The Verification of the Gospel
This article is written for the open-minded. If you're an unbeliever and you are open to the possibility that the Gospel of Christ might be true, then this article is especially written for you, so that you might believe the Gospel.

If you're already a believer and you are open to the possibility that Jesus could have died on a different day of the week than what you think, and that the 70th week of Daniel could be different than what you think, then this article could be a blessing for you as well.

But please do not read this article if you are close-minded, because then you will just be tempted to engage in fruitless arguments against what is written here.

The reader is encouraged to not just believe everything that is written here, but to be a Berean (Acts 17:11) by searching the scriptures dilgently to make sure that everything which is written in this article is accurate. If you find an error, then please contact the author of this article by clicking the email icon at the bottom of this article, so that the correction can be made.

The Verification Process
In Daniel 13 of the Catholic Bible, we learn that when two people claim to have witnessed a crime, we can falsify or verify their claim by separating them and asking each of them a multiple choice question pertaining to the alleged crime. If their answers do not match, then we have falsified their claim; but if their answers do match, then we have verified their claim, at least to some degree of certainty. The more choices the question has, the better. For example, let's say that the question has 20 possible choices. That would either give us a 95% chance of falsifying a false claim (since 19 / 20 = 0.95) or allow us to verify a true claim with 95% certainty.

In the case of the Gospel claim (that the Messiah died for our sins according to scripture and that he rose from the dead on the third day according to scripture), multiple prophets can be found in scripture, claiming to see a future crime happening, the crime of Judah putting the future Messiah to death unjustly. The prophets are dead; but since their prophecies live on, we can search those, looking for a couple of prophecies which give us the answer to a multiple choice question pertaining to the alleged crime. We can find that two prophecies, one from Ezekiel and the other from Daniel, give us the answer to the following multiple choice question: In which year did you foresee Judah put the future Messiah to death unjustly?

We can know that Daniel did not simply copy Ezekiel's answer, because Ezekiel's answer is given in number of years BEFORE a historic event, and Daniel's answer is given in number of years AFTER a different historic event. Since the multiple choice question has hundreds of possible choices, it will either give us more than a 99% chance of falsifying the claim of the two prophets or allow us to verify the claim with more than 99% certainty. In this case, unmatching answers would not necessarily make one a false prophet, because it could be that they were prophesying two different things. However, matching answers would confirm that they were prophesying the same thing and it would establish the year in which the two prophets foresaw Judah putting the future Messiah to death unjustly.

If we get matching answers from the two prophets, then we will search the gospel accounts of the Apostles, looking for a couple of them to give us the answer to the question: In which year did you see Judah put Jesus to death unjustly (three days before he rose from the dead)? It just so happens that no generation, except for ours, is able to get any apostle's answer to that question. We are able to get the answer of two apostles to that question (Matthew and John); and we can know that neither copied the other's answer, because their Gospel accounts are very different, so different in fact, that some claim that they contradict each other. But we will show that that's not the case.

The 39 and 4 Decades of Ezekiel
The Prophet Ezekiel tells us that Judah would commit its great sin 4 decades before an event which occurred in 3830 AM.

Coming soon. In this section, we will learn that the 39 decades of Israel's inquity (Eze. 4:4-5) began with Jeroboam (1Ki. 14:16), Israel's first king, and ended when Ezekiel prophesied the coming siege. That siege happened 2 or 3 years after Ezekiel's prophecy, and it resulted in the destruction of the first temple in 586 BC. We will also learn that the 4 decades of Judah's iniquity must have been foretold to preceede the destruction of the second temple, which was built around 516 BC. The destruction of the second temple occurred in the Summer of 70 AD, late in the year 3830 AM. Since 3790 AM is 40 years before that, Ezekiel's prophecy foretells Judah committing its great sin in 3790 AM. Other prophets, particularly Isaiah and Daniel, foretell what that great sin would be.

The 70 Heptades of Daniel
The Prophet Daniel tells us that Judah would put its Messiah to death unjustly 69 heptades and 3 years after an event which occurred in 3304 AM.

