Part I, Chapter 11, 3

But because the 15th and 21st days of Nisan, and a day or two of Pentecost, and the 10th, 15th, and 22nd of Tisri, were always sabbatical days or days of rest, and it was inconvenient on two sabbaths together to be prohibited from burying their dead and preparing fresh meat — for in that hot region their meat would be apt to corrupt in two days — to avoid these and such like inconveniences, the Jews postponed their months a day, whenever the first day of the month Tisri, or, which is the same thing, the third of the month Nisan, was Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday; and this rule they called [Hebrew: 'DW] Adu, by the letters [Hebrew: W, D, '] signifying the numbers 1, 4, 6; that is, the 1st, 4th, and 6th days of the week; which days we call Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. Postponing therefore by this rule the months found above, the 14th day of the month Nisan will fall in the year of Christ 31, on Wednesday, March 28; in the year 32, on Monday, April 14; in the year 33, on Friday, April 3; in the year 34, on Friday, April 23; in the year 35, on Wednesday, April 13; and in the year 36, on Saturday, March 31.

By this computation, therefore, the year 32 is absolutely excluded, because the Passion cannot fall on Friday without making it five days after the full moon, or two days before it; whereas it ought to be upon the day of the full moon, or the next day. For the same reason the years 31 and 35 are excluded, because in them the Passion cannot fall on Friday without making it three days after the full moon, or four days before it: errors so enormous that they would be very conspicuous in the heavens to every ordinary eye. The year 36 is contended for by few or none, and both this and the year 35 may be thus excluded.

Tiberius in the beginning of his reign made Valerius Gratus President of Judea; and after 11 years, appointed Pontius Pilate, who governed 10 years. Then Vitellius, newly made President of Syria, deprived him of his honor, appointing Marcellus, and at length sent him to Rome: but because of delays, Tiberius died before Pilate got there. In the meantime Vitellius, after he had deposed Pilate, came to Jerusalem in the time of the Passover, to visit that province as well as others, at the beginning of his office; and in place of Caiaphas, then High Priest, appointed Jonathas the son of Ananus, or Annas as he is called in scripture. Afterwards, when Vitellius had returned to Antioch, he received letters from Tiberius to make peace with Artabanus king of the Parthians. At the same time the Alans, at the solicitation of Tiberius, invaded the kingdom of Artabanus; and his subjects also, by the procurement of Vitellius, soon after rebelled: for Tiberius thought that Artabanus, thus pressed with difficulties, would more readily accept the conditions of peace. Artabanus therefore gathering a greater army without delay, oppressed the rebels; and then meeting Vitellius at the Euphrates, made a league with the Romans. After this Tiberius commanded Vitellius to make war upon Aretas King of Arabia. He therefore leading his army against Aretas, went together with Herod to Jerusalem, to sacrifice at the public feast that was then to be celebrated. There being received honorably, he stayed three days, and in the meantime transferred the high priesthood from Jonathas to his brother Theophilus; and the fourth day, receiving letters of the death of Tiberius, made the people swear allegiance to Caius the new Emperor; and recalling his army, sent them into quarters. All this is related by Josephus, Antiq. lib. 18. c. 6, 7. Now Tiberius reigned 22 years and 7 months, and died March 16, in the beginning of the year of Christ 37; and the feast of the Passover fell on April 20 following, that is, 35 days after the death of Tiberius: so that there were about 36 or 38 days for the news of his death to come from Rome to Vitellius at Jerusalem; which being a fitting time for that message, confirms that the feast which Vitellius and Herod now went up to was the Passover. For had it been the Pentecost, as is usually supposed, Vitellius would have continued three months ignorant of the Emperor's death, which is not to be supposed. However, the things done between this feast and the Passover which Vitellius was at before, namely, the stirring up a sedition in Parthia, the quieting of that sedition, the making of a league after that with the Parthians, the sending news of that league to Rome, the receiving new orders from there to go against the Arabians, and the putting of those orders into execution, required much more time than the fifty days between the Passover and Pentecost of the same year: and therefore the Passover which Vitellius first went up to was in the year before. Therefore Pilate was deposed before the Passover A.C. 36, and consequently the passion of Christ was before that Passover: for he suffered not under Vitellius, nor under Vitellius and Pilate together, but under Pilate alone.

