Passover Plot Insert, Part IVa, The Lord vs. Satan: SupCtHeaven;

This webpage will be a slog to go through. Here, the main four divisions in the page are repeated; they are also intra-page links. It is firmly recommended that if you have time, you first master the "Modest Proposal" section, His Grand Strategy (see intra-page links near pagetop or click here to go there): for God uses Israel's calendar to tell the whole world His Story, and its own history -- all the way through eternity future.

The Passion Week Divisions of this webpage are:

1. Whys of the Holidays underlying His Passion Week;
2. Right Timing of the Lord's Passion Week, which can't be known apart from knowing the Whys; and
3. Date of His Crucifixion by a mathematical method you can yourself verify conclusively, if you understand God's 490-year dating matrix for time (as disclosed in the Bible). If you're not already familiar with that matrix, you might want to first review Mirroring.htm, aka the "Daniel Timeline" link at pagetop: use the "To Be or Not To Be" table there to see how His Crucifixion date is based on the restoration of the 2nd Temple. This webpage is designed to be a sublink in that webpage; for the timing of His Crucifixion Completes a "490" Grant of Time -- For All Time, Heb10:5-17. Obviously, if all time depends on the Crucifixion as the Bible says it does, then it's pretty important to prove out.

4. Postscript data on the Seven Trials, the Resurrection, and First-Fruits application to Church. This webpage needs reorganization; as usual, too many things need to be said, with the result that going through the data is kinda windy. So once I can reorganize the material, this #4 will 'disappear'.

You can never conclusively prove anything if you don't prove the WHYs. In criminal prosecution, it's called "intent"; in science, it's called "origin"; in pathology, it's called "pathogen". In short, the Starting Place. For if you don't know where something came FROM, you have no real clue where it's gone or where it will go or how it goes. All math, accounting, law, science, and especially all learning about God, has to work this way. Question is, how do you do this tracking with respect to God?

The ancient Greeks developed a five-pronged "if" debating/reasoning technique, designed to track out WHYS from a source. That's why Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle are revered even to this day. The "if" becomes a premise in an "if..then" construct of reasoning; and the "if", comes in five flavors. In this webpage, we'll use the first of them, the so-called "First-Class Condition": "if" and it's TRUE (or presumed true, a lesser-used variant). In Greek, this reasoning technique uses "ei" (=if) and takes a verb in the indicative mood. Means that you are taking a truth, or a presumed truth, and logically tracking it from that source through to the end. Then you evaluate whether the end itself, is true. For if so, then unless you messed up in your reasoning, you know an entire framework of truth 'under' it. The other four class conditions assume false, maybe-true, wish-true, and wish-false; you'll see them all in the Bible, from time to time. But the first one is the most used, since it is generally more profitable to start with something true, and track it forward.

When you Track Forward From Source like this, any mistakes you make in logic or conclusion, will stick out like porcupine quills. So someone can come behind you and check your work; better still, the work can be re-tracked to get rid of the error. For in accounting anything, you have to audit over and over and over, because there are so many possible errors which self-cancel, so remain undetected. [Say you have a million dollar portfolio, in which two transactions are $40,000 each. But one is going IN, and the other is going OUT, so they cancel each other -- it's as if the $80,000 wasn't there! But when you track by transaction rather than ending balance, you find them. That's a too-simple example, but it vaguely illustrates the idea of errors you can easily miss. Hence l repeatedly audit my faith for accounting errors, in these webpages; and am totally grateful for any corrections. Having now seen how we all get it wrong about God, I trust myself, not at all.]

So here, we gotta address the WHY (Division #1), to understand how Passion Week's dating (Division #2) and His Crucifixion Date (Division #3) are provable. Our Data Source is the Bible. First-class condition, then: assume the Bible is Right. Time and again, if you don't use the Bible FIRST and assume it True (subject to later testing of course), you chase your tail in any kind of faith auditing; that's why there are soo many goofy ideas out there. People go to just about any other source but the Bible. Lots of money and time are thus wasted. Let's now see why, with respect to the Passion Week. After all, the consensus is we don't really know if and when it happened -- right? Yeah, if we don't look at Bible we don't know!

The most important OT Chapters to read will be Exodus 12-13, Numbers 28, Leviticus 23 and 27, Deut 16, and Exodus 34 (the whys summarized). Numbers 28 and Lev23 focus on the holidays' procedure, Exo12-13 focus on the reasons; Exo 34 is a brief yet panoramic review of why-these-holidays. Ezekiel 45-46 is also important, for by comparing its Millennial sacrifice scheme, you get the strong impression God concatenates all the Law's pre-Cross holiday sacrifices, into a meaningful Victory Memorial, since Messiah is on earth at that point, ruling. In the OT, the sacrifices were prospective memorials; in the Mill, they are retrospective. For Church, there is no such thing, for we are Body, and as such constitute Qorban, so to speak. [Qorban refers to anything which is wholly dedicated to God; burnt offering was qorban, and was immediately used. But even a piece of property could be qorban, in which case its use was holy, no matter what. Since we are Body of Christ, no matter what we are or do, we are Dedicated to Him. So His Rights are 100%. No such thing as tithing anyway (it was income tax, not spiritual giving) -- 100% of you belongs to Him, and you can't do squat about that. If you love knowing Him, that's good news: else, it's not.]

All the sacrifices depict soul characteristics in the Sacrifice, Messiah. Each sacrifice type, tells you meaning. Lamb and goat, you know. The others are kinda obvious, too: Flour=Word, oil/fat=Spirit-Empowering, salt=Word's blessing-by-association, drink offerings=blood=thinking (Lev17:11), ox/bull=fidelity, constancy (of Messiah -- see Rev4 Escutcheon). I'm not sure how to best classify "ram", since it's the most widely-purposed of the offerings, yet is the only class allowed for substitutionary restitution-related sin ("guilt offering" is an offering which makes restitution, Hebrew term "asham", from which we get the English "shame"). Seems to stress power/aggression, aggressive devotion, leadership. Which obviously, He is.

The Jews are the luckiest people on the planet, to have this Messiah -- and through them, we all get Him. What a salvation has come from the Jews, John 4:22, Romans 9-11! [The real Mosaic Law in the Bible is beautiful, witty, profound. So if I sound Jewish, it's probably because the Law is so gorgeous: the Law, not the pil-pul you hear in 'Judaism' which is actually the antithesis of the Bible in every respect. The Jews, not the perversion the rabbis make of the Law. But we Christians make plenty of perversions of our own. No one really knows his bloodline background; only fancies he does. Who can really trace his genealogy -- and didn't God promise Abram his sons would be greater than the stars in the sky? So what's this anti-semitism nonsense -- the anti-semite might then be against himself! Who knows why anti-semitism persists, but woe to anyone who has it, Gen12.]

Four key OT passages to evaluate regarding First Fruits (search on the term if you have Bible software) and Passover are Exodus Chapters 12-13, Numbers 28, Leviticus 23 (especially verses 10-14, note how order of First Fruits follows the Seventh day of Passover, not the first one), and Deut 16. Exodus 34 explains the underlying Separation/Holiness and Witness Purpose, to show Israel's God is the real GOD, not pagan idols. See especially Deut 16:9-12, Lev23:15-21 on how the 50 days 'play'.

While Numbers 28 and Leviticus 23 focus on the procedures of these holidays, Exodus 12-13 gives you the underlying reasons for Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits. At that time, the concept of "sabbath" as a Holy Day Of Rest For The Whole Nation was not stated, though it did happen. Obviously, the first day they left, they weren't working by nightfall, for they camped that night and celebrated their first night of Freedom. God doesn't tell you everything at once, because then your brain would be overloaded. He always marbles Word with experience, so you get a chance to absorb and internalize, what He's teaching (good advice for Bible study, too -- study a little each day, and be sure to internalize what you learn). Not until Exo16 do the people learn the idea of Sabbath, and they first had to learn the penalty of grumbling (the quail incident, same chapter) before they could absorb its converse, resting in Him. Manna and sabbath and Word are thus linked indissolubly. Hence the Lord makes reference to that fact in Matt4:4 (quoting Deut8:3ff, which is a retelling of Exo16).

So by keeping these Holiday Laws over and over and over and over they kept on being reminded of their Messiah-to-Come. So, kept on being reminded of Where They Were Going -- to live with God Forever (see Psalm 23 for how David uses that remembrance). That's what the Law is for: remembrance. Never for works. Never for earning any credit before God. Never for angst over whether you said a blessing right or lighted a candle properly, for crying out loud!

The most important NT Chapters will be the Gospels, read in the following (true chronological) order: Matthew (written/distributed circa 50 AD), Luke (circa 60 AD), Mark (circa 68AD), John (circa 90 AD). In each one, start with the Last Supper, read until the end. The starting Chapters are Matt26, Luke 22, Mark 14, John 14. If that's too much reading just read John 14-19 inclusive. The order of reading matters, for the Holy Spirit uses successive Gospels to teach upgraded material. Gospels aren't designed to copy each other in order to prove anything to skeptics: dunno where we got the stupid idea in Christianity. Of course it's the Word of God: read it and you'll know. God knows they're true, and HE runs the whole teaching system, so HE will do the proving, if you need it. But Teaching, not proof, is the purpose of any Bible book. So each Gospel has a 'slant' which builds on whatever books went before it. Matthew basically proves He's the Messiah; Luke tells a comprehensive story even a Gentile can understand; Mark upbraids a later generation of Christians for being like the Jews of Messiah's Day -- for Temple destruction is "euthus", imminent (keyword in his Gospel); John reminds the generation after Mark, and focuses USE of the Gospel for a post-Temple world of believers. This is a too-simple summary of each 'slant', but you can see the purpose is to teach something you can live on, not prove whether God the Holy Spirit can testify to something 20+ years prior. Moses wasn't in the Garden, yet he wrote about it, duh. So ignore all that claptrap even Christian scholars whinny, about how did the writers get their information, as if they got it from other humans. God the Holy Spirit provided it, and if you read the Gospels with 1Jn1:9 "on" as needed, you'll hear that fact directly from Him. For, He's your Teacher via your pastor, John 14:26, Matt 10:24, Luke 6:40, Eph4:11-16. [Note to self: Luke 6:40 uses katartizw just like Eph4:12 does! What a nice shock!]

If you go through the Bible as a whole, you'll notice that God writes a Book about once per generation; idea is, to have a prophet (roving teacher, not necessarily a foreteller) everyone can eyeball. When that guy's ministry ends -- or, as in the case of Moses, Jeremiah and Paul, when that guy's audience is too far-flung -- a Book is written. So it is for the Gospels. Matthew wrote first, circa 50 AD, when the second generation post-Cross, needed a buckup; followed by Luke, about 10 years later, with a focus on Gentiles; followed by Mark, less than 10 years after Luke, because the Temple was about to be destroyed, given Daniel 9:26; followed last for the third generation since the Cross, by John -- partly to show how the Temple's Destruction, would be the paradigm of time until the Tribulation and Millennium, with Church in between.

All four of these men were eyewitnesses; but not, to everything. God the Holy Spirit supplied them with the missing information. That's how you proved Divine Authenticity. Something only God could do or know. So forget all that claptrap about whether the Synoptics 'borrowed' from other human witnesses. If that's what they'd done, you'd have mere copies. God doesn't operate that way. He parcels out and keys what He says to each generation -- proving HE, not man, is orchestrating the rollout of the Word. So He, not man, will prove it to the reader right now. Today. Whatever day that is. God would know what He meant by what He commissioned written, since He empowered it, in the first place. So He testifies live to any reader who wants to know. Your comprehension, ability to connect the dots, to see it's really from God -- all that perception, is how God makes it clear. Not by goofy voices or visions.

Notice how the Word is a rollout to successive generations or different groups. All fitting together on all prior Scripture, though. Maybe most folks at the time didn't know that -- but we sure can. The cross-referencing and allusive fit of Bible can only mean One Mind Wrote It: God's. No human being lives much more than 100 years, let alone 1500 years (1440BC-96AD, the time Canon was written). You cannot see this Genius in any translation. Wordplay is native to its own language; our translations are abysmal, but even if everyone did his best and breathed 1Jn1:9 constantly: it can't be done. You simply cannot transport the brilliance of Bible in the original to another tongue. That's why God preserved the original-language texts, finally getting them out from under the elitist destruction and kidnapping of 18 centuries. That's why our Bible is literally in pieces. It's been attacked for nearly 2000 years. You just try to find another holy book which has been so abused by so many.

This brilliance isn't emotional: it's the sheer density of multiple, fitted meaning in the content. It's not human wisdom, either, brilliant though some human wisdom can be. So while there's a lot of Bible wit (every verse I've ever seen), a good deal of poetry, and scads of minute detail on facts which put most of us mortals to sleep in translation -- it's the fitted Genius of Content which is the Divine Signature, from Genesis to Revelation.

Let's first look at the big picture: WHY does God make these holidays so important?

Satirist Jonathan Swift wrote a scathing indictment of society's hypocrisy called "A Modest Proposal" in 1729; ostensibly about how England was heartless toward Ireland, it was on a deeper level an exposé about how no one really cares about the poor, essentially using them as food for one's ego. Sotto voce, Swift basically says, why pretend to be noble? Why not go all the way and openly eat the poor, instead of the less-profitable way you are doing now? We didn't hear him then, and we don't hear him now: all our vaunted welfare programs still trap the poor just as much as back then. So too, man's works trap him, but he fancies himself good. Arrogance is like that: blind, hence hypocritical.

God wrote His Calendar for Israel as a Modest Proposal tweaking, too: Why persecute My Son's relatives for My giving them the Land, slyly wasting your efforts on mere dirt -- go ALL the way! Hate them openly! Because I gave them Time itself! That's why you even breathe! Everyone who rightly understands this, is insulted. Never mind, that anyone could become a Jew by faith in Him, since that's what Abram did (Gen15:6, Romans 4). For God means to rescue us all, but we resent that. We resent that He channeled His Message through a given people; and that, to be giving everyone His favor. For man's overweening sin-nature ego, knows no bounds. That's really why life is so bad, down here. We're so busy being insulted or intimidated, the eye never sees how this 'insult' is a promise of Integration with Infinity: aka, fellowship with Very God. Not an insult, except to Him! Which has to mean, He loves us despite our being puny! But we don't see that. Instead, we see one group of folks getting "favor", and we're all jealous. So we pretend we are the 'true Israelites', or we hunt down the true Israelites, makes no difference. Which is funny, when you realize God's promise to Abram was that his progeny would be countless, like the stars of the sky (Gen15:5, 17:4, 16, 22:17, 26:4, Exo32:13, Deut 10:22, etc).

So do you wanna take bets on how many people, DNA-wise, are likely to have even a smidgen of Abraham's genes? What with all the prolific childbearing (Jews are extraordinarily fertile, Exodus 1); what with the many Diasporas, Jews needing to hide their identities to stay alive over the centuries of pogroms and societal ostracisms, year after year -- by now probably 75% of the world's population, will have at least some of Abraham's genes. Gen 17:4, Abraham means "father of many nations" (Heb: le'ab hamon goyim, deft wordplay). Not just one. So: could be 100% of the world's population, since to become a son in God's Accounting, you must do what Abram did, Gen15:6, Rom4. For you have to BELIEVE, to cut a covenant. See Romans Chapters 4 and 9, for all the details.

So I guess we all are supposed to be pretty ticked off this one guy, Abram, is the beneficiary on whom we are all made to depend. Via his Future Son, Who died for all mankind's sins on Calvary. What a modest proposal, John 3:16 and John 3:36,10:34-36, Gal3:26!

So God's Holidays are like that, too: complex, stark, full of meaning. And above all, shocking. For they depict the future, and roughly half of that future depicted, has come true. You could say the world is waiting for the other shoe to drop. In terms of this Holiday calendar, we are in the 'summer' of it. Time of harvesting and waiting for yet more harvesting. How long this time will last, well: that's one thing He's not predicting.

This mirroring is accomplished by a system of credits and debits of Time itself. Idea of a thing gained or lost, and the opportunity cost of restitution. If you apply the secular practice of accounting (or actuarial science) to God's 490-year "promise" system as (for example) disclosed in Daniel 9, you readily learn that the entire calendar follows this mirroring system as well. This is heavy stuff. Gorgeous stuff: but hard to wrap your brain around. God is no soundbyte.

Synopsis of Calendar's Meaning: God's calendar for the Jews always operates in a mirrored fashion, and on a bizillion levels; it always displays the entire roadmap of their history, their future; of the world's history and its future. So the metaphors are dense, rich, and you can spend whole days just noting the many 'spokes' of their significance. Uppermost-visible level, the calendar itself is bifurcated into sacred and secular, with the secular's first month a mirror of the sacred's first month. That parallelling continues, and then the two meet in the middle: that's why the secular calendar begins in the seventh month of the sacred year. Hence the sacred calendar's first six months is 'mirrored' by its last six months, because "six" is the number of "Man". The whole point of history is the Man, the Messiah: Christ Jesus, Who inaugurates the Promise. For seven, means "promise". Promise of Rest. Promise of Heaven. Promise of God with us forever.

To see this fact, we must first understand the Jewish calendar's structure. Jewish calendar months generally begin somewhere near mid-month of a Julian/Gregorian calendar month, because Jewish calendar months begin based on the new moon. The beginning of the year is the vernal equinox, generally our March 21. Agriculturally, tide-wise, etc. the waxing and waning of the moon is important. Affects weather, winds, everything. All this is to depict the first six days God the Holy Spirit restored the earth, Gen1:2 and following (see "Creationism" entry in VERindex.htm if you aren't already familiar with the fact that Gen1:2 et. seq. is not the initial creation of the earth).

However, the calendar year was 360 days, usu. 30 days per month; not the 354 days you'd get going strictly by lunar months (which are on average 29.5 days, the time it takes for someone on earth to see a full cycle of the moon). The solar year is 365.2416 days (rounded in this webpage to 365.25). So at the end of the Jewish civil year in 'Elul', roughly corresponding to our August 18-Sept 21, they were supposed to add the extra days. But they didn't, at least not after they returned to the Land. Scholars and Jewish sources record that the intercalation from that point onward, happened in Adar at the end of every third or sixth lunar year. God's Times in Bible, as well as His Calendar, are instead expressed in terms of the solar year (and you can back into what God meant by that mathematically: Intercal.xls).

But Bible also quotes people's own reckonings, which may or may not be adjusted. If an adjustment is needed to correct their reckonings, something in the Bible's text will alert you to that fact. This it does re Passion Week, 30AD, which is demonstrated in Division #2 (intra-page link at pagetop).

Here's the calendar: days are given in the Jewish month date, not ours. Moreover, if Bible states a given day, it usually uses the solar date, but the actual event usually starts at sunset, since Jewish days begin AT sunset prior (night-first accounting of 'day'). Bible-mandated sacred Holidays are in bold font. Secular holidays, are not. You might find it more convenient to instead load the external copy of this calendar, which uses a smaller font and has the priestly courses to show you how each Week of the Year is structured: Click here for [ Jewish Calendar, external webpage copy ]. That link is also among the intra-page links near the top of the page, if you need it. Sometimes you'll wish you had both webpages open, for side-by-side viewing.

The sacred calendar is listed above; IF Elul always ran 35-36 days (similar to how our February has a leap day), then every year the new civil year would 'naturally' begin on the autumnal equinox. God designed it that way, Bible's math works that way, and the priestly courses are always on time if that's done. If it's not done, then everything's off, and NO holiday in the calendar will be on time, just as today's Jewish Calendar if used, is always wrong. Solar years with 30-day months every month excepting Elul, is what Israel used to use, until the exile. So she used to have it right, and was about the only country on earth, who did.

So notice: the civil calendar reverses the month numbers: so the 7th month on the sacred calendar, is the 1st month on the civil calendar; so the Nisan becomes the 7th month on the civil calendar, and you go 'down' from there. Month names don't change, just their month numbers. So when you read the Bible month dating, you have to be sure which calendar is referenced, sacred or civil. When intercalation occurs, it should have been in Elul; post-exile, they instead created "Adar sheni", meaning Adar II.

Really, intercalation is a very simple, natural thing. Jewish calendar originally starts from Adam, and his 'fall' thus begot a 'fall' season to start off the 'fall' of man (get the pun). So it started with the autumnal equinox (see Intercal.xls for the 2015-2016 year). When God birthed Israel, in Exodus 12 He mandated the Noahic calendar as sacred, which starts at the vernal equinox, generally our March 21 (see previous link). So your count of the year begins there, and by the end of the 180 days, if you properly intercalated in Elul, but at least by Adar -- two sets of the 24 priestly courses, split 7.5/7.5 so that each priest served a fortnight per year -- you know you are 5.25 days away from the next vernal equinox. So let it run for those extra remaining days. Then, the anniversary of the vernal equinox comes, and it's 1 Nisan all over again. Couldn't be simpler. Every year could work like that, see Intercal.xls. Easy. God used 30 days per month despite the timing of the new moon, keeping that moon-appearance monthly accounting for agriculture, festivals, etc. But the calendar was solar, as the priestly courses were based on HOURS (24 courses because 24 hours per day: so all priests' courses get 365.25 hours per year served). Always on time.

So how is it, the modern Judaic calendar is very messed up? It accounts the years wrong, not counting properly from Adam's Fall in Genesis 5, there being nothing in the Bible which tells you how far before the Fall God created the universe. So it also messes up Abram's birth year, and a bunch of other stuff; the year 2015, for example, is 6122 Adamic, at the autumnal equinox. The Jews think that year is instead, 5775 (i.e., at aish.com). Well, many among 'the Jews' know the calendar is wrong: so many, you can google on it, with search phrases like 'is the Jewish calendar right', etc. to see many Jews have been trying to get it corrected. But the 'mainstream' in Judaism, like the 'mainstream' in Christianity, goes by 'tradition' rather than Bible, so they keep on getting key doctrines wrong. Like, this one about TIME itself. When one can't even tell what time it is and won't use Bible to get correction, then it's fair to call that person 'apostate', whether Jew, Gentile, or whatever. So then 99% of 'believers' in the Bible are in serious trouble. Because so many, the error will not be fixed. Too proud, too scared, too ignorant, take your pick.

Worse, they use lunar years, and we Christians are just as wacko, aping their aping the pagans from long ago (lunar years were standard pagan fare, hence God forbade it for Israel, Exodus 12). So if you try to reconcile the Judaic or our Christian wacko calculations to Bible, you'll just go in circles. Use God's dating scheme in Bible, only. Then if you have problems in reconciliation, you search Bible for the answers. Seriously. People have been trying to get the dates right for centuries, and they keep messing up because they don't use Bible, but rather outside sources, to derive chronologies. God invented Time, so HE KNOWS HOW TO TELL TIME; so He knows how to tell us time, so we need to take the time to read His Book. Yes, it's a slog. And very worth it, as you'll see later on in this section.

• 1 Nisan is mirrored by 1 Ethanim, day of Trumpets, Rosh HaShanah, the New Year. In mirrored fashion, it 'joins' the first month of the sacred year. You don't work that day, because God granted you a new year. It's a High Sabbath. It's a High Sabbath, and God granted you a new year because of Passover, which means Freedom Victory.

• For the latter half of the sacred year, is a Freedom Victory Bought by Passover. The secular year can only exist due to the sacred year. Civilization can only exist due to Believers; it's a Juridical Sanctification Issue. These believers were first represented by the Gen5 heroes of the OT; then nationally by, the Jews; Now, by Church. This sacred-buys-secular mirrors God's basic structure of time: two 490-year Promise units 'joined' in the middle, by a 70-year Voting unit. These three units are themselves housed in a 1000-year Civilization unit joined to a 50-year Voting unit. The "1050" link in Mirroring.htm ("Timeline" link at pagetop) explains these units further. Mirroring.htm is an extensive explanation of all the major time-accounting pieces (i.e., why 1000, 50, 7, 3, etc.) and how God fitted them all together from Adam-Christ. MirrorNOW.htm shows how they are continuing to play, post-Cross. For the harvest period is Now, since the Freedom Victory of the Cross occurred then, on the true 14 Nisan of 30AD.
  It shouldn't have to be said, but God is Holy and has a Right to Receive Holiness. Problem is, we puny are not holy, and cannot ever of ourselves become holy. So Someone Else must make us holy, so we are fit to be seen by Holy God. That's what the Cross does, is make us holy, 2Cor5:21. Passover depicts all that. Sanctification, justice, justifying how the unholy can be allowed to exist. Especially, since the unholy rejects God. The world rejects God, and God must be paid for that rejection; atop that, is the issue of our own restoration so we can be made holy. So, just as the Holy Spirit restored the earth in Gen1:2ff, so He restores us via Christ Who the Holy Spirit empowered to grow up AS Holy, and even Holy Enough to pay for all the sins of history. Through Whom, we can be ourselves made holy functionally as well as positionally in Him by agency of that Same Holy Spirit Who Pours His Thinking into us, Romans 5:5. See, all this ties together: and it ties, in Israel's own holidays. God is consistent.

• Abib/Nisan (our March-April) is the first month of the Jewish sacred year; hence, the 10th of Nisan is the day to set aside the Lamb for Passover; its mirror is Yom Kippur, when you set aside yourself.
• The 14th Nisan before sundown, you slay and roast the Lamb; at sundown, you commence eating the Lamb; at that moment, it's officially the Passover, 15 Nisan; its parallel is 15 Ethanim, Booths. Just as He Who would Tabernacle among us goes Home waiting for His enemies to become the Footstool of His Feet (so Dan9:24 can play out); so also the wilderness of life down here, requires we recognize we are only living in tents. Celebrating the shortness of it: a world pregnant, planted for a future with Him, Isa 60:21. Not surprisingly therefore, following Booths is the planting period agriculturally. See, these holidays aren't designed to accommodate agriculture: the agriculture is designed to accommodate the Holidays: Word is the reason. All else is 'magnetized' around it. It's not what we do, but what God does. So He ordains agriculture to reflect the Word, not the other way around.
  That's why (i.e., in Rev12) Israel is depicted as the sun, the moon, and the stars, which we all know control agriculture. The food is for man, not the man for the food. The work is God's for man, not man's for God. God's Work is Messiah, and we are all in Him. No racial distinction during the 'interlude' of Church, see Galatians 3. So until the Tribulation occurs (which you cannot predict), just as the Gentile became a Jew by faith in Him back in the Old Testament, circumcision being evidence of that faith, for a male; so also, any Jew Now who believes in Him gets a circumcised heart, and is in Him as Church. Principle of Gen15:6, but Now due to the Session, upgraded to 2Cor5:17, 21 (see whole chapter of 2Cor5).

  Salvation is always the same, and you are always saved to Heaven forever. But the spiritual life you get due to salvation, gets upgraded, in Church. That's why Paul states we are a new spiritual species (Gk: kaine ktsis, new-in-species creation), in 2Cor5:17. Jews were a new racial species; no matter what race or even gender we are, we become a new Royal spiritual species in Christ. You are not the product of mindless biology, k?

  For it's all about Grace. God makes the unholy, holy. And He loves doing that. So we get to know Him. So we get to celebrate life with Him. Him. Him. Him. Shemah, Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Echad! Each Echad: Him, Him, and Him.

• So 21 Nisan is the last night of Unleavened Bread, terminating that Feast of Passover week; its parallel is 21 Ethanim, the last night of Booths. Again, notice the circular nature of this mirror: each reflects something of the other holiday, and they are designed to be joined together. Passover commemorates Israel's first week of freedom; Booths commemorates her time in the wilderness (a punishment/training concept, due to believer negativity among the adults).

• That same ending night of Passover begins First Fruits, unless there is an intervening sabbath that last night; in which case, First Fruits begins the following night. It is the kickoff day for Weeks, and the termination date of Weeks is Pentecost (the 50th day following, counting the First Fruits day). Technically, First Fruits itself isn't a holiday, nor is Weeks; rather, First Fruits is a required presentation at Temple of the new harvest; but that day begins a 50-day countdown to Pentecost. "Weeks" is the name of the intervening time, and it itself isn't a holiday, either. Rather, it's a harvest time -- and time to pay taxes.

• Pentecost itself is a holiday, a High Sabbath at the end of that harvest time. So where's the parallel to Pentecost, in the last six months? None are ordained. Hmmm. So while this calendar predicts, it's a mystery here. Yeah, and "mystery" is a keyword for Church in the NT. Silence in the calendar, so Israel didn't know about Church. Which it wouldn't, since there didn't need to be a Church, had Israel accepted Her Messiah when He came, right at the time Daniel said He would. So an Unmatched Holiday in the calendar. Hmmm.

  That means we're historically in a 'Pentecost bubble', so to speak: awaiting a match for the second half to occur. So the planting/winter holiday period 'match' would have to be what -- 50 days following the end of Booths. Ok,

  • the end of Booths is 21 Ethanim.
  • So if Ethanim was 30 days that year, 50 days following would encompass all of the following month -- Bul, the month the 1st Temple was completed, 1Kings 6:38 -- which puts us in Chislev, the month after Bul;
  • so, about the 11th of Chislev. Hmmm. Right around what would be nominally considered America's Thanksgiving Day. But there is no 11th of Chislev holiday in Israel, right?

    Then again, maybe Pentecost remains unmatched, since Israel rejected Him, and He'll 'match' it to Rescue Israel? That's sure what Peter's explaining, in Acts 2! So that's where we are historically: in Pentecost and its aftermath of 30AD. For there is no second six-month parallel for First Fruits, Weeks, Pentecost. If there was a six-month parallel, the dates would have to be something like 21st of Ethanim AT sundown, to parallel First Fruits (which you'd count as 22 Ethanim); and the 11th of Chislev, for Pentecost. 50 days after 21 Ethanim would be 11 (or 12) Chislev, assuming a 30-day month for each Ethanim and Bul. It has no official parallel on the other 'side' of the sacred calendar.

    From First Fruits to Pentecost is the harvesting of that Passover Freedom Victory, 'buying' the last half of the year. Notice that Pentecost occurs in Sivan. So for 50 days following First Fruits Israel harvests (mostly) grains. Then came Pentecost. Following Pentecost are another two harvesting months. During this time, Israel harvests and processes grapes, figs, olives: all these, are symbolic of Israel herself being harvested, and thus the world. You'll find that metaphorical scheme throughout the OT: just look up all "grape" (or "wine"), "fig", and "olive" verses. Then, the calendar 'returns' to Ethanim. So of course in the second six months of Israel's sacred calendar year, after Booths ends in Ethanim, planting is done. Planting is the flipside of harvesting. So no other sacred holidays occur until the next Passover. The two-six-month pieces thus mirror each other. In the second six months, the mirror is a planting, not a harvesting. Union of opposites, again. Notice how in the second six months you begin with three celebrations; in Nisan you also had three celebrations begin. Six holidays in all.

    Meaning: we are Now simultaneously in the harvesting summer and the planting/ winter period, of all history. For Nisan begins the sacred calendar, and is in the middle of the secular calendar, and the Lamb has already been sacrificed for the sins of the world. Winter corresponds to rest, sterility, and suffering. Not everyone wants to be harvested by God. Summer corresponds to busyness, collecting wealth, and suffering (all that effort expended): some want to be harvested by God. So too, for the history of the world. We are in that gap period Now, as well.

• There are two more Holidays which are secular: Chanukah and Purim. "Chanukah" means "Dedication" (of the Temple). It dates back to 164BC. "Purim" means "lots" you cast in divination. It dates back to 474 BC. Both historically represent God's Rescues related to the 2nd Temple via Daniel 9. Both of these latter holidays were merely instituted by popular acclamation (1Macc4:59, Esther 9:17-27). These latter two secular holidays were in place and celebrated when the Lord was down here. [Hebrew versions of the Book of Esther are provably Canon, but the Septuagint has some weird text and is of much younger Greek, apparently. Bible adulterations are often silly, by the way. The Douhay-Rheims translation uses the Septuagint version of Esther, as do some others. Maccabees books are not Bible, and themselves don't pretend to be.]

• The Word, YHWH Himself;
• His Purity, and the Purity of His Communication;
• how He/His Word Nourishes You so you can be grown BY God, even up to His Own Level; for that's what He contracted and paid for (on the Cross, though Israel learned that gradually).
• Therefore, He ("YH") took On Humanity and became ("WH") the Messiah, aka "Anointed One" (Christos in Greek).
• So Unleavened Bread began ON Passover, and signified Messiah's Sinless Qualification to Pay For Sin;
• Further, that He'd Voluntarily Sacrifice His Humanity to provide that Salvation by means of His Thinking,
• Per contract (Gen 3:15, Isa53:10-11);
• Hence as a result His Word Could Be In Man's Heart and Mind, Jer31:31-34, aka "the new covenant", as explained in the OT (and by the NT Book of Hebrews).

  So here's the decision facing us: since payment for sin occurred, therefore the full replication of Divine-and-Human Thinking of Christ, can go into an individual. For the Method of Paying Sins is also the Method for Implementing the New Covenant Promise of His Head in Our Heads. (Book of Hebrews, 1Cor1:5 and 2:16, with the goal of Eph4:13, are some of the salient passages, though every verse in the NT is about this topic.) Which Thinking can go in, because Salvation doesn't merely mean living forever. Oh no. It's far more shocking than that. Salvation means Being Made At God's OWN Level Of Existence, 2Cor5, Col 1:27. To be with Him forever as king-priests (if we grow up, that is): 1Pet2:5, 9, Rev1:5, 5:10, all "inherit the kingdom" verses. So clearly, God's Salvation Plan didn't intend to beget drooling pets, slaves, or Stepford wives. But instead, Equals: 2Cor5:21, Gen15:6. Because, it's not enjoyable to have an intimate relationship with someone incompatible, lesser-than. Pretty shocking stuff, huh.

  It shouldn't have to be said that God deserves THE BEST. We are not the best. He could just snap His Fingers and flat make us the Best, or whatever He wants. Omnipotence can do anything. God did make us at His Own level at salvation, 2Cor5:21. But He does not want to coerce. So, it's a decision of how much God wants to make of you, or how much you want to make of you. The human race is so trapped in its insecurities and ignorant arrogances, that it keeps on insisting that what it makes of itself, has value. What poppycock. Think: would you rather be king of this world and all it contains forever -- or would you rather share God's Own Thinking, so to see Him? No contest, baby: knowing Him is better than anything else. Well, that's what Christ purchased at the Cross, which Passover depicts, and Unleavened Bread celebrates, Deut 8:3, Jer3:16, 31:31-34. See how Matt4:4 uses Deut8:4, and how Heb8:8-12 through 10:15-17, uses the Jeremiah verses (Book of Hebrews uses those verses as a rhetorical framework).

  "The Whole of God is in every place." My pastor frequently reminds us of this expression of the definition of Infinity. So if Christ's Thinking is in you, that's the function of "Christ in you, the Confidence of Glory", Col 1:25-27, 1Cor2:16=Scripture. Divine DNA, baby. Wholly God, Wholly in you, since you died in Him, theme of Romans 6 and 2Cor5. Thus that DDNA Structure becomes a DDNA Function of His Thinking being built and wholly operating in you. One dot at a time, but remember: the Whole of God is in every place. You, for example. So: that's why you can be you, and yet be at God's Level. Hypostasis, union of opposites, indissoluble.

  No wonder Israel got fat-headed. What an inheritance she turned down! What a bigger inheritance He thus upgraded for Church, which she can get Now, theme of Romans 9-11!

At this point in her calendar, Israel is in summer. Summertime is used to harvest, so there are no feasts. It's a dead spot, the end of history as we know it. That harvest ended the year, depicted the ending of history. Next event on their 'calendar' was supposed to be the new civilization we call "The Millennium" (not a Bible term, but yes a Bible doctrine in OT and New). As you can tell it's not happened yet, Heb 11:39-40.

• 490 years after the Exodus, which was
• 490 years after Joseph was enslaved, because Jacob went back to Haran
• 490 years after the Flood. Of course
• 490 years after Noah's son Shem was born, Abraham's son Isaac was born, which is why Jacob could be born in order to grow up and go back to Haran. So that Joseph could be born, so that Israel (=Jacob) could take his family to Egypt, so there could BE an Exodus: right on time,
• 490 years after Joseph was enslaved. Of course, that was also
• 430 years after Jacob entered Egypt with his sons: the first 30 years in Egypt were nice, but the last
• 400 they were made a later Pharaoh's building slaves on the very land previously given them by that same Pharaoh's great-grandfather. So of course
• 400 years after the Exodus, David is born; who will, at the same age as Joseph, end Israel's slavery to the Philistines, and her oppression under a king of her own choosing, Saul; so
• 430 years after the Exodus, David is King, instead. That's why there could BE a Temple dedicated as God promised it would be in the month of Ethanim/Tishri,
• 490 years after the Exodus. For the Temple was promised to David, and it too was given a
• 490-year timeline, which got cut short in 586BC (950-586=364); so God reserved its remaining 126 years, and then added another
• 490 years in approving Daniel's prayer. Which
• 490 years ended 30AD, the year of the Crucifixion. Which was 1470 years after the Original Passover, to the Very Day; 1470 is 3 x
• 490. [The accounting God uses for the last 490 years to get to 30AD is in the "To Be or Not to Be" link section of Mirroring.htm. It takes some time to go through. Technically, there are two 70-year intercalation voting periods God uses to accomplish the 'reimbursement' of the 126 years, plus 14 years which end up being reserved -- Matthew 1 plays on the 14 year reserve in his genealogy. The balancing God does leaves me breathless. Utterly awesome. No wonder Matthew 1 and Luke 3 play on God's 490 Accounting System For Time, using it as the undergirding and rhetorical style for their genealogy listings.]

  And what about those reserved 7 years for the Tribulation? Oh they're still reserved for the future Dan9:27, but in a different way: God exchanged seven years from the Temple's premature demise. More on that follows in a pink table in Division #1's "Why FirstFruits" section (intra-page link near pagetop).

  Shocking, huh. God's Accounting is pretty meticulous. So of course the Temple must be dedicated in the first month of the Civil Year, which corresponds to our September-October (mid-month to mid-month): after all, not everyone in the world believes in the God of Israel, and needs time to reconsider. No matter how good God shows Himself to be at Keeping Time.

  For the Millennium cannot occur, until the Harvesting is done. So Time is of the essence. New Year cannot begin, until the old one ends. Civilization and hence the Civil Calendar, depends on the Sacred Being Completed. But it will be completed: first Messiah, and then His Bride, and through His Bride -- the world. So every 1 Ethanim Israel's celebration of the New Year, was a reminder of God's Promise that He would harvest them, and through them -- the world. Trouble is, when the Groom came for His Bride, she turned Him down. That's where we come in. That's why Christ founded the Church upon HIMSELF, Matt16:18 ("Petra" means Christ, never anyone else in either OT or New.) [Same verse contains the diminuitive "petros", which is Peter's name in Greek. Kephas is the Aramaic for the same chip-off-the-block name. So Petra is not Peter's name in that verse, but Christ's, and there are 77 "Petra" verses in LXX and the NT to prove it. Sure wish people would do their homework, especially when they presume to know Bible in Greek, presume to speak for God or presume themselves scholars.]

Sixth Holiday is Succoth="Booths" (today pronounced soo-COAT with aspirated "t"); it begins five days after Yom Kippur, and is a week of living outdoors in tents, aka booths. It again reminds Israel that they were in the wilderness before coming into the Land; even the Temple had been in temporary shelter. Meaning? This whole world is temporary. The real life comes after you check out of this body. Thank God for that! In terms of the flipside, Feast of Unleavened Bread, it's again a reminder of how God delivers in haste -- but then, you live down here, PREPARING for the day He takes you home. Kinda silly to value anything down here. We vaunt our possessions, connections, our tiny moralities way too much. It's all just a vapor trail in the sky, subtheme in James 1 and 4.

Succoth also represents the final phase of harvest, when grapes, figs, olives, late grains are harvested; so is a kind of 2nd Pentecost in meaning though not in length. So it's also called the Feast of the Harvest/Ingathering (Hag Asiph) in Exo 23:16, Exo 34:22, Deut 16:13.

Booths is the only mandatory holiday for all nations in the Millennium, Zech 14:16-19.

The Seventh and Eighth Holidays are Chanukah and Purim. You'd pronounce the "Ch" of "Chanukah" deep in your throat, KHAN-oo-khah. And Pooh-rim is "Purim".

Chanukah and Purim are linked by Christ Himself to Daniel 9:25-27, in Matt16:18 through Matt 24. So let's see what these two Holidays have in common. Vashti/Esther analogy is the basis for Matt16:18 (going out to the highways and byways to replace the rejecting spouse), as well as the basis for Matt22, so Purim is used to explain the role of Church and its founding; Daniel 9's timeline depended on a successful ending to the yet-future Purim, without which Jerusalem would not have been rebuilt; else, we'd all not be here. As for Chanukah, its basis is the framework He chooses for Matt24, which plays on Daniel 8:14 (which by then was historical) and its future paradigmal recurrence in the Tribulation, as explained in Daniel 7, 9:27 and Daniel 12.

• Both are secular Freedom Holidays; Chanukah occurs in what we call December (sometimes very early on), and Purim occurs in February-March.
• Though neither one was instituted by God, so they are NOT on the sacred calendar at all. Both ARE based on historical miracles which ARE related to the prophecy in Daniel 9.
• Both are referenced in the Bible (leaving out the Books of the Maccabees, which are historical books, not Bible).
• Both are related to Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple's restoration, and
• both are prophesied. It's quite astonishing, how much prophecy is on these two holidays. So the prophecies on them are often intertwined thickly. As we go through each Holiday's meanings, the prophecies will come up topically.

So let's examine the meaning of Chanukah. In Jewish calendar order, the Feast of Dedication (=Chanukah), aka the Feast of Lights (=how they celebrated the first Chanukah), commemorates the Rededication of the 2nd Temple. Rededication was first celebrated 25 Chislev. It thus lasted until their 1 or 2 Tebeth. The Lord ties this event to Daniel 8:14 and Daniel 9:26-27 in Matt24, so uses the event as a paradigm of two then-eschatological events (one was fulfilled in 64-70AD, the other is yet future, no set date).

Most significantly, God ties together the last half of the Calendar TO what we call Chanukah, way back on 21 Ethanim (End of Booths), 521BC. On that date, God's message to Haggai wittily ties Booths to Weeks (Pentecost's harvesting theme, kicked off by FirstFruits, the parallel day in Nisan to 21 Ethanim); and then, He ties to 25 Chislev foundation of the 2nd Temple, 357 years before there could even be a Chanukah. Parallelling this, in Zechariah 14:16-19 God mandates Booths for all the nations in the Millennium, in the context of the Harvest. All these threads, interweave as the main theme of Haggai 2 and Zechariah 14. You can see these threads even in translation: read each whole chapter, pay close attention to repeated dates and phrases, for that's how any legal promise 'tracks' to its conditions and commitments. God is making a promise here. The entire OT is a series of contractual promises, notices of breach of contract, provisions how to get back into the contract -- all done with Divine Love and Wit. I just don't know how anyone can doubt God wrote this Book. The wit alone, is provably Divine.

Did you read Haggai 2 and Zech 14? Pretty bald prophecies, huh. Note how God parallels the rhetoric of both the dates He gives the messages, the harvesting content, and the Seed Promise to Zerubbabel (whose name means Seed), in Haggai 2:1 with 2:6, 2:10, 15, 18-23. Compare also to Zechariah 4 and 14. Honestly, I don't know how God could be more blunt about what day is Messiah's birthday and that it's to complete the calendar, especially in light of Zechariah 4:6-10 (verses at very end of page, blue font, underlined). How have we missed all this for centuries?

Hence all this stress on 25 Chislev has got mean it's a birthdate of David, a death date of David, maybe the commencement date of His Kingship or Retirement -- something of David. The date's importance does not derive initially from the Temple, since the Temple derives from David (promised to him, not to Israel, 2Sam7 contract). It's more probable they picked that date to lay the foundation stone due to a significant date in David's life, since the 2Sam7 promise of the Temple=Messiah was made to David. Same, for the later desecration: surely the 25 Chislev date Antiochus picked, was to send a message; little did he know Daniel 8:14 had long predicted what he did, how long it would last, and that he'd be the second poster child for the final desecrator in Daniel 9:27. (Nebuchadnezzar was the first and really the foundational simile in Daniel 9, read Daniel Chapter 3). So the only thing I've not been able to find is what date in David's life, 25 Chislev represents. But it's in the Bible, somewhere!

Note well: the 25th begins AT sundown on the 24th. So for this promise to be effective, it must be made on the day of the 24th; so it goes into effect, after it's been made. That's why the "from this day on" language and significance in Haggai 2:6, 15, 18, 19, 21-23 is so witty and important. Jewish time reckons at-sundown on Day "a" as the beginning of Day "a+1". Evening-and-morning accounting goes back to Adam, when God restored the Earth (dawdling for six days to teach man the meaning of the 7th), Gen1:2ff.

So technically, the Lord's Birthday will be the 24th of Chislev post-sundown. Notice how that means it's the same 24th-and-25th day all around the world. Smack dab in the middle. After all, wouldn't God who created time, know how to tell time? He located Israel in the middle of the globe, so to make it easier for everyone to reach her; He made her nation the landbridge of three continents, so you couldn't travel except through Israel. So a maximum number of people could hear the Word, and transmit it as they went onward -- negative or positive, people talk about what they hear. Especially, if they don't like what they hear. So God can orchestrate time, too.

The purpose of such specificity, as also in Daniel 12:11-12 for the last 1335 days of the Tribulation, is to teach Jews to flee during that period, and how long to count before their deliverance will come. It's a calendar of events. Obey it or perish, is the idea. No mysticism, here. No allegories or turning days into years. You'd need this information if caught there at that time. And its start date is not predicted in either case. You are told what's the triggering event, and then you begin the count. Literal days. Else, you'll die. Pretty easy to remember. The Jews in both periods will not heed the warning. Zechariah 12, 14 and other passages show how the Lord delivers those who stay during the Tribulation; we know historically how He delivered those who didn't flee during the time of Antiochus, from 1 Maccabees.

We know of the Daniel 8 starting, because it's already happened. The last day of the 2300, is the Lord's Birthday (but not birth year); so in Matt24, the Lord's making a kind of wordplay on His Being the Temple the Temple depicts: desecrated for our sins.

Back in Daniel 8:14, 2300 days works out to 6.29 solar years. That information will be important, so Israel can recalate its lunar calendar for solar, upon restoration. The implication is that Antiochus took them off the Jewish calendar back in 169 BC. But I can't prove that, so in this webpage I'm only counting the lapse in the calendar from 167-164BC. When you see the convergence with that assumption, you'll know why I keep it.

• 1 Maccabees records this horrifying story. First, some background. When Alexander died in 323 BC, he divided up his empire among his fighting generals, known as "Diadochi" in our history books. They didn't like each other much, and fought a civil war on and off for about 40 years. In 312 or 311, they called a truce. 1 Maccabees uses that truce as the commencement of the "kingdom of the Greeks", 1Mac1:11. One of these generals was named Seleucus, and he basically got hold of the landbridge territory of Asia Minor, extending westward into Greece. So Antiochus IV Epiphanes (="Illustrious"), a Seleucid descendant, gets hungry and goes for Ptolemaic Egypt as well. [The Truce date comes from my Encyclopedia of Military History by Dupuy and Dupuy, p.54, 2nd Revised Edition, Harper & Row, 1986. This is one great encyclopedia; all the really important info in one volume.]
• In 169 BC, this Antiochus invades Israel on his way back from defeating Egypt, 1Macc1:21. [Maccabees is not Canon, but has a lot of good historical detail. Not every book in Maccabees is as good as 1 Maccabees, and clearly its purpose is to show how Daniel 8 is fulfilled. Like all historical books, you have to be careful what you accept in them. For example, 2-4 Maccabees are sometimes very strange indeed.]

• Later in 167 BC, Antiochus comes back and appropriates all of Jerusalem, essentially trashing the place, 1Macc1:30; so Temple services ceased, verses 31-42. No one but the enemy and groupies then lived in Jerusalem. During this time Antiochus issues proclamations to destroy every Bible, and prohibits wholly any practices related to it, verses 43-56.
• 15 Chislev, 167BC, Antiochus sets up the "abomination of desolation", 1Macc1:54; and burns Bibles, v.56-58. Followed by a pig sacrifice on 25 Chislev, v.59. Then followed by human sacrifices (both the Maccabees' description and my pastor's explanation are very gruesome here), vv.63-64.
• So in 167 BC, Antiochus takes over all of Jerusalem and Temple ceases to function: by 15 Chislev, which is the 9th month, the Jewish sacred calendar was 'off' by four days (5.25/12*9). So it's really the 11th of Chislev. That's 50 days after 21 Ethanim, the parallel date to Pentecost.

• The Maccabees are a family of Jewish priests who'd officiated at the Temple, and of course at this point are not officiating, but are forced to hide themselves. They finally decide to fight Antiochus. It's a harrowing story, and they aren't exactly heroes all the time. But they do eventually succeed against the very able generals of Antiochus.

• By 25 Chislev 164BC, three years later, the Maccabees recover the Temple, they repurify it, and the city is cleaned up; the first Chanukah is inaugurated on that date. Palm branches were carried (2Macc10:7); there was a spontaneous candlelight parade, thousands of Jews streaming from their homes as they paraded to the Temple to rededicate it. Per 1 Maccabees 4:52 this happened 25 Chislev "in the 148th year" of the Truce among the Diadochi=our 164BC. Antiochus would be dead the following year (1Macc6:16). [1 Maccabees tracks to either 311 or 312 BC, depending on how you value "in the 148th year". The lapse of two years in 2Macc 10:3 must be referring to some other reference point, because 3 years elapse between 1 Macc 1:54 and 1 Macc 4:52. It's also a question of how to read a Greek meta ("after") construction. I don't have time to investigate it right now.]
• The Jewish calendar can't be intercalated due to Antiochus IV's suppression of all things Jewish while he lasted, three years (167-164BC). So the night of 25 Chislev in 164BC is really 11 Chislev, since the Jewish lunar calendar runs short 5.25 days per year versus solar (subtract one day, since there is no "0" calendar day). Temple hadn't been operating for three years. So that's 11+4 days late, minus the day you're counting for the celebration = 5.25+5.25+(5.25/12*9)-1=14.4 days too fast. So, again: that's also 50 days after 21 Ethanim, a parallel to Pentecost.
  The Jews could not possibly have influenced Antiochus taking over Jerusalem on such an auspicious date, nor would they have necessarily even known the calendar well enough to recognize the mirroring. For they were rather preoccupied, and 1 Maccabees shows some knowledge of the Law, but none with respect to the 490-year dating system of God. It's interesting that on the flipside of Alexander's death in 323 BC, Constantine comes to power in 324 AD, per Encarta and Dupuy (p.152). The latter goes on to note that on 18 September 323 AD, Constantine won that power via crushing defeat over Licinius, who fled; he was apprehended and executed in 324 AD. The territory he gets includes what used to be Antiochus IV's in 167 BC. 323 AD is 490 years after 167 BC. Alexander came to power in 336 BC. Constantine's rule ended 337 AD. Someone is paying attention to mirroring, even when it doesn't add up to a 490, and even when the rulers are brilliant-but-evil; and Israel is always in the middle. Oh well: maybe it's all a coincidence, huh.

  It isn't until 141BC that Israel is her own nation, again (23 Ziv or Bul 141 BC, 1Macc13:41-51). It won't last long. The Seleucids will keep on fighting; the Maccabees will get tangled up with the Herods, who then get Rome involved; the Lord will be born under the Romans. And by the flipside of 141 BC, which is 140 AD, what was once called Jerusalem and her Temple has been twice destroyed, 70AD and 140 AD by the Romans. In 140 AD it's called Aelia Capitolina, and a pig temple stands where once the Holy of Holies, was. Abomination of Desolation, yet again. Oh well: maybe it's all a coincidence, huh.

• The Lord ties Chanukah and Pentecost to Daniel 9:26-27 in Matt24:15ff (key="summer is near" denoting Pentecost, which ends just before summer begins). Idea that due to rejecting Him, Daniel 9:26 plays, and eventuates in the Destruction of the Temple. That's a kind of abomination, which per Daniel 9:26 will continue until the last abomination during Tribulation 'week' of Daniel 9:27. So He Himself Redoes and Rededicates the Temple at the 2nd Advent. That's a huge prophecy topic in all of Ezekiel from Chapter 39 forward, and in many other chapters and prophecies: Isaiah 63's 'Trinity' Chapter, for example, relates the 2nd Advent all the back to the work of the Trinity in the Exodus, thus tying up all mankind's history.

  Pentecost is always understood in the Jewish Holiday metaphorical scheme to be the ushering in of the Millennium, harvest completion. You'll remember that in that scheme, the next harvesting done is of products which metaphorically depict Israel: figs (especially in Jeremiah), olives (all over the OT), and grapes (again, all over the OT). That's why Peter interpretatively quotes Joel 2, in Acts 2: to explain the elongation of 'Pentecost', due to Israel's rejection of Christ. It's an assurance that God will still keep His Promises. Book of Hebrews is devoted to explaining how this changeover works from the standpoint of the old Law; new priesthood, new covenant, a Preparation (play on sabbath eve) for Operation Footstool being the definition of Now. 'Pointed allusion to "Booths", throughout Hebrews 4 -- explaining that the Jews are to be gathered, see. So Church is real, has its own covenant, and Jews can get a better version than what they'd have had under the OT, just as promised; this Church will thus be used to rescue Israel's time. Jews were familiar with Bible, so they'd understand all that: but many would be insulted, since goyim would be the agents of Israel's salvation.

  Summer is a time of warring, in ancient or modern times. It's hard to move armies through snow or sludge. So when generals plan their wars, they try to start them after the April rains (or whenever the spring rains have ended). That leaves May-June as the best time to begin a campaign, so you can be sure of ending it before the winter comes. Hitler lost in Russia because he forgot this most important rule. That's how Stalyin beat him, waiting him out. That's how Napoleon lost, too. Pentecost occurs in Sivan, which runs May-June.

  Because they aren't harvesting anything, "Weeks" is proceeding without them. Instead, they are to BE harvested, just as predicted back in the OT: figs, grapes, and olives. And then, back in the Land. Aka, the Millennium. But preceded by, the official Tribulation: first nine verses in Isa63 is the Son=Messiah, returning from killing all Israel's enemies in the bloodbath which will be high as a horse's bridle, Rev 14:20. Most translations of Isa63:1 won't tell you His 'garments' are drenched with blood. But verses 2-6 don't leave any doubt. "Winepress" is always used to show Divine Judgement: see Rev 19:15.

  This second, post-Weeks period of harvesting is explained in Joel 2, so on Pentecost 30AD, Peter reminds the Jews of it in Acts 2. So where we are on the Prophecy Map of Time, is simultaneously a Weeks period, but also that dead spot period of no holidays, because the second harvest is going on. Which harvest, the Jews -- and by extension, all unbelievers -- are warned to get in on, in Joel 2. For when the harvesting ends, the Tribulation begins (theme of Joel 3). You don't know when a harvesting ends until it's over. You can guess, but since so many hands are involved in a harvesting, well -- you can't predict it. Sounds like the Rapture, huh.

  So all the "harvest" references in the NT are in part designed to clue us into where we are in God's Calendar.

• Notice how Chanukah 'balances' to Pentecost. Chanukah balances to Pentecost, not merely because it just happens (yeah, right) to fill the opposite slot in Chislev, but because the purpose of a harvest is To Eat. Eat Word, the Best Food. Can't eat Word if Messiah doesn't come, since Temple=Messiah (represented the Promise that Messiah would come). Can't Eat Word if it's not harvested, either. So Pentecost represents the larger Temple meaning of living with God, and living on His Word. The Lord deliberately makes many references to this parallel via His Body and Bread comments, Luke 8 crop references, calling the Word food and drink and shelter (for you made shelter from agricultural products). That's why the Lord talks as He does, in Haggai 2.

  Which Word requires tending, just like any crop. You linger over it, pay attention to it, take care of it, and grow it. Of course, all this occurs inside you, so it's a deft Catch-22, like all God's rituals are. You can't do the sacrifices under the Law unless God provides the blemishless animals: who but God can make animals, especially ones without blemish? So here with the Word, God must produce it, and give it to you. Moreover, in order to grow it you have to eat it: lol, you eat a harvest which then grows? Reverse of the normal life! You bet. God always turns everything on its head, never politically-correct, no works please -- so you are eating what's invisible, really. Then it produces the crop, once inside you. See? Bible is unendingly ironic and witty, huh.

  The next holiday is at the end of the second harvest, Booths/Ingathering, which itself balances to the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. So the period from 11 Sivan through the end of Elul, is in effect celebrated at Booths/Ingathering, mid-Ethanim. But there would be no Booths to celebrate the ending of the 2nd harvest, unless the 2nd harvest completes. And we'd not be here to talk about it, absent Purim. So let's look at Purim, next.

The other holiday is Purim; it occurs mid-Adar, meaning (generally) end-February. Adar is the last month on the sacred calendar, and depicts the end of time. How apt: without Purim, there'd have been no Chanukah, there'd have been no Israel and hence no 2nd Temple to remain. So there'd have been no Messiah, and we'd all not be here. So "Purim" is not only a historical event, but also a paradigmal mini-prophecy of the Tribulation and 2nd Advent. Now you know why it's tied to Chanukah by the Lord in Matt16:18, Matt22, and Matt24:6-10 (really, all of Matt24, given the origin and outcome of Purim).

1. For Purim was already prophesied in Daniel 9:25 under the "times of trouble" clause. It's also implicit in the Tribulational meaning of Daniel 9:27, the worst pogrom period in all history since Adam. That's why the post-Exilic OT books are so important: they document the fulfillment of that prophecy, near-term. So if fulfilled near-term, then the far-fulfillment of the Tribulation and Millennium, is certain. There's nothing allegorical about the Tribulation or the Millennium. There's nothing of either period which belongs to Church. Witness how the Lord demonstrates the relationship of Church to Himself as a separate covenant, from which He Himself will inaugurate the rest of history, and rescue Israel despite herself. We really should take deep, quite literal notice. Book of Hebrews and Gospel of John is on this topic, to elaborate on what the Lord explained back when He was here:
   1. Matt16:18's analogy is bald; they reject the Bridegroom, so the Bridegroom Decrees to found a New Bride upon Himself. (Greek "tautei" means He's pointing to Himself as Petra in that verse, famous moniker for Him used about 70 times in the OT.) For in choosing to create Church in the future due to Israel's rejection, He's announcing a Replacement Bride. So He's drawing analogy to Vashti and Esther. Rejecting Israel is cast in the Vashti role, and Church will be the Esther. But of course, the Jews are rescued by the intervention of Esther, so there's a huge Loving Promise stated side-by-side with the insult of being called a Vashti.