Coming soon. Since a decade is a period of 10 years, we will call a period of 7 years a heptade. In this section, we will learn that "the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:25) was one commandment in two parts, a restore part and a rebuild part. Since it was one commandment, is was given by one commander; and since it was in two parts, it was given to two recipients. Therefore, the commander was King Artaxerxes, and the two recipients were Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra received the restore part of the commandment in the 7th year of Artaxerxes' reign (Ezra 7:7), and Nehemiah received the rebuild part in the 20th year (Neh. 2:1).

We will learn that, according to Papyrus AP6, 3297 AM was Artaxerxes' accession year and his 7th year was 3304 AM. Therefore, the 1st year of the 1st heptade of the "70 heptades" (Dan. 9:24) was 3304 AM. Nehemiah died during the 7th heptade, and the Messiah was to come after 62 more heptades (Dan. 9:25-26). Since the "middle" (Dan. 9:27) of the 70th heptade is the year 3790 AM, Daniel's prophecy foretells the Messiah being put to death unjustly in the year 3790 AM. Our question is, "In which year did you foresee Judah put the future Messiah to death unjustly?" Both Ezekiel and Daniel say 3790 AM. Since their answers match, 3790 AM is "established" (Deu. 19:15, 2Co. 13:1) as the year the prophets foresee the death of the Christ happening.

The Quintade of Luke
The Apostle Luke tells us that Jesus was put to death unjustly during the quintade of years from 3789 AM through 3793 AM.

Coming soon. Since a decade is a period of 10 years, we will call a period of 5 years a quintade. In this section, we will learn that even though none of the gospel accounts tell the reader which year the alleged crucifixion of Jesus happened, Luke's account enables the reader to narrow it down to a quintade. The years of the quintade are based on four factors:

   1. John the Baptist beginning his ministry, as Luke 3:1 says, in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar (where a year is according to the Roman calendar, January through December),
   2. The first year of Tiberius Caesar being either 12 AD or 14 AD, depending on whether Luke was counting the two years in which he was the co-ruler with Augustus,
   3. Jesus being baptized six months after John since John was about six months older (Luke 1:24-26), and
   4. Jesus dying on either the third or fourth Passover of his ministry, depending on whether the unknown feast day in John 5:1 was a Passover (the three known Passovers are in John 2:13, 6:4, and 11:55).

If 3790 AM (the year the prophets foresee the death of the Christ) does not fall within Luke's quintade, then his account would falsify the Gospel. But since we will find that 3790 AM falls within Luke's quintade, the five years from 3789 through 3793 AM, we will find that his account does not falsify the Gospel of Christ.

The Day According to Matthew
The Apostle Matthew tells us that Jesus was put to death unjustly on the 5th day of the week and the 14th day of the Nisan moon.

Coming soon. According to the Gospel, the Christ rose from the dead on the 3rd day (1Co. 15:4). In this section, we will learn that, according to Matthew, Jesus died for our sins in the second half of the 5th day of the Jewish week, the 14th day of Nisan, and that he rose from the dead in the first half of the 1st day of the next week, the 17th day of Nisan. That information can later be used to extrapolate the year that Jesus allegedly died for our sins. But it could not be used in that manner until the 20th century, when advancements in science enabled the scientists of that century to calculate the moon phases of ancient Jerusalem.

Finally, we will learn how to refute the popular argument which claims that the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) place the death of Jesus on the 15th of Nisan. That argument is refuted by the fact that the time "between the two evenings" (Exo. 12:6) is the 1st hour of the 14th of Nisan and the time "in the evening at the going down of the sun" (Deu. 16:6) is the last 6 hours of the 14th of Nisan. That's why Passover lambs were killed at two different times (at least 17 hours apart) on the 14th of Nisan. The two separate times enabled the final Passover Lamb to be both eaten (at least in a symbolic sense) at the same time of day when Passover lambs were eaten during the Exodus and killed (in a literal sense) at the same time of day when Passover lambs were killed at the Temple.

The Day According to John
The Apostle John tells us that Jesus was put to death unjustly on the 5th day of the week and the 14th day of the Nisan moon.

