Did Jesus die on Wednesday and not Friday? Towards Solutions

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; Thd), Visiting Professor, Department of Liberal Education, Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia

There are a number of considerations we need to make. Some are contesting in our times that the astronomical accurate data indicates that in the year 31 CE the Passover was on a Wednesday and not a Friday. They argue that Science should adjust the New Testament record which states on a number of places that it was on a Friday.

Modern astronomical scientists turned theologians did not consider a number of issues for the New Testament period. We hope to bring in these issues.

Samaritans

From the time of Solomon until the Maccabean Revolt, the Zadokites priesthood was in control of temple affairs in Jerusalem.[1] At that time the Pharisaic movement came into power and took over the work. The Zadokite priesthood lost their influence over the people since then. The Samaritans claimed to have preserved the original ways of determining the dates for the Passover and that was their secret.

Pharisees since 2^nd century BCE

The Pharisees did not know how to calculate accurately the date for the Passover as J. Bowman says:

“But the priestly prerogatives of these non-Zadokite priests did not remain unquestioned. I suggest that one such was their right to fix the calendar; that was challenged. This is not to say that all control of the calendar passed forthwith into the Pharisees’ hands, because we hear of apparently unsettled disputes between the Sadducees and Pharisees on the question of calendar and further, after A.D. 70, when the Jewish temple finally fell, the first act of the Rabban Johanan Ben Zakkai was to declare that the calendar was in his control; had it not been before? ”[2]

Qumran Sect calendar

The Qumran evidence indicate that they agreed with the Zadokite tradition, the Samaritan tradition

Solar-lunar calculations

Contrary to people’s expectation that the Old Testament writers used a lunar calendar it is actually a solar-lunar calendar.[3] The lunar calendar was constantly synchronized in a very skillful way with the sun. That is the case with the Samaritans.

It is possible that the Pharisees may have had problems with this since they did not know initially how to calculate the exact dates for the Passover.

Is this maybe a reason why we have a claimed discrepancy between modern Science date for the Passover and the First Century CE dates for the Passovers?

We submit that the Bible indicates without a shadow of doubt that Jesus died on Friday but that the possibility is there that the Pharisees who were in control of the date for the Passover may have made errors with their calculations as Jewish and other scholars are indicating in their research of calendars of the Samaritans, Qumran, Pharisees, Zadokites, Sadducees. That is why there may be a discrepancy in modern Science and the biblical date for Jesus' Passover death on Friday.

Source:

John Bowman, “Is the Samaritan Calendar the Old Zadokite one?” PEQ Vol. 91 (1959): 23-37.

M. Baillet, “Le Calendrier Samaritain” RB Vol. 85 (1978): 481-499.

A. Jaubert, “Le Calendrier des Jubilés et de la Secte de Qumrân” VT Vol. 3 (1953): 250-264.

S. Talmon, “The Calendar Reckoning of the Sect from the Judaean Desert” Reprint from Aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Scripta Hierosolymitana Vol. IV Jerusalem 1958, 178ff.