated (to the end). By using kαθεξῆς, Luke suggests that he writes his Gospel in chronological order.

It stands to reason that since Luke wrote Acts for the same recipient he directed his Gospel to, Theophilus, his declared chronological approach in the Gospel is reflected in Acts as well. He states in Acts 1:1-2, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven...” By beginning thus, it is clear that Luke views what he is about to relate in Acts as a continuation of what was set forth earlier in his Gospel. Acts is Luke’s second account for Theophilus, so we should expect it also to be “in consecutive order.” We have here solid grounds for taking the order of events as Acts presents them as the order in which they occurred. We will give Fung, Spencer and Viljoen the last word on this, extracted from their Conclusion:

Besides Luke 1:3, kαθεξῆς occurs four times only in Luke and Acts in the NT, and the usages in Luke 8:1, Acts 3:24 and 11:4 (i.e. 75%) refer to time sequence….Luke always uses ἑξῆς to describe a time sequence, whether referring generally to time or specifically to hour…(emphasis added).

The Timeline of Acts 1-9

With those preliminaries out of the way, we want to first determine the approximate amount of time required for the events that span Acts 1 through 9 to take place. This can only be done by actually reading the material and exercising judgment based on what the text says, not by theorizing based on a superficial observation of the number of chapters involved. The following timeline is extracted from those chapters, condensed for brevity. The NASB has been used.

From the Crucifixion at Passover to the Ascension – 43 days
Acts 1:3: “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” After His Crucifixion on a Passover Friday, Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week" (Mk 16:1-2, Lk 24:1), "on the third day" (1 Cor 15:3-4). This was followed by 40 days of post-Resurrection appearances to his disciples.

The Pentecost Harvest of 3000 – 50 days inclusive after Passover
Acts 2:1, 41: “When the day of Pentecost had come [50 days, counted inclusively, after Passover]…that day there were added about three thousand souls.”
[Total elapsed time from Passover ~ 7 weeks.]

Converts increase, Pentecost visitors don’t go home, people start selling possessions to help them
Acts 2:42-45, 47: “They [including many visiting Jews] were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need…And the Lord was adding to their number day by day…” [Since many new converts were Pentecost visitors from far away (vv. 9-11) who had come to Jerusalem with no intention of a prolonged stay, they had limited resources with them. Therefore, this selling and sharing began almost immediately after Pentecost to meet their needs. People were prepared to sell their possessions because there was widespread Messianic expectation.]
[Propose 3 weeks to see the need for donations, begin property sales, and set up distribution strategies. Total elapsed time from Passover ~ 10 weeks.]

Episode of the lame man, 5000-plus new converts; apostles jailed, let off with a warning
Acts 3-4: “And [shortly after the start of selling possessions] a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple [a very public spot, so many people were aware of him.]…Peter said, “…In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”…And all the people saw him walking and praising God…and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. As they [the apostles] were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them…And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day…But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men [not counting women/children] came to be about five thousand…On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes…began to confer with one another…And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them…“we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” [aggravating the Jewish authorities]…And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul…there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need…Barnabas…owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”
[Propose this happens within 2 weeks of the start of the selling possessions, about 1 month after Pentecost. Total elapsed time ~ 12 weeks, or 3 months since Passover.]

Conversions continue, Jewish leaders feel threatened, apostles jailed and flogged
Acts 5: “At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico [a crowd in a very public place would attract attention]…And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number…Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed….But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy. They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out he said, “Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.” Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach. [No delay!]…The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name [after the healing of the lame man], and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us”…But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men…He [Jesus] is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.”…But when they heard this, they [the High Priest and Sadducees] were cut to the quick and intended to kill them. [This evil intent on the part of the Jewish leaders emerges quickly.]…But a Pharisee named Gamaliel…gave orders to put the men outside for a short time…They took his advice; after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them….And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”
[Propose the first arrest of the apostles happens about 5 months after Passover. Severity of punishment quickly escalates.]

Conversions continue, Stephen made a deacon, arrested and martyred
Acts 6-7: “Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number [which was happening continually], a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews [the ones who came at Pentecost to Jerusalem from far away] against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task…and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit…The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith…And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen…And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council…And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers!...Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”…But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”
[Propose Stephen’s death happens within 7 months of Passover.]

Great persecution begins, Saul takes a leading role, is converted
Acts 8-9: “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day [the very day of Stephen’s death] a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles….But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word....Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem….As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”…Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus…”
[Propose Saul’s conversion happens within 9 months of Passover.]

Summary about the Timeline of Acts 1-9

Looking over this information, and making what seem to be reasonable deductions about how much time passes in view of the very fast growth of the Church (3000, 5000, “multitudes…were constantly added”) and rapidly escalating animosity of the Jewish religious leaders in the face of aggressive evangelizing by the apostles, there is no good reason to suppose that the events of Acts 1-9 took a year or more to occur. Not more than a few months would be necessary to bring the Jewish leaders’ antipathy to a boil, since the apostles adopted a very “in your face” attitude against the High Priest and the Sadducees, making it very reasonable for Saul’s conversion to have taken place in the latter part of the crucifixion year. It must be kept in mind, also, that these were the same Jewish leaders who had pushed for the death penalty against Jesus, predisposing them to have little tolerance for His followers. Not more than 9 months appears necessary after Passover of the crucifixion year for all of these events to have taken place. The honest skeptic without a chronological agenda can pad this time with a couple more months if they wish, but beyond that appears to be unrealistically generous.

Paul’s Early Travels in Acts 8-12

We have just sketched out reasons why less than a year was necessary, from the Crucifixion to the conversion of Saul, for the clash between the disciples and the Jewish religious leaders to result in the scattering of the infant Church and Saul’s single-minded persecution of it. In order to establish a longer timeline in which to place one or more independently datable events, we now establish the sequence of places Paul visited in his early days as a Christian, from his conversion to his second trip to Antioch. All Scriptures that follow (ESV) are presented in consecutive order. Clarifying notes have been added in [brackets], while the places Paul visited are emphasized in bold italics.

Jerusalem, the starting point
Acts 8:1, 3: “And Saul approved of his [Stephen’s] execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles….But Saul was ravaging the church [in Jerusalem], and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”

1. Damascus #1
Acts 9:3-6, 8, 19: “Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus... and suddenly a light from heaven shone around. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’...So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus...and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.” [This is the first major time marker in Paul’s Christian life: his conversion.]

2. Arabia
Gal 1:15-17a: “But when he who had set me apart...was pleased to reveal his Son to me [at his conversion, on his first visit to Damascus], in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me [his gospel was not influenced by people, but revealed by the Lord], but I went away into Arabia...”

3. Damascus #2
Gal 1:17b: “...And returned again [for the second time] to Damascus.” [Note that this passage does not say that Paul spent three years in Arabia! That is a common misconception. All it tells us is that Paul went there for an apparently rather short period of time, then returned.]

Acts 9:23, 25: “When many days had passed [in Damascus], the Jews plotted to kill him...but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall [of Damascus], lowering him in a basket.” [2 Cor 11:32-33: “At Damascus, the governor [ethnarch] under King Aretas [IV] was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.”]

4. Jerusalem #1
Acts 9:26-27: And when he [Saul] had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles…”

Gal 1:18: “Then after [Gk. meta] three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.” [This is the second major time marker in Paul’s Christian life: his first trip to Jerusalem after he had been a Christian for a total of three years, not three years since he got back from Arabia. The Greek preposition meta tells us this time period traces back to his conversion, as clarified below.]

Acts 9:29-30a: “And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists [at Jerusalem]. But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this...”

5. Tarsus
Acts 9:30b: “...they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him [Saul] off to Tarsus [in Cilicia].”

Gal 1:21: “Then [until Barnabas sought him out] I went into the regions of Syria [Antioch] and Cilicia [Tarsus]. [Acts 21:39: Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia...]

