Date of Jesus' Death

The Year of Our Salvation

There is no universally agreed-on calendar of Jewish festivals at the time of Jesus. There are conflicting rules and conflicting evidence about possible dates.

14th Nisan = "Preparation Day" = late in the afternoon = the day on which Jesus died.

15th Nisan = Passover meal = after the sunset that ends 14th Nisan = synoptic date of Last Supper.

Isaac Newton followed John's gospel and searched for the dates during Pilate's reign as prefect of Judea when 14th Nisan fell on a Friday.

the 14th day of the month Nisan will fall in the year of Christ 31 on wednesday March 28; in the year 32 on monday Apr. 14; in the year 33 on friday Apr. 3; in the year 34, on friday Apr. 23; in the year 35, on wednesday Apr. 13; and in the year 36, on saturday March 31.

AD
31	28 March	Wed
32	14 April	Mon
33	3 April	Fri
34	23 April	Fri
35	13 April	Wed
36	31 Mar	Sat

3 April 33 AD was also the date of a solar eclipse seen in Jerusalem, which could correspond to the darkness noted at the time of Jesus' death in some of the gospels.

John: the odd man out

Passover is dated by lunar cycles. It can fall on any day of the week. If we can rely on the tradition that Jesus died on a Friday, then John is identifying a different year from that specified in the synoptic gospels (Mt, Mk, Lk).

Pontius Pilate was procurator from 26 AD to 36 AD. That narrows things down somewhat; I think it has to be a historical fact that Jesus was crucified while Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea.

This page gives a calculation of Passover dates from 26 AD to 34 AD. The author argues for Wednesday being the day of Passover. I'm inclined to disagree with that interpretation.

In the synoptics (Mt, Mk, Lk), Jesus dies the day AFTER Passover; in John, Jesus dies the day BEFORE passover. If our liturgical tradition has preserved the truth that Jesus died on a Friday, and if the calculations for the Passover dates given above are correct, then the synoptic year would be 27 AD or 30 AD and the Johannine year would be 33 AD.

A date of 33 AD seems nice to me--but it places a strain on Luke's estimate that Jesus was born in 4 BC, was "about 30" when He started His public ministry, that the public ministry lasted just a year or less (there is only one Passover in the synoptics), and that Jesus died the day AFTER the Passover meal. If we want to insist that Luke got the birth year right (in or before 4 BC) and that he is right about Jesus' age, then that suggests 27 AD--six years before the Johannine date.

I'm not too anxious about any of this. Our salvation comes from Jesus' priestly action of offering Himself as our Passover Lamb; we are saved by the blood of the Lamb, not by knowing what year He made this offering for us.