   2. So, in Matt22 He makes a very pointed reference to the impetus for an 'Esther'; the Matt 22 "banquet" was analogous to the banquet of Ahasuerus III (aka Xerxes), during which Vashti was requested to appear. Israel, like Vashti, refused to come. Notice how the Lord updates the analogy: for now that Church is Esther, the Vashti is now only invited to the wedding, as a guest. That's a dig, making the insult deeper; but also stating the Loving Promise, more strongly. You could take it as you wanted to: oh, we spurned Him, so we shouldn't even be invited. And then you choose to believe, thus becoming part of the Esther. Or, oh, how Vile this Messiah pretender, insulting US who are the sons of Abraham! And then you vote to kill him, when Pilate asks.
   3. So like in the Book of Esther, in Matt22 the King orders his servants go to all the highways and byways to get 'guests', people who normally would not be allowed to be intimate with the King. These 'guests' are the harem of women chosen as candidates for the new queen; He doesn't have to say that, in the parable.

   4. So when He gets to the full-fledged Chanukah tie in Matt24, and thus warns them of the Temple's Destruction -- which is Daniel 9:26, Messiah being cut off -- the analogy to Book of Esther is complete: Diaspora due to Israel's unfaithfulness, tying back to Matt22:7's threat of Father ordering the Destruction of the City.
   5. Times of the Gentiles is ushered in -- going out to the highways and byways, to GATHER the Replacement Bride. See the tie to Pentecost and the 2nd harvesting period before the Millennium?

2. It's extremely important to understand God's Accounting System for time, in order to orient to Purim's importance. Here's a short explanation; longer story is in Mirroring.htm and will take you months to vet. Gist: Time for the entire world continues only if there is some individual who can be granted 490 years due to that person's internal spiritual growth. It is never a works question. Only the Word Works (main theme of James, very abrasive). For the world rejects God, so God should not grant it life or time, unless someone on it, pleases Him enough to warrant the rest 'tagging along'. If "yes" such an individual or entity exists -- then an added 70 years is tacked on to the 490, making a composite, intercalated unit of 560 years. This 70-year period is for Voting. If the votes aren't sufficient, then the next 490 doesn't occur, even though granted.

   That's what we see play here: the Temple 490 had not yet run out when the 1st Temple was destroyed in 586BC: 950BC, First Temple was dedicated - 490 years = 460BC. But if the Temple isn't standing, it's not being productive, so technically the world ought to end. But the 70 missed sabbatical years (the voting period) due was a kind of contingent credit which could play, since God Himself required the 70 sabbatical years under the Law, and therefore could 'invoke' them. So if enough Jews were willing to rebuild the Temple between 586BC and 516BC when the 70 years ended, then a new 490 would be granted, and also the 70 years would be mirrored back to form yet another intercalated 560-years.

   So: from 586-516BC, you see the Voting via those books of Daniel, Ezra Chaps 1-6 (ending with 6:15, which is 516BC); Haggai and Zechariah play contemporaneously with those chapters of Ezra. For the second 70 mirrored voting years of 516BC-446BC, you first have the book of Esther, which starts 2 years before David's Kingship 490 was due to end, as you'll see below. That's why Esther is demonstrably Canon: it's God's way of explaining how He fulfilled His promise to Daniel in Daniel 9:25. Followed by, Ezra Chaps 7+, and the contemporaneous Nehemiah and Malachi. These latter two books focus on Jerusalem's completion in 446BC (20th year of Xerxes 1's son, mostly). The actual period referenced in both books ends about a generation later; but for our purposes 446BC is significant. For that's the year when the mirrored 70, ran out: the 483-year ("69 weeks") countdown to Messiah, begins then. [If you are also a student under my pastor, there is likely a typo in his Daniel books regarding the identity of Darius in Nehemiah. The typo should have been corrected, since what my pastor teaches on audiotape shows the chronology of Nehemiah to end with 446BC, which he's known and taught all along (i.e., in any of the audiotapes on the topic, even in the 1960's). The typo in the books, however, claims that Nehemiah 12:22 references Darius III -- which is demonstrably untrue, since Darius III is one hundred years later, the last of the Persian kings, defeated by Alexander. It's real easy to get mixed up over which Darius is which; we all know how easy it is to miss a typo or other mistake. I keep having to re-edit this Purim section for that same reason. Only God and His Word HE Wrote in the original-language texts, is Perfect!]

3. Obviously Satan&Co. want to win the Angelic Divorce Trial, so they want the world's time clock to run out. So they will do everything to thwart the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem. Both have to be voted enough, for the next 490 to begin (the one promised Daniel). God promises, but if we reject the promise, then He won't force the promise on us. See Romans 9 for that doctrine. Time is a promise, just like salvation is a promise. But promises can be disbelieved, rejected. That's the issue here.
   1. Important Strategic Orientation Note: the Goal of Satan&Co. is always to reverse the truth by sleighting the truth.
   2. Until Messiah, the goal of Satan&Co. was to stop His Arrival in the Flesh. Now that He's Gone and Risen, the goal is to mask that fact by presenting Messiah as yet-to-come, as a mere political king (i.e., that silly Da Vinci Code nonsense), as anything but the Savior Who Really Finished Paying For Mankind.

   3. Same reversal, for the Temple. Until it was rebuilt, Satan&Co. were out to stop it from being rebuilt, viz. the way Gabriel talks to Daniel in Daniel 10. Once the Temple got rebuilt, Satan&Co. tried to tear it down again (viz., with Antiochus IV Epiphanes). Once the 2nd Temple got torn down again in 70AD, God said it would not be rebuilt, until Messiah Comes The Second Time. Hence Satan&Co. keep trying to Get The Temple Rebuilt, since 70 AD. Even, to the extent of appointing Abominations over the Temple Mount.

      You can easily tell God forbids any Temple Rebuilding after 70AD: Daniel 9:26, Eze Chaps 39 et seq., Matt24, whole Book of Hebrews, and Rev11:1 are painfully clear. John builds his whole Gospel around the Temple not being rebuilt, for we are the Temple, since The Messiah=Temple is risen. John elaborates on what the writer of Hebrews wrote. [Each writer of the Gospel uses a rhetorical style; it's not a mere recitation of the facts, which everyone long knew anyway. It's an analysis, first. Because, each generation who got a fresh Gospel (and there were four of them), needed the analysis: faith doesn't last very long before it sags. Faith is designed to be supported by Reason; and Reason, supported by Truth You Can Prove. Faith is never faith, if 'blind'.]

   4. So: since the Temple post 70AD is NOT to be rebuilt, Satan &Co. Now try to move heaven and earth, to get it rebuilt -- against God's orders. Man's Voting to rebuild What God Has Forbidden shortens the world's time clock, hastens the world toward Armageddon. Daniel 9:26 and Revelation 11 tell you Satan&Co. will eventually succeed in winning man's vote: that's when the Rapture happens, Rev4:1 (the Rapture Event). They've been trying since 70AD to do this; GeneYrs.xls plots some of their attempts, and new entries on those attempts will be added as I've time. Note well: it took Satan&Co. 2000 years to even get the Jews to go back to the Land; OT warned them only God would shub (return) them, so stay away (main focus of Book of Ezekiel, and Chaps 61 et seq. in Isaiah). That message they largely heeded until Balfour and WWII's pogroms made a sympathetic Europe, do Satan&Co.'s bidding. God of course did warn everyone this would happen, in Ezekiel 38:8. Hebrew literally reads, "born out from the sword" -- from war. Note that: from war, not from God. What is from God, in Eze38? The appointment of Gog to destroy the entity which did not seek Him. Woe to anyone who uses that appointment to be anti-semitic, is a major theme of the passage. God disciplines His own. Only God.
      It's a huge and disastrous misreading of Scripture to deem the political entity of Israel as God's fulfilling of Ezekiel 37. Read Bible In Context: Ezekiel 37 is a setup chapter for the 'play' to follow, kind of like a prologue in stage drama. Ezekiel 38 then tells the story of the Armageddon Campaign, period of Daniel 9:27, prophecy about the final attack which brings in the 2nd Advent, a Tribulation passage, not pre-Trib. Israel is not regathered until Ezekiel 39, the Second Advent. So Ezekiel 37 calls Israel DEAD BONES -- prior to the 2nd Advent. So whatever entity is there in Eze38 to be attacked, is not accounted as God-approved, get it? See also Matt24 and Daniel 9, Rev 11 which all portray The Nation Israel as not-being, a way of saying not-being-under-Contract With God. No Temple, no national contract, hence no nation, no national blessing by God. See also Hebrews Chaps 7-10, which explain why also that contract was abrogated, since it is now In Christ, and no one else.

      A quick look at history since 70AD shows that the Land has been under almost continual attack, and that Jews have (usually in small numbers, until the 20th century) been on that Land. Just as prophesied here in Ezekiel 38, just as prophesied in Daniel 9:26, and Matt24. Don't listen to the claims that I am returned, the Lord warned. For He returns on one day at night, with the day being the night, and the night being the day (Zech 14:7): Zech Chaps 12-14 tie to Ezekiel 39. Only then will the contract with the nation be restored, say those chapters.

      But Gen12 and 17 contracts remain in effect (promises about the sons of Abraham). That's why God switches legal vocabulary to "My people.. Israel" in Ezekiel 38. Woe to any anti-Semites, who'll use Israel's hapless national status, to harm even a hair on any Jew's head: that's the resounding message in Ezekiel 38.

      So notice: in Ezekiel 37 they are dead, Israel is Dead. So in typical Hebraic style -- where the following chapter provides details explaining the previous chapter, like Gen2 does for Gen1 -- Ezekiel 38 shows how that Ezekiel 37 slaughter, occurred (campaign of Armageddon). So the next Chapter, 39, shows the Lord coming down to fulfill Ezekiel 37 -- to which Rev19ff, all ties. Only God can breathe life back into dead corpses. Not, a declaration by some however-well-intentioned, political entity.

      God never says one should go to 'Egypt' (other humans) for deliverance. Ezekiel 37-39, Matt24 warnings, Rev11 warnings, and especially Dan9:27 tells you that Israel will 'go to Egypt' again anyway, just like she did during Sennacharib's time (see Isa Chaps 28-35). Balfour is but another 'Egypt', Satan's tactic, and so that's why Armageddon will be so bad -- Israel shubbed (returned) without God's approval. "I WILL bring" God says. 2nd Temple's order to rebuild came from a prayer of Daniel's, not from political maneuvering. The "decree" in Daniel 9, is God's, not some king's, for crying out loud. What, does no one read the context of Dan9:25, which proved Who Decreed, verse 24? After all, the angel is a messenger of the King, God Who Decreed something. Can God be more obvious it's Him Who decrees? Can any mere human king decree time?

      We don't read our Bibles, we thump them. Satan knows that. Satan used that. So the bloodbath of Armageddon occurs because, again, Israel didn't seek God. But woe to anyone who uses that fact to take upon himself, what alone is God's Role of Disciplinarian!

      Satan smacks his lips, uses the love for the Jews to trap them into depending on 'Egypt', rather than on God. For you need to regather your enemy, so you can kill him better. If Satan&Co. can kill all the Jews, then God fails to keep His Promise to Abraham, to continue 'Israel' -- the people -- until Messiah comes/returns; and then it's a Mistrial, the Judge miscarriage-of-justice failure, so the case against Satan must be thrown out of the Supreme Court of Heaven. A quick summary of the meaning of Mistrial is in #1 of Satan's Plan Thesis in SurpConc.htm. If you've not already read it, you might want to, now.

      That's what Satan&Co. tried to do, using Purim: angling for a Mistrial. That's always their strategy. Back at (what became) the initial Purim, by killing the Jews they would prevent the First Advent. Now, by killing the Jews they would prevent the Second Advent. But Bible assures us that, although God never gerrymanders Freedom, Satan&Co. will not succeed. Because, there will be enough in Church growing up spiritually, to buy Israel time. Those votes, plus the votes of Jews during the Trib, will be enough to successfully conclude the Trib and usher in the Millennium.

      Modern-day application: grow up spiritually in God's System! And, defend the Jews with your life, if need be. God blesses those who bless the Jews, and curses those who curse them, Genesis 12. Surely the sordid, obsessive, rock-and-rocket-throwing history of the Arabs and Islam, is enough proof of Gen12.

4. So now we're ready for this story about the historical significance of Purim to the 2nd Temple. [As you vet what follows, if you keep on having -1 or +1 problems with the dates, it's likely because the date balances to mid-year. For example, 10 Ab 586BC, the First Temple was razed, Jeremiah 52:12-13; 3 Adar 516BC, the 2nd Temple had been rebuilt and was dedicated, Ezra 6:15. Notice how it's a mid-year problem, when measuring from either one date or the other, since technically the 2nd Temple's dedication happened within 6 months of the 'deadline' for completion of the 70 years. Ab=Aug-Sept, and Adar=Feb-March. On Israel's sacred calendar, Adar is the last month of the same year. And it's the sacred calendar which controls, here. So on our calendar, "Adar" occurs in the following year. So simple addition or subtraction of years, doesn't always work well; yet, you need to use years for simplicity's sake. You can be almost certain of a mid-year problem if you 'solve' one mismatch by subtracting 1, and it suddenly won't match up with your other numbers. Only trial-and-error will help you figure out which are mid-year numbers, but try revisiting Bible verses first. Something in them helps you orient to the time of year.]
   1. The word "pur" means divination lottery to pogromize a people; here, you're asking 'the gods' to decide the best time to kill them. So "Purim" (plural, multiple "pur" times) commemorates the deliverance of the Jews from pogroms, by the reversing Decree of that King Xerxes who married Esther (Ahasuerus III aka Xerxes I, aka Artaxerxes, son of Darius I "the Great" Hystaspes). This Xerxes ruled 485-465 BC. It's a pretty dramatic rescue story: pity it doesn't get more attention. What follows with respect to the historical background and the interrelationships between the post-exilic books therefore needs to be tested more than usual.

   2. Purim is about the Haman Conspiracy To Gather The Jews And Kill Them in the name of the King of Persia (then Xerxes I), to order a genocide of the Jews: it has the exact same "preparation" characteristics as Passover. In fact, since David died in 963BC, this conspiracy occurs during the 490th anniversary year of his death (he had a personal 490, as well as a Kingship 490 granted to him). For on 1 Nisan 474 or 473 BC, Haman practiced divination to determine when to exterminate the Jews (Est3:7); on the 13th of the month, the death warrants were written (Est3:12); so basically that entire year was designated a hurt-the-Jews year, since the notices picked an auspices for destruction of the Jews at the end of the year, 13th Adar. So the entire year was a bad time for the Jews: just as Hitler would do, 2400+ years later. Preparation, see. Preparation of the 14 days (the 13th being the day the secretaries prepared, and the order to slay going out the next day). Preparation of the people for an entire year, since 'the gods' allegedly picked the 13th of Adar for the slaying, which is why they picked the 13th to write the notices (numbers mysticism). [Nerd note: with dates, you always have a "1" problem. "In the twelfth year" of a king isn't necessarily on the same calendar as the absolute calendar. So Nisan is the first month of the regular calendar, but maybe not of his kingship. If both, then it would be 474 BC. Else, maybe 474 or 473 BC. Speaking of kings, maybe David died on 12 or 13 Adar, 964 BC -- which in math terms is the same as beginning 963BC, which all the 490's tie to -- but at the moment I can't prove it. God used lots to show inheritances, and only via Urim and Thummim were they ever valid. David inherits, so this wordplay and the timing of his death to the pur=lot might not be coincidental? David's death date would be so well known to Jews they wouldn't ever have to write it down, but would make a ton of wordplay on it. Such wordplay is in 1Kings 6:1, and I bet it's here too, in Esther 3:7-12. I'll have to spend a lot more time on those verses. Since all Israel's dates are tied to Messiah, and Messiah ties to David, I keep on trying to match up which dates tie to which dates in David's life. So right now I'm playing with Adar. Could be way wrong!]

      Of course, 14 Nisan is Passover. So the notice to annihilate goes out ON Passover, 474 or 473 BC. Cute, huh. You just can't MISS it, that Satan&Co. ("the gods" consulted) were having a little fun in their choice of dates. Thus Persia was warned it was messing with demons, not real gods. Oh well.

      Book of Esther in the Septuagint has a lot of added text which is demonstrably not Scripture. So when you read it, you just cut out the verses which are invalid (this is S.O.P. for Bible, anyway). It's interesting that the valid verse of Esther 3:15 in the Septuagint uses Greek verb tarassw, sense of extreme agitation, upset, terror, to translate Hebrew buk (to have "tumult" in the soul). That same Greek verb is used of King Herod and the Jews on hearing Messiah is born, Matt2:3. So Matthew is tying His Birth to Purim! [Tarassw is used over 90 times in the OT, but only 3 in the NT: Matt2:3, Luke 1:12, and John 13:21. Each of the NT uses are about the Lord; in John 13:21, the Lord Himself is tarassw, and I'd bet money that toi pneumati means BY AGENCY OF the Spirit, given the 'groaning' doctrine in Romans 8. Concept of max empathy: the Lord knows the horror which will result in all history due to that betrayal, the constant pogromization of the Jews; and HE their Savior is the 'cause' of it?! How would you survive such knowledge? So this usage in Matt2:3 has to be a deliberate parallel to the tumult in Susa way back in Esther's day: public announcement which causes soul tumult is the same setting then, as when the magi visit Jerusalem.]

   3. Mordecai basically caused Purim by his bad behavior. He told Esther not to reveal her race, but then made an issue of it. For because Mordecai was a Jew, he would not bow down to Haman; and he had the nerve to tell the King's Gate people that fact. So really it was Mordecai who began this very pogrom. See Esther 3:1-6. Obviously Haman is evil, and Mordecai's bad behavior doesn't justify Haman's reaction, especially since the reaction reveals Haman hated the Jews to start with. But it's also evil to make an issue of the self, how different you are, how much better you are, etc. God is even-handed in His assessment of the situation. Thus we know that while the pogrom is evil in the extreme, there is also an evil activity egging it on. We should all take deep notice, for who among us has never played the 'Mordecai', making an issue of ourselves?

   4. This "pur" pogrom order is by no means unique. Since the concept of rule back then was a king's every whim be obeyed -- absolute rule is a great idea, but here it is misused -- everyone and his brother used their kings to make their own whims come true. So the Haman conspiracy is but one of many which earlier books of Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah cover. The Temple in Jerusalem was a wonder of the world, and when it came down, the world reacted strongly. Much jealousy aroused over the Jews in Diaspora, and even more, when the Jews went back to rebuild the Temple. The Haman conspiracy takes place a generation after the Temple has been rebuilt, and is the focus of the book of Esther, 474 or 473 BC. But Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra Chaps 1-6 cover the prior generation who returned to the Land and rebuilt the Temple, 538-516BC. Book of Daniel runs from Nebuchadnezzar through the first year of Cyrus (post-Darius the Mede): 606-536 BC. So these years are thus covered both from the perspective of those returning to the Land, and the Persian 'side' of it. Ezra Chaps 7 et. seq., and Nehemiah, are from a generation after the Haman conspiracy ended, and center on the year 446-5 BC, with an epilogue of how the generation following Jerusalem's restoration, again lapsed. Thus you see conspiracies against the Jews had been ongoing since Nebuchadnezzar through the completion of the walls of Jerusalem. As a backgrounder, you have Jeremiah, Lamentations and Ezekiel, which are addressed to the Jews themselves in exile during the entire 140 years' back-to-back-voting periods (586-446BC).

   5. Jealousy and bad behavior combine in both sides, to cause pogroms. This forms a warning paradigm for Jews, displaying how Lev26 and Deut 28 play out against them for rejecting Messiah. Jealousy, for the Jews had been in favor with the Persian kings from the beginning. And even before that, due to Daniel being a favorite of Nabopolassar's son, King Nebuchadnezzar, since circa 603 BC. Nebuchy baby exercised three hostage-takings when he invaded Jerusalem, circa 608-606, 598-7, 588-6. Daniel was among the first group taken: Daniel 1 is on that topic. (Bible sometimes spells his name Nebuchadrezzar; I'm following the translated convention with the "n", not "r", for reader ease.) Except between circa 534 BC when Daniel (probably) died after "Darius the Mede" had died and 522 BC when Darius the Great comes to power, Babylon and then Persia basically protected Israel. ["Darius the Mede" is not likely Gobryas, a mere general; but rather, "Darius the Mede" is Darius Cyaxares II, a son of Astyages, and probably the rightful heir until Cyrus defeated Astyages; this Darius was also the uncle of that same Cyrus II, "the Great", who was Astyages' grandson. The latter was allegedly persecuted by Astyages due to some old dream. So you can understand how they might be friends and not enemies, as adults. Both became believers, though not at the same time. The elder Darius became one under Daniel, see the end of Daniel 5.] Notice how long it took for even the then-unbeliever Nebuchadnezzar, to finally want to raze the Temple (606-586).

      Jealousy kills. So when a king sponsors the Jews, he reaps trouble from those jealous of the Jews. True back then, true still today. So we Christians inherit a kind of jealousy, since Christ is real and we are really of Him. Paul spends a lot of time trying to explain this problem in Galatians (bond vs. free woman) and in Romans (esp. Chaps 9-11).

      Every time you turn around, God puts the Jews at the center of things. The nation is centrally located, and its trade-route importance makes all the nations run through it -- and run through to conquer, too. Moreover, its people are often made hostages due to their leadership/executive talents. That was true of Daniel. Even more: Nebuchadnezzar's dad and Nebuchy himself, had only been able to conquer (the dad conquered Assyria in 612 BC, four generations after the latter sacked Samaria and Jonah was dispatched to evangelize the Assyrians) -- due to an alliance with the Medes. Which Medes, allied with the Persians. So you have an Orchestrated Setup to Protect The Jews going on in the background. With Israel -- here, represented by Daniel -- smack dab in the middle. Principle: if you learn God in God's System, everything revolves around you, not the other way around. Solemn thing to remember.

      Nebuchadnezzar learned this the hard way, but he learned: see Daniel 4. I gotta study this more. Here's the gist of what I understand thus far. Looks like his kingdom didn't learn from him, else the sons would have prospered. Looks like Daniel 4 happened to him sometime between 579-570 BC, with the period 569-562 being a mirror of his lost seven years, going by God's Accounting System for Time. (How well you can prove that from history, I'm not sure: maybe they hid his seven-year zoanthropic insanity from the world at large. It's common to hide the sickness/death of a king, especially when an empire's independence is at stake.) You know his madness had to occur after 586BC, else he'd not have razed the Temple. Obviously his madness occurred after he made that stupid statue in Daniel 3 -- actually, the statue demonstrates his descent into that madness, as his own confession demonstrates. (Dan4:29-30, so maybe the statue-worship went on during the previous 12 months, and another 12-24 months prior to that, was its construction? Takes a lot of time to collect that much gold, craftsmanship, issue the proclamation, create the systems for the music players and enforcement throughout such a large empire, etc.) So after he'd finished the statue and the proclamation, etc., God struck him, circa 576 BC; that's a plausible dating (i.e., ten years after razing the Temple, Nebuchy himself is razed of his sanity). That there would be seven years after his recovery is plausible historically, as no one regains a larger kingdom immediately: things take time. (The siege of Tyre could have been in his name, not him personally; that civil war occurred during his madness makes sense, including the rebellion of Tyre. Gossip travels. Moreover, a kingdom-regaining period which eventuates in larger territory and wealth controlled as a result of defeating enemies also makes sense.) You also know that when he recovered, now believing in Christ (as He was then revealed), God must have told him the Temple was not to be rebuilt by him. Daniel had to know that answer also, for Daniel timed his prayer for its restoral, in 538BC. After all, God said the Land must first get its sabbaths (Dan 9:2). So on the one hand, the Temple has to be rebuilt by 516BC; but clearly, not much before that is acceptable, either. Yeah, and it doesn't get finished until the last month of 516BC (Ezra 6:15)!

      For the next seven years after Nebuchadnezzar's death in 562 BC (a successful seven is always mirrored back), Babylon enters a kind of civil war. It finally stabilizes under Nabonidus, but then goes into an apathetic decline (theme of Daniel 5) from 556 until 539 or 538BC, when General Gobryas under Cyrus the Great's uncle Darius Cyaxares II, marches into Babylon almost unopposed.

      Think of the big picture during these 70 years from 606 through say 536: in Jerusalem, you had Ezekiel and then Jeremiah explaining to those left behind, how their evil caused all the calamity, and the world yet depended on them; Ezekiel gets deported in 597, so only Jeremiah is left behind, brave and ever more persecuted, especially by the puppet kings and their false prophets. Finally the last deportation occurs. Meanwhile, Daniel's at the center of Babylonian and then Persian power, himself persecuted by all the government folks yet strangely revered by the King, calmly and quietly revamping the now-vast empire of Nebuchadnezzar and then Cyrus. Meanwhile, Ezekiel in the second deportation of 597 BC forward is apparently muted and thus can only talk prophecy to the dullards in exile (see Eze1:1-2) from 592 BC onward.

      So people could have voted, but didn't. They didn't vote in Jerusalem, they didn't vote in Babylon. So only a handful of believers are 'carrying' history at this time: Daniel and his three cousins, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and maybe a few other folks scattered here and there. Meanwhile, Nebuchadnezzar goes mad, believes in Christ as then Revealed, gets his sanity back -- but his kingdom doesn't vote as he voted. So they end up getting conquered, too. Just as Jeremiah kept on explaining (i.e., Chapter 25, esp. 25:12).

      Jews are used by God as the paradigm for humanity, so we should learn from them. So what they do wrong, we do wrong. What they do right, we do right. What God promised them, He promises us. So: initially they were supposed to be the Priest Nation, but since they rejected that role -- here, illustrated by the razing of the first Temple, playing out the negative promise of Lev26 -- they are being pogromized. God the Son portrays Himself anthropopathically as the Jealous Husband through much of the OT, especially in prophetical books. Israel is His Possession, His Prize, etc. She, in turn, is in training to become the Bride. When she's ready, ideally, then the Groom will come in the Flesh to fetch Her. All this, the Temple depicted in every detail.

      So when she misbehaves, the Temple goes down -- or, if still standing, she gets punished in some other way. Lev26 lays out the stages of punishment. We should take deep lesson as the Esther replacement; for if when Israel played Vashti, she got cut out -- what should happen therefore to us? Paul makes this point to the puffed-up Roman believers in Romans 11 (beginning the point in Chapter 9).

      So historically, we have a long train of evidence as to how God disciplines His People. We were not His People, but now are His People (theme in Hosea). Notice also how the rise of nations is impacted. Joseph and Moses were the causes for Egypt's prosperity. Daniel was the cause for Babylon's and then Persia's prosperity. So that's the high end, and that explains why the low end -- pogroms and all manner of really horrible disaster -- attend the People God Chose. We should take deep notice, for we are the Bride, now -- and of course any Jew can become Church just as any Gentile could become a Jew by doing what Abraham did, Gen15:6, John 3:16.

      Peasant thinking always projects its own arrogance onto its superiors, in order to put down those superiors, and make the peasant feel better. At the other end, the superiors often put down the peasant, in order to make themselves feel better. God doesn't think like either side. The purpose of promotion is LOVE, and particularly love for those who are under you: PARENTAL. No good parent puts down his kids. No good kids, put down their parents. So God's out to promote everyone, no matter how low. Fatherly thing to do. That's how we should regard our promotion IN Christ -- which is the same way as HE regards it, Isa9:6, Hebrews 2, 5:7-9. So let's learn how to add up the verses, so history's days can keep adding on!

   6. Apparently the same night (or a week later?) in 538BC as the mene mene tekel upharsin hand shows on the wall (Dan5:25ff), Cyrus the Great appointed Darius Cyaxares II to have his General Gobryas, invade Babylon unopposed, entering the otherwise-fortified city through its own (diverted) riverbeds. That was supposed to be 11 Bul (Marchesvan) by the Babylonian calendar, according to the "Babylonia" article in ISBE, which gives both same-night and week-later information on when Belshazzar was violently slain. Belshazzar was King Nabonidus' son and co-regent, but Nebuchadnezzar's grandson through the latter's daughter -- all of Nebuchy's other kids having died over a few years. See also Jeremiah 51:34ff for the prophecy which ties to this event in Dan5. Cultural note: if you are appointed by a king to be a king of a subkingdom, you are a 'son' of that king. It's a legal inheritance thing: the kingdom appointed you reverts to the appointee king at death. So although Darius Cyaxares II is actually Cyrus' uncle -- and truth to tell, should have been ruling instead, but Cyrus defeated Darius' own father, Astyages the Mede -- Darius becomes a 'son' of his nephew. Funny what drama is contained in the simple phrase, "Darius the Mede"! [Bible adopts this same convention of adoption throughout Bible, beginning with the cutting off of Cain and the replacement of Seth, back in early Genesis. Always trace the lines Bible gives you to find the adoption shifts, or you'll go crazy trying to understand how Christ is legally the Messiah.]
   7. This Darius is age 62 when he becomes king, Daniel 5:31. He will end up reigning two years (Daniel 10:1 compared to Dan5:31 and 1:21). During those two years he is tricked into a decree that he should be worshipped. Hence the Daniel and the lion's den, Daniel 6.
   8. Cyrus himself ends up dying in battle in 530 or 529.
   9. He's followed by his son we call Cambyses II, who secretly murdered his younger brother (maybe to avoid civil war, or to maintain power, can't tell which). So a magus named Gautama (cute) pretended to be the brother while Cambyses was away in Egypt. The latter dies by his own hand, per Darius (his successor).
   10. Thus ensued civil war; the nobles finally defeated the magus and replace him. They put Cambyses' general (Darius -- a title), who was also the son of previous Persian King named Hystaspes, on Cambyses' throne in 522 (per Encarta; 521 per ISBE). The new ruler becomes known as Darius I "The Great" Hystaspes, ruling from 522-486BC.
   11. At this point, "Persia" occupies all of Asia Minor, Egypt, Israel (of course), and extends eastward as far as the Indus River. Only the Greeks seem to be able to stop the Persians. They defeat Darius at the Battle of Marathon in 490BC.

   12. So Esther's husband, our Xerxes I, is Darius the Great's son, ruling circa 485-465BC. He too spends a lot of time warring with the Athenian Greeks. He loses the naval Battle of Salamis to the Greeks under Themistocles in 480BC; at that point he'd been fighting the Greeks for about 20 years, and Herodotus has a lot to say about him. It is noteworthy that the oracle of Delphi (meaning, Satan&Co.) was involved in provoking the Battle of Salamis in 480BC, which was an astounding victory against the Persians -- even after the Persians had burnt Athens down earlier that same year.

   13. Now, note the 'coincidence' of the dates, with God's 490 Accounting. The Vashti thing had happened two years prior, in 482BC (Esther 1:3). Esther meets him two years later, in 478 BC (Est2:16). This is no mere love story. Looks like she entered the harem for her beautification preparation in 480 BC. The beautification lasted a year; figure another year for the search and collection of the virgins to contest as Vashti's replacement (which is at least reasonable, if not too fast), and you have the local-to-Susa Esther, going in 480 BC. Takes a while for a king to 'visit' individually with all those virgins and pick one. Much harder than "The Bachelor" on TV. So four years elapse between Vashti's refusal, and Esther's selection (again, Est 2:16 compared to 1:3). Meanwhile, Greeks and Persians are slaughtering each other; lots of political turnover going on.

       Think on this: you're Xerxes I, and technically your subjects are supposed to worship you. That's the oriental style of kingship. But at the same time, you've just proved not only you, but your dad was not favored by the gods, since this little Greek group of tribes had been continually defeating you, and hampering your control, for well over 20 years. (Personally, you respect their prowess much; your son will end up respecting so much the very general who defeated the father, the son will welcome the general and feed him for life -- when the Greeks themselves reject that same Themistocles.) So your kingdom is in peril, really. You have enemies in your own court, just dying to find a way to kill you, so to restore the 'honor' of the gods. So: the last thing you want to do, is pick some queen whose god claims to repudiate all the other gods. To do that, is to risk all-out civil war. Or at least, the intrigue which culminated in the Haman conspiracy.

       Come on: no king will pick someone from the harem without an extensive background check. It's not as though Xerxes I didn't know Esther was Jewish. Doesn't matter that Mordecai warned her not to tell her ancestry; she was living in Susa at the time, and mouths other than hers, are all too eager to talk for a little gimmel gelt. So either he really loved her, or he was crazy. For he surely knew the potential political suicide he was committing to make her queen, 2 years after the defeat at Salamis. This same Xerxes I will end up murdered by one of his generals (more on that follows in #6, "Epilogue", below).

       Jeremiah 44:17-18 -- people worship whomever seemingly gives them body stuff, feeds their egos. Never mind, what the truth is. Never mind, who the Real God is. So this Xerxes I either ended up believing in Adonai Elohenu, which took great courage to do, risking his kingdom -- or was nutso. No middle ground. I'd bet Xerxes I asked Esther point-blank about her God before the marriage, and since she must answer him truthfully, she did. I'd further bet that he believed in the Jewish God, but for political reasons, didn't let on or felt he couldn't let his personal faith intrude on his political rule. Or, he was nuts. Again, no middle ground. Bible doesn't say which it was, so far as I can yet tell.

       Oh: Israel's King David retired from Kingship in 970BC. 490 years after that is 480 BC, so the protection for the world owing to David's own God-given Blessing-by-Association timeline, is expiring. The Temple's own 490 was gonna run out in 460BC (950-490). After that, there are no more 490's left to bless the world, except the one given Daniel; and it, was contingent on a thing which hasn't happened till yet: the rebuilding of Jerusalem. GOD had decreed it to begin 516BC. [ For how many centuries have we misread Who Made The Decree in Daniel 9:24-25? Why did we think it was Cyrus or Darius? No wonder we can't get the accounting in Daniel 9 to balance from 538BC or whatever date we use for Cyrus! It isn't Cyrus' decree that is the accounting basis, but God's! And God's basis is clearly stated: 586-70=516 is the deadline for the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, to commence. Neither king was speaking to Daniel in Dan9:24-25, but an angel was announcing His King's Decree -- God! Could it be more obvious, since the Hebrew "dabar" is used -- Word of the Lord, get it? So oh! Now that we know Whose Decree, suddenly the accounting in Dan9 balances perfectly! Mirroring.htm has the details in its "To Be or Not to Be" intra-page link at its pagetop. Grammatically, GOD decrees in v.24, and there is no change to a new speaker or actor in v.25. So the One Decreeing in v.24 is Still Talking in v.25. Sheesh, how we love to cut God's Head off and switch to some mere man decreeing, interrupting God! The usual kant about it being Cyrus' decree or some other mere man's decree is incredible. First-year seminary you are taught to track the nominatives. Oh, how God must love us despite ourselves: we, so very sincere, scholastic, hardworking believing humans don't even get it -- because we cut God out of a Bible verse, and put a man in, instead! End Romans 7! What a Savior we are blessed to have! What satanic opposition there is, too -- how is it for centuries we all didn't notice Who was decreeing, in Dan9:24? Forget the Exorcist-type movies: Satan&Co.'s main activity is to block out our ability to see Bible. And they are devastatingly good at it, as this blindness to Dan9:24, depicts.]

       But the 'votes' weren't there. Enough only to finish the Temple. Then, Israel lapsed into unbelief again (quintessential human trait), so there was no Jerusalem. That's why the times are so arrogant, self-centered, and violent, worldwide. Rise of culture and rise of war, go together. Why people call this period a "golden age", I'll never fathom. It was a period of concentrated evil, a time of Satan&Co. winning as the "gods" over The Real One, all over the earth.

       Temple got completed on time, but Daniel 9:25 relates to the rebuilding of Jerusalem itself. And it's not done yet. No wonder there is so much war. David had died 7 years after he retired from Kingship, so the 490 related to his death, ends in the very year of the Haman conspiracy. So had that conspiracy been successful, there'd have been no Temple -- note that the Temple is still under Persian suzerainty that year! So if the "Purim" decree to massacre the Jews had gone through, you can bet that all the Jews in Jerusalem would have been killed, and the Temple razed; and history, over. So this Purim is a pretty dramatic event: you and I would not be here, without God's deliverance back then.

       So note the confluence:

   14. Due to Cyrus, the Temple could be rebuilt: its foundation stone was laid -- get this -- on 24 Chislev (25 Chislev begins at sundown), probably 537 BC. 537 BC is the 129th '7' from the Exodus, so it might be the right year. 5 BC, the year Elizabeth gets pregnant and Mary receives the Annunciation, is also divisible by 7. So when we read the 2nd year of Darius the Mede, it's the same thing as Cyrus' 2nd year. Of course our history books don't call him Darius the Mede, which was how he was known at the time, locally. Encarta puts Cyrus' takeover of Babylon at 539 BC; ISBE and others, at 538BC. Depending on whether the year is beginning or end-of, the 2nd year in 537 BC, either way. So Temple rebuilding began in 537BC.

   15. If 537 BC, Daniel 9:24 takes on new significance: God enacted His Answer to Daniel's prayer immediately. The foundation stone was laid more than a year after Israel had returned to build the Temple, Ezra 3:8. So they returned in 538BC, same year as Daniel prayed. We really don't appreciate the power of prayer, and not one Christian in a million knows how to pray. Prayer properly done gets heard, every time, whether you're a spiritual giant like Daniel, or a spiritual jerk like me. Look: Darius the Mede ruled 538-536 BC for Cyrus, as we saw above. So Daniel got God's answer in 538BC, Daniel 9:1 tells you that. So Daniel 9:25 is on GOD's (not man's) decree to rebuild Temple and Jerusalem. So God's answer stresses, I won't decree the rebuilding of Jerusalem until the Temple is finished, complete with timeline: 586-70=516, the date God decrees for the Temple to be finished, and the date His Decree to rebuild Jerusalem, will begin. Which He then parses out into sub-components of time, to show Daniel how that Decree will play out in time until the very END of time:
       • 586BC -70 =
       • 516BC -70 ('reimbursement' since 2nd Temple completed in time) =
       • 446BC -49 (seven 'sevens', partial reimbursement on what time the 1st Temple was still 'owed') =
       • 397BC-364 =
       • 33 BC-70 =
       • 37AD, the very end of all time allotted, because
       • 364+70=434, the 62 "sevens", another 'reimbursement' composed of the 364 years the 1st Temple was standing, plus a 70-year voting period. The 70-year voting period is again added, because the first two (516-70, and 446-70) restored the original configuration. So the 70-year voting period can be granted as originally scheduled, though of course now it happens later in time.
       • For the original 1st Temple Time Allotment is thus allocated and measured back: 490-364-70-49-7 reserved for Trib=0, balances. God is the Ultimate Accountant. [This is soooo obvious. Why hasn't Christendom ever noticed it? Why do we always get God's Dating Scheme so screwed up? And then we blame Bible for our obtuseness? Sheesh.]
       Much more than Daniel asked to know, huh. But God Explains Why, always. And the Why, is that the Messiah must be born and die in time. Hence the decree is justified. And that, only because the 1000th anniversary of King David's Death ends 37AD. Mirroring.htm's "David" link walks you through the math.

       So "first year of Cyrus" in Ezra 1:1 would be the year prior (esp. since he's designated as king of Persia). So Daniel 9:2 is Daniel's recognition of the 70-year deadline to rebuild the Temple, and that's the impetus for his prayer. [Bible is very precise when it dates a thing; first you must determine what idiom of dating is being used. For example, in Ezra 5:13, the idiom is to the current king of Persia, so Cyrus as king of Babylon is used, since that designates the year he became king of Babylon, having already been King of Persia when he did it. Ezra 6:3 doesn't have an added descriptor, but just his name -- due to prior context of 5:13. So 6:3, 5:13 and 1:1 = the first year of Darius the Mede in Dan9:1; but not the first year of Cyrus in Dan1:21, since that was when Cyrus took over from Darius the Mede (who died); so it IS the first year of Cyrus, relatively speaking (directly); but the third year of Cyrus, absolutely (indirectly). It's a painstaking thing to work with Bible dates. When you think you see a contradiction, assume that you lack information; never assume the Bible is wrong due to a scribal error until you have proof in some other Bible manuscript. Too many go extra-Biblical for their sources, as if what's outside the Bible is somehow more reliable. Balderdash.]

       To say "immediately" doesn't mean you get all the answer at once. Notice how the Book of Daniel is structured. God starts the answer right away, but God has a much bigger answer than Daniel expected. So God starts His Answer with a setup, getting Daniel and his cousins so they can live there in Babylon yet not violate the Law (i.e., the dietary restrictions). Then, God continues His Answer by giving Nebuchadnezzar a dream which only Daniel -- immediately, within 12 hours -- knows. That answer teaches Daniel the outline of history to the end of time. The Why is given first, the big picture. Then, Chapter 3 rolls out with a test for Daniel's cousins, which sets up Nebuchadnezzar for Chapter 4. And why? Because (Chapter 2) -- Nebuchadnezzar is that head of gold. (Statue dimensions rather suggest an obelisk vaguely cast like a human, a kind of phallic pillar representation like our Washington Monument, but with a head on top, maybe; look how Egypt similarly crafted representations of its gods.) So God is playing out the answer for Daniel, live. It's a crash course in the rest of history: for Daniel. Why Daniel? Because God talks to you when you talk to Him using His Protocol. If kings of the mere earth have protocol you must follow, how much more, should God? How we Christians disrespect Him, to think He should just slobber over us, not have fellowship rules of His Own! Disgusting.

       Then comes the silver part of the Chapter 2 'man' outline of history, and Daniel gets more in-depth answer via the Medes and the Persians taking over (Chapter 5). Then Chapter 6 is a furtherance of the answer -- giving now-elderly Daniel an outlet to express his gratitude, and providing yet further setup for the crescendo, the official Decree of Chapters 7- 9. We humans need time to absorb learning. It's not enough to get an answer. We need time to think it over and internalize. Moreover, God likes doing things big and small, weaving them together. So prayer is always answered immediately: but the answer is huge -- "more than we can ask or imagine", as Paul puts it in Ephesians 3:20 -- and is rolled out.

       To say "immediately" doesn't imply Daniel had never asked for the Temple's restoration, prior. What instead results, is the recognition of when was the right time to pray. See, Prayer is a voting. It requires some tenacity. What happens is that you learn as a result of praying. As you are talking to God, if you're breathing 1Jn1:9 you hear His Answer immediately, principle of John 14:26, not dreams or visions (for Church, we have Canon in writing so don't need that pre-Cross kindergarten stuff). So you alter what you are going to say next. Thus you mature in your understanding about what you are praying. So what happened to Daniel, was that he knew he should keep voting, but he also knew God was training him -- and of course he knew God was saying "not yet" as the answer. For Daniel knew the 70 years was the criterion. Daniel then knew the same fact, from what Jeremiah had confirmed -- Jeremiah's scribe came there in 594BC, reading the warning proclamation of God against Babylon, then throwing it into the Euphrates (Jer 51:63). Daniel also knew God was evangelizing Babylon through him -- most especially, Nebuchadnezzar himself. So you too also know while praying, what the answer is. But that doesn't mean you stop praying. For prayer is a voting.

       So when Cyrus takes over, Daniel knows when to pray: for obviously he knew -- as certainly as Nebuchadnezzar had -- that until the proclamation against Babylon would be finished, there would be no rebuilding of the Temple. Well, when Belshazzar was slain, that was the fulfilling of the proclamation. So Now it was the right time to pray for the Temple, in 538BC. Just as you know you go to the polls every four years for a Presidential election, so you prepare for it in advance, so also you prepare for prayer, by study and prayer. Spiritual life is a thinking. You gotta practice the thinking. Prayer is a vote, it's conversation with God (look how David handled it, talking to God all the time about everything). And it's the best thinking practice, to talk to God in HIS Terms about what you are learning. Relationship is always a thinking, never really a doing. Shared thinking.

       Prayer is VOTING. So, God replies; as always, you get more than you asked for with God, Haggai 2:15-24, Mal3:10ff, Luke 6:38! It's not about people, but about God! GOD gives! You give a measly vote of barely-positive volition, what else can you do with your sin-in-Adam nature. God then turns around and moves heaven and earth, time, pours and pours and pours. I can't even think of a prayer I prayed which God didn't answer, or which I didn't know the answer before I finished praying. But then, I know the protocol for prayer. Because, Love never coerces, and Love always wants to pour. So He withholds, when we withhold our Positive Votes. True since Adam. True forever future. Try it yourself, and see for yourself: GodSystem.htm (link at pagetop, far left) has a short item #5 which lists the proper protocol for prayer. Again, try it yourself, see for yourself! [Repeated prayer with your brain on is essential. Forget rote/set prayers, unless you make up the words yourself and understand them as you are saying them. The Lord warned us not to pray mindlessly like the Gentiles, nor legalistically like the Pharisees. And you know something? Whenever people bug me for answers in Bible, I tell them to ask God -- and they won't, as if getting the answer from me were somehow preferable. What, they want my doo-doo instead of His Diamonds? So I don't answer them anymore. Writing these webpages is something God wants so I can learn Him better -- I don't internalize what I learn unless I write it out as if for someone else. So that's why I know this stuff and they do not: I never stop asking Him. Don't you, either. His Word is Priceless!]

   16. Relevant Bible verses are many, in the post-exile historical books. Click here to jump to their full-text listing. Most important are Ezra 3:1-10, covering 538-537BC, focusing on Rosh Hashanah and Ziv: these two dates correspond to the Dedication of the 1st Temple (1Ethanim 950BC, see 1Kings 8) and the month the First Temple's foundation was laid, 1Kings 6. So next compare Haggai 2:15, 18, and esp. 20,23 -- which jump to 16 years later, when Temple construction resumes and ends (ties to Ezra 6). So get this: wry context of Haggai 2:20 (doubling, sign of Hypostatic Union), V.23 indicates Messiah will be born on 25 Chislev, "signet ring" and "on that day" wordplay on the previous foundation date, being keys. Compare to the signet ring and foundation-Temple-laying language in Jer22:24,30, Zechariah 4:6-10! God is no longer paralleling to First Temple, now that the Second Temple's foundation is laid. And what He tells Zerubbabel, is that he will be the foundation of Messiah. Again, no longer a parallel to the Solomonic line, which got cut off with Jeconiah. So this new paralleling of Temple and Sonship, are tied to each other. Cut out, graft in.

   17. Ezra 3:8 says that in the month of Ziv -- same month as for 1st Temple, 1Kings 6:1 -- the 2nd Temple's work initially began. So notice the parallel to Bul, the month the 1st Temple was completed: that First Temple should have been dedicated in Chislev 953 BC as a result of being completed in Bul. But it wasn't done until 1 Ethanim 950BC, almost three years later, 1Kings 8:1. 2nd Temple's foundation was laid on 24 Chislev 537 BC: Ezra 3:10 compared with Haggai 2:18-20. Since God uses wordplay on David's ordained birth and death in 1Kings 6:1 (David was born 400 years after the Exodus and would have been 80 years old in the 480th year of the Exodus), I'd bet money that his birthdate or death date is being referenced here in Haggai 2:18-20, but as yet can't prove it.

       See, the 490 running from David's initial Kingship over Hebron (1010 BC) runs out in 520 BC (1010-490). So when God dispatches Haggai to talk to Zerubbabel and remind him of the propitious laying of the foundation stone back in 537 BC 24 Chislev, it's 521 BC. Zerubbabel would have known the 490 from David's initial kingship would run out (say) 18 months later. For in those days, everything was reckoned in years from a significant king's dates. God's Accounting for Time is in those terms, itself. So THAT's why what Haggai says to Zerubbabel, is so significant: Time Deadline! Davidic Deadline is approaching! And YOU are the "signet ring" (seed, = zeru) of David! So honor Father and your father! For the next Davidic deadline (490 years after David's death) is seven years later, but the 70-year Decree Deadline runs out in five years! For surely Daniel told Zerubbabel his own half-cousin, of God's answer (Daniel was of the Royal Family too, descended from David and Abigail, search on "Daniel" verses in the OT, esp. Dan1:6).

   18. After the long hiatus, 2nd Temple construction RE-began on 24 Elul, 521BC. (2nd year of Darius the Great, reigned 522-486 BC, see Haggai 1:15.) [This cuts out the possibility that maybe 523 BC was when Haggai 2 occurred, given Haggai 1:15. The only way it could be 523 BC, was if Darius came to power in 524 BC. I don't know how much leeway there is in his accession dates. I've not yet checked that out.]

       When God does numbers convergence, He does it to demonstrate He's GOD so you can know you didn't hallucinate. So you can be sure of dates. So you can be clearer on Doctrine. This isn't that incredibly-blasphemous Bible Codes nonsense, which impugns the Holy Word down to the level of an acrostic for people who want to be entertained and titillated, never learning What God Writes. Rather, all numbers in Bible have a Doctrinal Significance, so you can Learn God Better. God, not when to play the stock market or predict the Rapture. Sheesh: we don't want to learn Him at all.

       So let's see the Doctrine here demonstrated by the Orchestration of Time: Learning God, buys the World Time, for all Time is built around Messiah, Hebrews 1:2. [Which in translation should say not "world", but "covenantal epochs" or "Ages".] See, God wants you to see how important HE is. Since you're part of Him once a believer, that makes what you think and do important. So you can thus orient to the Time. Else, you'll waste your time. Further, if you need real proof versus the many false doctrines and counterfeit ideas of God are out there -- what better proof can you have, than the Word which tells you what Time it is? Only God can Orchestrate Time. Numbers help you test that. So watch:

       Compare the 24th of Elul date for recommencement of Temple building, to Nehemiah 6:15, which shows the Wall of Jerusalem (signifying completion of the city by God's Accounting) being finished on the 25th of Elul, 446BC. This is no coincidence. So preparation through foundation construction occupied 537 BC, starting in Ziv (Ezra 3:8); that 24 Chislev, the first foundation stone was laid (Ezra 3:10 compared to Haggai 2:10,15,18, 20, 23); the foundation was finished in 537 BC but construction had to stop due to orders from the King (Ezra 4:5, 24). Then building recommenced 15 years later (compare Ezra 5:1 to Haggai 1:1). So an interval of 15 years ensued between Temple foundation's start and Temple building re-commencement, 536-521BC. "15" is the number of days a priest serves in Temple during a year, as well as the most-common commencement date for a festival in the Bible, i.e., Passover begins on the 14th AT sundown, which is the 15th in Jewish night-first accounting. Booths in the fall begins on the 15th and is a 'mirror' of Passover Week, as explained earlier in this "Modest Proposal" subsection.

       Notice further a 6-year period for building the Temple proper, since all that had been done back in 537BC, was just the foundation, from Ziv through Chislev (Ezra 3:10). So beginning mid-way through 521BC they start again, finishing at 3 Adar (last month of year), 516BC (Ezra 6:15). So seven months followed by the 15-year hiatus; then beginning again, one-half year; then four full years, then 11 months. Total is 6 years: so "in the 2nd year" and "in the sixth year" of Darius (the Great, here) means they began and ended nearly coterminous with the beginning and ending of those regnal years, as well. Thus you know God raised Darius to protect all that rebuilding, with God matching Significant Day to Significant Day. And notice: 7 years total, when you tack on the waste, for they returned a year prior, in 538BC. 7 years allotted for construction, just like back in 1Kings 6. God watches the time, keeps the time, even when we waste time. The 15 years' hiatus is not Israel's fault, so is not counted against her. God watches justice, too: even when we are helpless and victimized. [There's also an accounting tie to the amalgamated 20-year period it took for Solomon to complete both the Temple and all his other buildings, but it takes too long to explain: it's outside the scope of this webpage.]

       Now for the Doctrine Taught: if He'd do that careful an accounting of Israel's time, then how much more will He do in your life, since you are part of Christ Himself (i.e., as stated via all the "in Him" verses in the NT)? Israel was never 'part' of Christ, because He hadn't yet come. But you are, from the very day you were born. Christ paid for AlL the future human race 2000 years ago! Granted, your "in" status didn't turn "on" until you believed, John 3:16 -- but the potential remained. And remains, for everyone born.

       For, don't you think that you -- no mere dead stone, but paid for with the Living Thinking of Christ on the Cross, theme of Romans 6 -- don't you think that you are worth more to God than a building? Especially since the Building always stood for the Living Monument of Christ (see last half of Eph2)? Your life is orchestrated, too. Trick is to get on God's Timing for your life. Which means you live in God's System, and never stop hearing/talking with Him. That's why we get Bible in writing. So we can have an unending conversation, at God's Own Level, Eph4:13, 1Cor2:16, Col 1:25-27, 2Cor5:14-21. DDNA, baby. Growing you up from baby-in-Christ to a mature-as-Christ person, Eph4:13-14. Via your own God-appointed right pastor (not a denominational issue), Eph4:16. [Ephesians 4:12-16 is mistranslated in every Bible I can read in any language, so I had to retranslated it in Eph41216.htm.]

       Next, back in 537 BC the foundation was laid on the 24th of Chislev, which caused such a fuss with those hating Israel, they got Cyrus to stop construction, end Ezra 4. The Lord will be born 25 Chislev 4BC, exactly on an anniversary of both the laying of the 2nd Temple's foundation stone; and, the date God announced Messiah would be coming from Zerubbabel's seed (a pun on his name). God makes a big stink out 24/25 Chislev in Haggai. Click here to jump to their full-text listing, look for the underlined, medium-blue font phrases.

       Preview of coming attractions: So the Ezra 3:8 Ziv date is 537BC, probably. So the announcement to Zacharias in Luke 1 is in Ziv, 5 BC. Both are anniversary years of the Exodus evenly divided by 7. Next, the Temple Building re-commenced on 24 Elul 521 BC (Haggai 1:15). The Wall of Jerusalem was finished on 25 Elul, 446BC per Neh6:15. The pregnancy of Elizabeth occurred in Elul 5BC. Understand, you were taught to measure like this to see God's Hand in a thing; so you couldn't possibly mistake the orchestration.

   19. 2nd Temple was rededicated 3 Adar 516BC, Ezra 6:15. Adar is the last month of the sacred year, but the sixth month of the civil year. Yet dating in God's Accounting functions like birthdays do, and ancient secular calendars often ran the same way. So when you hit your 70th birthday, it's the beginning of your 70th year. So the 70-year piece in God's Timeline ran out on the end of the 70th year of the 1st Temple's demise, 10 Ab 586-70=9Ab 515 BC. (Ezra wasn't there at the time; he's the third generation writing also of the time prior to his arrival in 458BC per Ezra7:7-8.) Just as, it would almost run out again on Adar 13th back in 474 or 473 BC, when David's 490 'attached' to his death year, ran out. Do you see a pattern, here?

       You'll need to remember all these seemingly-irrelevant or arcane facts when you get to Father's orchestration of the Lord's 25 Chislev (!) Birthday, because every date here for the 2nd Temple is used to craft when the pregnancy of John will be announced (Ziv, 5 BC), when Elizabeth will conceive (Elul); when Mary gets her Annunciation (Adar), etc. It's incredible, the confluence. In the year He is born, on the one hand you can posit the calendar got intercalated prior, and His Brithdate still works. Or -- which I guess scholars presume -- that the Jewish calendar is only intercalated every fourth year, so His Birthdate is thus 'off' intercalation by 14.4 days; so that year, 25 Chislev=25 December on the calendar we use. (Actually, it works out the same whether intercalated or not, for different reasons.) Basically, between then and our modern era (post 1750's), 14-20 days got cut from the calendar itself, by various adjustments made by popes and governments, trying desperately to bring the calendar back in line. That's not the entire solution to the confluence with our calendar, but it does mean that somewhere in the world, 25 December is His Birthday each year. (If 5BC was intercalated post-Annunciation, 25 Chislev 4BC still =25 December 4BC, but in a different way.)

5. Purim's significance, Recapped: Purim itself, happening more than a generation after the Temple was finished, isn't ostensibly about the Temple, but about how a genocide of Jews was avoided by Esther's intervention. Yet Daniel 9 couldn't have come true, else. The Temple got done in time so that Daniel 9 490-year-grant is 'on'. So if Jerusalem didn't get rebuilt -- and it almost did not, due to the Haman conspiracy -- we'd all not be here. God is not a computer: if He ever sinned; if He ever shied away from Absolute Justice even for a nanosecond 'anywhere in time' -- nothing would exist, ab initio. Or, worse -- it would be so horrible, you can't begin to imagine. So it's a real thing, this orchestration of time, l'moed in Hebrew. So Book of Zechariah is about the rebuilding of Jerusalem, since the Temple is being built; hence its focus is more on the Messiah prophecy, now that Zerubbabel is the chosen seed (cute play on his Babylonian name of Sheshbazzar, but "zera" means seed in Hebrew as well). For if the Temple is completed, then Justice can keep on granting time for the city to be completed, too. For the Votes are Enough. That's why you can't predict the Rapture, either. Time is Always Contingent On Votes to Learn and Live with God. Justice is consistent at any time.
   • So Because The Votes Were Enough: By 465 BC, which is 8 years after the Haman conspiracy -- not only are the Jews still in favor with Persian kings, but one of them is the Queen Mother, Esther. The other main Jew in the King's Presence is effectively his chief of the entire empire: Mordecai. So what do you expect the reaction to be? Not good. So in that same 465 BC -- either due to anti-semitism or the upset over defeats by the Greeks -- a Persian general named Artabanus, murdered her husband Xerxes I, and instead put one of Xerxes' sons (probably not by her, but I can't prove it) on the throne. The Decree to Rebuild Jerusalem required by Daniel 9:24-25 has still not been MET. The world at this point has less than 20 years left to live (the 2nd, mirrored 70-year voting period runs out in 446BC).
   • The son is known to history as Artaxerxes "Longimanus" (maybe because he was a prolific writer?), reigning 465-425 BC. He proves just as friendly to the Jews as most of his predecessors -- and even befriended Themistocles, who was the Greek general defeating Longimanus' father back in 480 BC (Greece had ostracised Themistocles, lol); no doubt, all this friendliness to foreigners angered many Persians. [Royals are always educated. So if he's called Longimanus -- a Latin word -- maybe it was due to his being so fluent in language, not because he could write. Sometimes Western scholars are quite prejudiced against "orientals" (which term once spanned Middle East through Far East): yeah, and they were civilized while we Westerners still worshipped trees.]
   • This is the Artaxerxes of Nehemiah and Ezra 7 (that's when Ezra himself actually comes to Israel).
   • So everything depended on Longimanus' favorable attitude toward Ezra and (13 years later, Neh1:1) Nehemiah. Notice how Nehemiah does what Daniel did, in Daniel 9: Nehemiah votes to God (aka prayer; it's really a legal protocol thing, like voting -- only way more important and stronger voting, see 2Chron7:14). Notice how Nehemiah is "cupbearer" to the king, an extremely important advisory role (the sillier the title, the more important it really is). Per Nehemiah Chapters 1-2, Longimanus and he were on very good terms. So the latter granted him return to Jerusalem in 446. Right at the last minute, the wall was built over fifty-two days (Neh 6:15): 516 -70 year mirror back piece equals 446BC, the 75th anniversary of the re-commencement of Temple building in 521BC in Haggai 1:15.
   • So thanks to God's intervention using Esther back circa 478 BC (Est2:16), Nehemiah and Ezra could complete Jerusalem's rebuilding in time.
   • So Temple and Jerusalem's rebuilding, was tested and contested for almost 100 years following its commencement (538-446BC), just as Daniel 9:25 said. You'll find that in the last 100-120 years of a '490' unit, this kind of thing happens: lots of warring, lots of evangelism, lots of back-to-God-in-Scripture. It's a trend in history you can trace even post-Cross (main theme of MirrorNOW.htm). Last 4 generations. Because, the 490 'person' (no entities, post-Israel) must be completed for time to continue, and Satan&Co. are out to stop that. They couldn't stop the 2nd Temple (which got the 490 due to Daniel's prayer and Jews voting).
   • Again, a promise can be rejected, theme of Romans 9. Within 12 years after the Wall's completion, the rejection is back on again, Nehemiah 13:6ff. The last book of the OT will be written then: Book of Malachi. Very terse book.

