The dating of the last supper, Part II: A fascinating attempt to reconcile the synoptic gospels with John's account
In 2007, Pope Benedict gave an extremely interesting homily on Holy Thursday, relating to the dating of the Last Supper:
“There is an apparent discrepancy in the Evangelists' accounts, between John's Gospel on the one hand, and what on the other Mathew, Mark and Luke tell us.
According to John, Jesus died on the Cross at the very moment when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the temple. The death of Jesus and the sacrifice of the lambs coincided.
However, this means that he must have died the day before Easter and could not, therefore, have celebrated the Passover meal in person - this, at any rate, is how it appears.
According to the three Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper of Jesus was instead a Passover meal into whose traditional form he integrated the innovation of the gift of his Body and Blood.
This contradiction seemed unsolvable until a few years ago. The majority of exegetes were of the opinion that John was reluctant to tell us the true historical date of Jesus' death, but rather chose a symbolic date to highlight the deeper truth: Jesus is the new, true Lamb who poured out his Blood for us all.
In the meantime, the discovery of the [Dead Sea] Scrolls at Qumran has led us to a possible and convincing solution which, although it is not yet accepted by everyone, is a highly plausible hypothesis. We can now say that John's account is historically precise.
Jesus truly shed his blood on the eve of Easter at the time of the immolation of the lambs.
In all likelihood, however, he celebrated the Passover with his disciples in accordance with the Qumran calendar, hence, at least one day earlier; he celebrated it without a lamb, like the Qumran community which did not recognize Herod's temple and was waiting for the new temple.
Consequently, Jesus celebrated the Passover without a lamb - no, not without a lamb: instead of the lamb he gave himself, his Body and his Blood. Thus, he anticipated his death in a manner consistent with his words: "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (Jn 10: 18).”
Benedict XVI, Holy Thursday, 5 April 2007
Prof. Annie Jaubert was the scholar who first proposed the solar Calendar from the book of Jubilees/Qumran community as the Calendar Yeshua followed, suggesting it as a solution to the seemingly conflicting gospel accounts. In 1953, in her writing “Le Calendrier des Jubilés et de la Secte de Qumrân. Ses origines bibliques (1) she brilliantly started to lay out her ideas; in 1965, her book “The date of the last supper” was published.
This solar calendar, so the book of Enoch treasured by the Qumran community tells us, was brought down from heaven by Enoch, son of Jared, of whom the Bible says “and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Gen 5:24). According to Professor Rachel Elior, the alternative historiography of this community is conveying to us that this was the calendar of the Jewish people of old, before the conquest of Palestine by the Greek in the second century BCE. The ruler of the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, after ousting Onias III from the office of High Priest in Jerusalem in 175 BCE, imposed a lunar calendar on the Jewish people. The High Priests in the temple at Jerusalem after Onias III had no choice but to accept it. This lunar, or rather lunisolar calendar remained in use even after the periods of the Hellenised and Maccabean High Priesthood up to our modern times.
A remnant of the ousted Zadokite priesthood at Qumran and their allies were not willing to compromise with the Greek and follow another but this divinely inspired calendar which Enoch had, according to their beliefs, received from the angels, so Rachel Elior.
According to the vast majority of scholars, the Qumran community was part of the sect called the Essenes.
From Josephus in Wars of the Jews 2,119 we know that at the time “…there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second, the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, are called Essenes.”
According to Philo of Alexandria in Every Good Man is Free XII, 75-87 the Essenes “… are above all especially devoted to the service of God, not sacrificing living animals, but studying rather to preserve their own minds in a state of holiness and purity.” After further lauding their virtues he goes on “There is not a single slave among them, but they are all free, aiding one another with a reciprocal interchange of services. They condemn the owner of slaves not only as unjust, inasmuch as they corrupt the very principles of equality, but likewise as impious, because they annul the ordinances of nature which created them all equally and brought them up like a mother, as if they were all legitimate brethren, not in name only, but in reality and truth.”
Pliny, in Natural History V, xv: has the following to say about them: “On the west side of the Dead Sea, but out of range of the noxious exhalations of the coast, is the solitary tribe of the Essenes which is remarkable beyond all the other tribes of the whole world as it has no women and has renounced all sexual desire, has no money, and has only palm trees for company.” Actually, Josephus specifies that there is another order of Essenes who do marry. However, as he goes on explaining “they do not marry out of regard for pleasure but only for the sake of posterity.” (Wars of the Jews 2,160 f) They obviously despise riches, and “reject pleasures as an evil, but consider continence and the conquest over our passions to be virtue.” (Wars 2,120)
No wonder that the calendar found at Qumran associated with this illustrious sect known for their outstanding virtue has such an appeal!
The whole measuring of time in this calendar is based on the number seven. Thus the calendar emulates the pattern of creation: The world was created in six days, and on the seventh God rested. Likewise, in Jewish mystic thought, we are to work only six days and rest every seventh day on Shabbat. Every seven years there is a Shmita year, and after seven Shmitas, that is after 7 x 7= 49 years, there is a Jubilee year. This mystic pattern is reflected, as I will explain, in our heavenly bodies. I have been shown this pattern gradually, long before I knew about this sacred calendar or the very same patterns found in the Bible:
For example, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are, as the name implies, 50 days. Still today Jews are “counting the Omer” after the first day of unleavened bread for 50 days up to Shavuot, Pentecost, as this was, according to Jewish recording of time, exactly the time period between the Exodus from Egypt and receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai from God. Another historical example for the great significance of these cycles of sevens and Jubilees is Joshua, who would lead the people of Israel into the promised land in a Jubilee year.
The year according to the sacred Qumran/Enoch/Jubilee calendar has 364 days, which are divided into 12 months of 30 days each (=360 days), plus 4 additional days at the equinoxes and solstices (=364 days). This makes each quarter of a year exactly 13 weeks (91 days in a quarter divided by seven), altogether 52 weeks per year.
In this solar calendar every festival has a precise date and also a precise day of the week.
As an example, the first day of the year in this calendar is always Wednesday, the day God created the luminaries in Genesis 1. Likewise, as all the festivals of the Jewish people not only have an exact date, but also a fixed day of the week, Passover for example always falls on Tuesday according to this calendar.
Although I know about the deep meaning and importance of this special pattern of measuring time in units of seven, jubilees and quarters of thirteen weeks, I am likewise convinced that Yeshua did not simply follow the Essene calendar when He was keeping the Passover with His disciples.
In my next post I will clarify why this “Essene hypothesis” as it is sometimes called, although fascinating for sure, has insurmountable problems.
NOTES:
(1) A. Jaubert: Le Calendrier des Jubilés et de la Secte de Qumrân. Ses origines bibliques, in: Vetus Testamentum, Jul., 1953, Vol. 3