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Conference taveng::bagels

Title:BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest
Notice:1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration
Moderator:SMURF::FENSTER
Created:Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1524
Total number of notes:18709

1075.0. "Consecutive Sabbaths?" by REGENT::BROOMHEAD (Don't panic -- yet.) Fri May 24 1991 21:13

    In another conference, the topic of counting days came up, and
    eventually wandered around to the matter of Jesus "and on the
    third day..."      
    
    Here's what was actually written:  "There's also a very good
    argument that dates the crucifiction to something like 10 A.D. [This
    was corrected to the year 24 or some such, in the following note. ab]
    based on the fact that the count comes out right if the sabbath that
    started the night of Jesus' crucifiction were a special sabbath,
    followed by the regular Saturday sabbath.  That combination isn't
    very common but occured during Herod's tenure."
    
    (I have gathered that it is important to [some] Christians that this
    time period really be three days, because Jonah spent three days
    and three nights in the belly of the whale.)  Now, I know that
    nowadays, the calandar is tweeked so that there are never two
    adjacent sabbaths.  Does anyone know if this was true/not true two
    thousand years ago?
    
    						Ann B.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1075.1NOTIME::SACKSGerald Sacks ZKO2-3/N30 DTN:381-2085Fri May 24 1991 21:2918
I saw that note and I had no idea what it was talking about.  On rereading
it, I gather that this "special sabbath" was on Friday.

The only holiday that is considered a sabbath is Yom Kippur, and that's
the wrong time of year.  Yom Kippur can't fall on Friday or Sunday.

Perhaps the note was talking about Passover.  I don't think it can fall
on a Friday these days, but it sometimes did before the calendar was fixed.
("Fixed" doesn't mean that it was broken before.  After the destruction of
the second Temple, witnesses were no longer relied upon to determine when
the new moon occurred).

Isn't the last supper supposed to have been a Passover seder?  Was it on
Thursday night?  If so, Passover would have been on Friday.

I don't see how this changes the count of days.  From Friday to Sunday
is three days by "inclusive reckoning," which was commonly used in those
days.  The Romans used it, and the Jews used it.
1075.2TiltREGENT::BROOMHEADDon't panic -- yet.Thu May 30 1991 01:447
    I agree.  But Some People would prefer that the crucifixion had
    been on a Thursday afternoon (with the body taken down before the
    `sabbath' starting Thursday evening) so that Jesus could have been
    dead for three days *and* three nights, as Jesus himself had prophesied.
    If it was on a Friday, then Jesus was wrong.  Which means...
    
    						Ann B.
1075.3ACESMK::FRANCUSMets in '91Tue Jul 16 1991 00:209
    re: .1
    
    Actually if todays calendar was already in effect at the time, the
    first Seder could not have been on Thursday night, since Pesach cannot
    begin on Friday. Of course if the calendar was still set by when
    witnesses saw the new moon then the seder could have been Thursday
    night, and Yom Kippur could have been on Friday.
1075.4KARHU::TURNERThu Aug 01 1991 00:387
    In my copy of the dead sea scroll translations there is some material
    about another calendar. Apparently, some sects followed different
    reckoning  to determine the times for the holidays. Perhaps, Jesus was
    using an alternate reckoning for the Pesach when he met with his
    followers.
    
    john
1075.5RAVEN1::WATKINSThu Jan 09 1992 04:088
    I am a Christian.  My Church holds to the idea that Jesus died on
    Wednesday and was in the grave by 6 pm.  There was a special sabbath
    on Thursday.  Then on Saturday evening Jesus came out of the grave.
    Then early on Sunday morning the grave was found to be empty. 
    
    
                          
                                      Marshall