EVENT: Good Friday on Good Friday

[Frank Forman]

This is April 3. Jesus was crucified on April 3, 33 A.D. They coincince
about once every ten years or so. So I thought I'd commemorate the event.

Also, Western Civilization came to an end on April 3, 1897, when Johannes
Brahms died. The core, that is. Good classical music continued to come
out, of places like Bohemia (Dvorak), Russia (Tchaikovsky and
Shostakovich), and Hungary (Bartok). Not even the periphery. No composers
of the stature of Shostakovich, who died in 1975.

We owe the precise dating of the crucifixion to the work of two
astronomers, who published their results in Nature, about as prestigious a
place that there is. I send it below.

Thanks to Sharon for giving me a book by Michael Poole, _10 Arguments that
Don't Hold Water: The "New" Atheism_ (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2009), which
was mostly feeding Richard Dawkins his own medicine, for pointing me
toward this magnificent piece of detective work. I wonder how widely it
has been acceopted, as I had not heard of it. It does show, for this
atheist, an amazing consistency in scripture. Still, it does not establish
the supernatural.

Colin J. Humphreys* & W. G. Waddington*: Dating the Crucifixion
Nature Vol. 306 22/29 1983.12

Department of Metallurgy and Science of Materials, University of Oxford,
Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
* Also Jesus College, Oxford (G.J.H.) and Department of Astrophysics, Oxford
(W.G.W.).

The date of the Crucifixion has been debated for many years, but there has
been no agreement on the year nor the day. Astronomical calculations have
now been used to reconstruct the Jewish calendar in the first century ad and
to date a lunar eclipse that biblical and other references suggest followed
the Crucifixion. The evidence points to Friday 3 April ad 33 as the date
when Jesus Christ died.

The only certainty about the date of the Crucifixion is that it occurred
during the 10 years that Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judaea (ad 26-36).
Nearly every year in this period has its advocates (see, for example, ref.
1) while the day of the execution is also uncertain since there appears to
be a difference of one day between the date given by the Gospel of John and
that indicated by the Synoptics: Matthew, Mark and Luke.

In what follows we have set out to reconstruct the Jewish calendar in the
first century ad, improving on the accuracy of previous versions. We have
sought to reconcile the documentary evidence that exists with our
reconstruction of the Jewish calendar and we have used calculations of the
occurrence of a lunar eclipse which, if accepted, allow the day, month and
year of the Crucifixion to be determined precisely.

Biblical evidence

Tacitus2 agrees with the four gospels that the Crucifixion took place during
the period when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judaea, between ad 26 and
ad 36. All four gospels agree that Jesus died a few hours before the
beginning of the Jewish sabbath (nightfall on a Friday) and--within a
day--that it was the time of the Passover, the annual Jewish feast held at
the time of a full Moon.

This evidence alone compels us to reject many of the dates suggested in the
past. Thus, one of the earliest traditions, going back to Tertullian (ad
200), gives the date as 25 March ad 29. This date was not accepted
everywhere throughout the early church and we now know from astronomical
calculations that the time of the Passover Moon in ad 29 was in April, not
March.

Passover time was precisely specified in the official festival calendar of
Judaea, as used by the priests of the temple (see, for example, ref. 3).
Lambs were slaughtered between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the 14th day of the
Jewish month Nisan (corresponding to March/April in our calendar). The
Passover meal began at moonrise that evening, at the start of 15 Nisan (the
Jewish day running from evening to evening) (Leviticus 23, 5; Numbers 28,
16). John's Gospel differs from the other three in stating that the day of
Jesus' trial and execution was that before Passover (John 18, 28 and 19,
31), on 14 Nisan. The precise interpretation of the Synoptics is less
unambiguous. Here, briefly, are three of the many possible interpretations
which have been proposed.

A full-page miniature from a thirteenth-century English manuscript from
Salisbury, now at All Souls College, Oxford. (Courtesy Bodleian Library.)
[not shown]

(1) A straightforward reading of the Synoptics indicates that the Last
Supper was a Passover meal, eaten at Passover time (in the evening at the
start of 15 Nisan), with the Crucifixion occurring later that Jewish day, on
15 Nisan (see for example Mark 14,12). This disagrees with John's date of 14
Nisan (see Jeremias4).