6. Epilogue: considering all the major empire warring going on during this time, the wall was completed none too soon. Longimanus' sons all murdered each other; an illegitimate son finally murders the last legitimate son; then, he ascends the throne and takes the name of Darius II. He lasts until 404 BC; Persian decline then proceeds swiftly: typical every-successor-gets-murdered story of an dying empire. Alexander the Great will administer the final blow. Once upon a time, no one could defeat Persia.

   So the meanwhile, as you can see from this brief recap of the region's history, everyone around Israel was at war. This is the classical period, the golden age for Greece and Persia; also, its bloodiest period. [It's pretty astonishing, how classical Greek is so Hebraistic (i.e., the dramas and their concepts, many of the idioms and terms). Wonder if anyone ever did a dissertation on the similarities.]

   It was a golden period for Israel, doctrinally, and He prospered her. For Canon was completed, the last book being Malachi; then it is distributed. Right on God's Daniel 9 Timeline, too: 516-70-70=446-49=397BC. So notice three things:

   1. the 49 years is for the completion and distribution of Canon.
   2. There are four generations between 446-323 BC, when Alexander took over. Four-generation curse. The generations who came back were positive while under adversity, but almost as soon as the walls were dry on 24 Elul 446BC, Israel soon lapsed again. You can tell by the way (the latter halves of) Ezra, Nehemiah, and (all of) Malachi were written, that the lapse was serious. The truncated terseness in these books tells you much. No new revelation. Malachi is a review of the Court Case of the Groom with His Bride Israel, warning of abrogation, with the promise of the herald of Messiah coming at the end. Warning! Bridegroom is Coming! And they know how long that will be, because...
   3. Since the original Temple stood for 364 years, and because the 2nd Temple is standing, God measures back the "62 sevens" (434 years, =364+70), which ends 37AD.
   David's 1000th anniversary of consolidated Kingship ended 3BC (=late 4BC, when subtracting years from years); and David's 1000th anniversary of Abdication to implement 2Sam7, ended 30AD. David's 1000th anniversary of death -- which enacted the 2Sam7 promise -- ended 37AD. So the Messiah in Daniel 9:25-26 must be born by 3BC, must die no later than 37AD, and thus has the same number of regnal years as David (for Messiah would be born a King), 40. Of course, we know that Israel rejected Him, so He had to Abdicate instead like David did -- to fulfill/complete the enactment of 2Sam7 -- by 30AD. Which is what happened. Right on time, exactly as foretold by the structure of the Passover holiday.

   So notice something else: from 397-323 BC, Persia was crumbling, and Greece would overtake, just as the angel explained to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2, and then in detail to Daniel, in Daniel Chaps 10-12. That Greek was Alexander. So due to Alexander the Great, Greek became a 'common' language, and the New Testament could be written. The New Testament is chock-full of Atticisms owing to the popularity of Greek drama in the culture, which today scholars neglect (they didn't used to do that). But the underlying language is koine. So people could more readily understand it when Christ came, and what the Gospel is. God orchestrates history without gerrymandering a thing! Man proposes, but only God, disposes. And when God disposes of a people, a nation -- He does it, to bless them the more. He disposed His Son to dispose of sin. And we stupid humans, keep on proposing the goofy idea that we can do something of value. Even if we could, look -- we can instead be exchanged into HIS Nature, contract in Isa53:10-12, which Paul cites in Romans 12:1-3! So why settle for being what you are, since the contract is to make you like HIM, instead? [So of course Romans 12:1-3 is egregiously mistranslated to make it look like man's works count, totally reversing Paul's point: see Rom121-3.htm. Other passages are 1Jn3, and all of 1 Cor and Ephesians -- both of the latter books are horribly mistranslated too, always cutting God's head off, just like the translators do with the Book of James (which is on the same topic). I don't have time to retranslate all that, but I tried to point out the tenor of the translation problem in 1Cor in ArchiDes.htm's endnotes; Eph41216.htm retranslates Eph4:12-16 so you can at least see that part telling you the idea is to BECOME Him in Thinking, which God chooses to make happen through whomever HE appoints as your own right pastor (it's not a denominational issue). As for the Book of James, comments on the egregious mistranslations in Chapter 2 are scattered throughout 'my' websites. My pastor exegeted the Book's relevant passages in 1991 and he exegeted all of Ephesians verse by verse over seven years from 1985-1991. So you can get those for free, yourself. OR, under whomever God appoints as YOUR right pastor (that's always the better option, to go with God's choice for you).]

   To get the significance of the language change, think of how today most of the world speaks at least some English. God rolled out Greek, back then. Because, those who would be writing the New Testament would be employed by God to do it in Greek. Greek, not English (which didn't exist then). So it could disseminate faster. Now only the original authors' writings are inspired -- translations are all errant, no way you can translate the Word as good as the original -- but most of the teachers who know the Word well, speak English. Same basic idea: the language the world needs is the language of the people God sends. So again, like time -- only God can orchestrate language.

   So don't settle for learning Bible in translation, since obviously the world is being taught the original language of most of the best teachers. God knows all languages, and can teach anyone anything. So it becomes a symptom of negativity to God, if someone refuses to learn Bible in its original-language texts. People in the Dark Ages could only get original-language Bible if they became a monk or nun, yet you have this incredible proliferation of monasteries in Europe and Russia, beginning around the 4th century AD onward. Missionary activity spread that even further. Yet today, with interest in Bible at an all-time low and high, simultaneously -- we, however remote -- we all can just dial up to the internet and get it. So who do you think has more responsibility to learn?

In sum, Chanukah and Purim are tied in meaning to Pentecost, like bookends. Result? This stretched-out Pentecost 'harvesting' period is the gateway, and is thus reflected on the 'other side' of the calendar by 11 Chislev. Moreover, causality between the first harvest's completion and the second harvest's completion is stressed. There won't BE a 'new year' (Millennium) until and unless the harvesting completes. Since chronologically Chanukah precedes in the annual calendar, but is historically predicated on Purim, it makes a nice, tidy package.

Notice how the 'activity' of this stretched-out Pentecost, is indeed a kind of Purim, Matt16:18, Matt22: gathering the harem in order to rescue everyone, including (as always) the Jews. Chanukah fits in, because if Jewish time is rescued, then the "abomination" state of the Temple can be recovered and rebuilt at the 2nd Advent, just as Ezekiel Chaps 39ff (rest of the book) promises. So in a way, time is suspended at the 'Pentecost' of world history, passing over the remaining holidays to Purim; in so doing, the Rosh HaShanah through Chanukah Holidays are encircled, as it were; so they are redeemed, and can play out as promised: but out of their initial intended order, due to Israel's Rejection. So the first are last, and the last, first. But all are enfolded via the 'Esther' which will be Church, theme of Romans 11, Heb11:40. How long that will take to accomplish, no one knows.

After writing this webpage in 2006, I made the following videos summarizing a) Bible statements He was born on Chanukah, and b) how Bible never says there was a 'star' over Bethlehem, but an angel. You'll need to watch fullscreen and in HD (the '720p' setting), to well read the text beginning with the fourth video in the playlist. If the videos here don't work for you, watch them on Youtube, CLICK HERE.

We just saw in the "Chanukah" subsection above, how lapses in Jewish-calendar intercalation made 11 Chislev=15 Chislev = 25 Chislev. We also just saw that Haggai 2 in effect folds in what became Chanukah 357 years later, and what became Purim, 47 years later, and that in Haggai 2, God predicates Booths on Weeks on Pentecost, tying them all to 25 Chislev. But is that all we have to go on for His Birthday? Oh, there's much much more in Bible on His Birthdate! Whole calendar is built on it! So let's see how. This subsection is very long and involves a lot of number crunching and Bible-verse research, sorry.

You probably know that many people dispute the idea He was born at Christmas. It is true that the Roman Catholic Church used the pagan Saturnalia festival to claim Christ was born then. Back when He really was here, Saturnalia began 25 December on the Julian calendar. It lasted for a week. Roman god Saturn was deemed the god of the harvest and later -- god of time, combining him with Greek Chronos of the same character -- so had the nickname "Father time". Gifts were given out, people venerated their little home ancestral god statues (called "Lares") mid-week.

Christmas as a holiday apparently began with Constantine. The early Christians didn't celebrate it as a special day, so far as we know. Hence the current fad of many Christians who (inter alia) prowl the chat channels, saying that Christmas is a fraud, just one of many lies instituted by the Roman Catholic Church. Would they ever be surprised if they read this section, to see how God converges all time on His Son! Which in the Year He is Born, ties the Roman Saturnalia and Jewish Chanukah holidays together!

Frankly, King David knew when His Greater Son would be born, and inculcated the Levites with that information; bear in mind, there was no such thing as Chanukah or Purim, back then. Since we moderns never bother to translate Hebrew names, we don't know all the prophecy in the names. And especially, we don't know the embedded prophecy in the names of the Levitical priestly courses. But Luke sure did; that's why he tells the story of Zecharias plus the two prophesying people in the Temple. Very wry wit, Luke's. So in this section, we'll spend lots of time on those priestly course names and their prophetic meanings. [I'd not even know about the priestly courses if someone didn't write me an email about Zecharias, at the very time I was trying to understand where in the Bible to look for proof of the Lord's Birthdate. So I'm guilty of ignorance, too. God knew that, obviously!]

What's most surprising about this convergence is how baldly Bible states it: punningly. Same style of explanation as for Passover's timing, which requires you know the Mosaic Law, to get the many puns. Bible makes very many puns, almost one per verse: and as you know, the glory of a pun is what's not said. You have to already know something, so you can enjoy the punning. Once you have to explain the pun, it's not funny anymore. We usually miss the Bible's puns, so there's much about Bible we don't know; for example, we don't know these dates; frankly I had missed them, too. But God has this habit of pointing you to things. Punningly. So while I was editing this "Modest Proposal" section in 2/2006, I was listening to some older audiotapes of my pastor's. I follow his lessons sequentially, so never know what to expect. Turns out that back near Christmas 2000, my pastor suddenly began saying that the Lord's Birthday is really 25 December 4BC after all, but based on the Feast of Dedication, which is the formal name for Chanukah. At first I was incredulous: he's not the kind of person to be insistent, but when he is, well after decades of being under him (all my adult life), I've yet to find him wrong, and only succeed in finding out more why he was right.

By the way, he didn't say anything about tying up the holiday calendar like I do in this webpage. That idea came about solely because I was trying to figure out what Doctrine would justify what he's saying, in order to figure out where to search in Bible for proof. (Beginning in the year 2000, he had to keep it simple, stupid, in Bible class.) Oh: in Mirroring.htm and the Thinking series I always say "3BC" as His Birth year. It's really a beginning-of-the-year calculation; so an end-4BC Birthdate also tallies to all the 490's. That makes the 25 Dec 4BC idea immediately sensible, even poetic: tying up both the Roman and the Jewish calendar, all at the same time!

Moreover, we all know about suddenly-warmer days in winter, and we welcome them. Why wouldn't shepherds? And wouldn't God provide a warmer-than-normal day for His Son to be born in a stable? (Greek word phatne means either a stable or a feeding trough inside one, usu. euphemistically translated "manger".) And everyone seems quite toasty in John 10:22ff; toasty enough to be outside, where there are stones to throw at Him -- at the Feast of Dedication? ('Probably outside the east gate, going by the description.)

So imagine the irony, since those shepherds were the only non-family witnesses invited on His Birthday to see Him -- imagine the irony, of the Lord explaining to the religious crowd in John 10 during His Brithday Anniversary that (again, sigh) He is the Christ, just as was told the world by those shepherds. My pastor speculates that they became shepherds of men not long after their visit to see Him. The ironic use of shepherding terminology -- after all, King David started out as a shepherd , despised -- would run throughout the NT now with this added layer of meaning -- these eyewitnesses spread the news far and wide. [Self-note: L.1878, 92SD, first heard on 04/29/2006. On s.2 he talks about the meaning of Ephrata in Micah 5:2; in BibleWorks I was able to prove that yes, "ashes", not "fruit", is the real root (red heifer offering, ties to Isa53:10's im tasim asham naphesho) -- makes more sense, too, in light of the verse and meaning of Beth-Lehem as House of Bread. Feeding on the Word and using 1Jn1:9's equivalent, makes for spiritual growth. Col. believes strongly though he can't prove it, that the shepherds were in the audience during John 10; that they carried Israel as a pivot during the Disp of HU; pointed parallel made to the US, think it out thoroughly. The interp of the shepherds being so well known (but not maybe by sight); and, being even in the audience, makes sense in light of all the shepherding wordplay in Gospels and in NT, not merely done as a reminder of Ps.23 and David's being a shepherd . True "pastor" concept.]

And what an anniversary it was. The brith has to be held on the 8th day following a boy's birth. Bethlehem being only a few hours' travel meant He was presented at Temple in Jerusalem, not Bethlehem. So here He is, some 30+ years later, on the anniversary of His first Visit to that Temple, which was why those dippy magi came to Jerusalem, not Bethlehem, being as the angel DEDICATED TO GUARDING the Royal Couple had to let them see his light. After all, it was the Feast of Lights (just over, then), and the Couple had to hang around for another month or so until Mary could be purified and the Child, officially dedicated as per the Mosaic law (Luke 2:22,39). Which is how the magi could even track the Child back to Nazareth when the couple left -- with Herod's agents, tracking them as they followed what they still thought a 'star': that no one else could see that star didn't register yet on their magic-clouded brains. But they did believe in Him. Christian and Crazy both begin with C for a reason.

And here maybe 30 years later, the Object of all that attention and murderous aftermath, the Object of that most famous announcement of three types -- shepherds, magi-running-around-town and baby-murdering Herod -- here the Object of that most famous announcement of three decades, is 'asked' yet again to say He is the Christ, at His Own Birth and Brith's, anniversary?! Yeah, 'asked' by those seeking to kill Him so He won't have another anniversary (religious types insult Him as if He were illegitimate, in John 8:41, 59, 10:32).

So any reference to shepherds and sheep would have special meaning, at the Feast of Dedication of Him Who Saved Us, John 10. John 10, on the 'heels' of John 8-9, where He is accused and condemned by the religious crowd, for curing a guy who couldn't see; never mind, the miracle good deed done for him. So finally, the now-seeing guy caught up with Him again, and thus the religious crowd caught Him. So here He is, in the very Temple which depicted His Body for Israel since David's day. David, to whom God Granted that Temple, 2Sam7. So now the Chief Shepherd Who is the very prophesied Son of David, during the anniversary week of His Birthday, explains how no one will pluck His Sheep out from His or His Father's Hand, because He and the Father are United (oneness, main theme in John's writings) -- as He walks through Solomon's Colonnade.

Date-wise, that equating of 25 December and 25 Chislev (or 11 Chislev, as we now know) might happen, depending on how you account lunar versus solar, and anniversaries of 25 Chislev. In 2005, Chanukah in the US and Christmas coincided, if I remember. Problem is the modern Judaic calendar is weird, so how much you can trust it? On the other hand, maybe the coinciding was based on metonics, that 19-year lunation thingy, where every 235 lunations the full moon occurs on the same day of the year as it did on the first lunation. In any event, it does happen that Chanukah and Christmas coincide.

We've changed our Western calendars many times, and each time, we messed up the chronology. You can even see from Encarta how Julius Caesar redid the Roman calendar in 45 BC; Constantine redid the calendar in 325 AD; it was messed with again to correct those errors, in 465 AD; then again, sometime in the 500's AD; disputes kept on going amongst Christians and the Catholic Church. Then Pope Gregory redid it again, but he only went back to 325 AD in his 'correction', thus chopping off 10 days, in 1582 AD; then Britain did it in 1752 AD, chopping off another 11 days, and redesignating the beginning of the year, as January 1. In short, with all that adulteration of our modern calendars, about every 2 years 25 Chislev=25 December, if 25 Chislev has not been intercalated (from lunar to solar). Moreover, those still on the Julian calendar (i.e., Greek Orthodox) equate 25 December with January 6. That's a two-week difference, alone. Finally, what used to be December 25 in Christ's day is now called December 17. An intercalated 25 Chislev is therefore often close to 15 December on our calendars. So the calendars are but two days apart; not even enough to count as being off. Again, it depends on how you account between calendars.

NT catchphrases "fullness of times", "end of times", and synonymal forms are each euphemistic for the end of pregnancy, and in two ways. First, the graphic Hebrew of Isaiah depicts Him paying for our sins as if raped and made pregnant with them. Second, prophetically: He came at the very end, which of course is what Dan9:25-26 says. So if we don't know when He is born, how can we know that prophecy was fulfilled? Additionally, if He was born deliberately to tally to the Feast of Dedication, we learn much about How God Thinks. Of course, maybe Father picked some other date or tying mechanism. But you just know He'd Make The Date Something To Please Himself. And He loves Orchestrating Time. You've seen that in the 490 bullets listed above; you've seen that in the very construct of the Jewish calendar. So this Most Important of Birthdays, well, it's orchestrated, count on it. [Pleroma verses in LXX and NT are many, and they always have the connotation of a Body Being Filled Up, especially being filled up by God. There's a Greek myth about how the God Chronos impregnates, which Paul plays on in Gal4:4 to tie to Isa53 and 49:1. BibleWorks search of the Greek text yielded these English-mapped verses: Ps. 24:1 (23:1 in LXX); 50:12 (49:12 in LXX); 89:12 (88:12 in LXX); 96:11 (95:11 in LXX); 98:7 (97:7 in LXX) ; Eccl. 4:6; Jer. 8:16; 47:2 (29:2 in LXX); Ezek. 19:7; 30:12; Matt. 9:16 (mistranslated "garment", really means the BODY of the garment) and Mk. 2:21; and especially, Rom. 11:12, 25; 13:10; 1 Co. 10:26; Gal. 4:4; Eph. 1:23; 3:19; Col. 1:19; 2:9. There are tons of verses using the cognate verb plerow. Romans Chapter 8, coming as it does from the divorce-and-remarriage themes in Romans 6-7, is all about us getting filled up and pregnant with Our Husband's Word, bearing 'kids' of sweet-savor thinking to Father. All of Philippians is built around the kindred concept of megalunw (used in Phili1:20), which etymologically relates to bearing much fruit, children. If you read Philippians with that idea in mind, you'll see how Paul keeps on drawing analogy to himself being replicated, so to speak, in the Philippians; and all are replications of Christ. Very tender and profound. One should always regard plerow/pleroma verses as having a pregnant-with-god's-seed cultural connotation, to get what the Real God means by filling you up with His Son's Seed, the Word in you. It's really the main theme of the Bible, but expressed in a variety of ways in OT and NT. Big hint, the promise to Abram was of SONS. We really need to get rid of our evil, fake-pious ascetic bents about wordplay on pregnancy which is so rife in Bible, for the asceticism robs us of learning Him. Oh well.]

Prior to his teaching in the year 2000, my pastor had taught that the Lord's Human Birth probably occurred in the fall, tying in some manner to Yom Kippur, which of course makes sense. But it makes even more sense, if Pentecost is left 'hanging' without a parallel holiday, and Temple rededication occurred on what would have been the parallel holiday -- that the Lord would be born based on Temple Rededication. Especially, since He is the Temple, and He will defeat all of Israel's enemies at the 2nd Advent. Verses in Bible tell us plainly about Passion week, and also in wordplay show that the Jewish calendar's being off four days is corrected by His Dying on the true 14 Nisan. So, given the above about 11 Chislev, something parallel will be in verses related to His Birth.

1. First and always, the Find The Why: Find The Doctrine, The Doctrine, The Doctrine. No Bible information is discerned properly if you don't know the Doctrine it depicts. Without first knowing the Doctrine, you can't properly 'connect the dots', and will chase your tail: same problem as in secular accounting, you must first learn the whys before you can discern the whats. Science and Bible analysts always trust too much in mere empirical data, thinking that if they get enough of it, they will see the proper answers. No. You must first learn a Logical Why; then you go looking for your patterns amidst the data. That's how you learn math (i.e., 1+1 and postulates are taught first), that's how you learn Bible, that's how you learn science stuff. This Logical Why goes to the heart of why God even created any creation in the first place; so it will be a slog to understand and vet it all, sorry. Book of Hebrews and Ephesians 1 provide your interpretative keys to the Why explanation: Hebrews Chapters 1-7 might be worth reading before you proceed.

2. Isagogics and common sense test: people don't write down what they already know. But they make lots of wordplay on what they already know. People don't explain jokes or puns, either. If you have to 'explain' a joke, it's not funny anymore. So a joke or a pun is based on assumed knowledge in the hearer. Else there'd be precious little good comedy. Moreover, I'd bet you didn't write your home phone number to remind you what it is. But it might be on your emergency identification, for someone who doesn't know. I bet no one in a family calls each other by his full legal name; or even by any name, and when you call one of them, you say "it's me", and give no name at all. Next analogy: You'll notice that the US State of the Union message is always at the same time of every year, but almost never do you hear someone state its date: rather, "the President said in his State of the Union message..." "Saturday Nite Live" or "MADTV" spoofs on that message make wordplay with "state of the union" but never with the date it's traditionally given. That's a teeny example of the reason why His Birthdate is blatantly stated in Bible, but via wordplay. Because it's on a holiday everyone knows: the Feast of Dedication, as you'll soon see. So the Lord's Birthdate being well known but the reasons not well known, means the Gospels spend time on the Reasons. So wordplay on what is known -- the date He was born -- is used to help people orient to the reasons. This convention is used a lot in ancient writing, especially in the Greek plays.

   So the reason we don't know His Birthdate is a) no one bothered to pass it down to their kids, which means everyone lost interest in Him sometime within the first 100 years; and b) We Don't Read The Bible, which is pretty blatant about when He was born. So again, we are hypocrites, loudly saying how we love Jesus, and yet proving by our ignorance, how much we hate Him. Yes, it's that pathetic, and I'm just as guilty as anyone else. By the time you finish this subsection, you'll be shaking your head in disbelief how simple and blatant is God's statement of His Birthdate.

   Notice the distinction between fallacious "arguments from silence" and wordplay evidence in Scripture. Wordplay tells you a whole LOT of information; humor in that wordplay, makes that information memorable. Silence, by contrast, tells you nothing. Pointed omission is not silence: something which ought to be said but is left out, is a kind of 'talking'. We do this all the time, when we are pushed to say something we don't want to say, or find ourselves in an awkward situation.

   So your task with Bible's many pointed omissions, is to learn why they are left out. Pointed omission usually happens in Scripture to express disapproval i.e., you'll find no office of pope anywhere in Bible, OT or New; you'll find no Roman Church in Rev1-3; but you will find the harlot of Rev17 based in Rome, with colors you can easily match. Same thing with puns or jokes: omission is key to getting the joke, but surrounding what is pointedly omitted, will be other material so you can tell what is omitted and why. That's what makes the joke, funny.

3. Verses using Dedication Birthday wordplay are pointed in Hebrews 9:12,18 and 10:20, Greek verb egkainizw; cognate noun in John 10:22 is egkainia. Pan-Bible, the verb means to dedicate, inaugurate, renew, consecrate as separated-to-God. Very apt. The 10 occurrences in the OT all are about dedicating the Temple, the priests, a house, a kingship, a kingdom, and of course the Nazirite vow of Numbers 6 (mechanism very much like the ordination of priests). All of these dedications are birth concepts, the beginning of a thing. First Commandment is above all a dedication. No other room for anyone else, and you've nothing left over, either. Renewed every second you breathe 1Jn1:9 (or its OT equivalents, back then).

   It is witty that God would Dedicate His Son Who Will Be The Dedicating Founder of Father's Priesthood, on the Day of Dedication of the Temple. So logic would dictate you look for such language in the Bible, especially when the topic is on the Lord's Birth. Book of Hebrews in essence points to Dedication at Birth in Heb10:5, very bald; that, plus dedication to resolving the Angelic Trial, throughout Hebrews 2 and 10. In fact, Hebrews 8-10 are climactic chapters on the topic, and Hebrews 11 ends with the crescendo purpose of Church tying up all history (11:39-40). While this theme doesn't guarantee that He was born on 25 Chislev, if He had been, you'd expect this kind of wordplay to be wryly stressed in the NT. For Bible always matches wordplay to nature or name, viz., all the fathering wordplay on Father and Abraham in the OT.

4. First Commandment is above all, DEDICATION. So Luke 2:14 announces this epic to-Father Fulfillment of the First Commandment being Inaugurated with His Birth: the Royal-Priesthood Family of God, whom Messiah will 'birth' by means of His Own Birth. See also Heb10:5. It shouldn't have to be said, but we are here to glorify God. God doesn't need that, WE do. If you are stuck living for your own measly self or someone lower, there are certain enjoyments, but sooner or later, you'll become bored. It's fulfilling to live for Someone Higher than you. Love always concludes the one loved as higher. That's why Love is fulfilling.

   It shouldn't have to be said, but nothing else in life is worth even wanting, except God. Everything else is too small, unsatisfying. Being in these bodies is a humiliation, not so much because of the body's own characteristics, but because the body is too small to do anything worthwhile for God. So why did God ordain us to be in these bodies? How does He solve this problem, and how is it that He can make a Royal Priesthood for Father out of these measly bodies? God cycles His Infinite Nature inside finite creation via DDNA -- transmission of His Thinking, which is Truth. That's how. DDNA webseries (link at pagetop) is dedicated to that topic. Here in the Thinking series, we're focusing on the legal Angelic Trial issues and the play-out of this Goal.

   So first of all, somehow angels must have been offered a priesthood role under the Angel of the Lord, a title for the Son (main theme of Hebrews Chaps 1-2). For we know Satan was to head the angels but he rebelled, as explained in Part I. So instead there was this civil war among the angels, and other angels took the place of the rebellers. Then the Trial was held, Satan&Co. were sentenced, but Satan appealed on the grounds that God is not loving, as explained in Part I. So the Son was to be born Human to make this priesthood. It was gradually announced and disclosed, and the entire nation of Israel was to become that priesthood. The Aaronic priesthood was a schoolmaster for this goal, as Paul explains in Galatians, a book which went out with or near the time of Matthew's Gospel. Israel rejected Christ, so now Church becomes that priesthood, and any Jew can enter it, thus realizing a better "new covenant" than had been eschatologically offered Israel, so Psalm 110:1 is "on"! That's actually the main theme of Book of Hebrews. [Just like the Flood epic of Gen6, you can find in all the world's current and past faiths, some version of this prehistoric angelic conflict. Stories retold morph from their original truth. But if you keep on digging into the root similarities, you see the same story whether in the 'mouth' of the Greek myths, the Koran (Iblis story, spread across the Suras), the polytheistic retellings.]

5. The idea is to wrap up all history to achieve its pre-human-race purpose of a Royal Priesthood DEDICATED TO FATHER, and that's what Luke 2:14 is about. That's why angels -- who have no gender -- do the announcing, in Luke 2:14. Sadly, Luke 2:14 is egregiously mistranslated in every Bible, so you entirely miss the import of the verse. Corrected translation should go like this: "Glory to God in the highest levels/by agency of the highest ones [as true of angels, no human gender post-death, Matt22:30, Mark 12:25]; and upon earth, tranquility/Reconciliation/Peace by agency of men [generic term] with whom He is well-pleased." Greek noun eudokia is only used of God's approval (i.e., in Matt11:26), and has to be rendered in English with the phrase "with whom He is well pleased", especially here: for Glory to God is the topic. Most shockingly, upsistos in Luke 2:14 is in the plural and is in wordplay. You learn in first-year seminary that adjectives become substantives in the plural. Every translation misses this fact. So the huge wordplay in this verse, which is a main theme throughout the NT, is utterly, blasphemously, masked in translation. Verse has nothing whatsoever to do with whether people get along with each other! Click here for important exegetical notes.

   Messiah is to rule forever. His Royalty as Son of David is only one of Three Royal Patents. First, He's God, so is Royal Son of God in that capacity. Then, He is Son of David, so Royal there as well. But as Dan9:24-25 explained -- as does most of the OT -- "Messiah" also means the One to defeat Satan, Gen3:15. That's why angels make the announcement. For this Battle, predates Adam. So for Son to add Humanity to Himself and be born, first resolves the Angelic Conflict. Hence He will become King of Kings and Lord of Lords -- the latter title is His Headship over the angels. Hebrews 1:4 says in the Greek that even in His Human Nature, He is higher than all angels put together. So together those two Titles constitute His Third -- Battlefield -- Royal Patent. Hence the angels under Him as Lord of Lords, serve us (see end of Heb1). [My pastor spends a lot of time teaching the Angelic Conflict. So if God wants it, you can freely order tapes from his ministry. His website is http://www.rbthieme.org. Other pastors also focus on the Angelic Conflict, but I know less about how well they handle the subject. A proper grounding in that subject is essential to understand the Bible; God spanked me big-time for being bored with the topic 20 years ago. That's one reason a janitor named Jesus gave me my first Windows computer he found in the trash -- because I was thinking of finally writing about the topic, and had decided not to -- unbeknownst to that janitor, of course. So I'd not want someone else to get spanked, k? This doctrine is important.]

   The "King of Kings" is the Royal-Priestly Patent; that's why Luke 2:14 uses the neuter gender of upsistos. The Royal Priesthood is an office, so it's 'neuter'; moreover, there are no gender distinctions toward Father, as earlier explained by Paul in Galatians. Hebrews 7 elaborates on that, as it's the central reason for the changeover from the Mosaic Law to the New Royal Priesthood under Christ. Full context runs from Chapter 5-10. [Sigh: this doesn't mean women can become pastors to other humans. Human-human relationships down here are gender-distinct for sound reasons and are temporary, but must be respected. Unless you like being heartily spanked by God.]

   So both the 3rd and the 2nd Royal Patents are inaugurated in Luke 2:14; hence an army of angels passes in review, and an angel (Gabriel) makes the announcement to shepherds at the former fort of Migdol Eder (near Bethlehem): famous then for keeping huge flocks of Temple-sacrificial sheep, year-round. Isagogically you know that's where it was because of the location; and, because military verbs are used for the shepherds, so these aren't ordinary shepherds, but professionals. The verbs are agraulew -- someone who lives outdoors all year round as a military function of protection -- and phulassw, to stand sentinel. More about the latter verb will be said later, as it's pregnantly used by Luke to rubricate His Birthdate. [Nerd note: "host" is a politically-motivated mistranslation dating back from 1611, to cover up the Bible's many military meanings throughout KJV. Womb verses demonstrably suffer from the same political-coverup motive. Bible says life begins at birth and not before.]

   Now remember: at the time He is Born, Israel hasn't rejected Him. So the announcement has two audiences. First, the Jews: for them, the announcement is a massive Declaration of Spiritual Independence, called "Jubilee." The term references the Millennial promise of Israel being a priest nation. So it means ending the Law's current restrictions on fellowship, priesthood, which is why the sacrifice schematic in Ezekiel, is no longer of multiple design, but instead one concatenated, memorializing scheme. Moreover, as explained Jeremiah (3:16, 31:31-34, see Heb8:8-10:17), God would institute a massive upgrade, called "the New Covenant". That's a huge OT eschatological theme, and the whole thing is to be inaugurated by Messiah.

   So the Luke 2:14 announcement to the shepherds, was told everywhere by everyone. So that angelic announcement was well known by the time the Lord started His Ministry, which is why He announces His Ministry by quoting Isa61:1 (Luke 4:18ff).

   Now to the second audience: when Luke writes, it's the "time" of Church, Israel has rejected Him -- so the announcement has that Royal Family of God meaning given to Church. Galatians had gone out contemporaneous with Matthew's Gospel: so everyone would get the wordplay of the neuter "upsistos" in both its traditional meaning of highest-levels-of-Glory, highest-levels-of-Heaven, as well as it being by agency of individuals made the Highest due to His Battlefield Victory at the Cross.

   So this announcement has added meaning to the 60 AD audience to which Luke writes. Of course everyone already knew about it. The NT is an elaboration of how this new Glory Level works. Paul wrote all of his letters based on that announcement, Galatians being the most pointed. The "glory" announcement is repeated, as in Eph1:15-23 (stressing Church as agency God makes glorify Him and His Son), Eph3:19, 4:13. Colossians explains how Satan&Co. get defeated, to result in Battlefield Royalty. Book of Hebrews' rhetorical takeoff point is the change in priesthood to His, the Ultimate, highest-level-of-Glory. Peter ties to the Luke 2:14 announcement in 1Pet1:7-8, and Rev3:4-5 also ties to it. All the "riches of glory" verses, in fact all the "glory" verses in the NT refer back to this announcement to show how it is implemented.

   When the Temple was rededicated, there was a parade, with thousands of candles -- hence the "Feast of Lights" is another name for Chanukah. This is the only holiday in Israel's calendar which has a parade inaugurating it. So what do you think Luke is pointing at, by stressing this parade of the angels at His Birth, hmmm? Pretty witty, huh.

6. Main theme of the OT is Dedication and Light due to Word Becoming Flesh: Word=Light=Messiah=Temple=Dedication= Chanukah=Nazarene. "Chanok" means to dedicate ("Enoch" in our Bibles), and "Nazar" means to shepherd , guard, be dedicated to your duty, dedicate yourself to God (i.e., Nazirite vow in Num6). Also the related noun netser (same root) means shoot, branch: it's used Messianically, signifying descent (i.e., in Isa11:1). So also 'dedicated' in the sense of ordained by God. Temple Dedication is what makes the Glory of the Lord fill the Temple, 1Kings 8:1ff. So how apt, to tie the 'dead spot' in Israel's sacred Holiday calendar together, Pentecost and Temple Dedication? Two sides of a coin: for the harvest is to be dedicated to God, so needs a Dedicator Who is FirstFruits! And what can be more sacred, than Messiah Himself? Synonymal terms thus tie to Temple: worship, guarding, shepherding, dedication, obeying the Law, etc.

7. Matthew doesn't need to tell you they were in Jerusalem to Dedicate Him at the Temple. Everyone already knew that, because it was the Mosaic Law. Luke and Matthew play on those meanings in their stories. Matthew tells what the apostate Jews were doing versus the Family and the magi who sought them; Luke cutely lets the reader know the Family was in Jerusalem at the very same time all that clamor with the unseeing magi, was going on. Right under Herod's nose. Look at Matthew's visual puns: everyone was running around at the Feast of Dedication when He was born, dedicated to finding Him to kill or worship Him; meanwhile, He was dedicated to God. Right under everyone's nose. And God's angel was dedicated to protecting Him, but the magi who saw him, thought he was a star. Never mind, stars don't ever hover or 'lead' people, finally coming to a stop over the house in Nazareth. Of course, you'd have to know that the 'star' is an angel guarding the True Star of History, Our Savior, to get that pun on light and dedication, the two main themes of Chanukah. And since Matthew wryly uses three human verbs for the 'star' in Matt 2:9, you should get that pun, if you didn't already: for under the Law, you would be executed for practicing astrology (it's a type of divination), Deut 18. You would know it's no star: God doesn't violate His Own Law.
   See the pun? Pretend you already well knew He was born on the first day of Chanukah. So reading these Gospels would cause you to recognize all that Dedication, and smile. You'd smile at the pun, not needing it explained. So when Luke covers their visit to the Temple, he's not silent about when the Birth occurs; he's letting the pun do its 'job'. So Luke stresses God's Own Dedication, which is a central theme throughout his book: how profound, that the Dedication of the Firstborn was also the Feast of Dedication. Notice that Luke never once says it was the feast of Dedication, since he doesn't have to; he goes so far as to even leave out the Dedication of the Firstborn, listing instead the last of the rituals required at the Temple, that of Mary's own purification; and then for added dramatic effect, he only quotes the end of the law about what sacrifice to make, the birds. Those birds signify peace, which in Scripture means reconciliation of relationship to God. The Scripture definition of eirene is spiritual, and any earthly peace is tangential at best, see Lev26 and Deut 28. So Luke is tying together the angelic message given the shepherd s to the Source, His Birth and now Dedication at the Temple. In Greek, when you say the end of a commonly-understood quote, rule, event you stress the completion of the whole.

8. Dedication also includes the concept of devoted-to-destruction, and it's because the couple were in Jerusalem for the Dedication of the Son, that their guardian angel-seeming-like-a-star, was also there; that the magi were there, trumpeting about; that Herod ordered the babies killed. Even from Bethlehem=House-of-Bread, to Hometown Nazareth, =Town of Dedication, Guarding, Shepherding! Details are fleshed out more in "Bible's True Nativity Narrative" link in Part IVa (LvS4a.htm) -- really, this whole subsection on His Birth belongs there, too. But like Matthew and Luke, I have to divide the story to multiply the emphasized meanings in their proper conceptual compartments. Here, the Bible's proof of His Birth. There, the historical context into which His Birth occurred, to show His Precedence -- not Israel's, His -- for the covenant/dispensation of Church.
   Law required Temple dedication of both firstborn son and the mother's purification, so Joseph and Mary had to be in Jerusalem's environs for a month.

   So it should be obvious that the Lord did not come to bring "peace on earth", but the Word-sword (Matt10:34, Luke 12:49-53); for this is not a time of peace, but of the final warring in the Angelic Conflict (main theme of Book of Hebrews). End times. End times prophecy is what Messiah is all about, Daniel 9:24-25, Isa61, Eze39ff, all of Zechariah. So, then: we've really blasphemed the Word in our horrible translations of Luke 2:14. When an army of angels is making the announcement, then peace is not the topic. War is the topic. The Hero to Win the War, has arrived, Heb10:5!

   If you love someone, you want to do what they want. If you hate someone, you don't want to. Man has no capacity for Love, but God can create that capacity, via the Word cycling in your head. As you learn this Word, you come to love the Word, and you come to have via the Spirit, the ability to Live this Word. So you need something to "do". And what you "do" is the Word, In Your Head. Not so much what you do with the body. That sanctifies the body. It's not works, but the Holy Spirit's Power. So you want to give up your body, even though you know it does nothing for Father. You just need that outlet. Hence Hebrews 10:5, the Son's Birth Speech of Dedicating Himself to Destruction for Father. Spoken from His newly-born Humanity. Yes, a miracle.

9. Then there's all the "Nazarene" OT wordplay which Matthew uses for dramatic effect. "Nazarene" is a clever concatenated NT term which is solely about Dedication: subsuming all dedication ideas of OT into that one word, playing on His Hometown. Matthew goes out of his way not to mention the town in 2:11, where it belongs; instead, he reserves it as the dramatic climax for Matt2:23. You really have to know that 2:11 and 2:23 are the same town, to get the staggering import of the text in between: even though Joseph now knows they know where he lives, and that they would kill him if he was there -- he returns. So he's Dedicated, going back to a town of the same name as his mental attitude. Joseph's being afraid due to Archelaus makes no sense if you don't know Joseph was in Nazareth, not Bethlehem, when he left for Egypt. Because he's not going back to Judea, since he wasn't living there in the first place. Had he gone to Judea, no biggie; no one would know him. But to return to Nazareth, well everyone knew him, already. Gossip and spies travel fast. So when Matthew writes, "and He shall be called a Nazarene", read it as "and He shall be called, Dedicated". As in, Qorban.
   See the pun, again? For Matthew to delay naming Nazareth when everyone knew the name already, and then almost pretentiously say "a town called" -- well, that's like me writing, "a town called Dedicated". Very cute pun, given the context of what he's writing.

   It's almost impossible to comprehend that scholars don't add together what Luke says in Luke 2, with what Matthew says in Matt2. (For an aside about bad Bible scholarship re Gospels, click here.) Reading the century-old commentaries which come bundled with BibleWorks, I keep smacking the monitor: how can you bleeping think they left from Bethlehem to Egypt! Then I have to use 1Jn1:9. But then some among them still think there was a Star of Bethlehem, too. Yeah, what star or planetary conjunction flies around low and then stops, then disappears, then hovers over a house, all of which Matt2:9 tells you, even in translation! See how Dedicated that angel was, even though he knew he'd be calling attention to Joseph and Mary -- since obviously he had to let the magi see him, and since the rest of Jerusalem obviously could not -- the magi were getting big hints he was no 'star'? See how dedicated Jerusalem was to blindness, that they needed some bleeping Persian sorcerers to trumpet the news of His Birth? Nope, we didn't see all this. We thought it was a star, too: because we never reconciled to the Law. But God always does, since He created the Law. Ooops.

   So when Matthew reserves the 2:23, Nazar-Eth -- meaning, Dedication House (-eth makes it a noun) or Dedicated Town, simply "Dedication", "Branch", "Sentinel" -- many wordplays -- we don't see that, either. So of course we'll miss what Luke says in Luke 1:26 about when Gabriel came to visit Mary. (But I'll reserve Luke 1:26 for dramatic effect in the next category.)

   Both Matthew and Luke did that same kind of rhetorical reserving in their genealogy listings, making the last entry, climactic: Matthew, in 1:16 (juxtaposition with Mary) and Luke, his lead-in 3:23, and 3:38. Both of them structure the genealogy to play on God's 490-year Time Accounting System: Matthew uses doubled 7's (the 14), and Luke structures his to show the Lord is the 77th Son. David died when he was age 77 (1Kings 6:1, 2Chron3:1-2 -- they aren't scribe mistakes, see "David" entry in Mirroring.htm). Get the pun? 7 and 7. Seventy seven. Seventy sevenS, lit. Hebrew of Daniel 9:24.

10. Luke stresses Nazarene wordplay, angel wordplay, and Light wordplay, so wittily meshes with Matthew. See Luke 1:26, :78-79, 2:4; then, twice by allusion to Dedication in Luke 2:22-23; Luke 2:32 brings in Isa9:2, 42:6, 49:6 (which uses natser and Light), 51:4, 60:1-3; then, Luke 2 dedicates a lot of text to dedicated-to-Temple people, one a man and the other a woman -- who recognized Him; next, the very obvious Luke 2:39, showing that as soon as the Dedication was done, they went back to Dedication, their home town. Additionally, Greek verb phulassw is commonly used to translate the Hebrew nazar in the OT; and Luke uses that Greek word as the function of the shepherd s; the more common Greek word for guarding is terew, but Luke doesn't use it, here. Shepherds are dedicated to the One Dedicated that Night, to Whom the Angels are Dedicated and passing in review. Dedication and Light. Chanukah was more formally known as the Feast of Lights, and Feast of Dedication. Notice how Light and Dedication are being stressed in Luke. So no wonder he doesn't have to mention the word Dedication in 2:22 -- he's already rubricated it with the theme of Light and Dedication, from the beginning! Not to mention, the play on Branch (same Hebrew root, nzr) of David. So Nazareth being repeated: yeah, Dedicated Branch.

11. Luke flat tells you it's the Feast of Dedication when he talks about the census of Quirinius. We moderns just don't know when that was. But you know -- there's not a writer born who doesn't write with his audience in mind. So Luke uses Quirinius as the defining time, because his audience clearly knew the meaning. For the audience, the question was how could the Nazarene, be born in Bethlehem; see also John 7:52. It's not that people didn't know how He could be born there; but one of Luke's ongoing goals is to show how light-to-the-Gentiles prophecy is fulfilled. So he picks this, probably to stress how God uses the Gentiles, too. Here, a Roman envoy, lifetime friend of Augustus, who was famous for all the errands Augustus had sent him on: Quirinius.

    Just as, Luke tells you when Mary got pregnant, in Luke 1:26: month of Adar, sixth month on the civil calendar, stated in official Greek (double-article) terms. So the Lord had to be born the following Chislev. #24 will go into Luke 1:26 and the confluence of 25 Chislev. For now, just notice that the Bible is not hiding anything. Matthew's audience was close enough to the events such that wordplay on Nazarene and the angel, was all they needed. Luke's audience is largely Gentile: "Theophilus", the addressee, is a famous term meaning "Lover-of-God", not necessarily a particular individual. So Luke takes an official approach in writing out the Birth -- kinda like an official recording a birth certificate, using official Greek formats: census affixes the year of birth, and Luke 1:26 affixes the month of the year in which Mary got the Annunciation. Were you in first-year Greek in seminary, and were you tested on Luke 1:26, you'd flunk the question if you said it meant Elizabeth's six month. Relative-based months don't use two Greek articles in their dates. Oh well.

    The Feast of Dedication, coming as it did at the end of the Roman tax year, would be a really convenient time to register for the tax census in Judaea; it would be an essential deadline, for the Romans. But the tax was administered by Herod, not the Romans; problem was, Herod was very slowly dying the year the Lord was born. For the Jews, well, look: you could stop in a town of your birth on the way down to Jerusalem, or on the way back. You'd probably be doing that anyway, to visit childhood friends and family. The new Augustan head-tax scheme implemented probably back when Quirinius became consul in 12BC, had been handled by Herod directly (and Quirinius was, in 4 BC, in the Syrian garrison with Augustus' then-heir) -- so the Jews wouldn't be further antagonized by a greater Roman presence. Moreover, Herod would sometimes rebate a portion of the taxes to the Jews. This benefitted Rome, which thus had lower overhead in tax administration. Again, now Herod was dying. Hence the need for a census, because if Herod died Rome would have to take over: Augustus, a close friend of Herod the Great, couldn't trust his sons with kingship, and was the executor of Herod's will. Aha.

    You can find stuff on this tax scheme on the internet. The timing of it due to Herod's death less than four months later, is a logical conclusion. Even so, under Jewish law there was a census, too. Luke 2 never says that Quirinius was a formal governor at that time. Greek text merely says he had authority -- Greek term is hegemon, generic. In reality, one had a rank which might be equal to governor but not be a governor, much as Vespasian had the same office, in 66-69 AD and that only for military purposes was he 'governor'. Nero had specified the terms of his 'governorship', and it wasn't an office, but a function in conjunction with the guy (Mucianus) who would be replacing the former official governor, Gallus. So too, for Quirinius -- i.e., granted the title but only for the purpose of collecting taxes, since the 'official' governor in Syria, had other duties. That would be standard procedure, since one would need an armed escort to protect the money.

    So yes, you can know from other sources that a) Herod ran the taxes, so any census wouldn't be in Roman records, but Jewish; b) Herod was dying of his many illnesses in 4BC, which logically would mean the Romans would take over; c) Quirinius was a roving emissary for his pal Augustus, who d) did overhaul the tax code after Rome became an empire (sometime after 23 BC). So the close-to-Herod Augustus, would naturally know if his pal's health was bad enough to affect tax collection. Recap:

    • Herod was well known to be dying in 4BC;
    • well known, that he'd been remitting taxes to Rome himself prior;
    • so well-inferred, that in 4BC the Romans took over tax administration from Herod.
    • Also well known: Augustan tax reform, Quirinius-promulgated census for the new head tax, started in the provinces maybe 12BC.
    • You can prove Herod would have been doing it since then, even in ISBE or a documentary on Herod.
    • Ergo: only because Herod was dying and there was no trustworthy successor --
    • and since Augustus was the beneficiary of Herod's will, so would have been the executor/trustee of all Herod owned, thus would inherit Judaea from him --
    • Rome took over.
    • So it truly would have been the first Roman census-taking in 4BC -- just as Luke says -- having been done prior, by Herod's government. Duh.
    • Luke 1:26 uses the official Greek bureaucrat's style of telling you the absolute (legal) month, so it's Adar on the calendar.
    • You can verify that double-Greek-article dating style in the LXX 'dry' books like Chronicles, Kings, etc.
    • So Christ must be born by the following Chanukah, nine months later, and in 4BC.
    • Luke wouldn't need to say all that, the audience would already know.
    • Luke revels in wryness of expression, omitting material as in a joke, so hearers can enjoy the wit. So his writing style stresses Chanukah themes and tells you when the Birth occurs, using that wit.

    Frankly, people put far too much weight on whatever ancient documents they find or cannot find. They don't think about the relevance, in either event. You wouldn't find a census record that far back, unless it was an exception; for census records become outdated rather quickly, and the medium on which they were written, would be reused. Many Bible manuscripts were erased and written over, for crying out loud (called "palimpsests"). Else we'd not have some of them. Thank God, you can chemically treat a written-over ancient document to see what was there, prior! So to discount what Bible says about Quirinius because you can't find he was governor then (Greek doesn't say "governor", either), or because you can't find a census that year, is flat silly. Why is it soooo easy to believe Egyptian records, which are known to be often defaced and lying, but so hard to believe the Bible, which proves how God orchestrates even time? Sheesh.

12. Luke shows the dedication of the angels and the shepherd s, and then of Joseph and Mary fulfilling the law at a time they had to know was dangerous for them, since the child was publically sought by the magi during the Feast of Dedication. Matthew highlights how, at the Feast of Dedication, everyone in Jerusalem not Bethlehem, is dedicated to finding the King of the Jews: for quite opposite reasons. Herod wanted to devote that newborn to destruction; the magi wanted to devote their lives to Him. Joseph and Mary are dedicated to obeying where that dedicated Angel-who-is-no-star, tells them where to go. So they have a starring role, and go back to the Dedicated Town, stopping only long enough to receive the magi; and then rush to Egypt. Matthew stresses light that way, too: star is light; angels' bodies are made of light. Seeing. Not seeing. Shepherding is nazar, too. So light, angels, seeing, shepherd ing, and the dedicated attitude of all the characters.

    Luke prefaces his narrative with a contrast between the initially-doubtful Zecharias, and the hurrying, dedicated Mary at the Annunciation. Two announcements given by Gabriel receiving two different reactions. Zecharias has a moment of bitterness he gets past, but he is made mum during the entire nine months because of it. By contrast, Mary's reaction is so inquisitive and positive -- lol she questions the angel as if he were giving her a Bible class, which in essence he is -- she ups and packs immediately to go see her cousin Elizabeth, who is a whopping 90 miles away! That same dedicated hurry will be reflected in the shepherd s, at the time of the Child's Birth.

    Of course, Mary's reaction in translation, is completely blanded out. No substitute for the angel's or her witty command of Greek. In what's usually dubbed her "Magnificat" she demonstrates a fluency with Scripture which makes it obvious she sure had Bible in her head day and night. Sure wish people would laud that, rather than her sexual status. So if you would imitate Mary, imitate her being in God's System, learning and living on Bible under your right pastor, 24/7. She sure did that. Can't become that fluent in Bible thinking, else.

    Dedication during danger is hardest of all. The "sign" given the shepherd s advertised the danger and His Birth Purpose: for the Baby was wrapped as if for burial, not the normal swaddling method then in practice; and, He lay in a feeding trough -- idea of being fattened up for slaughter. Greek word "semeion" always has a connotation of judgement, something bad. Important, yes; good to come out of it, yes; but the bad is what happens 'on the ground', your first experience. Shocking in some way. Pretty shocking, to see a healthy newborn wrapped as if a corpse and lying in a feeding trough as if he was cowfodder. And all that, done by his own parents! Click here if you want exegetical details on this meaning in Luke 2:12.

    Which being DEDICATED, they had to do; to portray Eze16:4,6, Isa1:1-6; to demonstrate that Ps40:5 was being fulfilled, as Heb10:5 would later explain. For the closest thing to hagiazw (sanctification, set-apart, dedication) was the Nazirite vow, and here a Person is the Once and For All Sacrifice. So, He must be wrapped in grave strips. From there, the couple would have to keep on doing what the Law required, which Luke is very careful to record; so they go to Jerusalem, probably by the 8th day after His Birth, on which the Law required His Circumcision ("bris" in modern Judaism); then, offer sacrifices for His Dedication under the Law of the Firstborn sometime after he was a month old; and Mary, had to offer for her own purification under the Law after her 40th day post-partum -- right under the nose of Herod. All of which Luke notes, so you realize they went to Jerusalem, were no longer in Bethlehem. And were Law-obedient.

    As noted earlier, Matthew instead focuses on how the Jews were not interested in Him; oh yeah, everyone was talking about that Newborn King -- due to some goyim magi who make a very loud public entrance into Jerusalem (paraginomai, Matt2:1, contrasting with the secret birth in Bethlehem). So that's why Herod even heard about it. So think: it could not long have been a secret that Herod sought to kill the Child; maybe the magi were naive, but surely not those hearing Herod pretend interest -- the family was already too famous for murdering rivals, even and especially within the family. Imagine being Joseph and Mary, then: how dedicated must you be, to go through the very public bris when the child is named? It's a registry, especially for royal couples. It's not like they could hide. So if the Feast of Dedication was also going on, well more ears would overhear; more mouths would be talking. No wonder Luke 2:22 doesn't record them as staying in the city, but they went into the Temple. There wouldn't be room in Bethlehem due to the celebration, nor much room in Jerusalem due to it, and who'd want to risk exposure? The Feast itself only lasts a week. But it's a dead time of year, and you linger. Joseph and Mary had to wait there a full month afterwards, since the Law for the Dedication of the Firstborn and her own purification ceremony required Temple presentation (again, public) about a month after the bris. So here is the behavior and thinking of Dedication. Again, the "Bible's True Nativity Narrative" link in LvS4a.htm spends more webspace on the event.

13. Moreover, Luke tells us exactly when the Lord is born, by means of Zacharias being of the priestly course of Abijah. If you well know the Mosaic Law and the OT history, you enjoy Luke's finessed style of telling you prophecy was fulfilled.
    My pastor spent a lot of time explaining Luke's rhetorical style, when he exegeted Acts for his congregation. Bible writers each have their own personality, so tend to express that personality in their God-breathed writing. Luke favors Atticisms and finessing. Paul liked to hit you right between the eyes, so often resorted to coarse talk. John likes Greek drama, so much of his style apes Greek drama structures. Peter loves Greek drama too, resorting often to its terms; he especially likes the dramatic accusative, hupo-prefixed words (stressing subordination as a pleasure), and stone words (playing on the Rock of his salvation being the Same Rock for everyone). Moreover, Peter loves being grammatically and politically incorrect. These are all deliberate styles, not mistakes. You can tell the difference, by the repeating and the tying of words. Patterns deliberately repeated are not mistakes.

    Luke, therefore, likes to whisper his climactic statements -- or stop just short of being explicit.

    The Hebrew meaning of Zacharias' very name is a big red flag: God remembers. Meaning, God remembers Israel. God Remembers His Promise -- and therefore keeps it. God Remembers His Word -- and therefore fulfills it. In Hebrew even more than Greek, the omission of direct object means ALL objects are direct objects. So most Hebrew names are compounds of Yah or El -- abbreviations for God -- plus a verb. So too, here. "Remembers" is a promise word, and you'll find it all over the OT -- God will remember, specifically, His Promise to David. It's a promise of the Temple, which depicts Messiah-to-Come. So the reader is enjoined to Remember the Law as he reads. Thus the reader will get the many puns Luke seeds throughout his letter.

    Hebrew verb zakar also means meditation (on the Word) and related functions. Idea of thinking, remembering, keeping to the Law like Moses warned. Hence the description of Zacharias demonstrates he fits his name. He plays on his own name when he extols the birth of John, saying that God remembers Israel. Here's another important fact: Zechariah (the Hebrew equivalent) was the one who directed the rebuilding of the 2nd Temple, which of course is still standing, in the Luke narrative. Another important fact: Abijah was also Hezekiah's mother. Jewish primogeniture goes through the father, first; but Jewish bloodline goes by the mother. So Zacharias is distantly of the royal line of David. So Luke means to show confluence, God orchestrating time, giving to a royally-related namesake the task of rebuilding the 'temple' of believers -- preparation, again. Of course you'd know that from the genealogy, with the Lord being the 77th son from God Himself. See: names really matter in the Bible. My pastor said that so often, I can't long forget to look up every name I find. Lexicons are notorious for giving you no data on proper names. So you have to spend a lot of time guessing at the Hebrew roots, and then searching for them.

    One of Luke's goals in writing this information is to demonstrate that Zecharias is a valid Levite priest. When the Lord was born, the long usurpation of the Maccabees had utterly corrupted the priesthood; the Maccabees (aka Hasmoneans) also usurped the Davidic throne within a generation or two of ousting the Greeks. So there were individuals serving in the priesthood who were not eligible, either. On top of that, the High Priest was appointed, whether or not he was the proper eldest son of Aaron per the Law. So it's important to know that some of the priests -- here, Zecharias -- were of the proper lineage. Moreover, Mary is a distant cousin of Zecharias' wife. For Aaron had married a woman from the tribe of Judah, so the two tribes intermarried throughout the centuries. That matters, for one of the Lord's Titles is King-Priest. Hebrews 7 and 10 cover this. By His lineage, He would not qualify as a High Priest, but He did have Levite lineage.

    Since Luke is writing 50+ years after the fact, the reader is reminded how John, the next priest in line, and validly -- refused to serve. That tells you volumes about how corrupt the priests were. Remember, it was God who appointed John. And He didn't appoint him to be in the Temple, but in the desert -- though under the Law a priest who refused to serve in Temple would be killed or otherwise severely punished. So the priesthood would have to be pretty corrupt, for God to ordain a qualified priest to stay away from the Temple. Kinda reminds you of those Witnesses in Rev11. So: if you have any doubt about how bad the priesthood was, just read the rampant, pettifogging legalism in the Mishnah: the rabbis talking in it largely were alive when the Lord walked down here. How He kept His temper around them, I can't fathom. I lose mine after three pages' reading!

