How many metres in a cubit? The answer may astound you.

Dear Readers,
I know it's only been a day since I edited my last post (if you haven't read it yet, I highly advise it), but I just have to share what I learned today about the Egyptian cubit. If you watch the relevant minute of the referenced video, you will see that the most ancient Egyptian cubit is a function of the ratio of pi and phi in metres, out to four or five digits (.52356) over the precise 230,366½-millimetre width of each of the Great Pyramid's four sides.
This would indicate that the most ancient Egyptians were aware of the relationship of geometry to base ten out to five digits--a metre is the distance from the equator to the pole, divided by ten thousand--as well as the irrational numbers of higher mathematics. As later generations of Egyptians lost this knowledge, it stands to reason that their cubits became less and less precise--ranging as much as a centimetre off the ancient standard (and even more so by the time we get to the TNIV).
If the Egyptians at the dawn of history were capable of manipulating such abstract numbers to such precision, it lends credence to the idea that the numbers in Genesis chapter five--even more ancient--are the result of equally complex calculations. Note that in each of the nine generations enumerated, the age at which the son was begotten always ends in zero, two, five, or seven--as do the lifespans of the first seven generations. This is regardless of whether one follows the Hebrew, Greek, or Samaritan numbers. And as it turns out, two and five are among the factors of phi squared; it appears that some complicated mathematical formula was at work in producing ages that always ended in one of these two factors of phi squared, or the sum of them. And it appears that we are only now finally coming to the point in our understanding of ancient mathematics to be able to transcribe these numbers into something more useful to our purposes, which is establishing the time span between Creation and the Flood.

Added on August 19:
This video shows a tablet from ancient Babylon now understood to contain formulas of higher mathematics used to construct triangles from an entirely different perspective than has been used for the past 2500 years. Clearly Ancient Man was much more intelligent than materialist paradigm has been willing to accept. Perhaps more on that, in a later post.

Scorched wheat and the Chronology of the Conquest

In 2012, a report was released on the latest excavation of Tell Hazor, the ancient capital city along the northeastern border of Israel. In it we read that amongst the latest findings were 3400 year old jars of scorched wheat. What this means, in archeological terms, is that the city was conquered and, rather than being sacked, burnt to the ground. Finds of this nature tend to be in Israel, and correlate to the Late Bronze Age.

Why would an invading army go to all the work of conquering a city, only to burn it down, loot and all? The answer is pretty obvious, if you believe the Bible: God told them to.

The two cities so far in which jars full of grain have been found by excavators are Jericho and Hazor; two cities, as it turned out, recorded in the Book of Joshua as having been first conquered, then burned. In fact, Joshua 11:11-13 tells us that Hazor was the only conquered city in the region around Chinneroth that Joshua burned.

Now, inasmuch as these scorched grains can easily be Carbon-dated, we should be able to establish, within just a few years, the date that Hazor was burned: it turns out to be--still waiting on a more precise date--1400 BC.

Now, 1400 BC is a bit late for the conquest of Hazor by Ussher's chronology, but it's certainly within a quarter century--well within the margin of error for Carbon dating. But it's well over a century too early for the skeptic's date of the Exodus, in the mid 13th century.

What this scorched wheat is telling us is that it's more likely that Ussher was right, and today's scholars are wrong.

Incredibly, scholars are still holding out for a 1250 BC date for the fall of Hazor--with 150-year-old jars of wheat stored in Jabin's royal palace.

Now, these scholars could actually have their cake and eat it too, were they interested in the truth. Remember that there are two separate conquerings of Jabin king of Hazor: one in Joshua 11, and one in Judges 4. Ussher would date this latter one to--get this--about 1250 BC.

Why is Christmas on December 25th?

There are ten federal holidays in the United States in 2012, in addition to the fifty-four Sundays, which are specifically named in the Constitution as days of rest from Government work. Thanksgiving is always on the fourth Thursday in November, and the rest all fall on a Monday--with one sole exception. Christmas falls on December 25, a Tuesday.

What is it about December 25 that would make it the last  fixed holiday on the government calendar?

Well, for many centuries December 25 has been the date that Christians celebrate the Birth of Christ. Now, Eastern Christians are famous for observing this celebration on the 6th of January, but this is nothing more than the perpetuation of the December 25th celebration despite the secular adoption of the Gregorian calendar.

And this date has been observed for far longer than the schism between the Eastern and Western churches. In what is the earliest extant reference to what is now known as Christmas, the date on which the birth of Christ occurred was recorded, in Greek, by a writer named Hippolytus of Rome, in his Commentary on Daniel:

“For when the times from the foundation of the world and from Adam are reckoned, they furnish this matter quite clearly to us who seek an answer. For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, eight days before the kalends of January [December 25th], the 4th day of the week [Wednesday], while Augustus was in his forty-second year, [3BC] but from Adam five thousand and five hundred years. He suffered in the thirty third year, 8 days before the kalends of April [March 25th], the Day of Preparation, the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar [30 AD], while Rufus and Roubellion and Gaius Caesar, for the 4th time, and Gaius Cestius Saturninus were Consuls. And so it is absolutely necessary for six thousand years to be fulfilled, so that the Sabbath rest may come, the holy day, in which God rested from all his works which he began to do. And so from the generation of Christ it is necessary to count the remaining five hundred years to the consummation of the six thousand years, and in this way the end will be."

 This dates back to the first decade of the third century; a full hundred years before the State took over the Church. Obviously the Christian observance of Christmas goes way, way back: but why? There is nothing in the Scripture itself to give us the exact year, much less the exact day, when Jesus was born. So why was it so important to Christians that they know when it was?

Well, here's a new idea I just ran across. Whether it's factual or not, I don't know; but it does appear to account for the evidence. Creation Ministries International posted this on their website:

The real source of the 25 December date is an extra-biblical Jewishtradition, called the ‘integral year’. This means that a prophet’s lifespan would be an exact number of years, so he would die on an anniversary of his conception, the real beginning of life. Jesus’ death was calculated as March 25^th by the Western church, and April 6^th by the Eastern Church. Therefore this same date was celebrated as the date Christ was conceived. Nine months later is December 25^th or January 6^th, and the latter date is still celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox church (and many branches of the Western church celebrate ‘Epiphany’ on the same day, now to commemorate the arrival of the magi and their three gifts).

Actually, this again is just the effect of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by the Western Church.

Continuing on in Hippolytus, we can see that, like most chronographers, he did have an agenda:

 24.5. But because in the fifth and a half time the Savior arrived in the world bearing the incorruptible ark, that is his own body, John says, “and it was the sixth hour,” so that half of the day may be demonstrated, a day of the Lord is like thousand years.  And so the half of these is five hundred
years.
24.6 . . . .Because after the people returned from Babylon four hundred and thirty and four years occurred until the generation of Christ, it is easy to perceive what has been set before.  32.2. For since the first covenant with the sons of Israel was given after four hundred and thirty-four years, it is absolutely necessary for the second also likewise to be determined in the same time, so that it may be expected by the people and may be easily recognized by the believers.

There's one more thing to consider: The reading of Matthew 1:18.

Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ ἡ γέννησις  --Majority reading in Greek;  Latin version corresponds; "birth of Jesus"
Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἡ γένεσις   --Reading of the oldest papyri & uncials, corresponding to "beginning" in some Coptic & Syriac manuscripts; "conception of Jesus"

Hippolytus uses the term “genesis (γένεσις) of Christ,” and it's clear that this refers to His conception, not birth. From a conception date of March 25 (the anniversary date of Creation, observed for many centuries in Christendom as New Years Day, having been fixed at a time when this Julian date corresponded to the spring equinox) derives the date of Jesus’ birth as December 25.

