DPS-SYDNEY-L Archives

From: John Graham <>
Subject: Easter
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 23:53:24 +1000

Found this interesting article in the London "Daily Telegraph":

Today's astronomers can predict with confidence the precise movements of
the planets and moon. They know, for instance, that on May 5, the solar
system will experience a unique alignment. During the day, the Sun,
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter will be lined up. If the Sun wasn't in the
way, the planets would appear to be within a 20 degree area of the sky.

The connection between astronomy and Easter was forged when early
Christians chose to link the date to the Hebrew calendar. According to the
New Testament, the Resurrection took place on the first day of the week
following Passover. The first day of the Jewish week is a Sunday, and
Passover occurs on the day of the first full moon after the spring equinox.
Just to add to the confusion, the spring equinox can fall on March 20 or 21.

The result was chaos as different churches celebrated on different days.
The divisions were seen as so serious that when Constantine I, the Roman
Emperor, called a major summit meeting to unify the early Church, Easter
was high on the agenda.

The Council of Nicaea in AD 325 ruled that Easter falls on the first Sunday
after the first full moon following the spring equinox, but should never
fall at the start of Passover. The complexity of the rule was great news
for astronomers. Computus, the calculation of religious dates, became a
growth industry.

Rob Warren of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, said: "The problem was
that the real astronomical year, the time it takes the Earth to go around
the Sun, is 365.25 days. So unless you account for the difference with leap
days, the calendar goes adrift.

"In addition, the lunar cycle is 29 days. So the battle was constantly to
try to align the arbitrary calendar into two different fixed rotational
calendars."

The stargazers of Alexandria, who were regarded as the greatest of their
day, set about the task. They fixed the spring equinox to March 21 and
attempted to create charts to predict future dates.

Over the next three centuries, as the Roman empire collapsed and Rome
itself was sacked, monks and scholars plugged away at the Easter question.

The sixth century statesman and monk Cassiodorus wrote some of the first
books on how to calculate Easter, while Dionysius Exiguus, or Denis The
Little, modified the existing tables.

His greatest claim to fame was to date the birth of Jesus and begin the use
of Anno Domini. It was his fault that there is no year zero, the reason
that we are still in the 20th century. The elaborate system that evolved in
the Middle Ages is pretty much intact today. This year, March 20 was a full
moon. The date also happened to be the real spring equinox. However,
because the official Church spring equinox is March 21, the next full moon
was yesterday, April 18, meaning that Easter falls this Sunday.

The search for Easter has continued to fascinate scientists. According to
Professor Colin Humphreys, a materials scientist at Cambridge University,
it is possible to date the original Easter precisely. His paper to Nature
in the Eighties, one of the few to be reviewed by a bishop, did just that.
He argued that the events of Holy Week took place during Pontius Pilate's
time as governor of Judaea, between AD 26 and AD 36.

The gospel accounts state that Jesus died a few hours before the start of
the Sabbath, some time on a Friday afternoon, and within a day of Passover.

By reconstructing the Jewish calendar for those years, Prof Humphreys was
able to give the date of the Crucifixion within five possible dates. Two,
in AD 27, could be eliminated as too early because John the Baptist, who
baptised Jesus, did not begin his ministry until AD 28. The last date, AD
34 was too late because it would have conflicted with accounts of Paul's
conversion.

That left two candidates - AD 30 or AD 33. The earliest date Jesus could
have begun his ministry was AD 28. Yet John's gospel mentions three
Passovers, making AD 30 too early. That leaves April 3, AD 33 for Good
Friday and Sunday April 5 for the Resurrection.

More evidence comes from astronomy. The AD 33 date coincided with the only
lunar eclipse seen from Jerusalem during Pontius Pilate's era. During such
an eclipse, like the one in January this year, the moon turns red.

In Acts and the Apocrypha, there are references to the moon turning to
blood around the time of the crucifixion.

Since proposing the date for Easter, Prof Humphreys has come up with an
explanation for the Star of Bethlehem and is now trying to date some of the
events of Exodus. "It has become a hobby. Not many people are trying to
apply science to solve these ancient puzzles," he said.


John Graham

GENEALOGY FROM GERRINGONG - http://www.ozemail.com.au/~johngrah/

SYDNEY DPS - http://www.ozemail.com.au/~johngrah/dps.html
(home of the "Herald" and "Telegraph" Death Indexes)

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• Easter by John Graham <>