    So Matthew and Luke demonstrate that despite all man's usurpations, God still continued both a Kingly and a Priestly line. Principle: God keeps His Promises.

    Luke calls attention to the priestly course names and the weeks in which they occur: he's thus telling you that the prophecy of when Messiah is born, was fulfilled. Each priestly course name is a kind of prophecy of Israel's history for that 'week'. We'll see much more about what prophecy is disclosed by each course name, later on in this subsection.

    Luke also demonstrates how the Birth is deliberately tied to significant Temple months. There are three for the second Temple: Elul (proper month of intercalation), Chislev, and Adar (improper month, but better late than never). For the First Temple, there are also three: Ziv, Bul, and Ethanim. More about these months will be said in later categories. But the point here is, Luke wants to show how Messiah=Temple, is fulfilled by the timing. So Zecharias is a priest serving in Ziv and Bul, tying to the first Temple. Luke also makes it clear Elizabeth got pregnant in Elul (Luke 1:36, witty play on sixth month, tying Adar and Elul, which are opposites to each other on the calendar). So you know when John will be born: in Sivan, at Pentecost. So you know when the Lord will be born: in Chislev, on Chanukah.

    This is the key to knowing for sure when Messiah is born: God deliberately fashions the timing of conception and birth for both John and the Lord, to play on significant Temple dates. By so doing, He 'completes' the second half of Israel's calendar, and all History. So in this webpage and occasionally in Mirroring.htm, you'll see me try one idea or another as to what these ties are, with respect to David. For all these Temple-significant dates, are also significant to David. But I'm experimenting with possibilities. What's certain is that the above months -- and particular dates in them -- are all interwoven to converge on His Birth. Maybe some of the how-they-converge ideas in this webpage are partly inaccurate, but it's true they all tie, somehow.

14. 1Chron24:10 and 2Chron 23:8 tell you the clever design of the Aaronic priesthood service to which Zacharias belonged: a Saturday-Saturday run such that each priest ended up serving a fortnight, 15 days split in two 7.5-day rotations which are six months apart. That design ties neatly to the lunar month of 29.5 days, as does the Jewish night-first method of 'day' accounting. So let's review an interpretative summary of ALL these priestly courses. NIV paste from BibleWorks shows the course names as follows. Italics are mine, showing the meaning of the names. Sometimes I have to guess the names from the Hebrew roots. I'll provide the roots too. Where the lexicons provide an interpretative name (and I don't mean Strong's, which is too weak), I'll provide them (usually from TWOT or HALOT). In the next three points (esp. in #17) I'll deviate from the lexicons where the name's prophetical meaning is so rich it requires elaboration.

    As you read what follows, it's important to know that Jeh, iah, yah, jeho, je and Eli all mean "God" as prefixes or suffixes. In Hebrew, you can suffix or prefix the noun or verb.

    NIV 1 Chronicles 24:7-18

    Meaning Per Week in Each Nisan and Ethanim: Days 1-7, 7 the first lot fell to Jehoiarib [God Has Brought Justice, Yah+rib, to be the Plaintiff in a trial],
    Days 8-15, the second to Jedaiah [God knows/knew, Yah+yada (terminating ayin) -- see 2Cor5:21],
    Days 16-22, 8 the third to Harim [Dedicated, devoted to destruction, haram cognate, plural],
    Days 23-30, the fourth to Seorim [Ripe barley, stressing its hairiness, plural],
    Meaning Per Week in Each Ziv and Bul:
    Days 1-7, 9 the fifth to Malkijah [God is My King, melek+Yah],
    Days 8-15, the sixth to Mijamin ["auspicious child", min+yamin],
    Days 16-22, 10 the seventh to Hakkoz [The Thornbush/Briar, ha+qots],
    Days 23-30, the eighth to Abijah [My Father is God, God Fathers, ab+i+Yah -- the "i" is a first-person singular suffix],
    Meaning Per Week in Each Sivan and Chislev: Days 1-7, 11 the ninth to Jeshua [God is Salvation=Jesus' name, Yah+shua],
    Days 8-15, the tenth to Shecaniah [God Dwells (in His House with us, esp. in the 1st Temple at its Dedication), shakan+Yah],
    Days 16-22, 12 the eleventh to Eliashib [My God Causes Return -- a kind of benediction, Eli+shub],
    Days 23-30, the twelfth to Jakim [God Rises Up -- think of all the entendres in English, including Rising up to Defend, Rising up to Testify, Win -- Yah+qum],
    Meaning Per Week in Each Tammuz and Tebeth: Days 1-7, 13 the thirteenth to Huppah [Divine Protection from enemies, storms -- like during the wilderness period -- huppa=canopy],
    Days 8-15, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab ["God dwells in Father's House", yashab w/Yah embedded, +ab!],
    Days 16-22, 14 the fifteenth to Bilgah [a Smiling/Gleaming/Gladness, cognate noun of balag],
    Days 23-30, the sixteenth to Immer [lamb, livestock, per HALOT; but note how the root=The Word, esp. God speaking The Word; yeah, God speaks and all livestock exists! Name is spelled aleph mem mem resh.],
    Meaning Per Week in Each Ab and Shebat: Days 1-7, 15 the seventeenth to Hezir [Swine/Boar or swineherd, per HALOT -- but I bet it somehow refers to the Arm/Strength/Might of God, Ha+Zar' (zayin resh ayin)],
    Days 8-15, the eighteenth to Happizzez [lit., He -- God -- Shattered, but looks more like "The Shattering of God" in meaning -- ha ppitsetz],
    Days 16-22, 16 the nineteenth to Pethahiah [pronounced ph'tachYah, God has opened the womb, ph'tach+Yah],
    Days 23-30, the twentieth to Jehezkel [God Strengthens/Prevails = Ezekiel, Yah+hazaq],
    Meaning Per Week in Each Elul and Adar: Days 1-7, 17 the twenty-first to Jakin [God Establishes/Prepares/Fixes/Decrees, Yah+qun],
    Days 8-15, the twenty-second to Gamul [He ripens/Recompenses/Weans - see also Heb. "golem", unborn fetus, in Ps139:16.],
    Days 16-22, 18 the twenty-third to Delaiah [God Draws Water or on a writing tablet or even acts like a Door, Yah+dela -- but the focus seems to be on the repeated lifting/moving action, so dependability is stressed],
    Days 23-30, and the twenty-fourth to Maaziah [God is My Refuge, maoz+Yah; notice that this month should be running to 35 or 36, and David's design would allow that, WITHOUT needing intercalation, as the courses were based on hours in a DAY, not in a month. But if intercalation is made in Elul, then the time afterwards 'naturally' hits EXACTLY on the autumnal equinox by Rosh HaShanah, see Intercal.xls].

    Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

15. Zacharias had the 8th course (1Chron24:10), so served 8th and 32nd weeks. So the 8th course would cover eight nights (beginning on a sundown when the regular sabbath ends) and seven days. The first 'week' for him would be the 53.5th day (at sundown) through the 60th day, so he served in the last week of Ziv, 2nd sacred month, ending near 'our' May 15 or so; his repeat 'week' would occur the the last week in Bul, which is the 232.5th day (at sundown) through the 240th day (he'd be relieved before the evening sacrifice). Assuming 30 days per month -- which you can, because the priestly courses are all based on a 30-day month division -- his service ended mid-November, if the calendar were right that year. [BibleWorks' Fausset's Bible Dictionary, "2887.09" entry under "Priest" noted in passing that priests ministered in the Temple one week, twice a year, with the incoming priest relieving the outgoing one in time for the evening sacrifice. That's how I got the 7.5 days. Thayer's lexicon entry on ephemeria (2nd e is an eta) has the same information. Same for Friberg and BDAG, so this was a well-known thing. Not all translations of 2Chron 23:8 are good. See NIV, English Standard Version, NJB, 1985 JPS Tanach and NLT, NRS, NASB.]
    Israel did not operate on a 354-day lunar year. The priestly courses prove that it was a 360-day year. So any intercalation to solar, would impact the priestly courses. David designed these. The courses serve as a week-by-week prophecy of Israel's future, of God's Promise and the Command to Think Word; so your best history book of the world, week-by-week, is in this long list of priestly-course names no one ever bothers to translate. So by them we know David knew the whole future of Israel. For God gave it to David to design them, after David retired and installed Solomon in his place. So during the last seven years of David's life, he was working on the Temple priesthood, though himself not a Levite. That tells you volumes about the significance of 2Sam7.

    It also tells you that it's only the thought that counts. Not, what you are doing. All Temple work is menial housework. The breadth of skills required is also present, for the priests had to be good architects and building contractors, doing all the work themselves. So you see here a vast range of body-work, but none of it means squat, without the thought behind it. So, God designed the Law and all the rituals and priestly service work, to Signify Huge Truths. So much so, even the course names are about Messiah and the timing of His Coming, Going, and Returning. The idea was, every time you tossed blood out of a laver, that reminded you of what He'd do for you. For the Whole World. Every time you washed your hands up to your arms, that reminded you of God's Righteousness being unparalleled, so He Would Give His Own Righteousness To You, precedence of Gen3:15, 15:6. So what's menial, isn't menial anymore. Omniscience knows all the small and horrible, and all the great and glamorous, yet wants ALL of it, Eph1:23. Which prior to Paul penning that verse, was repeated in every little yod in the Scripture, every little movement in your life. So you couldn't forget it.

    We all perpetually do, of course. So although we perpetually forget, God Remembers: zakar, Zecharias.

16. Ziv and Bul, in which fall Zacharias' serving weeks, are the same two months as for the First Temple Construction and Completion in 1Kings 6:1-2, 2Chron3:1-2, and 1Kings 6:37-38. Can't miss it. Kill me now. Luke thus says that Zacharias' forefathers were the course serving priests at the same time back then, as 'now'. Those OT verses have bugged scholars for at least 100 years, given the BibleWorks commentary materials on them; they drove me crazy for months, but God's 490 accounting system, audited them and proved them correct. Note the parallel: the six months' difference is to prepare for Temple Building, lol! So, after the "Preparation" (play on Passover, get it) the actual Temple Building began "in the fourth year" following David's death at age 77 (not 70). It began on 2 Ziv, per 2Chron 3:2. Notice: the six months came first, 7.5 years in all. Next notice: six months forward from Ziv=Flowering Splendor, is Bul=Rain. Water of Word. Six months prior to the Annunciation, Elizabeth conceives God-is-Gracious=John, from a Temple priest named God Remembers; six months later, Mary will conceive God is Our Salvation=Jehoshua aka Joshua aka Jesus Who will Tabernacle Among Us -- get the pun?

    1 Maccabees tells you that Israel won her independence back from the Greeks in 141BC, on 23 Ziv or Bul (probably Ziv), 1 Macc13:51. That book is not Canon, but it does have historically-verifiable information.

    Thus Luke finesses the point that the Temple=Messiah ties in timing all the way back to that First Temple, answering Solomon's long Prayer that God remember to fulfill His Promise to David (1Kings 8:12ff -- affirming what God said in 1Kings 6:11ff, see also 1Kings 9). God keeps His Promises! [Nerd note: "Remember" is a legal contract verb, meaning to fulfill a promise. It does not mean God can forget something. Anthropopathisms are used in Bible to help man understand God: doesn't mean God is like people. Whole denominations are completely messed up because they don't even bother to learn literary stylistics like anthropopathisms, which are common in every culture's literary works.]

17. Luke's Gospel theme is how Law got fulfilled by Messiah=Temple. So Luke's use of confluence flags us to remember the embedded Prophecy Of The Priestly Names For Their Courses, simply by telling us Zacharias' course name, AbiYah. If you look up this name, you'll usually find it translated as "Father of Jehovah"! or "Father is Jehovah!" Now think: How can Father be the Father of Jehovah and Himself Be Jehovah, if God were just one Person? Can this wordplay BE more obvious, like David noted in Ps110:1? You and I both know Who that Father is, right? Yeah, and soooo many say there's nothing about Trinity in the OT? Wonder what Bible they have. Oh how rich! You get it, of course, that the Fathering of Jehoshua Who is Also Jehovah was long forecast, given the name of this priestly course. The usual meaning is the idea of someone 'fathering' you in Torah. You bet!

    This priestly course structure proves how God Mirrors Each Six Months of the Calendar. So Israel would know to look for a future TEMPLE holiday in Chislev, to 'fulfill' its opposite holiday at Pentecost. As you read through the following course-name bullets, you'll see this mirroring, yourself. Awesome stuff. Compare, if you will, the events you know of in Israel's history after King David, to the course names which were given beforehand, BY King David (see 1Chron Chaps 22ff to see David's designing).

    Click here to see the Jewish Calendar as a separate webpage, for easier parallel analysis of the text here. All the priestly courses listed in #14 are reprinted on that page.
    

    • Second-week course (1Chron24:7) is named yadaYah=God knows/has known. That would be the normal course which kicks off Passover week (8-14 Nisan). See how Isaiah explains His intimately knowing truth, sickness and grief in Isaiah 52-53. That same course operates in the 26th week, the week of Yom Kippur. Notice again the 'mirror' quality of the second six months of the calendar: its 'mate' in the first six months is the day the Lamb is set aside.
    • Third week course is named Harim=Devoted i.e., to Destruction, 15-21 Nisan, Feast of the Unleavened Bread; its mate in Ethanim is Feast of Booths, as noted earlier. Idea that it's Holy to God, and not to be used by man one way or another. Sacrifices wholly burnt, neither the sinner nor the priest sharing in the eating/use of them. No substitution of the One Devoted is acceptable.

      Notice how whatever holiday would be ordained for the second half of the calendar to 'fit' this kickoff in Nisan, DEDICATION will be the theme. Because it is due to the Devoted-to-Destruction week being finished. Piggybacks on it. Remember, the 22nd begins on the night of the 21st, and that is FirstFruits, our Easter. Dedication of the new crops to God. More about how First Fruits works will be explained in Division #1.

      So here you have the predicted date of His Resurrection commemorated.

    • Fourth week course is named Seorim=Barley, the Harvesting. As noted earlier, this begins Weeks. Harvest time. The other meanings going with this root are extremely interesting, as they all relate to hair. The growing and cutting of hair was a significant feature of the Nazirite vow (Numbers 6): when the vow began, you stopped cutting your hair; when you ended the vow, you cut your hair and threw it under the fire of the altar outside the Tabernacle (later, the Temple in Jerusalem). Growing the hair meant you weren't relying on human power (i.e., to make yourself look manly) but on God. So it also meant you were cutting yourself off from society in certain respects (i.e., not drinking wine). It was a type of temporary priesthood you chose to engage in, and it had some of the privileges of priesthood, too. The idea was you studied Torah much more than normal, for whatever period of the vow, you selected. Male or female could make the vow. Like all the Levitical offerings by individuals, they were voluntary. Individual sin offerings were mandatory but you had much latitude as to what you brought; and until you chose to do that, no one would know.

      People are hostile to those who just plain want to know God. That was just as true then, as now. So the Nazirite vow allowed a person who wanted to devote time and study, to do that. Others were supposed to leave the person alone. They didn't, of course: either they demeaned the value of setting aside time just to be with God by their praise, or by their disdain. Praise of one's setting aside time to be with God is one of the commonest ways to insult God -- as if their praise of you mattered, but the time you got to spend with God in His Word, mattered not at all. So if you were trying to win human approval, you'd seek the Nazirite vow. And many did.

      The story of Martha and Mary in Bethany well illustrates the innate hostility people have to those who are interested in the Word (Luke 10:38-42). You hear that same story play over and over, every day. Funny thing is, learning the Word buys time for the rest of the world to do what it considers important.

      By the way, the Lord did not have long hair. Nazarite vow was a temporary thing, and while you grew your hair you absented yourself from society; men wore short hair as a badge of authority. You'll see Paul explain all this, and excoriate long hair on men in 1Cor11, so obviously the Lord didn't have long hair, k?

      All of Him is Dedicated to being the Passover Lamb. That's why HE is FirstFruits, Himself. So He had short hair, and He drank wine, too. That's why calling Him "Nazarene" was a play on His Purpose, but used the name of His Home Town; for He was not a temporarily-dedicated Nazirite -- but Messiah Himself. To see that "Nazarene" meant where He lived, see both the end of Matthew 1 and the end of John 7, how the Temple priests argued against Him being Messiah. Look: the priests were real big on Nazirite vows. They even trapped Paul with 'em. So had the Lord done the long-hair thing, the priests wouldn't have been so against Him. Sure wish we'd all do our Bible homework, instead of taking some artist's unBiblical fantasy, as gospel truth. But as noted above, people are hostile to learning God. Only weirdoes want to know God. Everyone else, just wants to make up stuff.

    • 10th course, 1Chron 24:11, covers Pentecost and the second week of Chislev (34th week). Name of the course is -- get this! -- shekaniYah, God dwells. Hebrew verb shakan means to dwell with, dwell in, home: idea of His Glory filling the Tabernacle. Inhabiting, Indwelling. Kinda bald, huh. Now you know why all Peter had to say in Acts 2, was Joel 2. Everyone knows what Pentecost signifies, due to the very name of this 10th course. As you saw above with respect to Chanukah, on the 15th of Chislev (which is the 2nd week), 167BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes put up the statue, an abomination of desolation, in the Temple. So the very name is a promise that God will come back and Rededicate the Temple -- all embedded in the name which King David had structured, even before he died. So the hiatus between First Fruits and Pentecost would be a time of testing for the Jews. So Jubilee comes at the end, the 50th. In between, is harvesting.

      Ok: how can God make it more obvious when Messiah will be born? Again, David invented the priestly courses (see last 7 chapters of 1 Chronicles). So um -- everyone knew when Messiah would come, 1000 years in advance. That's why Haggai 2 is so witty. Bear in mind, that the 2nd week of Chislev=the third week of Chislev when the calendar is not intercalated. Which happened with some regularity. So for our dead spot in Chislev opposite Pentecost, we saw how in 167 and 164BC, both 15 and 25 Chislevs tied to 11 Chislev.

    • 11th course, 1Chron 24:11, covers week after Pentecost plus 3rd week of Chislev. Course name is ElYaShib: "God Returns". That's the oldest name of God, "El", + YH, + verb "shub"="return" -- the most emotional verb in Judaism. Can God make His Birth Week more obvious? Can God make the TIE between Pentecost and Chanukah more obvious -- 1000 years before Messiah is born?

      To the Jews, "SHUB" is a legal verb in Hebrew and Bible prophecy: it means the Regathering of Israel. All OT prophecy is subsumed in this one verb. Every Jew talks about shub, dreams of shub, and all that bobbing at the Wailing Wall is done to pray God SHUB to shub the Jews into their right place in history. Doesn't get bigger than this, in Jewish eyes. All the Palestinian conflict is about shub, too: the right of the Palestinians to return. For shub means Jubilee, when all property reverts back to the original ownerships. Which is the real reason why Palestinians want it. But they don't own the Land, and didn't but live there as day laborers. It's an inheritance dispute going back to the days when Abraham kicked out Ishmael and his other sons by Keturah, frankly. [Koran claims the Bible is from God, but that the Jews adulterated it. So Koran spends a lot of time validating Bible portions. What's so odd, is that the Koran never once says that the Moslems are supposed to get or take over the inheritances of the Jews, but rather promises a separate covenant for the Moslems. The Jews got their benefits, and the Moslems get other benefits. The two sets of covenants are extremely different, and the Moslem definitely gets the short end of the stick. Bible promise to the Arab based on the fact he's a son of Abraham is light-years superior, and the Koran never echoes it. Clearer proof a demon wrote the Koran you couldn't have, for man is not so clever; even more, Koranic derisive word play and holiday play against the original-language texts of Bible. Which no one could get, at the time the Koran came out in 610 (or so) AD. It's downright embarrassing, how we don't do our holy-book homework in any of our faiths. So any Moslem or Arab who claims to fight the Jews based on the Koran, never really read his own holy book. No authorization, no inheritance, not even the idea that they should take what became the Dome -- is in there. Christians and Jews aren't the only ones who can't read their holy books. But I digress!]

    • 12th course, 1Chron 24:12, covers weeks 12 and 36, meaning last week of Sivan (post-Pentecost) and 'official' Chanukah week, respectively. Course name is Yahqim: means God rises up against all opposition, and is left Standing Victorious. (Heb root is qum.) Temple Standing, get it? Isa53:2a should read something more like this in corrected translation: "For we deposed that in the court case before Father's Eyes, that SlaveSon-to-be-cut-off as a Burnt Offering grew up, arose, rose; caused to grow like a 'sapling' abundantly nourished, and despite all opposition." [Bible translation rules require you to chop out meaning in the original, restricting you to only one English word for one original-language word. You'd get fired from a diplomatic post if you did that kind of vile translating, sorry. Really rips out tons of meaning.] Yeah, and the Temple is left Standing despite Antiochus. And the Lord comes to be standing on the earth, YH+WH.

    • So notice the message of the 10th-12th courses: God Indwells the Temple, so God Returns, so God Rises up against all opposition, and is Left Standing Victorious. The 24th of Chislev (12th-course assignment) was when the foundation for the 2nd Temple was laid, Haggai 2:15, 18. Even in translation, you can see God ties the harvest to the Temple. Very witty book. Notice that a son of David is in charge of building the Temple, too: Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel descendant of Nathan, David's youngest son by Bathsheba. Chapters 1-2 make it clear that Hello, you're not getting good weather from Me because you're not building My Temple! Additionally, everyone is reminded six weeks a year of Pentecost and Chanukah, two holidays which came to mirror each other. And all this, due to a rabid Greek descendant of Seleucus who desecrated the Temple, who tried to destroy every Bible he could get his hands on. So now he's the poster boy for the future Tribulation. Kinda hard to miss this message, huh.
      The message is one of persecution. So when you go back and forth between the genealogies in 1Chron Chaps 3 and 4, compared to Matthew 1, Luke 3 -- you have to remember that to protect the Davidic line, especially from 167BC onward, aliases had to be used; it was already common enough for one person to have multiple names, so even if we're not looking at aliases in Matthew and Luke, the names then known to the audience, were used -- names morph over the centuries. From Shealtiel backward it's Nathan's line (i.e., Luke 3:31). Look: it's not as if Matthew and Luke didn't have 1Chron Chapters 3 and 4 in their possession. So when they deliberately use different names, there's a reason. It's not a mistake. So also, you know their genealogies can't be accused of being made up by Christians, who also had 1Chronicles in their possession. Else the genealogies would at least match, in Matthew. So much for all the pointless diatribes against the Matthew and Luke genealogies. Funny how obsessed people get, never learning the Word. Oh well.

      So as you can see, anyone who was of the Royal Davidic line was persecuted avidly. This was especially true from 167BC forward, when the Hasmoneans -- a minor Levite tribe, the "Maccabees" -- usurped Temple service and even claimed kingship for itself. The true Davidic royalty would have to lay low, after that. The story of that persecution and identifying the line was of extreme popular (and political) interest. You see its weird obsessiveness even today, with all the hoopla over the SAME claim, in stuff like Holy Blood, Holy Grail or the 20-years'-later (almost spoofing) Da Vinci Code, the movie "Dogma", and the hundreds of other books people droolingly waste their money on. So you can tie into the obsession and danger of being anywhere close to the line of Zerubbabel, way back then.

      Such obsession is demonic. Can't continue an obsession like this over so many centuries, and call it human. We humans just aren't interested enough to maintain such an obsession. Do you see anyone obsessing like this over Gautama aka Siddartha who was a crown prince before he found the "middle way" and became the founder of Buddhism? Do you see anyone so obsess over Mohammed? Sure, the Shi'ites are pretty ticked off their pal Ali didn't take over after The Prophet died in 632AD -- but who else? Yet the whole world obsesses over the Da Vinci Code -- so much, the Catholic Church has to forbid its parishoners to buy the book/movie? Everyone keeps on writing stupid books in refutation or alleged corroboration of what seems to me a spoof of the entire claim, at least the way Dan Brown presents it in his book: your big hint is the way he presents decades-known lies as "Fact" on the very first page! Remember, that Plantard guy already admitted to hoaxing those Dossiers Secrets about some alleged (obviously-fake) Prieurè de Sion back in 1989 or so, long before Dan Brown put pen to paper. Sheesh. Sucker born every minute. I remember when the Rosacrucians tried that same tactic back in 1972. I remember they took out an ad in one of the Spanish magazines or newspapers showing a historical roster: Every famous person ever born was a Rosa Crucian, so shouldn't the reader become one, too? So what Plantard did in the 1980's, had already been done in the 1970's!

      So now imagine you really are of the "disposyni", aka the Royal Line of David: you'd not exactly want to be known. So those getting the Matthew and Luke genealogies would know what the aliases meant; we can tell they are aliases, because the names are often plays on Hebrew and Greek words (i.e., "Rhesa" in Luke 3:27 is closely related in sound to the idea of kingly inscription in the Hebrew, and wise/prophetical sayings, in the Greek). So you'd tie by the meanings of the names, probably. This is and should be hard to do -- again, because of persecution.

      So: the meaning of the names Shealtiel, Pedaiah, Zerubbabel, tell you how Jeconiah's adoption worked: through Nathan.

      • "Shealtiel" means "asked of God", and is a cute play on the original Saul (shaul), who was cut off.
      • David asked of God who should be his successor, and God named Sholomo (Solomon, to you).
      • So Jeconiah son of Solomon asked of God, and adopted Shealtiel son of Neri.
      • Nearest we have to a "Neri" in 1 Chronicles is a descendant of Zerubbabel, "Neariah" (means "child of God", na'ar+Yah) in 1Chron 3:23. Since it was practice to name sons after ancestors, this could be evidence that "Neri" is getting a son named after him.
      • Notice in any event, that "Neri" sounds like "My child" in Hebrew -- a nickname, maybe.
      • Same, for "Abihud", which sounds like "My Father is My Joyful Shout", in Matthew's genealogy.
      To protect that family whose descendants may still be alive when Luke (and earlier) Matthew wrote. [Matthew traces Joseph's line, and Luke, Mary's. They both cross over at Shealtiel.]

      Now here's where it gets interesting. The lexicon TWOT, for example, presumes Shealtiel died childless. So then, maybe his adoptive brother Pedaiah was picked -- Pedaiah means "ransomed of God" -- and maybe is another adopted son, or else a blood son of Jeconiah. For according to 1Chron 3:18-19, both Shealtiel and Pedaiah were at least the legal sons of Jeconiah. "Pedaiah" is also the name of the father of Jeconiah's dad's mother -- meaning, Jeconiah's maternal great-grandfather -- implying that Pedaiah is a blood son. or, a "Pedaiah" from that line, was adopted. (In Jewish custom, you name sons after the fathers or grandfathers, see 2Kings 23:36. It makes sense that Jehoiakim and Jeohiachin would not be names used for future sons.) 2 Kings 24:12 and 15, the verses of Jehoiachin aka Jeconiah's deportation to Babylon, does not list any kids. He was obviously old enough to have kids, but yet none are listed. Pointed omission. God chooses what man despises, and despises what man chooses. Can't miss that message.

      So then God still brings in the line, but adoptively, under Shealtiel. Now get this: "Zerubbabel" also stems from a root verb zarab which means to burn, Hebrew verb zarab. But also, "zera" (variant "zeru") means "seed", and is used in the OT mostly to signify the promised descendants leading to Messiah. So look: burn and (different root) seed! Since Bible assigns the legal primogeniture to Shealtiel but puts Zerubbabel also under Pedaiah, you could make an even stronger case for Zerubbabel himself being the one adopted, especially since God Himself adopts him, in Haggai 2 and throughout Zechariah. God makes a big stink out of Zerubbabel, who himself may have been adopted by Shealtiel.

      You'll see God do this same kind of grafting out and cutting in with Moses, cutting out the whole Levite tribe and putting Amram (a minor branch, see "Jochebed" link in MisTrans.htm) first. So given the roots in Zerubbabel's name and the huge emphasis on him, I'd bet money Zerubbabel, Shealtiel and Pedaiah are each adopted, their royalty running through Nathan (who is a son of Bath-shua (aka Bathsheba) usually listed before Solomon in the genealogies); and maybe, all the others listed in 1Chron 3 are adopted, too. A king needs to have a line of succession, so wouldn't stop at just one son in the line. Especially, a persecuted line which is to eventuate in Messiah. Again, just look at the obsession today over the mere idea that Christ or some royal in the line of David has surviving kids, and you'll understand the need to hide, back then.

    • If the Jewish calendar hasn't been intercalated due to waiting or neglect like back during the 160's BC, then the twelfth priestly course would still be operating in its week but the true weeks would correspond to true Pentecost and 11 Chislev, respectively -- on God's Calendar. God made sure His Son died on true 14 Nisan, as you'll later see in Division #2. So don't you think He'd make the Birth operate on the correct calendar, too? In which case, the names of the tenth-twelfth courses ALL apply to the Week of His Birth?

      Look: in any intercalated year, by Chislev the calendar is still off by 4 days, unless intercalated in Elul. Since Israel stopped intercalating in Elul post-exile, then even if they use Adar Sheni before Nisan began, every subsequent month is .43 days off (=5.25/12). So the 15th of Chislev will always be equivalent to 11 Chislev. Now if the calendar is not intercalated the prior two years, it's off by 14 or 15 days (5.25+5.25=10.5+(5.25/12*9 or *8). So that is equivalent to 25 Chislev. Thus you have a span of up to three priestly course weeks, all in Chislev, all on the same theme of God Here With Us: aka, "Immanuel" (the meaning, in Hebrew).

      See the clever design of three priestly courses, so that in every year, intercalation or no, they will fit His Upcoming Birthdate? Between these course names and Haggai 2, I just don't know how God could more blatantly advertise when Messiah would be born. All you'd need would be confirmation of the year -- which you get, from Daniel 9 when triangulated with David's 1000th anniversaries. Messiah would have to be born by David's 1000th anniversary of united Kingship over all Israel, or time runs out. Because the outer limit is the 1000th anniversary of David's death, for Messiah to pay for sins: and that's a 40-year span, the time David ruled Israel. For Messiah must be born a King. So He can't live longer than age 40; the Temple having been destroyed the first time, affixed history's allotted time to end 37AD. But Messiah must be born by the 1000th anniversary of David's united Kingship, for that's when that 1000 expired. So then the Kingship Offer expires, 1003BC (more likely, 25 Chislev 4BC).

      Now you know why Luke tells you the course of Zecharias. To fold in all this meaning of the course names -- AbiYah!

    • Also auspicious are the 17th through 20th courses (1Chron24:14-16). Their first tours would all occur in Ab (one per week). Translated, the names are respectively Swine/Boar; (per HALOT) God Shatters, God has opened the womb, and God Strengthens. Swine is always a metaphor of abomination. To "open the womb" is another way of saying "firstborn". So these four weeks together in Ab are pretty descriptive of what Israel considers its own history. The second tours would occur in the 41st-44th weeks, which is the month Shebat. Month name "Ab" means "Father", and "Shebat" means to cease, from which comes "sabbath"; so it sounds like sheba="seven", "promise". Jeremiah 52:12-13 does say it was the 10th (not ninth) of Ab that the First Temple was burned. So God really Shattered, that week. And to think it was King David who gave the course that name, almost 400 years prior.

    • But look at the Elul and Adar priestly course names! These 21st -24th course names are listed in 1Chron 24:17-18. They are: 21=Yahkin=God will prepare/establish/fix/make-right (= kun in Hebrew); 22=Gamul=To Requite/Ripen, used more in Scripture than the meaning "weaned" (but root is the same); 23 = DelaYahu = God Draws (Water, analogy to both Exodus and back to the original creation, since Elul was to run (or at least be intercalated to run) 35-36 days, as a reminder of Genesis 1's RESTORATION of the earth, compare with Isaiah 45:18-19 shown here in videos); and 24 = MazeYaHu = God is My Refuge! Coming in at last, at the end (of the year, when the extra 5.25 days are added or should have always been 'in' Elul)! Technically MazeYahu means God provides the Quick Safe Haven from approaching Quick Disaster, allusion to the Red Sea exit. But the soundalike to Maschiach is unmistakable. So a name like Uzziel means "God is My Refuge", though it's a verb. MazeYahu would be the noun form.

      Hmmm. Looks like the very names of these priestly courses are timely and prophetic, huh. Prophetic, because it was David who set up the whole thing: read 1Chron24. So 1000 years in advance, we are told of something happening in the last week of Elul and Adar that provides a quickly-needed Divine refuge in the nick of time; which week/event is preceded by Moses-like something (Dalah relates to Moses' name, Exo2:19, the only place the verb appears); which is preceded by a Requital Decision/Action that Weans Israel; all started by, God's Preparation Decree.

18. Adar is therefore an important month. Last week of Adar, the final plagues which suddenly caused Pharaoh to let Israel go. Adar is therefore the end of the sacred year. In Adar's 2nd week, Purim occurs; it Requited and Weaned Israel in the sense that without Purim, there'd have been no completion of the building of Jerusalem, and therefore there'd be no Israel; that was the deadline of the mirrored-back 70 in Dan 9:25's schema, playing historically from 516BC-446BC. The 2nd Temple was finished 516BC on 3 Adar, first week, per Ezra 6:15. God's Decree, then, was met: it was the deadline for rebuilding the Temple, 586-516 being the 70-year allotment God decreed per Daniel 9:2. On 25 Adar 560BC, two years after Nebuchadnezzar died -- there was a kind of intra-fraternal battle over the succession -- king Oulai Maradach (Greek spelling) granted pardon from prison to Judah's King Jehoiachim (aka Jeconiah, Coniah), Jer52:31; two days later on the 27th, Maradach officially released and promoted Jehoiachim, 2Kings 25:27. As a result, Jehoiachim was provided for by the Babylonian king for the rest of the former's days; but Jehoiachim didn't have any kids due to that (36 or) 37-year imprisonment; thus was fulfilled the Jeconiah curse (Jer22:24-30). For he was 18 when he went to prison (2Kings 24:8), so was 55 when he was released. As a result, Shealtiel son of Neri would be adopted by Jehoiachim, and through Shealtiel would come both Mary and Joseph. Shealtiel is a son of David via Nathan. By the way, Jehoiachim is an alternate spelling of Yahkin, God Decrees/God will Prepare. So God prepared Messiah's line.

    Yeah, Adar is a pretty important month. And of course, that's when Gabriel is dispatched to inform Mary that she's pregnant, Luke 1:26. So she gets pregnant by the Holy Spirit that month; given 9 months (270 days at full term, for the Fullness of Our Salvation), she was made pregnant on the equivalent of 24 Adar, post-sundown.

    Of course, Elul is opposite Adar, and that's when Elizabeth got pregnant (wit in Luke 1:36, probably to the day). For Him to be born 25 Chislev (really, 24 Chislev post-sundown), Mary had to become pregnant on the equivalent of 24 Adar (post-sundown). We'll go over this Luke wit in #24 in some detail; calendar intercalation confluence matters altogether here. Gird yourself for a numbering slog, from this paragraph, forward.

    At the moment, just notice how the priestly course names for Adar and Elul, are rather blatantly prophetic? Click here to jump to the Bible verses, note the bolded Adar, Elul, and Chislev phrases.

19. Elul events: Neh 6:15, 25th of Elul the Wall of Jerusalem was finished. That's Third week of Elul, paralleling the release of Jehoiachim in Adar. Construction on the 2nd Temple recommenced 24 Elul 521 BC, as we saw above in the "Purim" subsection: click here to jump to the Bible verses, note the bolded Elul phrases.. Again, these priestly course names were given centuries prior to the events!

20. Now let's look closer at the dates of Zacharias' service, to determine the Elizabeth's Conception Year and whether the Jewish calendar was intercalated properly, during that year. Yikes, it's a slog to do the calculations here, sorry. We know that the 53rd, 60th, 232nd, and 240th days of that year are all Saturdays. Because, the priestly courses run Saturday-Saturday, measuring by nights. Zecharias' courses are those four bookended Saturdays.

    The year Elizabeth conceives is therefore 5BC. Our deadline when all time ends if Messiah doesn't finish on the Cross is 30AD, per Daniel 9:25's math (Mirroring.htm has details). We know He was 30 years old when He first began His Ministry, same age as David, Luke 3:23. So we know she conceives in 5BC, since that's the 1435th anniversary of the Exodus; and Passover-FirstFruits week that year ought to run Wed-Wed, because 205*7=1435, an n+1 year.

    Here's how we know 5BC is the right year. 30AD is also an n+1 year; we know this because Bible is real blatant on Him rising the first day of the week, on the fact He was three days and nights in the Grave, and above all: HE ATE PASSOVER. Can't be the Passover and eat the Passover unless the Jewish calendar wasn't intercalated the previous year. Can't eat and be the Passover in any year except an n+1 year. So we don't have to know how often they intercalated. We only have to know they hadn't, THAT year. Division #2 covers the Bible verses in detail. So, dividing by 7: the prior n+1 years are 23, 16, 9, 2AD; then, 5BC. Only 5BC is in the time frame: the other years are too late. [Each of these is also a sabbatical year, looks like? No, that doesn't sound right. Rethink. ] In any event, it's supposed to be a Wed-Wed Passover week in 5BC. If the calendar had been properly corrected, we'll be able to tell. For if corrected, 1 Nisan would begin on a Thursday; 10th of Nisan was thus a Saturday; 14 Nisan would be a Wednesday, with Passover beginning at sundown, just as it was supposed to be in 30AD.

    But the calendar in 5BC is off, just like it was in 30AD. Because if, going by Zecharias' serving weeks, Saturday is the 53rd day of the year, when his Ziv service starts, at sundown -- then the year began on a Monday, nominally. So it wasn't intercalated yet: 53/7=Monday, because 7*7=Friday (ending Saturday, a week), so count back four more prior TO Friday, and you get Monday. You can also take a spreadsheet and label the 53rd day "Saturday" and then name the days backwards; the 1st row in the worksheet will be Monday. Thursday-Monday is five days, just what it should be if the calendar is off due to not being intercalated for ONE year. But "Monday" begins Sunday night, in Jewish accounting. So it ends up being another Sat-Sat Passover-FirstFruits Week, just like in 30AD.

21. What about the common Jewish belief that Messiah will be born in Ab? For an Ab Birth would still tie to Chislev in meaning, since the 2nd Temple's foundation was laid in 24 Chislev (Haggai 2), and Chanukah begins 25 Chislev.

    While cruising the internet, I was surprised to learn on 3/22/06 that it's a common Judaic belief that Messiah will be born in the month of Ab, due both to Temple Destruction, and because "Ab" means Father. I used to think that also, given OT's witty stress ON the Father, using ab-prefixes all the time. Earlier versions of this webpage and LvS4a.htm advanced the notion of an Ab birthdate, pooh-poohing 25 December. For "Ab" wordplay is rife in the OT; plays on Father and Father Abraham, both at once. Father fathered Abraham, and Abraham will be the father of the Fathering of our salvation: all that wit is in Isa 63, esp. v.16. [How Jews can therefore maintain they are monotheists, I'll never know. Tritheism is Biblical, aka Trinity; not polytheism (which depends on inequality of deities). Three Equal Infinite Gods: Father, Son, Spirit. Son=Messiah, always. No screwy hydra-headed misdefinitions of Three in one, as if God were some kind of egg. Infinity is not diminished by plurality of number. Plurality only affects what's spatial. Godness is not spatial.]

    Jews maintain Ab is Messiah's birth month, because they also claim that both the first and second Temple were destroyed on Tish b'av, the 9th of Ab. I can see how that's true: Ab runs mid July to mid August. It makes sense to say the calendar was neglected the last three+ years prior to 70AD, owing to the siege; hence 9Ab=27-29 August 70AD, depending on when intercalation stopped. Conventional history will tell you the Temple was razed by Titus on 28 or 29 August 70AD.

    Jeremiah 52:12-13 does say it was the 10th of Ab that the First Temple was burned; using night-before accounting, that equates to 9th Ab as a solar day -- close enough. There's convergence on the year, too: 586BC was the Temple's destruction under Nebuchy baby; 70AD destruction under Titus is 586 years later. As you'll see in the "Two Stone Witnesses" link of Part IVa (LvS4a.htm), there are a lot more convergences than just these. [Even Satan keys to the Temple destruction dates in how he orchestrates the Moslems -- and in a very cruel and petty manner against them, as if they were just cattle or something. Makes you sick at heart, to see your fellow man so burlesqued.]

    But it's also true that the warring months are July and August, when the weather is driest and people so busy harvesting (thus less prepared for attack). Most booty then, too. So Ab would have a calamity character naturally, no matter what its name.

    Bible's Time Accounting rules out an Ab birthdate. For that to happen, John would have to be born in the Shebat prior: Shebat is opposite Ab on the calendar, and we know John is six months older from Luke 1. So that means Elizabeth would have had to conceive BY the last week in Ziv, for John's birth to occur inside Shebat. And we know she did not, because the last weeks of Ziv and Bul, are Zecharias' service weeks. So if he got the announcement in Ziv, well -- he didn't go home until its last day ended, at sundown. I suppose you could postulate that when he got home that night, she got immediately pregnant. Which would make John's birth occur at the end of Shebat. But then the Lord's Birth would have to be the end of Ab. Where's the doctrinal fit? No Temple dates tie to these posited birthdays. None.

    Obviously if he got the announcement in Bul, Elizabeth wouldn't conceive in time.

    Egg on face time: I sure wish I had learned the priestly courses before I wrote about an Ab birthday. I shoulda done my homework better. Thank God, a reader asked me about Zecharias, or I'd never have been alerted (by God, of course) to the proper proofing in Bible! It's sooo easy to be slipshod in scholarship, huh. Lesson? Always audit one's faith, just like you would an asset portfolio or bank statement. For whatever is true, will be as good as or better than, what you now believe. True God is always better.

    So the very pregnant Ab course names which also apply to Shebat -- "Swine", "God Shatters", "God opens the Womb" and "God is My Refuge" -- they well fit with "God Remembers" (=Zecharias) and "God Fathers" or "Father is God" or even "My Father, God!" (=AbiYah, Zecharias' course name). But their fit must apply in some other way.

    Therefore, if Ab is to qualify as the birth month, it must do a Chislev 'job' doctrinally and also datewise, due to intercalation lapses. So Jewish calendar in 5BC would have to be off by way more than the number of days assumed above and below, for an Ab birthdate to do a Chislev 'job'. Like, by up to a whole month more: if 15 or 30 days off at the beginning of 5BC, the year would still start on a Monday: and it will go off by 5+ days, come the end of the following (4BC) Adar. Which might be fine, since the intercalation done varies from every year, to every fourth year, to every sixth year. Intercalation methodology wasn't consistent.

    So how would that work? Pretending the Lord's Humanity is conceived in 25 Chislev nominally, He must be born 3rd week of Ab ("God opens the womb" course) the following year -- that can only happen if Adar Sheni is 30 days long; 15 days won't work (nine months must really elapse). Under that Adar Sheni ASSumption, John would then have been conceived 3rd week of Sivan, to be born third week of Shebat, so both are in the "God opens the womb" course, and in the "God Returns" 11th course (priestly course of the two conceptions). None of the other courses in Ab would work. So we have no other choices.

    We saw how God made 25 Chislev 167BC = 25 Chislev 164BC = 15 Chislev 167BC = 11 Chislev, back when covering that initial invasion by Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the initial Chanukah. (Click here to peek back there.) Those equatings are all valid solely due to intercalation lapses. Obviously the Jews themselves didn't orchestrate a Greek guy's invasion, his takeover of the Temple, his burning of Bibles and his outlawing of all things Jewish. Obviously the Greek guy himself didn't intentionally orchestrate that Testimony To God Being The God Of the Jews; for if he knew what all that confluence signified, he'd go out of his way to do nothing -- or at least, he'd wait for less-auspicious dates. So God did it. Can't be anyone else. When you examine Division #2, you'll see a parallel confluence, this time the Jews are doing all the wrong activity, and they are too dumb about their own law (temporarily) to realize they are testifying to the fact Christ is Messiah (they do catch on too late, John 19:31's Greek). So God did Passion Week on the right Law dates.

    Also, for Ab to be the right Birthmonth, it must also tie to Adar. Adar's last week, plus the first two in Abib(=Nisan), were when the Pharaoh and the people finally turned toward letting Israel go. Moreover, Adar was a Temple dedication month, as we saw, above. Adar was also the month of the restoration of the Messianic line, owing to the release of Jehoiachim, who adopted Shealtiel. And Purim, which occurred mid-Adar, was the reason there could BE a later Adar. So to leave out a tie to Adar, well it just can't be Ab for either His conception or His birth. There's no benchmark or intercalation of any length, which can tie Ab to Adar.

    Eph1:23: Jewish calendar is all about matching, Law of Restitution is all about Matching, and our sins were matched in an Exchange, 2Cor5:21. So no little thing like dates is gonna deter God's Absolute Penchant for Matching, Matt7:1-2 (uppermost level of meaning, repeated in thousands of ways in the OT).

22. So a tie between Ziv, Bul, and Ethanim -- plus Elul, Chislev and Adar -- must be intended as the criteria for when He will be born. With Luke's deft "Abijah" statement, we know ties to Ziv and Bul being used for Zacharias, as for the 1st Temple, are being accounted in the timing of His Birth; even more so, since Zechariah supervised the building of the 2nd Temple; even more, since the 2nd Temple's foundation stone was laid on the 24th of Chislev (again, Haggai 2:15,18), we have to tie to Adar for 2nd Temple's dedication as well. For John's job is to PREPARE us for Messiah, Whose Temple was Raised in Three Days. Awesome wit, this Word of God! [Wittier still, when you see how Luke metered his Gospel, which is actually patterned upon Mary's meter in her Magnificat, which she spoke in 5 BC Adar. Luke meters his own Gospel dateline to 63 years AFTER that event, shown here in Luke Meter channel (downloadable doc is in each video description), or just download the pdf to see it more quickly, LukeDatelineMeters.pdf.]

23. In short, the criteria are Temple convergences with the calendar. Hence the method which accounts for the most confluence of events in history -- yielding a Birth date with the most convergences -- will be the method and date, God chooses. In selecting a date for Him to be born, shouldn't one also tie to the Roman calendar which runs January - December? Shouldn't one also use solar anniversaries and lunar accounting, both intercalated and non-intercalated? What better way to witness to the goyim as to what people God sponsors? Which people even those "Not My People", can become "My People" (witty theme in Hosea). For surely, God demonstrates He orchestrates All Time in His Son, Hebrews 1:2 (Greek, usu. mistranslated)! So, then: what God chooses will Converge on Everything, since His Son is Everything, NT keyterm, "ta panta". So what dates, make everything CONVERGE?

    ---

24. Ok, take a deep breath: Greek wordplay in Luke 1:26 and 36 prove Gabriel visits Mary in the sixth month of that year, at the equivalent of Purim. We'll get to what "equivalent of" means later.

1. First, Luke 1:26 in Young's Literal Translation: "YLT Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month was the messenger Gabriel sent by God, to a city of Galilee, the name of which is Nazareth". Luke merely furnishes the information that the Annunciation occurred in the sixth month of the Year, itself. Now, let's look at 1:36: "YLT Luke 1:36 and lo, Elisabeth, thy kinswoman, she also hath conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month to her who was [derided as] barren". A literal translation is good to use when you want to see original-language words in their own order.

   If you know your Mosaic Law, Jewish calendar rules, Temple History and Daniel 9:25, you know what month that must be: Adar. You further know immediately that the Birth will be in Chislev. So you thus know what day in Adar Mary got the notice -- Purim or what would be its equivalent day, had the calendar not been intercalated at the end of Elul. And thus you know what day He will be born: the equivalent of 11 Chislev, which will be Chanukah if the calendar is not intercalated by the following year. For the lunar calendar runs fast gradually through the solar year: you lose .43 solar days per month elapsed. That's why intercalation was supposed to happen at the end of Elul.

   Pause to enjoy the wit: in Adar, a Dedication month -- anniversary of the 2nd Temple's Dedication, the Dedication of the new Messiah line and the Dedication of people to destroy the Jews (Purim) -- Gabriel is dispatched, even 'dedicated' to inform Mary, who lives in a town called Dedicated, that SHE is to be dedicated to bearing the Dedicated One, Messiah.

   Further, that God already Dedicated the Herald of Messiah in the only other Dedication month, Ethanim. See: there was this Judaic rule about when after conception you can say you're 'with child'; varies between 7-40 days. According to my 1985 Encyclopedia Britannica ("Pregnancy" article), and my pastor's many classes on the Virgin Pregnancy, implantation of what EB calls "the conceptus" in the uterus, occurs on the 7th day. So Elizabeth probably conceived post-sundown on 24 Elul (which we can justify, since her husband wasn't at Temple then); but it wouldn't 'count' until 1 Ethanim (when implantation and Temple Dedication occurred). Is God witty, or what? [Takes 40 days for the corpus luteum to be replaced by the placenta. I don't know if that's why the Judaic rule about 40 days -- which is apparently how they date in Israel today -- is keyed to that fact. I learned about the 40 days from a chat friend who lives in Jerusalem. It's supposed to be in the Talmud, but I don't yet have Talmud on CD, so I can't find the location.]

   See, the 1st Temple was dedicated at the beginning of the civil year, Rosh HaShanah. 2nd Temple was dedicated 3 Adar. So the two conceptions occur in two DEDICATION months, and Messiah=Temple=Dedication therefore can only be born at the Feast of Dedication, and his herald is born at the end of the Dedication of the Harvest, aka Weeks, aka Pentecost! Is God witty, or what?

   Of course, if we apply the same 7th-day logic to Mary, depending on whether the calendar was intercalated after the end of the regular 30 Elul -- well, it would still be a dedication month. And if not intercalated, well there's no greater Dedication than Devotion to Destruction, the Passover Lamb. For the month following a non-intercalated-in-Elul by Adar, is Nisan: first month of the sacred year, containing Passover.

   Luke -- via the Holy Spirit, no doubt! -- deftly accomplishes communicating all that information simply by use and omission of the Greek ("the") article in both Luke 1:26 and 1:36. Verse 26's Greek goes like this: "En de toi meni toi hektoi" -- that's the normal way of saying the CALENDAR is in the sixth month. You can prove Bible's Greek conventional dating words with ease. Look at the following verses in the LXX: 1Kings 6:1, 1Chron 27:9, Haggai1:1, Ezra10:9. Two (nee: definite) articles are there, not just one. OT is chock-full of dates; our eyes glaze over from their abundance.

   So Luke 1:26 demonstrates an absolute calendar date, not a relative-to-someone date. Relative dates only use one article, which you read like a possessive, i.e., in 2Chron 5:3 the second article is absent, so it's the seventh month relative to the sacred calendar. But the second article is present, in Luke 1:26. So v.26 doesn't use the relative construction as for Elizabeth's pregnancy months (menas pente, no article), in v.24. But our brains just see Elizabeth being in her own fifth month, so in Luke 1:26 we ASSume it's her sixth month. Which proves we didn't READ the Greek -- for centuries. That's why we don't know when He was born. Pretty embarrassing, huh.

   Scholars routinely ASSume that since five months is mentioned in v.24, the "sixth month" referred to in v.26, means Elizabeth's sixth month. So centuries of speculation on when He was born, proves we didn't read Bible to find out when He was born. What we did instead, was rely on 'experts' who didn't do their homework. No nice way to admit this truth. Since we get miffed if someone misses our birthday, um -- well, enough said.

   Now, it is also Elizabeth's six month. Verse 36 in Greek literally reads, "kai houtos men hektos estin autei"; translated, "in fact this month [sixth of the calendar, get it] is six to her [who was loudly derided as sterile]." In Greek, the "six" is in the same position it would be if noting proper calendar month, except here it's used as an ordinal number, so is not in the dative. That's how you get the double wordplay on month and six months of pregnancy.
   Wordplay key is "houtos men hektos", which refers the reader back to v.26. Bible's Greek and Hebrew will centrally place words in a sentence to point backwards and forwards when they affect two clauses simultaneously. The technique also dramatizes the word in question as a 'hero', doing double duty. Very elegant. You see constructions like this in Isa53:10-11 ("Your Soul" in both Hebrew and Greek texts), Romans 8:28, Hebrews 11:1, John 3:16, all "love of God" verses, many other passages.

   Luke 1:26 and 36 thus employ clever and exacting wordplay on the confluence of Elizabeth being in her own sixth month -- means she herself conceived just before the beginning of the year. Clever way to tell you which type of year it is, sacred or civil. It's the Civil Year. The pun: at the end of the sacred year and at the end of the civil year, each of the two women conceive. So "sixth month" in Luke 1:26 can only mean the sixth month of the civil year.

   If you well knew your Mosaic Law; if you remembered the prophetical significance of the names of the priestly courses; if you well knew the facts about the First Temple and how it came to exist; if Luke keeps talking Temple Temple Temple in Luke Chaps 1-2, then you don't need to be told how to add up those facts. Clever writing leaves off stating the obvious, so the reader can enjoy his own discoveries.

   Mary would have immediately smiled on hearing that. No wonder she was in a hurry to go to Elizabeth's house. [Nerd note: she was pregnant by the time she quickly got there. One second she was not pregnant, and the next second, she was.] If you know the Law well, and Temple History and that Messiah is Temple -- and she's Royal, so she must know -- then six-month mirroring accounting between the two calendars, is wittily presented by this genius angel.
   Everyone in Israel was at least somewhat tri-lingual, especially among the educated classes. Frankly, the educated classes were usually tri-lingual up until after WWI in Europe as well. You couldn't be in the upper echelons of society if you didn't know several languages. So any royalty was educated in languages. Royalty entertains. Royalty rules. So it must be cosmopolitan in orientation.

   Royal Family of David were educated, k? So when Gabriel is talking to Mary, he uses the clever "houtos men hektos", placed so he doesn't have to repeat "hektos". Obviously he needn't tell Mary what month it is on the calendar. Pun would be spoiled, if he stated what month it was. But we needed to know; so Luke had informed us what month it was with the standard two articles, back in v.26a. We wouldn't need that extra information if it was merely Elizabeth's sixth month.

   Um, Mary must have known Greek very well. This wordplay won't port over in translation. Thus ends another pointless controversy over whether the Lord spoke Greek. You can't read His Words in Gospels and not know He was was a sheer Genius in Greek, sorry. [It was a really cool moment in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" when Pilate first talks to the Lord. Pilate begins in Aramaic, but the Lord replies in Latin. Then Pilate, surprised and impressed, switches to Latin. It's common for even common people to be multi-lingual. Look how many poor Africans in documentaries can speak English, French, Portuguese -- as well as their own tribal dialects? So why is it so hard for us to imagine a Royal King-to-be, would know official government languages like Latin and Greek, besides Hebrew and Aramaic? In a place where trade depended on being multi-lingual, and His father owned his own construction business? Sheesh! People who want to debunk Bible will grab at any thoughtless straw to make a thoughtless argument! Why do we bother listening to them?]

   Interesting how she reacted to Gabriel versus Zacharias. He doubted it. She didn't doubt it. But she didn't understand the mechanics. For since the Savior was to be sinless, but she acknowledged she was a sinner (see Luke 1:47, duh); and since she also knew the doctrine about Adam's sin being transmitted through the male -- how could God justify making her pregnant? It's a justice question, and she's analyzing, like in Bible class! See, it's not whether God has the power, but rather what's the Justification.

   That's why Gabriel's answer in Luke 1:35 is so consummately witty, using well-known LXX words for the Holy Spirit's enduement and Temple Indwelling; but with this result -- so that in His Humanity, The YH would be(come, WH) the Son of God. The AbiJah, get it? So it's Justified! What a delicious Bible! [The well-known LXX meaning is succinctly covered in Thayer's lexicon in BibleWorks, but that lexicon is probably available in any seminary. Next, look: in the much-vaunted "Magnificat" of Mary, how does her first sentence end? "God My Savior", Luke 1:47. Do no brains turn on, when that Magnificat is repeated over and over? See, this is satanic clouding. It never occurs to us how silly are the claims in religion. It never occurs to us, so when we read or say Bible verses, we can't see or hear the words. Or, even count to three. Understand, my Catholic books (Library of Catholic Devotion, imprimatur Cardinal Stritch, 1953, Chicago) justify Mary's being sinless based on "fanciful anecdotes" and the Koran, for crying out loud. As if gossip and the Koran were proper authority? And this by a denomination which arrogates to itself the power to save you by wetting you and giving you last rites, a bunch of chanting? What, did the Catholic Church die on the Cross? Only God has the power to save and forgive sins, sorry.]

   So now let's tackle when in Adar this wit occurred.
   • For Elizabeth to be in her sixth month in Luke 1:36, five months have completed, and the sixth month BEGAN.
   • Luke 1:56 tells us Mary stayed with Elizabeth for "about three months" (hws menas treis, see meaning #6 in BDAG on hws="about"). So that means Elizabeth had to be less than 6 months and two weeks pregnant by the time Mary got there. It's possible that "about three months" in Luke 1:56, is over three months by less than two weeks. Which makes sense, because first-born pregnancies can take longer than normal. The other risk is that older women give birth too early. But it's not possible that Mary got there later than 6.49 months into Elizabeth's pregnancy, because then it wouldn't be "about three months" at the earlier end.

   • So Mary left to see Elizabeth right away, Luke 1:39. So it took less than a week to pack and get there, wordplay of "en tais hemerais tautais" in Luke 1:39. Elizabeth is married to Zecharias and he is a valid Levite priest for the Temple (working in it 15 days, but for it the rest of the year). So they lived within a sabbath day's journey of the Temple (maybe 1 mile, tops). So if Mary went the normal route from Nazareth, which skirted around Samaria, Mary had to travel about 70 miles to the environs of Jerusalem to see her cousin. That would take about three days' ride on an ass, arriving at night. She could cut one day from her journey if she went through the territory of Samaria, on the international trade route. Pious Jews hated the Samaritans, so they skirted the area. Somehow I suspect Mary didn't skirt the area. So she could get to her cousin in two days. Allow an extra day or two for traffic, packing, other difficulties, and the trip takes at most four days. [A more common opinion is that Elizabeth lived in Hebron, which then was a city of priests. That was 25 miles south of Jerusalem; so the travel distance was something like 100 miles. I don't think that's where Elizabeth was, because Zecharias was old, and because he was given the honor of serving in the Holy of Holies, a kind of last-term honor given to priests after a lifetime of service. "Old" should have been no older than age 50, under the Law; you were required to retire at 50. People often aged rapidly, in those difficult days. ]
   • By the time she got there she was pregnant, Luke 1:41. The baby isn't jumping, Elizabeth is. Note the verse -- ELIZABETH is filled with the Spirit -- any ob/gyn can tell you that excitement sends a biological reflex through the placenta which makes a fetus move around: ask him/her about "reflex motility".
   • We also know that by Adar 5BC, the calendar is now 11 days too fast. So if God is going to tie to Pentecost and Chanukah by means of these two Births, the intercalation lapse will be the mechanism. Because Chanukah is 14 days later in its month, than Pentecost.