I should add that although there is a bit of discrepancy amongst the various medieval manuscripts of Hippolytus, a statue located at the entrance of the Vatican contains a canon-table self-dated rather precisely to the beginning of 222 A.D. On it is Hippolytus' date for Christ's conception: Wednesday, April 2, 2 B.C. So whilst Hippolytus and his copyists down through the ages did play around a bit with the precise year of Christ's birth (4 BC is the critical consensus, as adopted by Ussher), and sometimes confused it with the date of his conception, Wednesday, December 25, 3 BC can be nailed down as the original date.

UPDATE:
"It was not the visible sun, but its invisible Creator who consecrated this day for us, when the Virgin Mother, fertile of womb and integral in her virginity, brought him forth, made visible for us, by whom, when he was invisible, she too was created. A Virgin conceiving, a Virgin bearing, a Virgin pregnant, a Virgin bringing forth, a Virgin perpetual. Why do you wonder at this, O man?"

So wrote Augustine in Sermons 186:1, indicating--it would appear--that Jesus was born on a Sunday.

UPDATE:
It turns out there's a history of Presidential Executive Orders giving federal workers extra time to goof off either the day before, or the day after Christmas, whenever doing so would prolong the weekend.  President Obama provided a half-day off on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2009, and a full-day Monday Dec. 24, 2012 and Friday, Dec. 26, 2014. President George W. Bush provided a half-day holiday on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2002, as well as several full days off the day before or after Christmas: Tuesday, December 24, 2001, Thursday, December 26, 2003, Tuesday, December 24, 2007, and Thursday, December 26, 2008.

Did the Apostle John die a natural death?

Century IX.

From the Chronicon of George Hamatolos (the sinner), codex Coislinianus 305 (Lightfoot-Holmes 6):

Μετα δε Δομετιανον εβασιλευσε Νερουας ετος εν, ος ανακαλεσαμενος Ιωαννην εκ της νησου απελυσεν οικειν εν Εφεσω. μονος τοτε περιων τω βιω εκ των δωδεκα μαθητων και συγγραψαμενος το κατ αυτον ευαγγελιον, μαρτυριου κατηξιωται. Παπιας γαρ ο Ιεραπολεως επισκοπος αυτοπτης τουτου γενομενος εν τω δευτερω λογω των κυριακων λογιων φασκει οτι υπο Ιουδαιων ανηρεθη, πληρωσας δηλαδη μετα του αδελφου την του Χριστου περι αυτων προρρησιν και την εαυτων ομολογιαν περι τουτου και συγκαταθεσιν.

And, after Domitian, Nerva ruled as king for one year[18 September 96 – 25 January 98], who, having called John back from the island, released him to house in Ephesus. Being then the only one still alive from the twelve disciples, and having composed the gospel according to himself, he was held worthy of martyrdom. For Papias, the bishop of Heirapolis, who was the eyewitness of this man, in the second volume of the lordly oracles claims that he was done away with by Jews, having clearly fulfilled with his brother the prediction of Christ about them and their own confession about this and submission.

Ειπων γαρ ο κυριος προς αυτους· δυνασθε πιειν το ποτηριον ο εγω πινω; και κατανευσαντων προθυμως και συνθεμενων. το ποτηριον μου, φησι, πιεσθε και το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθησεσθε. και εικοτως, αδυνατον γαρ θεον ψευσασθαι. ουτω δε και ο πολυμαθης Ωριγενης εν τη κατα Ματθαιον ερμηνεια διαβεβαιουται ως οτι μεμαρτυρηκεν Ιωαννης, εκ των διαδοχων των αποστολων υποσημαιναμενος τουτο μεμαθηκεναι. και ο πολυιστωρ Ευσεβειος εν τη εκκλησιαστικη ιστορια φησι· Θωμας μεν την Παρθιαν ειληχεν· Ιωαννης δε την Ασιαν, προς ους και διατριψας ετελευτησεν εν Εφεσω.

For the Lord said to them: Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? And they assented desirously and agreed. My cup, he says, you shall drink, and you shall be baptized the baptism with which I am baptized. And reasonably, for God is unable to pass falsehood. And thus also the very learned Origen in the interpretation according to Matthew confirms as that John has been martyred, having signaled that he learned this from the successors of the apostles. And the well-read Eusebius in the ecclesiastical history says: Thomas was allotted Parthia, and John Asia, where also, having passed his time, he came to his end in Ephesus.

Here we see that Papias is the only named firsthand testimony to John having been martyred. But, in that he gives no details whatsoever--other than blaming it on Jews--historians now generally claim, on the sole basis of tertiary witnesses, that John died a natural death. What's interesting, though, is that the ancient historians who commented on this saw it as a fulfillment of prophecy: that John had to die a martyr, due to Jesus having said that he would indeed drink of His cup, and be baptised with His baptism.

Tracking down Zerubbabel

Isaac Newton was a genius; no one disputes that. And no matter what he applied his genius to, he made breakthroughs that changed the way things were done. For example, turn a dime or quarter on edge. You will observe a ribbing that goes all the way around the coin. While this serves no purpose today, it was a breakthrough in its time, invented by Newton to end the practice of 'clipping' the edges of specie, a sort of do-it-yourself degradation of the money supply. He came up with this idea when put in charge of the Royal Mint, and ever since then, coins have carried ribbing--as have the tokens that replaced them. Nickels and pennies don't, because they were never made of precious metal.

One idea Newton tinkered with throughout his life (claiming to spend only his 'idle time' on it) was a universal chronology of ancient kingdoms. The unfinished manuscript has once again been posthumously released, edited this time by the same man who brought Ussher's chronology back in print. Inasmuch as it was written before any of the treasures of Ancient Egypt had been opened up by the Rosetta Stone, it could bear editing again by an Egyptologist. And inasmuch as its dates for ancient Egyptian History could be falsified by Carbon-14 dating, this also should be attempted.

But one thing Newton gave to the science of chronology in this work was the technique of dating by generations. It turns out that he didn't originate the idea--it actually underpins much of ancient Greek chronology. What he did was bring Science into the picture, thus drastically reducing dates in ancient history. For example, he set an upper limit of 26 to 28 years for generations in a dynasty, with 18 to 20 years the average length of a reign. Ancients, on the other hand, assumed 33 to 40 years per reign (and in some cases as high as 80 to 100), thus greatly inflating the dates for the earliest monarchs when calculated by generations. Newton was able to conclusively prove that the dates generally accepted for European history get off by up to some three centuries as the inflated generations take us farther and farther back. Modern historians have disregarded Newton's work in this area, to their great detriment.

Calculating chronology by generations is actually an idea I had come up with myself several years ago. I even made a post on it earlier. This post represents my latest thinking.

The Gospels contain two different genealogies of Jesus, the son of Mary. They are so different that people have puzzled for millennia how they can end with the same person. I happen to believe that Matthew's genealogy is that of Joseph, Jesus' common law father, and Luke's is that of Mary, Jesus' birth mother. But regardless, both genealogies share one name in common--or at least appear to: Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel.

Personally, I think this is just a case where two people had the same first and last name--all too common in genealogy. But the interesting thing about this name is that it doesn't really matter: we can use this unique name to date anyone who has it, regardless of how many there were.