(2) Many scholars, however, have suggested that the Last Supper described
by the Synoptics was not strictly a Passover meal but that Jesus, knowing of
his imminent arrest, held a Passoverlike meal on the evening before (see
Luke 22, 15). Certainly the Synoptics do not mention the eating of a
Passover lamb, and this interpretation is in broad agreement with the
Johannine account in which the farewell meal is explicitly stated to have
occurred before the feast of Passover (John 13, 1). The timing also agrees,
so that on this reading all four gospels give 14 Nisan as the Crucifixion
date. (Variations on this basic interpretation are discussed in refs 3, 5
and 6.)

(3) Jaubert7 has proposed that the Last Supper reported by the Synoptics
was a strict Passover meal but held at Passover time as calculated using the
'sectarian' calendar followed by the Qumran community and others (see ref.
8). On this reading, the Last Supper was held on Tuesday evening, at the
start of the Jewish Wednesday (the sectarian calendar Passover day, and
recorded by the Synoptics), the Crucifixion was on Friday (all four gospels)
and the official Passover was on Saturday (recorded by John), in which case
all four gospels again give 14 Nisan (official calendar) as the date of the
Crucifixion.

Thus some scholars believe that all four gospels place the Crucifixion on
Friday, 14 Nisan and others believe that, according to the Synoptics, it
occurred on Friday, 15 Nisan. For generality, we assume at this stage that
both dates are possible and set out to determine in which of the years ad
26-36 the 14th and 15th Nisan fell on a Friday. Previous attempts (see for
example refs 4, 9-12) to use astronomy to resolve this ambiguity have shown
that while the times of new and full Moons can be accurately specified, we
do not know with what skill the Jews of the first century could detect the
first faintly glowing lunar crescent after conjunction with the Sun. (The
new Moon itself is invisible by definition.)

Jewish calendar

Hitherto it has been customary to assume arbitrarily that the sickle of the
new Moon would be invisible to the unaided eye until a certain length of
time (usually 30 hours) had elapsed since conjunction. Fotheringham's more
realistic criterion, based on the apparent position of the Moon in the sky
at sunset, was modified and improved by Maunder12, but even that criterion
is not rigorous, excluding several thin crescents that have been observed.

We have therefore computed the visibility of the lunar crescent as a
function of time after sunset for the beginning of each lunar month in the
period of interest. Whether or not the crescent Moon is visible depends on
whether its contrast with the sky background exceeds the visual contrast
threshold13. The lunar semidiameter and the position of the Moon in the sky
at and after sunset have been evaluated from harmonic syntheses of the
perturbed orbits of the Earth and Moon and the sky brightness for an
observer at Jerusalem calculated as a function of the depression of the Sun
below the horizon, as is the Moon's apparent surface brightness. At the
latitude of Jerusalem, we find that the lunar crescent is first visible
after sunset at a lunar altitude corresponding to approximately 0.5° less
than that given by Maunder and this is consistent with many recent
observations of the first sickle of the new Moon. Assuming normal
atmospheric transparency, we obtain the results of Table 1.

Although in the first century ad the beginning of the Jewish lunar month (in
the official calendar) was fixed rigorously by astronomical observation,
difficulties arise because of the Jewish use of intercalary (or leap)
months. Twelve lunar months total approximately 11 days less than a solar
year, but for agricultural and ritual purposes, lunar months were kept at
roughly the same place in the solar year by the intercalation of a
thirteenth month when necessary, roughly once every three years. In the
first century AD, intercalation was regulated annually by proclamation by
the Sanhédrin according to certain criteria4'8'9,14, one of the most
important of which was that Passover should fall after the vernal equinox.
If, towards the end of a Jewish year, it was estimated that Passover would
fall before the equinox, the intercalation of an extra month before Nisan
was decreed. Table 1 has been constructed on this basis.

