Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
What is a day? Technical background
FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #5
Disclosure: I’m not a Messianic. I’m an NT Saint who has been exposed to my OT Heritage.
This post continues the rag-tag series on the closer examination of some of the aspects of the Passover/Last Supper. If you have come in part-way through the series, there is some explanation in the earlier episodes to be found in FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
Maintaining the Big Mac principle of small bights, this post follows up on the Biblical Background of a day in FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #4. Surprisingly, there is information easily available today to quantify the times of evening and morning (ʿereḇ and bōqer) 2000 years ago — perhaps further. This can be used to test the veracity of a number of the claims made about what happened during the Days of the Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Figure 5–1: Schematic of the simple Biblical description of a day (Genesis 1:5)
This is a boring topic. Why subject normal people to it?
The general advice from some Theological Heavies is not to publish dry articles like this. “People won’t understand. They will not be interested.” These are the same Heavies who apologize for “using such big words.” Once again, I’m open to correction but I happen to hold Christians in higher esteem.
My personal experience, like a lot of NT Saints, was to not see the point in studying the OT because I already had an opinion. However, when I did study, passages like Hezekiah 6:3 opened wide.
I’m open to correction but I see the Crucifixion/Resurrection Days as the most important days in History — it seems a no-brainer that Christians should be keen to know about the sequence and times of the events so the truth of the claims be verified, lest we should believe in vain. But when the Theological Heavies were subjected to relentless interrogation about what happened — once again, opinions, added to which was advice about Faith. But faith without reason is unreasonable faith and Jesus was into Evidence.
You may choose to flick this post off (and it seems unlikely that it will keep you out of Heaven) but there is a chart below which shows the detail of the sunlight, as described in Genesis 1:5, in Jerusalem during those fateful days, at a glance. Similar charts will appear in subsequent posts.
Mathematics of the sunlight on the Earth’s surface
Regardless of the random happenings with the weather outside your window, the goings-on with the stars remains constant and predictable for every minute of every hour for every day for every year. The study of this behavior is well established in the science of Geodesy, a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the determination of, amongst other things, the times of different stages of sunrise and sunset anywhere on the Earth’s surface for any day of the year. It has been around since Egyptian times1 — perhaps Babylonian.
Geodetic calculators, applying the equations which have been available for centuries, are available online. For this article, The Australian Government Agency, Geoscience Australia,2 was used.
Unlike other calculations concerning time and dates, the algorithms do not break down when going back too far. I’m open to correction on this but have personally conducted exhaustive comparisons of results going back to the time of Christ so, if you want to offer correction, by all means do so but bring some solid information.
Definitions of the Solar Conditions through one rotation of the Globe
I had threatened to provide a more detailed (thankfully not compulsory reading) post on this topic but have decided against it. For those who need extra information to follow what is about to follow, and are interested to find out, the Australian Government website, Geoscience Australia,3 offers easy to follow articles aimed at junior high school level. A worked example of how to calculate sunrise and set is also provided.4
It would be surprising if your country didn’t have a similar organization. If you are interested you will find out, if you are not, you won’t read an article by me, anyway. I’ve cut this post back to, hopefully, just enough.
Stages as the sun peeks over the horizon (in layman’s terms)
There are nine stages of sunlight transition, easily distinguishable by the human eye, as the sun rises at dawn, traverses the sky, and sinks below the horizon into the night. The transition periods on the opposite sides of the day are reflections of each other. The definitions are given in the Government website.5
Simple definitions of the nine daily stages of sunlight are:-
1. Beginning of morning astronomical twilight: at this time the illumination due to scattered light from the Sun is less than that from starlight and other natural light sources in the sky. Starry sky.
2. Beginning of morning nautical twilight: in the absence of moonlight, artificial lighting or adverse atmospheric conditions, it is dark for normal practical purposes. The sea horizon cannot be seen. Stars beginning to fade.
3. Beginning of morning civil twilight: in the absence of moonlight, artificial lighting or adverse atmospheric conditions, the illumination is such that large objects may be seen but no detail is discernible. The brightest stars and planets can still be seen.