Acts 11:19-22, 24b-25: “Now those who were scattered because of…Stephen traveled as far as…Antioch… preaching the Lord Jesus…and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this [large-scale Gentile conversions] came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch….And a great many people were added to the Lord [at Antioch]. So [because he needed help ministering to all the new converts] Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul…”

6. Antioch #1
Acts 11:26-28: “...and when he [Barnabas] had found him [at Tarsus], he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year [of ministry at Antioch] they [Barnabas and Saul] met with the church and taught a great many people. Now in these days [the year when Barnabas and Saul were at Antioch] prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be [in the near future] a great famine [which had not started yet, it was a prophecy] over all the [Roman] world (this took place in the days of Claudius [41-54 AD]).

7. Jerusalem #2
Acts 11:29-30: So the disciples [at Antioch] determined, every one according to his ability, to send [pre-emptive] relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it [the famine relief] to the elders [at Jerusalem] by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.”

Gal 2:1: “Then after [Gk. dia] fourteen years I went up again [a second time] to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus [a Gentile] along with me.” [This is the third major time marker in Paul’s Christian life – fourteen years post-conversion, encompassing all his time as a Christian up to the end of his one year of Antioch ministry with Barnabas. The Greek preposition dia makes this clear, see below.]

Gal 2:2: “I went up [to Jerusalem] because of a revelation [not because of famine relief] and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles [this Gentile-centered gospel was the revelation], in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.” [Cf. Gal 1:12: “For I neither received it [the gospel he preached] from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” This revelation was Paul’s distinctive gospel message that applied specifically to Gentile believers. Labeling this trip merely a “famine relief mission,” as if that was its primary reason, denies Paul’s plain statement that it was driven by “a revelation” he needed to share. His goal for the trip was to convey his Gentile-centered gospel message privately to some of the leadership in Jerusalem “for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.” It was only because he already planned to go to Jerusalem that the pre-emptive famine relief was sent along with him, Barnabas and Titus. Think about it: if famine relief was the main motive for the trip, Titus’ inclusion makes little sense. But it does if we consider that he was Exhibit A of God’s new work among the Gentiles. If famine relief had been the main motive, it would most efficiently have been sent with the prophet Agabus and his companions when they returned to their home in Jerusalem after their Antioch visit.]

Acts 12:1-4: “About that time [when Barnabas and Paul left Antioch for Jerusalem] Herod [Agrippa I] the king…killed James the brother of John...proceeded to arrest Peter…during the days of Unleavened Bread [part of the Passover festival]...intending after the Passover [in just a few days] to bring him out to the people.”

Acts 12:6-7, 19a: “Now when Herod [Agrippa I] was about to bring him [Peter] out, on that very night…an angel of the Lord stood next to him…And the chains fell off his hands...And after Herod searched for him [Peter] and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death.”

Acts 12:19b-23: “Then he [Herod Agrippa I] went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and...asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. On an appointed day [for their meeting] Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them [in context, to the people of Tyre and Sidon]...And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” [buttering him up to curry his political favor] Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down…he [Herod Agrippa I] breathed his last [44 AD, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_Agrippa, which summarizes this current consensus of scholarship in its endnotes].”

8. Antioch #2
Acts 12:24-25: “But the word of God increased and multiplied. And [following the death of Herod Agrippa I] Barnabas and Saul returned [to Antioch] from Jerusalem when they had completed their service [for the Antioch church, in explaining to the elders at Jerusalem God’s work among the Gentiles there, and only secondarily delivering their famine offering], bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.”

Analysis of the Acts 8-12 Timeline

The above presentation of Paul’s early travels, from his conversion to his return to Antioch from his second trip to Jerusalem, is securely based on information taken straight from Scripture. Only the date of Herod Agrippa I’s death is drawn from outside sources, but it is confirmed by multiple classical writings reflected in the Wikipedia entry; indeed, one will find no serious dissent from the 44 AD date for Herod’s death anywhere, so strong is the evidence. Now we need to build upon this information and draw out its implications for determining the date of the Crucifixion.

First, however, a note about a possible complaint some may direct at this study concerning the King Aretas mentioned in 2 Cor. 11:32-33. Some scholars have alleged that Aretas would not have had authority to control an ethnarch in Damascus before about 37 AD, requiring Paul’s abrupt departure after his second trip there to have been in 37 AD or later. Such conjectures, however, were dismissed by well-respected scholar F.F. Bruce, whose opinion carries considerable weight. In Chronological Questions in the Acts of the Apostles, a November 1985 lecture at John Rylands University (online at https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m1627&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF), Bruce states:

Aretas IV was king of the Nabataean Arabs from about 9 B.C. to A.D. 40. It is widely supposed, though on doubtful grounds, that Damascus actually belonged to his kingdom for a few years before his death -- perhaps through a change of imperial policy at the beginning of the principate of Gaius in A.D. 37.⁸ His ethnarch who, according to 2 Corinthians 11:32, watched the gates of Damascus in an attempt to arrest Paul, was probably the head of the Nabataean colony in that city.⁹ Paul’s residence in Damascus, according to Galatians 1:17f., fell within the three years or so following his conversion, and that event must certainly be dated well before A.D. 40, the year of Aretas’s death. Even if Aretas did control Damascus from A.D. 37 until his death, Paul’s escape from the city is probably to be dated before A.D. 37. It is only in a very general way that the reference to Aretas helps us in our chronological quest (emphasis added).

Given the spotty state of our knowledge of the degree Aretas exercised hegemony over Damascus in the decade before his death – for he need not have been a Rome-approved ruler over Damascus to have had a loyal underling in a position of authority in the Nabataean colony there – it is not possible to use him as a solid anchor for Pauline chronology. We can, with F.F. Bruce, safely dismiss Aretas from consideration as a non-factor, and look to other, more reliable dating criteria instead, like the death of Herod Agrippa I that we will look at later.

The Three and Fourteen Years

It is now necessary to support in some depth the contention that the mention of fourteen years in Galatians 2:1 refers to time elapsed since Paul’s conversion. Though some view this passage as referring to time that passed since his first trip to Jerusalem for his 15-day visit with Peter, making the total time since his conversion approximately seventeen years (3+14), the Greek text indicates otherwise. In contrast to Galatians 1:18, where the preposition meta, “with,” is used in reference to three years, the preposition used in 2:1 is dia, having the basic meaning of “through” or “during.” It conveys the sense of continuity with something discussed earlier, not supplemental information that independently follows after an event that already occurred. If Paul’s meaning was that fourteen years had passed from the time of his first visit to Jerusalem, the best choice of preposition would have been the same one he had already used in Gal 1:18, meta. That would have accurately conveyed that the fourteen years was an additional time period tacked on to the three years from his conversion already mentioned. See, for instance, Hebrews 4:8: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on (meta)” – a day subsequent to Joshua’s. But instead, Paul purposely switched to the preposition dia. Since God is the God of the “jots and tittles,” there was a reason for this change!

That the fourteen years of Galatians 2:1 refers to time passed since Paul’s conversion is supported by various standard reference works. For example, the Expositor’s Greek Testament observes:

The author has shown by a rapid glance over the first thirteen years of his Christian life how independent he had been of human teaching at his conversion and subsequently. He now proceeds to record the true history of the negotiations which he had undertaken at Jerusalem in conjunction with Barnabas in the fourteenth year of his ministry [emphasis added].

