Hmmm...I'm not sure about the moon thing. Was it full the day of Passover, or the day before? I find different things for this online. I'm really not typically into studying the phases of the moon, and I feel that the Passover date in question may not require it. But if you can help us, Elle, to clear up this point, I would appreciate it.

Still studying...but might need to rest for a bit on this.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Tx, for bringing that point. Actually, to my understanding, Nisan 14 fall precisely on the full moon.

That's a way to double check Roy Hoffman's moon sighting probability software which uses several complex data algorythms based on moon curvature, and etc....

Anyway I went and verified my data reproduced using Roy Hoffman's probablility against NASA table of the full moon. All my data is accurate with the exception of my data being one day too early and NADA says full moon is on Monday April 14th 32 AD and Saturday May 2nd 33AD. NASA's data is according to UT wheras Roy Hoffman's data is according to Jerusalem Time. So this could be the reason of that discrepency.

Nevertheless, all other data are accurate, and these two dates are potentially off by only one day which these dates still reflect that they remain not a possible Nisan 14 day falling on a Friday.

With this double verification, April 3rd 33 AD still remain the only possible date where Nisan 14th falls on a Friday.


I agree. The killing of the passover lamb was to be killed on Nisan 14 between the two evenings(noon and sunset); however the actual eating of the passover meal was always after sunset after the killing which would of fell on Nisan 15th.

Therefore, Jesus was dead on Nisan 15th and it was impossible for him to eat the actual passover meal at the apointed feast time according to the law with His disciples. So Jesus and His disciples ate a passover meal(evening of Nisan 14) the day prior but it was not the passover meal that needs to be eaten with the family in their respectful homes according to the Torah. Its the same thing Employers do with their employees. They have a Christmas diner sometime before Christmas. Everyone calls it a Christmas diner, but it wasn't the Christmas diner that is eaten with the family.

Also, according to the law, they were not to leave the house until sunrise. Jesus and the disciples left after their meal during the night to the mount to sing some hyms. They did because they were not observing the actual Passover meal and they did not break any laws neither by doing so. If that meal was the actual passover meal, it would of been unlawful for them to go outside that night.

For sure NASA are not reporting this for any religious interest. Their data is totally objective and purely reporting astronomical data. However, these data are very reliable and important for us to know when the moon phases occur during those dates which pinpoints the feasts time.

Looks like while I'm reply to your post, you are replying to my post, making us a post late of each other.

As said in my previous post, that I appreciate your point that Nisan 14 would fall on the full moon which I have checked against NASA's data as they also reports the dates and time of the full moon. My data was still accurate with the exception of two dates however Nisan 14 still didn't fall of a Friday for neither of these dates. So April 3, 33 CE remain the only possible date for Nisan 14 on a Friday.

In my Jesus Potential Crucifixion dates Table for the year between 30-33 CE on page 2, I only provided the conjunction moon date & time as I was using that to figure out Nisan 1st(with Roy Hoffmans software) and then Nisan 14th.

However, here are Nasa's full data of all the moon phases for years 30 to 33. The Full moon data column would reflect Nisan 14th, if Nisan where to start on that moon of that year. Nasa did not provide the day of the week in this table, however they do provided it elsewhere. I have provided them in parenthese for ease of reference and it can be verified easily at this link http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=31&country=34 which is a NASA reference link by which these calendar are generated using NASA's data.

*New Moon ……. First Quarter ……. Full Moon(Nisan 14) ……. Last Quarter
30 CE
Mar 22 17:46 …. Mar 30 22:18 ………. Apr 6 19:42(Thu) ………. Apr 13 11:34
Apr 21 09:36 …. Apr 29 10:40 ………. May 6 03:00n(Sat) ………. May 12 22:26

31 CE
Mar 11 22:19 …. Mar 19 21:41 ………. Mar 27 10:55(Tue) ………. Apr 3 04:30
Apr 10 11:32 …. Apr 18 15:06 ………. Apr 25 19:59p(Wed) ………. May 2 10:42

32 CE
Mar 29 20:00 P…. Apr 6 11:58 ………. Apr 14 09:00t(Sun) ………. Apr 21 06:57
Apr 28 07:00 P…. May 6 05:37………. May 13 19:09(Tue) ………. May 20 11:33

33 CE
Mar 19 10:38 T …. Mar 26 10:33 ………. Apr 3 14:51 p(Fri) ………. Apr 11 03:45
Apr 17 19:09 …..... Apr 25 02:19 ………. May 3 04:54(Sat) ………. May 10 09:20


*NASA New moon here is the conjunction of the moon which is the dark moon(totally disappered) and not the first crescent sighting. The first crescent or sliver sighting is when Israelites reckoned the new month.

