be harmonized with the Synoptical statement, which admits only of one natural interpretation.^159 It
seems strange, indeed, that, the Jewish priests should have matured their bloody counsel in the
solemn night of the Passover, and urged a crucifixion on a great festival, but it agrees, with the
satanic wickedness of their crime.^160 Moreover it is on the other hand equally difficult to explain
that they, together with the people, should have remained about the cross till late in the afternoon
of the fourteenth, when, according to the law, they were to kill the paschal lamb and prepare for
the feast; and that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, with the pious women, should have buried
the body of Jesus and so incurred defilement at that solemn hour.
The view here advocated is strengthened by astronomical calculation, which shows that in
a.d. 30 the probable year of the crucifixion, the 15th of Nisan actually fell on a Friday (April 7);and
this was the case only once more between the years a.d. 28 and 36, except perhaps also in 33.
Consequently Christ must have been Crucified a.d. 30.^161
To sum up the results, the following appear to us the most probable dates in the earthly life
of our Lord:
Birth a.u. 750 (Jan.?) or 749 (Dec.?) b.c. 4 or 5.(^159) John 13:1 "before the feast of the Passover" does not mean a day before (which would have been so expressed, comp, 12:1),
but a short time before, and refers to the commencement of the 15th of Nisan. The passage, 13:29: "Buy what things we have
need of for the feast," causes no difficulty if we remember that Jesus sat down with his disciples before the regular hour of the
Passover (13:1), so that there was time yet for the necessary purchases. The passage on the contrary affords a strong argument
against the supposition that the supper described by John took place a full day before the Passover; for then there would have
been no need of such haste for purchases as the apostles understood Christ to mean when he said to Judas."That thou doest, do
quickly" (13:27). In John 18:28 it is said that the Jews went not into the Praetorium of the heathen Pilate "that they might not
be defiled, but might eat the Passover; " but this was said early in the morning, at about 3 A. M., when the regular paschal meal
was not yet finished in the city; others take the word Passover "here in an unusual sense so as to embrace the chagigah ( חַגיגָה)
or festive thank-offerings during the Passover week, especially on the fifteenth day of Nisan (comp. 2 Chr. 30:22); at all events
it cannot apply to the paschal supper on the evening of the fifteenth of Nisan, for the defilement would have ceased after sunset,
and could therefore have been no bar to eating the paschal supper (Lev. 15:1-18; 22:1-7). " The Preparation of the Passover,"ἡ
παρασκευὴ τοῦ πάσχα, John 19:14, is not the day preceding the Passover (Passover Eve), but, as clearly in 19:31 and 42, the
preparation day of the Passover week, i.e. the Paschal Friday; παρασκευή being the technical term for Friday as the preparation
day for the Sabbath, the fore-Sabbath, προσάββατον, Mark 15:42 (comp. the German Sonnabend for Saturday, Sabbath-eve,
etc.). For a fuller examination of the respective passages, see my edition of Lange on Matthew (pp. 454 sqq.), and on John (pp.
406, 415, 562, 569). Lightfoot, Wieseler, Lichtenstein, Hengstenberg, Ebrard (in the third ed. of his Kritik. 1868), Lange,
Kirchner, Keil, Robinson, Andrews, Milligan, Plumptre and McClellan take the same view; while Lücke, Bleek, DeWette,
Meyer, Ewald, Stier, Beyschlag, Greswell, Ellicott, Farrar, Mansel and Westcott maintain that Christ was crucified on the
fourteenth of Nisan, and either assume a contradiction between John and the Synoptists (which in this case seems quite impossible),
or transfer the paschal supper of Christ to the preceding day, contrary to law and custom. John himself clearly points to the
fifteenth of Nisan as the day of the crucifixion, when he reports that the customary release of a prisoner " at the Passover"(ἐν
τῷ πάσχα) was granted by Pilate on the day of crucifixion, John 18:39, 40. The critical and cautious Dr. Robinson says (Harmony,
p. 222): " After repeated and calm consideration, there rests upon my own mind a clear conviction, that there is nothing in the
language of John, or in the attendant circumstances, which upon fair interpretation requires or permits us to believe, that the
beloved disciple either intended to correct, or has in fact corrected or contradicted, the explicit and unquestionable testimony of
Matthew, Mark and Luke."Comp. also among the more recent discussions Mor. Kirchner: Die jüd. Passahfeier und Jesu letztes
Mahl (Gotha, 1870); McClellan: N. Test. (1875), I. 473 sqq., 482 sqq.; Keil: Evang. des Matt. (Leipz. 1877), pp. 513 sqq.
(^160) The answer to this objection is well presented by Dr. Robinson, Harmony p. 222, and Keil, Evang. des Matt., pp. 522 sqq.
The Mishna prescribes that "on Sabbaths and festival days no trial or judgment may be held;" but on the other hand it contains
directions and regulations for the meetings and actions of the Sanhedrin on the Sabbaths, and executions of criminals were
purposely reserved to great festivals for the sake of stronger example. In our case, the Sanhedrin on the day after the crucifixion,
which was a Sabbath and "a great day," applied to Pilate for a watch and caused the sepulchre to be sealed, Matt. 27:62 sq.
(^161) See Wieseler, Chronol. Synopse, p. 446, and in Herzog, vol. XXI. 550; and especially the carefully prepared astronomical
tables of new and full moons by Prof. Adams, in McClellan, I. 493, who devoutly exults in the result of the crucial test of
astronomical calculation which makes the very heavens, after the roll of centuries, bear witness to the harmony of the Gospels.
A.D. 1-100.