Now it is observable that the high priesthood had at this time become an annual office, and the Passover was the time of making a new high priest. For Gratus, the predecessor of Pilate, says Josephus, made Ismael high priest after Ananus; and a while after, suppose a year, deposed him, and appointed Eleazar, and a year after Simon, and after another year Caiaphas; and then gave way to Pilate. So Vitellius at one Passover made Jonathas successor to Caiaphas, and at the next Theophilus to Jonathas. Hence Luke tells us that in the 15th year of Tiberius, Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, that is, Annas until the Passover, and Caiaphas afterward. Accordingly John speaks of the high priesthood as an annual office: for he tells us again and again, in the last year of Christ's preaching, that Caiaphas was high priest for that year, John xi. 49, 51. xviii. 13. And the next year Luke tells you that Annas was high priest, Acts iv. 6. Theophilus was therefore made high priest in the first year of Caius, Jonathas in the 22nd year of Tiberius, and Caiaphas in the 21st year of the same Emperor; and therefore, allotting a year to each, the Passion, when Annas succeeded Caiaphas, could not be later than the 20th year of Tiberius, A.C. 34.

Thus there remain only the years 33 and 34 to be considered; and the year 33 I exclude by this argument. In the Passover two years before the Passion, when Christ went through the corn, and his disciples plucked the ears and rubbed them with their hands to eat, this ripeness of the corn shows that the Passover then fell late; and so did the Passover A.C. 32, April 14, but the Passover A.C. 31, March 28, fell very early. It was not therefore two years after the year 31, but two years after 32, that Christ suffered.

Thus all the marks of the Passion agree to the year 34; and that is the only year to which they all agree.

Notes to Chapter XI.

1 I observe that Christ and his forerunner John, in their parabolical discourses, were accustomed to allude to things present. The old Prophets, when they would describe things emphatically, did not only draw parables from things which offered themselves, as from the rent of a garment, 1 Sam. xv. from the sabbatic year, Isa. xxxvii. from the vessels of a potter, Jer. xviii, etc. but also when such fitting objects were wanting, they supplied them by their own actions, as by rending a garment, 1 Kings xi. by shooting, 2 Kings xiii. by making bare their body, Isa. xx. by giving significant names to their sons, Isa. viii. Hos. i. by hiding a girdle in the bank of Euphrates, Jer. xiii. by breaking a potter's vessel, Jer. xix. by putting on fetters and yokes, Jer. xxvii. by binding a book to a stone, and casting them both into Euphrates, Jer. li. by besieging a painted city, Ezek. iv. by dividing hair into three parts, Ezek. v. by making a chain, Ezek. vii. by carrying out household stuff like a captive and trembling, Ezek. xii, etc. By such kinds of types the Prophets loved to speak. And Christ, being endowed with a nobler prophetic spirit than the rest, excelled also in this kind of speaking, yet so as not to speak by his own actions, that being less grave and fitting, but to turn into parables such things as offered themselves. On occasion of the harvest approaching, he admonishes his disciples once and again of the spiritual harvest, John iv. 35. Matth. ix. 37. Seeing the lilies of the field, he admonishes his disciples about fine clothing, Matth. vi. 28. In allusion to the present season of fruits, he admonishes his disciples about knowing men by their fruits, Matth. vii. 16. In the time of the Passover, when trees put forth leaves, he bids his disciples learn a parable from the fig tree: "when its branch is still tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near, etc." Matth. xxiv. 32. Luke xxi. 29. The same day, alluding both to the season of the year and to his passion, which was to be two days after, he formed a parable of the time of fruits approaching and the murdering of the heir, Matth. xxi. 33. Alluding at the same time both to the money changers whom he had newly driven out of the Temple, and to his passion at hand, he made a parable of a nobleman going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return, and delivering his goods to his servants, and at his return condemning the slothful servant because he put not his money to the exchangers, Matth. xxv. 14. Luke xix. 12. Being near the Temple where sheep were kept in folds to be sold for the sacrifices, he spoke many things parabolically of sheep, of the shepherd, and of the door of the sheepfold; and discovers that he alluded to the sheepfolds which were to be hired in the marketplace, by speaking of such folds as a thief could not enter by the door, nor the shepherd himself open, but a porter opened to the shepherd, John x. 1, 3. Being on the mount of Olives, Matth. xxxvi. 30. John xiv. 31. a place so fertile that it could not lack vines, he spoke many things mystically of the husbandman, and of the vine and its branches, John xv. Meeting a blind man, he warned of spiritual blindness, John ix. 39. At the sight of little children, he described once and again the innocence of the elect, Matth. xviii. 2. xix. 13. Knowing that Lazarus was dead and should be raised again, he discoursed of the resurrection and life eternal, John xi. 25, 26. Hearing of the slaughter of some whom Pilate had killed, he warned of eternal death, Luke xiii. 1. To his fishermen he spoke of fishers of men, Matth. iv. 10. and composed another parable about fishes, Matth. xiii. 47. Being by the Temple, he spoke of the Temple of his body, John ii. 19. At supper he spoke a parable about the mystical supper to come in the kingdom of heaven, Luke xiv. On occasion of temporal food, he admonished his disciples of spiritual food, and of eating his flesh and drinking his blood mystically, John vi. 27, 53. When his disciples wanted bread, he told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, Matth. xvi. 6. Being asked to eat, he answered that he had other food, John iv. 31. In the great day of the feast of Tabernacles, when the Jews, as their custom was, brought a great quantity of waters from the river Shiloah into the Temple, Christ stood and cried, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, from within him will flow rivers of living water," John vii. 37. The next day, in allusion to the servants who by reason of the sabbatical year were newly set free, he said, "If you continue in my word, the truth will set you free." The Jews, understanding this literally with respect to the present freeing of servants, answered, "We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to anyone; how is it that you say we shall be made free?" John viii. They assert their freedom by a double argument: first, because they were the seed of Abraham, and therefore would have been newly made free, had they ever been in bondage; and then, because they never were in bondage. In the last Passover, when Herod led his army through Judea against Aretas King of Arabia, because Aretas was the aggressor and the stronger in military forces, as appeared by the event, Christ, alluding to that state of things, composed the parable of a weaker King leading his army against a stronger who made war upon him, Luke xiv. 31. And I do not doubt that various other parables were formed upon other occasions, the history of which we do not have.

