CHAPTER VII.

THE TIME OF THE FIRST ADVENT

Astronomical evidence for fixing the date of the crucifixion-The Jewish mode of regulating their months-The Passovers, from A.D. 28-34-The Passover, A.D. 29, the only one that fills the necessary conditions for fixing the year of the crucifixion-The exact time of the new moon at Jerusalem for that year.

We now come to consider what may be termed the astronomical evidence on the subject of the crucifixion. The Jews were commanded by God to regulate the appointment of their feasts by the moon, and it is certain from Scripture that our Lord was crucified at the time of one of them, viz., the feast of the Passover, and that he rose again on the first day of the week, which answers to our Sunday morning, according to his own previous declaration, after having lain "three days and three nights" in the grave. What we have therefore to do in applying the subject, is to consider the year of the Passover moon answering to this test. And as what are called the laws of nature are, like God's own word, irreversible, unless the same Almighty power that framed them be pleased to alter them, this argument affords the best test of any for fixing the date when, according to the prophecy, the Messiah was cut off.

Concerning the institution of the Scripture, as we have already noticed over was to be observed on the 14th the Jewish sacred year, † and as it is

*See pp. 28, 29.

Passover, we read in at length, that the Passday of the first month of evident, from the words of

We use the word "sacred," or ecclesiastical year, to distinguish it from the civil year. The former commenced with Nisan, answering to our March, and the seventh of the civil year; the latter with Tisri, answering to our September. "After the Exodus," says Calmet, "which happened in the month of March, God ordained that the holy year, i.e., the calendar of religious feasts and ceremonies, should begin at Nisan, the seventh month of the civil year (the civil year being left unchanged), which the Hebrews continued to begin at the month Tisri (September). Originally the month was

St. Paul, that Christ was the true Passover that was sacrificed for us once for all (see 1 Cor. v. 7, and Heb. vii. 27, ix. 26), we are safe in concluding that, on the 14th day of the first month, called Nisan, the Crucifixion took place, and on the 17th, or three days after, the Lord of glory burst the bonds of the grave, and rose from the dead; and if this occurred on the morning of the Christian Sabbath, we must find some Sunday which fell on the 17th day of Nisan, in order to fulfil the conditions which are required by the Scriptures for the accomplishment of this event.

This dispute, amongst writers concerning the time of our Lord's death, appears to be confined to a period of about seven years— from A.D. 28 to A.D. 34. This is the utmost difference that we have been enabled to discover amongst chronologers on this subject, and a consideration of the test we have mentioned will enable us to discover the year of the crucifixion.

The first thing, however, to be considered is the mode whereby the Jews were accustomed to regulate their months, or, as we should term it, their New Year's day. Josephus says, "In the month Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the 14th day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries (for on this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians) the law ordained, that we should every year slay that sacrifice, which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover." (Antiq. 1. iii., x., 5.)

It is not quite clear what we are to understand by Josephus's expression of "the sun being in Aries," as a guide for determining the time of the Passover, whether he means the sign or the constellation Aries. * Neither does the historian state

called "Abib," as in Exod. xiii. 4, xxiii. 15, because at that time the corn was eared and grew towards ripeness (Ahib signifying "an ear of corn"). This was in after-ages changed to Nisan, as in Neh. ii. 1, and Esth. iii. 7, a Chaldee word, denoting the month of war, from Nissin, which signifies, according to Bochart, "ensigns" or "banners." (See Patrick on Exodus, xii. 2.)

The difference between the two is owing to the precession of the equinoxes, or more properly the recession, because the equinoxes appear to travel backwards and the signs forwards. Thus, e.g., in the year B.C. 270, at the period to which the researches of Hipparchus, commonly called the Father of Astronomy, extend, it was found that the sun entered both the sign and the constellation on the same day, viz., the 20th of March. A.D. 29, the supposed year of the crucifixion, the sun entered the constellation Aries March 24th, 5 h. 7 m. A.D. 1858, the present year, it will enter it April 19th, 12 h. 5 m.,

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whether he means that the sun was to be found in Aries exactly on the 14th day of Nisan, when the Passover was observed, or before the month terminated.

There is, however, very satisfactory evidence that the Jews occasionally kept the Passover before the vernal equinox, when the sun is said to enter the sign Aries. Canon Browne, referring to the offering mentioned in Lev. ii. 14, and xxiii. 10, 11, by which the Hebrews possessed a simple and most effective method of preserving the adjustment between their own lunar year, and the solar tropical year, observes, "It appears from the accounts of travellers in Syria and the Holy Land, that the barley becomes fully ripe in the warm plain of Jericho by the beginning of our April, i.e., within ten days of the vernal equinox. Hence, in calculating the place of Nisan in any given Julian year, we must have respect to the time of the equinox. The 15th of Nisan must not be placed, at the utmost, earlier than a week before the equinox." (Ordo Sæclorum. Institutes of Chonology, sec. 407.)

That the Jews at the time did observe the Passover occasionally before the 20th of March, when the sun was said to enter the sign Aries and the vernal equinox had arrived, we may conclude, from the Apostolical Canons, supposed to have been made, according to the learned Bingham, by some Eastern

