Dating the Death of Jesus: Memory and the Religious Imagination

Bond, Helen K.

doi:10.1017/s0028688513000131

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…There are no other possibilities, as it can be deduced from the most important astronomical studies on Jesus' crucifixion (Fotheringham 1934;Schafer 1990;Finegan 1998;Humphreys and Waddington 1992;Bond 2013). The results of the analysis are summarized in Table 1.…”

Section: An Unheard-of Literary Workmentioning

confidence: 97%

Literary Fiction or Ancient Astronomical and Meteorological Observations in the Work of Maria Valtorta?

Matricciani

2017

Religions

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Abstract:In The Gospel as revealed to me, Maria Valtorta reports a lot of information on the Holy Land at the time of Jesus: historical, archaeological, astronomical, geographical, meteorological. She states she has written what seen "in vision". By a detailed astronomical analysis of explicit and implicit calendar information reported while she narrates detailed episodes concerning the three years of Jesus' public life-possible because of many references to lunar phases, constellations, planets visible in the night sky in her writings-it is ascertained that every event described implies a precise date-day, month, year-without being explicitly reported by her. For example, Jesus' crucifixion should have occurred on Friday April 23 of the year 34, a date proposed by Isaac Newton. She has also recorded the occurrence of rain so that the number of rainy days reported can be compared to the current meteorological data, supposing random observations and no important changes in rainfall daily frequency in the last 2000 years, the latter issue discussed in the paper. Unexpectedly, both the annual and monthly averages of rainy days deduced from the data available from the Israel Meteorological Service and similar averages deduced from her writings agree very well.

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Section: An Unheard-of Literary Workmentioning

confidence: 97%

Literary Fiction or Ancient Astronomical and Meteorological Observations in the Work of Maria Valtorta?

Matricciani

2017

Religions

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“…29 It means that scholarly conclusions about the historical Jesus and (in)accuracy of the gospels must arise out of this larger process of constructing how early Christianity came to be in light of our current knowledge about it. First efforts to carry out historical Jesus research along these lines can be found in the work of Le Donne (2009: 248-57; 2011a: 120-32; 2011b: 186-204), Keith (2011a: 165-92; 2014: 111-57), Bond (2013: 461-75) and Thate (2013: 247-89). 30…”

Section: Two Models For Historical Jesus Research In Contemporary Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Narratives of the Gospels and the Historical Jesus: Current Debates, Prior Debates and the Goal of Historical Jesus Research

Keith

2016

Journal for the Study of the New Testament

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The article argues that current debates over method in historical Jesus studies reveal two competing 'models' for how to use the gospel tradition in order to approach the historical Jesus. These models differ over their treatments of the narrative frameworks of the Gospels and, concomitantly, their views of the development of the Jesus tradition. A first model, inspired by form criticism and still advocated today, attempts to attain a historical Jesus 'behind' the interpretations of early Christians. A second model, inspired by advances in historiography and memory theory, posits an unattainable historical Jesus on the basis of the interpretations of the early Christians, and as part of a larger process of accounting for how and why early Christians came to view Jesus in the ways that they did. Advocating the latter approach to the historical Jesus and responding to previous criticism, this essay argues further that these two models are methodologically and epistemologically incompatible. It therefore challenges the suggestion that one can affirm the goals of the second model while maintaining the methods of the first model.

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“…Consequently, the Nativity, set at least four years before the beginning of the Christian Era, has influenced most scholars who have preferred setting the crucifixion on 7 April 30, among the dates astronomically allowed (La Greca & De Caro, 2017;Finegan, 1998;Fotheringham, 1934;Nothaf, 2012a;Schaefer, 1990;Bond, 2013;Humphreys & Waddington, 1983;Humphreys & Waddington, 1992;Ruggles, 1990). This dating aims at recovering compatibility with historical and chronological constraints deduced by the Gospels, such as Jesus' age of about thirty years when his public ministry began (Luke,3,23) and three years of public ministry deducible by John's Gospel, leading to an age of about 33 years at death.…”

Section: The Debate On Dating Jesus' Birth and Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Table 1 we have listed the possible dates of Jesus' death, according to astronomical calculations, most of which have been discussed in (La Greca & De Caro, 2017;Finegan, 1998;Fotheringham, 1934;Nothaf, 2012a;Schaefer, 1990;Bond, 2013;Humphreys & Waddington, 1983;Humphreys & Waddington, 1992;Ruggles, 1990). The dates when Nisan 14 was Friday (according to John) or Nisan 15 (according to the Synoptics) are highlighted in bold.…”

Section: Possible Crucifixion Datesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chronology of Jesus’ and John the Baptist’ Births, and Jesus’ Epiphany and Death in Maria Valtorta’s Writings

De¹,

Greca²,

Matricciani³

2023

JSS

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The literary work of the mystical writer Maria Valtorta (1897-1961) contains a detailed life of Jesus, without any explicit dates with respect to the Julian calendar. She sets Jesus' birth (Nativity) on the first day of the Hebrews' feast of Hannukah, and his age, when he was crucified, in 1737 weeks. She writes that the Passover of the year before his death fell on Saturday. All these unusual chronological data concerning Jesus' life raise the question about their coherence and self-consistency. Astronomical and calendar analysis allows setting: 1) Jesus' crucifixion on 23 April 34; 2) the Nativity, Epiphany and Jesus' Baptism on January 6; 3) John the Baptist's birthday on June 24. All these results arise the question about the origin of this hidden chronology which, unexpectedly for a mystic of Western Christian tradition, confirms the Eastern tradition about the most important dates of Jesus' life.

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Dating the Death of Jesus: Memory and the Religious Imagination

Cited by 8 publications

References 12 publications

Literary Fiction or Ancient Astronomical and Meteorological Observations in the Work of Maria Valtorta?

Literary Fiction or Ancient Astronomical and Meteorological Observations in the Work of Maria Valtorta?

The Narratives of the Gospels and the Historical Jesus: Current Debates, Prior Debates and the Goal of Historical Jesus Research

Chronology of Jesus’ and John the Baptist’ Births, and Jesus’ Epiphany and Death in Maria Valtorta’s Writings

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