Table 1 The date of 14 Nisan in Jerusalem, ad 26-36
Year (ad)/ New Moon time/ Deduced date of 14 Nisan
26/ 6 April 6:40/ Sunday 21 April
27/ 26 March 20:05/ Thursday 10 April*
28/ 15 March 2:30/ Tuesday 30 March
29/ 2 April 19:40/ Monday 18 Aprilt
30/ 22 March 19:55/ Friday 7 April†
31/ 12 March 0:25/ Tuesday 27 March
32/ 29 March 22:10/ Sunday 13 April*
33/ 19 March 12:45/ Friday 3 April
34/ 9 March 5:25/ Wednesday 24 March
35/ 28 March 6:10/ Tuesday 12 April
36/ 16 March 17:50/ Saturday 31 March
The time of new Moon is given as calculated apparent (sundial) time of
conjunction for Jerusalem (±5 min). The deduced date is the Julian day (from
midnight to midnight), starting at 6th hour 14 Nisan and ending at 6th hour
15 Nisan.
* 14 Nisan ad 27 and ad 32 could have been on the following day if the new
Moon was not detected due to poor atmospheric transparency.
† In each of these cases it is not impossible, but highly improbable, that
14 Nisan would have occurred on the preceding day.

Table 2 Calendrically possible dates for the Crucifixion
Jewish day Source Date (Julian calendar)
14 Nisan John's Gospel Friday 11 April ad 27†
and Synoptics (2, 3)* Friday 7 April ad 30
Friday 3 April ad 33
15 Nisan Synoptics (1)* Friday 11 April ad 27†
Friday 23 April ad 34‡
* Synoptics (1, 2, 3) refers to the three possible interpretations in the
text.
† There is some uncertainty, depending on the atmospheric conditions, as to
whether this day was on 14 or 15 Nisan (see text and Table 1). We include
all possibilities for completeness.
‡nly in the case of a leap month being inserted because of exceptionally
severe weather (see text).

Unfortunately, a leap month could also be decreed if the crops had been
delayed by unusually bad weather (since the first fruits must be ripe for
presentation on 16 Nisan) or if the lambs were too young. There are,
however, no historical reports of the proclamation of leap-months in the
years ad 26-36, so that it is possible that in some years Nisan was one
month later than given in Table 1. Calculations show that in the period ad
26-36, if Nisan was one month later than given in Table 1,14 Nisan would not
fall on a Friday in any year and 15 Nisan would fall on a Friday only in AD
34 (April 23).

Table 2 lists all the possible dates of a Friday Crucifixion falling on
either 14 or 15 Nisan. These are the only dates that are astronomically and
calendrically possible for the Crucifixion. We now consider which of them
can be eliminated by means of other available evidence.

Further evidence

ad 27 is almost certainly too early. Luke 3,1-2 carefully states that John
the Baptist began his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar and
subsequently baptised Jesus. Depending on whether the Hellenistic (Roman)
civil or the Jewish ecclesiastical reckoning is used, the fifteenth year
(=340 Seleucid Era) would either have been autumn ad 28-29 or spring ad
29-30 (see ref. 15). In addition, most scholars believe that Pilate had been
procurator for some time before the Crucifixion (see Luke 13, 1 and 23, 12).

Similarly, AD 34 is almost certainly too late, for it would conflict with
the probable date of Paul's conversion. We can fairly confidently date the
later events in Paul's life and, working back from these using time
intervals given by Paul himself (for example, see Galatians 1, 18 and 2, 1)
leads many scholars to infer Paul's conversion was in ad 34 (for example,
see ref. 4). Moreover, ad 34 is only a possible Crucifixion date if the
weather that spring had been exceptionally severe. There is therefore no
positive evidence in favour of ad 34 and we exclude it. (The only eminent
advocate of 23 April, ad 34 that we have come across is Sir Isaac Newton,
whose chief reason seems to have been that 23 April is St George's Day.)

Having eliminated ad 27 and ad 34, we note from Table 2 that the Crucifixion
must have occurred on 14 Nisan and that the interpretation of the Last
Supper as a Passover meal held at the official time cannot be correct.