   • So we must tackle when in Elul, Elizabeth became pregnant. If her pregnancy is to tie to the Temple dates in Elul and to Pentecost the following 11 Sivan, she must become pregnant on 24 Elul, nominally. Elul-Ethanim, 1 month; to Bul, 2 months; to Chislev, 3 months; to Tebeth, 4 months; to Shebat, five months. To Adar, six months. Which puts you at 24 or 25 Adar, nominally. Because Mary gets there before Elizabeth is six months and two weeks pregnant, yet after Elizabeth has entered her sixth month of pregnancy. [Note how clever, Luke 1:24 -- he's using the civil calendar. Elizabeth can't be in her fifth month in the fifth month of the sacred calendar, since the second month of it is Ziv, and that's when Zecharias is visited by Gabriel. Ziv, not Bul, because again -- she couldn't be in her fifth month of the sacred calendar if Gabriel had visited him in Bul, either. Nor could Luke 1:26 be the sixth month of the sacred calendar, and tie back to Zecharias' service weeks -- unless Zecharias was visited in Ziv. See, six months is the wry wit being stressed. Six months of preparation preceded Temple building; six-month mirroring of the priestly courses; six-month mirroring of God's holidays. So Messiah's herald is prepared/dedicated/decreed six months before Messiah Himself is prepared/dedicated/decreed.]

     24 Elul would be the nominal date, but at the time it occurs, the 5BC calendar is too fast by 5.25+(.43*6)=7.83 days. So 24-8=12 Elul. So if at the end of 5BC the calendar is intercalated, John will be born at Pentecost, yet God still tied to 24 Elul, the dates of Temple re-commencement in 521BC (Haggai 1:15) and the date of Jerusalem's completion (wall signifies completion, Neh 6:15).

     The metaphor and tie is too rich to pass up orchestrating to these dates. God causes life when HE wants it. Bet He caused it here. All it takes is the intercalation to be done, which is needed anyway: get the pun, since Adam fell so the extra 'week' prior to Rosh HaShanah is used to metaphorically depict INTERCALATED creation (since Bible uses Adam's fall, not initial creation, for the calendar). So judicious timing of conception makes for a timely birth. Intercalation in effect moves down the nominal number of the date, the next year. So what would be 24 Sivan the following year, will become a 12 Sivan birth: more specifically, 11 Sivan, Pentecost, post-sundown. After all, one is not supposed to labor on Pentecost, it's against the Law!

   So we know Mary likely got this Announcement nominally on 24 or 25 Adar. 24 or 25 Adar is equivalent to 13 or 14 Adar, which is Purim. This is true, because the calendar is too fast by 11 days, at the end of 5BC. If she becomes pregnant immediately, the same day, then both the announcement and the pregnancy tie to Purim -- and back to Elul, since that's Elizabeth's 'tie'. But we don't know that she became pregnant immediately; we do know that by the time she got to Elizabeth let's say at the outside, four days later, she's pregnant by then. So it becomes a question of whether her pregnancy ends by the normal 270-day limit. First-borns habitually don't adhere to what modern doctors call the normal pregnancy period, which after all is an average number; many first-borns are considered 'late'. So the intercalation of 11 days to create a 2nd Adar (now called Adar Sheni) after she gets the announcement, would suffice to cover even a later-than-'normal' birth. By modern standards, a first-born would be up to a week late. So if she's not pregnant until the day she reaches Elizabeth, that's four of the 11 days, leaving seven. Of course, modern standards might not apply at all back then, but at least we know the timing is plausible.
   Notice how the tie between Elizabeth and Mary works if intercalation occurs at the end of 5BC, whether they did it rightly at Elul (when Elizabeth becomes pregnant) or wrongly at Adar (when Mary becomes pregnant). If they did not intercalate, the lack of intercalation causes these two mothers' dates to still tie together, despite the two-week date differential between them. I try to plot both assumptions -- intercalation and non-intercalation -- in this webpage. So this #24 is sometimes confusing, as I often switch between one assumption and the other.

   In essence, intercalation inserts more days between conception and birth. The 'deadline' of God's Orchestration would be nominal dates which also tie back to their real counterparts in both intercalated and non-intercalated years. So for John, the tie is to Pentecost, since he is the herald-harvestor. For the Lord, the tie is to 11 Chislev, 15 Chislev, and 25 Chislev, since He is the Temple Being Dedicated, Devoted-to-Destruction, Desecrated For Our Sins. So John has to be born after sundown on the following 11 Sivan (end of Pentecost), and the Lord has to be born after sundown on the following 24 Chislev. Remember, in Jewish accounting the next day begins on the eve of the prior day.

   So here, we presume they intercalated before she got the Announcement. As a result, Messiah would be born on 25 Chislev (really, 24 Chislev post-sundown). In accounting you look for the fit. Especially, doctrinal fit with God's Thinking. God orchestrates, and He does it with wit. So you have to find the right why, to find the right what. And the people who got the Gospels all knew the what, and how that mathematically fit together. So we can know, too.

   Here's why the foregoing makes sense.

   1. Elizabeth is both nominally and calendar-wise 6 months pregnant by the time of Gabriel's visit. They are supposed to intercalate at the end of Elul, which should have just flat BEEN 35-36 days in any year. But Israel corrupted the calendar to lunar, a practice which was forbidden in Exodus 12, because Israel wanted her calendar to be just like everyone else's: wrong.
   2. 13-15 Adar, is Purim. Calendar is running 11 days too fast when Mary gets the announcement, so God ties to both Purim and the Temple together: Temple would have been razed had Israel been destroyed, had the initial pogrom for Purim, happened.
   3. The priestly courses assume no greater than a 4-day hiatus in the calendar. We know this, because the courses are all Saturday-Saturday, all assume 30-day months – for Israel didn't follow the 1Chron24 ordination, and instead ran each course in two 7.5 day 'sets', totalling 15 days -- so when intercalated, presume 1 Nisan begins no later than Sunday night (Monday, in our modern parlance). So any intercalation has to 'fit' the courses; so, they were supposed to have Elul be 35-36 days long, every year. Priests can't stop officiating at the Temple, and the courses were set by David, so they intercalated based on the full courses: this would give each priest 365.25 hours 'equal' time, so the extra days wouldn't matter. This is your proof that God mandated a SOLAR year. Since they weren't following it, and weren't allocating 35-36 days solely to Elul either, they had to shoehorn the service, somehow. So they instead just created an Adar Sheni (Adar II) of 15 or 30 days every three or six years. It never worked properly. That system is still used today, and it's always wrong.

   4. 11 is too many days to leave hanging for the following year, unless Jerusalem were at war or under siege (i.e., under control by Gentiles, or so hard-pressed it can't keep up administration). This has happened several times in history: In the period 597-537BC, in 167-164BC, and in 64-70AD (not during all those years, but at least after 66AD).
      There ought to be something in the Law about it – Talmud does say that intercalation used to be done in Elul, in Order Mo'ed: at bRosh Ha Shana 19a and 19b, 32a, and and bBeitzah 6a and 22b . Where is it in Bible? I've not found it yet, but will. For it makes no sense to wait three years to intercalate, even though that seems to be the consensus of the scholarly material on the topic (i.e., in BibleWorks and study Bibles). Still, in the rest of this webpage I'm sorta going along with the consensus, and not assuming intercalation post-annunciation in 5BC. I'm not comfortable with that assumption, but it yet remains in this webpage. And the numbers balance to a 25 Chislev 4BC Birth with that assumption.

      It really boils down to how long each woman was pregnant. With a first-born, you can't predict it wholly. God orchestrated these prophesied births to the calendar, so you can know HE was on time.

   5. In 5BC, Jerusalem is stable; so not at war or under siege; so the calendar is not in a state of lapse.
   6. Moreover, Jerusalem is under Herod the Great in 5BC; he's trying real hard to be a good Jew. Since Herod appointed the High Priests, and the Sanhedrin is so into martinet behavior, they'd intercalate at least every other year. Else all the holidays go way off.
   7. Purim and Chanukah tie together if the calendar is not intercalated after Gabriel's visit. So would 24 Elul: it's six months opposite the Annunciation date. But it ties together under other assumptions, too. You'll see these other assumptions, as you keep reading.

2. You can't help but smile at the DEDICATION and LIGHT confluence. Look: David, the King God Dedicated To Be Messiah's Progenitor, had a civil war during his first 7.5 years, 1Chron 3:4. The internecine civil war was about whether to one allied with Jonathan's sons, or with David. Considering that Jonathan and David were soul mates, this was a very sad time. Hence the 1st Temple's building runs parallel: begun in Ziv, six months of preparation, thus ending in Bul, 7.5 years later -- 1Kings 6 and 2Chron 3. Temple foundation to completion was 7 years, preceded by the preparation (1Kings 5, 2Chron 2). So back then, from Ziv to Bul 960BC, was preparation. So too, here: except that -- oh how droll -- the preparation of a BODY takes nine months, not six. David rhapsodizes on that fact in Ps139:13, saying how God ordered his body's preparation. Pity that verse is always so mistranslated.
   David actually plays on this theme of dedicating, in Psalm 139:13. There, Hebrew verb qanah means to order (something), decree, set aside, acquire-by-purchase, dedicate-to-something, ransom; it's a quintessential OT Redemption verb, and the sacrifices stressed it. Eve uses the verb to craft her first-born's name, Cain (raucous euphemism in Gen4:1). So qanah never means "formed" or "created" which you find in translations. [Gratuitous sidebar: I don't believe in abortion, either. And I especially don't believe in Aborting The Word Of God for the sake of a political agenda. So NoWombLife.htm has a table which retranslates Psalm 139. So if you're interested in a corrected translation of it, just search on "qanah" when you load the page.]

   That God would order your existence is a far bigger thing than mere creation, which post-Fall, is mere biology. So David's awestruck that God would bother to 'order' his existence, especially since the biology is dead. You need to get the wit that pregnancy is a deadness, in order to get David's awe: he closes the passage in v.16 with the same awe: I was just a golem, a bundle of biology, not alive; like days not yet occurring on a calendar -- but now born, alive to hear Your Thoughts!

   This is where "Ab" comes in. It's the ORDER for a body to be made. Look: Ab is already a pregnancy-connoted month, as we saw from its priestly course names: "Swine", "God Shatters", "God opens the womb", and "God Strengthens". The entire month is about desecration and fathering crops. Particularly, grapes, figs, and olives: three common metaphors for the sons of Jacob; and by way of extrapolation, the sons of men. Ab is the month they ripen: Elul, is when you harvest. So the Temples were ripening in Ab, too -- for destruction, due to apostacy. So now their Savior is 'ripening' to deliver them, too. It's a closer Doctrinal match, than had He been born that month. For the Temples died that month, and as Bible repeatedly says -- most poignantly, in Isa53:10-11 -- pregnancy is a kind of death. A thing unborn, a mere golem, unformed, not yet even a legal person. Under the ground, so to speak. So His Birth should not be occurring here, but after He Himself has gone through pregnancy. Such as, becoming pregnant with our sins (again, Isa53:10-11, esp. "me amal" in Hebrew text). So you match the pregnancy to Ab, but not birth.

   You become both physically and ceremonially unclean in the process of harvesting, for there are bugs and all kinds of other stuff. You are shattering the ground to harvest; you are thus desecrating and opening earth's womb to extract her 'fruit'; and from it, you get strength. Now, since the Temples were both destroyed on the 9th of Ab, they too need a kind of 'pregnancy' period to be reborn. So smack dab in the middle of both women's pregnancies, are two interludes of three months: each matching the other. For Elizabeth, the interlude is between Ziv when her husband returns, and Elul, when she becomes pregnant; which we know, because the Annunciation is occurring in Adar. Which we know, because in the sixth month -- Luke 1:26 -- Gabriel visits Mary. Gabriel is in Heaven. God is King in Heaven. So it's the sixth month of the God's Absolute Calendar -- hence the One He Instituted, beginning with Rosh HaShanah, 1 Ethanim. Which we also know, because Ziv is when the 1st Temple began preparation, back in 1Kings 6:1, based on the sacred calendar -- for it's the Temple, and it's Sacred: so sacred, Bible NT meters make an issue of that year, which was 3146 from Adam's Fall, which was 1100 years after Abraham matured, and 2100 years after that was 4146, the 1000th anniversary of that initial Temple construction, which initially was the outer limit of time. Click here for more info.

   But it's DEDICATED on Rosh haShanah, 1Kings 8:1, 66 (notice he sent them home in time to properly celebrate Yom Kippur which would be coming up in just two days -- then they return for Booths). Because Son of David Who Will Be King of the Jews Forever, is to be born.

   So Mary doesn't get visited until three months after Bul. With the result that, the Child will be born in Chislev, opposite Elizabeth's child, who obviously will be born earlier in Sivan that same year. Note how those two months contain Pentecost and Chanukah, respectively: so the following Ab, Mary is in her own fifth month of pregnancy, in the middle. Just like the 1st Temple was, between Ziv and Bul. It's a mirror.

3. For God is making a Human Temple, and its preparation takes nine months, not six. How does He play on the six months? Like this: in Ziv, Zacharias gets the word from Gabriel; after all, Messiah is the reason FOR the 1st Temple, 2Sam7, verses 6-7,11-14, and the witty v.16! So, since "six months" is the First Temple's preparation period, not until Elizabeth is in her sixth month, does Gabriel go to Mary. At that point -- pun intended -- it's also the sixth month of the Year, because God synchronizes both the sacred and civil calendars, to cover both their meanings, since Messiah is at once King and Priest, Ps110:1. So notice how an additional three-month hiatus exists between Ziv and Elul, and Bul and Adar. Is God witty, or what? If He orchestrates these details, how much more is He orchestrating our own lives? What the heck could we ever have to fear?
   It's really strange how some people find offensive, the idea that God controls things. Who else can insure justice? Who else must Absolutely Love you, since He can wipe out your puny life at any time, but clearly does not? Who else can author the soul? Are we all so terminally insecure, we can't stand someone else having more ability and power than ourselves? Guess so.

   Isn't it more enjoyable to know someone else is better than you? Isn't it a heartbreak to know someone else is inferior? For if the person is better, you can enjoy celebrating that person, looking up to that person. It's fun and satisfying to look up to authority. Everyone always talks about leaders, celebrities -- pouring over tabloids, looking into their biographies (and of course, violating their privacy, in the hunger to know more). By contrast, you can't have much fellowship with a baby, a plant, a dog. You try, but there are limits. Who wouldn't wish that their pets could talk? Oh well.

   Christ isn't kidding in John 10:34. God is out to make us AT HIS LEVEL. Not lesser-thans. For the same reason as we love it when babies grow up, or pets can talk: Togetherness, Flat! This is the main theme in all my webpages, and it is most succinctly stated in Bible, in the BHS and LXX texts of Isa53:10-12, the contract of our Salvation and Spiritual Growth Plan. DDNA webseries is based on that contract. Paul never stops talking about it in his letters.

4. In the civil calendar, the sixth month is Adar, but Adar is also the end of the sacred year, how apt!
5. Adar, of course, is the month of Purim. And Purim, is the prototype fulfillment of God's promise to David in 2Sam7:11-16! Purim was a time everyone travelled to friends' houses and exchanged gifts. 13th was fasting (a custom), 14th-15th were celebrated (Est9:17-19, 20-21,27). Surely they all were celebrated by Mary. A 24 Adar announcement would have given her the privacy she needed to go to Elizabeth after the holiday had ended.
6. So He'd be born the following Chislev 25, first day of the Feast of Dedication -- a civil holiday that lasts one week.
7. Notice how the Lord's body was conceived in the last week of the last month of the sacred year,
8. but John's, in the last week of the last month of the civil year. (Elul ends the civil year.) Since Luke 1:36 says "her sixth month", conception was sometime in Elul; it would have to be in Elul, else it wouldn't be her sixth month in Adar. It would have to be the last week in Elul, for convergence with Temple-significant dates, coordinating them all with both pregnancies and births, John's and the Lord's.
9. Which means, John will be born on Pentecost, six months earlier. Calendar was 11 days late by the end of Adar 5BC; so 13 days late, by the end of the following Sivan in 4BC. For each month ends up adding another 5.25/12 days too fast.

   So let's do the math: 6 days remaining in Elul, plus 264 days after that equals what? Well, it means the 24th of Sivan, post-sundown. Okay, now subtract 13 days, because if they don't intercalate at the end of 5BC in Elul, by Adar they'll reset the calendar and call the reset date "1 Nisan", 11 days early. By Sivan, it's 13 days early. So nominally it would be called 11th Sivan; because in 4BC the Passover Week runs Sunday-Sunday, 11 Sivan would be Pentecost. Of course, it's completely understandable that John might be born a day or two earlier than 270 days. The window for full-term birth is 266-270 days, according to the "Pregnancy" article in my Encyclopedia Britannica (aka "EB" in my websites).

   So you can bet God birthed John on nominal 11 Sivan 4BC, after sundown, somehow. Heh: you're not supposed to work on Pentecost, so John wasn't born until after sundown. It's just a question of finding out how.

   Look: in 4BC, what they call 14 Nisan (beginning of Passover, AT sundown) is really 3 Nisan, because the calendar is 11 days too fast as of 1 Nisan. So what they call 21 Nisan (ending of Passover, beginning of Weeks) is really 10 Nisan. So 50 days from 10 Nisan, is really the beginning of Sivan: 2 x 5.25/12 between 1Nisan and 1 Sivan, have to be added to correct the date, in addition to the 11. So because they did not correct the date, to them it's 12 Sivan beginning on the night of 11 Sivan. And that's when they'd celebrated Pentecost. Notice how full-term pregnancy still occurs, so both the real calendar and the nominal calendar, are met. Just like God does in Passion Week, 30AD.

10. John is the harvester for the Messiah, and the two are six months apart, because 1st Temple preparation took six months. So now all the holidays are tied up together!

    You'll remember from the Pentecost 'bubble' section that figs, olives, and grapes largely occupy the harvesting activity after Pentecost (click here to peek back there, if you forgot). Again, those are all metaphors of Israel, and by way of extension, all the nations of the world: a people 'crop' of SONS. Just as promised since Genesis 15:13. Full circle. Circumcision=Contract=covenant="brith" (Hebrew term, today called "bris"). Now all the Lord's many 'harvest' parables and statements, skyrocket in their significance -- you realise He's also talking in calendar terms, stressing the Prophecy the Holidays Teach. Now you know why He tied Chanukah and Purim to Daniel 9:26: He is the Deliverer of Israel, just as long promised. So He ties up the disaster holidays, too -- in Himself. The left-out 2nd half of the calendar gets a Pentecost mirrored, married: its two sad 2nd-half secular holidays are hupostatized to result in a Birth due to the brith made with Abraham, oh so long ago. The weeping endured for the night, first half; but the joy comes in the morning, when mourning gets turned to joy, Ps30:5, a Psalm for dedicating the Temple. Also Isa54:1, sons from the sterility of sin. For with God nothing is impossible.

    A martinet would whine, Well, you really don't know what DAYS they will be born. Yes, I do know. God doesn't orchestrate like this except to match the day. He made a point of saying so with respect to the Exodus, Exo 12:41. "To the very day". So how much more, the Birth of His Own Son and His herald? So we do know. Know the Law, know the Doctrine being referenced, and you know WHY; then, go look for the keywords and wordplay confirming it; thus you know What Day, for the Day signifies the fulfillment of the Doctrine in God's Holy Word. Period, over, and out!

    When you see so much confluence of meaning, you quickly realize you have the right interpretation. This is how you test both Scripture and your understanding of it. For God is Perfect and Consistent. If the fit of an interpretation goes pan-Bible -- and see how this does -- then God made you see it, and God's testifying of it. So whatever you don't know, well -- you either don't need to test further, or you test to refine your understanding. But this is a bull's eye, and HE did the proving. Far better and faster to use Bible, than men's ideas and traditional explanations.

1. As a result, 25 Chislev 4BC is at a minimum 14 days fast, if no intercalation done the previous Elul. (Click here to peek back there.) No intercalation would have been done the previous Elul, since by Nisan the 5BC calendar was only 5 days fast; especially, if they were opting to intercalate every fourth year. So by Chislev 25 4BC, before the intercalation would occur, the calendar is now off 10 days from 5BC (5 days at its beginning, 10 days by its ending) plus 4 more (=5.25/12*9). The actual calculation is this: 5.25+5.25+(5.25/12*9)=14.4 days, depending on what time of day He is born.
2. Hence in 4BC, 25 Chislev = 11 Chislev, since 25-14=11. 11 Chislev, as you'll recall, is the second-half calendar equivalent to what Pentecost would be, had the calendar been operating properly in the year (click here to peek back there). So God is 'adjusting' the Births, to what the calendar should be -- going all the way back to the juridical impetus: Antiochus' desecrations of both 15 Chislev AND 25 Chislev, all at once. Restitution, baby. God mirrors time, just like debits and credits in secular accounting. [Frankly, this tracks back all the way to Adam. Mirroring.htm shows how, but it takes months to vet.]
3. 25 Chislev 4BC = 25 Chislev 164BC, exactly. Because the calendars in 4BC and 164BC are each 14 days too fast. We'd seen the 164BC calendar being off 14 days, from the earlier red font about the first Chanukah (click here to peek back there). We also saw that 25 Chislev 164BC = 25 Chislev 167BC, the day the Temple was desecrated by Antiochus with a pig offering. Again, the 164BC was also a nominal agreement, by date name.
4. So 25 Chislev 4BC also equals nominal 15 Chislev, 167BC, the day the Temple was desecrated by Antiochus via a statue, because we saw how the Jewish calendar in 167BC was off by 4 days. (Click here to peek back there.) So when they held the first Chanukah on 25 Chislev 164BC, it was true 15 Chislev, for the calendar wouldn't be intercalated until Adar, which came three months later; and that, is the wrong month (should be in Elul when intercalation occurs, which pre-exile they followed). Calendar in 167BC was already too fast 4 days, so 10 days' difference in the calendars between 167BC and 164BC. Since we know 25 Chislev 4BC = same date in 164BC exactly, it automatically equals 15 Chislev back in 167BC.

5. So we know that 25 Chislev 4BC=25 Chislev 164BC = 25 Chislev 167BC = 15 Chislev 167BC, and ALL of them = 11 Chislev, due to non-intercalation of varying relative lengths. Convergence of time is something only God can do. This is intelligence, not mindless planets and stars. This is keyed to Biblically-significant historical events anyone can research; not, to mysticism.

6. So in 4BC, the 10th priestly-course name of "God Indwells" (ShekanYah), is apt and true: on what would have been the true 2nd week of Chislev, Messiah is born! (Click here to peek back there.) So it ties to 11 Chislev.
7. So in 4BC, the 11th course name of "God Returns" (ElYaShub), is also apt and true, since He returned in what amounts to the true 3rd week of Chislev! So it ties to 15 Chislev (which begins the 3rd week).
8. So in 4BC, the 12th course name of Yahqim, meaning "God rises up against all opposition and is left Standing Victorious" is also true: since 25 Chislev is the nominal anniversary of the first Chanukah! Three courses, Trinity, just like Isa Chapter 63 promised: vv1-9, Son @2nd Advent; vv9-10 (using Hebrew "He" anephora), all Three; vv11-14, Spirit; vv15-19 (esp. the witty v.16), Father. Isaiah 63 spans the initial Exodus through the 2nd Advent. How anyone can doubt God is Trinity, how anyone can doubt the God of the Jews is THE God, I'll never know. A flying chorus of angels every day at high noon (see Rev14:6) is less proof.
9. So in 5BC, the conceptions fulfilled all of the courses for Elul and Adar. 21st course, God Decreed, 2nd Temple dedicated, illustrated by the announcements by Gabriel; 22nd course, God Requites/Ripens (week of Purim, completion of Jerusalem assured), the conception; 23rd course, God draws (Water) -- very funny, drawing out Jehoiachim and thus the Messianic line, parallel to Moses being drawn out of the Nile, rescuing those girls from the shepherd s, rescuing the Wall of Jerusalem; 24th course, God is My Refuge, lead in to the Exodus, a type of Birth!

   Now watch God tie all this into the goyim, us Gentiles, and even at the end of our year, as well. For Christ paid for all mankind, 1Jn2:2.

10. 25 Chislev 4BC also equals 25 December. Look: 25 Chislev 4BC is the nominal date, but since it's not yet intercalated, the actual date relative to the Roman calendar, is 14 days later. Had it been properly intercalated, Chislev, a month of 30 days, would end December 15. So 25 Chislev would normally end Julian December 15th or so. In some years, that was the start of the Saturnalia, too. (If you fix our calendar to align with the autumnal equinox and intercalate in Elul as Bible shows, we'd end up aligning with December 15 also, see Intercal.xls, which fixes 'our' calendar to align with Bible for 2015-2016.)

    But we've changed our calendar from those Julian days, and have chopped out days. For example, Council of Nicaea in 325AD, which was the 491st year after Antiochus' desecration, reset the Julian calendar based on the vernal equinox, to March 21. Per Encarta 2004 on my computer, Pope Gregory cut 10 more days off the Julian calendar to reach the 325AD reset level, in 1582AD. So 15 December, now is December 25th.

    For the Julian solar calendar was 11 minutes, 14 seconds fast per year, and was instituted in 45BC by Julius Caesar. So it would have been 3 days too fast by 325AD. What you don't know is whether 2 extra days were somehow screwed up when the Julian calendar was instituted; so maybe the Council adjusted 5 days, not 3, in 325AD. For sure, the Julian calendar being too fast, was too fast by at least 13 days, in 1582, absent any adjustment in 325AD; so giving the benefit of the doubt to the astronomers in 325AD or 1582AD, the official usage of December 25 can be accounted as based on math, not myth or any attempt to borrow from the pagan Saturnalia; especially since Paul quips in the Greek of Galatians 4:4, about Christ being born on Chanukah (Greek 'chronos' is the god's name for the Roman Saturn, famous for 'eating his kids' which came to signify eating up the year). It's awfully close, especially since the principle for calendar correction was the right one, the vernal equinox, which also began the Jewish calendar.

    Time to appreciate the Divine Genius here. Notice that by cutting out the same number of days as was not intercalated in 4BC, we tie right back to 11 Chislev, the flipside of Pentecost. In 1582, relative to the Julian calendar in 45BC, the solar calendar itself was also at least another 13 days too fast. So the sum of the two-too-fasts, is about a month: 4BC ran ahead 14 days on the Jewish calendar, but 25 Chislev is the DAY that Chanukah begins, whether too fast or not. As we saw earlier, since it is running too fast back then, 25 Chislev is really 11 Chislev, in 4BC. By the same token, by 1582, the solar calendar is also too fast by the same number of days (you -1 since there is no zero "day"). So by cutting those days off, you 'run into' the too-fast anniversary of that too-fast 25 Chislev. Yet, it's December 25. They cut off the days based on an intercalated year, because they reset to the vernal equinox. But the exact anniversary of His Birth, is based on a non-intercalated year which ran 14 days ahead. So they 'meet', on a true anniversary of His Birth.

    Look: December 25 on the Gregorian calendar should be December 11, if you restore the cut days. December 15 should be the intercalated version of 25 Chislev. Given Jewish night-first accounting and what time of day He was born, plus the leftover minutes fast or slow in the solar calendar between 45BC and 1582 (not rounding to just days, which they undoubtedly did in 1582), this is a pretty good fit.

    By contrast, if intercalation occurred in 5BC after the Annunciation, by Adar's end (incorrectly) OR Elul (correctly) -- as I believe it should have and did, but can't prove -- then a different tie occurs. Both John and Lord would have been born on their same dates, but the intercalation needed, is irrelevant. For to the Roman calendar in 4BC, the relationship is the same, because the nominal dates are the same. This is true because it was intercalated at the beginning of the year, so it's not until the next year that the dates would be out-of-kilter. So 25 Chislev properly equals December 15 on the Roman calendar that year, assuming it didn't 'drift' to the 17th (Saturnalia fell on either the 15th or 17th, depending on what source you use). But the cuts in the calendar by the Catholic Church alone add about 10-15 days. With the result that what we call December 25, had been December 15 on the Julian calendar back in 4BC. The subsequent too-fastness of the Roman calendar wouldn't have to be relevant. It's still a tie back to that year in which He was born.

    In short, we have convergence: it's just a question of whether that convergence is every year since His Birth, most years since His Birth, many years since His Birth, or only back to that initial year. Which to most normal people, is what Anniversary means, anyway: the anniversary of the original year. Is God smart, or what?

    This is exactly the same kind of thing as happened in Passion Week, which you'll see in Division #2. Without this lack of intercalation, the Lord Who Is the Passover, could not have eaten the Passover that first night. That's why Passover as a Holiday, was a prophecy of Messiah paying for sins, and that's why you know it would have to occur in a year following an intercalated year, or the 4-day set aside rule, couldn't work. Awesome stuff, God's Calendar!

    Sorry, only God is this smart. We didn't even know of the tie to 11 Chislev, let alone know about 25 Chislev as His Birthdate, officially; I can't find anyone else who knows about it other than my pastor, even now. That He used humans to accomplish His Goals at correcting to the anniversary of His Birth without waiving any human freedom, is of course His Justice and Genius, working. [My pastor just flat stated that He was born on 25 Chislev = 25 December, didn't go through the number-crunching to explain why. Again, from about the year 2000, he had to dumb down the teaching, since the congregation weren't as tolerant of the details, anymore. Congregations of course change in demographics over time. The congregations of the 1960's - 1990's, got a lot of detail, all of which is thankfully recorded for later folks to hear.]

11. Roman Saturnalia festival maybe started on December 15th or 17th, back then; however, internet sites on the holiday adjust the date for calendar changes since 4BC made by the Roman Empire. But the purpose of the festival was to celebrate the Ending of The Year, so that's how you know it really occurred during the last week of the Roman year, no matter how you nominally date that last week.

    Holiday was to honor Saturn/Chronos/Kronos: he was the Roman/Greek god of time, aka Father Time, father of Zeus who would later overthrow him. You can read about that myth on the internet. Notice how God out-saturns 'Saturn', then. Paul actually says this in Gal4:4 with the expression usu. translated, "fullness of time". Greek is pleroma tou chronou, and it's very witty: culturally, "pleroma" means pregnant-by-a-god -- and particularly by Chronos, the god of time. Chronos had this habit of eating his kids; so he himself was 'pleroma' with his own kids. Finally, his wife hid Zeus from him shortly after Zeus' birth. That latter would grow up and unseat the father. So in the wording of Gal4:4, Paul is making a witty allusion to the Zeus story as well, with Herod playing the part of Chronos -- Herod is a Roman, as well as a Hasmonean Arab playing the nominal Jew. Yeah, the Real God unseated them all, just like that 12th priestly course name predicted, and in the same week! Paul is also tying back to Isa49:1 in Gal4:4 (the main level of tie-back). Only God is this smart, k? Wit in Paul came from God, clearly.

12. Notice also how the Saturnalia festival, which also lasted a week, ends the Roman year as well, due to the reforms by Julius Caesar in 45BC. No wonder Jerusalem was crowded.

So we don't know, because we don't learn the Mosaic Law like they did. You never interpret a verse outside its context, and here the context is the Mosaic Law. Can't read the Gospels properly, if you don't know the Law properly. That's why we can't date Passover right, as you'll see in Divisions #1 and #2. If you don't know the Law timing, you don't know the WHY timing. So we always overlook in Bible what God 'hides' in plain sight, here via the standard CALENDAR's double usage of the (nee: definite) article in Luke 1:26 -- revealing, all. The first year in seminary you learn the importance and usage of the (nee: definite) article; can't track original-language Bible text if you don't know how the article is used. How embarrassing we all forgot. Ok, let's beat ourselves up for 30 seconds -- then, crack open the Book.

In sum, His Birth Date being 25 Chislev=25 December 4BC, ties up Israel's entire holiday calendar; now the second six months exactly mirror the intent of the first six. So despite Israel's rejection of Messiah, He can nonetheless rescue her via Church; so just as initially intended, all these second-half holidays, are related to Israel's restoration. But they play out of order, due to the Pentecost 'bubble' we are still in, historically. Thus the deliverance of the "New Covenant" (Millennium) must be preceded by the Tribulation, the last event of 'summer'. What a chilling, bigger picture: these last five holidays display the characteristics of the 'fall-winter' period in man's history.

Hence the Bible term, "latter days". Last half, after-part, post-Crucifixion. For by God's Calendar due to Israel's rejection, Bible writers expected history was supposed to end 1070 or even 1077AD: 30AD Crucifixion, followed by -- had Israel accepted Messiah -- 40 years of the "times of the Gentiles" which was to nest the Tribulation in its last 7 years or tack it on, Dan9:27 (precedence for the 40 'housing' is Pharaoh's dream of the 7 lean years, inter alia). Followed by, the Millennium, which was a promise to David; 1000 years is also the warning period for the ending of a civilization; David's Greater Son would hence be born in the 1000th year of what would be David's commencement of unified Kingship; and, He was. He would die in the 1000th year of David's Retirement from Kingship, due to Jewish rejection (retirement, however, was solely David's vote, 2Sam7); so, the Last David, 'retired' also. [See "David" entry in Mirroring.htm for details on this calculation, since the legal standing of David versus Israel matters a bunch; since also, scholars assume 1Kings 6:1 is in error, don't recognize its import and tie to 2Sam7, and wrongly assume David died when age 70 based on Josephus. 1Kings 6:1 tells you David was 77 when he died. Number play on Hypostatic Union, which 77 are the two factors God uses to construct Time itself (7,2,5): Matthew and Luke use God's construct of Time as a rhetorical number construct in their genealogy chapters.]

Not too hard to see what these last five holidays represent, either. In fact, you could come up with a number of great metaphorical schemes, all of them true. (Scripture is always multilevel in meaning.) So, one scheme might be: Rosh HaShanah now means the Rapture, and we don't know when that will occur, only what it means. Notice how you can say Rosh HaShanah either begins the Mill, or the Trib. In the latter scenario, the Trib is still Jewish in covenantal nature (not the nation, but the people), so it is a "new" year. So, continuing with this scenario, Rapture kicks off the Tribulation, which is "the Day of the Lord", in a sense; so it plays the role of 10th Ethanim, Atonement (that's kinda how Daniel is told about time, in Daniel 9:24, and only the last week of that Time now remains).

As a result, 2nd Advent: the Official Return of the Lord, Jubilee. Which He inaugurates with a bloodbath so bad all of Israel is covered in blood up to about five feet high ("horse's bridle" verse, and the 180 miles is the length from Dan to Beersheba, see also the beginning of Isa63). So look, Booths: they obviously have to live in temporary shelters until the blood soaks back into the ground; burying the dead alone will take seven months. Followed by the Real Temple being built and dedicated, play on Chanukah, the next holiday in the now-completed calendar; followed finally by the regathering of Israel, which is Purim -- Temple has to be rebuilt, first. Meanwhile, Baptism of Fire (one taken-to-hell and another left-on-earth to enter Mill, Matt24:37ff) can be likened also to Purim. Then the new sacred year begins, starting with Passover. Ezekiel covers the Millennial changes in the Law's Temple observance, all of which are now retrospective memorials, rather than the OT system of prospective memorial. That's why the sacrifices in Ezekiel, are so unified: everything's brought together, in the Mill, for Israel. And we will all be there to share in her joy. Some of us will be ruling Gentile nations, as part of the peace-from-her-enemies promise so rife in the OT.

See, many parallels. You can make other schemes of roughly the same meaning, but differing composition and timing, out from these five holidays. [The 2nd-Advent Baptism of Fire can also be a paradigmal warning to Church to be ready for the Rapture, which of course is the reverse: all Christians will be 'taken'. Still, it's no picnic, for whatever growth down here you accepted or refused, will be publically known and acknowledged, at the Bema. True for all of us, Heb9:27-28.]

No other faith has any structure like this: what faith has a whole set of both holidays and priest-workweeks which tie to actual historical events in advance -- just like a calendar should -- which you can repeatedly proof? What faith gives you an Accounting of Time, demanding you prove it being met over and over again? You're expected to do this with Bible: and you're a bad believer, if you don't know it, don't do this rigorous testing. Remember how the Lord chided people for not reading the times (Matt16:2-3)? Bible's admonishment to its believers is that you don't accept what isn't proven: the person who claims to speak for God, well -- what he says must prove true (running theme in Jeremiah). The Lord talked that way to the Pharisees, in John 10:22 et. seq. They were ticked off He equated Himself with God, and He told them that they should base their decision on what comes true -- in this case, the miracles they saw Him do, as well. He didn't tell them they must believe Him, but they must investigate the Evidence. Which, frankly, is overwhelming. No other faith bids you test it like the Bible does. For the Bible wants you to learn by means of testing. Other faiths bid you go by feeling, mysticism, magic. Not the Real God.

Other faiths have nice things in them, but nothing so comprehensive, provable and accountable, as the Torah and its Law. Now you know why a bunch of tree-worshipping, pale-skinned naked Gentiles became "Western Civilization" -- tamed at last by this Law, as carried to them by Paul and folks like him -- for Christ fulfilled that Law, and they believed in Him. Of course, like the Jews before them, they too abused the upgrade in Christ. As a result, world history underwent a massive structural shift due to that Law (see Book of Hebrews), which continues for an unspecified time. So it's worth time, to better learn about the Law's first three feasts -- even though technically they belong to the past. Can't understand and properly date the Passion Week, else. Can't understand the Rapture, else. So past and future become clearer, just by reading a Book.

Look at yet more overwhelming confluence and evidence. Always Begin with Whys.

• In Bible, "8" often corresponds to eternity, idea that "7" got fulfilled, so now its results can play. We just saw how Pentecost is matched to Messiah's Birth, so it's basically still "on"; accounted as if still the First Advent. Sure, the covenant completely changed because He Succeeded at the Cross: but we are in Him, not in the Law (main theme of NT). The rest of the world, is not in either Him or the Law, and the Law is fulfilled by Him so is obsoleted (running theme in Book of Hebrews). So the harvesting isn't over, and historically the world is in a kind of Indian summer. Indian summers are so named because they disappear suddenly, without warning. Hence God will not predict when "fall" begins, because the 'wheat' and 'grapes', 'figs', 'olives' aren't yet harvested. For as Part IV exhaustively explains, the 'crop' is people (see Luke 8, Romans 11); so volition must decide whether self wants to be in God's Harvest. If you look up all those food metaphors pan-Bible, you'll see they usually refer to people.

• Prophetically, our 'map coordinate' which corresponds to this still-stretched Pentecost harvest period, is Daniel 9:26c. It's explained in Matt24. You can quickly corroborate the reality of both these prophecies, if you go to www.aish.com and click on the left-frame "Western Wall Cam" link to see the Wailing Wall. Kinda nice of God to leave behind a blatant reminder of those passages, just so there's no ambiguity. Again, God is not coy.

• Satan isn't coy either, so a 2nd Witness to the verse and Matt24's correct forecast of it, is maybe also visible by some Moslem camera -- the Dome of the Rock, which sits as a stand-in "abomination of desolation" over the Holy of Holies BedRock on which the Ark of the Testimony, used to sit. The Dome was built beginning in a year which mimics the destruction date of that Temple's Holy of Holies, 586(BC) plus age 99 of Abraham, when he got circumcised: that adds up to 685AD. You'll notice that "685" is the reverse of "586". Took the same 7 years to build the Dome, as it did to build the 1st Temple, per 1Kings 6:1ff; the first Temple was built from 960-953BC. Not to mention, Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac on that very Temple Mount's BedRock, which is why God picked it to BE the Holy of Holies. So for the Dome to be constructed from 685-691AD makes a nice accounting mirror of both meaning and time. Not only the date was reversed, but who was supposedly sacrificed on that Rock, which is why the Moslems took it: they claim it was Ishmael, who was too old (about age 40, married) at the time. Satan&Co. are into reversing Bible in translation, thus admiring, deriding and negating the meaning of the original-language texts; you can see them do similar derisive reversals in history, especially with reference to Islam; quite witty but petty, like here with the Dome. Definitely not coy. [The "two Stone Witnesses" link in LvS4a.htm and "Rev6-17" link in LvS4aContinued.htm -- both links are accessible from either page -- provide much more detail on the historical games Satan&Co. play using Islam. It seems unbelievable, until you research the history presented there.]

• Nor are the Two Stone Witnesses alone: history itself has played as promised in Dan9:25-26, Matt24, and Rev12-17. Most notably, the Bible was kidnapped regularly in the OT, and regularly beginning after the Crucifixion, surfacing for the common man only in the last 150 years or so. Until about 1850, you were lucky if you could get your hands on more than a torn Psalter. Read up on the history of how we got our current Bible, sometime. Scary stuff. So you have to ask some basic questions, when you compare the history of this Book, to others purported as equally 'holy':
  • What's this with all the Bible wanna-be's, cropping up in the 1st and subsequent centuries? All these supposed 'updates' to Scripture, the fake Gospels and apochrypha, vile and silly in their content? And what's with the anachronistic language in Book of Mormon, for example using "Nephi" (in Hebrew, means "naptha", a flammable liquid Nehemiah found after the 2nd Temple was rebuilt)? Not to mention, the copycatting Koran, which apes every Hebrew holiday right down to the peregrinations.

  • What's this with the fake Church, wearing even the same colors as in Revelation 17, distorting Bible beyond recognition? Not to be outdone, the Protestants demonstrably don't know their Bible either, especially among the so-called 'prolife' crowd. There's no such thing as a Star of Bethlehem, you just try to find it in Bible. The 'Wise Men' weren't wise, weren't three, but instead were impetuous but positive-to-God Persian magi. Worse, they never went to Bethlehem, but to Joseph's house in NAZARETH, Luke 2:39. (See "Bible's True Nativity Narrative" link in Part IVa for the verses and details.) So what's with all these and many other myths anyone can easily prove unBiblical, often even from any translation?

  • Who in history similarly kidnaps and contends against the Koran, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Book of Mormon?
  • Who spends millions of dollars chasing down every little yod in those books, to prove or disprove their authenticity?
  • Who spent time tearing them into little pieces, stuffing them into crocodiles, using them to light monastery fires, writing counterfeit books and all manner of denunciations, to make them look bad?
  • And who spent even more time during most of the 19th century, piecing them back together?
  • And for all these millennia, who spends time chasing after any other people no matter where they go -- than is spent chasing the Jews?
  • Why is it only the Christians are deemed mean when they give the Gospel?
  • Why is only the Gospel wrong, requiring (in 2005) hurricane-relief singers and famous journalists, to make songs and documentaries condemning it? To make a drama series and a sitcom (still playing), spoofing it?
  • What's so offensive about the phrase, You must Believe in Christ To Be Saved (John 3:16)? What's so offensive about -- Free?
  • You have to do works to be 'saved' under any other 'holy' book's prescriptions, and even then, it's not Heaven you go to: but no one spends any time condemning them as 'mean' -- even though most of the people living in countries under those books, don't have much secular freedom?
  • Enfin: What accounts for so much fixation on this Bible and its people, when there are so many 'equally holy' books?

  • So why is it, that everything in written in Matt24 reflects the above history for centuries afterwards? Why is it that Rev12-17 also are reflected in history since 70AD? Sure, Revelation was written in 96AD, but -- it's now 2006. Why are the plotlines still the same, playing on any TV near you? It's not as though even most Christians could read Revelation properly, let alone cause 6 billion people on the planet, to play its story.

So one needs time to absorb and respond to this Shocking Word and its historicity; time to debate with the self; one needs lots of disclosure, repetition, time to think over, acclimate and become skilled in, what He's Saying. Because, one must decide and train for this Future He discloses up-front. Kinda like training for a job, a career, a new skill -- there's lots of downtime. But you can't train without goals, and for that you need advance information. So the Mosaic Law was all about Learning, which is why Moses wrote the Torah. Why there was a Tabernacle. Why there were set times and behaviors, and holidays. Each designed to teach. No other reason, since YHWH does all the work. Adam did no works in the Garden, and Israel was to learn how to stop depending on itself, too. For what man does, isn't even remotely on the same playing field, as what God does. And only if a thing is at God's Level, is it satisfying to God. So the trick is, to be grown to God's Level -- BY God.

For the contract of eternity past, between Father, Son, and Spirit is Isa53:10-12 (see Isa53trans.htm for a corrected translation). That contract is not fully translated in any Bible of any language I can find. Part of the text is in the Greek OT, and part in the Hebrew. The clauses together show how first He pays for sins, which provides a circulation mechanism for His Thinking to get in those who want it. DDNA webseries is dedicated to this contract. Point here is that post-Cross, since He fulfilled that Contract, we don't get little cookie-cutter rules as training aids. Because He completed as a KING, so we are all of us, in training to become kings.

Gotta believe in Him, to go to heaven, John 3:16; but more importantly, gotta believe in Him, to be eligible to get that Training, Eph4:11-16 (Greek -- see Eph41216.htm). Then, you've got to live in God's System (link at pagetop, upper left) your whole life, using 1Jn1:9 as needed to keep getting back in. Through which, you get the training. Through which, you become Pleroma (pregnant with His Thinking), yourself. Through whom -- you now, for the eternity-past contract folds us all in it -- through you, those who believed in Him for salvation but otherwise rejected the Training, can have a good life in heaven. They are immature, comparatively. That's why there needs to be a hiearchy, with kings at the top. Of whom, you can be one. It's never too late to start being in God's System.

We are still in that stretched-Pentecostal period; except of course now the Temple is gone, so all those first-century Pentecost gifts are gone as well. Bible replaced them, as Paul explains in many different ways in Galatians and 1Cor; as the Book of Hebrews explains in painstaking detail, in Chapters 4-12. So only the harvest remains, and there is no racial distinction. Part IVa explains the legalities birthing this connection between Pentecost (Dan9:26c) and Purim (Esther): for with God everything is based on Precedence. Israel is still Israel, and Church is still Church -- we don't usurp Israel's Covenants. But any Jew can become Church just as any Gentile could have become Jewish in the OT.

The Genesis 12:1-3 protection clause for the Jew is based on bloodline, not whether he believes, so woe to anyone who attacks the Jew. Or, the Arab: Ishmael is a son of Abram, and was circumcised; see also Gen17:18-27. [Bible doesn't say, but you have to wonder if Ishmael didn't become a believer, since his mother DID, Gen 16:7-13. Verse 13 shows that in His Office as "Angel of the Lord" God personally appeared to her: well, He doesn't make appearances to unbelievers. Wonder if the Arabs know that Ishmael is the son of a Jewess-by-faith; and he was circumcised, too.] Hence no one really knows who is a Jew, especially since God promised Abram that his sons would number more than the stars of the sky, Gen 15:5, 22:17. One drop of Abram's blood is all you need to get the Gen12 protection. So, better to be nice to everyone else, including yourself! [Blacks were intermingled with the Jews from the very beginning. Bible references to this are kinda pointed, like the fact that the Egyptians had many black-skinned citizens, and at the Exodus Egypt was pretty much depopulated; then Moses' second wife was an Ethiopian (aka "Cush"); then there's the Queen of Sheba, and a Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon, etc. In the NT you have the Ethiopian eunuch reading his Bible, and Philip ordered by God to go help him. So much for the stupid "Identity" people who really couldn't read their Bible though it bites them. Really crazy, how people credit or debit mindless corpuscles of melanin which are designed to adjust to the amount of repeated sun exposure, lol. Can you imagine calling someone else better or worse than you because they have a permanent tan?]

It's completely shocking that the Jews don't see this total fulfillment of YHWH faithfulness, b'emuna, Ps33:4. Dunno how much stronger a proof God could make. Even 1000 angels flying in the sky 24/7 announcing "YHWH" repeatedly, would be less proof. Look: only God can orchestrate TIME. We all know that.

Passover and its 'attached' Feast of the Unleavened Bread, commences the Jewish Sacred Year. It is entirely a prophecy of how God will procure Salvation for the Human Race. Its many punctiliar rules are all prophecy markers, which the Jews are to use to know Who is the True Passover Lamb. All God's Holidays have this essential structure: Hi, I'm giving you details of real events which will really happen in metaphorical and ritual formats to depict them, so you can learn them even in your body, even as instinct, even as brain dendrites. So recognition will be full, and the soul will be full of it. Mosaic Law is entirely about learning God, and the rituals help integrate the body life so you are constantly seeing Him, despite even the most menial functions. Grace, baby.

Satan will be out to wreck the timing of the Exodus, and will fail. Satan will try to wreck the timing of Our Savior being Sacrificed (trying to get Him killed too early). Both Passover and Passion Week are the types for the Tribulation, which is why all those Revelation disasters have the same characteristics as the Exodus Plagues. Passover depicts Our Lamb, and Our Lamb's Last Week depicts how the Last Week of History will go, since His Last Week was supposed to BE the last week of history. He was supposed to die, then the Tribulation was to play in 'mirroring' restitution, His Last Week. In short, had the Jews accepted Him when He came, that would have set off a chain reaction over the entire world, so the entire world would have become embroiled in choosing for or against Him. Then He'd return, and Israel would become the Queen of Nations, just as promised.

But Israel rejected Him. But the same chain reaction, nonetheless occurred. Again, Part IVa (link at pagetop) sketches the effect He's had on history.

So with all this big-picture meaning in mind, let's now look into what seem the menial details about Passover et. seq.

So Exodus 12:6 (with its kindred passages) is real specific about when you kill the lamb on 14 Nisan: BEFORE sunset. So the Lamb is slaughtered at the END of the Jewish 14 Nisan; but eaten beginning at sunset (Hebrew bari'shon be'areba'ah, Exo12:18); which is still technically 14 Nisan, on the solar calendar. Whether you call it the 14th or the 15th is a matter of confusion among scholars; Bible always calls it the 14th, even after sundown: using the solar calendar's 'name' for the day is a Bible habit. [If you see me deviate from that convention, and I'll fix my mistake in periodic editing reviews of this webpage. No such thing as a perfect writing, except the Bible's. Everyone and his brother has something to say about this topic. Aim here is to demonstrate the proof someone can independently confirm in Bible before the Lord, not just an answer. All accounting is meant to be tested.]

The Mishnah, Bible translations, and even Bible scholarly material mess up the definition of WHEN Passover begins. Mishnah I've got is by Jacob Neusner, Yale University Press, 1988. Presumably he had the translation thoroughly vetted before publishing it? For Section Pesahim, page 237, #5.3D -J. reads as follows:
"D. [If one slaughtered it] for those who eat it and not for those who eat it, for those who are registered for it and not for those who are registered for it, E. for those who are circumcised and for those who are uncircumcised, F. for those who are unclean and for those who are clean, G. it is valid. H. [If] one slaughtered it before midday, it is invalid, I. since it is said, At twilight (Ex.12.6). J. [If] one slaughtered it before [the time of] the daily whole offering, it is valid."

The "At twilight" is Neusner's translation. I didn't yet buy the Mishnah in Hebrew, so don't know if it says that in Hebrew. But the translation is the reverse of what the Bible says. More about that problem follows in a few paragraphs. Meanwhile, note that this text clearly belongs to the 1st century AD, since the Temple was destroyed by 70AD. So notice how if you knew that Exo12:6 means BEFORE sunset, items D-J would be true. The "daily whole offering" had to be done before sunset, and in Temple times it was done around 3pm, same hour as Christ died on the Cross. See also Exo29:39, which uses the same before-sunset wording in Hebrew as for the Passover, applied to the ending daily Temple sacrifice (2Chron 8:13). For there were two lambs sacrificed per day, the sunrise lamb to sanctify the day, and the before-sunset lamb to sanctify the night: depicts buying time, since there would be future payment for sins. [Fausset's Dictionary notes that in Temple times it was custom to slay the Passover lamb "shortly after" the Temple sacrifice. Again, could be the translation is in error. See 2756.03 of "Passover" entry in Fausset's, which seems to use Josephus as the source for this information.]

Now, watch this next bit, to show those 1st century rabbis' brains weren't working too well:

"6.1 [p.239] A. These matters regarding the Passover sacrifice override [the prohibitions of] the Sabbath: B. (1) slaughtering it, (2) tossing its blood, (3) scraping its entrails, and (5) burning its [sacrificial] pieces of fat. C. But roasting it and rinsing its entrails do not override [the prohibitions of] the Sabbath. D. Carrying it [to the Temple], bringing it from outside to inside the Sabbath limit, and cutting off a wen which is on it do not override [the prohibitions of] the Sabbath. E. R.Eliezer says, 'They do override [the prohibitions of the Sabbath].'"

Now ask yourself this question: how can you roast what you didn't first slaughter? Roasting is part of the Biblical command to observe, it's not optional, Exo12:8-9. Just as God Says in Exo12:6ff: so the whole thing must be done before sunset. One letter, big difference, between "ben" (between) and "be" (at, in, on, upon). Ya gotta be eating (at table) AT sunset, Exo12:18, bari'shon be'areba'ah. So BEFORE sunset, ya gotta kill, dress, roast that lamb, Exo 12:6, ben ha'ar(eh)bayim. And as to the food, any preparation of that food can be done on the 2 High Sabbaths, Exo12:16; so you don't need the pil-pul related to covering to keep warm, etc. The Mosaic Law is not petty; but the Mishnah (despite its wit) is insufferable, blotting out God with olive bulks -- yet calling itself holy, Luke 14:5, Rom2:1-24 (see contexts)! Torah portion gets shallowly read on Saturday, and never learned. Yet are we Christians any less insufferable, listening to 'respectable' men instead of to the Word God wrote?

In the Bible, Passover is all about When You EAT, and that's why you EAT AT SUNDOWN; so preparation must precede sundown. Eating is always a metaphor of believing, of learning Word. Aka, "Torah". BEFORE Sunset -- before the day is over you prepare, so AT sunset, you can relax and eat His Food, His Word. See Hebrews 4 play on this fact using the Word as the Preparation Metaphor, "while it is yet today". For it's the Preparation, which kept the Temple going. And it's the lack of Timely Preparation, which got the 2nd Temple destroyed (main subtheme of that Chapter).

Why is all this before-sundown emphasis given? Is God being Petty? Nope. Sabbath is about learning Word. Sabbath is about trusting God to keep your food warm, your house warm; trusting that the stoppage will not harm you. This is not a God of works. So by stopping, you learn Him, how to Trust Him, etc. But if you are a new people just out from 400 years of slavery, you have no frame of reference for trust. So the teaching to trust, must be harshly stated, for harshness is what you understand; and black-and-white terms give you a clarity, so you can learn what "trust" even means. For slavery traumatizes. We the human race are traumatized, so we get a Bible which talks to us sternly. For then we can 'hear' what it says.

So notice this irony: "twilight" happens JUST AFTER the sun has gone down. So if you followed the Mishnah passage quoted above, you'd violate the Passover and its sabbath. Penalty for violation is not what the Mishnah says, but rather Death: Exo 12:15 (a refrain, see also Numbers 15:29-41). Death of the day, death of the light in you if you don't learn Word, so learn it before your lamp goes out.

If you keep on reading in that Mishnah Section 6 and following, the text becomes downright embarrassing, it's so far off-base versus Torah. Now it makes more sense why the Lord kept on telling them they were blind guides (Matt12:11, 15:14, Luke 6:39). And aren't we all? [The big reason to criticise is to show how we're all in this together. Sect or Group "A" merely has a different flavor of error versus our own. It's always my intention to show the pattern of continuing errors to demonstrate how we are ALL so easily duped by Satan &Co., largely because we are too disinterested to study the Word with our 1Jn1:9 brains on in God's System. We're no match for Satan&Co. Without God's brains, forget accuracy. The Jews are probably the smartest group of folks on earth, by Divine Design (gift to Abram); yet look how worthless their brains, on what to them is the most important of Bible topics!]

The Mishnah is not alone. Published Bibles usually mistranslate the timing as "twilight" like here in the Mishnah. (Maybe Mishnah's Hebrew is right, though.) By contrast, the LXX is The OT which the Lord and the apostles used; it is older than the Masoretic Hebrew text; it was a translation made by Jews from the Hebrew OT they had, into Greek for Jews who couldn't read the Hebrew OT anymore, circa 273BC. In Greek, its Exo12:6 phrase "pros esperan" means the same as the Hebrew, that window of time between late afternoon and evening: evening is when the sun goes DOWN. Operative term, sunSET. Young's Literal Translation and Darby fortunately use the literal translation, so you can see better the before-sunset Hebrew meaning: "ben ha'ar(eh)bayim". Latin Vulgate can be interpreted to get it right, too: "ad vesparem" can mean TOWARD the evening, but not IN it. So BEFORE sunset.

My BibleWorks Bible Dictionaries and lexicons often mess up on this "twilight" thingy too; it's weird how they see and yet don't see the right answer. There's no mystery to this question. God made it simple: See, there's this Big Fiery Orb In The Sky, measure time by that "or" [Hebrew word for lightsphere]. When it goes UP in the sky, and when it comes DOWN. Hence, even today every Jew on the planet will tell you that Sabbath, Passover (etc.) begin at sundown, if pressed for a quick answer. You even see it on your typical calendars, too. Moreover, "opsias" in Greek means SUNSET, so guess what? The Lord was right on time in Matt26:20, ALREADY reclining at table for Passover AT Sunset, exactly as Exo12:18 commanded. [Nerd note: Hebrew summarizes then gives detail later on. So the sun and moon and ALL the "lights" were created in Gen1:3, in a nanosecond. The later description of sun and moon has another purpose. Don't regard them as two different events. Dingdongs who read with modern-day ideas about how a story should be told, impose on Bible a 'contradiction' which doesn't exist. Even in modern times we like it when an abstract precedes the full story...]

