When Did Jesus Die?
When Did Jesus Die?
Perhaps the most important event in history is the day Jesus died on the cross. Surprisingly, we can get extremely close to the year and even the time of Jesus' death
We first must look at the possible years. "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God(or Jesus) came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness," (Luke 3:1-2 NASB1995). This is when Jesus came to John to be baptized(Luke 3:21-22). This gives us the range of 27(+) AD based on the reign of Tiberius Caesar.
In the Gospel of John, he records: "Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away," (John 19:31 NASB1995).
The day of preparation is the Friday before the Sabbath of Passover week. Passover occurs on the 15th day of Nisan(Exodus 12:6). The month of Nisan falls between March and April. The 15th of Nisan occurs on April 3rd. This fact also narrows the year to 33 AD as no other Passover after 27 AD works and is early.
In the Gospel of Luke, it records what seems to be an eclipse. "And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost," (Luke 23:44-46 KJV).
This is remarkable for it gives us a perfect time that Jesus died. According to the N.R.A.O., "The NASA lunar eclipse information indicates that a partial lunar eclipse occurred on April 3, 33 CE with peak totality happening at about 16:47:51(or 4:47:51 pm) local time in Jerusalem (14:47:51 UT)(or 2:47:51 pm)," (N.R.A.O.).
In Matthew, this is said: "From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)," (Matthew 27:45-46 KJV).
In Luke, this is said: "And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost," (Luke 23:44-46 KJV).
In Jerusalem, time was measured differently than how we do it today. They would start at 6 am, when the sun rose instead of 12 pm. In Matthew, it begins at noon and ends at 3 pm. In Luke, it begins at the 6th hour(or noon) and ends on the 9th hour, 3 pm. As confusing as these two passages are, they indicate the same message. It seems that around this time, Jesus died on the cross. Based on these details, we can fairly confidently say that Jesus died sometime around 3 pm.
To add evidence to this event, according to Sextus Africanus, "In the third book of his Histories, Thallos dismisses this darkness as a solar eclipse. In my opinion, this is nonsense". Thallos or Thallus is dated around 55 AD but we have very little of his writings.
We also know that there was an earthquake: "Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God," (Matthew 27:54 KJV). We have great evidence this occurred. In one geological study based on sediments near the Dead Sea, it was found that there was an earthquake around 31 AD. 'The early first-century seismic event has been tentatively assigned a date of 31 AD with an accuracy of ±5 years. Plausible candidates include the earthquake reported in the Gospel of Matthew, an earthquake that occurred sometime before or after the crucifixion and was in effect ‘borrowed’ by the author of the Gospel of Matthew, and a local earthquake between 26 and 36 AD," (Jefferson B. Williams, Markus J. Schwab, and A. Brauer).
Works Cited:
Browne, Thomas. “The Death of Jesus.” When Did Jesus Die?, penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/jesus.html. Accessed 17 Aug. 2023.
Humphrey, Colin J, and Graeme W Waddington. “The Date of the Crucifixion.” D:\ASAWEB~1\PSCF\1985\PSCF3-85Humphrys.HTM, The American Scientific Affiliation, www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1985/JASA3-85Humphreys.html. Accessed 17 Aug. 2023.
Jefferson B. Williams, Markus J. Schwab & A. Brauer (2011): An early first-century earthquake in the Dead Sea, International Geology Review, DOI:10.1080/ 00206814.2011.639996.
Mangum, Jeff, and Glen. “The Relative Timing Between Solar and Lunar Eclipses.” National Radio Astronomy Observatory, NRAO, 1 Jan. 2016, public.nrao.edu/ask/the-relative-timing-between-solar-and-lunar-eclipses/.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Thanks to Elsie for helping with the research on this article.
Van Voorst, Robert. Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. United Kingdom, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000.