9. The Times of Jesus

Jesus began his ministry in late AD 26 (probably October) and was crucified 3 1/2 years later in April AD 30 (see Chapter 8). We know of many things that he did during that time, but it is difficult to positively date many of them.

Feasts during the ministry of Jesus

The key to the chronology of Jesus’ ministry is the series of feasts mentioned in the gospel of John. Since we know when the feasts took place under the law of Moses, it is possible to fix the dates of passages that refer to them. Other events can be slotted in accordingly.

John records three Passovers in his gospel (Jn 2:13; 6:4; 11:55). He also mentions a feast in 5:1 but doesn’t name it. This unnamed feast was almost certainly one of the three great feasts: Passover, Pentecost or Tabernacles. The first of these is most likely since several ancient manuscripts refer to it as “the feast of the Jews”. In any case, the three explicit Passovers of John cannot be consecutive as the other gospels require an extra year between the Passovers of John 2:13 and 6:4. For example, Mark 6:39 indicates springtime (April according to Jn 6:4), but Mark 2:23 points to the harvest season (May) of the previous year.

The Passovers enable us to positively fix four points in Jesus’ ministry. Two other feasts are also mentioned by John: the Feast of Tabernacles in October AD 29 (Jn 7:2); and the Feast of Dedication in late December AD 29 (Jn 10:22). The latter feast commemorated the dedication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus in December 165 BC.

Harvest?

One passage that has caused many commentators to form an incorrect chronology is John 4:35: “Four months and then the harvest.” If this reference to harvest is taken literally, the time is December and the unnamed feast in John 5:1 must be Purim. However, Jesus said that the fields were already ripe for harvest! (Jn 4:35) If this latter comment is literal, the month would be May and the feast of John 5:1 would be the Passover of the following year.

The question is: which of the statements refers to the literal harvest? It seems more likely that the second statement is literal for the following reasons:

1. The previous chapter took place in April, the time of Passover (Jn 2:23). It would seem more likely that there was a gap of one month rather than eight months between John 3 and 4.
2. It seems highly unlikely that Jesus would journey to Jerusalem to take part in the frivolous celebrations at Purim. On the other hand, we know he went to Jerusalem for three other Passovers during his ministry.

Probably, the phrase “four months and then harvest” was a proverb meaning it is best to leave four months between sowing and harvest. Jesus was using the well-known proverb and the ripened fields about him to teach that we should always be ready to ‘harvest’ those that are called.

The Times of Jesus

The last week

The timing and sequence of events in the last week of Jesus’ mortal life is very uncertain with nearly as many attempted chronologies as commentators. The one fixed time is the resurrection which occurred “on the first day of the week” before dawn (Lk 24:1; Mk 16:2-3); that is, early Sunday morning. But the day of Jesus’ death and the length of time he was in the tomb are the subjects of heated debates.

The traditional view is that he died on Friday although others argue that he died on Thursday and still others place the crucifixion on Wednesday. Several statements need to be considered in this context, some of which occur more than once:

To the Western mind, the last two of these passages seem irreconcilable. However, it must be remembered that Jews reckoned time periods inclusively (cf. 1Kgs 22:1-2; 2Kgs 18:9-10). That is, any part of a day is counted as a ‘day’. So the “three days” includes the crucifixion day. Similarly the “three nights” must include the night during which he was raised. It should also be noted, that Jews began their day at 6 p.m.. Using this information, it seems most likely that Jesus died on Thursday, as shown below. There seems no way to reconcile “three days and three nights” with the traditional Friday crucifixion or the idea of a Wednesday crucifixion.

The phrase “after three days he will rise” also implies a Thursday crucifixion, again counting the crucifixion day. The statement of the disciples on the road to Emmaus specifically refers to days “since” the crucifixion. So Friday would be the ‘first’ day and Sunday the ‘third day’. The phrase “on the third day raised” clearly refers to the same days. Thus, the four passages can only be understood harmoniously if Jesus died on Thursday afternoon and was raised in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Another important factor to consider is the number of sabbath days that occurred during that week. The day after the Passover lamb was killed was always a special sabbath (Num 28:16-17). So if the Passover fell on a Thursday, there was a special sabbath on Friday (Jn 19:31) followed by the usual Saturday sabbath.

Luke indicates (Lk 23:55 – 24:1) that the women accompanying Jesus were kept from properly preparing his body for burial because of the sabbath day following his death. Yet he clearly says that they went to the tomb with the spices “on the first day of the week”; that is, two days after his death. Thus, it seems that they were kept from going to the tomb until the first non-sabbath day, Sunday. Then as soon as the sabbaths were over, on Saturday evening, they bought spices and prepared them during the evening. Then, rising before dawn on Sunday morning, they went to the tomb only to find it empty.

It should be noted that this passage wouldn’t make sense if Jesus died on Wednesday. In that case, Thursday would have been a sabbath and Friday an ordinary day. Yet the women did not go to the tomb until Sunday. The usual explanation is that they spent Friday “buying and preparing spices” (Mk 16:1). Then they rested again on the Saturday sabbath before they finally went to the tomb on Sunday, four days after the crucifixion. This seems incongruous given the haste in which they went to the tomb on Sunday morning. If they were in such a hurry to go to the tomb, why didn’t they go on Friday? It wouldn’t take all day to prepare spices.

Passover lamb

The Jewish calendar is used here to highlight the fact that Jesus was the true Passover lamb. He arrived in Bethany on 10 Nisan, the day the Jews were selecting their lambs (Exo 12:3; Jn 12:1,12); he died at 3 p.m. on 14 Nisan at the same time as the Jews were killing their lambs (Exo 12:6; Lev 23:5). According to our modern calendars, this means Jesus died on 6 April AD 30 and rose on 9 April.

This raises the question of whether the Last Supper was a true Passover meal. Jesus died as the Passover lambs were being slain, so any meal prior to that could not be a true Passover. Besides which, during his trial we are told the Jews had not yet eaten Passover (Jn 18:28). Further evidence for this is the description of the crucifixion day as the “day of Preparation” (Jn 19:31); that is, the day in preparation for the Passover meal and associated sabbath.

However, it seems that the Galileans and Pharisees reckoned the Passover to begin at sunrise, whereas the Sadducees reckoned it to begin at sunset (see Hoehner, 1977). So Jesus could both celebrate the Passover at the Galilean time and be killed at the time the Sadducees were killing the Passover lambs for the official Jewish festival.

There is a difficulty here. Prior to the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples to go and prepare the ‘Passover’ “on the day when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb” (Mk 14:12). However, it is quite possible that this occurred after 6 p.m. and so, legally, on the same day as the crucifixion (although in our Western sense, on the day before).

There is some extra-biblical support for this interpretation. Jewish tradition as early as the second century AD says that “Jesus was hanged on Passover eve”. Similarly, for the first 300 years after the apostles, all the Christian writers say that the Last Supper was not a Jewish Passover.

Feast of Unleavened Bread

Under the law, the Feast of Unleavened Bread began the day after the Passover lambs were killed (Lev 23:4-7). So, in the year of Jesus death, the feast would have begun on Friday. However, it appears that in New Testament times, the day the lambs were killed was called “the day of Unleavened Bread” (Lk 22:7). Accordingly, the whole period from that day on was called “the feast of Unleavened Bread” (Mk 14:12; Mt 26:17) even though the feast did not legally begin until the following day.

The Times of Jesus