2 Joseph. Antiq. lib. 3. c. 10.

But the 15th and 21st days of Nisan, a day or two of Pentecost, and the 10th, 15th, and 22nd of Tisri were always sabbatical days, that is, days of rest. It was inconvenient to be barred on two sabbaths in a row from burying their dead and from getting fresh meat ready, because in that hot region their meat would go bad in two days. To avoid these and similar problems, the Jews put their months off by a day whenever the first day of the month Tisri—or the same thing, the third day of the month Nisan—fell on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday. They called this rule Adu, whose Hebrew letters stand for the numbers 1, 4, and 6: that is, the 1st, 4th, and 6th days of the week, which we call Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. Postponing by this rule the months found above, the 14th day of the month Nisan falls in the year of Christ 31 on Wednesday, March 28; in the year 32 on Monday, April 14; in the year 33 on Friday, April 3; in the year 34 on Friday, April 23; in the year 35 on Wednesday, April 13; and in the year 36 on Saturday, March 31.

So by this computation the year 32 is ruled out completely, because the Passion cannot fall on a Friday without putting it five days after the full moon or two days before it, whereas it ought to fall on the day of the full moon or the very next day. For the same reason the years 31 and 35 are ruled out, because in those years the Passion cannot fall on a Friday without putting it three days after the full moon or four days before it—errors so large that they would be plain in the heavens to any ordinary eye. Few or none defend the year 36, so both it and the year 35 can be ruled out this way.