We remark that by this means, a scientific argument has been used to
distinguish between different theological interpretations of the nature of
the Last Supper. We have also shown that the Crucifixion occurred on 14 not
15 Nisan, so that Jesus died at the same time as the Passover lambs were
slain. This is consistent with many New Testament statements such as "Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5, 7).

By elimination, ad 30 and ad 33 are now the only two plausible dates for the
Crucifixion. The earliest possible time at which Jesus can have begun his
ministry is autumn AD 28 (see ref. 15) while John's gospel records three
different Passovers occurring in the ministry (including that at the
Crucifixion). If this evidence is accepted, AD 30 cannot be the Crucifixion
year and ad 33 is the only possibility.

This is also consistent with the reference in John 2, 20 which records that
the Jews said to Jesus at the first Passover of his ministry that the temple
had taken 46 years to build. Assuming that this refers to the inner temple
(see ref. 1), the 46 years leads to ad 30 or 31, depending on how much
preparation time was involved before building began. If the only Passovers
of Jesus's ministry were the three explicitly mentioned in John's gospel, an
ad 33 crucifixion implies a ministry of about 2§ years. Many scholars,
however, believe that John omitted to mention a further Passover, in which
case the ministry would have lasted for 3; years.

Fig. 1 Moonrise on Friday 3 April ad 33 as seen from Jerusalem. The effects
of atmospheric refraction have been included and give rise to the distorted
shape of the Moon. The time interval between successive diagrams is 45 s.
The most probable colours of the Moon were: shaded area, red; unshaded area,
yellow-orange. [not shown]

On the two dates possible on calendrical grounds, scholarly opinion appears
divided with some authors5'1 prefering 7 April, ad 30, and others3,14 3
April, ad 33. We now consider further evidence that has not, to the best of
our knowledge, been used in helping to date the Crucifixion--the subsequent
occurrence of a lunar eclipse.

We first take up the meaning and significance of the references to the Moon
being "turned to blood" in the Bible and also in the Apocrypha.

In Acts 2,14-21 it is recorded that on the day of Pentecost, the apostles
were accused by a crowd of being drunk and that Peter stood up and said "No,
this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: In the last days, God says, I
will pour out my spirit on all people... I will show wonders in the heavens
above... The Sun will be turned to darkness and the Moon to blood before
that great and glorious day of the Lord shall come."

Table 3 Lunar eclipses visible from Jerusalem ad 26-36

Date* Day†/ Magnitude‡/ Time eclipse started

15 Aug. ad 26 Friday/ 50%/ 23.16
31 Dec. ad 27 Wednesday/ 70%/ 23.45
14 June ad 29 Tuesday/ Total/ 20.45
9 Dec. ad 29 Friday/ 45%/ 20.92
25 April ad 31 Wednesday/ 35%/ 21.58
19 Oct. ad 31 Friday/ 25%/ 4.82
3 April ad 33 Friday/ 60%/ Occurred at rising Moon
27 Sept. ad 33 Sunday/ 85%/ 4.88
11 Feb. ad 35 Friday/ 55%/ 4.91
7 Aug. ad 35 Sunday/ 60%/ 20.30
31 Jan. ad 36 Tuesday/ Total/ Occurred at rising Moon
26 July ad 36 Thursday/ Total 22.23
* Julian Calendar.
† Julian day (from midnight to midnight as distinct from the Jewish day).
‡ Fraction of the area of the Moon covered at the midpoint of the eclipse.

It is not clear whether Peter was claiming that all the quoted prophecy from
Joel had recently been fulfilled (for example ref. 17) or whether the words
refer to the future, but in our view, the phrase "the Moon turned to blood"
probably refers to a lunar eclipse, in which case the Crucifixion can be
dated unambiguously.

Peter prefaces his quotation from Joel with the words "Let me explain this
to you ... this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel". He appears to be
arguing that recent events had fulfilled the prophecy he was about to quote.
If this interpretation is correct "the last days" began with Christ's first
advent (see also 1 Peter 1, 20; Hebrews 1, 1-2) and the outpouring of the
spirit (v. 17-18) commenced at Pentecost and "that great and glorious day"
(v. 20) refers to the Resurrection. "The Sun will be turned to darkness" (v.
20) refers back to the 3 hours of darkness which occurred only 7 weeks
previously, at the Crucifixion (Matthew 27, 45), and would be understood as
such by Peter's audience.

