Bible readers throughout history have noticed discrepancies in the Gospel accounts, and this often leads people to question the Bible's veracity entirely. For example, Matthew, Mark and Luke all state the Last Supper was a meal marking the start of the Jewish festival of Passover. John, by contrast, says that it took place before the Passover began. Whatever you think about the Bible, the fact is that Jewish people would never mistake the Passover meal for another meal, so for the Gospels to contradict themselves about this is really hard to understand. The eminent biblical scholar F.F. Bruce once described this problem as "the thorniest problem in the New Testament."
The Gospels also do not seem to allow enough time for all the events they record between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, whilst indicating that Wednesday was a "missing day" on which Jesus did nothing. Scholars have literally rushed around Jerusalem with a stop-watch to see how the large number of events recorded in the Gospels could have fit between the Last Supper on Thursday night and the Crucifixion on Friday morning. Most conclude that it is impossible.
However, it turns out that there is a very simple solution to these problems: If you move the Last Supper to Wednesday, instead of Thursday, the Gospels are actually in remarkable agreement, and can be read as a reliable record.
What really happened in Jesus' last week?
In my new book, The Mystery of the Last Supper, I use science and historical reconstruction to take a closer look at the inconsistencies in the Gospel accounts of the final days of Jesus. Essential to this task was the use of different calendars. The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal that there were a number of different Jewish calendars in use in Israel in the first century A.D., and so different Jewish groups celebrated Passover on different days. We have a similar situation today with the date of Easter: Catholics and Protestants celebrate Easter on a different date from Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians because they calculate the date of Easter using different calendars (Gregorian and Julian, respectively).
In his description of the Last Supper, John uses the official Jewish calendar, in which the Last Supper was before the date of the official Passover. However, I suggest that Jesus chose to hold his Last Supper on the date of Passover in a different Jewish calendar, which is what Matthew, Mark and Luke report. So all four Gospels in fact agree!
I am not the first person to suggest that Jesus might have been using a different calendar. Most recently, the Pope proposed in 2007 that Jesus might have used the solar calendar of the Qumran community, who were probably a Jewish sect called the Essenes. But when the date of Passover is calculated using this calendar, it would have fallen a week later, after both Jesus' death and resurrection.
I have worked with an expert astronomer to investigate, for the first time, the possibility that a third Jewish calendar was in use in the first century A.D. The official Jewish calendar at the time of Jesus' death was that still used by Jews today: a lunar system in which days run from sunset to sunset. This was developed during the Jewish exile in Babylon in the sixth century B.C. Before that, however, the Jews had a different system. This is referred to in the Book of Exodus, in the Old Testament, when God instructs Moses and Aaron to start their year at the time of the Exodus from Egypt.
There is extensive evidence that this original Jewish calendar survived to Jesus' time. It was used by groups such as the Samaritans, Zealots, some Galileans and some Essenes. Under this pre-exilic calendar, Passover always fell a few days earlier than in the official Jewish calendar, and the days were marked from sunrise to sunrise, not sunset to sunset.
Using our reconstruction of this calendar we can see that in A.D. 33, the year of the Crucifixion, the Passover meal was on the Wednesday of Holy Week. From the clues they give, it's clear that Matthew, Mark and Luke all used the pre-exilic calendar in their description of the Last Supper as a Passover meal, whereas John uses the official calendar in which the Last Supper was before the Passover.
What does this mean for our celebration of Easter?
Holy Thursday is the well-known day on which Christians annually commemorate the Last Supper of Jesus. But my research shows that we should really be celebrating this on the Wednesday of Holy Week. A Wednesday Last Supper with the Crucifixion on Friday also allows just the right amount of time for all the events the Gospels record between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.
Today, about half of the churches in the world use unleavened bread in their weekly or monthly celebration of the Last Supper, because they believe it was a Passover meal, and half use leavened bread, because they believe it was before the Passover meal. I have shown that everyone is right! The Last Supper was before Passover in the official Jewish calendar (used by John), but it was the Passover meal in the earlier original Jewish calendar that Jesus chose to use for his Last Supper (described by Matthew, Mark and Luke).
We celebrate Christmas on a fixed date each year: Dec. 25. However, Easter is a moveable feast: the date of Easter Sunday changes every year, according to a complicated formula, and can range from March 23 to April 25. For those who would like a more fixed date for Easter, my research suggests that Easter Sunday should be the first Sunday in April.
Finally, why did Jesus choose to hold his Last Supper at Passover time according to the pre-exilic calendar? I suggest it was because this original Jewish calendar was the one the Old Testament says was used by Moses to celebrate the very first Passover in Egypt. The Gospels are full of examples of Jesus presenting himself as the new Moses. Jesus was therefore holding his Last Supper on the exact anniversary of the first Passover of Moses, thus proclaiming that he was the new Moses, instituting a new covenant and leading his people out of slavery into a new life. Jesus then died just as the Passover lambs were being slain, according to the official Jewish calendar. These are deep, powerful symbolisms, which are based on objective, historical evidence. Far from being incompatible, as many scholars make them out to be, here science and the Bible work hand-in-hand to show that all four Gospels are in remarkable agreement about Jesus' final days.
Last Supper was a day earlier, scientist claims - Yahoo! News
The Mystery of the Last Supper - Cambridge University Press
You, want-to-be, historians can split hairs over Wednesday or Thursday for the timing of the last support, obviously you have way too much time on your hands .. again! But please.. do not confuse the sheep with "what is real and meaningful" vs. with what is benign, and bring doubt and question -- serving only your own idle time! Aren't there sheep out there lost -- in want of being found brothers?