Most impressive to me, due to the depth of his Greek exegesis, is the work of the inimitable Henry Alford, whose analysis of the Greek text of Galatians 2:1 is extremely precise and detailed. Some may disrespect him because his work was done in the nineteenth century, but the last time I looked, the principles of Greek grammar had not changed since his day. He says in part (https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/hac/galatians-2.html):

Next, from what time are we to reckon? Certainly at first sight it would appear,­ from the journey last mentioned [i.e., the first trip to Jerusalem]…But why? Is the prima facie view of a construction always right?...Are we not bound, in all such cases, should any reason ab extra exist for doing so, to reexamine the passage, and ascertain whether our prima facie impression may not have arisen from neglecting some indication furnished by the context? That this is the case here, I am persuaded...

Alford then elucidates the same insight I obtained independently from the original Greek:

The ἔπειτα [epeita, “then” or “after”] in both cases [Gal 1:18 and 2:1] may be well taken as referring back to the same terminus a quo [point of origin], διὰ [dia] being used in this verse [2:1] as applying to the larger interval, or even perhaps to prevent the fourteen years being counted from the event last mentioned [1:18], as they would more naturally be, had a second μετά [meta] been used. What would there be forced or unnatural in a statement of the following kind? “After my conversion...my occasions of communicating with the other Apostles were these: (1) after three years I went up, etc. (2) after fourteen years had elapsed, I again went up, etc?”

Though Alford’s technical material is too long to quote in full here (see the link if interested), he goes into such analytical depth that in my estimation he makes a timeless, slam-dunk exegetical case for the fourteen years being reckoned from Paul’s conversion, and that this period encompassed the three years from his conversion to his first visit to Jerusalem. Those who can handle his copious Greek citations are encouraged to review his analysis.

Although I do not agree with the 33 AD point he starts measuring from (for reasons developed below), Tony Bartolucci has put together an excellent compilation of much more recent resources that confirm the soundness of Alford’s earlier work, basing his exegesis on the grammatical analysis made by Albert L. Lukaszewski and Mark Dubis in The Lexham Syntactic Greek New Testament (Logos Bible Software, 2009). He concludes, in agreement with both my independent study and the work of Alford, that the periods of three and fourteen years are both measured from Paul’s Damascus Road conversion, with the longer period including the first within it. Here are two excerpts from that compendium, online at http://www.tonybartolucci.com/Sermons/Galatians%20Exegesis/Galatians%201.18-24.pdf:

[Regarding Gal 1:18] The words after three years do not merely refer to a lapse of time. They are argumentative. Paul is showing all through this section, his entire independence of the Jerusalem apostles. Therefore, the three years have reference, not to the time after his return from Arabia, but to the period of time after his conversion.... [Wuest, Kenneth S., Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997).]

By the time we get to [Gal] 2:1 we are 14 years after his conversion. In total, Paul only spent 15 days in Jerusalem out of 14 years. [Bartolucci, 21, emphasis added; the copious notes on which this conclusion was based are found at http://www.tonybartolucci.com/Sermons/Galatians%20Exegesis/Galatians%202.1-10.pdf.]

I could add more support, but this will suffice. The most powerful argument in favor of extending the fourteen years of Galatians 2:1 back to Paul’s conversion is an objective one tied to the preposition changing from meta to dia within the immediate context. It was a purposeful change indicating that the references in Galatians 1-2 to the passing of three and fourteen years must refer to time measured from Paul’s conversion. Only a desire to accommodate a preferred chronological outcome requiring additional time can ignore this clear meaning of the Greek grammar. It gives us a sturdy skeleton which can be fleshed out with other people, places and dates.

The Timing of the Second Jerusalem Visit

Let us now recap what we have established so far. The time from the Crucifixion to Paul’s conversion was less than a year, likely about nine months. Then, the time from Paul’s conversion to his second trip to Jerusalem, in the company of Barnabas and Titus, was fourteen years. Let us keep these details in mind as we now come to a highly-debated (by scholars, anyway) issue: How to relate the trip to Jerusalem described in Galatians 2:1-10, to the trips to Jerusalem described in Acts 11:29-12:25 and 15. Which trip does Galatians 2:1-10 correspond with? In the above timeline of Acts 8-12, it was assumed that the natural sense of the texts indicated Paul’s second visit to Jerusalem in Acts 11:29-30 (the first being his brief 15-day visit with Peter) corresponded with the one described in Galatians 2:1-2. Not all scholars agree with this assumption, so it needs to be exegetically demonstrated.

We will begin by first taking a look at the situation described in Acts 15, which deals mostly with the meeting known as the Jerusalem Council. Then we will perform an analysis of Galatians 2:1-10 similar to that done with Acts 8-12, thereby establishing a timeline. Finally, we will compare the events described in Galatians 2:1-10 with the situations in Acts 12 and 15, and deduce the most straightforward way of reconciling these different records with each other.

The Situation in Acts 15

Sandwiched between the Jerusalem-based events of Acts chapters 12 and 15, we have the story of the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas related in Acts 13 and 14. The events of the first missionary journey do not apply to our analysis here, so we will skip over those two chapters. Here is the compressed story from Acts 15, as given in the NASB:

Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised…you cannot be saved.” And…the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue…and they reported all that God had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.” The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. After there had been much debate…James answered, saying, “…it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.” Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas…Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, and they sent this letter by them…”For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.” So when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch; and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter…After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work…they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left [Paul’s second missionary journey]…

The Situation in Galatians 2:1-10

Now we turn to Galatians 2. A critically important matter is how one goes about synchronizing the account in this chapter with information from Acts. Does it connect with the so-called “famine relief” trip that spans Acts 11:29 though 12:25, or with the Jerusalem Council visit of Acts 15? We begin by reading Galatians 2:1-10 (NASB), emphasizing a few important words for special attention:

Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in [to Antioch] to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage [following circumcision and the Mosaic Law]. But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) – well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised (for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles), and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They only asked us to remember the poor – the very thing I also was eager to do.

Let us now examine in detail those important points.

“I went up again to Jerusalem” – “Again” tells us Paul had been to Jerusalem at least one time before. When? We know from Acts 9:26-27 that Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem was when he “met with Peter and James privately three years after his conversion” (Gal 1:18-19), so logically Galatians 2:1 is referring to the second Jerusalem visit introduced in Acts 11:29-30. Moreover, Barnabas was not involved in the Acts 9:26-27 visit as a traveling companion with Paul, but was a member of the Jerusalem church (cf. Acts 4:36-37, where he placed the proceeds from selling a tract of land at the apostles’ feet). This means that connecting “again” with Barnabas – as if it was a second trip made with Barnabas, effectively being Paul’s third trip to Jerusalem related in Acts 15 – is misinterpreting the passage. Besides, elsewhere when Paul wants to say he plans to do something that he had already done twice before, he does not ambiguously say “again,” but is very clear: “Here for the third time I am ready to come to you” (2 Cor 12:14). It is reasonable to expect he would have been similarly specific, if in Galatians 2 “again” referred to what was actually his third trip to Jerusalem.

2. “Taking Titus along” – Luke says nothing in Acts 15 about Titus being included in the group that accompanied Paul and Barnabas to the Jerusalem Council. Though an argument from silence, this was a notable omission if he was indeed part of that trip, because in Gal 2:3 Paul draws particular attention to him as an example of the grace of God saving Gentiles apart from keeping the requirements of the Mosaic Law: “But not even Titus...though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.” This Lukan silence about Titus makes good sense if his visit took place not during the highly public Jerusalem Council, but during Paul’s earlier, second visit to Jerusalem when he met “in private” with only James, Peter and John to give them evidence of God’s work among the Gentiles. In fact, if we identify the visit with Titus with the “famine relief” trip in Acts 11:29-30, it provides a motivation for the indignant visit to Antioch of the Pharisaical brethren described in Acts 15:1-2, which directly led to holding the Jerusalem Council.