As is well known, the mechanism by which the Sun was darkened may have been
a khamsin dust storm. Since the darkened Sun occurred at the Crucifixion it
is reasonable to suppose that "the Moon turned to blood" occurred that same
evening, "before that great and glorious day", the Resurrection. This
interpretation of Acts 2, 20 is supported by F. F. Bruce18.

Other documentary evidence suggests that on the day of the Crucifixion, the
Moon appeared like blood. The so-called 'Report of Pilate', a New Testament
Apocryphal fragment (see ref. 19), states that at the Crucifixion "the Sun
was darkened; the stars appeared and in all the world people lighted lamps
from the sixth hour till evening; the Moon appeared like blood". Although
much of the Apocrypha cannot be used as primary historical evidence,
Tertullian records that Pilate wrote a report of all the events surrounding
the Crucifixion for the Emperor Tiberius. The manuscript fragments of the
'Report of Pilate' are all of later date, but may be partly based on the
lost original19. On the other hand, the report may have used the Acts as a
source, in which case it may be significant that the event described by
Peter in which the Moon turned to blood is clearly stated to have occurred
at the Crucifixion. It is of course also possible that the report is a late
Christian 'forgery', but even such a document may be thought to reflect a
widely held contemporary belief. In other words, the Report of Pilate is
secondary supporting evidence that the Moon appeared like blood on the
evening of the Crucifixion.

The Moon turned to blood

The reason an eclipsed Moon is blood red is well known. Even though the Moon
is geometrically in the Earth's shadow, sunlight still reaches it by
refraction in the Earth's atmosphere and is reddened by having traversed a
long path through the atmosphere where scattering preferentially removes the
blue end of the spectrum. Descriptions of some well documented ancient
eclipses have been compiled by Ginzel20 and matched with calculated eclipse
dates. We quote three examples: (1) The lunar eclipse of 20 September 331 BC
occurred 2 days after Alexander crossed the Tigris and the Moon was
described by Curtius (IV, 10 (39), 1) as "suffused with the colour of
blood". (2) The lunar eclipse of 31 August AD 304 (probably) which occurred
at the martyrdom of Bishop Felix, was described in Acta Sanctorem "when he
was about to be martyred the Moon was turned to blood". (3) The lunar
eclipse of 2 March AD 462 was described in the Hydatius Lemicus Chronicon
thus: "on March 2 with the crowing of cocks after the setting of the Sun the
Full Moon was turned to blood".

In the mediaeval European annals compiled by Pertz21, many lunar eclipses
are described by "the Moon turned to blood", while Stephenson22 considers
that the prophecy of Joel (2, 31) clearly alludes to a lunar eclipse. It is
therefore surprising that the link between the Crucifixion and a lunar
eclipse does not appear to have been made before, although Bruce approaches
this conclusion.

Lunar eclipses visible in Jerusalem ad 26-36

We have determined the eclipses relevant to our work by the use of the most
comprehensive data available24 as corrected by Stephenson25,26 in the light
of Babylonian records and long-term changes in the Earth's rate of rotation.
All lunar eclipses (total and partial) visible from Jerusalem between ad 26
and ad 36 are listed in Table 3 which shows that in the period ad 26-36,
there was only one lunar eclipse at Passover time visible from Jerusalem.
The date, Friday, 3 April ad 33, is the most probable date for the
Crucifixion deduced independently using other data. The interpretation of
Peter's words in terms of a lunar eclipse is therefore not only
astronomically and calendrically possible, but it also allows us with
reasonable certainty to specify Friday, 3 April AD 33 as being the date of
the Crucifixion. The random probability of a lunar eclipse occurring at
moonrise on a particular date is, of course, small. We remark that in 1899
Chambers27 noted that 3 April AD 33 coincided with a full Moon and "that
full Moon suffered eclipse, but she emerged from the Earth's shadow about a
quarter of an hour before she rose from Jerusalem" (D. Hughes, personal
communication). Presumably this eclipse was considered irrelevant to the
date of the Crucifixion since it was believed to be invisible from
Jerusalem. However; the more accurate calculations presented here prove that
this eclipse was visible.