Yet look: for example the fabulous lexicon TWOT (The Workbook of the Old Testament) tells you straight off that benha'arehbayim means sunDOWN, going so far as to trace the etymology for you. But then weirdly says that it's "likely" to mean "twilight", defined as that interval after sundown and before night, while there is yet "illumination". That's not sundown, but after sundown. See, the entire day is defined by sunrise and sunset, in the Mosaic Law: 12 hours beginning at sunrise, is a "day". You can't work at sunset, that's when work must STOP. It's not bad that we make mistakes: it's bad that we won't FIX them. Century after century.

So if Bible translations and commentaries reverse the before-sunset meaning of Passover's kill-then-cook rule; if we don't spot that reversal though holiday calendars say Passover "begins at sundown"; little wonder, no one gets right the chronology of Passion Week. You can't find an accurate Bible documentary or movie on that week's chronology. Bible is not being consulted. Tradition is being consulted, and the tradition is wrong. For centuries. As a result, millions of people lose faith in the Bible no one consulted, since by not consulting it, one can't resolve the 'contradictions' that inevitably derive from the traditional arguments. Um -- Between Friday and Sunday is NOT three days and nights. But movies about Passion Week don't care: they go right on claiming "Good Friday" as if Bible ever said that. Oh, since it's about God it needn't make sense.. and of course no one checks the Bible to see what IT has to say. So Bible gets blamed for men's 'traditional' contradictions. Century after century.

Not to worry, God's System fixes everything: we aren't designed to operate with our own brains, which after all are completely saturated with Adam's fallen genes. That's why you don't need to angst over anything, now: "Christ Our Passover", and the many verses in Hebrews, Romans, etc. explaining how the Law is fulfilled IN Him so is obsoleted, give you the nice choice of maybe sometimes celebrating the Passover as a memorial if you feel like it -- or not. Because due to the Crucifixion, Every Day is Passover. LvS4a.htm covers that whole changeover from Mosaic Law to Church (link at pagetop).

"Passover" is an ADVANCE function. Originally, God told Moses to get everyone to eat quickly, because as a RESULT of that night Pharaoh would let the people go. But ON that night, Pharaoh had not yet agreed. So it's an Act Of Faith to eat the meal that way -- trusting God to deliver on His Promise. So that's why the Jewish days and year begin at sundown, and with the Passover. Sacred year begins 1 Nisan. 14th of Abib (the older month name for Nisan) 1440BC is Israel's Birthdate, the Original Date The First Passover Occurred. But PREPARATION began 4 days prior (counting 14 Nisan until sundown). And the type of preparation was to Kill the Firstborn sometime not long after midnight -- so also a new solar day, Exo12:29; analogous to Abram sacrificing Isaac. But here God sacrifices those who didn't believe in Him, On Behalf Of Those Who Do Believe In Him -- meaning, the Cross, since Christ paid for everyone, Isa53:10-11, 1Jn2:2, etc. That's why they had to make a Cross on the lintels and doorposts of their house-entrances: hyssop with blood at the top and sides marked that door, and the Angel of Death Thus Passed Them By That Night.

So when you see the genealogy in Matthew stressing 14's, he's reminding the reader that God Prepares in Advance: progenitor Abraham via the 490-promise-years' units results in Christ 'fathering' salvation. In short, it was all orchestrated, all done on time, and all done exactly as promised. First and Last of the list are progenitors, and the 14*40 generations sandwiched in=560, the intercalated 490-year promise unit to stress unlimited atonement for all mankind. For everything in God's Calendar is an Advance Notice: while it is yet "today", you can believe in Him and be saved in advance of your own death. Matthew selects those royals who accepted the promise, believing in Him; leaving out some of those not doing so. To show that the promise was fulfilled despite all the apostacy. For just as with the Gen 5 roster, there must always be someone to accept the promise, for it to remain open to successive generations (see also Romans 9-11). Love never foists itself on anyone.

Messiah fully accepted God's Promise, and thus was made sin as a SUBSTITUTE for us (2Cor5:21), per the Isa53:10-11 contract in eternity past: im tasim asham naphesho -- if You will give Your Soul as a substitute for sin (literally, as a guilt offering for sin). For Psalm 40:6-8ff, God will Prepare Messiah to Come in the Flesh. So Heb10:5, on 25 December=25 Chislev 4BC, He is wrapped in death bandages (to depict Isa1:1-6) and supernaturally speaks from that feeding trough, Sacrifices and offerings you do not want, but a Body you Prepared for Me. 33 years In Advance of the End of Time. So seventy sevens is God's Promised-Time unit. So 7 is the number of holiness, perfection, completion of contract. 7, God. 7, Perfect Humanity. Seventy Sevens. 77. 14.

This three times 14-generations' device also neatly depicts how Messiah would die on the completion of the 490x3 anniversary of the original Passover, to the very day. Prepared from Abram to David, representing "Father", 14 generations, 2160BC-1040BC (birth to birth). Prepared from David through Babylonian Captivity, 14 generations (initial carrying off of the Royal Family), 1040BC-597BC (2Kings 24:12, 15). This much shorter period, represents "Spirit". Captivity to Christ, 14 final generations: the Son Has Been Prepared. Despite all opposition, too: the Royal Davidic bloodline switched from Solomon to Nathan during the Captivity via Shealtiel being adopted by Jeconiah who was jailed in Babylon his entire adult life so didn't have kids (compare 2Kings 24:12 to 25:27).

But back when Israel had left Egypt, she didn't know all this future. So God stressed this advance Preparation fact in an unusual way, via the distinction between Passover and Unleavened Bread, in Leviticus 23:5, compared to 23:6. You might want to open up your Bible (any kind will do) and look at the text you have. Notice that in v.5, the Lamb is to be slain "before sunset" (corrected translation from the Hebrew, compared to whatever you have). That means, before the day ENDS. For again, a Jewish 'day' runs sunset to sunset. So before sunset, is still the 14th of Nisan. The new day technically begins AT sunset, but this is the sacred year, and it begins on the same calendar day. So notice now, v.6 -- "seven days" beginning on the 14th.

The analogy being made is bald: the first-born of Egypt who died, are identified with Messiah the Firstborn-Lamb-to-come. Because THEY were slain, the lamb is slain; because the lamb is slain, you are now sinless, which is why there is no leaven in your house or in your mouth. Think that over for a minute. HIS being slain is predicated on THEIR being slain. But -- paradigmal meaning, not necessarily the truth about those individuals at death -- they got slain, because they didn't BELIEVE in Him, right? So notice how God respects the deaths of those who rejected Him. And YOU profit from that. And Messiah is only born, to be SLAIN. For them. And, for us.

So you are only born, to celebrate the Lamb paying for your sins. So you celebrate the Sacrifice Of The Firstborn -- in this case, God's First-Born, Messiah-to-Come. The new day begins only because of that sacrifice. Which is why, the Lamb must be slain before sunset: which is before, all those first-born in Egypt were slain. Paying up-front, get it? So before the first dawn for Adam, God "set aside" the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world (theme in John 1, Eph1). And at the right time (analogous to 14 Nisan), God slays His Son, His Lamb, FOR the sins of the world. To resurrect all who died. And we all will resurrect, whether we rejected Him or not -- question is, where we go afterwards. That, is a private question: John 3:16 plus what think ye of Christ?

Passion Week Fulfills This Salvation Metaphor Meaning Of The Exodus, and the bundled holiday God Instituted to Remember it. See how these rituals have meaning, and are not mere mystical, magical, motions? See how it's about God's LOVE for the whole world?

For the Exodus, is completely about the salvation of the entire world. That's why God sent Abraham's sons into Egypt, in the first place. To Gather The Gentiles, not just the sons of Abraham. Can't divorce the Passover from the salvation of the entire world. Can't divorce the Exodus from Christ PAYING for all the sins of the world. No one is left out. Everyone is paid for BY the Firstborn. Look: the only pure Jews ever were Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac. Issac married a non-Jew, Rebekah. She of course became a Jew, believing in the Lord, as we know from Genesis 25. Esau did not; so Edom (Esau's progeny) is outside the covenant, and Jacob -- who did believe, as we know from Genesis -- Jacob became the carrier of the covenant. He also married non-Jews, Rachel and Leah. Rachel appears to have converted, I'm not sure about Leah, but from them comes the bloodline, anyway. But the bloodline is not Jewish, but mixed. Again, Abraham and Sarah were changed biologically (they were both sexually dead, as Rom4 explains); so only Isaac.

You'll see God mandate this very reasoning, in Exo13:15 -- and mandate the children of Israel be taught by their parents. So notice how LOVE is paramount: all those who don't believe are in essence 'sacrificed' to God, just as those who WILL believe, analogous to soldiers who die in battle being remembered by those in their home countries. For Passover is all about REMEMBRANCE. God is making a big point here about even the unbeliever being MEMORIALIZED.

See? God isn't condemning anyone. Rather, He is announcing that He will send His Son To Be Condemned On Behalf Of Everyone. And we who get saved, are to revere Him, surely; but also to revere those who did not believe, for in essence their loss is our gain. (That's another reason why the Law has this constant refrain about treating the stranger with equal respect as one's own people/nation.) Even as, Christ Himself would not be as BIG as He is in His Humanity, if He didn't need to be spiritually developed to such size, to pay for such sins. The more the sins were, the Bigger He Had To Become. Which, only the Holy Spirit could do. So the loss of the unbeliever, even though his own fault, is PASSED OVER, in favor of LOVE. For Love never condemns, but instead always honors. Honors everyone, "pas" (Greek word used in the plural to signify unlimited atonement) -- "pas", meaning "All, Without Exception." So those who DID believe, made a 'cross' in their doorways that first night (hyssop soaked with the lamb's blood, dotted at top and on the sides of their entrance lintels, Exo12:22). The angel would see that blood (prequel to Yom Kippur sprinkling on Mercy Seat) and pass by the house, leaving the occupants unharmed. Anyone could do that; so it was due to the Blood of the Lamb 'sprinkling' that they were not harmed. It was not because of their blood (symbolic of human works), but because of HIS. [The term usually translated "sprinkling" in the OT always means Atonement, and specifically references the Yom Kippur sprinkling in the Holy of Holies. See the Book of Hebrews explain this significance, if you are unfamiliar with the rituals of the Mosaic Law. You might have to cross-reference OT passages as you read, to master the technical vocabulary (i.e., "sprinkling") that the writer of Hebrews uses, so for this purpose it would be wise to get a study Bible. Scofield Study Bibles (which come in KJV, NASB, and NIV translations) are the best cross-referenced study Bibles I know of. You can buy such Bibles at Amazon for under $20, I believe; you have over 1500 different styles to choose from (last time I checked, in 2004).]

Moses is tracking forward from source as he writes the first five books of the Bible; Exodus is part of the PRECEDENCE (source) of the Mosaic Law. So now you know why the Book of Genesis accounts days beginning with the NIGHT first (well, some translations don't show that, but the Hebrew is real punctiliar). And the reason why it begins with night first, is that the earth was trashed up by Satan&Co., so in Gen1:2, the Holy Spirit has to act like a mother hen (lit. Hebrew) and turn on the lights. (Gen1:2 and following is about the Restoration of the earth, not about its initial creation, see "Creationism" entry in VERindex.htm.) So the 'day' begins at night with His Restoration of Light, then the turning of the earth, etc. as you can read in Genesis 1.

Moses wrote Genesis; so he's writing to explain what LED UP to the Law, since the purpose of Genesis is to explain the Origin (purpose and bloodline) of Messiah; it's not about how God created the universe. Try reading Genesis with that revised idea in mind: you'll get a bizillion dollars of wisdom from its metaphors of light, darkness, etc. [Again, see "Creationism" entry in VERindex.htm for details.]

Note how there are nearly always THREE sabbaths: TRINITY. Father slays the Lamb Sustained by 'Mom', the Holy Spirit Who Restored the Earth. There are a lot of Old Testament Trinity verses playing with this idea, and they all use embedded Hebrew wordplay (and soundplay) which doesn't translate well in English. Someone should do his Phd. on that topic, it's utterly gorgeous. The verses just suddenly appear from nowhere, usually in the prophecy passages and in the Psalms. They take your breath away, for high humor is always in the presentation: God begetting kids. Awesome stuff. [Fathering soundplay (on abba and Abram) plus Spirit soundplay (fff'ing sound or ruach synonyms or sounds like those words) plus Son soundplay (wide variety of synonyms) plus begetting sound and wordplay (birthing ideas, lots of use of the Hebrew preposition min). Would take a year just to collate all the verses. Then all the ties to rest, being at home, being led home. Oh, to be young and have the time to do this! I was only able to list a few of these verses as footnotes in the "Mystery Math" section (and table) of LvS4a.htm. "Creationism" entry shows Isa45:18's Trinity wordplay. Isa63 devotes the whole chapter to how the Spirit led them in the wilderness, the Son will deliver them at 2nd Advent; and the Father planned it all. TrinityCites.htm has that Chapter's outline somewhere near the beginning of its page.]

Rest, rest, rest, overlapping. See the metaphor this ceremonial structure depicts? GOD GIVES YOU REST. Now when you read Heb4, it will make more sense: Rest Is The Word, so Rest In The Word, God Will Deliver You. And as the writer of Hebrews 4 concludes, that Rest Remains. [Hebrews 4 uses a great play on words. Rest, remnant, remain are all the same Hebrew word, and all reference PROMISE, for "sabbath" simultaneously means "seven", "promise", "rest". But he's writing in Greek, to demonstrate the Change In Covenant due to the Victory of the Cross; in Greek, "rest", "remnant", and "remain" are loyalty and homey words (roots of marital and martial, intimacy and fidelity) -- which words, allude to the Lord's frequent use of "menw" when He was down here. Verb "menw" has many compounds, and they are all spokes of concepts of marital intimacy, fidelity, martial intimacy-with-combat and fidelity (i.e., fighting/staying-at-post despite all opposition). While we don't know that until we read the Gospel of John (written in the 90's AD), the content of what the Lord said is heavily built upon in all the NT (most of which was written approx. 50-70 AD). John uses "menw" heavily in both his Gospel and in 1Jn, so it's a word worth learning. So "Rest", "remnant", and "remain" also signify the idea of being At Home in Him; and ultimately, Him Taking Us Home; to meanwhile and forever dwell in Him, live in Him -- fulfilling the long-ago Promise He made to deliver His People, that starry, scary night of the First Passover. For more on "menw" and its thesauretical plays in Scripture, read the first section of Part IVd. When you see how Bible uses its words, whatever doubts you may have had about its Divinity, vanish. 1000 angels flying in the sky overhead, wouldn't be better proof. Especially, with respect to how "menw" is used in Bible.]

Important to remember: when Bible uses the word "sabbath" legally rather than colloquially, it means the regular sabbath; even colloquially, you'll see some kind of special designation for a NON-Saturday (Fri-Sat sundown) period, as in John 19:31. If you can't tell the difference between a special ("high", in modern Jewish parlance) sabbath and the regular sabbath, you'll mess up the timing and events interpretation of Passion Week. It's easy to mess up the timing, for the contemporaneous audience of the Gospels all knew the timeline, so it didn't have to be said. We more remote moderns need to look at additional verses Bible provides, to back into the timeline. Most importantly, they all knew how Passover was constructed, but we usually do not. So we miscast its events; scholars misdate FirstFruits as beginning the day after the first sabbath after Passover occurs. That horrible "Good Friday" error has long been known, but little has been done to retrace the week. So the false movies, documentaries, etc. go right on being made. The Jewish calendar that year is advertised by God Himself as being off 4 days -- the Lord can't be the Passover Lamb and celebrate Passover Himself on the right date; which date is the date He Himself is "set aside", Arrested. Big glaring hint, that...

Helpful hint: when Bible gives you a number of years, you can usually ignore the fact the years are lunar. When Bible is accounting within a year, you might need to use lunar. For long periods, God uses the adjusted-to-solar accounting, i.e., the run of a '490' from Exodus to Temple Dedication, Exo 12:40, Daniel 9, etc. In shorter calculations such as for Passover Week, you must know the Jewish lunar calendar for that time; was it intercalated, how, and how much. If you don't know that (and Bible verses are always around to tell you), you'll screw up (for example Passion Week) timing.

Another Especially Helpful Hint: due to this differential in Jewish and solar calendar, you can Know Exactly When A Past Event Occurred, if you use the Bible's Exodus as your 'hub'. Then for vetting, you can check the history books, etc. So you also can know where the history books get it wrong (i.e., with respect to when the Exodus is dated). Phenomenal, how a dating system can track and correct errors, once you know how to use it properly. Then, you can verify the dates secularly based on the surrounding historical facts the Bible gives. The dates given in history books, documentaries, etc. are thus frequently proven wrong. Exodate.htm is a case study in this comparison of Bible versus non-Bible accounting, so you can see how to use the secular data, and how vastly right the Bible dates are.

So: We can also know when the Cross occurred, and the exact date and hour of His Physical Death. And then we can audit that result All The Way Back To The Exodus, to vet our math.

Since the lunar calendar each year is short by 5.25 days, Israel's Passover of 14 Nisan is really 14 Nisan, but by the end of the year, it's 5.25 days short. So if it remains unadjusted, what then looks like the Anniversary of 18 Nisan is really 14 Nisan -- because, the calendar is not subtracted for being too fast. As we'll see in Division #2, this is Precisely What Happened In The Crucifixion Year. [So no intercalation was done for the year prior to 30AD. Hence the calendar that year was four days off (i.e., true 10 Nisan was 'booked' as 14 Nisan, Passover). Bible says this.]

So if we call the first "correct" year "n", then by "n+1" (beginning of the second year), the Dates Themselves Are Four Days Ahead (five, when you also count the day itself).

So to tie the Crucifixion to the Original Passover -- and you'd expect God to do that, with His Son -- then you'd have to make things happen (Lamb set aside, Lamb slaughtered) on what would be the adjusted dates (10 and 14 Nisan, respectively). Even despite the official calendar that year. As you'll see in Divisions #2 and #3, that's Exactly What God Does to His Son, during that Passion Week He used to save us all.

Repeating: what God does, without gerrymandering human freedom, volition, history, the truth -- is to Exactly Fulfill The Promise Of That Original Passover, By His Son Going On The Cross The Exact Same Date -- 1470 years later. Which means -- as will be later shown -- the Lord was Arrested on the True 10 Nisan (thus set aside, fulfilling the Law regarding Passover), and was Crucified on the True 14 Nisan before sunset (again, fulfilling the Law regarding our Passover). Which means His Resurrection, Fulfills the First Fruits Law -- but more on that, follows below.

It will be important to keep all this material in mind, as you thread through the intricacies of the Lord's Passion Week. The real God does a Miracle you can Prove Mathematically, so you know you didn't hallucinate it, you didn't misinterpret it, And You Didn't Have To Be There To Know It Really Happened! Math is a miracle science, capable of auditing all the others, if you know the math principles well enough (all sciences run on math principles; it's just a question of Seeing The Proper Patterns). With the proper math, you can audit history, too.

Clearly, God's Miracles are huge, Full of Lessons, and scary. That's God's Style. But if you want to know Him, well you'll have to thread through and thus plow through a lot of Bible 'math' (verses). Bizillion Bucks of Bible Profit will come from that threading, by the way. For no good reason, the timing of the Passion Week and its events, have always been a 'mystery' to 'Christians'. However: if you're breathing 1Jn1:9 as needed, by the time you finish reading this webpage and research the verses in it, you will no longer be mystified. Bible is clear, and God is out to make Bible clearly running IN your head, 24/7. That's His Guarantee: John 8:32 via John 4:23-24, backed up by Eph1.

So over time, all these holiday-and-calendaring intricacies became instinctive to the Jews. Like kindergarten stuff, mother's milk, information on which you are weaned. So of course, the two terms "Passover" and "Unleavened Bread" were used synonymously in common speech (i.e., in the NT), as if they were One Event. But remember, they are not the same: Passover commemorates the Actual Egress From Egypt; the rest of the days commemorate Celebration After The Egress. So the entire bundled holiday lasts seven days; the last of these days was also a sabbath, and you ended the week AFTER sundown, with another festal meal. Didn't matter on what day of the week they fell, you didn't work on the first day following Passover night, nor on the 7th day following Passover night. So if a regular sabbath came in between, well you didn't work on that day, either. Three sabbaths, depicting the Triune Involvement occuring AT -- what would become -- the Cross.

First Fruits is the Counterpart Feast to Passover. So its ceremonies, sacrifices and offerings are 'bookends', and hence in some respects are opposites. For Unleavened Bread depicts Payment For Sin, whereas First Fruits signifies Eternal Salvation Being Accomplished. It begins, piggybacked on the night of the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. For the Festival of Weeks, which FirstFruits starts, is always listed in Bible after the LAST Day of Unleavened Bread, never near or after the first day, which is Passover itself. Compare Exo 23:15-16, 34:22 (note it's the wheat, not barley); Lev23:8 with 9-11, 15ff; Num28:25-26; Deut 16:8-10.

Gotta take a sidetrip here on how this page differs from the 'norm' on the dating of First Fruits. So-called 'normal' Bible scholarship puts FirstFruits just after Passover. As far as I can tell, it thus dates based on Joshua 5:10-12, which records that Israel ate from the new produce of the Land they entered, the day after Passover. The scholars then tie that verse to Leviticus 23:10-11, which says you wave the sheaf on the first day following the sabbath after you enter the Land. And that first sabbath would at least be Passover itself, which is a high sabbath, no matter on what day it falls. And the year they entered the Land, Passover was NOT on a regular sabbath day, but on a Monday night. The sabbath, would have been the 12th, two days after they entered the Land. They could have celebrated First Fruits therefore on Sunday, per Lev23:10-11.

Trouble is, Joshua 5 doesn't say they celebrated First Fruits per Lev23:10-11; moreover, that Leviticus passage is conditioned on them planting and then harvesting -- which obviously didn't happen, since they'd only been in the Land for four days (compare with Joshua 4:19). Rather, Joshua 5 goes to great lengths to tell you a) the new generation had been circumcised (which is why they named the town "Gilgal", which means "foreskin", very witty); and b) this angel appears to Joshua in what seems to be a warning mode. Why? Israel often didn't celebrate the Feasts appointed. Just cruise through Kings and see how Hezekiah and Josiah are exceptional Passover-celebranting reigns.

But the 'normal' interpretation, that First Fruits follows the next day after Passover -- contradicts all the other OT FirstFruits verses listed above [again -- compare Exo 23:15-16, 34:22 (note it's the wheat, not barley); Lev23:8 with 9-11, 15ff; Num28:25-26; Deut 16:8-10]. However, the other OT FirstFruits verses weren't conditioned based on entry into the Land, so could be said to represent the ongoing rule, not the initial one. However, to say FirstFruits is the day after Passover also contradicts the metaphorical depiction of Christ AS FirstFruits, in the NT. Division #2 lists the First Fruits verses so you can peruse them and ask God yourself.

At times, my own pastor went the route of the 'normal' Bible scholarship on the dating of First Fruits (i.e., you can see him call it occurring mid-Passion-week in some of his older books). But even since 1965, he repeatedly told the congregation (and put in print, too) that the Lord was on earth for 40 days, and then TEN days later, Pentecost arrived, every time he explained the chronology of Acts and exegeted the first chapter. So he's dating Pentecost from the Day of Resurrection. Which Day, has to be First Fruits, under the Law.

If you're a student under him, cruise the "1992 Spiritual Dynamics" tapes for the year 2000, for the latest update. He comes up with a June 8, 30AD date for Pentecost. That accounting works only if Firstfruits begins piggybacked on the LAST day of Unleavened Bread. You can test it with the Kaluach (calendar) from aish.com. It's a really neat calendar you can download to your computer. There you'll see that Jews call "counting the Omer" the 50 day period beginning on the FIRST day of Unleavened Bread, rather than on the last day -- which is why conventional Christian theology also misdates Firstfruits. But as noted above, the Bible prescribes the count to begin the first day of the "sabbath" after the last day of Unleavened Bread. And in 30AD, Passover ended with a regular sabbath (last day and regular sabbath were the same day). So Firstfruits -- His Resurrection -- occurred post-sundown of that same day. And the count of the Omer, should have begun then.

In Passion Week 30AD, the Passover ran Saturday-Saturday, so there is no intervening sabbath. So we can't tell whether back then, this modern "counting the Omer" was dated by Jews then as beginning on the first day of Unleavened Bread, or sometime after that; or, if it was dated as the Bible prescribes, beginning on the first day of the sabbath CLOSING Unleavened Bread (unless Passover ended on a Friday, in which case you couldn't 'do' First fruits until after the regular sabbath ended).

Of course, you can cruise the verses yourself, ask God -- a good habit, always. You'll also want to review Acts 2:1 compared to Acts 1:3,5 and 15, to see there was an elapse of some days (10, really, when you do the math) between the Ascension and Pentecost. Trouble is, each English Bible mistranslates one of these verses; so if you only use English Bibles, it will be confusing to vet the dating. Acts 2:1 in particular uses the Greek verb sumplerow, which seems a kind of wordplay, signifying it was TRUE Pentecost, playing on the Filling of the Spirit via that verb -- so was that also the official Pentecost on the Jewish calendar? I don't know, it could have been. Everyone would have known the official calendar was (at that point) five days too fast, but relative to the Resurrection, it would have been the 50th day. So still right, because the official Firstfruits began on the same day AS the Resurrection. Kinda poetic, huh.

Well, poetic and predictive. See, the only way Christ could die on true Passover AND be Resurrected after three days, would be if the Jewish calendar were FAST four days in that year, and IF that year the official Passover week ran Saturday-Saturday. So no doubt, in that year, Who He was. God likes bluntness, huh.

Gives new meaning to His telling everyone (sometime during his second year of public ministry?) that as Jonah was in the whale three days, so would the Son of Man be in Hades (Matt12:39-41, 16:4, Luke 11:29-32). See, had the Passover calendar been correct, He would have to resurrect SEVEN days later, not three -- to be Firstfruits. Preview of coming attractions, huh. [Playing devil's advocate with myself to test this interpretation, I ask, "ok, but what if the calendar had been intercalated?" Then, Passover would have begun on its proper Wednesday, and He'd have been arrested BEFORE the week began (that prior Saturday would have been 10 Nisan), and still would have resurrected after the following Saturday evening. Which implies, that First Fruits CAN be in the middle of Passover week. But I can't prove that's true from the Bible verses cited above, unless there's something I'm missing. If I'm wrong, I'm sure God will deploy someone to correct me. Correction is refreshing, always.]

You'll see the same piggybacking construction in Numbers 28:26, which also uses the dative in the LXX to show that the Last Day of Unleavened Bread (Num28:25) is the CAUSE of First Fruits. See, the dative case is cleverly used to double as a conduit causative, much like the Hebrew use of "be" (pronounced "buh") in the same verse. Idea of founded on it and through it, comes your salvation. Hence First Fruits itself is founded ON the Passover, which begins and ends with two high sabbaths, no matter on which days they fall. Hebrew prepositions buh, min, and 'al are used in much the same manner, especially by Isaiah. Sheer genius of economy.

That causal, piggybacking meaning is what explains the purpose of Passover Week: to GET to the Harvest, which First Fruits represents. What's cool about this piggybacking definition is that it amalgamates the meaning of the day-after-the-sabbath-following rule in Lev23:10-11, with the other OT verses (i.e., in Deut 16 and Exo 23). For He Resurrected on what was also the night following the ending of what otherwise would have been a regular sabbath, post-Passover. For THAT year, the final high sabbath was also a Saturday. It's rather prophesyingly poetic. The only way He could Resurrect with only three days and three nights intervening, was if the Jewish calendar was OFF four days in the week He dies. All six "paraskeuè" verses ("preparation") in the Gospels thus rubricate this fact. Very deft Greek, that. These verses are intra-page links within Division #2 for that reason. Worth a bizillion bucks of happiness, to learn them. Thus you learn that there are no intervening sabbaths in 30AD -- as you'll see in Division #2, Bible is patent that Saturday-Saturday was the Passover Week. FirstFruits is the day He resurrects. That's why the NT verses call Him FirstFruits (verses are listed near the beginning of Division #2).

1. Passover Week's two High Sabbath offerings which begin and end Passover (Numbers 28:18-22=27-30) are two bulls, one ram, seven yearling lambs, along with their associated flour and drink allotments, and one goat (as usual).
2. On FirstFruits Day itself (Lev23:11-13) is an offering of just a representative sheaf of wheat, only one yearling lamb, and its associated flour and drink offering. Very different.
3. On Pentecost, the 50th day of FirstFruits aka Weeks, the offering again is very different:
   1. Opposite Bread AntiType, depicting the soul: each household is to bring to the Temple bread Baked and WITH Leaven, not Unleavened Bread, Lev23:17. These are to be "waved" (acknowledgement of contract) before the Lord. Representing, the Body of His Thinking applied to the body of His Suffering, since He paid for sins with His Thinking per the eternity-past contract succinctly summarized in Isa53:11: If you will give Your Soul as a Substitute for sin, You will see long-lived seed.
   2. Opposite Meat AntiType, depicting Atonement for the soul: Lev23:18-20's profit-from-harvest multiplication. Note how much more expensive is the presentation you make: you can't do this if God doesn't give you the prosperity to make the offering, k? So your wealth is being depicted, here. Note how the leavened loaves are presented together with seven lambs, only one bull (not two), but two rams (not one). Still one goat, but now two more lambs are added: the goat represents sin, the two lambs represent the payment for sin: "peace offering" means reconciliation-with-God has occurred. The replacement of one of the bulls with another ram represents restitution for sin, not solely payment. The ones listed above are in addition to the regular daily sacrifices (i.e., Num28:31). By this you are reminded continually that Yes, I really will pay for you, don't be guilty, and don't give into temptation, either, since it will only wreck your life. You can afford to live a holy life, now. God will provide.
      See, once you know God you'll be tempted to hate yourself and the puniness of this life. So you yourself need to be assured of atonement, propitiation, reconciliation, redemption. These animals are all classified and grouped to give you this assurance. It's not you sacrificing, but God. And thus you need continual assurance that His Cost is something He Loves Bearing. Because you can't stand being less than Infinite Righteousness, now that you know Him. This is the 'cross' of being human: if you know God, you can't tolerate anything less, anymore.

      So these soothing aromas, are soothing to YOU. Imagine: if you lived in Israel, you would constantly smell cooking meat. For the sacrifices were continual throughout the day; the priests had official for-the-nation sacrifices every evening and morning; but throughout the day, a stream of people came in with their trespass offerings, sin offerings, peace offerings, thank/freewill offerings. So it was one constant barbeque. Apparently man's sense of smell is the most memory-deepening sense he has. You can forget a lot of things, but you will remember, based on smell. So Israel was given so many rules and rituals, as REMINDERS. Which are totally soothing, once you come to love God. Can't come to love God and not grapple with your own utter inadequacy, no matter what other mere people think of you.

      Note the contrasts: Unleavened Bread, you eat lamb at home, but First-Fruits, you don't. You don't, because the Lamb already paid for you and since you already believed in Him (depicted BY the eating), you don't have to eat (believe) again, to be saved. Salvation is permanent. Eating is a kind of permanence, because you can't eat again the exact same mouthfuls you just had: you can't reverse the initial eating, either. ("only God is Good", Mark10:18, so only God is Permanent. So anything God does is permanent, and God saved you.)

   3. Date Antitype, depicting deliverance from sin: First Fruits/Weeks' ending-on-Pentecost convocation is at the END of 50 days, not first and seventh. 50 in Bible means Redemption (recovery, restoration, aka "Jubilee"). Note the punning on God's Orchestration of Time in 490-year increments: seven sabbaths, a "49", links you to Redemption, the Word. seven 7's. 77. 14. 70*7, equals 490. Bible plays many puns on God's Orchestration of Time. Promised time. Real time, not an allegory to give you warm fuzzies. The Millennium is an OT Promise of Time for the Jews. It's real, it's coming, and it's predicated on FIRST FRUITS.

It's 50 days, because they spent 40 years in the wilderness, with no Passover. So, you add a "7" and a "40". But Passover's PREPARATION starts three days prior, on the 10th of Nisan. On that day, the lamb is set aside. So you add 3. So the 50 represents their total ransom package, illustrated by 40 years of learning to trust, then the set-aside of the Lamb, then Passover upon entry; upon which ending day seven days later, First Fruits begins. So next notice how the 50 on the other side of Entry into the Land, is "mirrored" back to Israel once she ENTERS the Land: 10 days representing Preparation and Passover Week 'restores' the 50 days of Weeks, ending with Pentecost.

Uppermost meaning is God Sacrifices Gladly for you. That's not said to motivate guilt, fear, competition, but to motivate REST. You can Rest in Me, and to prove it's Okay, I designed a way to save you that is as Good as I am. So you can relax, John 3:16. So salvation is contingent on but "1": your FIRST belief in the Sinless One, Gen15:6 (an accounting transaction, in which you Become Accounted Righteous as God Himself -- see the counterpart verse in 2Cor5:21). If you believe, you are resting. Trusting is surely a great rest, whew!

So you'd expect First-Fruits as a holiday to depend on that Rest, intervening: theme of Heb4, stated baldly in v.1. You know this first, though, from Acts 1. The Lord is the FirstFruits (many verses saying so are listed at the beginning of Division #2, link at pagetop); He's on the earth for 40 days. Pentecost comes 10 days later. You also know it from the way the Festival of Weeks, which FirstFruits starts, is always listed after the LAST Day of Unleavened Bread, never near or after the first day, which is Passover itself. Compare Exo 23:15-16, 34:22 (note it's the wheat, not barley); Lev23:8 with 9-11, 15ff; Num28:25-26; Deut 16:8-10. Then compare to First Fruits verses in NT saying He is First Fruits, like 1Cor15:20 (full list is at the beginning of Division #2). He cannot be First Fruits if He didn't Resurrect ON First Fruits. That's the real proper name for Easter. ["Easter" is a Teutonic goddess pagan holiday which we stupidly applied to First Fruits sometime in the 4th century AD or earlier, I forget. You can find this info easily, if you want details. If there is a way to malign God's Son, we'll find it!]

See, the 50 days is mirrored back. It's the flipside of a prior expense, a restoring credit. You can't have redemption unless there is restitution, and restitution is due to a previous payment. The previous payment was the Lamb, and Passover week is reckoned for that purpose as being 10 days, beginning with the set-aside date. So the 40 days prior to its own 10, are metaphorical of life down here, waiting for salvation to be accomplished. Hence when the Lord Resurrected, He only stayed 40 days, since He is the Payment. But the world gets another 10 days mirrored back as a credit from HIS 10 days, because He completed salvation. God always mirrors time, and He does so ON time.

Israel's holiday calendar is a mirror, as the "Modest Proposal" section (intra-page link at pagetop) explains. The second six months are a mirror of the first six months, to show the restitution accomplished by the first six months. All time is constructed in a mirror. Because, there is an up-front expense, and then the profit resulting from that expense. In God's Accounting, everything must yield a bizillion percent interest, such that even the expense is something you ardently yearn to incur (Luke 22:19).

So He yearned ardently for the Passover, to PAY for us. This is a shocking fact. So God invented the Mosaic Law, with its many shocking sacrifices -- how hard it must have been to cut the throat of an innocent lamb. As the Book of Romans recounts in threaded format, due to the fall of Adam, sin entered the body and thus soon enters the soul of every baby who gets upset at 'whatever'. Thus man became violent of his own volition. So violence, is used to teach him. Notice how animals must DIE for you to be fed. No human being can live without vitamin B-12, and the only way you can get it, is by eating an animal who had to die for you. You too, die for the animal, in that you must take care of it for its entire life cycle, to GET food from it. 99% of what we do in life kills something, and we kill ourselves to get what we need to live. Pretty violent cycle, huh.

Moreover, everything in God's calendar and accounting is egregiously gorgeous and expensive. God enriches the poor (all of us), but is no ascetic. He's profligate in the extreme. It's utterly unfair that we exist. It's utterly unfair that He must pay for us. And it's utterly profitable to Him -- not because of us, we're an unending puny burden, even once sinless -- it's utterly profitable to Him, to do it. For God expresses Love to GOD this way. For He is infinite, and even a bizillion percent interest is a pindrop compared to Him. So it's Him to Him to Him, 24/7. Whew. You couldn't have a stronger juridical basis for confidence: because this is a mirror among Them, no flaw or ugliness or other bad thing can be anything but a bizillion percent profitable to US. For after all, we exist, and They see us 24/7 all-at-once, past present future one big Now. So we are tools of Their Love. So we have to be made a bizillion percent profit. No matter what we are, ourselves. And that's the future available to us on the other side of this mirror of life, if we believe in Him; even more so, bizillion x bizillion x bizillion, if we grow up to Pleroma maturity (Eph3:19, 4:13) in God's System (link at utter pagetop).

You should be getting the impression that God is doing all this because He wants to, not because He has to. He didn't have to wait six days to restore the Earth. He doesn't have to wait to make us good little boys and girls. He wants it to work this way, and so if He says He will make a bizillion percent interest and give it to us (1Cor15, "eye hath not seen" verses, all of Isa54 and 55, etc.) -- then that's what He WANTS. This God can merely think a whole and completed universe into existence in a nanosecond, Gen1:1's Hebrew. So He's not 'into' our sacrifices or our pain. He'd rather elevate us up to His Own Level, John 10:34. Christ was nearly stoned for telling the Pharisees that. Notice He never threw any. Instead, He threw away, HIMSELF.

So why does He do this? We need it. If you love someone you need to kill yourself. Look at how you linger over what or who you love. Look at how you avoid what or who you don't love. Look at how painful it is to the soul, when you simultaneously love and want to avoid someone, because you can't take the pain of being around them. Conversely, look at how painful it is when you consider yourself impotent to express the love you have? So when we finally leave this body and SEE Him face-to-face (i.e., 1Jn3, 1Cor15:20ff) -- we'll all want to kill ourselves. Like lambs. So what a comfort it will be to know that God-to-God-to-God ACCOMPLISHED VALUE out of our puny lives. I swear, the suffering we get down here is the best of all, Rom8:18,38. We just can't appreciate it now. We need it. And He graciously responds. What, do you think Christ wanted to go to the Cross as a show-off? Or because He Needed The Outlet For His Love?

So why does He put up with us? What's the gameplan? To grow up in His Son, learning and living on Bible. Holy Spirit builds as it were Divine DNA -- Christ's Own Thinking -- in your soul. DDNA webseries (link at utter pagetop) is about this process. But put simply, your thinking transmutes into God's Own, with your every discrete consent to learn and live on the Word, in God's System. That's what He wants. More than all the kingdoms of the world. Of course, you should really cry all the way to the bank about this, since it means you will intimately know God as a consequence. No mysticism. Real God, real knowledge, real intimacy. And real scary and seemingly-unattainable, for a really long time. But one day, all those discrete learnings add up and get knitted together in your head and you really see Him, 24/7. It's a perception, no dreams or visions, please -- at which point, everything else in life, good or bad, is not even worth talking about: "better things have come" (NT catchphrase).

Heaven, is our future home. Entry into THAT Land, we await "groaning", down here (theme of last halves of Romans 8, 1Cor15, 2Cor5). So "the Promised Land" is indeed a physical place, even as Heaven is. In the eternal state, there's a new universe, and we'll be living in a new Earth -- but that's a 'heaven' analogy, too. Even as, "the Land" is. God's Promises always have a specific TIMING, SPACE, and PLACE. So whatever you read about Israel always has an added metaphorical layer you extrapolate -- the Whole Story of All Eternity. It's literal as well as metaphorical. It's not allegorical, but real. Not just some nice words to hymn or make movies from, but a real future: yours.

Since the last day of the Feast of the Unleavened bread is also itself a (High) sabbath, then you get this tableau of "Sinless FirstFruits Enters Heaven." Neat, huh. See Hebrews Chapters 2, 4, 6:18-end, and Chap 9. Writer is talking about this very metaphor (coupled with He-is-the-Living-Temple metaphor of frequent OT stress). As you'll see in Division #2 below, in 30AD the last day of Unleavened Bread is the Same Day On Which FirstFruits Begins (at sundown): the day on which He was Resurrected (sometime after sundown). So the writer of Hebrews makes pointed reference to this fact throughout Hebrews 4, likening the unbelieving Jews to those in the wilderness; how they refuse His Preparation and hence Passover of Salvation; so, they don't share in the Gathering of Weeks (a wry way to remind them of promise, since seven=week=promise in the OT). So he uses that OT Holiday frame-of-reference to explain why the covenant changed as a result of His Resurrection. And the writer explains in HASTE; for a New Exodus Began as a result of His Resurrection; so imminent destruction of the Temple, is upon Jerusalem (impetus for the letter). [Thus fulfilling Daniel 9:26; author doesn't even have to mention that well-known verse, especially not in 68AD when he wrote it: Titus then had Jerusalem under (vacillating) siege, and was anxious to negotiate surrender terms which would save the Temple from invasion and destruction. See Josephus.]

So the formulaic definition of First Fruits is date-inflexible as to its beginning and ending -- but only after they entered the Land. From that point forward, the finish of Unleavened Bread kicks off the First Fruits/Weeks. But the first time First Fruits was inaugurated, was also formulaic, but date-unknown: the Closing Evening of the first Passover Week upon Entry INTO The Land. See, they entered the Land on 10 Nisan, 1400BC, Joshua 4:19. Exactly 1430 years later to the day, Christ was arrested. Jewish calendar was four days off that year (30AD), so it was too fast -- hence by the calendar, it was 14 Nisan. 10 Nisan, Lamb set aside. 14 Nisan, Lamb slain before sundown, which you eat AT sundown, the first Passover. So He was slain 490*3=1470 years to the day, after that first Passover which caused the Exodus. But because the calendar was 4 days off, He ATE the Passover on the very night He was arrested. So that is how the Lamb can EAT the Passover yet be slain ON it, John 19:14, 31, 41-42's threaded theme. Clever of God to so orchestrate time, huh.

This parallel is deliberate. For in exactly the same manner, the Lord's Arrival to Pay for Sins was given with a specific accounting in Dan 9. But what was formulaic, was how He'd finish. For it would be up to His Volition, to provide the Sabbath Rest for All Time. So you could tell when He'd Arrive -- 1000th anniversary of David's becoming king was one easy measure -- and you knew the deadline was 1000th anniversary of David's Retirement, with seven years to spare (between retirement and death); or, you could use the Daniel 9 timeline to get the deadline again with 7 years to spare. For the seven years is floating in between. Just like Passover Week will, once they get into the Land. For before they entered the Land they knew Passover always came first. Paying for sins comes first, then the harvest. But you can't exactly say for sure, how He'll use that time, nor how Israel will respond to Him when He comes. Of course, at the time they were wandering in the wilderness, they knew nothing of David or Daniel. They knew nothing of when Messiah would come. They didn't even know how long they would be wandering in the wilderness, for it was formulaic too: when everyone age 20 and older except Caleb and Joshua and Moses had died, then they would enter. Floating, then.

The writer of Hebrews is bluntly telling every reader that because Israel missed THE Passover -- nickname for Messiah -- they are still effectively wandering in the wilderness, and hence will be destroyed just like that first Exodus generation. Because Titus is in Jerusalem, and Temple Destruction is imminent. Everyone knew that. Most had gotten out of there. But a few were lingering behind. So the writer of Hebrews plays the role of Jeremiah, especially since Paul has just been executed (see Heb 13:23, compared to the request of Paul for Timothy to visit him). It's the year of the Four Emperors. I don't know if Vespasian had yet been called to take the mantle of empire, but if not -- he soon would be, leaving his adopted son Titus to finish off this armpit of the Empire, moaned over by every king since time immemorial. As a companion piece, Mark's Gospel has just come out, too (Timothy brought Mark with him). So there's nothing subtle about the Book of Hebrews. Time doesn't permit soft words.

Again, 50 represents the 40 years in the wilderness, the seven days of Passover Week, and three extra days, the period between the day you set aside the Lamb and the day you slaughtered it: three not four, since you are slaughtering it before sundown: 10th is set aside, count 3, then slaughter on the next day. For the night before, belongs to the day before. So that's why the Lord kept on repeating that He'd rise after the third day, i.e. in Matt 12:40 accounting. (English Bibles often misconstrue third-day verses: there are 61 of them pan-Bible, and you need to reference the original-language texts.) Since in Jewish accounting nights are first, then He has to arise AFTER the third day, to complete the same hiatus. For as you'll see in Division #2, He is arrested on true 10 Nisan, maybe as late as midnight, which is a type of set-aside; crucified on true 14 Nisan, before sundown; and then anarthrously referred to as "the Preparation" by NT authors in the Gospels; so you know exactly when He died. So: that same amount of time is Mirrored Back as time He spends in Hades prior to His Resurrection, another three days. Because, He sanctified time.

So representing the 40 years in the wilderness, 40 years of His Time was mirrored back to Israel, via Church. Beginning ON Pentecost, Church began. Because, as you'll see in the pink (Bridal parchment) table below, Israel ran OUT of Time. So the only way she keeps on living, is due to Church living down here. When Church ends, Israel gets the Trib. Because He BOUGHT that time, by giving up 7 years of His Own Time (the leftover 7 years mentioned above). So look: God mirrored back to Israel His 33 years, because He successfully completed them. Then God mirrors back the 7 years previously reserved for the Tribulation, 'early'. So, everyone could know that by 70AD, time was UP. And here it is, 68AD, Paul being executed as the two-minute warning. They didn't listen. Roman records claim 90,000 people remained after the siege of 70AD in good enough health to be made prisoners and carted back to Rome in triumph. That has to be less than ten percent of the initial population, k? 90,000 very stupid people, but at least post-destruction, they are alive to read Daniel 9:26. Most of their countrymen didn't make it. God keeps His Time ON Time. "While it is yet Today", as Hebrews 4 warns. [Why so many 'scholars' attack the population figures in the Bible, I'll never understand: they impose their Western ideas of 'personal space' on the Bible. Even today you can see that people in the Middle East and Asia throng together, so population density and cultural values related to it, are not like ours. Moreover, agricultural economies are labor-intensive and require a lot of people. If you look at ancient living quarters you'll find they are generally very small. You're constantly on the move, anyway, so it's not like our modern sedentary culture. Look at how densely populated are the towns in Pakistan, with throngs always on the move in the streets. You get used to that style of living. Pakistanis I know find it even enlivening, and tell me how much they like that crush of people. The land was extraordinarily fertile in those days, promised from God to be so. Rain was withheld when apostacy reigned, but the quality of the land itself, its generally temperate weather, its location, its richness in minerals, etc. would be attractive to a large number of people. So to say that there could be 9 million people in southern Israel is no stretched figure. Seriously: all you have to do is turn on some TV program which shows you how people pack together in the Middle East, Africa, Asia. If you ever lived in these places, you know how realistic it is that nine million people could live in so small a geographical space.]

Now, let's go back to First Fruits. We just saw that its first celebration, was contingent on something that was known to occur, but not exactly when: first entry into the Land. But when it does occur, it begins at the end of Unleavened Bread. So unless that sabbath occurred, there is no First Fruits. Depicting, Christ's Resurrection -- for without that, time's up! Real Time. Really gone. Again, if He didn't finish the Cross and Resurrected, we'd all not be here.

But now that it has happened, the holiday becomes a type of Jubilee, freedom due to harvest, now you rest; it's a 'taste' of the Millennium, metaphorically: because the Millennium is composed of 50s (50x20). Passover and Unleavened Bread were times of tribulation (analogous to wandering in the wilderness, to the Passion Week, to waiting for the harvest, etc). Now comes the Reaping, the Redemption, the Freedom. At last. After all, it's been a good six months since the prior harvest. Time to celebrate, then, with a New one. This is the "late" harvest, in Bible. Now you know why. [Remember that the Jewish calendar is bifurcated? The agricultural (aka civil) calendar runs September-August, beginning on Rosh haShanah. So the early harvest, is in the fall. We Westerners use the opposite terms, so get confused when we read Bible, because our year starts in January, so an April-June harvest by OUR accounting, is "early". But not, in their accounting.]

So the 50th day following its start was to be a day of rest; but the first day of it was not a day of rest. Note again the Contingent Nature of First Fruits. Its beginning is not a sabbath, but a Gathering. You offer the first-portion (lit. meaning of "first fruits"), God's Portion, at the Beginning. You celebrate the Completion of the Gathering, on the 50th day.

Now do you see why Pentecost was used to warn the Jews, in Acts 2? They missed the GATHERING, so now it's the turn of the Gentiles.

Church never replaces Israel. Church is here to Rescue Israel. Just because Israel played Vashti, doesn't mean she is rejected in turn. Doesn't mean someone takes over her UNconditional covenants granted to Abraham via Isaac via Jacob via Moses via David now via Christ. He is her Messiah, still. Her King, still. But He takes a different Bride, us. Any Jew who believes in Him is in the Bride, if he believes during the Church covenantal period ("Age over the Ages", a lexeme in Eph3:21); flipside of fact that any goy became a Jew by believing in Him during Israel's covenantal period (which right now is in abrogation status, pending her Millennial Restoration). So Church is Esther, and there are no racial distinctions in her. We are all Royal Family of God in Christ, as Paul explains in Galatians. So it's the Royal Wifely Thing to Do, to Rescue our Sister, just as Our Husband commands. Meanwhile, 'Esther' is being prepared in order to be crowned (@Rapture).

Notice, therefore, how Abraham becomes the father of so many nations: via the calling out of the Gentiles, which came from the Jews, which came from Abram's faith way back in 2085BC (when he was age 75, so maybe earlier than that age).

First Fruits was always tied to the prophecy of harvesting the Gentiles, and at both 'ends': first, Exodus started Passover, due to the sacrifice of the firstborn, and that originally was composed of Gentiles, the Egyptians. Replaced by, Messiah, so Unleavened Bread depicted paying for sins of all mankind, Jew and Gentile alike. And also, Exodus meant the Priest Client Nation to God -- to be a Light of ALL nations -- hence the Entry into the Land, displacing Gentiles again -- was for them to know Who was the Real God so they could be saved. 2/3rds of the Exodus population, were "mixed multitudes" -- Gentiles. Anyone can join. So, it's a kind of Gathering of Souls to Harvest for God, of which Israel was to be the First Fruits, headed up by Messiah Himself. [Paul spends a lot of time on this theme. Odd how he's the only virgin apostle, yet spends nearly every verse using propagation terms. Romans 8:11ff is all about the pregnancy harvest, i.e., theme in Rom8:18ff, passim, explicit in v.23. Then there's 1Cor15:20ff. All of Ephesians is rhetorically patterned after the famous Greek play of the propagation of the Greeks, "Ion". And of course we all can tell the obvious "Body of Christ" analogy in 1Cor6, 12 (with Chapter 13 describing the Head, the Completion of the Word in writing for our heads), Eph4, etc. Too bad these portions of the Word always cut God's Head off in translation, and bland out all the sexual innuendo. Read them in the Greek; lots of Bible software out there so anyone can learn what's said in the Greek with good lexicons (better than Strong's, please) and a good Greek grammar; if you're learning in God's System, you have the Holy Spirit's brains, so forget all the excuses about it being too hard or you being too stupid. The wit is astounding, refreshing, and you know you're seeing God face-to-face. God is the Ultimate Birther!]

But Israel played Vashti when He came: so she's missing the SECOND 'end' of that harvesting, Pentecost. But doesn't have to, individually. Any Gentile could become a Jew back then, as Exodus 12 makes clear. So too, any Jew can become Church now, as Gal3, Romans 9-11, all explain. Circumcision was always of the heart: you have to believe to undergo it, like Abram did, at age 99. God is Consistent. Justice is Absolute. So Israel-turned-Vashti is out, and goyim (or Jew, makes no difference, John 3:16) Esther Replacement, is now corporately sought on the highways and byways, Matt22 parable: playing, live.

The Mosaic Law is beautiful, if you understand its metaphors. Everything about the law is designed to remind you of Messiah, teach you, and the meanwhile, give you a healthy way to live. So it's understandable that even the early Jewish Christians in 30AD had trouble giving up the law. That's why Paul was developed by God. To explain the usage of the Law now that Christ fulfilled it, as a case study to learn the "new law in Christ". But many Jews rejected all that, and still do. Many Christians try to craft their own legalism, and prove just as recalcitrant as the Jews. All this, because the meaning in the Law is really beautiful, and people vaguely know that. But beauty becomes ugly, when it gets all hepped up on itself. And that's the problem, here. Too many people looking in the mirror at themselves, instead of at the mirror of the Word. To produce a reflection: Him.

So they miss the Harvest. So the Lord is building an Esther, to hopefully rescue them, theme of Romans 9-11.

So "First Fruits", "Weeks", "50 days", "Pentecost" are all talking about the same contingent 50-day period, which stands for Jubilee. And it's still OPEN, since "Pentecost" hasn't completed yet. It's kinda suspended, stretched in time, Dan9:26c still in play. "Weeks" runs 50 days, because normally the "seven [consecutive] sabbaths" criterion of the period, will be 49 days plus one (the first day). But its actual commencement depends on the kick-off sabbath. Since the kick-off is Rest (meaning of sabbath), and is Promised (another meaning of sabbath, lit. sevened, promised) -- the writer of Hebrews uses that multiple-entendre to craft his warning, in Hebrews 4. We Church are Evidence of that Warning still Being Open (i.e., in Heb4:1, 11).

The kick-off sabbath is the Rapture, for that's when We Church enter the "Land" of Heaven, Resurrecting en masse. If we die before that unknown date, we have an interim body and an interim life in heaven, as Paul explained in 1Cor15 and 1Thess4 (distinguishing between interim and resurrection bodies). So notice again the group-ness nature of this 'harvesting' of whoever among the highways and byways, will believe in Him.

Now let's take all three holidays together, with respect to Christ's Passion Week. Okay:

• Passover itself is only the first night, celebrating the Exodus, true 10 but ostensible 14 Abib/Nisan; the night the Firstborn Dies, Hastily Taken In The Night -- just as the Sanhedrin did to Him. That year, the Jews hadn't intercalated the previous Elul OR Adar for the new year (which begins 1 Nisan), so Passover of 14 Nisan occurs four days earlier than its true date. But God knew its true date.
• The ensuing Unleavened Bread week is, during times you could work, preparation for FirstFruits, the New Grain Gathered For Offering, since FirstFruits would begin the very night of the Last Unleavened-Bread day. Both the first and the last day of Unleavened Bread, are high sabbaths, no matter on what day of the week they fall. Yeah, He was gathered, alright: on the first high sabbath, into four bogus trials; then, three more; each one, violating the respective juridical procedures of Rome and Israel!
• True 14 but ostensible 18 Abib/Nisan: this is the date of the Crucifixion. So now the Lamb is slain on the Cross, just before sunset, 3.5 days after His Arrest! Notice how God keeps the True Passover, just as promised, even though the calendar was four days too fast.
• So next, First Fruits, after the last high sabbath: He Rises, "the Firstborn of Creation", 3.5 days after He was slain on the Cross! And we are "Church of the Firstborn". Which Joint First-Fruits -- for we are His Body, 1Cor6,12,Eph4:11-16 -- used to Harvest (rescue) Israel. Romans 9-11 focuses on this theme, as does the whole book of Hebrews, and also Eph2 (joining two walls' metaphor).

Now watch this: Passover basically is a cutting out, grafting in structure, even as everything God does, beginning back when He cut out Cain (more on this pattern, a little later on). So Pentecost, which ends the bundled holidays, is a Gathering-in, so inaugurated the Grafting-in of Church, so Israel can get grafted back into Christ, Her Messiah forever, Romans 11 and all those prophecies yet upcoming. Our King, Her King, forever. Two sisters. Two walls. Joined. Is that witty, or what?

Because Israel rejected Christ at His First Advent, He instituted Church, Matt16:18. But that's a Better Priesthood, main theme of Hebrews. So Now Joining in Church, as any Jew can do even as any Gentile could have joined in Israel back during the OT -- Joining in Church is the New Covenant Implementation Via Church who are Royal Priests -- the Whole of Church, not just a biological descendant -- as Body of Christ! Forever ruling! Ruling as Wife over Gentile nations to protect Israel, but for all eternity, the Ruling Class, because Bride, His Body. So Israel gets an upgrade, a better New Covenant than she was expecting! God not only keeps His Promises, He upgrades them!

It's kinda like finding out your inheritance is bigger though your nominal position is lower. Israel was supposed to be the Queen forever, not just for the Millennium. But, she rejected Him. Now technically, that makes her Friend of the Groom, rather than Bride, but the value she gets as Friend, is much higher. And even better still: any Jew who believes during Church IS Bride, still! Higher Bride status than would have obtained had the covenant not upgraded due to His Session! So overall, a better deal forever! This soo takes away any 'reproach' -- and earlier too -- than Israel ever suffered, Isa54:1! It's the best of both worlds: some among Israel being Church, get the higher status than had Israel not refused Her Groom; others among Israel still under the prior (or Millennial) covenant get more spiritual money than they would have gotten. Plus, everyone will love to throw themselves down before the other, just like the Lord did on the Cross, like those angels are doing in Rev4!

Israel is Vindicated. Israel is Redeemed. Israel is Rescued. For Messiah has Risen and Father is Raising up Seed from the Seed of Israel Who is now King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Bright Morning Star just Sitting, waiting for Father to put all the enemies under His Feet, Ps110:1. The Preparation is Preparing to Return. Preparing the New Covenant to be Implemented. So any Jew who believes in Christ is in Church, and will be part of that Royal Ruling Priesthood forever.

Oh, look forward to this! So much to thank Father with, as Royal Priests to Him forever, under the Lord! So much to thank the Lord with! So much to thank Bible heroes with! So much to thank the angels with! So much to thank everyone with! Starting now, not just after death!

Sheesh: can God make it more obvious, than to predicate the Exodus on the FIRSTBORN? And then make Israel metaphorically SACRIFICE YEARLY, all 'firsts'? So do ya think maybe -- jus' maybe -- that it's about Relationship? I mean: does "Abraham and Isaac" ring a bell?! You remember: the first almost sacrificed the second. Ok: those aren't two religions, are they? What then are they? FATHER AND SON, hello! So does "I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" ring a bleeping bell??!!!
Ok: let's try our Greek debating skills, using the first-class condition: "if" and it's TRUE. So
• IF a Father can sacrifice a Son, and if a religion can sacrifice -- and they both can, that's true --
• then one cannot say that because sacrifice exists, it's solely religion.
• In fact, one cannot say it's both relationship and religion.
• For religion's sacrifices never end, theme of Hebrews 10;
• but a Relationship is not governed by religion but by Personal Connection, theme of Hebrews 1-10.
• So if Sacrifice, then it can only be Relationship or religion, but not both.
• Because that Sacrifice can be from Some One Related, Choosing to Give to Some One Else Related. Just Because.
• Like, a Father to a Son, Isa53:10-12.
• Like, a Son to a Father, Luke 22:19ff, John 17.
Defense rests, Your Honor.

