© 1987 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
It is sometimes interesting to see how close Science is getting to the truth. Take for instance the debate about the correct date of the crucifixion.
Colin J. Humphreys and W.G. Waddington of Oxford University in England have come to the conclusion that it must have been on Friday, April 3, A.D.33. If you know your URANTIA Book dates, you might say: “But that is wrong.”
I know, but if you follow their reasoning, you will see how close to the truth they came.
This is how they have calculated the date of the crucifixion:
Most Christians would agree that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. His procuratorship in Judea lasted from A.D. 26 to 36. John states in his Gospel that it was before the Passover festival, that is Nisan 14 in the Hebrew Calendar. The synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke) indicate the first day of Passover, Nisan 15. None of the Gospels numbers the year according to any of the counting methods then in use. So the next step is to determine in which of those years Nisan 14 or 15 fell on Friday. This means more than simply looking up the calendar. Jewish months begin at the new moon. The new moon is by definition invisible, and in those days they couldn’t calculate the lunar cycle as easily as they can now. They had to determine the first of the month by observing the first tiny sliver of the crescent and count from there.
The modern investigator thus has to calculate the hour and minute at which the first bit of the waxing moon of Nisan would have been visible in Jerusalem for each of these years, taking into account the time of moonrise and atmospheric conditions likely at different hours. Matters are further complicated by the possibility that an extra month might have been inserted in some of those years. This leap month was thrown in now and then to shift the lunar months back to the proper solar seasons after they had drifted out of synchrony. However, taking it all into account, Nisan 14 could have been a Friday on April 11 , A.D. 27, April 7, A.D. 30, and April 3, A.D. 33. Nisan 15 could have fallen on Fridays April 11, A.D. 27 and April 23, A.D. 34. The confusion over whether April 11, A.D. 27 was Nisan 14 or 15 is a typical uncertainty of Jewish dating.
A.D. 27 seems too early for the crucifixion anyway. Luke 3:1,2 dates the start of the ministry of John the Baptist in the 15th year of Tiberias Caesar. This could have been no earlier then autumn A.D. 28-29. Jesus’ own ministry started after his baptism by John and lasted at least two and more likely three years. A.D. 34 is too late due to a conflict with the conversion of St. Paul. Paul had necessarily be converted at some date after the crucifixion. The later events of Paul’s life can be dated externally. Intervals of time he quotes himself — and nobody supposes he could not count — would put his conversion before A.D.34.
Now we are left with two possibilities: April 7, A.D. 30 and April 3, A.D. 33. Humphreys and Waddington point out this means, not so incidentally, that the crucifixion took place on Nisan 14 . “We remark that by this means, a scientific argument has been used to distinguish between different theological interpretations of the lest supper,” they say. This is, whether or not the Last Supper was a Seder. If it was held on the evening before the crucifixion, and the crucifixion took place on Nisan 14, it could not have been a Seder. Humphreys and Waddinton also point out that this dating puts Jesus’ death at the hour when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, another point of theological and symbolic significance.
But in which of the two years, A.D. 30 or 33 , did it take place? Here is where the new evidence comes in. In a speech given seven weeks after the crucifixion (on the first Christian Pentecost), St. Peter referred to a blood-red moon (Acts 2:20). The context can be read to indicate that he was referring to a recent event, one that in fact took place the night after the crucifixion. Humphreys and Waddington cite the New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce in defence of this interpretation.
An eclipsed moon of ten looks red. Sunlight refracted through the earth’s atmosphere enters the shadow and illuminates the moon slightly. This light is red, as the refraction separates the blue and green. Humphreys and Waddington calculated all the lunar eclipses visible from Jerusalem between A.D. 26 and 36. There were in fact 12. One happened on the night of April 3, A.D. 33. On that night an already partially eclipsed moon rose above the horizon in Jerusalem, geometrically and atmospherically very favourable conditions for it to look red. On that basis Humphreys and Waddington opt for April 3, A.D. 33.
If you are sticking to the Midwayers’ record of April 7, A.D. 30, I wonder if you can tell me where Humphreys and Waddington went wrong. Unless you are an historian or a theologian, perhaps the date of the crucifixion is not important, nor the fact that this planet was the only one throughout the grand universe where a creator son was treated in this manner, but rather the superb manner in which Jesus met his death.
From: Science News, Vol. 125, January 1984