Zerubbabel has a very specific meaning in Hebrew: literally, it's sown in Babylon. Now, whether this refers to the individual's conception or his birth, we can reasonably date it to within one generation of 598/7 BC when Jeconiah was taken captive to Babylon. Using this technique relies on only two assumptions:

1) A Jewish father would give this name to his son if he was the first in his family line to be conceived and/or born in Babylonian captivity. The name reflects both the fresh despair of captivity, and a spark of hope for eventual return.

2) The name carries such a negative connotation that it would not be passed on to later generations.

So, let's start with the working hypothesis that anyone named Zerubbabel was born between 586 and 550 BC. Plugging this date into Matthew's genealogy, we find a perfect fit: Zerubbabel was the grandson of Jehoiachin (alias Jeconiah or Coniah), who was born in 616 BC. It's apparent that his first son was born before his exile at age 18, so Shealtiel's firstborn would have been the first in his line to be born in Babylon.

One fascinating piece of information was found on Cuneiform tablets dating to the general time that Jehoiachin was "given a regular ration by the king" of Babylon. It states something to this effect:
Tablet 28122: To Jaoukin, king . . .
Tablet 28178: "10 (sila of oil) to ...Jaoukin, king of Ja[...]
2 1/2 sila to [...so]ns of the king of Judah"
Tablet 28186: "10 (sila) to Jakuukinu, the son of the king of Jakudu
2 1/2 sila for the 5 sons of the king of Jakudu"

I don't think we can identify the men on the third tablet with those on the first two, but at any rate we do know that Jehoiachin had 7 sons, and it's likely that 1 or 2 died young. This is likely the reason why Zerubbabel is sometimes listed as the son of Shealtiel, and sometimes as the son of Pedaiah; apparently a levirate marriage was involved.

But who is Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri in Luke 3:27? He doesn't appear to be closely related to the other one by blood, but, due to the unique historical conditions of the time, must have been in his same generation.

Now, taking that information, we can plug a date into the long genealogy from Nathan (born around 1050 BC) to Jesus (born around 0 BC). The 41 generations would average 25.6 years each--very reasonable when each generation doesn't have to be a firstborn, and an indication that probably none are missing. Plugging Zerubbabel in at 575 BC, we get fore and aft averages of 22.62 and 28.75 years respectively, both of which are still within the normal range.

But trying to fit Zerubbabel into Matthew's genealogy has a big problem: he's only 11 generations back from Jesus, rather than 20. This means an average generation of 52.27 years; way too many, especially since most of these are first- or second-borns. But remember, we already know that Matthew deliberately excluded 3 or 4 generations farther up. So how many can we reasonably say he excluded between Zerubbabel and Abiud--the descendant who follows him on Matthew's list?

Well, as it turns out, 1 Chronicles 3 already gives Zerubbabel's descendants out for 6 generations--and Abiud doesn't make the list. Adding these six to the 11 already listed gives an average generation of 33.82 years--still a bit too long.

If, as Newton showed, we can use generations to fix chronology, we can also do the opposite--by counting the years between Zerubbabel and Jesus, we can show that at least six, and probably about ten, generations are missing between Zerubbabel and Joseph--and likely before we even get to Abiud. UPDATE May 2012 I recently discovered a possible factor in Matthew's dividing Jesus' genealogy into three sets of fourteen: One set getting us to David the King, one set of Davidic Kings, and one more set of exiles down to Jesus, the heir to David's throne. 'DAVID' in Hebrew gematria has the value of fourteen.

Early Earth Timeline

The following is a collation of ancient dates in chronologies that date The Flood in terms of the age of the Earth--primarily the Bible and pseudo-Berosus (following the Hebrew Bible where they differ). I follow Clarke's chronology for the life of Jacob, which puts his wedding twenty years earlier than that of Ussher. An alternative Biblical chronology by Daniel Gregg can be viewed by clicking on the post title. I have made many changes to the end of this chronology based on his calculations.

As you can see, the two chronologies don't appear to mesh well. I'll add more as I find them.
UPDATE 2-20-09: My son pointed out that one reason why Isis may have lived so long was that, having been born to Ham in his old age, she was of a much earlier generation than her contemporaries. On the other hand, Joseph was born to his aged father and didn't live as long as his older brothers did--implying that he died prematurely, since other patriarchs born to aged fathers lived much longer; even Moses died prematurely at the age of 120.

Day 1 Creation of the heavens and the earth and separation of day from night
Day 2 Separation of land from sea
Day 3 Creation of plants
Day 4 Creation of the hosts of the heavens; stretching out the heavens
Day 5 Creation of sky & sea creatures
Day 6 Creation of land creatures