Whew. That's a lot of Bible verses on Firstborn and "partakers" of Him, huh. Just using that keyword. Wonder how many other keywords are used thesauretically -- um, gotta be a lotta them. Yeah, and I guess then 1 John's continual stress on "firsts" ties together First Fruits and First Commandment, huh. After all, that's what Christ is always doing, in John Chapters 14-17! Father's House of Kids, John 14:2 (Greek) and Vine and Branches (John 15) and Oneness (John 17)! Golly gee willackers! This Bible is a thesaurus! Shore don' look like some thumpin' hillbilly book, anymore! [Search on "firstborn" verses in the New Testament, because these are refrains. Some of the easier ones to see are in Luke 2:23 and Heb11:28 (precedence cited and applied), Heb1:6, Heb12:23, Rom 8:29 (theme of chapter, see also Eph1); Col1:15-18, Rev1:5. The wording isn't always exactly the same as the two quotes, but the meaning is the same. See also how NT writers use this doctrine in Acts 2 (vv1ff, Peter explains how Pentecost=fulfillment of Isa28's goyim-ingathering prophecy); 1Cor15 (Paul uses it to explain our new life and eternal future, vv20-23); and James 1 (v.18 uses it as explanation of our new purpose). When writers quote other Bible verses, they do it interpretatively, which means they change the wording to show how to use the quote. So sometimes a quote will be truncated to just its keywords (often, only one keyword); or, will be concatenated with another quote, kinda like a math formula. In short, the way Bible handles quotes is not at all like our modern "verbatim" practice. Bible debunkers don't know this isagogical fact, so they imagine the Bible contradicts itself or is otherwise errant, expecting a quote to be verbatim, to be valid. No language ever on earth uses quotes only that way; the world's nightly newscasters certainly don't use quotes that way (they mangle quotes with their own 'spin', never listen to them after an official's speech, lol) -- but let's not confuse the debunkers with the facts!]

So let's continue our Greek first-class condition truths:

• they -- the whole human race -- can share, because the first "firstborn" were not related, but sacrificed, as a Condition of Israel's Release.
• So, being sacrificed, they became the Basis for the One Related, to exist (if no Israel, then no Christ).
• So if that One Exists, He will have to PAY for Those Not Related, lo-ammi becomes ammi, book of Hosea -- depicted by those first firstborns --
• and if He does pay for those not related -- and we know He did, 1Jn2:2, Titus 2:11, many other verses --
• then they are no longer "far", unrelated, but "near", Now Related, theme of Eph2!
• So if Now Related, then the others who play Vashti, on whose behalf the First Exodus happened -- Those Rejectors Can Be Rescued By Those Now Related, just as Their Messiah Rescued Those Now Related! So that ALL can be Related, just as promised since Adam (Gen3:15)!
• Thus fulfilling ALL the Exodus promise of delivering ALL the human race via the completion of Church, aka "filling all in all", Eph1:15-23!

  For God never rejects His People. And all become Ammi in Him.

Ergo, All The Sabbaths And Holidays Are About Remembrance and Rescue. And all Remembrance and Rescue, is based on the Exodus, God Delivers His People, God Saves His People. And thereby, The Whole World, 1Jn2:2. And they thus become His Inheritance, and thus the Firstborn is dedicated to Him; main theme in 1Jn is on this tie of Firsts, First Commandment and First Fruits, which is our inheritance from Him, 1Jn4:12-19 (very climactic, in the Greek, v.19 should be shouted). All other holidays, are essentially elaborations of that fact (really, the holidays also constitute a telling of Israel's whole future, in metaphor and mime). For the eternal future, is a Life With GOD. And we being not God, need to be trained for that life with God. Forever.

Hence Israel's future is the world's future, precisely because He is Jewish, and Savior. So HIS Future, Is The Basis For Israel's Future; HIS Future, Is The World's Future. We only pick which side of That Future, we'll be on: the Hell side, or the Heaven side. Let's backtrack to the original meaning of the Exodus -- to produce MESSIAH. To do that, God had to craft a people to represent His Message, since people would rather listen to other people, same pattern as in Gen3 (Adam listened to his wife, rather than God). And He did it, by choosing someone who believed in Him, each time. Genesis thus traces out that faith 'bloodline', culminating in Abram. So anyone who believes as Abram did, is a 'child' of Abram (refrain in OT and NT, the latter being easier to see). But since Abram is the recipient, then Those Born From Him By Blood As Well As By Faith, Are To Be Blessed. Thus anyone else can become a 'son' just as Abram did -- by faith in Him, Gen15:6, John 3:16, Rom9, Gal2:16ff. At the Exodus, about four million Gentile souls did just that, so by faith they became Jews (and of course the males circumcised themselves). So about six million people left Egypt, having become sons just as Abram did: for as Paul wittily notes in Romans 4, Abram himself was a Gentile until age 99 when he circumcised himself due to faith in El-Elyon. So of course that precedent, always remains true.

So, again: Israel's story is everyone's story. What belongs to them, can belong to us, and vice versa. God is never inconsistent. So whatever you learn in Bible about Israel, has application to you. No matter what your racial background. And frankly, since no one after Isaac was 'pure' by bloodline, who knows how many bloodline sons there are? One drop of Abraham's blood is all it takes. Makes sense that God would fulfill His Promise to Abraham of making more sons than stars in the sky in that way, too. Point is, if you don't do what Abraham did -- believe in the Lord -- you are no son even if you are a son, Romans 9. Doesn't mean the stupid anti-semites can use that to persecute the Jews -- Genesis 12 protects any biological 'son' of Abraham. Even if only by one drop of blood.

See, this is what all those we-are-the-true-Israelites dingdongs miss. The entire plan, as we saw above when the "Defense" rested, was a Unity. Like anything else that develops over time, the initial Gen3 promise of a Savior ("He shall crush your head" clause), became gradually more and more sophisticated. So while it's true that only certain things belong to the Jews directly, on the other hand indirectly, the entire world got saved that way. So now, those who were favored and thus we who were not favored, got saved; so even now those who reject Him and thus are technically unfavored, can be saved. That was one of Hosea's favorite themes, and he even named his kids "My People" and "Not My People" to illustrate that PROMISE. (Read the Book of Hosea; even the translations don't strip it all out.)

Paul outlines this whole story brilliantly, in Romans 11. God's 'fishing', see (I don't remember if the English translation brings that out), so that Israel can get caught in His Salvation Net. And in the process, Due To The Resurrection -- the updated version of FIRST FRUITS is playing. So they get a "better covenant" (Attic word kreittwn (sp), used by the writer of Hebrews) than they had prior. So no loss to them. So no loss to us, that they had the benefits of being Jewish (which benefits remain in some ways, secularly). Because We Are All One Now, theme of Galatians 3 ("neither Jew nor Greek" clause, especially).

John 17, oneness; Ephesians 2, oneness (joined walls, Jew and Gentile); Church has a Far Superior Standing due to what? FIRST FRUITS! You saw how many verses there were in the NT on that, above: just before the Defense rested, the second time. The Harvest is Bigger now, because Christ Is Bigger Now. And so the change in covenant, is "better". Paul also uses that term, but he likes "huperbale", which is even stronger -- "surpassing", is how it's usually translated (idea of the Head 'surpassing' atop the Body, really cute wordplay in Greek of 1Cor12:31, repeated in Eph3:15-19, and a dozen other places).

So, as usual, when God shuts one door, He opens a Better Door. For the Jew, and the goyim. No longer separate, but One. And every one wins. I mean, think: would you rather be a King of your own kingdom under the King of Kings, or merely get a city (one of the rewards in the OT for growing up spiritually)? A kingdom is much more than a city. And royal priesthood was not even available to the Jews: took the writer of Hebrews five whole Chapters to explain that (Chaps 5-10). So where are the Jews cheated? So where is there need to pretend that they aren't really Jews (based on utterly blind 'scholarship')? Heck, Everyone Got This Huge Upgrade! All because He Resurrected Time when He was Resurrected on the Cross, and He Did It In Time, For First Fruits. Now are you beginning to see how important it is to understand Passion Week Meaning and Timing? Heck, if the we-are-the-true-Israelites dingdongs understood it, they'd stop trying to call 'lost', the 10 tribes which weren't ever even physically lost! "Lost" is only a drama series on ABC.com. God never loses, anyone.

The Jews are God's Chosen People. That predates the Law. Genesis 12, 15, 17 outline the contract provisions. So believer or not, anyone with a drop of Jacob's blood is a Jew. The covenant is to Abraham, but Isaac was the son of the promise, and Jacob believed in that promise, hence the 12 tribes -- 13 really, but Joseph's two sons are half-tribes. That's a pre-Law bloodline promise, and it applies down here. Then there's the eternal promise, which Paul explains in Romans 9-11. Anyone can get 'in' it. In the OT, you circumcised yourself and became a Jew by faith. In the NT, you believe in Christ, who is Son of David. Anyone can get in on the eternal promise, which is a Unity -- God making "sons of God in Christ Jesus", Galatians 3.

The Kingship of Christ is multiple, and it also pre-dates the Law, going back to Melchizedek. This, the Book of Hebrews painstakingly explains. That too, is something anyone who believes in Christ can potentially "inherit the kingdom" -- become a king, under the King of Kings. That's why you're still down here, believer: to train in that inheritance. Most of us, will abdicate. So then Who will rule us who abdicate? Those who did not abdicate. Very few. Very precious few.

So the anti-semite dingdongs -- who usually claim to be oh-so-smart-in-Bible -- reveal themselves to be children, still screaming in the sandbox, never growing into their True Inheritance "in Christ Jesus". But hopefully, most of them at least 'did' John 3:16 and will go to Heaven. But they won't be anything but Royal peasants. Happy, yes. But you can't play in the sandbox down here and expect God to zap you with spiritual maturity. He never coerces volition.

In a word, the old covenant, is Disinherited (Heb7:18, Heb9's main theme, Heb10:4, Rom10:4). And a new one, is Grafted In (ibid, "second" is the keyword). Now if grafted in, as Paul notes through Rom9-11, then there's a unity, not division. So those grafted in shouldn't be divisive, but should remember from where they came, he reminds his haughty readers by the end of Rom11: oh, the Riches of His Grace, bottomless! ohhhhh parakalOH, don't get fat-headed about it! Replay of Moses' warnings to the people throughout Deuteronomy, as they were about to dispossess those living in the Land. Sound familiar?

What a pistol, this grafting-in business: gotta go to a whole lotta work, and then those you graft in, get all puffed up! Every dang time, too. God oughta know. He began pretty far back in time, to accomplish this laborious (tohu wa bohu!) Unifying goal. He actually began with Cain, the first child ever born into this world, Gen4:1. Gently or harshly, generation after generation since He crafted a line, leaving Cain's, replacing him with Seth, then all the way down to the Flood, where everyone but Noah&Co. got permanently disinherited. But even after that, only Shem carried on The Name (pun intended). Not with his firstborn, either (even if they were triplets). And this disinheriting and grafting in kept on going and going and going...

But let's pick a key disinheritance event which happened shortly after the Exodus. God Disinherited the entire Tribe of Levi, since Levi had disinherited Shechem of its males (see Genesis, search on "Shechem"); then He grafted that whole tribe as His Own Inheritance, onto Aaron. And Aaron was only involved, because Moses refused to be God's mouthpiece. ["Jochebed" link in MisTrans.htm provides further details and Scripture on the disinheritance of Levi.] And all of Israel was disinherited, first because only Moses found favor in God's sight (many verses on this, i.e., Exo33:13-14, read through v.16) -- but because Moses interceded for all of Israel, God granted that (v.17). [Mirroring.htm's "David" link shows the same thing happening again, due to David. It's a real and strong pattern, this inheritance/disinheritance. Primogeniture or bloodline is wiped out if faith is not present. We truly are the sons of God by faith. Always true, since that first disinherited son, Cain.]

Remembrance of how you got your inheritance, through someone else's DISinheritance. Salvation is a Gift. See? Exo13:15, again the command continues, to be passed down from every parent to every child: We were strangers in Egypt, so we respect strangers, and treat them as ourselves. Because the whole world is Egypt, now: our "Land" is not of this world, and (Heb4 again) the Promised Rest, remains! So we are all strangers, in her. Disinherited from this world, yet not in the next, but belonging to God, just the same. So the potential roster is no longer as small as Hebrews 11's. It began with one wandering progenitor, Abram. It now has -- well, when you can count the sand of the sea, let me know.

Abram began the Messianic line, and his sonship has two tracks, bloodline and faith (the latter being permanent); so that's why God could tell him his descendants would be more numerous than the sand of the sea. So for our tracking purposes here, heroes prior to Abram, aren't in view. But of course there were many, as Genesis 5 shows.

Christ is descended from both David and Aaron, but is not a direct son of Aaron, so is not eligible to be a priest (writer of Hebrews makes a big deal of that fact, in Heb Chaps 7-10). So were there no disinheritance of Levi, there'd have been no Aaronic priesthood. So there would have been no Mosaic Law, for you can't have a covenant without a priesthood (another big point the writer of Hebrews makes, ibid). So there would be no mechanism for better covenants, were there not a progenitor. But when the progenitor rejects his inheritance, then what? Well, Coniah rejected, so God grafted in Shealtiel, a descendant of Nathan (younger son of David and Bathsheba), from whom the Lord's Humanity descends (through Mary; but Joseph also comes from Shealtiel, if you read Matt1 and Luke 3 carefully). So the Grafting in, requires what? Disinheritance: here, of Coniah. And what else? Faith, on the part of the one being grafted in: here, of Shealtiel.

Moreover, not one of the dozens of previous disinheriting-and-grafting-in events God did (since Cain, who was the first one disinherited), involves a Grafted-In Person (or group) who lacked faith. Seth replaced Cain, for example. You can trace the others: most notable is the disinheriting of all Israel in favor of David. Which disinheritance actually began when David was first anointed, but which was put into contract form in 2Sam7 (parallel passage in 1Chron 17, very witty Hebrew in 1Chron 17:11). For Israel had rejected God as her King, back circa 1050BC, which is why Saul was appointed. Then God disinherited Saul (Paul's point, in Acts 13:20), replacing him with David; so Israel could only continue, due to the Davidic line. But the kingly branch of that line also rejected Him, hence the Coniah curse and the grafting in of the erstwhile junior line, from Nathan. [You'll find the connection through Shealtiel in Matt1:12, and Luke 3:27. Not all the NT generations will be listed in the OT after the exile, especially since the last book of the OT is 433BC. The royal line was persecuted, and needed to hide; so I'd bet money that the later generations named in Matt and Luke are given names the enemy wouldn't be able to know. A person was known by more than one name, generally, so it's not lying. Then again, maybe they are given easily-known names, since God will protect them despite all opposition.]

So notice: Messiah Himself Is Grafted In. His Humanity is partly from the Holy Spirit (grafting in), and partly from Mary (as just mentioned). Moreover, even from Mary, it's a grafting IN, due to Shealtiel being grafted in.

In sum, at each turn the human race has survived all this time with the narrowest of chances for having even another DAY. If God didn't graft in those who believed, those who didn't, wouldn't have been able to live. So what goes around, comes around. Those who got disinherited and remained rejecting, instead of resting, were kept alive because in each generation there was at least one person who could be grafted in. Now that's something to remember.

If you look at Mirroring.htm on Joseph, you'll see there'd have been no Egypt for Israel to go to, had Joseph not been kidnapped. Joseph, who BELIEVED. Here's a too-brief recap. Joseph couldn't have been kidnapped if Jacob didn't re-enter the Land. Jacob couldn't have re-entered had he not left. And he left, due to a fracas over pretending to be Esau, in 1960BC: 490 years after the Flood. Of course, had Jacob not been born, he'd have been unable to go anywhere: when he was 9 years old, Amenemhet I comes to power in Egypt (palace coup, assasinates Mentuhotep); thus the 12th Dynasty begins; then Amen baby's assasinated, too; but his grandson will be the Pharaoh with the cows dream. Meanwhile, Jacob is growing up, getting in trouble, serving three times the intended years for his intended ONE mate, but gets a double portion and double-trouble, to go with it. So when Jacob returns to his birthplace, it's 1940BC: Joseph is only 7 years old. So Joseph is sold into slavery at age 17, and then it's 1930BC: 490 years later, is the Exodus. Never underestimate the Power of God. One's gotta be real evil, to reject the Father Who Alone birthed the SOUL of each individual. Personally. [Nerd note: it should be pretty patent that the soul is immaterial, so is not produced by biological processes. So who is our real Father, huh?]

These 490-year periods are assigned to an individual, each time. They keep on being assigned, as God has this 1050-unit of Time "Accounting" which is based on Israel, but now re-routed to His Son (main theme of Book of Hebrews). Hence we Church are the conduit of one more day continuing, and that only because we are grafted in. Individually. So the slavery continues, but the whole unbelieving world is in it, unbelieving Jews included. And the signs are blatant, sheesh -- who but God can Orchestrate Time and the Two Stone Witnesses which weren't even created by the Jews? The Jews didn't create the Dome, nor the 70AD destruction of the Temple. The Jews didn't create the 490-year tracebacks of time you can see from Bible go all the way back to Adam, and all the way forward to Christ and even Now they play. Now we don't know who the individuals are, but heck -- we got a track documented in Bible going all the way back to Adam. So Who do you think MUST be the Real God, among all the fakirs out there in every religious flavor? Salvation truly has come from the Jews, and it's blatant. One Day at a Time. While it is yet Today.

Circumcise your hearts, oh My people, God continually says from Genesis to Revelation. Longing to take her under His Wings, Matt23:37, Luke 13:34. But she's a dodo bird, still. But not all of her. The remnant hear His Voice. Sheep we remnant are, still getting ourselves in trouble, no better than those other sheep who yet don't hear. That's ALL we can do, for crying out loud, is Hear, Oh Israel! For any competence to come from that Hearing, must be the Holy Spirit's. For we lost our brains at salvation, Eph4:23 (witty Greek).

• Disinheritance, killing the Firstborn of Egypt due to Passover.
• Remembering, codified by Feast of the Unleavened Bread: eye for an eye, a payment is due BACK.
• So there must be a Grafting-in, which is the promise of First Fruits: it results in a Harvesting for all those who Had Been Disinherited, as well as any 'chosen'.

  Whoa. So now we know the fitted meaning of these three holidays:

• Passover=Disinheritance,
• Unleavened Bread=Remembering, and
• First Fruits=Grafting-in!

Thus we now understand the goals of Passion Week: To Bring To Fruition (pun intended) All This Magnificent Plan Which God Designed. One Plan, though in compartments. One Fitted Plan, to in effect commence the Final Harvest, the final Exodus -- for everyone.

So will you now be surprised, if God chooses to pull this off by Disinheriting His Own Son? Well, frankly, that's what Daniel 9:26 means when it says Ho Christos will be CUT OFF. In the Hebrew text, cut off the foreskin is meant, which in today's Hebrewspeak is a "bris", meaning "covenant" (brith in Bible Hebrew). It also has a dual connotation of being cut off from life (echoes of Isa53:8, "and who can speak of his descendants" -- predicting that He'll be disinherited). Cut off also has a connotation of accomplishing nothing, from a worldly point of view. And why is that? Well, look: if He's to be disinherited, given the Precedence -- wouldn't a Better Inheritance have to ensue? Yes, says the Book of Hebrews, over and over. Beginning with Heb1, "a more excellent name/person/reputation", how He's higher than all the angels. But in our context, what did He win with respect to the Mosaic Law? Per Hebrews 3, He's the Builder of the House. Ahhh, but this is a Royal House of people, not wood and stone, just as He explained in John 14:2. But how is that true, if He had no descendants? Isa53:11 leads to Isa54:1! Hunnnh? Remember how there are two tracks for becoming a son of AbRAHam? By bloodline AND by Faith? The famous "sons of God in Christ Jesus", Gal2:16ff and 3:26ff, whether Jew or Greek. [See, "in Christ Jesus" means that we died IN Him while He was ON the Cross, analogous to how we all were IN Adam when Adam sinned, Rom5:12. It's Isa53:10-11 (again, sorry, this is the Grand Central Station of the Bible) which actually shows how that Baptism Of The Cross, worked to propitiate Father. See Romans 6 for elaboration on what "Baptised into Christ" means: it's a great way to understand the exchange of our sins for His Righteousness. Isagogics: Romans was written after Galatians, but the meaning was known from the Lord explaining what His OWN "Baptism" meant: the Cross. You can read Him talk about it in the Gospels; there are about two-four verses on the topic, and some of them use the drink..cup analogy. Baptism is an identification, etymologically. There was never any kind of magic property assigned to water, and out of the seven types of baptism in the Bible, only two are wet, and they are merely symbolic (Baptism of John, and the witness Baptism to being saved). So Romans 6 is a primer on the structure of salvation, since the Romans were not as familiar with it, as the Judaized Galatians. Always gotta know the why of a verse, before you know what it's about. Warning: you are not saved if you believed you had to be baptised to BE saved. Simply Believe In Christ Right Now; 'do' John 3:16. And Then You Are Forever Saved. No Additives!]

How well do we know we're only God's sons, but by faith? Let's put our Greek debater's technique through its paces again, still using that First-Class Condition:

• Sheer logic says we could only become sons by faith, since God has no body; and we all well know THIS puny body of ours can't even survive forever down here, let alone, in Heaven; so you can't be bodily birthed from Him, theme of John 3 and Heb2;
• we know flatly from those two verses in Galatians that it's faith only (inter alia).
• But there's a more fundamental reason why this is true: the nature of a birth depends on the nature of the PREGNANCY. This is the track of explanation Isaiah uses, in Isa52:13-54:1. (You can't see that track in published Bible translations; see the "Tentative Translation" section in Isa53trans.htm.)
  • From that passage, we know He pays for sins on the Cross by Thinking.
  • So Thoughts Paid For Sins; and
  • all sin is generated by thought, Mark 7:18-23. (James 1:15 in 1989NRS and 2001English Standard Version, are surprisingly well translated!)
  • Hence salvation, can only have THOUGHT as its currency;
  • even as sin is thought-originated, so Payment must be Thought-Originated.
  • So we get saved by thinking, too: first thought, pisteuse epi ton kurion kai sothese su, believe in the Lord, and you will be saved, Acts 16:31. John 3:16.
  • You can only think with your head. So you can only BELIEVE with your head (a "heart belief" is not possible, lol).
  • Ergo: "whosoever BELIEVES in Him shall never perish, but have Eternal [God's Own Type of] Life."

Whoa. Then God is saddled with us for all eternity! Christ Himself says, "I and the children You Gave Me" (see Heb2 and its OT context)? Isn't that a bigger burden than the Cross itself? So How Big Of A Compensating Inheritance Must He Get, to Justify The Disinheritance He lost? He was King of Israel. Rightly. The Sanhedrin used that fact to indict Him before Pilate, Luke 23, John 18-19. [That's the ONLY truth they told, which is why Pilate had to listen to them. Else, Pilate could have dismissed the case entirely, or immediately arrested and sentenced Him. Roman procurators have their own intelligence system, too.] Of course, if Father didn't disinherit Him here on earth, we couldn't be grafted in while still alive here on earth, and thus couldn't be grafted in at all.

Hmmm. To be better, it sure can't be an inheritance in THIS world! And We Need To Be Better, Too, Or It's Not Fair To HIM! So then: what Replacing Inheritance should He get?

How about, "My Kingdom is not of this world", and "King of Kings", etc. Best of all, King-Priest kata Melchizedek to FATHER Forever (theme of Heb5-10, again). Which makes us Royal Priests and potential Kings, 1Pet2:5, 9, Rev1:6, 5:10, blatant. Many more verses, really, since this is foundational to the entire NT. But you have to know something about priesthood and kingship, to spot them: "near", Rom5:1 coming-to-the-throne, all of Hebrews 10,12 (esp. Church of the Firstborn title), the we will judge angels verse (1Cor11, I think), etc. We really are to become gods for Our God. Nothing less will satisfy Father, John 10:34, answer to His John 17 prayer for Oneness. Think: oneness means The Same Nature. Guess Whose, 2Cor5:21, "in Christ", all those Firstborn "partaker" verses in the rainbow table above and "eternal life" verses. And on and on and on. God doesn't need to settle for lesser-thans. He's Omnipotent, k?

My pastor has long taught that the demons get disinherited with Church replacing what was supposed to be the angels' original rulership role. He bases that claim at least in part, on Zechariah 13:2, Col 2:15 (the one-on-one replacement being bald there isagogically, Roman triumphal march to Mamertine Dungeon), Rev20:1-3. The Zechariah passage has a whole bunch of related cut-out, graft-in verses in BibleWorks' TSK database for KJV. But by now you see that's a Divine replacement pattern from the Exodus itself, if you didn't see Him start it with Cain. Look how it works in the Exodus: Egyptian firstborn, replaced; people in Canaan, replaced. Which Divine replacement pattern, obviously started with the ANGELS, since Michael and Gabriel and others were promoted to seraphim, replacing head cherubim Satan and whoever else had been on his side at the uppermost echelon. Of course, then there's Matt22, where Vashti is replaced with Esther, and that depicted by the 'king' replacing the originally-invited guests with (what has to be the same number of) other folks out on the highways and byways. Hmmm, God's sure into matching when He replaces, huh. Like in, Bright Morning Star replaces the initial Son of the Dawn (also translatable as "Morning Star", even the Koran noticed that), Haylel ben-Shachar, Satan's original name (Isa 14:12). [Self-note: besides the Satanology tapes, Matt 65 Lesson 16 listed the Zech and other verses in connection with the one-on-one replacement. It comes up often in classes, but I didn't remember the Zech verse being mentioned before.]

Oh, let's see how Father did this Most Memorable Thing, how He Blessed Yet Disinherited His Own Son, and ALL at the Same Time.

So let's apply the timing issues of Passover to Passion Week, and see how its timing illustrates and accomplishes, all this epic purpose. Once we date these holidays rightly, we'll see something awesome about His Passion Week: the very DATING of Passover Week's 'play' upon Him, proves He's Messiah. So the week He's crucified and rises, the Passover He celebrated counts as Day #1, beginning at sundown Saturday, as you'll soon see in this Division. So He rises on Day #8, which is sundown the following Saturday. That last sundown, BEGINS the First Fruits day, since (again) Jewish time runs sundown to sundown.

We have to cover the Bible verses telling us the overall chronology of Passion Week, first. Then we'll go through a day-by-day, blow-by-blow review of that Week. You should test this Divisions's contents with Bible; particularly, since every Tom, Dick and Harry claim we can't know from Bible, this chronology. Or, they claim the Bible contradicts itself. What a crock, what slipshod homework on their part. Let's see why.

To fulfill the Mosaic Law, He must be Resurrected ON First Fruits. Remember that the first Passover happened due to KILLING the firstborn in Egypt. Hence the name of the redemption a week later, First Fruits. So the first Passover is the killing of the firstborn, and First Fruits is the Redemption/Harvest of the firstborn. So First Fruits depicts the Resurrection, in the Mosaic Law. And Resurrection, depicts Salvation Permanently Accomplished for All Time, fulfilling Gen3:15, the initial salvation promise to Adam and the woman. Else, the whole Bible is bogus. So God stresses First Fruits fulfillment, since HE is no fool about the need of Satan&Co. to mask God's Timing!

• Verses on Him being First Fruits and FirstBorn are many, so It's a Contract Fulfillment of that Law, for Him to Rise on the Commencment of First Fruits: Col 1:15, Heb12:22, Rom8:23, 11:16, 1Cor15:20-23, 2Thess 2:13 (NRS gets trans right), James 1:18, Rev14:4. Not all those verses restrict FirstFruits to reference Him, which is an 'audit proof': when you see how we are accounted, you understand better how HE is accounted. For example, you see that the first ones in both importance and time among believers in the Tribulation, are the 144,000 (Rev14:4); so if they are thus accounted, then of course the FirstBorn of all Creation is First in Importance and Time (first One Resurrected).

• Verses mentioned in the white rainbow'd box regarding our Relationship to the Firstborn are here repeated: Rom15:27, 1Cor9:13 (note the underlying premise), 1Cor10:17-18, Eph3:6, Phili1:7, Col 1:12; and above all, Heb2:14, 3:1, 14, 6:4, 12:8 (wider context), 1Pet4:13. All to achieve, Eph4:13!
• Frankly, in the NT any reference to "inherit", "First Born", "Son" (capitalized or not), as well as "fruit" and "first fruit" will all be allusive of this First Fruits application. Lots of other terms are used as well.

  The DAY on which First Fruits occurs, is thus important to know. Bible tells you He rose "on the first day of the week", so that MUST be the 24-hour period from Saturday at sundown ending before sundown Sunday (Matt28:1, Mar16:2, 9, Luk24:1, John 20:1, 20:19).

The NT never says He rises ON the third day, as we understand "on" in English: we'd begin the count with the day He died, but Bible doesn't, for in Jewish dating, the NIGHTS are first. Closest English translation would be "on the third day FOLLOWING His Crucifixion", aka "after three days" or "three days later". Sadly, the many "third day" verses don't in translation follow this convention, so there appears to be a contradiction which doesn't exist in the Greek. So if He's crucified on Wednesday day (and He is), you start the count with the nights, not the days. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday days He's in Hades, below the earth. He rises on First Fruits, which begins at SUNSET on Saturday, and is in Jewish time considered the first day of the new week.

So now we have a provable chronology for the entire week. Passover nominally begins on Saturday, ends on Saturday at sundown, and First Fruits begins at that sundown. So He dies on Wednesday BEFORE sundown. Reminder: Passover Week is the feast of Unleavened Bread; its First and Last Days are each High Sabbaths, no matter on what days they nominally fall, per the Law (Exo12, etc). Moreover, First Fruits commences at the sundown of the Last Unleavened Bread (High Sabbath) Day (Lev23:11, etc.), as we saw in detail in Division #1.

Recapping: here is a unique three-purpose, eight-night holiday which runs sunset-sunset; nothing else like it, in the Law. So is either flanked by or 'runs through', two regular sabbaths, depending on what day it begins.

• Day One, Passover, begins at sundown and ends the following sundown, and you do no work during that period.
• But Day Two you work. So you begin to gather the harvest to prepare for
• Day Eight (or Nine, if a regular Fri-Sat sabbath intervenes), you OFFER that harvest, which is First Fruits.
• But on Day Seven, the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, you do no work.

  Notice how if Unleavened Bread had begun on Friday night, it would end on a Friday at sundown, the period Thursday night-Friday sundown being the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, and hence itself a High sabbath; but next a regular sabbath piggybacks, so you can't offer First Fruits until the day AFTER that regular sabbath ends. So that year -- one out of seven -- NINE nights must elapse, with First Fruits then beginning on the ninth night, rather than the eighth. In all other years, there would be no interval between First Fruits and the ending of Unleavened Bread. So it's never possible that He dies on a Friday, even were Passion Week a Fri-Fri Passover. That's the only chronology which inserts an extra day, but it still isn't enough: Friday day, Saturday, Sunday day would be three, so He'd have to rise on Sunday NIGHT or Monday -- which Bible says didn't happen; but rather, He's resurrected very early, before dawn on Sunday morning, and appears to people (i.e., Matt28:1, Mark 16:2, Mark 16:9, Luke 24:1, John 20:1). LOL, when will we learn to count to three?

  It's a kind of negative proof that God is God of the Bible, for when we look at it, all our common sense goes right out the window. For centuries. We can't even count to three, whether we are degreed scholars studying Bible all our lives, or whether we are peasants. Yet when engaged in secular activities, even a kindergartener can count to three. See how Satan&Co. blind us all? So just Who is the Real God, huh?

• If Sun-Sun Passover week, that second Sunday night terminated Unleavened Bread, began First Fruits. There's a regular sabbath 'inside' the week, two days before it ends. That doesn't fit a first-day-of-week Resurrection, in Jewish time: First Fruits is about resurrection, and we just saw that He resurrected on the first day of the week.
• If Mon-Mon Passover week, that second Monday night terminated Unleavened Bread, began First Fruits. The regular sabbath is 'inside' the week, three days before it ends. That doesn't fit, either.
• If Tues-Tues Passover week, that second Tuesday night terminated Unleavened Bread, began First Fruits. The regular sabbath is inside, four days before it ends. That doesn't fit, obviously. Not only is Tuesday not the first day of the Jewish week, but it would make Him die on the sabbath itself, to fit the three-day rule. So Law would have been violated in both places.
• If Wed-Wed Passover week, that second Wednesday night terminated Unleavened Bread, began First Fruits. The regular sabbath is inside, five days before it ends. That doesn't fit, clearly.
• If Thurs-Thurs Passover week, that second Thursday night terminated Unleavened Bread, began First Fruits. The regular sabbath begins the NEXT night after Passover, and backs the ending of Passover. That doesn't fit.
• If Fri-Fri Passover week, the sabbaths coincide, one beginning the week, and one piggybacking at the end. That doesn't fit at all; that holiday week runs nine days, not eight.

  So much for the idea He died on Good Friday: it would be the most illegal day to pick! Thus you know conclusively that no one was reading his Bible for 18 centuries, and few read it today; thump it, kiss it, extol it, but know it? Not at all. Proves how little we care about Our Lord's Own Death On Our Behalf, sticking "Good Friday" on our calendars every year, never even caring to correct the date. We get upset if someone misses some other date, like our birthday, an anniversary, a death date of the dearly departed! Heck, we are so petty, we even get upset over cartoons or off-color remarks or remarks about color! What utterly-disgusting hypocrites we all are, no exceptions. Proves even the more, how Satan&Co. mess with us all, no exceptions. For we can't think out dates with such finesse; eyes all glaze over; so it becomes a test of how badly you want to know what's IN the Book, so the demon boys 'help' by making our eyes glaze over even more: and we all flunk that test. No exceptions. Oh, someone will piously exclaim, that's just a date problem. Yeah, the date of your salvation. So don't pretend you love Jesus if you won't learn about Him in His Book, k? [Yeah, and I used to be one of those making just that hypocritical a pious remark! If God didn't smack me upside the head with Daniel 9:25 while writing Part IVa I'd still not know, even though I was taught the right date for decades!]

• But if Sat-Sat Passover week, one regular sabbath flanks in front, and the other one is coterminous with that last Sat: so First Fruits would begin sundown of that last Sat. That DOES fit. Notice how punctiliar God is: this is the proper, first-designed week. Back in Genesis, God rested on the seventh day, which was defined as Friday night for the Jews, since the restoration of the earth began at night, and ended at night: Adam was created on a Friday DAY, so his very first night of life was a sabbath; same, for Israel: they leave Egypt on a Friday DAY, and their first night of freedom is the commencement of the sabbath. So in NIGHTS, the normal Jewish week runs Saturday-Saturday, the first Sat commencing, and the last Sat ending the week AT sundown. At, not before. At, not after.

  Audit check: Bible tells you He rose "on the first day of the week", so that must be the 24-hour period from Saturday at sundown ending before sundown Sunday (Matt28:1, Mar16:2, 9, Luk24:1, John 20:1, 20:19). Thus you know He died during a Sat-Sat Passover week. Can't be anything else. Since you also know Passover rules, you know that between His Arrest and His Crucifixion, passed the four days (3.5, technically) according to the Mosaic Law for the Lamb's set aside and slaughtering. To the hour, you know. For these are real events which are really orchestrated by God without gerrymandering the truth; and all this LOVE for us, is all patterned after the Exodus and the Passover: To Teach Us About That Lamb Who Loves Us So Much, He died for us, Rom5:8, John 3:16. Even to the point of Orchestrating time, and At The Very End Of Time.

  Double-Audit check: So if as the Bible says He rose just after the third day -- and we just saw a bizillion verses saying just that -- He has to rise on that last night of the week, which is the eighth night; so He has to have died on the fourth DAY of that week, to have three nights and three days in the grave.

  Only one set of bookended days meets both the dying on the fourth day AND rising at the beginning of the week: Sat-Sat Passover 'bookends'. Notice how you couldn't understand how conclusively Bible proves the days, if you didn't know the Passover and First Fruits rules. If you misdate First Fruits as occurring the day after (first day of) Passover as many scholars do, you'd think the Bible was in error, as its 'math' doesn't work. This is a typical 'contradiction' people find -- and they are the ones in error, as usual. If I had a million dollars, I'd give it to anyone who could find a genuine contradiction in Bible. Ain't none. Just poor students hallucinating they found one.

  A group of 'scholars' claimed that John's Gospel paints the Passover occurring in some other week, versus the other "Synoptics". Balderdash. You'll see that, later on when we go through the "Preparation" verses. Right now, we're just introducing some sleuthing techniques to show how easy it is to prove when the Passover week occurred, how clearly the Bible tells us. So we have no excuse for not knowing: instead, we have egg on our faces for not knowing the OT dating rules for Passover through Pentecost. So we'll misdate or doubt the Passover, and call the Bible wrong. Guess again!

  Bible is truly infallible. Best evidence of God you could want, and then some: but forget translations. They are full of contradictions: but when you find those contradictions, then you find reason to dig more into the original-language texts: and then you see the Face of God.

Bigger Refreshment Pause: God isn't being bureaucratic. Rather, He's showing you His Love's Occupation With Even The Smallest Of People Or Things. Even for YOU. Preparing You for life with Him -- forever. So you who are small compared to God, needn't ever feel intimidated. So you who are small compared to God, can realize there's a whole lot of detail you don't know. But God does. So you who experience frustration, heartache, the bizillion disappointments of being human down here on this dirtball -- can know that He Who Is Big, is orchestrating it all to benefit you, Ps46:10, Rom8:28ff. Because, you are not small to Him, John 3:16, 2Cor5:21 (precedented in Gen15:6). Like Paul says at the end of Romans 8 -- and Paul was the foremost expert on the Mosaic Law, along with James -- "Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all-- how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us All Things?" All Things=Christ, one of His Titles (Ta Panta, everything in Him).

"Preparation" is a theme in Bible. It signifies PREGNANCY AND BIRTH. Hence the resultant need to prepare. It first denotes the Holy Spirit's preparing the earth for man's habitation, Gen1:2ff. It next denotes Adam's first day on earth, which was the sixth day of Earth's restoration; it also connotes the First Day Israel went out from Egypt. Birthing. Remember, the "day" begins The Sundown Before and ends at sundown. We are down here PREPARING to be spiritually mature for Heaven. Prepare For Heaven, while it is yet "today" (see that "today" analogy in Hebrews 4). Salvation takes a nanosecond, John 3:16. Getting your soul ready for heaven takes the Word growing in you throughout your lifetime. Moses kept on telling the people in Deuteronomy to have the Word running in their heads when they get up, when they go to sleep (hence at all times). That's what the tfellin and tassels were for: reminders to be 'clothed', 'bound' by the Word in them. That's why the Bible is so hard for us to read: people knew the Word so well (whether they believed in it or not), it became a kind of cultural code everyone lived by. That's what went wrong, too: it stopped being about God, and became a humanistic code of conduct -- with God's Name Slapped On. Same problem pervades Judaism today. Much of what passes for Christianity is no different. Makes you want to tear your clothes and smear your face with ashes.

Next, let's note the general cultural character of Passover week, with stress on its Preparation meaning. Think of income tax time, for that's what First Fruits is. [Wouldn't surprise me if that's why American income tax time is in April.] Think of the Christmas rush in modern American society. Think of traffic. Think of a million things going wrong, and every day is a deadline at sundown, by which time you and your house must be scrupulously clean; and dinner, ready. Think of what it takes for an agricultural economy to come to a screeching halt for a week, and yet at the same time somehow begin the arduous accounting of the upcoming harvest so that you can give your 10% (flat, national) income tax to the Temple, by the day following the end of that week. Passover Week is all these things, rolled up into one eight-day period, that Week. Moreover, worship activity for these two High Sabbaths is not the same as for regular sabbaths which begin and end that week: high-sabbath worship and sacrifices are different, much more elaborate. It takes time to slaughter, skin, flay/dress an animal. Takes time to drag it to the Temple, so it can be properly slaughtered. You can't keep Passover leftovers, but must throw them out or give them away. So every day involved fresh food procurement and cooking. [Nerd Note: John 19:31 does not say how many days intervened between the sabbath and the day the priests asked for the legs to be broken. As you read on below and see what kind of activities are involved, and what "Preparation" is, you'll see why there were in fact two days between the Crucifixion and the sabbath John mentions. The sabbath is the third day, and at its own sundown Sat night (which ends it), First Fruits begins and Christ Resurrects.]

For the feasts determined everything in Jewish life, especially when they were "on", and above all, at that time of the year. Worst of all: you couldn't be slapdash in your application of the Mosaic Law; and in fact the rabbis at the time were insufferably anal, fretting over whether you used an olive's bulk, for crying out loud. Turns out, much of the Mishnah records the rabbis who lived during the first century, so you can see thinking at that time. So read the Mishnah as if it were a novel, just to get the feel of the halakick perversion of the Law back then: true oppression, exact antithesis of the Bible. [Hebrew "halak" means to walk-according-to-the-Law-of-Moses, which is why the NT uses the term "walk" to describe the superceding law in Christ. Back when He was down here, the perversion of the law kicked everyone around. So, "halakick" is a kind of pun. What's worst, is that the purpose of the Sabbath was rest and study of Word. With all the pil-pul, you had no time to study Word, you were too busy trying not to work, Trying to work at remembering all the rules they invented so you could say you were not working! Totally, utterly, graceless. And still is. This is why so many Jews leave Judaism. Who can blame them? Mishnah is a very witty book; but following it as if you were complying somehow with God, is sheer death; its interpretations have nothing to do with the Bible, but rather with insane figleafing egos. Sorry. Book speaks for itself, read it yourself, see for yourself.]

Like most ancient cultures' calendars, the Jewish calendar is bifurcated in purpose, and runs on two tracks. The so-called "sacred" track (term is not in Bible, but in theology) runs from Passover to Purim, so starts on 1 Nisan, roughly analogous to March 21 (or whatever is the vernal equinox), if intercalated properly. The so-called "civil" track (again, term is only in theology) runs akin to a mid-September fiscal year. ('Starts with Rosh HaShanah, lit. "new year", a fiscal which goes all the way back to Adam's fall: hence intercalation was supposed to occur at the end of Elul; better still, Elul should always have been 35-36 days. Math proof of the 'fit': Intercal.xls; it fixes 'our' calendar to align with Bible for 2015-2016.)

This bifurcation suited their agricultural economy. See, agriculturally, there are two main harvest periods: the "late" harvest, which was mostly of certain grains, like wheat (wheat was the king of grains, very expensive, in the ancient world). It ended sometime in May, which is why First Fruits begins (usually) by the end of April. The first crops are just coming in then, and the rest of the month is spent Gathering. The other main holiday season in the Law also corresponds to the "early" harvest, which is when many fruits and vegetables, and other grains mature (in autumn).

So, think: the prior "early" harvest is what you're living on, while you wait for the "late" harvest to be dedicated. During Passover week, you're not yet allowed to eat anything from the current harvest, until its first fruits are Dedicated To God. It's a way of showing Faith That God Will Provide, of saying HE is First in your life. Before self, things, people. First Commandment. [Things Jewish are often confusing, because we Westerners, at least, use the opposite terms to signify the same things. We'd call a spring harvest an early harvest, because our year begins in January, so since one of their years begins in April, why is it a "late" harvest? Well, think: Upper Egypt is really lower, and Lower Egypt is really upper, and handwriting was originally done right to left (not just in Hebrew, but also Chinese and other ancient languages), versus today. In short, today's commerce and cultural norms are often expressed in the opposite manner to what they had been, for millenia.]

They didn't have microwaves back then; everything had to be ground or otherwise prepared from scratch. Moreover, they are living on last year's produce, since until the FirstFruits offering following the last sabbath of the Holiday, you can't eat the produce of the current harvest (depicts First Commandment, God-FIRST, Lev23:14). So food is scarce, expensive, hoarded, and hard-to-find -- if you didn't plan ahead. Worse, you have to go to Jerusalem, so Jerusalem is crowded. You know how hard it is to shop during the week before Christmas in the US. Well, multiply that a bizillion times.

So "Preparation" is not a slapdash thing. Secularly, your body is busy preparing for, on, and during these holidays. Especially for Passover, it could take all day to buy, clean/purify, and make even unleavened bread, let alone all the other stuff (takes a good three hours to shave, kill, skin, dress, and roast even a small lamb). Moreover, you weren't allowed to have leftovers. Whatever you didn't eat that night, you had to give or throw out. (Preparing for heaven means you're leaving behind what's on earth, see.)

So Passover means Dependence and Scurrying. And also, a Specific Place. For you had to go to Jerusalem, if you really wanted to celebrate the Passover according to the Law (there were allowed exceptions, but most people wanted to go there, sick or well). So with all the traffic at Passover, prices would be higher and supplies, scarce. On top of all this you had to clean your house of leaven (not like modern Judaic practice, but still arduous) before Passover evening began; you had to ready for guests. It was a big deal. So if you got caught short of time when sabbaths were back-to-back or intervening, whoa -- you couldn't work or buy anything ON a sabbath. So you prepared well, or perished, but you could never prepare far in advance. They didn't have refrigerators back then, either. By the way: you're allowed to cook meals post-sundown on a sabbath (i.e., Exo12:16). Bible is explicit about that being exempt from prohibition. However, since those eating had to eat at sundown, you got done BY then. During the sabbath you could cook the remaining meals. [In practice this meant you learned how to make a good oven. The proscription against LIGHTING fires in Exodus 35:3 didn't say none could be burning after the sabbath began. But you couldn't stoke the fire during the sabbath. There's lots of stuff in the Mishnah where the rabbis get anal over the oven and how to treat it, in light of this rule. So they make work out of no work. Basic idea was, you got the oven ready and then depended on God to keep it going. So you rested in Him. If He didn't keep it going, you just made do with what you had. But since when did God ever not keep a promise? So count on it, most of the time that oven stayed hot enough so you could cook in it. If it went out, you needed that for testing your faith, and God provided in a different way. We all need failure to see whether it's God or His Goodies, that we love.]

So: every day before a sabbath, special or regular, is called a "Preparation". Bible's wry usage of this special term, which again is really based on the THREE days ending at Passover, ties all the dating of Passover together for you. Bible translations usually stick in the words "day of" in front of "Preparation", but in the God-breathed texts, sometimes "day" isn't used. "Preparation" is used technically; and it's only in the following six verses: Matt. 27:62; Mk. 15:42; Lk. 23:54; Jn19:14, 31, 42. On a shallow level, it's a technical word for the preparation needed for the holiday meal at sundown. If that meal is a regular sabbath, "Preparation" is about that. But during Passover Week, there are multiple sabbaths (usually three). Moreover, every day during Passover week is a preparation of a festal meal, since the entire week is the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. So because folks don't remember all that, they misdate the events of Passion Week. Most importantly, since the translations are messed up, you can't completely date Passion Week correctly from a translated Bible. You can know what day He was crucified and you can know on what day He rose. But without the original-language texts, you can't tell GOD isn't following that shallow meaning of simply preparing for a meal; but instead, He plays ON that meaning to stress His Meaning: His Son. So let's look at what the God-Breathed, original-language texts of Bible preserved BY God, have to say.

So here we need to take a sidetrip into some language-geek stuff to better understand, Preparation. Bible is first and foremost a set of LEGAL CONTRACT DOCUMENTS. So you must use it precisely. This is utterly impossible to do apart from the Holy Spirit ennabling you: hence the need to keep on breathing (for us) 1Jn1:9, and be under your own right pastor. Ok: legally, the equivalent Hebrew or Greek phrase for the English "Day of Preparation", is used nowhere else in the Bible but those six verses -- and the only verse using the term like that, is Luke 23:54. As we saw earlier, the Doctrine of Preparation abounds in Bible, since your whole life is a kind of preparation for heaven. And the initial "preparation" meaning as a holiday, is a three-day period preceding 14 Nisan (10-14), not just one day. So "preparation" is rather broader than a mere day before a sundown feast begins: Gen1:2, when the Holy Spirit prepared and restored the trashed-up earth for man's habitation. Lots of later Bible verses point back to Gen1:2, to Remind Everyone to Get Restored by Him. It's a neat shorthand way of both giving the Gospel (hi, you're trashed up and only God can fix you, forget about other gods or works); and, for explaining the post-salvation life (Torah in you restores your trashed-up soul). [See "Creationism" entry in VERindex.htm for a listing of Bible verses which will help you prove Gen1:2ff is not the initial creation of the universe or the earth, but rather a restoration after some unspecified "gap" in time between initial creation and restoration. There are many so-called "gap" theories on the internet, and many books about them too: most I've seen are goofy, trying to guess at how long that "gap" is. God doesn't say how long, so it's not relevant. God never paints Adam or Cain as anything but civilized and sophisticated people (read Gen2-4, see for yourself); their ability to use language is sheer genius (which you can't see in translation, of course). So all that caveman junk is either a decline, or is just fancy.]

There is no technical term for Preparation in the OT, whether in Hebrew or Greek LXX. Extra-Biblically, the rabbis invented terms; currently, Erev Shabbat. Literally translated "sabbath eve", it doesn't only refer to the day on which the sabbath will begin (usu. Friday). It refers to the entire preparation needed, so you will be ready in body and soul by the time sun goes down to commence the sabbath. So the first thing you know, is that even rabbis regard the term to denote a whatever-is-necessary time of preparation in advance of a sacred or festival day. Of which, there were many. Not only that, but there's this running rabbinical aphorism that the sabbath is a "queen", so the entire WEEK belongs to 'her': but to which 'her', the sabbath preceding, or the one coming? The rabbis divided the last three days preceding sabbath as belonging to 'her' who is 'coming'; the previous three days belonged to 'her' who had 'gone' (so assigned certain makeup tasks you could do if you didn't say the right blessings, light enough candles, etc). Thus you see their underlying principle: "preparation" is used in a technical sense for The Day Or Longer Which PRECEDES The Sacred/Festival Day. But when the whole week has nights that are all festal meals, then: does that mean every use of "Preparation" as a technical term means EVERY day before sundown of that week? Or only the 24-hour period before the sundown commencing a sabbath or HIGH sabbath?

There is a technical term for Preparation in the NT, and it is only used in the Gospel verses bulleted below, to signify CHRIST, the True Passover, being Executed On What Was True 14 Nisan. Very witty, pointed tweaking by the Gospel writers. NT Greek word for "Preparation" is "paraskeué", and in the following verses, it's usually anarthrous (=no fronting article) to stress Divinity; so this term is not the rabbinical definition, and the anarthrous construction alerts you to that fact. NT writers make liberal use of insertion or deletion of the definite article to distinguish between God's Action and man's puny reaction. James uses it throughout his letter to explain how God's works, not man's, are valid. Of course, you can't show this in translation, so the reverse of what James says, translated English Bibles seemingly read. Norm is to front a noun with a (nee: definite) article, to show its common man-made meaning. Occasionally, as in 2Cor13:14, and Matt27:62, they use it in the monadic sense: well-known, one-of-a-kind, unique, independent. Its removal always means God's work, and in fact most "work" verses are anarthrous; but its inclusion monadically can stress Divinity too.

It's really embarrassing that scholars and pastors don't care enough to research the meaning of Passover in the Bible. Had they done so, the term "Good Friday" would never have been invented. For these paraskeué verses make it all too plain He wasn't executed on a Friday, but the calendar was off; so on what should have been a HIGH Passover Sabbath, began that Wednesday at sundown. The paraskeué verses all tell you this with sarcasm, irony, and true Divine Wit: it's like a blimp flying in the sky, k? Pity we don't care about the Word, especially in the last 150 years when even the common guy -- many of whom were trained in Greek, it was part of your grammar-school curriculum -- could get it in the original languages. Ok, the 90 seconds of head-hanging shame are up. Let's get cracking.

Noun paraskeué derives from skeuos, a vessel or object or person used in a service, especially a sacred service; also used for one's sexual partner. Root is sku, referring to skin covering; Hebrew keli is often used for skeuos, which is really interesting, for keli's root verb is kala, idea of filling up, fulfilling, bringing something to completion. BibleWorks reports some 250 verses using skeuos pan-Bible (including the non-Bible apochryphal books). In the OT and NT, the term is used for valuable gifts in their containers; also for Tabernacle items, both common and sacred. So Our Skeuos is Christ. So the term is used for us, too ( i.e., Acts 9:15, for Paul, but generically for unbelievers or believers in Rom 9:21-22, 2Cor4:7, 1Thess4:4, etc). In short, the usage of Greek noun paraskeué is not the rabbinical meaning, but rather is a play on it. The word tweaks (begs the question of) what's the proper definition of holy preparation/service.

So here in the Gospels, paraskeué is Divinely stressed and specific about HIM as the Real Passover -- and the term simultaneously tweaks the Sanhedrin that week, in every verse it appears. For the Jewish calendar is off by four days -- you know that, because He can't BE the Passover Lamb and EAT the Passover lamb had the calendar been right -- and the Sanhedrin were in charge of the calendar, as indeed their deeds fueled the pattern of the whole week. So what should be Preparation for sabbath, what should be Preparation or sabbath -- is wrong. But God makes sure the right days and dates, are obeyed. For this is the Preparation of Our Salvation. So that is how paraskeué is used, and why it is only used in these verses. Well, maybe read Luke 22 first, and note how often he uses "preparation" -- which there is Greek verb etiomazw, not a verb cognate of paraskeué. Luke loves sotto voce irony. [So to not use paraskeué (ending with an eta) in a construction of verbal preparation tells the reader that the Passover week timing is off. Verb etoimazw is the typical preparation verb, not a specialized verb. So yes, they are preparing the Passover in Luke 22, but no, it's not the right date. Thus you see the irony in Luke's choice of words. Same, for the other Gospel recounts of that week. Bible scholars recognize this anomaly, and you should be able to find a lot of commentaries on the internet speculating about why. I don't understand why they aren't alerted to the anarthrous usage of paraskeué, which would leave them in no doubt about what these passages mean. But until -- as long trained by my own pastor -- I asked God about it with 1Jn1:9 breathed as needed, I didn't understand or notice, either. So all those scholars and pastors who work so hard, all admirable men -- they can't read Bible absent 1Jn1:9. No one can. It's Divine, so requires the Holy Spirit's power, to comprehend.]

Bible thus tweakingly paints two pictures of this week: how the legalists among the Sanhedrin, were busy violating the calendar, hence both the Preparation and the High Sabbaths by their own standards; yet God still kept the right time; versus, those believing in His Son, who prepared for Him by believing IN Him; hence were given to prepare Him at His Death; and then rested on the High Sabbaths due to His Deliverance. For you must be clean, to prepare the Passover: Lev7:19 demonstrates that principle.

Verses below are pasted in from BibleWorks translations which are the closest to the Greek. All the translations are somewhat 'off' in strategic places. I made only minor corrections, i.e., "Preparation" is a technical term in Greek for the period before the festal meal begins, so needs to be capitalized. Bracketed words are corrected translations. Bible translations overtruncate meaning: you're commanded to truncate in seminary, even though you are also taught that truncation is wrong. See Mounce's Appendices on the prepositions in his Basics of Biblical Greek, for a sample of such commands. I bought that book at a seminary, but it's a standard text bundled in BibleWorks 7.

• "NAU Matthew 27:62 Now on the next day, [the one which is] after the Preparation [=CHRIST], the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together [face-to-face] with Pilate,"

  Here, "gathered" is Greek verb "sunagw". That's what you are supposed to do on the sabbath, go to shul (synagogue). Luke uses the term also in Luke 22:66 for the first time they arrested Him, so Luke is tweaking their activity that first time; but Matthew doesn't use that term in Matt27:2, but instead uses apagw -- clever, since "a" is an alpha-privative negative, and "apo" has the connotation of "out from the source of". So here in Matt27:62, he's no longer coy: full-fledged sunagw is used. Greek preposition "pros" is also used; it etymologically means "face-to-face-with", as my pastor stresses every time he exegetes that preposition in 2Cor5:8. Matt27:62 uses the article in front of paraskeué -- so to Sanhedrin, paraskeué is a common thing, despised. Which their behavior in that verse makes obvious. So clearly they don't value the Passover either. They especially do not value, the True Passover that day really was: which Day they should have known, since they were in charge of the calendar.

  So note the wry meaning: they are assembling with Pilate, instead of inside the synagogue where they belong that day. Very pointed note on again violating the Sabbath; like the (Matt27:2) nominal day of Passover back when they arrested Him, spending that sacred time on three illegal trials, then taking Him en masse to Pilate, ap-agw, out from the source of themselves -- but not a "valid" quorum or meeting under the Law. The dawn meeting of the whole Sanhedrin was a rubber-stamping affair, to validate the illegal first two trials under Annas and Caiaphas taking place during that Passover evening. So Matthew is reminding the reader of all that, by his wry wording in this verse.

  But hypostatically, the monadic use of the article in Matt27:62 says "Preparation"=HIS Preparation, the Unique God-Man as the Lamb of God; so corrects the calendar for what should have been the proper 14 Nisan. By the time you finish evaluating these Preparation verses, you'll see they all adopt this correcting-the-dates convention; such satirical begging-the-question deftness is a common characteristic of the OT and NT; over the centuries, we just didn't seem to notice it being used here. So notice the wit: their going the next day to Pilate, is a violation of the correct dating of Passover. But the calendar was off four days. So it wasn't technically a 1st-day-Passover-sabbath, via the not-yet-corrected calendar. So Matthew doesn't call it a "sabbath", but uses circumlocution: because it's not a sabbath, on the not-yet-corrected calendar.

  This is the day after He died, that they go to Pilate. They are in a panic state, because they realized that the day before was the True Passover, and per all the prophecy in the Holiday about Messiah paying for sins ON the True Passover, this Christ has just been executed, fulfilling it. That panic began the day before, when they asked Pilate to break His Legs (John 19:31, covered below). See, they knew the prophecy: that was their job. So they tried to get Him executed OFF the timeline, so they could say He wasn't Messiah. That ploy didn't work, so they tried to get His Legs broken using a ruse about the sabbath (covered below under John 19:31). That didn't work either, because He was already dead. So now they've got to concern themselves with the next prophecy in line, His Resurrection on FirstFruits (Ps 16:10, 49:9, 1Pet 3:19, 4:6, Isa42:7, 49:9, 61:1, and all "third day" rise-again verses in the Gospels like the analogy to Jonah, i.e., Matt 12:40). So that's why they ask for the posting of the guard over His Tomb, here in Matt27:62 (really v.63).

