351 ON JESUS’ LAST SUPPER – in 33, Friday, April 3rd ; – in 34, Thursday, April 23rd (only if a leap month was inserted at the end of the previous year, because of exceptionally bad weather delaying the ripening of the barley firstfruits) 4. The first date is too early. Luke 2,1-2 states that John the Baptist began his ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, that is 28–29 or 29–30, depending on the reckoning of the Seleucid era (340). According to John 2,20, the Temple reconstruction was started 46 years before Jesus came for his first public Passover in Jerusalem. Since Herod launched the work in Autumn 19 BCE, the earliest possible date is Passover 28. The year 34 is only a remote possibility, for it falls more than a lunar month after the equinox. Moreover, it may conflict with the probable date of Paul’s conversion (34). So the two remaining possibilities are 30 and 33. Both match John’s chronology 5, as well as other details in the NT: the equation of Jesus’ death with the slaughtering of the Passover lamb is given in John 1,29, as well as in 1 Cor 5,7. A Talmudic saying 6 leads to the same conclusion (b.Sanh 43a) : “On the eve of Passover, Jesus of Nazareth (or rather: “the Nazorean” yrxwn wçy) was crucified (lit. hanged, whwalt)”; it is stated that the (Roman) authorities sought to defend him. According to Jewish law, he should have been stoned then exposed (“hanged”, cf. Deut 21,22; Ant. 4 :206). This short account cannot be directly dependent on the Gospels, for a list of five disciples is added, in which only one can be recognized (ytm, Matthew). C.J. HUMPHREYS – W.G. WADDINGTON, “Astronomy and the Date of the 4 Crucifixion ”, Chronos, Kairos, Christos. Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan (eds. J. VARDAMAN – E. M. YAMAUCHI) (Winona Lake, MI 1989) 165-182. These results refine the conclusions of K. SCHOCH, “ Christi Kreuzigung am 14. Nissan”, Bib 9 (1928) 48-56, who gave another possibility : Thursday, April 26th, 31 (now replaced with Tuesday, March 27th for that year). And the Gospel of Peter 2,5, but it cannot be held as a major witness. 5 Uncensored, cf. R. RABBINOVICZ, Variae Lectiones in Mischnam et in 6 Talmud Babylonicum. Tract. Synhedrin (Leiden 1877) ad locum. The traditional e ditions have only “On the eve of Passover, Jesus was hanged”, and G. DALMAN, Jesus-Jeshua (London – New York 1922) 89, tried to discard this testimony by surmising that it concerns another Jesus, a disciple of Yehoshua b. Perahiah (cf. b.Sanh 107b).