43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
Also, you do not sound like a lover of science or a practioner of it.
In life, we label things. It assists our communication with other people. We acknowledge that the French call fried potatos "Frites" (freets). Americans call them French Fries. Its a corrupted but understood translation. As Americans we accept that either term means the same thing. The food item doesn't change it's existence based on what we call it. It is what it is regardless of who names it. You agree ?
You call the desire to have faith, spirituality and love of a God a lie and false guide for lifes endeavors now and in the future. People of faith call it something else. Either way it is what it is.
You base your choice of atheism on the lack of evidence. Alternatively people of faith base their choice on their perception of evidence. You don't acknowledge the evidence as evidence. You reject it. There are tens of hundreds of people like you who are dedicated to the study of theology not because they want to believe but because they want to prove the lack of evidence.
There are few people in the study of theology that discount the possibility entirely and they have spent their lives studying the evidence. Have you ?
It comes down to choice. You believe in respecting choice ? Or would you make my decision for
In contrast, there is no shred of verifiable and falsifiable evidence that supports the existence of anything supernatural and any fiction that humans invented that relates to anything supernatural.
UNTIL such verifiable and falsifiable evidence is brought forward, any supernatural claim is simply superstition.
UNTIL then, the "love of god" should be treated at the same level as the "love of santa claus", "love of invisible pink unicorns", "belief that vaccines cause autism", "claims that the position of stars and planets when you are born affect your intelligence, character and success in life", ...
With what you call "evidence", no plane would ever fly, no car would drive, no medicine would work, no cell phone would make calls, ...
In your own words: "you do not sound like a lover of science or a practioner of it".
What they miss in the Forest of the Trees is that WE follow the WORD of Christ not the translation or the study of this or that. What they said he said works for me. The same way I studied Economics, Computer Science, Business, etc. To apply it in my daily life and to Live. Not die or worry about death
http://reverendryan.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-get-to-heaven-according-to-jesus.html
The survival of a sustainable civilization requires the defeat of christianity along with the other self-destructive and delusional religions. There is no longer any middle ground.
You fear aspects of some religions that misinterpret writings of faith and corrupt others to purport violence so you form the generality that "all religions in all their forms are bad".
So if you were the architect of a human society you would have them rather put all of their faith in the Justice system ? As though some how that would be better ? As an alternative ? Or do you wish for a Utopia of human congeniality amoung all peoples because "we should just all get along" ? Your willing to go on record with THIS philosophy as a social structure to propel humans into a sustainable civilization ?
Okay, well first I'd have to say that if you want me to JUST believe in the Justice system to get fair play, fairness, an equitable negotiation for disputes I'd have to ask which one should we use ? Sha'ria law ? Greek law ? British law ? .....maybe you prefer an Imperialist or Nobility structure ? ....
Secondly I'd ask what if I don't get what I believe is justice ? What if there are alot of people just like me who don't think they are getting justice ? Can you imagine what we would be willing to do to acquire it ? The world would erupt into a protracted cataclysmic war that would never end until we destroyed the earth.
The only thing stopping people from killing and taking isn't
Because I have faith I do not have to prove anything but wow you guys just cant stop trying to say how right you are .......prove it please.
"Deny yourself and Follow Me" "You cannot serve 2 masters, GOD and Mammon"
We hear about this fictional beginning and ending....... but with someone so powerful as to scare the emperor of Rome............ and so important to so many people now.......... the real mystery is why is nothing said about this supposed person between the ages of 12 and his last few months?
The question YOU should be asking is, " How Will I Be Saved from the Fires of Hell ? " That is the question that matters to you, not how Jesus acted as a boy in the town of Navareth 2000 yeras ago. You should have been wise enough to already realize that.
What it says is what real Christians follow as the WORD of GOD as taught by Christ.
You confuse those who pursue Mammon as Christians. Not the name, but the action
"Judge the tree by the fruit it bares" no by what it says, but what it does
Boy does this all ring true TODAY, right?
Sea Scrolls while ignoring information available in the Nag Hammadi Library--scrolls also found
in caves in the 1940's, I think--if that is the criteria your 'scientific' investigation uses for validity.
Jesus wasn't crucified, a 'pretender' to the title was.
There were quite a few pretenders in that day and time, all believing that they were the
messiah. (Kinda sounds like today's politics, doesn't it?) That, in part, could answer many
of the questions of the time sequence.
You see, if people were to "follow" the Christ figure, it would have been quite mind-blowing if
they were to follow the Christ figure back into and amongst the living (his re-appearance to
the disciples)[does the word "Zombie" ring any bell here?], so he HAD to be made to have
'ascended' into heaven (i.e., he HAD to leave the area)--a better place to follow someone TO. Otherwise the whole desired effect doesn't work.
But it will all be what you Believe it to be.
I studied Computer Science and my success has nothing to do with that education and teaching. But everything to do with my ability and effort I learned inspite of most teaching. The WORD of GOD in the New Testament (KJV), Bagavad Gita and SRF Lessons of Yogananda and his scientific pracitce and methods is all I ever needed.
Heavenly Father, Devine Mother Guru's and Saints of all Religions I boy to you with the saction of my devotion, may thy love find all hearts.
Not a believe system, a Doing, Being the living Spirit of GOD