First Century Cain, his wife, and Abel born
By year 130 Cain kills Abel
Year 131 Seth born to Adam, age 130
Around year 130 Enoch born to Cain
Year 236 Enosh born to Seth, age 105
around 200 Irad Cainite born
326 Cainan born to Enosh, age 90
around 300 Mehujael Cainite born
396 Mahelaleel born to Cainan, age 70
around 400 Methushael born
461 Jared born to Mahelaleel, age 65
around 600 Lamech Caininte born
623 Enoch born to Jared, age 162
688 Methusaleh born to Enoch, age 65
around 700 Jabel (of Adah), Jubal (of Adah) and Tubal-Cain (of Zillah) born to Lamech Cainite
Around 700-900 Cain dies (killed by Lamech Cainite)
875 Lamech born to Methusaleh, age 187
Around 900 Jabel, Jubal, & Tubal-cain's children born
931 Adam dies, and Cain's line is no longer recorded
988 Enoch translated, age 365
1043 Seth dies, age 912
1057 Noah born to Lamech, age 182
1141 Enosh dies, age 905
1236 Cainan dies, age 910
1291 Mahelaleel dies, age 830
1423 Jared dies, age 962
1557 Japheth born to Noah, age 500
1559 Shem born to Noah, age 502
around 1561 Ham born to Noah, around age 504
1652 Lamach dies young, age 777
1657 Methusaleh dies, age 969; apparently, just prior to the Flood.
1657 Virtually everybody else, possibly including Tubal-Cain, dies in The Flood; Ice Age follows.
c. 1658 Comerus Gallus (Gomer)(Bedvig) first son of Japheth, born (on the ark)
c. 1658 Cush (Gregory: Zoroaster) born to Ham
1659 Arphaxad born to Shem, age 100
c. 1670 Caanan born to Ham, age around 109
c. 1670-90 Noah gets drunk, exposes himself to Ham, curses Canaan
1694 Salah born to Arphaxad, age 35 (unless to Cainan II)
1724 Eber born to Salah, age 30
1758 Tower of Babel; Peleg born to Eber, age 34 (Ice Age glaciers have lowered ocean levels and opened up land bridges, so people spread to the extremities of the continents within the next few centuries)
1788 Reu born to Peleg, age 30
1813 Nembroth (Gregory, from Orosius: Nebron) (Nimrod) born to Cush
1820 Serug born to Reu, age 32
1850 Nahor I born to Serug, age 30
1856 Samothes (Javan)(Meshech), fourth son of Japheth, becomes king of the Celts in Samothea.
1879 Terah born to Nahor I, age 29 (youngest father recorded to date)
1949 Haran born to Terah, age 70; Osiris (Mizraim) (Serapis) (Dionysius) (Bacchus) born to Ham & his extra wife Rhea
1958 Juno (Isis) born to Ham and Rhea; first year of Semiramis, Queen of Babylon
about 1979 Nahor II born to Terah, age around 100
1980 terminus ad quo for birth of Lot to Haran (age 31)
1987 Sumula-ilum begins Babylonian dynasty
1997 Peleg dies age 239, first postdeluvian patriarch to die, unless prematurely
1998 Nahor I dies prematurely at age 148
about 2000 Milcah born to Haran (age c. 51)
2007 Noah dies age 950, oldest man in the world by 500 years!
2009 Abra(ha)m born to Terah, age 130; more likely date for Lot's birth; Isis marries her brother Osiris
c. 2010 Hercules Lybicus (Lehabim) born to Osiris (Mizraim) and Isis
2019 Sarai (Sarah) born (to Haran, age 70)
about 2020 Nahor II marries Haran's daughter Milcah
2027 Reu dies age 239
about 2036 Abram, aged about 27, marries Sarai, aged about 17
2040-2060 terminus ad quem for the birth of Haran's (age 91-111) son Lot
2050 Serug dies, age 230
2075 Hammurabi becomes King of Babylon, reigns 43 years
around 2078 Haran dies prematurely at about age 129 in Ur of the Chaldes
2079 Terah takes his adopted son Lot, & son Abraham, to Haran (begin the 430 years)
2083 Terah dies age 205; Abra(ha)m adopts his nephew Lot, takes him along to the Promised Land
c. 2084 Abraham sojourns in Egypt; expelled by Pharaoh (Jerome identifies as 16th dynasty)
c. 2085 Lot (age 25-45) marries and moves out on his own; his flocks increase
c. 2090 Lot moves to Sodom; is captured by Hammurabi et al; liberated by Abraham
c. 2090 Abraham offers tithes to Shem in Jerusalem
2095 Ishmael born to Abraham and Hagar
2097 Arphaxad dies age 438 (this approximates the maximum extent of the Ice Age according to Oard)
c. 2084-2098 Nahor & Milcah have Huz, Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, & Bethuel
2107 Lot's daughters get him drunk, so he impregnates them
c. 2015 Kemuel, around age 25, has Aram
2109 Isaac born to Abraham (age 100) and Sarah (age 90); Moab born to Lot; benAmmi born to Lot (age 48-68 or possibly as old as 128) (begin the 400 years)
2118 Hammurabi dies, succeeded by Samsu-Iluna
c. 2120 Job born in The East; however, the Babylonian Talmud states several other opinions.
c. 2125 Laban born to Bethuel (age c. 27)
2127 Salah dies, age 433
c. 2128 Rebekah born in Haran to Bethuel (age c. 30)
2146 Sarah dies at 127; Abraham buys the property at Machpelah Cave
2148 Isaac marries Rebekah in the Negev near Beer La Hai Roi
2159 Shem dies age 600 (in Jerusalem), oldest man in the world (unless Japheth [Jupiter] still living).
2169 Esau and Jacob born to Isaac and Rebekah after long barrenness
2184 Abraham dies age 175 in Hebron's environs; buried in Machpelah near Hebron
2188 Eber dies age 464, oldest man in the world, last recorded survivor of pre-Babel.
2208 Esau marries Hittite princesses Adah & Aholibama
c. 2211 Leah born to Laban, around age 86
c. 2213 Rachel born to Laban, around age 88
c. 2220 Job born in Uz in the waning years of the Ice Age
2225 Jacob steals the blessing from Esau and flees to Haran; meets Rachel (c. 13); Esau marries Mahalath (Basemath), daughter of Ishmael
2232 Ishmael dies age 137
2233 Jacob (64) marries Leah; and a week later, Rachel (daughters of Laban, age 113)
The following birth intervals are only precise to within a year:
2234 Reuben born to Jacob (65) and Leah (the other possibility is to move up the weddings
2235 Simeon born to Jacob (66) and Leah -by 6 years and add 14 years to all birth dates)
2236 Levi born to Jacob (67) and Leah (Hippolytus has Jacob at age 86, i.e. 20 years later)
2236 Dan born to Jacob (67) and Bilha
2237 Judah born to Jacob (68) and Leah
2237 Naphtali born to Jacob (68) and Bilhah; Jacob owns his wives free and clear
2238 Gad born to Jacob (69) and Zilpha
2240 Asher born to Jacob (71) and Zilpha
c.2240's Job's youngest son born
2247 Rueben finds mandrakes
2247 Issachar born to Jacob (78) and Leah
2248 Zebulon born to Jacob (79) and Leah
2248 Typhon, along with other giants, kills his brother Osirus; Isis laments him
2250 Dinah born to Jacob (81) and Leah
2254 Judah marries Shua's daughter
about 2255 Er born to Judah (25) and Shua's daughter
about 2258 Onan born to Judah (29) and Shua's daughter
2260 Joseph born to Jacob (91) and Rachel (47); Jacob begins working for wages
c. 2260 Job's trials in Uz
about 2263 Shelah born to Judah (43) and Shua's daughter
2266 Jacob (aged 97) returns to Canaan, chased by Laban (aged 147)
2267 Diana raped; Simeon & Levi massacre Shechem
2267 Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, dies in Bethel--aged at least 140
2267 Benjamin born to Jacob (98) and Rachel (54); Rachel dies
2271 Asher's son Beraiah born
c. 2273 Er marries Tamar, dies; Onan marries Tamar, dies.
c. 2275 Perez and Zerah born to Judah and Tamar
2277 Joseph sold to Egypt
2281 Hercules appoints his son Tuscus king over Italy
c. 2282 Kohath born to Levi (age c. 46; but see 2296)
2289 Isaac dies at age 180, first post-deluvian patriarch to outlive all his ancestors
2290 Joseph becomes governor of Egypt prior to 7 years of bumper crops (probably caused by midwinter flooding of the Nile--possibly from melting glaciers in Ethiopia)
c. 2291 Joseph begets Manaseh
2292 Asher's son Beraiah begets a son
c. 2293 Joseph begets Ephraim
2296 Hippolytus has Kohath born to Levi at age 40
2297 Perez has a son; beginning of famine for 7 years (probably due to climate change in East Africa)
2298 Joseph's brothers visit Egypt
2299 Joseph's brothers visit Egypt again. Benjamin by now has many sons.
~2300 Jacob (130) moves to Egypt with his clan, settles in Goshen. Babylonian Talmud relates an opinion that Job born now, living until the Exodus.
c. 2300 Job dies in Uz around the age of 180 (this approximates the last glacier of the Ice Age melting)
About 2309 Amram born to Kohath (age c. 29)
2315 Jacob puts the firstborn blessing on Ephraim and dies (age 147) in Goshen.
c. 2360 Hercules dies in Gibraltar
2370 Joseph dies prematurely in Egypt (age 110); Egypt considered it a ripe old age.
c. 2380 Jocabed born to Levi (age 135); unless she's a granddaughter (more likely)
2382 Levi dies in Egypt (137). Age exact; year a guesstimate
c. 2415 Kohath dies in Egypt, age 133; Hippolytus has 2429.
2424 Miriam born to Amram (114) and Jocabed (c 52)(if she's a granddaughter of Levi,
2426 Aaron born to Amram (116) and Jocabed (c 55) -subtract 20 years
2428 Moses born to Amram (119) and Jocabed (c 58) -from these ages)
No one born for the next 60 years survives to enter Canaan except Caleb & Joshua
About 2446 Amram dies in Egypt (aged 137)
About 2456 Joshua born to Nun in Egypt
2468 Moses flees to Midian
2470 Caleb born to Jephunneh in Egypt
2471 462 years after birth of Abraham: Gregory's date for the Exodus
2484 Dardanus founds Dardania in Phrygia; re-named Troy by his great-grandson Troas
2489 First ordinary person to enter Canaan born
2509 Babylonian Talmud relates an opinion that Job died now [aged 210, because his lifespan was doubled from 70] Or, that this was his lifespan, but he lived earlier.
2414 The Exodus (if sojourn was ½ of 430 years); Jerome says the Pharaoh was Cencris the 12th.
Tacitus writes, "Some hold that in the reign of Isis the superfluous population of Egypt, under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Iuda, discharged itself on the neighbouring lands: "
2528 Isis dies in Egypt aged 570 (Noah's last grandchild, oldest person in the world)
2548 Aaron dies on Mt. Hor, aged 122
2548 Moses dies prematurely at the border of Canaan, age 120 and in perfect health
2549 Jericho is destroyed
2568 Last ordinary survivor of the Exodus dies, age 77
2959 First year of judge Eli
2999 Death of Eli
3128 The Temple in Jerusalem is finished in Solomon's 11th year.
Gregory counts 2242 years to the Flood; 5185 years from Creation to the Passion
The following are from Newton's chronology, but counting back from 0 BC:
1100 BC Death of Eli
1043 BC Dardanus is the second king of Troy. Tros (reigned in 1015 BC) was his grandson.
904 BC Fall of Troy