At the start of his reign Tiberius made Valerius Gratus governor of Judea; and after 11 years he replaced him with Pontius Pilate, who governed 10 years. Then Vitellius, newly made governor of Syria, removed Pilate from his post, put Marcellus in his place, and at last sent Pilate to Rome; but because of delays, Tiberius died before Pilate got there. Meanwhile Vitellius, after he had removed Pilate, came to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, to visit that province as well as others at the start of his time in office; and in place of Caiaphas, then high priest, he appointed Jonathas the son of Ananus, or Annas as he is called in scripture. Afterwards, when Vitellius had returned to Antioch, he received letters from Tiberius telling him to make peace with Artabanus, king of the Parthians. At the same time the Alans, at Tiberius's urging, invaded the kingdom of Artabanus; and soon after the subjects of Artabanus also rebelled, at Vitellius's prompting. For Tiberius thought that Artabanus, pressed this way by difficulties, would more readily accept the terms of peace. So Artabanus quickly gathered a larger army and crushed the rebels. He then met Vitellius at the Euphrates and made a treaty with the Romans. After this Tiberius ordered Vitellius to make war on Aretas, king of Arabia. So he led his army against Aretas and went with Herod to Jerusalem, to sacrifice at the public feast that was then to be celebrated. He was received with honor there, stayed three days, and in the meantime moved the high priesthood from Jonathas to his brother Theophilus. On the fourth day, receiving letters of the death of Tiberius, he made the people swear allegiance to Caius, the new emperor, and, recalling his army, sent them back to their quarters. Josephus tells all of this in Antiquities, book 18, chapters 6 and 7. Now Tiberius reigned 22 years and 7 months, and died on March 16, in the beginning of the year of Christ 37; and the feast of the Passover fell on the following April 20, that is, 35 days after the death of Tiberius. So there were about 36 or 38 days for the news of his death to come from Rome to Vitellius at Jerusalem. Since that is a fitting amount of time for such a message, it confirms that the feast which Vitellius and Herod now went up to was the Passover. If it had been the Pentecost, as is usually supposed, Vitellius would have gone on for three months without knowing of the emperor's death, which cannot be supposed. Still, the things done between this feast and the Passover which Vitellius had attended before—namely, stirring up a sedition in Parthia, calming that sedition, then making a treaty with the Parthians, sending news of that treaty to Rome, receiving new orders from there to go against the Arabians, and carrying out those orders—required far more time than the fifty days between the Passover and Pentecost of the same year. So the Passover which Vitellius first went up to was in the year before. Therefore Pilate was removed from office before the Passover A.C. 36, and so the passion of Christ was before that Passover: for he suffered not under Vitellius, nor under Vitellius and Pilate together, but under Pilate alone.

It is worth noticing that by this time the high priesthood had become an annual office, and the Passover was the time for making a new high priest. Josephus says that Gratus, the predecessor of Pilate, made Ismael high priest after Ananus; and a while later—say a year—he removed Ismael and put in Eleazar; a year after that, Simon; and after another year, Caiaphas. Then he gave way to Pilate. In the same way, Vitellius at one Passover made Jonathas successor to Caiaphas, and at the next made Theophilus successor to Jonathas. So Luke tells us that in the 15th year of Tiberius, Annas and Caiaphas were high priests: Annas until the Passover, and Caiaphas after that. John also speaks of the high priesthood as an annual office, for he tells us again and again that in the last year of Christ's preaching Caiaphas was high priest for that year, John xi. 49, 51. xviii. 13. And the next year Luke tells us that Annas was high priest, Acts iv. 6. So Theophilus was made high priest in the first year of Caius, Jonathas in the 22nd year of Tiberius, and Caiaphas in the 21st year of the same Emperor; and so, giving each of them one year, the Passion, when Annas succeeded Caiaphas, could not be later than the 20th year of Tiberius, A.C. 34.

Only the years 33 and 34 remain to be considered, and I rule out the year 33 with this argument. At the Passover two years before the Passion, Christ went through the grain and his disciples plucked the ears and rubbed them in their hands to eat. That the grain was ripe shows that the Passover then fell late; and so it did. The Passover A.C. 32, April 14, fell late, but the Passover A.C. 31, March 28th, fell very early. So Christ suffered not two years after the year 31, but two years after 32.

So all the signs of the Passion agree with the year 34, and that is the only year to which they all agree.

Notes to Chapter XI.

