Introduction
Was the "Last Supper" the Passover Meal?
The Day of the Crucifixion
The Year of the Crucifixion

The Events Surrounding the Crucifixion (Page 3)

The Year of the Crucifixion With the advent of computers and programs to track the stages of the moon, both past and future, there has risen the possibilities to find out exactly when the new moon occurred for any given date. This leads to the question concerning whether it is possible to pinpoint the exact date and year, according to our calendar, as to the crucifixion of Yeshua. First, some explanation of the Jewish calendar: The Jewish calendar is first of all lunar, meaning that it is based upon the cycles of the moon rather than the sun. The first of any month was determined by the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon; they would then know that the previous day was the first day of the month as the month starts with the new moon, which is actually not visible. It is only with the sighting of the visible first sliver on the second day of the month that they were able to determine when the first day was. Although this might sound complicated it gets more so! If there were cloud cover and the moon was not visible on the expected night, the 29th., then they would wait a further night and if still no sighting was observed they would then declare it to be the first of the new month (it is actually more complicated than this when it comes to calculating the total for the year and for the years after that, approximately every three years an extra month is added to compensate for the lunar year of 354 days, but it is not necessary to know the additional complexities for the purpose of this study suffice to say that the addition of the extra month was dependent upon rules set forth by the Sanhedrin - for further information see 'The Temple Its Ministry And Service' - by Alfred Edersheim pp. 155-156). The point to all of this is, that regardless of how accurate the computer program it would never be able to know if there was a cloud cover on the important night in question. If there were no cloud cover then we could ascertain from the program exactly when the new moon would have appeared and consequently the day on which the 14th. of Nissan would have occurred for any given year. Therefore one would only have to 'search' for a suitable year where the 15th. of Nissan fell on a Friday and one would know the year in which Yeshua was crucified. However, the problem is that no one can know if there was a cloud cover obscuring the moon or not. If there was, then in the 'correct year', as given by the computer, the 15th. of Nissan would have fallen, not on the Friday, but on the Saturday. Also it has to be noted that, as seen above, the month of Nissan might start a month late if the crucifixion took place during a year when an extra month was added - that would then make it impossible to calculate as no one can possibly know in which years these extra months would have been added. So as can be seen that it is impossible to know with certainty the exact year that the crucifixion occurred. There have been a few writers that have tried to show the literal fulfillment of Daniel's seventy weeks by using as a starting point a date given by secular historians and then adding (what in their view is a legitimate method of determining how many [prophetic] days are in a year) this to their debatable starting point and ending up with the agreeable year of AD 33. This might sound fine since we all know that Yeshua was 33 years old when He was crucified; but it is now accepted that He was born either in the year 6 BC or 4 BC. This would put the year of the crucifixion in either AD 27 or AD 29. Either way nobody really knows - and that is the point: God doesn't really want us to know! This is perhaps the subject for another Bible study but have you ever noticed that according to the Bible there are no times nor dates given for or to the Body of Messiah. For and to the Jewish people there most certainly are; but to the Body of Messiah - none. The Body of Messiah believes in the imminent return of Yeshua: This so, it eliminates any waiting until 'such and such' happens before He comes for His Bride. This is why there are no dates for the Body of Messiah. We don't know when He was born - not the day nor the month nor the year; nor do we know when exactly He died - except that it was on the Jewish feast of Passover; and we certainly don't know when He is coming back. God wants us to be dependent upon Him and Him alone; not on some holy date or another. And He certainly doesn't want us to start getting all spiritually excited by some holy shrine or place where Yeshua was supposed to have done or said something. He wants us - by faith in an unseen God not in a superstitious religion that depends upon having to see or touch something. It is good to remember that Yeshua did do the things that He did; but let us not get legalistic about matters that God does not want us to get distracted by.

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