The Dating for the Crucifixion of Jesus

In all four gospel accounts, there is this event that takes place before Jesus’ crucifixion. It is the Triumphal entry, in which Jesus enters Jerusalem and is proclaimed to be the coming King that the Jews had been waiting for (Matthew 21:1-9, Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:28-30, John 12:12-15). In Luke and John’s account, the people proclaim blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord (Luke 19:30) and blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel (John 12:13). They saw this as the issuing of the Messianic kingdom that they had been waiting for so many years, since Daniel 9. Mark’s account has the crowd chanting Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest! Matthew tells us that this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” This was the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. This occurrence was something that they had been waiting for over 400 years to take place from the time of Zechariah, and over 500 years from the time of Daniel.

What I find to be incredible in all of this is that with modern technology, looking back at history, and looking into Scripture, we are able to (in my opinion) nail down the exact date of the crucifixion of Jesus, and therefore the exact date of the resurrection! The following is a break down of scripture as well as the events that scripture points to in order to find the dating.

Daniel’s Vision
In Daniel 9, Daniel has a vision of 70 “Weeks” or “Sevens”. In Daniel’s vision, he says that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. And for sixty two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing (Daniel 9:25-26).

We know that the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued on March 5, 444BC (based on the solar calendar) by Artexerxes, King of Persia. This decree is recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-8. The Jewish calendar is based on the moon (lunar), and so their years are 360 days, unlike our 365 solar calendar. We can interpret that in Daniel’s vision, a week/seven is a period of seven years. Daniel says that seven years plus another sixty-two years will bring the anointed one (The word Messiah is Hebrew for Anointed One, the word Christ is Greek for Anointed One, both titles given to Jesus).

So we take:
                                 7 weeks + 62 weeks = 69 weeks

As stated, the week is a period of seven years, so:
                                 69 weeks x 7 years = 434 years

We know the decree was issued on 444BC. If we simply take 444BC and add 434 years, we get a wrong answer because we are adding solar years and not lunar, so we need to convert 434 years into days.
                                 434 years x 360 days/year = 173,880 days

Now we can convert 173,880 days into the solar calendar:
                                 173,880 days ÷ 365 days/year = 476.38 years

​Taking March 5, 444BC and adding 476 years we come to AD 33. More specifically, when we take March 5, 444BC and add 173,880 days you come to March 29, AD 33. According to Daniel, on March 29, AD 33, the anointed one (Messiah/Christ) would be cut off.

Gospel Evidences for the Date of Jesus’ Crucifixion
During the time of Jesus, the Jews took the Sabbath (Saturdays) off as a complete day of rest. They would not do any work on the Sabbath, and so they viewed Friday as The Day of Preparation, in which they prepared food and all their work for the Sabbath. All four gospels agree that Jesus was crucified on the Day of Preparation.

• Matthew 27:62 — (the chief priests put guards at the tomb of Jesus after He was crucified) the next day, that is, after the day of Preparation. This would imply that Jesus was crucified on the day of Preparation, Friday.
• Mark 15:42 — (after Jesus has been crucified and they take Him down from the cross) And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath (Saturday).
• Luke 23:52-54 — (as they are getting ready to burry Jesus after His crucifixion) This man [Joseph of Arimathea] went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it [Jesus’ body] down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid Him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.
• John 19:31 — (while Jesus is hanging on the cross, after He had given up His spirit and breathed His last) Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day).

John’s gospel also gives us the detail that Jesus was crucified before the Passover (John 13:1 → Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father….). The Passover was the feast that God established for the Jews to commemorate His deliverance of them out of bondage in Egypt. It reflected on their slavery, and how the angel of death passed over the houses that had the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. In Leviticus 23, God is directing the Israelites about the various feasts that He expects them to uphold in remembrance of what He has done for them, and He tells them In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover (Leviticus 23:5). The first month in the Jewish calendar is Nisan, and so this Passover falls on Nisan 14. The Jewish month of Nisan aligns during the Gregorian (solar) months of March/April. Just as in the Gregorian calendar, a certain date fluctuates as to which day of the week it lands on (i.e.: Christmas is always December 25th, but it can fall on any day of the week depending on the year). So, according to this information, we know that Jesus was crucified during a year when Nisan 14 (the Passover) started on the Day of Preparation (Friday). For Jews, a day ran from sundown to sundown, so the Passover would have started on Friday at sundown and ran until Saturday at sundown.

There is more evidence within Scripture to help us determine the year. John 19:31 also tells us that the Sabbath that week was a high sabbath, meaning that it was also a day in which a holiday fell on as well (this would be the same as when Christmas falls on a Sunday as well). According to Matthew 27:2, Jesus was crucified when a man named Pilate was governor of Israel. In 1961, archeologists discovered what is called The Pilate Stone, which stated Pontius Pilate, Prefect(Governor) of Judea”, confirming his historical existence and title (it had been debated up until this time if he really existed). They can date that Pilate governed Judea from AD 26-36. Adding all of this information together, we know that Jesus was crucified between AD 26-36, in a year in which the Passover started on the Day of Preparation. In the early AD 30s, Nisan 14 fell on the Day of Preparation twice, April 7, AD 30 and April 3, AD 33.

Putting It All Together
According to the math from Daniel’s vision, the anointed one would come on March 29, AD 33. When we put all of the gospel’s internal evidence together, we get a crucifixion date of either April 7, AD 30 or April 3, AD 33. When you look at the fact that the Triumphal Entry was Sunday, March 29, AD 33, this gives us a date for the crucifixion of Friday, April 3, AD 33, and a resurrection Sunday, April 5, AD 33!

But Wait, There’s More!
As we read through the gospel accounts, we are given times for the final hours of Jesus’ life on this earth.

• 9:00am — Jesus is nailed to the cross
  • And it was the third hour when they crucified Him (Mark 15:25).
  • Mark is basing it on the Galilean time, beginning at sunrise, traditionally 6:00am
• 12:00-3:00pm — Darkness covers the whole land
  • And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, ”My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:33)
• 3:00pm — Jesus yields up His spirit and dies
  • And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit (Matthew 27:50)
• Jesus is then removed from cross that same day due to the Passover beginning that evening and lasting until the next day
  • Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day). (John 19:31)

Both Matthew and Mark mention the darkness from the sixth hour (12:00pm) to the ninth hour (3:00pm). Using computer technology and looking at the skies, we can go back and see that at 3:00pm on Friday, April 3, AD 33, the moon was starting to turn blood red and there was a lunar eclipse. On top of this, extra biblical evidence from Phlegon of Tralles, a Greek writer/historian, who said “In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad [AD 32-33], there was the greatest eclipse of the sun; and it became night in the sixth hour of the day, so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.”
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Based on all of this evidence, we can conclude that Jesus died for our sins on Friday, April 3, AD 33 and rose from the grave on Sunday, April 5, AD 33!