though at both periods it is said to enter the sign Aries on March 20th. This is owing to the shifting of the cardinal points in the Zodiac, by which it is found that every year the sun reaches the constellation Aries later, and that formerly it entered it earlier than it does at the present time. Furgusson says, "From the shifting of the equinoctial points, and with them all the signs of the ecliptic, it follows, that those stars, which in the infancy of astronomy were in Aries, are now got into Taurus, those of Taurus into Gemini, &c. With regard to the fixed stars, the equinoctial points in the heavens have receded 2 s. 20° 2′ 30′′ since the creation, which is as much as the sun moves in 81 d. 5 h. 0 m. 52 s. And since that time, the equinoxes with us have fallen back 44 d. 5 h. 21 m. 9 s. With respect to the fixed stars, the sun and equinoctial points fall back (as it were) 30 degrees in 2160 years, which will make the stars appear to have gone 30 degrees forward with respect to the signs of the ecliptic in that time, for the same signs always keep in the same points of the ecliptic without regard to the constellations. The amount of the precession of the equinox in 2160 years is at the rate of 50′′ of a degree, or 20 m. 17 s. of time annually." In a table showing the precession of the equinoctial points in the heavens, both in motion and time, and the anticipation of the equinoxes on earth, Fergusson gives for a period of 2000 Julian years 15 d. 8 h. 20 m. 0 s. for the anticipation of the equinoxes on the earth, (See Fergusson's Astronomy, by Sir D. Brewster, vol. i. xiv., 247, 248.)

council, about the time of Pope Victor, i.e., in the second century, where one of them says, "If any bishop, presbyter, or deacon, keep the day of the Holy Pasch before the vernal equinox with the Jews, let him be deposed." (Canon. Apos. 8.) So Clinton, in his Fasti Romani, vol. ii., pp. 241, 242, observes, "a Jewish Passover was sometimes celebrated before the equinox," and gives as his authority Epiphanius, hær. 70, p. 823, Anatolius apud Bucherum, p. 439.

Hence the conclusion has been fairly drawn that "the Jewish Passover was commenced on the day preceding that on which the moon was full, between March 18th and April 16th, which was always on the 14th of Nisan. As the moon can only be eclipsed at the full, the day for commencing the Passover would be the day preceding any eclipse that occurs between those dates." (Angus's Bible Hand-book.) Though we believe it to be true that the Passover might be, and was, held as early as what answers to our March 17th, it is a mistake to assert that the 14th of Nisan always occurred on the day preceding the full moon, for it might occur, as we shall endeavour to show, two days before that time, owing to the period of each lunation

* The Hebrew word "pesach," which we translate Passover, and which has its name from the angel of God passing by or over the houses of Israelites, when the first-born of the Egyptians were slain, was frequently used by the Jews to express the feast of eight days from the 14th of Nisan to the 22nd, as Josephus says, "The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the 15th day of the month, and continues seven days" (Antiq. 1. iii., x., 5); and elsewhere, "The feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover " (Antiq. 1. xvii., ix., 3); and also by the ancient Christian writers, who commonly included fifteen days in the whole solemnity of the Pasch, i.e., the week before Easter Sunday, and the week following it; the one of which was called Pascha σravpóσuov, the Pasch of the cross, and the other Pascha ávaστáσipov, the Pasch of the resurrection. Suicerus, in his Thesaur. Eccl. t. 1, p. 304, t. 2, p. 1014, will furnish the learned reader with examples of both. (See Bingham's Antiq. 1. xx., v.)

It would appear, therefore, that the 17th of March must be the earliest day on which it was possible for the Passover to be kept; and there is an incidental inference in favour of an early Passover on the year of the crucifixion, to be drawn from the language of the evangelists respecting an occurrence at that time. When our Lord was brought before the high priest, it is recorded that "the servants made a fire of coals, for it was cold; and they warmed themselves; and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself." (John xviii. 18; also Mark xiv. 54; and Luke xxii. 55.) This fact of the weather being so cold at that time favours the idea that the crucifixion must have occurred early in March rather than in April, when it is much warmer.

amounting to 29 d. 12 h. 44 m. 3 s., and consequently a half lunation, or the exact time between the new and the full moon equalling 14 d. 18 h. 22 m. 2 s.

Let us then see how this rule applies in the years intervening between A.D. 28 and A.D. 34. The calculations are made from Furgusson's Tables,* and the time of the new moon is calculated for the meridian of Jerusalem. The Dominical letter is introduced in order to show the day on which the resurrection of our Lord from the grave would have occurred in each year, as being three days after the Passover, i.e., the 17th day of the month Nisan.

* Furgusson's Tables begin the day at noon, and reckon forwards from thence to the noon following. Thus-March 3rd at 15 h. 17 m. 53 s. of tabular time, is March 4th (in common reckoning) at 17 m. 53 s. after three o'clock in the morning.

This is the year which the learned Dr. Hales has selected as the one when the crucifixion took place, chiefly on the authority of the Roman consul Aurelius Cassiodorus, senator, who records an eclipse having happened on the 8th day of the Kalends of April (25th of March), in the consulate of Tiberius Cæsar Augustus V. and Ælius Sejanus, U.c. 784, A.D. 31, "when there happened such an eclipse of the sun as was never before nor since." (Vol. i., pp. 776, 777.) The objection to this view is, that the 25th of March, A.D. 31, which, as may be seen above, coincided that year with the 14th of Nisan, or Passover day, fell on a Sunday, on which day it is certain the crucifixion did not take place.

The following document, said to have been discovered by some Neapolitans in an antique vase of white marble, while excavating the city of Aquilla, in the kingdom of Naples, A.D. 1820, and now in the chapel of Caserta, professes to be the original death-warrant of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was engraved on brass, a copy of which was sent to each of the twelve tribes. It reads as follows:-"Sentence rendered by Pontius Pilate, acting Governor of Lower Galilee, stating that Jesus of Nazareth shall suffer death on the In the year 17 of the Emperor Tiberius Cæsar, and the 26th day of March, the city of the holy Jerusalem, Annas and Caiaphas being priests, sacrificators of the people of God, Pontius Pilate, Governor of Lower Galilee, sitting on the presidential chair of the Prætory, condemns Jesus of Nazareth to die on the cross between two thieves; the great and notorious evidence of the people saying-1, Jesus is a seducer; 2, he is seditious; 3, he is an

cross.