3. “Because of a revelation” – See the comments above under “Jerusalem #2.” This revelation, as already mentioned, should not be understood as the famine prophecy of Agabus (after all, Agabus and his companions, being Jerusalem natives, could just as well have taken the famine relief collection to Jerusalem themselves, saving Paul and Barnabas the trip and disruption of their important work at Antioch). When the overall context is considered, it makes far better sense to see this revelation as new information revealed by the Lord directly to Paul, the “apostle to the uncircumcised”: namely, that circumcision and other works of the Law do not apply to Gentiles as means of salvation, but only God’s grace in calling and regenerating. Paul’s gospel was that Gentiles are saved by faith alone, not by circumcision or keeping the Mosaic Law. Some commentators have pointed out that Peter received a revelation of sorts in Acts 10:9-16, and supposed this might have been the revelation Paul referred to; but why would Paul have felt obliged to go to Jerusalem in connection with a revelation that came to Peter, who was already in Jerusalem? The insight given to Peter was very limited, only addressing the bald fact that Gentiles could be saved: “God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” It did not address the practical outworking of that insight, which the Lord’s revelation to Paul did. Remember, too, that Paul later raked Peter over the coals for hypocrisy:

nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we [Jews] have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified...I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly (Gal 2:16, 21).

We are on firm ground in seeing the revelation given to Paul as directly connected with his above teaching, coming as it does just a few verses after Gal 2:1-10, that salvation is by faith alone.

4. “I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles...in private” – This mention that the matter was dealt with “in private” is in obvious conflict with the very public nature of the debate portrayed in Acts 15 (“When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them” (15:4); “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them...” (15:22);”and they sent this letter by them, “The apostles and the brethren who are elders...greetings” (15:23). This does not sound at all like something that took place “in private.” Thus, Acts 15 is a poor match for Gal 2:1-10, whereas Acts 11:29-12:25 – where Luke had hardly anything to say about Paul and Barnabas – fits the situation like a glove.

5. “Gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship” – This would have been the perfect place in Galatians 2 for Paul to have mentioned the apostolic letter issued as a result of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. But what do we hear about that letter? Silence. This is, quite frankly, very surprising if Galatians 2:1-10 was indeed addressing the Jerusalem Council events, simply because that letter is cited as a source of great encouragement to the believers: “And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement” (Acts 15:31). That the “right hand of fellowship” gets mentioned in Galatians 2, while the far more affirming apostolic letter gets no mention, is a powerful argument that Galatians 2:1-10 looks back to the private, low-key meeting with the Apostles depicted in Acts 11-12, not to the extremely public Jerusalem Council meeting in Acts 15.

6. “They only asked us to remember the poor – the very thing I also was eager to do” – In Acts 15, the request from “the church and the apostles and the elders” goes well beyond asking Paul and Barnabas to “only” remember the poor: “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication...” (Acts 15:28-29). In the light of these four stipulations in the apostolic letter, if Acts 15 was the setting for Galatians 2:1-10, for Paul to say in Galatians that the only stipulation placed upon him was “to remember the poor” makes no sense.

The Situation in Acts 11-12

For completeness, we should ask whether Acts 11-12 adds anything to our knowledge about Paul’s travels. Hardly anything substantive can be added, beyond the superficial observation that Paul went to Jerusalem to consult privately with James, Peter and John, the “pillars” of the Jerusalem church, about the Gospel for the Gentiles he had received as a revelation from the Lord. Upon reflection, though, this dearth of material about the doings of Paul, Barnabas and Titus at this time is actually excellent evidence connecting Galatians 2:1-10 with Acts 12 rather than Acts 15, because if that trip dealt mostly with the sort of private consultation Gal 2:2 describes, it was more likely that Luke would have little to say about it.

Summary about the Timing of the Second Jerusalem Visit

Tying together these direct observations from Scripture about Acts 15, Galatians 2:1-10 and Acts 11-12, it should be apparent to the impartial reader that Galatians 2:1-10 best fits the background of Acts 11:29-12:25. Additional evidence that we are on the right track can be found in the support for this interpretation given by the ESV Study Bible, which takes into account the majority of current scholarship. It includes a chart in the Galatians 2 notes which ties together Gal 2:1-10 with Acts 11:29-30 (the “famine relief” visit), and Gal 2:11-14 with Acts 15:1-2a. This deduction is consistent with the mention in Acts 15:1 of the men who came down to Antioch from Judea – after the misnamed “famine relief” trip of Acts 11:29-12:25, and after the first missionary journey described in Acts 13-14 (Paul and Barnabas were back in Antioch by this time), but before the Jerusalem Council began. These men were probably those mentioned in Galatians 2:12, “For before certain men came from James, he [Peter] was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.” It all fits together. Since the events of Acts 15:2b-29 describe the Jerusalem Council, it follows that, if the events of Galatians 2:11-14 match up with what happened in Acts 15:1-2a (which preceded the Jerusalem Council), then the events of Galatians 2:1-10 also preceded the Jerusalem Council.

A few observations from other scholars are in order before moving on. Bartolucci’s aforementioned notes on Galatians 2 (p. 27) include the following quote drawn from Timothy George’s commentary on Galatians (The New American Commentary, Vol. 30 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994, 135-137): “The events of Gal. 2:1–10 parallel the “famine visit” Paul and Barnabas made to Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 11:25–30. This view has been convincingly argued by F. F. Bruce although it remains a minority opinion among commentators on the epistle.” Bruce’s analysis can be read online at https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bjrl/problems-1_bruce.pdf, particularly pp. 305-307. Finally, in his article “The Epistle to the Galatians” posted at https://bible.org/article/epistle-galatians, Dr. Greg Herrick noted:

There is better evidence to suggest that Acts 11:27-30 is the visit related in Galatians 2:1-10. First, it is difficult to imagine that the decree preceded the events of Peter’s separation from the Gentiles and Paul’s rebuking him. Surely Peter, even though he possessed a vacillating spirit, would not have done such a thing after the Jerusalem church, that is, those who caused it the first time (Gal 2:12), had settled the issue. Second, it is further difficult to imagine that the Judaizers could have accomplished so much damage, as the letter to the Galatians indicates, if Galatians 2:1-10 refers to the Council. Third, Paul appears to be listing his visits to Jerusalem, in succession since his conversion. This would mean that Galatians 2:1-10 would be equivalent to Acts 11. Fourth, in Galatians 1:21 Paul says that he visited Syria and Cilicia. This occurred after his first visit (1:18) and before his second visit to Jerusalem (2:1). This most likely refers to the fact that Paul concentrated his missionary work in Tarsus and Antioch (after Barnabas ‘retrieved’ him from Tarsus) without going to any other centers. If this is true then, he did not evangelize in Galatia until after his second visit to Jerusalem and therefore, Galatians 2:1-10 must refer to the famine visit with evangelization of Galatia (Acts 13, 14) sometime later.

In summary, the only place to put Galatians 2:1-10 in reference to Acts is in the context of the “famine relief” visit described in Acts 11:29-30 and 12:25.

Acts 12 and the Death of Herod Agrippa I

Now we turn to the main issue covered by Acts 12, the affairs of Herod Agrippa I. Here is the critical thing to note: Everything described in this chapter takes place during the time Paul and Barnabas were in Jerusalem during his second visit there, the visit discussed in Galatians 2:1-10. Acts 11:30 informs us of the departure from Antioch of Paul, Barnabas and Titus for Jerusalem, while Acts 12:25 reports their return to Antioch. Between these two bookends we have the story of the events leading up to the death of Herod Agrippa I. This means that the death of Agrippa I, known without doubt from classical histories to have taken place in AD 44, solidly anchors in time Paul’s second visit to Jerusalem.