Visual appearance

Calculations show that this eclipse was visible from Jerusalem at moonrise.
(All times quoted below are local Jerusalem times as measured by a sundial,
and the probable error in the eclipse times is about ±5 min.) The start of
the eclipse at 3.40 p.m. was invisible from Jerusalem, being below the
horizon. At its maximum at about 5.15 p.m., with 60% of the Moon eclipsed,
the eclipse was still below the horizon from Jerusalem. The Moon rose above
the Jerusalem horizon at about 6.20 p.m. (the start of the Jewish Sabbath
and also the start of Passover day in ad 33) with about 20% of its disk
eclipsed and the eclipse finished some 30 min later at 6.50 p.m.

Although at moonrise only 20% of the total area (irr2) of the Moon's disk
was eclipsed (in the umbral shadow), this "bite" was positioned close to the
top (leading edge) of the Moon. Figure 1 shows the appearance of the Moon
at, and shortly after, moonrise on 3 April ad 33. As the umbral shadow (in
which the Sun is geometrically entirely hidden) was near the top of the
Moon, about 65^/o of the visible area of the rising Moon would initially
have been seen as fully eclipsed (Fig..l) while the remainder would have
been in the penumbral shadow.

The coloration of eclipses varies greatly with atmospheric conditions. For
partial eclipses, particularly with the Moon at high altitude, there is a
large contrast difference between the obscurred and unobscured part of the
disk so that the Moon often appears almost white with a very dark "bite"
removed. However for some partial eclipses the red colour of the umbral
shadow is clearly visible. For example, Davis28 has recently depicted in
colour an eclipse sequence as seen by the human eye with the Moon low in the
sky, when the blood red of the umbra in the partial eclipse phase is almost
as vivid as when the eclipse is total.

For the eclipse of 3 April AD 33, the Moon was just above the horizon and
the most probable colour of the visible portion would have been red in the
umbral shadow (shaded in Fig. 1) and yellow-orange elsewhere. The small
yellow-orange region would have indicated that the Moon had risen, but most
of its visible area would have "turned to blood". If in fact a massive dust
storm was responsible for darkening the Sun a few hours previously, dust
still suspended in the atmosphere would have tended to modify these colours,
probably further darkening and reddening the Moon.

The eclipse of 3 April ad 33 would probably have been seen by most of the
population of Israel, since the Jews on Passover Day would be looking for
both sunset and moonrise in order to commence their Passover meal. Instead
of seeing the expected full Paschal Moon rising they would have initially
seen a Moon with a red "bite" removed (Fig. 1). The effect would have been
dramatic. The Moon would grow to full in the next half-hour. The crowd on
the day of Pentecost would undoubtedly have understood Peter's words as
referring to an eclipse which they had recently seen.

Conclusions

In ancient times eclipses (total or partial) were regarded as supernatural.
Thus, the first century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus records that a
lunar eclipse occurred on the same night as Herod the Great burnt alive
Matthius and some other Jews for sedition. (This was a partial eclipse
according to Ginzel20.) The lunar eclipse on the same night as the
Crucifixion would similarly have been interpreted by many as a supernatural
sign, and may well have been an important factor influencing the overnight
change of mind of the Jews and Pilate towards the body of Jesus, leading to
the placing of a military guard on the tomb.

The lunar eclipse may also be relevant to the well-known reference to a
Crucifixion solar eclipse in some translations of Luke 23,44-45 ("It was now
about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth
hour: the Sun was eclipsed"). Solar eclipses are of course impossible at
Full Moon and in any case last for minutes, not hours. Only five early (but
major) manuscripts of Luke refer to this solar eclipse, but it may be that a
scribe copying an original Luke text, and knowing of an oral tradition of an
eclipse at the Crucifixion, wrongly amended the text to refer to a solar
eclipse.