. . . And if anyone is wondering, Ham might possibly have started out his life as a contemporary of Tubal-Cain, but over 800 years younger.

Chronology of the Resurrection

Some ramblings that will eventually be headed with the words Final Edition

I've been working on the Passion Week Chronology again. Here's a site that agrees with the astronomically established Crucifixion Date of Friday, April 3, 33 (Sorry, Wednesday-crucifixion advocates), but has a novel twist on the Chronology of the Resurrection: that Jesus did not leave "the belly of the earth" to ascend to his Father (John 20:17) until the following Monday, post a few selected appearances in his resurrected body.

Looking through a harmony of Passion Week, I keep running into the notion (having had a bit of experience with the legal system myself) that one night isn't near long enough to fit in all these events:
The Last Supper
The walk to the Garden
Agony in the Garden
Arrest
Appearance before Annas
Hearing before Caiaphas
Hearing(s) before the Sanhedrin
Hearing before Herod
Hearing(s) before Pilate

Interestingly enough, the pseudopigraphal guide to early church life, The Didascalia Apostolorum, says the following about the timeline leading up to the Crucifixion:
* * *
For when we had eaten the passover on the third day of the week at even, we went forth to the Mount of Olives; and in the night they seized our Lord Jesus. And the next day, which was the fourth of the week, He remained in ward in the house of Caiaphas the high priest. And on the same day the chiefs of the people were assembled and took counsel against Him. And on the next day again, which was the fifth of the week, they brought Him to Pilate the governor. And He remained again in ward with Pilate the night after the fifth day of the week. But when it drew on (towards day) on the Friday, [[182]] they accused him much [Mk 15.3] before Pilate; and they could show nothing that was true, but gave false witness against Him. And they asked Him of Pilate to be put to death; and they crucified Him on the same Friday.

He suffered, then, at the sixth hour on Friday. And these hours wherein our Lord was crucified were reckoned a day. And afterwards, again, there was darkness for three hours; and it was reckoned a night. And again, from the ninth hour until evening, three hours, (reckoned) a day. And afterwards again, (there was) the night of the Sabbath of the Passion. -- But in the Gospel of Matthew it is thus written: At even on the sabbath, when the first day of the week drew on, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the tomb. And there was a great earthquake: for an angel of the Lord came down and rolled away the stone [Mt 28.1-2]. -- And again (there was) the day of the Sabbath; and then three hours of the night after the Sabbath, wherein our Lord slept. And that was fulfilled which He said: The Son of man must pass three days and three nights in the heart of the earth [Mt 12.40], as it is written in the Gospel. And again it is written in David: Behold, thou hast set my days in measure [Ps 38.6 LXX]. Now because those days and nights came short, it was so written. [[183]]

In the night, therefore, when the first day of the week drew on, He appeared to Mary Magdalene and to Mary (p. 89) the daughter of James [Mt 28.1, 9 (cf. Jn 20.1, 14; Mk 16.1)]; and in the morning of the first day of the week He went in to (the house of) Levi [cf. Gosp. of Peter 14]; and then He appeared also to us ourselves. . . . on the fourth of the week they began to destroy their souls, and apprehended Me. -- For the night after the third of the week belongs to the fourth of the week, as it is written: There was evening and there was morning, one day [Gen 1.5]. The evening therefore belongs to the following day: for on the third of the week at even I ate My Pascha with you, and in the night they apprehended Me.

Yehoshua bar Yosef was born in the year Zero

"Genealogists," my alleged ancestor Mohammad ibn Abdullah is said to have quipped, "are all liars." That didn't stop him, though, from retaining one to trace his ancestry back to Ibrahim ibn Tarah, and thence to Adam. What makes genealogists so inclined to stretch the truth, however, is not so much a lack of ancestral names, but an overabundance of them. Dozens of different cultures have maintained genealogical lines going back to the dawn of history. Since this predates the Dispersion of Tongues, it means that the earliest ancestors have many different names by which their various lines of descent remember them, resulting in a tendency to sometimes inflate one's genealogy with duplicate names.

Now, what does all this have to do with Jesus being born in the year Zero? Well, in addition to genealogists being liars, so are historians. History not being all that lucrative of an independent profession, historians tend to work for either the church or the state. Given that these two seldom play independent roles in establishing the facts of history, the two are for most historical purposes indistinguishable. Occasionally, though, a heretic will arise and point out that the officially sanctioned historians got it wrong. Although he may be shouted down for the rest of his (sometimes considerably shortened) lifetime, his version of history might just gain widespread acceptance--although it may eventually take a regime change to make it official.

One such case, joining history with both genealogy and biochemistry, was the long campaign of historical author Fawn Brodie to convince the historical establishment (of which she was not a bona fide member, never having majored in history) that Thomas Jefferson was the father, and his wife the aunt, of all the children born to their slave Sally Hemings. To do so, she had to resort to the chronology of respected Pulitzer-prize-winning historian Dumas Malone--and eventually, with the help of that new tool for forensic genealogy--DNA testing--won over all but the most ardent protectors of Jefferson's disputed honor, his adjunct descendants in the Euro-American line.

Another case has now come to my attention. John P. Pratt has proposed nothing more radical than that Dionysius Exiguus, a monk from Russia who died about 544, actually knew what he was talking about when he placed the conception of Jesus at the time of the spring equinox in the year he then called (European science not yet being familiar with the concept of Zero) 1 AD. This calculation, which set a date for Christmas which has never since ceased to be in effect, has nonetheless been ridiculed by some who have made the incredulous suggestion that Brother Denny "perhaps ... had never read the gospel account of the birth of Jesus" in researching for his momentous proclamation.

Ah well, another look at the evidence--by a published astronomer, no less--has now shown Brother Denny to have been right after all, at least to the significance of the spring equinox. Turns out that, in addition to failing to factor in the existence of a year named Zero, his assuming to have determined the date of Jesus' conception was a bit of a stretch; it was actually, though, within the Twelve Days of Christmas from the actual date of his birth.
Here's the article, in which John Pratt calculates Jesus to have been born the week of April 6, 0 AD. His public ministry began 29½ years later, and just about the time he was to have celebrated his 33rd birthday, the eclipsed full moon rose blood-red over the hill upon which he was crucified.

Islamic Holidays for Protestant Union Members?

Hi Folks.