What little scholarly debate that exists about the death of Herod Agrippa I centers around whether it occurred before or after the Passover of 44 AD. Where one comes down on that question affects whether or not one affirms, following the plain sense of Acts 12, that the death of Herod Agrippa I was in the same year that Peter was imprisoned. The unbelieving skeptics’ view, following one interpretation of classical literature, is that Agrippa died during the dies natalis games celebrating the founding of Caesarea. Those games took place in March, before the Passover, so adopting this view directly conflicts with the situation portrayed in the Scriptures. It forces one to divorce Paul’s second journey to Jerusalem from the year of Herod’s death, placing it a year afterwards.

Yet, the entire passage in Acts 12 reads smoothly as an uninterrupted unit: from the death of James the brother of John, through Peter’s arrest during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, to the death of the guards blamed for Peter’s escape, to Herod’s ill-fated trip to Caesarea where he died. F.F. Bruce has suggested that the games at Caesarea were not the problematic dies natalis games, but those celebrating Claudius’ birthday on August 1 (Suetonius, Claudius, 2.1; Bruce, Chronological Questions, note 16). This fits the situation well, and for what it’s worth, the Wikipedia information on the death of Herod Agrippa I follows this understanding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_Agrippa). Josephus (Antiquities 19.8.2/343) merely says the death of Agrippa I was in the context of some “shows in honor of the emperor,” without being more specific. Others have suggested the games of the Augustalia were in view, a festival celebrated October 12 in honor of Emperor Augustus.

The bottom line is, we just don’t know for certain, as far as the classical sources or Josephus are concerned, what was the precise occasion for Herod Agrippa’s visit to Caesarea. But we do know that Scripture paints a perfectly clear picture that Agrippa’s death was simultaneous with the time Paul, Barnabas and Titus were in Jerusalem during Paul’s second visit there. We have no reason to doubt this, unless we value the uncertain interpretations of classical scholars over the plain sense of the Word of God.

Conclusions

It is time to bring this study to a close. Much more could have been written, but the length would have been too great. We have learned the following things:

1. The death of Herod Agrippa I took place at Caesarea in 44 AD, during a festival probably held between August and October. This is a solidly-attested date from history.

2. Agrippa’s death was in the same year that the apostle Paul visited Jerusalem for the second time, in the company of Barnabas and Titus, for a private meeting with the leaders there to present the gospel God revealed to Paul for preaching to the Gentiles.

3. Paul’s second visit to Jerusalem was in his fourteenth year as a Christian. Per Jewish and Roman custom this was probably reckoned inclusively, in the same way we showed last month that Scripture counts the days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

4. Counting back fourteen years from 44 AD using inclusive reckoning, we conclude Paul was saved in 31 AD, possibly even late 30 AD depending on how much time was spanned by the events of Acts 1-9.

Accordingly, the most likely date for the Crucifixion, so far as the scriptural and astronomical clues we have examined are concerned, is Friday, April 7, 30 AD.

In closing, the data on which this determination is based was derived from a straightforward, plain-sense understanding of Scripture, rather than one which elevates the results of secular scholarship over the biblical record. Such scholarship nowadays depends greatly upon studies of classical histories and how to interpret them, along with questioning whether the plain sense of the biblical text is the right sense. Even otherwise conservative scholars have stumbled over this as they have sought to gain a hearing in the academic world. But we need to be reminded that skepticism about the plain sense of Scripture goes back to Satan’s words to Eve in the Garden: “Yea, hath God said…?” (Gen 3:1). When scholars do this we must exercise great discernment, lest we be led astray from God’s revealed truth.

In a future installment of this ongoing study, I hope to address how the date of Herod’s death, when understood through the lens of Scripture rather than in dependence on dubious interpretations of the writings of Josephus and other classical authors, is likewise consistent with a 30 AD Crucifixion. It even ties in precisely with the prophecy of the “Seventy Weeks” of Daniel 9:24-27.

[Article slightly revised 4/8/18 to fix a few minor errors and typos.]

This is the first in an ongoing series of articles on Messianic chronology centered around understanding the "Seventy Weeks" prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27. In this article we will focus on the Passover and its impact on the day we choose for the date of Christ's Crucifixion.

In August 2017, I undertook a wide-ranging study of various aspects of biblical chronology and eschatology. This study, now referred to as The Daniel 9:24-27 Project because seeking to understand those verses got me started, was motivated by my desire to settle, to my satisfaction alone, exactly what God had revealed in Scripture about end-times matters. Because I attended seminary back in the 1980s, I am quite aware that this area of study has generated a lot of opinions and discussion! Very significant “isms” of the evangelical world—premillenialism, amillenialism, postmillennialism, and various shades of these—find their origin in differences in how the books of Daniel and Revelation are understood. Since so many books and Internet websites have undertaken to promote the views of their authors on these matters, not all of whom are equally determined to let the written Word of God have the last word, I decided to do my own from-scratch research with nothing but an open Bible in front of me.

Taking on this project has had a real impact on my life. The continual exposure to the Word it requires has deepened my prayer life, strengthened my faith, and awed me as I have seen, again and again, how every “jot and tittle” of the biblical text reflects the inspiration of the Holy Spirit behind it. Timelines started in one book, touched on in another, and finished in yet another all tie seamlessly together. Surely this would not have been possible without the Living God acting behind the scenes to bring His Word into the world through a variety of people from different times and backgrounds.

But others over the years have said as much, and merely repeating this observation does little to edify others. Specific examples are needed. Therefore, in this article I will look at a few from my ongoing research that illustrate the faith-encouraging, deep interconnections among different passages of Scripture. They shed light on one another in the same way that a gifted human author gradually develops a plot line that deepens and grows in complexity as the chapters pass.

Given the daunting task I set for myself, to try to understand the full range of eschatology-related topics covered in Scripture, there are many subjects I could tackle! In this study I will share just a very narrow slice of my research, a part that ties in with determining the date of the Crucifixion. I have found that a close study of the term “Passover” and matters related to it profoundly illustrates how intricately the Lord God has tied together the books of the Bible, where one part far removed from another explains and illuminates an obscure detail elsewhere that is otherwise almost inscrutable.

My larger goal is for the study to clarify how part of the prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 has already been exactly fulfilled in history, and then, God willing, to go on to a consideration of aspects which still remain to be unveiled as the time of the Messiah's return gets closer.

Much Ado Over Eclipses

The need for brevity here prevents undertaking a comprehensive overview of the options for the date of the Crucifixion, so let us focus on just differentiating between the two main candidates: April 7, 30 AD or April 3, 33 AD. We will restrict our examination to these two dates because they are the only ones between 29 and 36 AD when the Passover began on a Friday evening (dates as assigned by Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, Table 179):

• Monday, April 18, 29 AD
• Friday, April 7, 30 AD
• Tuesday, March 27, 31 AD
• Monday, April 14, 32 AD
• Friday, April 3, 33 AD*
• Wednesday, March 24, 34 AD
• Tuesday, April 12, 35 AD
• Saturday, March 31, 36 AD

* It should be noted that the chart at http://www.judaismvschristianity.com/passover_dates.htm, claiming to use U.S. Naval Observatory data, gives the date of Nisan 14 in 33 AD as Saturday, April 4. I use Finegan for the purposes of this paper because he is widely regarded as authoritative, and his date was accepted by Humphreys and Waddington. Should Finegan’s date be shown to be wrong, this study will need to be revisited.

The April 3, 33 AD date has received a lot of good press in recent years, but this has been due less to careful exegesis than to the popularizing of a lunar eclipse study by Colin Humphreys and W.G. Waddington in 1983, a study developed further in their 1985 paper, “The Date of the Crucifixion” (JASA 37, pp. 2-10, online at http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1985/JASA3-85Humphreys.html). That study concluded there was a “blood moon” that day, which they tied in with the Joel 2 prophecy quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17-21). Since NASA calculated that there was a lunar eclipse on Friday, April 3, 33 AD, but not on any other candidate for the Crucifixion date, the authors claim only that date works.