Coming soon. According to the Gospel, the Christ rose from the dead on the 3rd day (1Co. 15:4). In this section, we will learn that, according to John, Jesus died for our sins in the second half of the 5th day of the Jewish week, the 14th day of Nisan, and that he rose from the dead in the first half of the 1st day of the next week, the 17th day of Nisan. That information can later be used to extrapolate the year that Jesus allegedly died for our sins. But it could not be used in that manner until the 20th century, when advancements in science enable the scientists of that century to calculate the moon phases of ancient Jerusalem.

Finally, we will learn how to refute two popular arguments, the one which claims that Jesus died shortly after 3 PM on a Friday (near the end of the 6th day of the Jewish week), and the one which claims that Jesus died shortly after 3 PM on a Wednesday (near the end of the 4th day of the Jewish week). Jesus could not have died on a Friday, because then there would not have been any reason for John to write, "for that sabbath day was an high day" (John 19:31), not to mention there would not have been "three nights" (Mat. 12:40) between his death and his alleged resurrection.

Also, Jesus could not have died on a Wednesday, because then the women would not have been going to his tomb early Sunday morning to anoint his body, being that he would have been dead for "four days" (John 11:39). The only reason why they would have been going to his temple so early Sunday morning, while it was "still dark" (John 20:1), was because the sunrise on Sunday was going to be the beginning of the fourth day of his death, the first day being the day that ended at sunset on the previous Thursday.

The Science of Our Generation
Modern science tells us which day of the week the 14th of Nisan would have fallen on in each year of Luke's quintade.

It has been said that the "Apostles" made up a "Gospel" to fit the prophecies of the Old Testament. We are about to find out whether that is true. Since modern science enables us to compute, with good accuracy, the moon phases of ancient Jerusalem, we are now able to see which day of the week the 14th of Nisan fell on in the year 3790 AM, the year the prophets foretell the Messiah being put to death. If the Gospel is false, then there is an 85.7% (6/7) chance that we will find that the 14th of Nisan did not fall on the 5th day of the week in 3790 AM. That would falsify the Gospel, which the Apostles brought to the world.

Here are the rules, which establish when the 1st day of Nisan occurs. The first full moon after the Spring Equinox is the Nisan moon. The Spring Equinox occurs around March 22, and there about 29.5 days between consecutive new moon conjunctions. Therefore, the new moon conjunction which marks the beginning of the Nisan moon occurs between about March 7 and April 5. Each day of the Nisan moon starts at sunset, and the 1st day of the Nisan moon is the day in which the first crescent of the Nisan moon becomes visible.

Assuming clear weather, the first crescent, or sickle, of each new moon becomes visible either shortly before sunset (near the end of the 1st day of the moon) or shortly after sunset (near the beginning of the 1st day of the moon). If the first sunset after the new moon occurs in less than 6 hours, then the sickle will become visible shortly after the second sunset. If the first sunset after the new moon occurs in 6-18 hours, then the sickle will become visible shortly before the second sunset. If the first sunset after the new moon occurs in more than 18 hours, then the sickle will become visible either shortly after the next sunset or shortly before the second sunset. Therefore, the 1st day of the moon begins at the sunset which occurs 6-30 hours after the new moon. (Note: the range 6-30 is on the low side, but it could be increased to 15-39 and still not change the results which we are about to record.)

In the table below, we will fill in the atronomical data for ancient Jerusalem in each year of Luke's quintade. First, we will fill in the time of the new moon of Nisan (click button 1 to do that). That data, which is accurate to within 5 minutes, was published in 1985 by an Oxford professor [1]. Next, we will fill in the time of the next sunset (click button 2). Then, we will fill in the time when the 1st and 14th days of the Nisan moon began (click button 3). Each day of the moon begins at sunset and ends at sunset 24 hours later. Finally, we will show which Jewish day of the week the 14th of Nissan fell on (click button 4).

Year AM	New Moon Conjunction	Next Sunset	1st of Nisan Begins	14th of Nisan Begins	14th of Nisan Day of Week
3789 AM	1	2	3		4
3790 AM
3791 AM
3792 AM
3793 AM

Footnote
[1] "The Date of the Crucifixion," Colin J. Humphreys and W. Graeme Waddington, University of Oxford, March 1985