I've been away from my blog a bit too long. I didn't want to bury my Obama posts under other stuff as long as I was busy updating them, but meanwhile they've been getting lots of hits from search engines, so I might as well leave them as they are for now and just keep going. [Ed. note: Most additions have now been made.]

It's a mystery to me why my blog, which still draws less than a dozen hits most days, is so consistently in the top 5 hits on Google searches. I wonder if it's because I installed Google ads? But I'm not getting enough hits from them to even pay the handling fee to cash in. Anyway, with all my faithful readers out there, I want to keep this blog as current as I can, within the constraints of actually having something interesting to write.

Today's article feeds off a news item that a Tyson Chicken plant in Shelbyville, Tenessee has signed a union contract giving all its workers an Islamic holiday off instead of Labor Day this year. My mind goes so many different ways in reaction to this news that I'm not even yet sure how I'll write in response to it.

Here are the basic facts (please correct me if I got anything wrong):

1. Tyson Foods is one of the biggest suppliers of chicken to the retail and restaurant markets in the United States, with most of its plants in the South.
2. A poultry processing plant in Shelbyville, TN is owned by Tyson Foods.
3. The 1200 workers at the Shelbyville plant are members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which just signed a five-year contract with Tyson Foods.
4. One stipulation of this contract is the replacement of Labor Day with October First (at least in 2008) as a paid holiday.
5. While Eid al Fitr is a floating holiday based on the sighting of the crescent moon ending Ramadan, it is expected to fall this year reasonably close to Oct. 1.
6. Labor Day is a federal holiday, as well as a holiday in the State of Tennessee. Eid al-Fitr is only a holiday in countries with at least a regional Muslim majority.
7. It is not illegal or even uncommon to require workers to work on federal or state holidays as a condition in their employment agreements.
8. Most of the local union members are Somali Muslims, but hundreds of others are not. It's reasonable that probably most of them would identify as Baptists or Protestants.
9. Union members also get 7 other days off each year, some of which are traditional Catholic Holidays or their weekday equivalents. Others are governmentally decreed holidays.
10. Tyson Foods has a long history of offending customers with their corporate policies: giving millions to the Clintons, hiring illegal immigrants, etc.
11. Prior customer protest boycotts of Tyson have not been particularly effective.
12. The White Man, a former customer of Tyson, has not knowingly purchased Tyson chicken products at retail or wholesale since some time in the twentieth century.

Okay, so we now know about the situation, and my prejudices. But what is my take on it?

1. Holidays are just what their name implies: Holy Days. It seems kind of dumb to celebrate Labor Day by not laboring; so why not replace it with a truly Holy Day? But how ironic that Labor Day, which was first established by the instigation of the Union Movement, should be first eliminated by the same. The Union giveth, and the Union taketh away!

2. I'm not all that thrilled by the hundreds of union members who aren't Muslim having to work when most of their friends have the day off. But it is the nature of unions that the majority of the membership imposes its will on the minority of the workforce. The solution is not more or less holidays, but an end to the union shop method of workforce coercion. If these 500 non-muslims weren't union members, they wouldn't be coerced, along with management, to abide by the terms of the contract.

3. There are interesting implications to establishing a lunar holiday, which has no precedent in European or American culture. Communities with a majority population with roots in Israel, China, and Southeast Asia have long celebrated lunar holidays, usually with local concessions given to school attendance and employment. Should this trend continue, the ultimate expression will be the right to every union to vote in a Lunar Sabbath scheme by which the company has to shut down on a different day of the week every month. Obviously this country is not ready to be that consistent in allowing every community its own holidays. In fact, Sunday is still the only constitutionally protected holiday, unless one were to include July 2nd (or 4th) by implication.

While I don't begrudge non-union members the right to work for Tyson, or union members to set their own contract terms, provided that membership in the union is purely voluntary, I still see something sinister about this whole situation. Seven hundred immigrants have been able to overturn established policy with a company that has thumbed its nose for years at the protests of myriads of its customers. Why?

And why are there so many thousands of Somalis living in Shelbyville, Tennessee?

I refer my readers back to my earlier post on Islamic Influence.

Update on July 8, 2009
Sharia at Swift/026793.php

Update on August 3, 2012
It turns out that the Somalis found employment at Tyson through a government program.

Science, History, and the man who read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica

Arnold Steven Jacobs Sr. set out to read through the Encyclopedia Brittanica, but washed out somewhere in the B's. His namesake son AJ, however, finally finished what his father had started, reading through all fifty inches of thirty-three thousand pages in thirty-two volumes in a year.

In his introduction to "The Know-it-All," Jacobs notes that he learned, among numerous other lesser-known facts of science and history, that Adam lived 930 years. Now, where would any of the 9,500 contributors to the Encyclopedia have found such information?

Actually, there is only one primary source for the progenitor Adam's age at death: The Book of Genesis. The Bible, however, is not the only primary source to mention Adam by name, and to give a little bit of his biography. What follows is a translation of the Comprehensive History that has been passed down in metrical couplet to the present day by the Miao people of Southeastern Asia (remember that 'Adam' is a Hebrew word meaning 'clay'):


On the earth He created a man from the dirt.
Of the man thus created, a woman He formed.
Then the Patriarch Dirt made a balance of stones.
Estimated the weight of the earth to the bottom.
Calculated the bulk of the heavenly bodies.
And pondered the ways of the Deity, God.
The Patriarch Dirt begat Patriarch Se-teh.
The Patriarch Se-Teh begat a son Lusu.
And Lusu had Gehlo and he begat Lama.
The Patriarch Lama begat the man Nuah.
His wife was the Matriarch Gaw Bo-lu-en.
Their sons were Lo Han, Lo Shen and Jah-hu.
So the earth began filling with tribes and with families.
Creation was shared by the clans and the peoples.

These did not God's will nor returned His affection.
But fought with each other defying the Godhead.
Their leaders shook fists in the face of the Mighty
Then the earth was convulsed to the depth of three strata.
Rending the air to the uttermost heaven.
God's anger arose till His Being was changed;
His wrath flaring up filled His eyes and His face.
Until He must come and demolish humanity.
Come and destroy a whole world full of people.

So it poured forty days in sheets and in torrents.
Then fifty-five days of misting and drizzle.
The waters surmounted the mountains and ranges.
The deluge ascending leapt valley and hollow.
An earth with no earth upon which to take refuge!
A world with no foothold where one might subsist!
The people were baffled, impotent and ruined,
Despairing, horror stricken, diminished and finished.
But the Patriarch Nuah was righteous.
The Matriarch Gaw Bo-lu-en upright.
Built a boat very wide; made a ship very vast.
Their household entire got aboard and were floated,
The family complete rode the deluge in safety.
The animals with him were female and male.
The birds went along and were mated in pairs.

When the time was fulfilled, God commanded the waters.
The day had arrived, the flood waters receded.
Then Nuah liberated a dove from their refuge,
Sent a bird to go forth and bring again tidings.
The flood had gone down into lake and to ocean;
The mud was confined to the pools and the hollows.
There was land once again where a man might reside;
There was a place in the earth now to rear habitations.
Buffalo then were brought, an oblation to God,
Fatter cattle became sacrifice to the Mighty.
The Divine One then gave them His blessing;
Their God then bestowed His good graces.

Lo-han then begat Cusah and Mesay.
Lo-shan begat Elan and Nga-shur.
Their offspring begotten became tribes and peoples;
Their descendants established encampments and cities.
Their singing was all with the same tunes and music;
Their speaking was all with the same words and language.
Then they said "Let us build us a very big city;
Let us raise unto heaven a very high tower."
This was all wrong, but they reached this decision;
This was not right, but they rashly persisted.