But there is a fly in the ointment. Since NASA’s research, showing that there was indeed a lunar eclipse that day, is taken as completely solid and provides the starting point for their study, shouldn’t the related research of particular scientists working for NASA be regarded likewise? NASA scientist Bradley Schaefer studied the question of the visibility of the eclipse on April 3, 33 AD, and arrived at conclusions that do not reinforce the case Humphreys and Waddington have promoted. Schaefer and his work have thus been consigned to the doghouse by all who have taken the Humphreys and Waddington analysis to heart. Schaefer, in a technically sound peer-reviewed paper with a lot of math that is far over my head, came to the conclusion that the lunar eclipse of April 3, 33 AD would have been barely noticeable on the horizon just as the moon rose that evening, with a normal full moon gracing the sky through the heart of the night. That day in Jerusalem, he said, the eclipse at twilight would have been partial, at most briefly occluding no more than 59% of the disk of the full moon, such that the leakage of light from the unshadowed part of the moon that night would have washed out any “blood moon” phenomenon (Schaefer, Lunar Visibility and the Crucifixion, p. 59, online at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1990QJRAS..31...53S). As he put it, it would have been like trying to notice an “8 watt red light bulb next to a megawatt searchlight” (Schaefer, p.65). That is a quite graphic description of the difficulty in seeing this eclipse. He also observed that the eclipsed moon could only be noticed by the naked eye when it was at least 3.4 degrees above the horizon, and by that time the darkest umbral shadow would have completely left the moon, or occluded less than 1% of the lunar disk (Schaefer, p. 64).

Some defenders of Humphreys and Waddington have objected that Schaefer failed to take into account “triple refraction” of the lunar light through the atmosphere, which would have lengthened, and thus reddened, the wavelengths of the light, and theoretically approximated a “blood moon.” At first glance that argument seemed to carry some weight, but then I thought: If the light being refracted through the atmosphere was mainly from the “searchlight” of the 41% unoccluded part of the full moon, the net effect would still have been just the normal amber coloration of the rising moon, nothing out of the ordinary. It also struck me that it was rather difficult to imagine a qualified NASA scientist, whose specialty was analyzing lunar phenomena, would have forgotten to fully account for atmospheric refraction in his peer-reviewed paper. How likely is that? (And this is assuming, for argument’s sake, that Schaefer was wrong in his calculations that the umbral occlusion of the moon would have essentially ended before it was high enough in the sky to be noticed.)

For these reasons, I am inclined to dismiss the lunar eclipse argument as having any significance in determining the day of the Crucifixion. But what about Peter’s quote of the prophet Joel? Surely that has a bearing on whether there was a blood moon, science be hanged? The quote in full reads (ESV):

And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:17-21, quoting Joel 2:28-32a)

Was Peter’s quote from Joel 2, which he said was a fulfillment of what the crowd was hearing that day (i.e., the hubbub of speaking in foreign languages issuing from the house where the disciples had gathered), indeed focused just as strongly on the “moon shall be turned to blood” aspect (as Humphreys and Waddington assume) as on the “pouring out my Spirit” part? For this to be true, “the moon to blood” would have to apply not to what was being heard that Pentecost day (the issue Peter was directly addressing), but to a partial eclipse “blood moon” supposedly briefly seen 50 days previously—after Jesus was already in the tomb and people had largely dispersed to their homes, and by arguably an entirely different group of people than on Pentecost—rather than to the cacophony of sound his audience was wondering about. Every interpreter of Scripture will have to make up their own mind how likely this was. For my part, accounting for what Dr. Schaefer wrote about how minimal the eclipse’s visual impact at Jerusalem probably was and my perception that his analysis is scientifically reliable, I think it is quite acceptable exegesis to view the mention of the “blood moon” as a yet-unfulfilled part of the Joel prophecy that did not apply to the situation at hand. It happened to be part of the larger context of the quote and for that reason was included, notwithstanding that it was not directly applicable to the Pentecost situation, because Peter wanted to get past it to the important, and very applicable, challenge the prophet closed with: “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

What Do the Scriptures Say?

At any rate, for now I want to set aside the whole eclipse debate and look to the Word alone. Does it tell us anything that helps us choose between April 7, 30 AD and April 3, 33 AD for the date of the Crucifixion? I believe it does, but it is not immediately obvious. We first have to go back to the Old Testament to see how God set up the first Passover, then how the Jews subsequently celebrated it. There are four important passages we need to look at.

Exodus 12

Our first passage records the inception of the Passover, on the night when the angel of the Lord struck down all of the first-born in the land of Egypt, but “passed over” and spared the Israelites with the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. Exodus 12 records the story (ESV):

This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household….Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight….They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn….It is the LORD's Passover (Ex. 12:2-11, emphasis added).

The takeaways here are that on the first month of the Jewish religious year, which is called Nisan, on the fourteenth day of the month as that day begins at twilight (the Jewish day begins around 6 pm in the evening), the Passover lamb was to be killed. It was kept in the household from Nisan 10 until Nisan 14 began, so the slaughtering of the lamb was just after the onset of Nisan 14. Then, that same evening of the start of Nisan 14, the lamb was to be eaten as part of a meal that included unleavened bread. Remember that according to Scripture, the lamb was both killed and eaten on Nisan 14. It was not killed ahead of time on Nisan 13 for eating on Nisan 14, nor was it killed on Nisan 14 and then eaten on Nisan 15. In fact, such carrying over of the Passover meal to another day was expressly forbidden: “you shall let none of it remain until the morning.” These words tell us that the meal was eaten before the daylight portion of Nisan 14 dawned. Moreover, it was a meal involving the eating of unleavened bread, a detail having a bearing on understanding other matters later.

Leviticus 23

Next, consider this information gleaned from Leviticus 23:

These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work….On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work (Lev. 23:4-8).

Numbers 28

Numbers 28 is similar, for brevity we will leave out the details about the sacrifices:

On the fourteenth day of the first month is the LORD's Passover, and on the fifteenth day of this month is a feast. Seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work….And on the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work (Num. 28:16-18, 25).

These two passages establish some additional facts for us. One we already learned from Exodus 12: that Nisan 14 was the assigned day of “the LORD’s Passover,” which specifically referred to the day of the Passover seder—the meal of the lamb sacrificed at twilight as that day began and eaten with unleavened bread. To this we add an additional fact, the next day—Nisan 15—would be the start of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread. Even though “the LORD’s Passover,” the seder meal in individual homes on Nisan 14, was also a day of eating unleavened bread (see Exodus 12 above) similar to the seven days of the publicly-observed Feast, the inclusion of the Pachal Lamb in the meal on Nisan 14 set it apart as separate from the rest of the Feast. Thus, Nisan 14 was a day of unleavened bread, but it was not technically part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that starts on Nisan 15. The expressions “days of unleavened bread” or just “unleavened bread,” unmodified by the words “Feast of,” were the way the Jews joined Nisan 14 and 15 as two parts of a single, larger festival period called simply “the Passover.” Used that way, it referred to an eight-day period. This is an important point to keep in mind when we look at the Passover in the New Testament.

Also observe, this Feast of Unleavened Bread would begin and end with a “holy convocation” on which "ordinary" work—that by which people earned a living, distinct from miscellaneous household tasks like cooking, cleaning and shopping—was not to be done. In other words, two special days of rest from "ordinary" work—distinct from the weekly Saturday Sabbaths, when no work whatsoever was permitted—bookended this Feast. These convocation days of partial rest were known as “high days.” (There is no such expression as "high Sabbath" in Scripture.) Unlike the normal weekly Sabbath, which was always observed on the seventh day of the week (our Saturday), such "high days" of rest from "ordinary" work could land on any day of the week, including Saturday, when the more strict work limits of the weekly Sabbath preempted the partial restrictions on the high days. This was because the dates of the month Nisan were determined via a lunar calendar, such that Nisan 15 landed on different days of the week in different years.