1 I observe that Christ and his forerunner John, in their parabolic discourses, often alluded to things present. The old Prophets, when they wanted to describe things emphatically, did not only draw parables from things which offered themselves, as from the rent of a garment, 1 Sam. xv.; from the sabbatic year, Isa. xxxvii.; from the vessels of a potter, Jer. xviii. etc.; but also, when such fitting objects were missing, they supplied them by their own actions: as by rending a garment, 1 Kings xi.; by shooting, 2 Kings xiii.; by baring their body, Isa. xx.; by giving significant names to their sons, Isa. viii. Hos. i.; by hiding a girdle in the bank of the Euphrates, Jer. xiii.; by breaking a potter's vessel, Jer. xix.; by putting on fetters and yokes, Jer. xxvii.; by binding a book to a stone and casting them both into the Euphrates, Jer. li.; by besieging a painted city, Ezek. iv.; by dividing the hair into three parts, Ezek. v.; by making a chain, Ezek. vii.; by carrying out household goods like a captive who trembles, Ezek. xii. etc. The Prophets loved to speak by such kinds of figures. And Christ, endowed with a nobler prophetic spirit than the rest, excelled also in this kind of speaking, yet so as not to speak by his own actions, which was less grave and proper, but to turn into parables such things as offered themselves. As the harvest approached, he warned his disciples again and again of the spiritual harvest, John iv. 35. Matth. ix. 37. Seeing the lilies of the field, he warned his disciples about fine clothing, Matth. vi. 28. Referring to the present season of fruits, he warned his disciples about knowing men by their fruits, Matth. vii. 16. At the time of the Passover, when trees put out leaves, he told his disciples to learn a parable from the fig tree: "when its branch is still tender and puts out leaves, you know that summer is near," etc. Matth. xxiv. 32. Luke xxi. 29. That same day, alluding both to the season of the year and to his passion, which was to be two days after, he formed a parable of the time of fruits approaching, and the murdering of the heir, Matth. xxi. 33. Alluding at the same time both to the money changers whom he had just driven out of the Temple and to his passion at hand, he made a parable of a nobleman going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return, and delivering his goods to his servants, and at his return condemning the lazy servant because he did not put his money with the exchangers, Matth. xxv. 14. Luke xix. 12. Being near the Temple, where sheep were kept in folds to be sold for the sacrifices, he spoke many things in parables about sheep, about the shepherd, and about the door of the sheepfold; and he shows that he alluded to the sheepfolds which were to be hired in the marketplace, by speaking of such folds as a thief could not enter by the door, nor the shepherd himself open, but a gatekeeper opened to the shepherd, John x. 1, 3. Being in the mount of Olives, Matth. xxxvi. 30. John xiv. 31. a place so fertile that it could not lack vines, he spoke many things in a hidden way about the farmer, and about the vine and its branches, John xv. Meeting a blind man, he warned of spiritual blindness, John ix. 39. At the sight of little children, he described again and again the innocence of the elect, Matth. xviii. 2. xix. 13. Knowing that Lazarus was dead and would be raised again, he spoke of the resurrection and life eternal, John xi. 25, 26. Hearing of the slaughter of some whom Pilate had killed, he warned of eternal death, Luke xiii. 1. To his fishermen he spoke of fishers of men, Matth. iv. 10. and he made another parable about fishes, Matth. xiii. 47. Being beside the Temple, he spoke of the Temple of his body, John ii. 19. At supper he spoke a parable about the spiritual supper to come in the kingdom of heaven, Luke xiv. On occasion of food for this life, he warned his disciples of spiritual food, and of eating his flesh and drinking his blood in a spiritual sense, John vi. 27, 53. When his disciples wanted bread, he told them to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, Matth. xvi. 6. Being asked to eat, he answered that he had other food, John iv. 31. In the great day of the feast of Tabernacles, when the Jews, as their custom was, brought a great quantity of water from the river Shiloah into the Temple, Christ stood and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water," John vii. 37. The next day, alluding to the servants who by reason of the sabbatical year were newly set free, he said, "If you continue in my word, the truth will make you free." Which the Jews understood literally, with respect to the present freeing of servants, and answered, "We are Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to anyone: how can you say, you will be made free?" John viii. They assert their freedom by two arguments: first, because they were the seed of Abraham, and therefore newly made free, if they had ever been in bondage; and then, because they never were in bondage. In the last Passover, when Herod led his army through Judea against Aretas king of Arabia, because Aretas was the aggressor and the stronger in military forces, as appeared by the event; Christ, alluding to that state of things, composed the parable of a weaker king leading his army against a stronger who made war upon him, Luke xiv. 31. And I doubt not that many other parables were formed upon other occasions, the history of which we do not have.

2 Josephus, Antiquities, book 3, chapter 10.