God struck at them then, changed their language and accent.
Descending in wrath, He confused tones and voices.
One's speech to the others who hear him has no meaning;
He's speaking in words, but they can't understand him.
So the city they builded was never completed;
The tower they wrought has to stand thus unfinished.
In despair then they separate under all heaven,
They part from each other the globe to encircle.
They arrive at six corners and speak the six languages.


Now, why would a publication of such high scientific pedigree even mention an age for someone they consider a totally mythical figure? It's kind of like mentioning the age at which Thor got his first pimple. Except that Thor's medical records didn't make it into history, and Adam's did (his was the first surgery under general anaesthesia).

Here's a couple excerpts from an earlier edition of Brittanica, published in 1771:




. . . the most memorable was that called the universal deluge, or Noah's flood, which overflowed and destroyed the whole earth, and out of which only Noah, and those with him in the ark, escaped. . . "

Yes, folks, Adam and Noah were remembered as historical figures for thousands of years. That they are no longer considered that today is a sad indication that pseudoscience has supplanted the study of history--except for those few who wade far enough into the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

More on Chronology of the Crucifixion

This website uses astronomical reconstruction of the Judean night sky to fix some dates from the Gospel account. These are as follows:
1) Virgin Conception: September -2 CE, when Jupiter conjoined Regulus in Leo, and twice again in the next 9 months
2) Virgin Birth: June -1 CE, when Jupiter conjoined Venus (See this French site for details)
3) Adoration of the Magi: December 25, -1 CE, when Jupiter went into retrograde again
4) Crucifixion: April 3, 33 (they don't mention whether this is a Julian or Gregorian date, but for this part of the 1st century the 2 calendars coincide anyway). This is based on the confluence of three factors:

1) The moon went into eclipse at 3pm Jerusalem local time, and rose blood-red a few hours later in partial fulfillment of Joel's prophecy.
2) Passover fell on a Friday that year.
3) Pilate was on Tiberias Caesar's "naughty boy list" that year.

April 3, 33. A date Astronomically Fixed. But I guess we have to toss it out, because--confound it--it's the same date Ussher came up with in 1632.

The Lunar Sabbath and Pentecost

Since quite a few of the hits this blog has been receiving lately relate to the Lunar Sabbath question, this would be a good time to share the results of my ongoing research.

Earlier I said that I was leaving the Pentecost question for later, since it was the hardest to answer.

It's later.

The Pentecost problem is simply this: The Jews were instructed in Leviticus 23:16 to count "fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath." According to the weekly sabbath calendar, the day after the seventh sabbath would in fact mark the 50th day. But in a lunar sabbath calander, seven weeks of sabbaths would not equal forty-nine days.

But is this (fifty days, to the day after) the meaning of the text, or could it actually mean "count fifty days--to the day--after the seventh sabbath--" which would mean fifty days AND seven sabbaths; approximately doubling the time being counted?

To answer this question, we begin with linguistics. The Greek language is much more precise than the Hebrew in matters of chronolgy, and this is how this passage (v.15-16) was translated into Greek around the time of Jesus:

Kai ariqhsete umin apo ths epaurion twn sabbatwn, apo ths hmeras hs an prosenegkhte to dragma tou epiqematos epta ebdomadas oloklhrous ews ths epaurion ths escaths ebdomados ariqmhsete penthkonta hmeras. . .

In English:
And ye shall number to yourselves from the day after the sabbath from the day on which ye shall offer the sheaf of the heave-offering seven full weeks until the morrow after the last week ye shall number fify days. . .

Here we see that the word "sabbath" and "week" are interchangeable in Greek, giving a possible meaning in this case that the fifty-day count comes after the seven-week count. Could this actually be the case?

There are several ways to test this hypothesis. First of all, we have several historical accounts of Passover and/or Pentecost given in the Scriptures, and we can glean clues from them as to what time of the year is actually in view. Let's look at these.

1. The first Passover occurred when the barely was ready to harvest but the wheat hadn't yet borne fruit. This is clear from Exodus 10:31ff. This gives us an idea that the wheat harvest was several months behind the barely harvest. In fact, historical records indicate that it was close to four months (John 4:35) until the next harvest. But note that in Leviticus 23, the feasts at both ends of this 7-week-and-50-day period require the bringing of FIRSTfruits; i.e. the first pick of the harvest of barley and wheat respectively. So the interval between these two festivals should coincide with the respective differences in harvest time of barley and wheat. Fifty days just isn't enough for a 3- to 4-month growing season.

2. The question may be asked, "But what if the wheat was planted earlier?" Unlikely as that may be, there would still be another question to be faced: the grape harvest. At Pentecost, the disciples were specifically accused of having had too much fresh grape juice to drink. This beverage is only available around the time of the grape harvest, and grapes in Palestine don't ripen until summer--putting us at least 100 days after Passover.

3. There are many verses that equate harvest, including grape harvest, with summer. Click on the title above for a link to some of them. Note that Gideon was using an empty winepress to thresh wheat, indicating that the grape harvest came somewhat later, at the end of the summer. One hundred five days after Passover would be just into the fifth month of the year, around mid-July on our calendar.

Understanding the 7+50 count gives us an interesting insight into the ministry of Jesus: Acts 1:3 says that he ascended forty days after his Resurrection, which coincided with the Firstfruits Sheaf Offering. Thus it was not ten days that his disciples spent awaiting the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, but more than sixty. Only then was the Day of Pentecost fully come.

More musings on the Lunar Sabbath

I've thought of another couple of implications of the Lunar Week Theory. The first relates to the Long Weekend, and the second to the Lord of the Sabbath.

First of all, I wrote earlier that the Old Testament Festivals seemed designed to coincide with the Lunar Sabbaths, which fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 28th days of the lunar month. An exception is the Feast of Trumpets, which always falls on the first day of the seventh month--which, as you may recall, is the day of the New Moon celebration (approximately every other month, it's the second of two days). Thus in addition to the six 2-day New Moon celebrations, the Israelites also got an annual 2-day weekend: the Feast of Unleavened Bread ends with two back-to-back Sabbaths (which makes food preparation a bit of a challenge, unless one eats matzo for eight days instead of just seven).

Given the fact that Jesus celebrated Passover a day before the Jewish leaders did, one implication under the Lunar Sabbath system is that he was also a day early celebrating the Sabbath. Could this account for why he ran into so much trouble with the Jewish authorities for healing on the Sabbath? Actually, since most of these confrontations took place in Galilee, we can't blame a Galilean calendar for Jesus being a day early; we know that it was the Sabbath in Galilee when he did the healing because it was usually in conjunction with Sabbath day services at the synagogue. So we must look elsewhere for an explanation of Jesus' celebrating the Passover a day early. The Lunar Calendar doesn't account for it.