2 Chronicles 35

Finally, 2 Chronicles 35 gives us insight into the way the Jews practiced the Passover seder (the meal of the lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs eaten on Nisan 14):

Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month….And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule; and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the lay people….So all the service of the LORD was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah (2 Chron 35:1, 13, 16).

This passage makes clear that the Jews in Josiah’s day understood Exodus 12:2-11 as teaching that both the killing and the eating of the Passover lamb were to take place on Nisan 14. Why am I emphasizing these things? Because they are not so crystal clear when we see how things are written up in the Gospels. It appears God deliberately hid these bits of background information about the Passover deep in obscure places of the Old Testament so that only people motivated to know His truth would find it.

The Passover in the Gospels

Now, what is so confusing in the Gospels? Basically, there are multiple ways the term “Passover” can be understood, and apart from the OT background above it is a murky business. It sometimes refers only to the Passover seder meal day of Nisan 14 when a lamb was sacrificed in private homes, while in other places the term "Passover" joins Nisan 14 together with the days of the Feast beginning on Nisan 15 and emphasizes their common focus on eating unleavened bread. When understood broadly this way to cover eight days, the general terms “Unleavened Bread” or “days of Unleavened Bread” are used. The rule is, if the time period is called “the Feast of Unleavened Bread,” it refers only to the seven days beginning on Nisan 15.

Let us now look at the events surrounding the day Christ died with these insights, beginning with Matthew.

Matthew 27

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover (Mt. 26:17-19).

Observe the mention of “the first day of Unleavened Bread.” This is not specifically the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasting seven days beginning on Nisan 15, but the first of eight days in which unleavened bread is to be eaten. Thus, the day in question is Nisan 14, the day for the Passover seder meal. That this is the proper understanding is confirmed by the words “prepare…to eat.” They refer to slaughtering the lamb just as Nisan 14 begins at evening, and along with it preparing the unleavened bread and bitter herbs which are part and parcel with the meal as laid out in Exodus 12.

Mark 14

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed [i.e., on Nisan 14], His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?” “…go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him; and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is My guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’ And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; prepare for us there.” The disciples went out and came to the city, and found it just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover (Mk. 14:12-16).

These verses do not include the Greek word for “feast,” heorte, as in Luke 22:1 below (“Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching”). As noted earlier, the truncated expression, “Unleavened Bread” without “the feast of,” is the broad use described in Exodus 12:18 that includes the Passover seder meal of Nisan 14 (“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening”). Therefore, “first day” as used here refers to Nisan 14, not to the first day of the strictly-defined (in Exodus 12, Numbers 28 and Leviticus 23) Feast of Unleavened Bread that starts on Nisan 15. The focus of Mark 14:12 is not on the festival as a whole, but specifically on the group meal of the Paschal Lamb along with unleavened bread. Since the room was already “furnished and ready,” the only preparing needed was the meal. Peter and John (see Luke 22) could handle the slaughtering of the lamb and cooking everything just between the two of them.

Luke 22

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover….Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.” And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover (Lk. 22:1, 7-13).

The emphasized words give the keys to understanding this passage, which corresponds perfectly with what Matthew and Mark reported. Luke begins by talking about the formally-defined Feast of Unleavened Bread held from Nisan 15-21 inclusive, then his focus switches to Nisan 14, the day the Passover lamb was slaughtered and on which unleavened bread was eaten for the first time as part of the complex of Passover-related events. “Prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it” means just what it says—kill the lamb as Nisan 14 begins and also bake the unleavened bread, so the meal can be eaten.

John 13

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him…(John 13:1-2).

Here we have the expression, “Feast of the Passover.” “Feast of” should be understood as a technical term, marking this as a mention of the Feast of Unleavened Bread starting on Nisan 15, of which the separate Passover seder meal on Nisan 14 eaten before it was part of a whole complex of events. Since the verse continues with mentions of the “hour” of His departure (the Crucifixion), the reference to “during supper,” and the betrayal of Judas which we know took place in the wee hours of the night on Nisan 14, the supper mentioned must be one and the same as the Passover seder described in the other Gospels.

The Proper Place for Typology: The “Last Supper” Question

The words “during supper” in John 13 brings us to another matter that should be discussed. Some have proposed that the “Last Supper” was a different meal than the Passover seder (notwithstanding that Scripture knows nothing of the expression “Last Supper”; the term is entirely a human invention). The idea that the “Last Supper” might have been a meal separate and different from the Passover seder, arises from the mistaken perception that this meal was prepared on Nisan 13 and eaten on Nisan 14, but the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb took place around 3 pm on Nisan 14 and was actually eaten on Nisan 15. By this understanding, and with a very rigid view of the typology of Christ as the Passover Lamb, it is said that the type/antitype relationship breaks down if Christ did not die at the exact same time as the Passover lambs.

But we have already seen above that Old Testament passages indicate that on the original Passover, lambs were slaughtered in individual homes and prepared as Nisan 14 was just beginning, on the heels of Nisan 13 in the early evening, not at 3 pm in the afternoon of Nisan 14. It is not as if the Passover typology breaks down, for we have seen the OT teaching is that the lambs were sacrificed on Nisan 14, the same day that Jesus suffered and died.

I am indebted to Keith Hunt (http://www.keithhunt.com/passover5.html) for pointing out several areas where typology cannot be pushed too far in equating the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb at the seder meal with the sacrificial death of Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”:

1. Jesus' blood was spilled at the cross, outside the city of Jerusalem, not in a house, as was the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:7 with the last chapters of the gospels).

2. The Passover lamb was slain by having its throat cut (the usual way to kill a sacrificial lamb or goat in Israel). Jesus was not slain in this manner as the gospels make plain.

3. Jesus' blood was not used in any specific way, it fell to the ground. The blood of the Passover lamb of Exodus 12 was used in a specific way (verse 7).

4. The lamb of Ex. 12 was roasted with fire (verse 8, 9).  Jesus was not killed by being burnt at the stake, but was crucified on a cross (see the gospels).

5. Nothing of the Passover lamb was to remain. That which was left over was to be burnt by fire (verse 10). The Messiah's body was not to see corruption (Ps. 16:10).

6. Jesus was beaten, bruised, buffeted, spit upon, and scourged, so He was greatly marred (Isa. 52:13, 14; 53:5, 7, 10). The Passover lamb was not treated this way before it was sacrificed in death.

7. Jesus was killed along with others (two others to be specific as the gospels show) - Isa. 53:12. The Passover lamb was the only one killed on the 14th for the Passover service and meal. The lamb of Ex.12 was not killed with one or more lambs during that service. There was one lamb killed for each group, not two or three.

8.  So severely beat (sic) was Jesus that it was foretold: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint....” (Ps. 22:14). This did not happen to the literal physical Passover lamb.

9.  Jesus was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12, 13; Mt. 26:14-16; 27:3-10). Nothing of this typology was done with the Passover lamb of Exodus 12.

It is possible to push the search for analogies too far. We have repeatedly seen above that the meal to be eaten is plainly called “the Passover” in the Gospels, and we should not use humanly-devised typology relationships to say that the plain sense of the biblical text is misleading and a different “Last Supper” is meant. I want to close this part of the study with one more quote from the amazingly lucid Keith Hunt, recorded at http://www.keithhunt.com/passover6.html:

Typology is good. Typology is used by God, but typology like some aspect of parables, BREAKS DOWN at points and is not necessarily meant to be carried over into the hundredth degree of everything stated or given.

The Passover lamb was slain and died at the BEGINNING of the 14th day. Jesus died towards the END of the 14th day. Was Christ to die at the beginning of the 14th like the Passover lamb did? No! There is NO SCRIPTURE in Exodus 12 that dogmatically asserts the Messiah was to die at the beginning of the 14th, just as there is no scripture to say He was to be put to death by being burnt at the stake, or roasted, as was the Passover lamb.