Please check for yourself NASA's data : http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/phase/phases0001.html

Elle, this is not accurate.
Towards the close of the 29th day of a month a watch was kept for the young crescent moon low in the western sky just after sunset. If the crescent was visible, a new month was begun; otherwise an extra day was added to the month. So both days must be considered as a possibility.
Schaefer, in his article “Lunar Visibility and the Crucifixion,” says the following about the visibility of the moon on April 11, A.D. 31:

If R is less than 1, I would characterize the moon as being difficult to spot. … Sunset of April 11, A.D. 31, R = 0.9 (Bradley E. Schaefer, “Lunar Visibility and the Crucifixion,” The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, no. 31 (1990), pp. 53-67).

So, astronomically speaking, it is perfectly possible for A.D. 31 to be the year for Christ’s death, provided that we consider that Nisan 1st was on April 13 (12/13, sunset to sunset); that, therefore, Nisan 14th fell on Thursday, April 26, (25/26, sunset to sunset); and that Christ died on Friday, April 27, a Nisan 15th.

So it was against the law to leave the house until sunrise (who said that? not the Bible) but it was not against the law to eat the Passover on the wrong day?
A meal during the unleavened-bread week could be called a Passover meal, but a meal before Passover could never be called a Passover meal.

What does the Bible say?

The three passages in the Synoptics (Matt. 26:17, Mark 14:12 and Luke 22:7) say that the disciples prepared the Passover for Christ on the first day of Unleavened Bread. In Jesus' time, the Jews regarded the fourteenth of Nisan as the first day of Unleavened Bread. Several ancient sources agree that the Jews regarded the fourteenth as the first day of the feast: Josephus in one passage speaks of Passover as a festival lasting eight days (Antiquities 2.15.1), and elsewhere he states explicitly that the festival began on the fourteenth (Wars 5.3.1); The Talmud says that the rabbis considered the fourteenth as the first day of Unleavened Bread (Babylonian Talmud, Peshaim 5a); and the gospel writers remove any possible confusion by saying specifically what they mean: the day could only be Nisan 14, for the expressions they use confirm this.

In Mark 14:12 the writer defines the first day of the feast as the day when the lambs were killed:

And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” … And the disciples set out and went to the city, and found it as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover. And when it was evening he came with the twelve (Mark 14:12-17, RSV).

The Greek expression used is to pascha ethuon. Ethuon is the third person plural imperfect active of thuo, to kill in sacrifice, sacrifice, immolate. So the verb used is in the imperfect. What are the implications of this?
The imperfect indicative represents an action as going on in past time (durative, or linear action in past time),- this action may be simultaneous, prolonged, descriptive, repeated, customary, interrupted, attempted, or begun, according to the context and the meaning of the verb itself. This is how, for instance, the NIV translates the passage:

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” (NIV).

Thus it can be concluded that the day on which the Passover lamb was being sacrificed by the Jews was Thursday. Therefore, Thursday must necessarily be Nisan 14.
There is another passage that should be considered:

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. (Luke 22:7, RSV).

The emphatic language of Luke 22:7, “had to, must” is translated from the Greek word edei, third person singular, imperfect of deo (dei is an impersonal verb meaning “it is necessary”), which means to bind, that is, to put under obligation, of law, duty, etc.; to bind by a legal or moral tie; to be necessary, proper, inevitable, binding, obligatory, as defined in Greek Lexicons.

Notice that it was the disciples who asked Christ where the Passover should be prepared, which implies they were doing what everybody else was doing. There is nothing in these texts indicating that Jesus observed the Passover on a different occasion from the Jewish people in general.

Had not Christ observed the law in every particular, He could not be our Savior. The Bible says: “It is written, ‘Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them’” (Gal. 3:10).

I appreciate your post, Rosangela, however the little part above still leaves questions with me. Would you perhaps be speaking of Thursday night? If so, you are actually meaning "Friday," aren't you? Because after sunset, the next day has begun according to the Bible...none of this "midnight" delimitation of days such as we have now.

Of course, Jesus died on Friday (the preparation day--see Luke 23:54).

Mrs. White also tells us the moon was full that Thursday night (the evening of the preparation day) in Gethsemane.



Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Elle, you said,



Then you said,


On which day was the Passover eaten?

GC, I'm not sure I understood your question. The paschal lamb was sacrificed after 12 p.m. on Nisan 14 and eaten after sunset, that is, on Nisan 15. So Jesus would have eaten the Passover on Thursday after sunset, was arrested around midnight and died on Friday (Nisan 15).

I think those were my quotes, Rosangela.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Sorry, GC and Elle, for the confusion. GC, it seems you said in one of your posts that you no longer believe Christ died on a Nisan 14?