John Chrysostom speaks directly to the problem of lunisolar incongruence in his day, in Against the Judaizers Homily 3:V ( 386 CE):

(5) But why speak of ourselves since we have been set free from all such necessity? We are citizens of a city above in heaven, where there are no months, no sun, no moon, no circle of seasons. If you wish to give exact attention to the matter, you will see that, even among the Jews, little account was made of the season of the Pasch, but they cared greatly about the place for it, namely, Jerusalem. Some men came up to Moses and said to him: "We are unclean through touching the dead body of a man. How shall we avoid failing ill the Lord's offering?" He said to them: "Wait here and let me report it to God." Then, after he reported it, he brought back the law which says: "If any man be unclean through touching a dead body, or be afar on a journey and be unable to keep the Pasch in the first month, he shall keep it in the second."
(6) And so is not the observance of the time annulled among the Jews so that the Pasch may be observed in Jerusalem? Will you not show greater concern for the harmony of the Church than for the season? So that you may seem to be observing the proper days, will you outrage the common Mother of us all and will you cut asunder the Holy Synod? How could you deserve pardon when you choose to commit sins so enormous for no good reason ?
(7) But why must I speak of the Jews? No matter how eagerly and earnestly we wish it, it is not altogether possible for us to observe that day on which He was crucified. This will make it clear. Let us suppose the Jews had not sinned, that they were not hard of heart, nor senseless, nor indifferent, nor despisers; suppose they had not fallen from their ancestral way of life but were still carefully observing it. Even if this was the case, we could not, by following in their footsteps, put our finger on the very day on which He was crucified and fulfilled the Pasch. Let me tell how this is the case. When He was crucified it was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread and the day of preparation.
(8) But it is not possible for both of these to fall always on the same day. This year the first day of the feast of unleavened bread falls on Sunday, and the [Lenten] fast must still last for a whole week; According to this, after Passiontide, after the cross and resurrection have come and gone, we are still fasting. And it has often happened that, after the cross and resurrection, our [Lenten] fast is still being observed because the week is not yet over. This is why no observance of the exact time is possible.

The Wednesday Crucifixion Theory

For some time now I've been working on a post regarding the Lunar Week. It's buried several posts back, so here's a link to help you find it.

I've done a little more research on some implications of the Lunar Sabbath to the chronology of Passion Week, so we'll continue our study with a look at Luke 23:56.

The questions that arise in this passage, which really includes v. 1 of Luke 24, are:

1) How much time elapsed while the ladies were preparing to anoint Jesus' body?
2) Which sabbath is in view here?
3) What is the meaning of the Greek word men used to modify the sabbath of v. 56 (untranslated in most Bibles)?

1. A major argument in favor of the Wednesday Crucifixion Theory is that a Friday Crucifixion would not allow enough time for the Galilean ladies to observe his burial, go home, and prepare spices all in time to rest on the Sabbath which was already drawing on at the time of Jesus' burial. Therefore, Jesus must have been crucified on Wednesday, just before the Feast of Unleavened Bread began with a High Sabbath on Thursday.

There is one problem with this scenario that has been raised before, and it relates to the purpose of the anointing oils & spices that the women were preparing: they were for the purpose of preventing Jesus' body from decaying. Little good would it do to use these ointments unless they were applied as soon as possible after death occurred! Thus the women would have hurried as fast as they could to prepare the spices, but it wasn't quite in time to get them put on Jesus' body before the commencement of the Sabbath.

This argument carries no weight, however, for two reasons.

First, a day and a half is still too long to avoid decay; secondly, Joseph & Nicodemus had already dumped 75 pounds of a myrrh and aloe mixture on the body when they wrapped it for burial, so this point is moot anyway. The women were bringing additional ointments, which could have been prepared at leisure and brought to the tomb after two and a half days. Furthermore, Mark 16 says (assuming that these are the same women) that they bought the spices after the Sabbath, which requires an intervening day between the Sabbath after which they bought the spices, and the Sabbath before which they prepared them.

So, the argument from the Spice Preparation Passages is in favor of a Wednesday crucifixion followed by a High Sabbath, a Friday for purchasing & preparing the spices, and an intervening Regular Sabbath before they went to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body. This argument rests on two assertions, one of which must be disproven in order to maintain the Lunar Week Calendar:
a) The women of Mark 16 and Luke 23-24 are the same.
b) The tense of the verb hgorasan in Mark 16:1 requires a Sabbath prior to the purchase of the spices

2. The timing of this High Sabbath is problematical, because it indicates that Jesus and his disciples must have celebrated Passover a day early; Jesus' death having occurred the afternoon before the first day of Unleavened Bread, Passover should have been that very evening. This would accord with the Jewish Leaders' reluctance to defile themselves by entering Pilate's judgment hall for fear of missing out on Passover, the day after Jesus himself had celebrated it.

There is only one explanation for these facts as they stand, which is that Jesus and his disciples, being from Galilee, followed a different calendar than did the High Priests in Jerusalem. This makes some sense, as Galilee was so far from Jerusalem as to make it difficult to get news in time for the New Moon celebration each month, and Galilee must have began that month a day before the Priests decided to, based on their observance of the crescent moon. Jesus must have, therefore, followed a calculated New Moon rather than an observed one, so that even while in Jerusalem he declined to follow the official calendar, and observed Passover according to his calculation rather than the Priest's observation.

This raises another question related to the Lunar Week, which we shall address later on.

Now, as we have previously seen, under the Lunar Week Calendar the day after Passover was always the second regular Sabbath of that month. What made it a High Sabbath was that it always coincided with the launch of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So a Lunar Sabbath does not allow for a Wednesday Crucifixion, which requires two Sabbaths during the Three Days in the Grave. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the two Sabbaths fall six days apart, with another Sabbath immediately following under the Lunar Week Calendar; this timetable is not compatible with the Spice Preparation Passages. Either the Lunar Week is fatal to the Wednesday Crucifixion, or the Wednesday Crucifixion is fatal to the Lunar Week.

3. In Luke 23:56 is found the little Greek word men, which is nearly a homonym for the Greek word mhn, which means 'moon' or 'month'. For this reason, Charles Crosby has argued that the verse should be literally translated,

"Returning yet, they make ready spices and attars and the Full Moon Sabbath they quietize according to the direction."

There's a major problem with this theory; it just isn't gramatically possible to translate men as 'moon'. In order for Luke to have meant "lunar sabbath", he would have had to use the adjective mhnion; or even if he wanted to use the noun adjectivally, it would still have to be declined as mhnon. Actually, men here is in its usual usage as the first of a pair of contrast words (men . . . de), used here to contrast the two uses of sabbaton in the same passage:

23:56 "Then when they returned home, they prepared spices and perfumes. And for the Sabbath (sabbaton) though, they did rest, in keeping with the commandment; 24:1 but at the crack of dawn on the first day of the week (sabbaton), they went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared."

So there is no cryptic mention of a Lunar Sabbath in Luke 23, after all.

To summarize: Proponents of the Wednesday Crucifixion Theory depend on a calendar that does not follow the Lunar Week, in order to have two Sabbaths fall during the three days Christ is in the tomb. Should the Lunar Week turn out to have been in use at that time and place, the Wednesday Crucifixion becomes impossible.
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In related news:

Liviu Mircea and Tiberiu Oproiu claim to have pinpointed the exact time and date of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.
The pair, from the Astronomic Observatory Institute in Cluj, Romania, say Jesus died at 3pm on Friday, April 3, 33 AD, and rose again at 4am on Sunday, April 5.
They used a computer programme to check biblical references against historical astronomical data.
They said the New Testament stated that Jesus died the day after the first night with a full moon, after the vernal equinox.
Using data gathered on the stars between 26 and 35 AD they established that in those nine years, the first full moon after the vernal equinox was registered twice - on Friday, April 7, 30 AD, and on Friday, April 3, 33 AD.
They were convinced the date of the crucifixion was 33 AD, and not 30 AD, because records showed a solar eclipse, as depicted in the Bible at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, occurred in Jerusalem that year.

This, however, is impossible, because the darkness during the Crucifixion was associated with a full moon, not the new moon required for an eclipse.