Typology is good if you use it CORRECTLY! It is like what Paul said about the law. “But we know that the law is good, IF a man use it lawfully” (1 Tim. 1:8).

Typology is also good IF you use it typologically lawfully and correctly!

Clearing Up Confusion in the Gospel of John

Returning to the Gospel accounts, we now look at some confusing passages in John:

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover (Jn. 18:28).

Since it takes place later on Nisan 14 after the Passover seder had already been eaten by all the Jews the previous evening just after the close of Nisan 13 (following the prescriptions in Exodus, Leviticus, etc.), this verse must refer to the remaining festival meals of unleavened bread still to come, beginning with the high day meal of the coming evening, Nisan 15. There is no conflict here; “the Passover” in this verse refers to the entire Feast of Unleavened Bread, precisely as Luke 22:1 defined it: “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover.”

Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” (Jn. 19:14).

Since “day of preparation” consistently refers to the day before the weekly Saturday Sabbath—to the day to get ready for the Sabbath's strict prohibition of all work—the passage should be understood here as saying, "Now it was Friday." John later (19:31) says, "that Sabbath was a high day." This means that particular Saturday coincided with the Nisan 15 convocation day that kicked off the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So this "day of preparation" refers not to slaughtering the Passover lamb and cooking the seder meal (which had already been done the previous Thursday evening), but to getting ready on Friday for the work restrictions imposed by the weekly Sabbath on Saturday—which that year also happened to be a high day that was part of the Passover-related festivities.

The Day of Preparation

The preceding comments should clear up the potential confusion arising from the two distinct uses of "preparation” in English translations. Whenever we find “day of preparation” mentioned in the Gospels, it refers to getting ready on Friday for the coming work prohibition on the Sabbath. The term has nothing to do with preparing the seder meal by slaughtering and cooking the Passover lamb on Thursday evening. In the Old Testament, the Jews were instructed in the wilderness to gather manna each day, but not on the Sabbath, when no work whatsoever was to be done. They were to prepare for the Sabbath by collecting on Friday a double supply of manna sufficient to cover the Saturday Sabbath as well. There was extra work to be done that day to get ready for the day when no work could be done. We need to beware lest we confuse preparing the Passover seder to eat with the “day of preparation.” The two kinds of preparation were quite distinct, and context makes it clear which is which.

The Jewish Use of Inclusive Dating

Confusion arising from calling the convocation days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15 and 21) "high sabbaths" is also part of the debate over the date of the Crucifixion. Sabbatarian calendars on the Internet, for example http://www.marieslibrary.com/PDF_Articles/JesusCalendar30AD.pdf, place the Passover of 30 AD on Wednesday, April 5 rather than the evangelicals' date of Friday, April 7. They regard the high day of Nisan 15 as a separate "sabbath" in addition to the regular Saturday Sabbath (though the term "high sabbath" is not found in Scripture). They change the Passover/Crucifixion day from Friday to Wednesday (in other cases Thursday) out of a desire to accomodate their understanding of Matthew 12:40: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” They understand this passage requires the passing of three full days—i.e., 72 hours—and believe this must be done by adding a second sabbath between Wednesday and Sunday.

But a closer look shows this does not work. We have to deal with the matter of inclusive dating. Inclusive dating simply means that a measured period of time is reckoned to include the day the counting begins from. Consider, for example, the time covered by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first day of the feast is on Nisan 15. Using inclusive counting, Nisan 15 is the first day of the count, making Nisan 21 the final, seventh day of the Feast. Other considerations also show the Jews used inclusive counting. The apostle Paul wrote:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…(1 Cor. 15:3-4).

He was raised on the third day. What day of the week was that? We have multiple Scriptures that unanimously declare it was “early on the first day of the week”:

And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb (Mk. 16:2).

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared (Lk. 24:1).

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb (Jn. 20:1).

The only way we can connect the first day of the week, Sunday, with the third day of entombment of Jesus’ body, is if Saturday (the regular Sabbath) was the second day of entombment, making Friday (Nisan 14) the first day of the three-day count. This means the Resurrection took place early in the morning of Sunday, Nisan 16. This indicates, in conflict with the sabbatarian understanding that separates the high day from the regular Sabbath. that the regular Sabbath on Saturday aligned with the special "sabbath"—the high day—of Nisan 15 in 30 AD. This favors April 7, 30 AD as the date of the Crucifixion, not April 5.

[Addendum, 8/12/2018: Justin Martyr, in chapter 67 of his First Apology (ca. AD 155-157), wrote: "For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn; and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples..." (emphasis added). This is confirmation that at a very early date, the Church recognized the Roman "day of Saturn," i.e. Saturday, as the day that immediately followed the day of the Crucifixion. It also confirms that Sunday was the "third day" when the risen Lord appeared to His disciples. This is further solid historical evidence against any claims the Crucifixion took place on a Wednesday. Only a Friday crucifixion fits with what Justin Martyr wrote.]

However, when we also look closely at the calendar for 33 AD, and understand that the Jews counted days inclusively, we see that the high day mandated by the Feast of Unleavened Bread that year also placed Nisan 15 on Saturday, just as in 30 AD! In both years we find “that Sabbath was a high day.” So Scripture seems to leave us with two options.

Conclusions

It is time to wrap this up. We have seen that Old Testament passages about the Passover shed tremendous light on understanding otherwise confusing mentions of it in the Gospels. The Bible is truly a book that explains itself, a sure sign of the hand of God superintending over its writing that covered centuries. There are no conflicts between any of the Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion week, and the timeline of events taking place on Nisan 14 in particular is quite clear when the Old Testament passages cited are allowed to guide how we interpret things.

Despite this edification, however, I must confess some disappointment. I had entered into this study with the expectation that all researchers would work from a common calendar, and in my search for a calendar for 30 AD I settled upon one offered by the website http://www.cgsf.org/. Only after I had done a considerable amount of work did I realize, in a state of shock, that the calendars used there did not match up with those used for 30 AD by most of the evangelical world! The Church of God website gives the Passover of 30 AD on Wednesday, April 5. In contrast, the usual scholarly sources in the evangelical world uniformly place the Passover of 30 AD on Friday, April 7. So, too, does the United States Naval Observatory data at chart at http://www.judaismvschristianity.com/passover_dates.htm.

This difference in calendars has a tremendous impact on the research done so far. I had hoped to be able to show, from Scripture alone, that April 3, 33 AD was the only viable option for the date of the Crucifixion, because having the high day of the Passover week coincide with the regular Sabbath on Saturday that year makes everything “click.”  If Nisan 14 in 30 AD corresponded with April 5, taking account of inclusive dating would rule that year out, leaving April 3, 33 AD as the only viable choice.

Now, however, I am a bit wiser, if not much closer to my goal. When Nisan 14 of 30 AD is assigned not to April 5 but to April 7, we also have a combined high day/regular Sabbath day on Saturday, April 8. Most of the arguments covered in this study that favor April 3, 33 AD thus apply equally well to April 7, 30 AD. The only real difference that I can see at this time is the impact of the lunar eclipse argument of Humphreys and Waddington. It would seem to rule out 30 AD as a possible Crucifixion date if it was strong. However, I am satisfied from my study so far that it is a weak argument that gives us no firm basis for choosing 33 AD over 30 AD for the Crucifixion. I wish it did, but in the face of the research by Schaefer I am not prepared to accept it.

So, the work continues in search of a better basis for making a choice between those two years. I am actually rather pleased that I can still view 30 AD as a candidate for the Crucifixion date, because it works much better with other conclusions that have come out of my eschatology research! But that is a story for another day.

(This article was slightly revised March 31, 2018. Further edits added June 30, 2024.)