4. Sunrise: when the upper edge of the sun’s disk is coincident with horizon. Shadows cast after that.
5. Transit time: local solar (sundial) noon; before this the sun is ascending — after this the sun is descending.
6. Sunset: when the upper edge of the sun’s disk is coincident with horizon. No shadows cast after that.
7. Ending of evening civil twilight: in the absence of moonlight, artificial lighting or adverse atmospheric conditions, the illumination is such that large objects may be seen but no detail is discernible. The brightest stars and planets can be seen.
8. Ending of evening nautical twilight: in the absence of moonlight, artificial lighting or adverse atmospheric conditions, it is dark for normal practical purposes. The sea horizon cannot be seen. Stars coming out.
9. Ending of evening astronomical twilight: at this time the illumination due to scattered light from the Sun is less than that from starlight and other natural light sources in the sky. Starry sky.
Figure 5–2 shows a more detailed explanation of the Figure 5–1 schematic, expanded out to show the times of the stages of the day, for Jerusalem for a Gregorian year.
The following is information for Jerusalem.6 The year chosen was 2022.
• Latitude: 31° 46.1424’
• Longitude: 35° 12.9798’
• Universal Time offset: +3 Hours
• Latitudinal Hemisphere: North
• Longitudinal Hemisphere: East
It can be seen that dusk is a mirror image of dawn.
Figure 5–2: Times of the daily Geodetic definitions for Jerusalem over a Gregorian year.
Crucifixion Day window
It is written in Exodus 12:2 that Yehovah decrees || This month (i.e. Nisan) shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. This is the first month of Spring. Because the slaying of the Passover lamb is on a definite date (14th Nisan) and not a definite day, it creeps to eventually become out-of-season. The Jewish method of dealing with this is a perpetual re-adjustment of adding an extra month after the last month of the Religious year, but before the first month of the next, every 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the 19-year (Metonic) cycle — effectively having two months of Adar in those years.
This means that 14th Nisan will regularly, but intermittently, be delayed by about 30 days (March-April with the added complication of the Gregorian Leap Years over that Metonic cycle), so, roughly speaking, there is a window of about 60 days that Passover could occur. This is the window shown in Figure 5–2.
I have not been able to find if the Crucifixion was on during a leap year (it was about a 1:3 probability) and there is nothing that I can see in the Scriptures to indicate the Gregorian/Julian date (please let me know if you have seen something that I haven’t). There is, however, solid information on the day of the week. That will be discussed in a later post. Far be it for me to advise anyone else what to do but my research tells me that someone who furnishes specific Gregorian/Julian dates, without solid evidence (another person’s book could be just as shonky as your guess) is making an appeal to a false authority. An explanation without relevant evidence is a guess, no matter how loudly you shout.
But I’m prepared to be convinced. If my evidence is wrong, I’ll take it on the chin — but only if you offer real LAW and not just LORE.
Important times of the day
Because of the Last Supper, the initial concern is the end of the Jewish day. On Nisan 14th, Jesus has to have the meal, be betrayed, be tried, be Crucified and be in the ground before the end of that day because of the First Day of the Unleavened Bread was next day, Nisan 15th.
The beginning of the day will figure in the Resurrection but that will come later.
The story so far
Again, I’m open to correction but this technical background is considered necessary to adequately understand the times of the Jewish day mentioned in the description of the Crucifixion. FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #6 will link Geodesy to the Jewish day.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
ネ
1Origin of Geodesy https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10910
2Calculate twilight https://geodesyapps.ga.gov.au/sunrise
3Australian Government — Geoscience Australia — Astronomical Information https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/astronomical
4sunrise/sunset equation https://www.maas.museum/observations/2007/10/30/how-to-calculate-sunrise-and-set-a-worked-example/
5Australian Government, Geoscience Australia, “Astronomical Definitions.” 15 May. 2014, www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/astronomical/astronomical-definitions#heading-1.
6Calculate twilight https://geodesyapps.ga.gov.au/sunrise