At first sight, it might be thought curious that a Crucifixion lunar eclipse
is not mentioned in the gospels. Although at the time of the Crucifixion
this eclipse would have seemed of great significance, and indeed Peter
apparently referred to it about 7 weeks later, and Pilate may have referred
to it in his original report to Tiberius, in retrospect this lunar eclipse
would have seemed insignificant to the gospel writers compared with the
Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The gospel writers were not primarily
interested in providing clues for chronologists.

We thank Mr J. G. Griffith for information on some New Testament manuscripts
and for detailed discussions, and Dr F. R. Stephenson for lunar eclipse data
and some important astronomical references. We also thank the following for
their comments on a first draft of this paper: Dr O. R. Barclay, Dr G. A. D.
Briggs, Mr O Edwards, Canon J. Fenton, Dr P. E. Hodgson, Professor H. F. D.
Sparks, Dr G. Vermes, Dr D. Wenham and Dr D. E. H. Whiteley.

1. Hoehner, H. W. Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, 1977).
2. Tacitus Annals XV, 44.
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1968).
4. Jeremias, J. The Eucharistie Words of Jesus (transi. Perrin, N.) (SCM,
London, 1966).
5. Bruce, F. F. New Testament History (Pickering & Inglis, London, 1982).
6. Whiteley, D. E. H. Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischem Welt Vol.
25,PtIl (deGruyter, Berlin, in the press).
7. Jaubert, A. La Date de la Cène (Gabalda, Paris, 1957).
8. Schurer, E, Vermes, G. & Millar, F. The History of the Jewish People in
the Age of Jesus Christ Vol 1 (Edinburgh University Press, 1973).
9. Fotheringham, J. K., J. theol. Stud. 35, 146 (1934).
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Philadelphia, 1973).
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15. Edwards, O. Palest. Explor. <?., 29 (1982).
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17. Neil, W. The Acts of the Apostles (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan,
1973).
18. Bruce, F. F. 77te Acts of the Apostles (Inter-Varsity, Leicester, 1952).
19. James, M. R. The Apocryphal New Testament, 154 (Clarendon, Oxford,
1953).
20. Ginzel, F. K. Spezieller Kanon der Sonnen- und Mondfinsternisse (Mayer &
Muller, Berlin, 1899).
21. Pertz, G. H. Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Scriptores, Hanover, 1959);
Vols 16-19 (reprinted by Kraus Reprint Corporation, New York, 1963).
22. Stephenson, F. R. Vetus Testamentum 19, 224 (1969).
23. Bruce, F. F. Commentary on the Book of the Acts (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, 1981).
24. Oppolzer, T. R. von Kanon der Finsternisse (1887) (Transi. Gingerich,
O.) (Dover, New York, 1961).
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Records (Oxford University Press, 1978).
26. Stephenson, F. R. Scient. Am. 247 (4), 154 (1982).
27. Chambers, G. F. The Story of Eclipses (Hodder & Stoughton, London,
1899).
28. Davis, D. Sky Telescope 64, 391 (1981).

[Lionel Tacchini]

On 04.04.2015 02:26, Frank Forman wrote:
> Also, Western Civilization came to an end on April 3, 1897, when
> Johannes Brahms died.

So that's when it happened.
I had thought it was earlier, with Haydn, but redeeming figures kept
appearing and I still think of Debussy as a worthy candidate, or its it
Honegger?

--
Lionel Tacchini

[Joe Roberts]

Lionel Tacchini wrote:
> On 04.04.2015 02:26, Frank Forman wrote:
>> Also, Western Civilization came to an end on April 3, 1897, when Johannes
>> Brahms died.
>
> So that's when it happened.
> I had thought it was earlier, with Haydn, but redeeming figures kept

> appearing and I still think of Debussy as a worthy candidate, or is it
> Honegger?

It's Sullivan.

Or ...

Sir Thomas Beacham was asked, "What do you think of Stainer's
'Crucifixion'?" His reply: "I'm in favor of it."

Or ...

"Always look on the bright side of life" ... Monty Python.

Or ...

Has anyone composed or choreographed a ballet for angels dancing on the head
of a pin?

Joe