The First Easter?
Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 10:59 am
Happy Easter, everyone.
Are the events recorded in the Christian Gospels historic? Much of the Western world thinks so. The scholarly evidence only outright disagrees with fundamentalists on the point that these documents were heavily edited over two or three centuries (for a mix of political and mythological reasons). Some people dispute that any of it is truly biographical: Others hold that it is (to use the phrase as first intended) the gospel truth.
My view is that matters of faith and of history can be discussed independent of each other. My own view is that there was indeed a historical figure named Jesus and that at least the broad story of the canonical Gospels is biographical. However, details were surely lost (none of these reports was written for decades) and (as mentioned) scholars have no doubt that they were all edited a bit after the fact.
Presuming some historicity, my purpose this morning is to revisit the political execution known best in history as The Crucifixion.
Two details exist in all four Gospel accounts that can't both be true at once: (1) The Last Supper was the Passover meal, held in the evening of the day of the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox. (2) Between noon and 3 PM on the day of the crucifixion the land was dark for three hours in what reads as a perfect description of a total solar eclipse. (This would require a New Moon.) If this was indeed a solar eclipse (new moon), then it did not occur a day or two or three after Passover eve (full moon)!
So... let us consider that, perhaps (presuming these are originally based on first-person reports of historic events) the Last Supper was in fact not Passover. Having these events overlap Passover is, of course, perfect symbolism that could have been edited in later. But the one consistent, dramatic astronomical phenomenon all four record during the crucifixion is that the land darkened from the sixth hour of the day until the ninth, i.e., from noon to mid-afternoon. Yet, if this was describing a solar eclipse, it would have been close to total, occurred over Jerusalem, and been centered (roughly) on noon to 3 PM, i.e., occurring around 1:30 PM.
There was, in fact, exactly such an eclipse in the spring of 33 CE: a total solar eclipse occurred March 19 at 1:24 PM LMT in Jerusalem, almost exactly splitting the noon-to-3 period! Passover was two weeks later, marked by a partial lunar eclipse about an hour before moonrise. [The eclipse had Saturn and Pluto both stationary. For Jerusalem, Saturn was on EP and Neptune setting, a suitable pair of planets.]
March 19 was probably the last day of the Jewish civil year (which would have been celebrated with a similar evening feast): I think sunset March 19 began 1 Nisan that year. It was a Thursday - and the Gospels, closely read, don't say that the next day was the Sabbath, but that sunset after the crucifixion began the day of preparation for the Sabbath, i.e., the traditional activities of each Friday.
Presuming that the events in the Gospels are historical, it seems likely the crucifixion began mid-morning March 19, 33 CE, and climaxed about six hours later when the solar eclipse faded, about 3 PM.
The first Easter (so to speak) - the date the Gospels record as the Resurrection - would have occurred at sunrise (6:05 AM LMT) March 22, 33 CE as the Sun broke the eastern horizon conjunct Venus. (Though Venus and Sun were closely conjunct ecliptically, Venus was already 6° above the horizon, probably visible briefly - and quite a sight.)
Are the events recorded in the Christian Gospels historic? Much of the Western world thinks so. The scholarly evidence only outright disagrees with fundamentalists on the point that these documents were heavily edited over two or three centuries (for a mix of political and mythological reasons). Some people dispute that any of it is truly biographical: Others hold that it is (to use the phrase as first intended) the gospel truth.
My view is that matters of faith and of history can be discussed independent of each other. My own view is that there was indeed a historical figure named Jesus and that at least the broad story of the canonical Gospels is biographical. However, details were surely lost (none of these reports was written for decades) and (as mentioned) scholars have no doubt that they were all edited a bit after the fact.
Presuming some historicity, my purpose this morning is to revisit the political execution known best in history as The Crucifixion.
Two details exist in all four Gospel accounts that can't both be true at once: (1) The Last Supper was the Passover meal, held in the evening of the day of the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox. (2) Between noon and 3 PM on the day of the crucifixion the land was dark for three hours in what reads as a perfect description of a total solar eclipse. (This would require a New Moon.) If this was indeed a solar eclipse (new moon), then it did not occur a day or two or three after Passover eve (full moon)!
So... let us consider that, perhaps (presuming these are originally based on first-person reports of historic events) the Last Supper was in fact not Passover. Having these events overlap Passover is, of course, perfect symbolism that could have been edited in later. But the one consistent, dramatic astronomical phenomenon all four record during the crucifixion is that the land darkened from the sixth hour of the day until the ninth, i.e., from noon to mid-afternoon. Yet, if this was describing a solar eclipse, it would have been close to total, occurred over Jerusalem, and been centered (roughly) on noon to 3 PM, i.e., occurring around 1:30 PM.
There was, in fact, exactly such an eclipse in the spring of 33 CE: a total solar eclipse occurred March 19 at 1:24 PM LMT in Jerusalem, almost exactly splitting the noon-to-3 period! Passover was two weeks later, marked by a partial lunar eclipse about an hour before moonrise. [The eclipse had Saturn and Pluto both stationary. For Jerusalem, Saturn was on EP and Neptune setting, a suitable pair of planets.]
March 19 was probably the last day of the Jewish civil year (which would have been celebrated with a similar evening feast): I think sunset March 19 began 1 Nisan that year. It was a Thursday - and the Gospels, closely read, don't say that the next day was the Sabbath, but that sunset after the crucifixion began the day of preparation for the Sabbath, i.e., the traditional activities of each Friday.
Presuming that the events in the Gospels are historical, it seems likely the crucifixion began mid-morning March 19, 33 CE, and climaxed about six hours later when the solar eclipse faded, about 3 PM.
The first Easter (so to speak) - the date the Gospels record as the Resurrection - would have occurred at sunrise (6:05 AM LMT) March 22, 33 CE as the Sun broke the eastern horizon conjunct Venus. (Though Venus and Sun were closely conjunct ecliptically, Venus was already 6° above the horizon, probably visible briefly - and quite a sight.)