365 ON JESUS’ LAST SUPPER VI. Traces of the Solar Calendar in the Synoptics Besides the discrepancy of the Passover date following the anointing at Bethany, further Synoptic evidence for the Solar Calendar can be detected. The most remarkable instance of this is the mention of a solar eclipse 39 at the 6th hour in Luke 23,45; the parallels speak only of darkness “over all the earth” (Matt 27,45; Mark 15,33). A solar eclipse implies it was the day of a new moon, but in the sequel, after Jesus’ burial, Luke 23,54 has “it was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was dawning” (epeφwsken) 40. This would ߥ indicate that the moonrise occurred at the very beginning of the Sabbath, immediately after sunset, at the time of a full moon, in a way that exactly matches the Passover day according to the lunar c a l e n d a r and the Johannine chronology. The Persian sage Aphrahat, an Assyrian writer of the IV cent., who used only the lunar calendar, uses a typical phrase when referring to the Exodus Passover as “the light which enlightens the 15th ” (Demonstration on the Passover, § 6-7). In his view, this is a full moon, which cannot be reconciled with the darkness of the departure from Egypt. The undeniable conclusion is that the solar eclipse is a literary device, which may have been prompted by two somewhat inter-related considerations: an apocalyptic development of the lunar eclipse mentioned above (§ 1), and a reminder of the full moon of the solar calendar, at least for the very first year. Thus, the eclipse would suggest a transition towards the beginning of a new Creation, starting with a full moon. A secondary variant reads eskotisuh o hliov, a harmonization with 39 Matt 24,29. The plain meaning cannot be “evening”, in spite of a strange Rabbinic 40 statement (m.Pes 1:1) : “At the lighting-up time (rwa): on the 14th of Nisan we must search for the leaven (≈mj) — by the light (rwa) of a candle”. The first part simply depends on Exod 12,15 “on the first day (= “the 14th of the first month”) you shall eliminate leaven from your premises”. There the day begins on the morning (as noted in j.Pes 1:1), but if the lunar calendar is introduced (“Nisan”, a Babylonian name), the 14th has begun in the evening, hence the candles in the second part. As a result, the first “light” comes to mean “evening” (with a reference to the light of the stars, Ps 148,3; see b.Pes 2ab ; the full moon is ignored).