  Ahhh. So you also know He didn't die on Good Friday, and yet did: since Preparation day for Passover is on whatever day, 14 Nisan truly falls. So we'd call "Friday" a generic moniker for Preparation (which among Christians it widely became later in that first century per Bauer, Danker in BibleWorks). Whew. So now you can call it Good 'Friday' with single quotes, and don't have to retrain your brain or rail against the Catholic Church. For that Passover Week, 'Friday' was Wednesday. Friday purpose, but ON a Wednesday. Whew.

• "NIV Mark 15:42-43 It was Preparation [of CHRIST, no "day" in the Greek] (that is, the day before the [what should have been the Passover]) Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body."

  It's already after 3pm: Greek word opsias means declension period of the sun down to its actual sinking; that's when Joseph of Arimethea goes to Pilate, so NOT past sundown. For Joseph knew the calendar was off, and he wants to obey the true Passover meaning, because He was Prepared, get the pun? Ok: it's going to take time to go back to Golgatha and then to transport Him and then to wrap His Body in those grave strips, so you're looking at a very long time for burying. Moreover, under the Law they themselves become unclean for the next seven days, simply because they touch a corpse, Num19:11. That's why you'll see in the next bullet, that the women do not touch the Body, but just watch.

  Note the coordination among the believers, too. Not only were the Sanhedrin coordinated, but those who believed in Him were also. Nicodemus and Joseph were in the Sanhedrin. So they knew the prophecy well. So they would know He'd have to die on 14 Nisan, that the Crucifixion for Him, would not last long. Whether they were there standing at the Cross or not -- and it looks like not -- they would have a lot of preparation to do for His Death. So they are coordinating the burial: Joseph's tomb will be used, and Nicodemus is out buying the burial ointment stuff (John 19:39). Some of the other believers are at Golgotha, so they can take down His Body; they must have had a runner go to Joseph to inform him. Joseph then takes on the role of going to Pilate, who is inside the city at a crowded distance away from Golgotha, which is outside on the northwest of the city walls. Pilate's seat is on the inside, in the south eastern (affluent) section of Jerusalem; or, maybe he was in the Antonia barracks, a lot closer to the western exit toward Golgotha. Point is, they knew what was supposed to happen and when, so during the six hours He hung on the Cross, they were busy PREPARING. They couldn't have finished in time, else.

  Again, the tweaking use of paraskeué. For it is used anarthrously. So means the True Day of Preparation for the True Lamb of God, here depicted as being 'prepared' before sundown: for it's the True Passover -- were the calendar corrected -- beginning AT sundown. So it would be a True First (High) Sabbath, True First Day of Passover Week, had the calendar been corrected. So what they are doing is the True Preparation under the Law God wrote. God wrote, not the Sanhedrin. After all God invented the calendar, in Genesis 1. Next bullet further explains what then happened...

• "NIV Luke 23:54-56 [In fact, it] was the Preparation [of CHRIST] Day, and [what would have been] the [true Passover] Sabbath was [dawning] [:] 55 [t]he women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment."

  Important: hemera (Day) and sabbaton (sabbath) are anarthrous; but Preparation has a fronting article "the" -- it's monadic. Which you know, because if it were the common use of the article, both hemera and sabbaton would have fronting articles, too. Thus "the Preparation" is unique (=monadic), nothing else like it. But in v.56, "sabbath" has the definite article, used as a preposition, "on the". But the phrase is "to mèn sabbaton", in v.56. Greek "men" is used out of place, after the "de" in v.56. For Luke to use "mèn" like this gives you both meanings of that particle: distinguishing stress, and tweak on what was the True Passover sabbath, versus the calendar.

  This passage tells you Nicodemus and Joseph got done burying Him before sundown. The word "day" is a red flag: it's anarthrous. So it is UNLIKE any other day. Moreover, in v.54 its ending phrase "kai sabbaton epéphwsken" means The Divinely-Appointed-High-Passover sabbath was DAWNING (hence the brackets, correcting the translation). Greek verb epiphwskw means to dawn, to grow light. Luke uses deliberate irony, for of course the sun was actually going down. Takes time to transport the body, clean the tomb, then clean the body; then, wrap each appendage and the trunk of That Body in grave strips (see Greek of John 20:6), probably crying the whole time; then, to wrap the whole body entire, in a sheet. And as they go home that sundown, they still need to prepare the spice-oils (v.55). After all, they were intending to embalm a King: Greek word aromata is a specialized term for embalming mixture. They didn't then remember David's prophecy that this King would see no decay (Ps16:10, 49:9).

  So here Luke reminds the audience what the Correct Calendar Was, v.56 stresses how they obeyed the TRUE Sabbath for Passover, as well as the nominal one, by placing "to mèn sabbaton" out of order in v.56. Luke reorders things a lot (viz., he lists the 3 Temptations out of order) to make a point about how He's born on Chanukah (running thread in Luke is Temple=Messiah=Qorban aka Dedication). In Greek, the most important stuff is listed at the very beginning, or the very ending of a sentence. Stuff on which beginnings and endings depend, is usually put in the middle in some dramatic way i.e., prepositions are dropped, normal word order of the clause is reversed -- same thing happens in Hebrew OT. Here, His being laid in the tomb is in the middle: middle of the week, get it?

  So notice how deft: these three sentences form a single whole which begins and ends with "sabbath". First, the True Passover Sabbath which begins the holiday, is the day of His Crucifixion, true 14 Nisan; then, Luke ends with the last regular sabbath which is also a high sabbath because it's the last nominal day of Passover Week (see also John 19:31, below). So Luke's clever, dual, finessing use of "mèn" in Greek tells you that a) the day He died was the True Passover, and b) they observed that, too. [Why "mèn" isn't translated here in English Bibles to show that wordplay, baffles me: it sticks out that men is used out of order. Normal order is men.de, not de.men. Shoulda been a red flag to a translator. They know these reversals occur in Greek. Yet I couldn't find any BibleWorks lexicon which noticed this odd reversal of men and de, though the lexicons (Thayer, BDAG) say reversals exist; they don't list Luke 23:56 as one of them. Can't call this use of mèn a "men solarium", either, since the de is preceding, in the same sentence. Of course, I have great Bible software to search with; but the lexicographers had dim candlelight or early lightbulbs, worse glasses; how did they ever read the vowel points and accents? They were constantly beset with tons of political wrangling surrounding their work. Sure, they had prodigious memories. Still, how they could do all that hard work without the technology, well it was a miracle!]

  So Luke's deftly dramatic Greek usage of the main verbs (plus de, kai and men) likewise divides the days for you: one main verb and transitional particle per day, so you know that the sabbath occurred two days AFTER the day He died. It's an especially nice touch to use "to men sabbaton" in v.56, to distinguish when the regular and Last High sabbath occurred. For even with the Jewish calendar being off four days, that still WAS the Last Day of Unleavened Bread by the calendar, but also a real regular sabbath. Just had the wrong date affixed to it, since the calendar wasn't yet corrected.

  So they began preparing the spices at least until sundown the day He died, assuming they had time. Verse 56's usage of "de" first (reversal of men.de construction) in its normal Greek usage, strongly implies that they kept at it all night long, but didn't violate the sabbath thereby -- since, duh, it wasn't officially a high or regular sabbath in the middle of that week, else the Crucifixion couldn't even have happened. In that normal usage (for "de" is always an exceptional clause to whatever is the norm expressed by the "men" clause), thus Luke tweaks the legalism of the Law: the women are PREPARING FOR HIM, which is the true meaning and intent of the sabbath, in the first place. When you read Exodus, you realize that the intent of the sabbath was to stop secular work and only focus on (what was then) Torah. You think out what Word you've learned all week. It's a special day to just focus on Word. That's why Jews even today congregate in synagogue, why Christians set aside Sunday (precedented on the Resurrection) for going to church. But we all forget to focus on the Word. Like the Jews, we treat our congregating as a social thing, full of nice talk and no learning. Pity. These women weren't doing that; they were preparing ointments and thinking of Him the whole time. Again, that's what the normal Greek usage of a men.de clause (here reversed) would signify.

  But maybe they stopped at sundown. If so, they resumed the following night, which would have been Thursday. Notice how kind: because the calendar is off four days, Nicodemus and Joseph can eat that Wednesday night, but who knows if they chose to do so. One wouldn't have much appetite. For you can't eat the Passover itself, if you touched a corpse (see Numbers 19). So you can imagine they didn't eat it but waited a month, by which point He'd be with them again, to eat it with them (ibid). Alternatively, maybe they did eat it, since the meaning of Passover changed with the Last Supper: the Lord didn't put any restrictions on eating it in Luke 22, but instead made it an unconditional REMEMBRANCE mandate, v.19. (See also 1Cor11:23ff.) [Remembrance, not cannibalism. There is no such thing as trans-substantiation, the lying insult to God, making him do pet tricks and magic! Oh! That's what the pagans thought, that blood and flesh magically converted! That's why people practice(d) cannibalism, in the first place, because they believe in a kind of trans-substantiation! Oh, how we don't care at all about what the Bible says!]

  English can't show all this deft confluence; the NIV tries to show it by dividing the text into sentences: Greek text has no punctuation, but uses syntax to divide the time. Logically, that timing fits: takes a while to pestle down nearly 75 whopping pounds of spices or plantstuffs (John 19:39); gotta drain, strain, and steep them in oil, and then strain them again, the essence permeating the oil. Takes a good 10 minutes to strip and pestle down garlic with today's tools: how much longer, to strip and then beat down aloe vera; to handle that sticky, gummy myrrh tree resin? Gotta take one or two days to do the work, and you probably must stay up all night, to make sure it's done on time. Who could sleep, anyway. Plus they had other tasks, since they probably congregated with the other believers, especially to help out Joseph and Nicodemus (again, Jn19:39), who were allowed to eat the meals, but were prohibited from helping with preparation (Num19:11, again). But the oil would have to come first, to be ready in time. And the oil (or ointment) could be steeping all the sabbath long. After sundown on the sabbath, it could be strained the final time. Or, left to steep overnight, and strained just before they left.

  But the sabbath of their SALVATION sure dawned on the Preparation. Brilliant combining, in v.54. For it's simultaneously Preparation, yet the Sabbath is dawning, due to the differential between the official calendar and the true date. Wordplay: for paraskeué, is again used anarthrously. For "sabbath" first means PROMISE: literally "seven", the promise of rest, of deliverance, Gen3:15 fulfilled. First night out of Egypt. First night of Adam. Their Passover had been sacrificed on the Cross, by the Law's terms, by the sundown before. So you know yet again, that the Jewish calendar is off -- but God's calendar is always perfect. For He really is dying on 14 Nisan, before sundown, so it really is the first day of the Passover had the calendar been right, so it really is a sabbath dawning -- but they really are not violating the Law, since the Law goes by the official calendar -- which is four days off.

• "DBY John 19:14 (now it was Preparation of the Passover [lit., "the Passover Lamb" =Christ]; it was about the sixth hour;) and he [Pilate] says to the Jews, 'Behold your king!'" Phrase translated here "Passover" by Darby, is really "tou páscha" -- but if you search on that term elsewhere, you'll find it's also shorthand for the Passover LAMB. Of course there's only One Lamb, monadic. So again, wordplay: the Lamb is being prepared for public slaughter on behalf of the people; so He has a herald to announce His Imminent Slaying; that herald speaks the Truth about Him; and that herald is not a Jew. And He is standing in an unclean place; but the people He will feed, are outside and safe. This is also a pointed reference to the fact that the Jewish calendar is off four days; but even more, to the irony of how the Jews prepare Him for the sacrifice the Law demands -- yet are cut off from the priestly honors of presentation -- which are instead accorded to Pilate. Think of how the sacrificing of the lambs at Passover had to be in the Temple and attended, to get the parallel John paints, here. True Preparation is the day of the Lamb's sacrifice. And the Real Lamb is about to be sacrificed, here at 6am (Roman time is used by John).
  BibleWorks Dictionaries on the Crucifixion alike noted that flogging was done partly to make the victims die sooner, the idea being a perverse way of making crucifixion easier: maybe you will pass out, and die unconscious. No mere 39 lashes, which was the Temple custom; the Roman stone-and-bone lash was employed as brutally as possible. Moreover Satan&Co. want the flogging to be vicious so they can KILL Him before He even gets to the Cross; or at best, prevent Him from being able to think while ON it, since it's His Thinking which will pay for sins (Isa53:10-11, both BHS and LXX texts combined). Hence the verse in Isa52:14, Even as they, appalled up-at You; even so He was seen brutalized/disfigured beyond human resemblance: His Body, by those very sons of men! Verse in Hebrew operates on a bizillion levels at once, stressing His God-man nature (cleverly, using both me ish and me bene adam). Can't really ever translate all its layers of meaning in any other language. Very graphic, brutal verse.

  Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion" is very helpful, portraying this verse and that day's incredible brutality. It deserves a prequel, which shows the entire Passion Week the way Bible -- not the RCC or any denomination, which can't even count to three -- describes it. [Why we non-Catholics allow the Crufixion to be not only misdated but lyingly called "Good Friday" I'll never understand. So not only the RCC is unable to count to three!]

• "KJV John 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was [no "the"] Preparation [=Christ, on True Passover had the calendar been right], that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day [would be] an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." Where do you start explaining all the machination in this phenomenal verse? Well, it's anarthrous: so "Preparation" means Christ Himself, so again tweaking the calendar. Everyone would know what the true date should be. Yet much much more disclosure than even that irony, is given in this verse.
  • Law requires that the Passover Lamb have NO broken bones: else its sacrifice is invalidated, and you cannot eat that lamb, Exo12:46, Num9:12. This rule is tied to Messiah in Ps34:20. So they must GET His legs broken. He was already dead, Jn19:33, so His legs still weren't broken. But the Sanhedrin didn't know that.
  • And you know their intent because He dies on the 1470th anniversary of the Original Passover, had the calendar been corrected. That anniversary completed the allotment of time granted in Daniel 9:25. People commonly knew Bible back then, since it was their cultural PRIDE to know it; everything in the Law impacted even the smallest of daily tasks, so it was societally REQUIRED to know it. So every Jew would know that year was the 1470th anniversary of the Exodus, since Passover IS an anniversary of the Exodus, for crying out loud. We know our nation's birthdate every July 4th! Moreover, everyone had been playing with the Messiah verses for the better part of 33 years, and especially during the last 3; the Sanhedrin were trying to trap Him in Torah. So think: you were supposed to use Dan9:25 as one of the tests for Messiah. And here He is, right on Time, on a Cross? Which the Sanhedrin had manipulated?
    Wouldn't be too hard to see the Divine Approval of this King of the Jews, just as God promised in over 900 prophecies about Him. In particular, the confluence of prophetical verses like Ps22:15-17 and Zech 12:10 would begin to resonate, as people talked of the events. So: if the Sanhedrin left Him on the Cross over the next three days, too many people would realize He WAS the Messiah. So they had to do 'something' to credibly deny that recognition. Or they would all be murdered by the suddenly-griefstricken crowd. Jews (and their Arab cousins) are more cerebral and emotional about their rituals, leaders and relics than most people. More about the macro-time significance of this 1470th anniversary will be said in Division #3.

  • Here's also how we know it's a ruse: the imperfect of eimi in John 19:31 is ingressive (or forecasting). So by their calendar Preparation was only going to BEGIN. Wednesday-Thursday night includes Thursday, and even today in Judaism (as in the Mishnah) Thursday is often called a day of Preparation (the upcoming 'queen' sabbath is deemed to 'own' the three days prior to her arrival, in rabbinical wit). Wednesday night doesn't count, since it's a festal meal; so they really only have Thursday and Friday days for Preparation. So they weren't prepared to Prepare, since they were sooo busy getting Him crucified.
  • So -- as they put it to Pilate -- they don't want the bodies hanging on the crosses (a ruse, but a plausible one);
  • for there won't be enough time to prepare for the High Sabbath and bury the bodies, if the victims don't die soon;
  • Because it takes several days to die from CRUCIFIXION. So the problem is that the sabbath is too far away. At least, that's their argument to Pilate.
    Think this over carefully: had He really been crucified on a Friday, Him being on a Cross for another 24 hours is no big deal. He'd probably be alive Saturday night. Takes up to a week to die by crucifixion, which is why it was popular: dragged out the suffering. Usual time was three days, and you slowly suffocated -- or went mad -- during that time. Would be a lot of screaming, but it's Golgatha, outside the city, no big deal. But it becomes a big deal if the sabbath is too long in coming, since a body starts decomposing quickly, in that part of the world. Grapes ferment quickly if not treated (i.e., heated), and bodies do also. It's not merely the unclean problem, but one of being able to even handle the body. So it's no problem if the sabbath came quickly; big problem if it comes at the time they are likely to die: which was true -- He's crucified on Wednesday, and so by the sabbath, He'd likely be dead.

    Think this over carefully again: obviously all the other times people were crucified, they didn't ask Pilate to break the legs. So this is an exception. As you read below, keep on remembering that they are making an exception, when they ask for Pilate to break the legs. Then you'll see their ruse.

  • More proof of their intent and ruse to break HIS legs: Biblical proscription against staying on a cross after sundown has nothing at all to do with the sabbath, but everything to do with Messiah. It's in Deut21:22-23: tells you right away everyone knew how Messiah-to-Come would die -- hanging from some tree or post (as was the practice, continuing even to the 20th century). The DEAD body must come down by sunset. Hebrew of Deut 21:23 refers to a corpse; for it was the practice back then to first kill the person and then hang him as an advertisement of his crime. Not while living. No mention of Sabbath in that Deut passage.
  • So the Jews here misinterpret the Law as if it had something to do with the sabbath -- at least to Pilate. Look how flimsy: only the relatives would bury those three people, so very few people are affected. That's a nothing: besides, you were cursed-by-association (much like today); who cares if the relatives are defiled? And even if defiled, they can still eat, just not help out with the preparation. So why use the sabbath as the reason for breaking the bones, especially stressing the High Sabbath, which is completely irrelevant? Notice how it's only a violation of the Law if He's dead by then. So again, you know the problem was the sabbath was coming later, not within 24 hours. Of course, it's the True Passover when He dies -- and they should know that. Anyone would know that the calendar was off four days. So they have an ulterior motive, k?

  • And what is the Sanhedrin's ulterior motive, such that they LIE to Pilate in the name of kindness, making an exception of THIS Crucifixion, unlike the others? Oh, they don't want the people to have time to think! For they are now thinking, they are now realizing it's the True Passover, and they realize they've just fulfilled the prophecy about getting Messiah cursed on a TREE, on the very Day the Lamb is Slain for Sins. That's what every Levitical sacrifice of a Lamb signified, and all Israel knew it. So now it happens? And THEY are the agents? So they must and quickly, disconnect His Death from the prophecy, by BREAKING HIS BONES. For the Messiah's bones will not be broken, Exo 12:46, Num9:12, Psalm 34:20, Ps22:17.

    Funny how punctiliar they are here, yet it's okay to punch Him on the official Passover back the Saturday before, which was also a High Sabbath. Funny how punctiliar they are about Him being on a Cross post-sundown. Why should it matter to use the High Sabbath as an excuse, when they can just cite Deu21:23 to Pilate? Oh, but if they tell the truth, well what if Pilate repeated or worse -- understood it? Pilate was no slouch. You can't be governor of a tempestuous place like Judea and not know the customs and local religious myths in detail. And by that point, he'd been governor for four years. That's why he deemed the Lord innocent, for he knew the Messiah prophecies were about salvation, not political rule -- Messiah would have to die first, and then return. Yeah, every Greek play ever written had the gods come down out of the sky at the end.

    For everyone knew that would be one of the markers of Messiah: by oppression and [governmental] Judgement He will be seized, Isa53:8. And the government then crucified. Wood/tree, and being cursed goes back to the Garden. Idolatry. The woman and Adam treated that tree as if it could make them gods, and so had the most of mankind, ever since. Isaiah and the other prophets mock the common practice of fashioning gods of wood and stone, bowing down to something you made as if it had any breath of its own. So to hang on wood, was a curse. And here He was, being cursed just as Isaiah had predicted, the local 'world' at least going pitch-dark for those last three hours, during which they kept on hearing Him scream "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani" -- a Psalm 22 (v.1) prophecy about paying for sins -- so who wouldn't add up the verses and above all, the timing?

  • Moreover, even if they ASSume no one adds up the verses: due to all the tumult over Christ and their misuse of Him, they are not prepared in time for the High Sabbath Which Ends The Week. Last thing they want to do, is advertise they've not done their job.
  • High Sabbath procedures are much more elaborate, and regular sabbath procedures are already twice as elaborate.
  • Especially here, since all of Israel must congregate in Jerusalem for the Passover.
  • So the upcoming Last Day of it requires lots more time and effort.
  • So again note this complication: crucifixion does not lead to immediate death. It takes several days to die, as the lungs gradually fill up. Breaking the legs speeds up the filling process so that you die quickly, within a few hours. So if the sabbath were coming on that night or even the next night, this wouldn't be an issue, since they wouldn't yet be dead. Moreover, they might still die after sundown that day, because it does take a few hours to die even after the legs are broken. So they would still violate Deut 21:23 -- yet the Sanhedrin is not invoking Deut 21:23, but instead the irrelevant upcoming sabbath.
  • For it's not a sabbath issue, but a SUNDOWN issue for ANY day of the week once they are DEAD, in Deut 21:23.
  • But the High Sabbath is used by the Sanhedrin, to coverup their own misuse of the time. Thanks to their action, bodies are on crosses during Passover Week. Couldn't they have asked Pilate to delay things a week? But who did the delaying, to no avail? Pilate and Herod, for crying out loud!
  • So now all Israel will potentially see bodies on crosses after sundown, which everyone knows from Deuteronomy, violates the law!
  • So, they use the sabbath as an excuse to Pilate. For he's a Gentile, supposedly unacquainted with Deut 21:22-23, and they are playing on his ignorance.
  • Which again, has zippo to do with the sabbath, but everything to do with advertising how the Sanhedrin weren't doing their job, all that week.

    Now note the sense of humor employed in this verse. Again, "Preparation" is anarthrous, so is used to denote the corrected-calendar name of the Day Christ Died. Unknown to the Sanhedrin and Pilate, Christ had died, so cannot stay on the Cross past sundown, per Deut 21:22-23. Moreover, it IS properly a High Sabbath, since it is properly -- had the calendar been fixed -- the true FIRST NIGHT of Passover. And on it, one can do no work. Like, you can't bury the dead. So the Sanhedrin, in order to buy time, actually obey the Law for a change -- they screwed up the calendar, Passover Week, fell down on the job, brutalized their Own Savior -- but yet they get a glory of serving God. God, of course, didn't gerrymander any of this. They meant it for evil, God meant it for good, even the wrath of man praises God. Grace Unlimited.

    So all their contradicting behavior, is to mask their real motive: They Want HIS Legs Broken. That way they can say He's not Messiah. Look: these are the premier students of the Law. They cannot be unaware of the confluence of dates and events. The Sanhedrin was SPLIT over Him for three years; so bad was the split, that they couldn't even raise sufficient votes to get Him arrested, and on official Passover night three years later the plotters had to resort to a ruse, a fait accompli. Which ruse, they themselves swore to avoid, because it was Passover week (Matt 26:5, Mark 14:2). Yet they reversed that decision themselves, and in a hurry arrest Him on the first night of Passover week, which is really 10 Nisan on the corrected calendar, the Day the Lamb is set Aside. Uh-oh. So by 14 Nisan, they've had leisure to think. And what they see, is none too good: Oh! The Timing and events of what we did, fulfill prophecy! Can't blame the Lord and His Disciples, anymore. Can't claim the Lord is misusing prophecy, anymore. Panic! So they have to resort to another ruse -- break His Legs. Messiah's bones will not be broken, but His Body will be pierced. LOL, what they don't know is that by asking for the breaking of the knees, His Body will be pierced to prove it's dead (separation of leukocytes in the blood, signifies somatic death). Just as prophesied, in Zech 12:10, Psalm 22:16.

    Liars contradict themselves, bring in irrelevant information, hoping that by their many words, the hearer will just give up. So they play on mercy (breaking legs speeds death, and wouldn't Pilate want that for the King of the Jews he tried briefly to defend); they play on piety (Passover High Sabbath, the relatives wouldn't be able to bury); they play on the sabbath itself (contravenes the law) -- and they cover up Deut 21:22-23 as the prohibition (well, they distort it at least) -- so people won't add up the verses they learned on Mamma's knee. So people won't have time to add up both verses and the phenomenal convergence of TIME they also learned with their breast milk. So people won't have time to wonder, gee, if it weren't for the Sanhedrin, people wouldn't BE on wood post-death, thus revealing how the Sanhedrin cared more to crucify Him than to obey the Law, themselves.

• "YLT John 19:41-42 and there was in the place where he was crucified a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one was yet laid; 42 there, therefore, because [through, Greek "dia"] of the Preparation of [Christ by] the Jews, because [Greek 'hoti"] the tomb was nigh, they laid Jesus." This verse is priceless wordplay in context. How to explain this wry verse's "preparation of the Jews" phrasing? Well, THIS time John uses the article in front of paraskeué -- to show it's THEIR preparation! Which, by their behavior in context, is obvious. It wasn't the day of preparation on the calendar, but it WAS the preparation of the Jews which prepared the Preparation, Christ -- in time for True Passover. Stressing that they were the cause of Him dying on time, on the 1470th anniversary of the original Passover. So it's not the preparation of the official sabbath by their calendar that year -- but is the proper preparation for the corrected date -- God's. Thus the Jews are prepared, themselves. Dunno how to say all this better, lol.

  In the OT, the Greek verb for "laid" here in John 19:42, tithemi, is used for the Hebrew "sim"; but also sounds like "Shem". Isaiah uses sim for the appointed sacrifice for our sins, in Isa53:10 (im tasim asham). Verb means to appoint or place at a specific time, on time. Also means The Name, in soundplay, especially since John uses the (nee: definite) article with Iesous, His First Name (to do that objectifies the name, see also Rom9:13). The article is also being used monadically, and in parallel, THE Preparation is THE Jesus. No one like Him. No other Lamb. No other way to Prepare for Heaven. Do you see the astounding confluence of meaning layers in so few words? The Name is successfully offered for sin at the appointed time. All that, communicated by the use of the Greek verb "tithemi" and deft placement of the two (hypostatic!) articles. But you'd not get that wordplay if you didn't know the OT in Hebrew or Greek; and there's no way to translate it all in English. But of course, everyone did know the OT in both Hebrew and Greek: couldn't transact business with each other, else. The rabbis had to bless everything. What a racket, what a way to prepare the people to actually understand, for a change, the Living Torah Who Tabernacled among us.

  John is very fond of climactic statements. Every time my pastor covers 1Jn4:12-19, he spends time on John's rhetorical style. 1Jn4:19 is Attic Greek, very dramatic: we love, because He first loved us. Nominatives of selective emphasis, no direct objects. So too here in Jn 19:42, he's been building up the story to the "preparation of the Jews" climax, using a heroic accusative, placing it at once in a normal syntax yet at the end, for emphasis. So on the outside, it looks mundane; syntax is dragged out, plodding. Yet couldn't be more dramatic. They knew it was the 1470th anniversary thus they knew everyone would be able to tell Daniel 9:25 was fulfilled, therefore they wanted His legs broken -- but they were too late. Just like the calendar was too late. "Preparation of the Jews" means Jews prepared Him, means He prepared the Jews, means they prepared the Passover Lamb unwittingly, and then tried to cover it up: but were patently outsmarted by God Himself. No way to mistake Who 'tricked' them; can't blame His Disciples or Him as being false, anymore. Endless wordplay in that phrase, "Preparation of the Jews". Deftly written, sotto voce, in the middle of the sentence, smack dab in the middle country of the middle of the world in the middle period of God's Holiday Map of History, whispered. Makes you think of Elijah's experience, 1Kings 19:12. I need to go kill myself, Luke 5:8.

The human race has been buying that magic lie, ever since: and for the same reason. We are terminally insecure, because deep down, we know how small we are. So to see the Sanhedrin be just as human as we all are in this crisis of their lives, their world tumbling down around them -- who can't empathize? But God had His Son pay for it all, so Romans 8:1 can apply to us all.

Now you can tell from these verses, especially in John, that the Sanhedrin sought to hurry the deaths of those crucified by breaking their legs, ostensibly because the Sabbath was too far away; that their machinations only succeeded in causing Him to pay for sins "at the right time", Romans 5:8. Most importantly, you are being baldly told what the Real Day is, versus the official calendar: you are flatly told He died on Wednesday before sundown, and that the Passover week ran Saturday-Saturday on the too-late calendar. Else all the numbers, all the prophecies, wouldn't work.

Now you know why the Bible repeats all those third day verses so much, the first day of the week rising so much, the nicknames of Passover and FirstFruits being assigned to Him in the NT; why the Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits Holidays are VITAL information. Only God could make all that detail, fit together. Only God could do it by deft placement of paraskeué, and the deft removal or insertion of the article -- via his servants who He caused to write Our Happy Book. Kill me now.

Let's put one's understanding so far, to the test.

The macro version of this His Story, is in LvS4a.htm (=Part IVa link at pagetop); it's the big picture, where Passion Week fits into the massive 'fabric' of history. By contrast, here we focus on Passion Week itself, day by day. FOUR days, not the 24-hour period which bad scholarship and worse movies, always portray. For God's Promise of Salvation is minutely fulfilled within the Passover-FirstFruits Holidays themselves, which SPAN A WEEK, not 24 hours. So the four-day spread FORECASTS that the holiday calendar will be OFF in the week He dies. Off, because it wasn't intercalated. That's why John 19 is so sarcastic.

For as we saw in the "Modest Proposal" division (link at pagetop), God's Holidays are really Prophetic History Maps, and He plays every Holiday Detail out in time. Example: Passover lamb's bones must not be broken, because that's how it will be with THE Passover Lamb -- Messiah, Ps34:20, John 19:33-36.

Yet everyone back in the first century, did know those rules. Hence the Gospels we have were written successively, and on purpose; each time they were reminders to an audience long familiar with the details. So they build: Luke (60AD+) builds on Matthew (50+AD), Mark (68+AD) builds on them both, and John (90+AD) builds on all three. Think of it as a rollout. So the Gospels are always written in the kind of shorthand speech we all use when talking about what's familiar. That frees the reader and the writer from chronological presentations of events. Rather, the juxtaposed ideas or matching parallels can be written next to each other; due to familiarity, the reader already knows to which time slot an event belongs. All he needs are a few keywords to remind him of the time connections.

Example: were I to say "Christmas" and "Easter" in the same sentence; if I were to mention "stockings" and "bunnies" within that same paragraph; if I next referred to "red" and "pink", you'd have no trouble at all slotting which items belonged to which holiday, since you know them both so well; even, if I seemingly jumbled them all together in a sentence. Same, for the rhetorical style of the Gospels. People knew them so well, it's not necessary or desirable to tell the story like a boring multiplication table.

Each language has its own rhetorical styles. Ancient usage was much more sophisticated than today's See-Dick-See-Jane patter. So for example, to express disapproval or insignificance, a person or event will be omitted in a tally: Matthew does this in his genealogy, to stress the promise nature of the line (so leaving out some bad kings). John omits the entire Sanhedrin in John 18:28, thus telling the Greek reader that body had no real power. Notice that omission requires the reader be familiar with what is omitted, or the snub value is lost. Everyone knew the kingly genealogies. By John's time, everyone knew of the three Jewish trials held that fateful Passover night. So omission says something. It's a frequent OT rhetorical device, and Greek language used it as well. So you must know the conventions of expression and omission, lest you erroneously conclude the meaning as contradictory.

Hence the need to breathe 1Jn1:9 when studying Bible. You weren't there back in 30AD. But the Holy Spirit was. You don't know the cultural loading of the words. But the Holy Spirit does. And why learn anything, apart from the Holy Spirit? What's the point, if you don't get His Testimony as to what you are reading, even if you could know on your own? So when you read the Gospels or Bible, it's a kind of test: your power -- or His? So breathe 1Jn1:9 as you read what follows, see the difference that makes in your comprehension.

During that PassOver Week Depicting How God Prepared Our Payment for Sins, look: 30AD's Passion Week is flanked by two regular sabbaths. You have back-to-back sabbaths beginning that week, and a triple-purpose sabbath ending it: none in between. So it's impossible for the Lord to have been tried, sentenced, and executed within the 24 hours following His Arrest. As we saw in Division #1, and in the prior section's many Bible verses on "third day", "first of the week", and most importantly, those "paraskeué" ("Preparation") verses, to run the thing over only 24 hours would have violated Passover Law, itself. Now come on: God doesn't violate the Holy Laws He creates, but instead fulfills those Laws. Especially, since the Holiday Laws double as Prophecy Maps. Oh my, how embarrassing: movies on the Passion Week and most pulpits and 'scholarly' teaching, treat the whole thing happening in 24 hours; proving they didn't do their Bible homework IN the Bible, before spending millions of dollars to make those movies and teachings. Ooops on all of us. Time to be semi-upset for 90 seconds, breathe 1Jn1:9, and get cracking in the Real Word God Wrote.

The most important Passion Week Gospel Chapters are: Matthew 26-27; Luke 22-23; Mark 15-16; John 18-19. You might want to read them in order, before proceeding.

Back to the too-fast justice question: not even bad (misused) justice works that fast; and in the Middle East, oh my -- things go S-o-o-o-o S-l-o-w-l-y. Very many courtesies, lots of little glasses of tea, even more second-guessing the other guy, while you smile. Cunning and guile are part of their cultural breast milk. Remember the Oslo accords? They were supposed to pave peace in the Middle East. Aren't they 12 YEARS old by now? Remember Camp David and Jimmy Carter? That was over 30 years ago. We learn nothing from history. It's all a lot of smoke-and-mirrors.

Considering how Middle Eastern culture favors slow in bureaucratic matters, it is suspiciously fast that He was crucified even on the fourth day following His Arrest. We in America don't get anything done that fast (of course, we spend half our time trying to figure out why Windows crashed yet again). So yeah, the Bible movies and documentaries overspeed the truth, but the truth is still faster than it should be. There's a reason for such haste, and it's that HASTE which helps us prove the Exact Date of His Crucifixion, and what ADVERSARY really pulled the strings. Haste is stressed in the Gospels of Passion Week, as it parallels the Exodus Haste. So you see a lot of dashing to-and-fro.

• God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, Who Both Outsmart the Foxes. Gen 45:4-8, 50:24, Rom8:28, say it all. We mean things for bad, God means them for good, so doggone it, God's Meaning will out! So God put out His Plan's Meaning, in the form of Holidays for Israel; beginning, with how He led them out of Egypt in HASTE, 1440BC. Here in Passion Week, He will hastily fulfill all the ritual elements in those Holidays, which are really prophecies of How He will Deliver Salvation: right down to the fact you must roast the Lamb and don't break His Bones.
• Our Hero, The Lord Jesus Christ: Son of David, King of Israel, Passover Lamb Foretold, Worm, Bane of Everyone's Existence. Isa52:13-14 says it all. The more God glorifies His Son Who is first God Himself as well, the more appalled up-at Him we will be. Per contract, too: Isa53:10-12, If you will give Your Soul as a substitute for sin, You will see Long-Lived Seed.. for He poured out His Soul to death.. in fact, because of their sins He was delivered over.
• Satan &Co., headed by Satan: Son of the Dawn, Adversary Attorney, self-pitying former First Guy. Isa14:13-14 says it all. This is a complicated guy. Able to send thoughts and feelings at any time, and make you imagine they are your own; or, showing a little leg, make you see they are his own. All the demonboys have this ability. They think us animals, since we are: animals with souls. So they like ' shepherd ing' us to mock Our Chief Shepherd. And we can't tell the difference, unless we believe in Him and are positive to His Word.
• Sanhedrin, headed up by Annas and Caiaphas, and their cronies: deaf dupes of Satan&Co., running like marionetted extras on the stage. As we all are, from time to time. Their big sticking point was they loved power: #4 ("Postscript" link at pagetop) is mostly about their internal power struggles. This isn't a Jewish problem, but a human problem. In their case, it's just Jewish flavored. Here, they are in power yet not, since Rome dominates them. They hate the Romans, but think that by using the Romans, they get their goals met. They hate Herod, too, q.v. To wit: Nice setup we got here. We can claim our origin from Numbers 11:16, when God told Moses to appoint 70 additional 'elders' to help him run Israel. That makes 71, altogether. So we look holy, and get the Romans to do our dirty work. We look like their very quiet enemies, which of course we are. The Romans need us to be holy, so the people will be quiet. We need the people to respect us so the Romans will need us to be holy so they can control these people via us. We like this setup. We don't like messiahs who come in and upset our nice little applecart; that is, unless the messiahs acknowledge us and look like they have a shot at getting us free of the Romans. Which, of course, they never do. Especially, when they are sons of David. We don't like would-be messiahs like Herod, who isn't even Jewish but pretends to be, and throws his money around. He'd have us dead in five minutes if he had his way. We are the consummate politicians in any generation of history, seeking to divide and conquer using that oh-so-effective combination of religion and politics. Two sides of the same coin, really. All in the name of God, of course.
  Complicating the life of Annas and Caiaphas is the fact that not enough in the Sanhedrin, go along with them (see John 7:40-52 for a revealing portrait). Pesky dissenters, they constitute so sizeable a minority, that Christ can't be arrested on trumped-up charges for the entire three years of His Ministry; even the Temple guards won't do their job (ibid John 7). Man, that hurts. These dissenters actually think He might be the Messiah, and a goodly number of them believe in Him! We'll never be able to get control if we don't find a way to make that belief too painful to 'keep'. Again, Division #4 in this webpage goes over that subplot in more categorical detail. Bible handles it best, of course.

  And if you read Numbers 11, you'll notice that the only reason there came to be a Sanhedrin (Greek compound noun), was due to the rebelliousness of Israel: the hating of the mannah (man-hu, what is this stuff), and the preference for meat. So God rained down quail, and the people died from gorging on it. But those who wanted His Word, still collected only mannah. The Lord is meat, and the quail-eaters among the Sanhedrin, are hungry.

• The rabbis and priests of Israel, more marionettes, deaf dupes of you-know-who. Full of their minutiae, turning the Law into a slog, a rote thing one detests. Mishnah records these guys' own words; and since then, Jews all over the world have sought to imitate them. Them, not Moses or Abraham. For they thought and think their martinet behavior -- and their impositions on everyone else -- prove how righteous they are. Instead, they prove the bane of Israel, who is starving and thirsty for Word, just like Isa53:2b predicted. Because Israel is getting these pettyfogging murderers-of-Word, instead of the real Word. Just like back in Hosea and Isaiah's day.
• Inhabitants of, and visitors to Jerusalem during Passion Week. Sheep, cowards. More 'extras' in the cast, more deaf dupes of Satan&Co. -- but some will later hear and become heroes. As we all are sheep, going along with the crowd, baah baah humbug. Talking big one minute, meaning it too (very sincere); but within a week, deserting their King they so praised. Taking bribes, even. Doing it because scared, even. How modern.
• The disciples, heroes with tragic flaws, represented the most by Peter and Judas. So enfin, sheep, cowards. Dupes of Satan&Co. -- but only, for a little while. Notice how they stop being dupes only due to faith in Him, due to learning about Him. Hint hint, as to what/Who protects us, then. For we are sheep, too: but called to be heroes. And through Him, that's what they become. Even Judas, who even gave up his passion for money, when he realized he'd betrayed Christ (which wasn't his intention, exactly: Matt27 explains).
• The Romans headed by Pilate, an unbeliever hero with a tragic flaw which didn't get conquered by faith in Him. Double-minded, unable under pressure of extreme political magnitude, to change his mind. At least, not before the Crucifixion occurred. To wit: Judea is an armpit assignment. You only become procurator of this dustbin place because someone didn't like you. It's critical to keep the peace because this landmass joins three very lucrative continents -- money, trade routes. Money is thicker than blood. Civil war is constant in this dustbin, and has been for centuries. The people have desert-god fever from over a Millennium prior, due to their David who back then became king; whose Son is this Chrestus person prophesied in Daniel or Isaiah some other book of theirs Herod's father found out about; guy got so scared he massacred hundreds or thousands of babies in the area surrounding the supposed birthplace 1000 years after that David's first becoming king -- or something like that. Therefore, Jews think themselves superior to everyone else. So appeasing them is cheaper and gets brownie points with Tiberius, who by the way is the son of Augustus, who granted Herod's father rule: but the current Herod, a son, well -- he's playing the Jews as well. A competitor. The Sanhedrin are behind the Zealots, pretending to be obedient. The Zealots tried to rope in John the Baptist and today's claimant as Chrestus. Didn't work. Neither of those two support either the Zealots or the Sanhedrin. Brew for a civil war, then. Better watch my back.
• The Romans and Jews represented by Herod, who was double-minded about John, then about Christ Himself. Everyman's representative, wanting to manipulate things to his best advantage, titillated rather than truly interested in God. To wit: The Jews all hate me, hated my father, and with good reason, too. My family hates me, and would kill me in a nanosecond if they could. The Sanhedrin hate me, for I'm a rival power base. They really want to cozy up to the Romans, and resent it I got there first. So they need to discredit me. Pilate hates me because I'm a Roman, a rival to him. So I'll outfox all of them, be more Jewish than all of them, and show Tiberius I can make peace here. Then maybe even liberate Israel, be the messiah? But what if that Christos is the Messias, like John said he was? Can we do a deal?

• It's fairly common knowledge -- except in Bible documentaries and movies -- that beginning on the first Passover night, the Lord went through Seven Hasty Trials which violated every law of Jewish, Roman, and Herodian jurisprudence. So that fact makes the UNNATURAL HASTE completely inexplicable. One can only conclude supernatural, satanic HERDING. Which is precisely what happened. And continues to happen today, even as you read this page.
  "Satan" means "opposing attorney" in Hebrew, so scratch the red horns and tail garbage, the frothing at the mouth, the myriad other cutesy ideas of "the devil". We all know how devilish government is, always sanctimonious, full of hot air, and we are to blame for we keep demanding favors from it. Well, that's the perfect description of hell. Of Satan&Co. Will bargain you down, wear you down, seduce you with every flattery your little ego craves. So that's why they are lawyers. Consummate lawyers. So they are really good at kangaroo courts like Hitler and Stalyin were: which is pretty much what goes on here, during this Week.

  So note the hasty Trial herding. Typically, these trials are presented as three, divided by jurisdiction: Jewish, Roman, Herodian. So for example in BibleWorks, its "Synopsis" tool classifies the Jewish and Roman trials as each being in three substages, etc.: it neatly lines up the appropriate passages in each Gospel, so you can see them side-by-side. It lumps the Herodian trial as a second "stage" of the three stages of trials under Pilate, so lumps the flogging with the Crucifixion, not accounting the flogging as a separate Trial. But it was separate, for in Roman law flogging was supposed to act like trial-by-ordeal. You actually tried to kill the person, nearly. No mere 39 lashes (the 39 is a Sanhedrin Mishnaic rule, not the Roman one). If the "gods" wanted the man to live, and he did, well -- maybe he was innocent. Mattered also how he behaved during the flogging. Now you know another reason why Pilate declared the Lord innocent AFTER the flogging.

  My pastor classified the seven Trials as separate trials, and I'm following his convention: but as you can see there's not much difference between his classifications and BibleWorks. So: with this structure of six or seven "stages" being so commonly known that even software for pastors like BibleWorks, lists them -- why are our Bible documentaries and movies, still so wrong? Surely the reader can see that the logistics of these trials take more than 24 hours, no matter how unjust or hurried. People just can't move that fast. Even four days is fast. Too fast, really. So they had 'help' from Satan&Co.

  Even today, the same herding continues: for why don't we know Passion Week's timing? Oh, same reason as for the HERDING HASTE during His Passion Week: Satan&Co. want to screw up the timing, since Passover's Holiday Structure is itself a Prophecy of How God Accomplished Our Salvation. They tried to screw it up during Passion Week, and failed. So best they can do, is herd us to hastily gloss over reading Bible, and thus screw up our understanding OF that Timing. Thus the Bible -- never us, we are too stuck on our initials after our names! -- oh, the Bible must be wrong. It's positively sickening how scholars screw up the telling of the Passion Week in every Bible documentary, movie, and most pulpits. "Good Friday" -- lol, can't anyone count to three? Notice how if this were a story about some political leader or race-defending hero we'd be real punctiliar about getting the basics right -- but it's the Bible, so who cares if the scholarship is criminally shoddy, whether one is pro- or con- Bible? That's the kind of hasty glossing-over which happened during Passion Week.

  Hence we are all targets of Satan&Co. So obviously, if you are a movie producer or Bible scholar, the targeting on you will be a tad more concentrated from the targeting you get as a grocery clerk. But we are all targets, and only living in God's System, protects us. [Actually, anyone learning under God's System will be the most attacked, whether grocery clerk or movie mogul. Like God, Satan&Co. look on the inside, not the outside, 1Sam16:7.]

  So this isn't a story about the 'dirty' Jews who crucified our Lord, as so many anti-semites over the centuries, would have you believe. This isn't a story about the 'dirty' Romans who crucified our Lord, as so many who-knows-what-agenda folks would have you believe. It's instead the story of how we ALL crucify Him in our own souls, every day we breathe. For look at this scathing indictment: after all these centuries, we still have the colossal gall to name His Passion Good Friday on our calendars. What arrogance. What disinterest in the Word. What hatred of Him. You've seen the timing verses, by now: you realize it's a Sat-Sat Passover; you've seen the paraskeué verses, how they are anarthrous or monadic, so no way is "Friday" the day He died. So we are all just as guilty as the Sanhedrin, content to let Him be roasted; just as guilty as the crowd voting for Him to be crucified, scared of admitting they believed in Him.

  This Story is our story. Our betrayal. Not just theirs. But God didn't condemn us, but rather Him. And He does not condemn us, but rather saves us. For we were born in sin, we live in sin, and sin is first and foremost an inferiority complex one seeks to assuage by making self good. Just like Satan did, Isa 14:13-14. But He saves us instead, Rom 8:1.

  Pretty dramatic story, then, Heb11:1. So we need not be ashamed, Phili1:20-21, due to 2Cor5:21, the Financing of Our Righteousness in Him, which This Story proves got fulfilled. All in the scroll of a Book...

• Satan's plan was to get the Lord killed at the wrong time and in the wrong way. If the Lord doesn't get on the Cross at the Right Time, which is 14 Nisan, or in the Right Way, with a Sinless Thinking Brain, then sins can't be legally paid for, since God committed Himself via the Passover Rules to fulfill the Salvation Promise on true 14 Nisan. Passover is first and foremost God's Promise of Deliverance. Deliverance from sin, so that there are no barriers to living with Him forever. That's why Abram believed. Why Isaac, Jacob, and all those others, believed. Due to Belief, the crowd of some six million adults and kids left Egypt. And now here it comes down to a tribulation, the precursor of that future one, happening to That One, the Passover Lamb to Fulfill the Promise. Satan can't resist the Opportunity to Kill Him at the Wrong Time. That's his "get out of jail free" card, and he knows it. So everyone is a pawn to that end. We are no match for their power; but they are no match for God's Power.
  We know for sure Satan spearheaded the whole thing because he entered Judas' soul (covered below). But it seems the dumbest possible thing for him to choose. For by making this choice, he assures that God's purpose gets fulfilled! It's the exact same dumb move he'll make at the mid-point of the future (official) Tribulation (Rev 9, where he lobbies for and gets the key to the Abyss, so those long-imprisoned demons can terrorize the earth). So one must ask: why did he think it imperative to invest Judas so to spearhead the Lord's arrest on what he had to know was the True 10 Nisan (but nominal 14 Nisan, by the Jewish calendar)? For that's the correct day to set aside the Lamb. So Satan is setting in motion the exact mechanics necessary to get the Lamb of God to pay for our sins On Time, since this week is effectively the Last Week of History. You'd have thought Satan would sit still and let the clock run out. Did he lose his brains that Week?

  Yes, but he thinks he's clever, just as we so often do. Arrogance is trapped within itself. First, since he knows God's plan in advance, he knows that's his window of opportunity, for that's the only time when He will be abandoned by Father, as it were. Moreover, all that chafing for the window to occur, rankles. Moreover, if he can beat God at His Own Game, whoa -- what a coup. Arrogance always concludes self superior, putting down everyone else. So he truly thinks that despite all these handicaps he can beat God. Sweet victory, indeed. Yeah, and it never works. So it's God's fault it didn't work, never possibly the stupidity of his idea in the first place. See: arrogance in humans has a 'father', too: Gen 3. We are nothing on our own: either arrogant in imitation of that fathering tree, or humble due to Him Who Hung On That Calvary Tree.

  One thing Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of Christ" got spot-on was his depiction of Isaiah 52:14, how He was beaten up beyond-human (Hebrew of the verse plays on the God-man dual nature using me ish and me bene adam -- so parallels with the superhuman torture He received). Satan&Co. motivated extra-strong brutality against Him, to get Him killed before the Cross would occur. Had the Lord's Body not been perfect, Had He not relied on the Spirit 100% of the time (model for us) -- He'd have been successfully killed. That's the paradigm for the Christian life. If you mature enough, there will come a time when God will seem to abandon you, because He's built you with enough DDNA so you too can be privileged to learn something of what the Lord went through. Frankly, all suffering in a Christian's life has this as its primary purpose, with any remedial reason (i.e., Divine Discipline) running very much lower in priority. Omniscience knows all the bad, not just all the Good. By dying on the Cross, His Humanity could have that kind of knowledge -- remember, it would have been cheating to tap into it using His Deity. All this, run by the Holy Spirit, the Lord choosing to not use His Deity (true doctrine of "kenosis") to benefit Himself. Satan&Co., therefore, were trying to get Him killed PRE-Cross by the very people He came to save (all of us), since Satan failed in Matt4 to get Him to use His Deity illegally.

• To accomplish this goal, Satan&Co. herd the political rivals in Israel. We saw in our Dramatis Personae who these folks are: Sanhedrin, headed up by Caiaphas (his father-in-law Annas is behind the scenes); Pilate, a not-too-secure procurator, in power only four years; Herod, a not-too-secure tetrarch, nominally Jewish but really Arab, having a long and sordid power play history. All these folks have political needs, and the expediency of another Rival -- a son of David -- being neatly available to use for their own ends, is just too delicious for words. So they can be herded. Pilate proves to be the most resistant to manipulation, and the Sanhedrin the most pliable. So they are the ones used. Neither Herod nor Pilate are actually threatened by The Son of David, since both well know He has no plans for competing with them. But He instead exposes the teachers -- and the Sanhedrin are all teachers, promoted above the rest -- so the Sanhedrin are most upset. So they are the most manipulated.
  The Haste During Passion Week helps us see how demons herd us hapless humans via our own inter-human rivalries. People aren't efficient by nature -- unless hatred runs them. We've cotton for brains, we live fragmented lives, we are bombarded with hoards of gnat-like tasks and information. So it's almost a miracle, if you manage to rise out of bed and get to work on time, each day; let alone, corporately railroad a judicial process amongst three very different judicial districts (Jewish, Roman, and Herodian). Granted, in those days you didn't have decision-by-committee, but really by one person. Still, stuff takes time. But 'miraculously' only takes four days, here? Hmmm. Demons can do things faster, but not humans. But to make us more efficient, they have to run us via hatred. Hatred runs the world. Notice how easily we marshall ourselves to be against something, and how poorly we marshall ourselves to be for something. All our many marches allegedly 'for' something, are based on hatred (what 'I' support makes 'me' better than 'you' is a hatred motive). Politics is perfect for hasty herding.

  So count on it, anyone who believes in Him will be persecuted. So as you read what follows, identify with Him: think of the worst, most torturous times in your own life, for you surely have had them. As a Christian, count on it: you will have them, if you've not already. From them you know how realistic the Gospels are. People are so full of themselves; no good, loving to blame, put down, manipulate, torture others; niceness is but a facade, to get something, to think well of self. And that niceness can hold a 'charge', for about five seconds. That's why those gruesome movies and nightly TV stories are so popular. It's a vicarious desire to "get" someone, being satisfied. We learn from history that we are animals, hypocrites who pretend to be civilized, thirsty to see someone else get hurt to make us feel better about ourselves. The Gospels expose that fact within the religious crowd -- who after all, we stupid laymen regard as holy, since we know we are not. So we are just like them.

• Friday night, 13 Nisan, begins the regular sabbath; it ends the following sundown, 14 Nisan, a Saturday. The Lord had come into Jerusalem the previous Sunday, having spent the prior Saturday night (nominally, 7 Nisan) in Bethany, which faced the Mount of Olives (see "pros" in Luke 19:29, Mark 11:1, then see Matt21:1), about two miles from Jerusalem (Jn11:18): that was where He often stayed when He came to Jerusalem. So for this last Bethany trip, see John 11:55ff, Matt26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9. The next day (Sunday, nominally 8 Nisan) He came into Jerusalem as Messiah, riding on a young donkey which had never been ridden, cheered as a King of the Jews by massive crowds who laid huge palm fronds and even their clothing, in front of the advancing colt: all this was in their own spontaneous recognition of Zechariah 9:9, so the crowds are deliberately hailing Him as Messiah. See Matt21:1-17, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:29-44, John 12:12-19.
  Bear in mind that Gospels group events to teach something, so the Gospels don't always roll out in chronological order. Hence the need to compare them, and in the chronological order in which they were written: Matt first, followed by Luke, then Mark, and finally John. Each Gospel always builds on the material prior, to both establish the new material as being truly from God, and to explain further previous Divine Writ. So, for example, the Matt26:6-13 account of Him being in Bethany prior, is to explain His later statement of Matt26:2; the dinner at Simon the Leper's had happened the prior Saturday night, 7 Nisan; this was the night Judas made the decision to betray Him, so upset about the 'waste' of money he couldn't get (Judas was the treasurer). But Matt26:2 is said on the following Wednesday night -- His last Wednesday night on earth -- 11 Nisan on the Jewish calendar that year. Ironic, since the following Wednesday, nominally 18 Nisan (q.v.), He will be crucified; so He's playing directly on the fact that He will rise again after 3 nights and days in the grave; Matthew is pointedly referring to that fact, by telling us on what day Matt26:2 occurs. That's why it's important for Matthew to remind the reader of what had happened in Bethany, prior. [Nerd Note: "q.v." is an Latin abbreviation for "which see", in English. It means that the entry referenced is covered at greater length elsewhere in the document. Here, "18 Nisan" is its own entry further down in this section, so to say "18 Nisan (q.v.)" alerts the reader that more information under "18 Nisan" will tie to this "13 Nisan" entry. See how much easier it is to just say "q.v."?]

  So by 13 Nisan, He's been in Jerusalem for six days and five nights. Consider the context of His Entry in Jerusalem, how He had been received, contrasted with this, His Last Peaceful Night on earth. Prior, He'd raised Lazarus from the dead, which had happened soon after His 33rd Chislev Birthday at Feast of Dedication 29AD, see John 10-11; it must have been a mild and dry time, for after that Feast, He'd left to go back to another Bethany, across the Jordan, probably due east (can't find the place on Bible maps, not sure Bethabara is meant), where John the Baptist had first been baptising (John 10:40 compared to John 1:28). Lazarus died sometime during that Tebeth, hence the protests about going back south (John 11:8). So during that month, after raising Lazarus at Bethany, the Lord still had time to go north to Ephraim (slightly northwest, 1/4th the way between Bethany and Salim); from there, to make some kind of peregrination between Ephraim in Judea and Salim, which was also near the main travel route back to Jerusalem: compare John 11:54 and Luke 17:11. Salim was a strategic spot just inside Samaria, bordering on the southern edge of Lower Galilee; just over the Jordan was northern Perea where He'd been baptising, John's second spot in his peregrinations, John 3:23; so much of this territory is in Samaria, an area pious Jews avoided. So the Lord seems to have intended the raising of Lazarus far enough in advance of Purim, so that people coming to Jerusalem for Purim would know it happened. So He's circling within a few days' journey north of Jerusalem during those final months of Shebat through Adar, in the most heavily-travelled section of Israel. (Compare John 11:6 with 11:17 and John 10:40.)

  Everything in the Bible has a reason for being said: here, these geographic and timing details teach that He Knew In Advance what Father intended for His Own Death, and was obeying every jot and tittle of it. It's much harder to obey when you know the future, than when you do not.

  Contrast: the Lord's last official Ministry Visit to Jerusalem began with two provoking, impolitic acts, riding on a donkey (claim He's Messiah), and forcibly cleaning the Temple, in 30AD (see John 2:13, 20 and compare to Herod the Great's Temple construction commencement); for another two years prior, He'd already been 'public' largely outside Jerusalem, largely north of it in Galilee and Samaria, but also in Bethany. Such a pointed avoidance of Jerusalem proper is a snub. To compound that snub with a rousing scourging of those selling outside the Temple was not intended to make nice with the Sanhedrin, clearly.

  Quick Application to Your Own Life: if you have an abnormal interest in God -- and you do, if you are reading this webpage -- your life will be abnormal. Goes with the territory. The Lord warned everyone of this via His Own Abnormal Life, and parables like "counting the cost" i.e., Luke 14:28ff, esp. v.33; see also Josh 24:19-24, Matt8:20, 10:22, 20:22-23, 1Thess 3:4-5, 2Pet1:13, 1Jn3:13. If you want God, you will be attacked. If you don't, then the world will be nice to you -- until it has used you up. Stark choice.

  The Christian is not the Messiah, so is not to make an issue of himself. The Lord being the authority, had to do certain public things. The world will expect the Christian to act likewise. Since we are to quietly learn and live on His Thinking instead, the world considers that a snub. The world believes in Satan's 3 Temptations; God, does not. So you will be pressured to 'get involved.' If you give into that pressure, you will be a casualty. The selling of false doctrine -- modern day version of the moneychangers in the Temple -- is the norm, so must be avoided at all costs. For such avoidance the Christian obeying Him will thus be attacked.

  So when He makes this third, very IMPOLITIC entrance for Passover, known to us as the 'Triumphal Entry'; on that nominal 8 Nisan 30AD, the message of Him being the Lamb of God and Messiah Who Raised Lazarus, would be fully known. It was His raising Lazarus which finally tipped the political scales against Him, ending theme of John 11; it was Mary of Bethany's buying the nard and pouring it on Him 7 Nisan, which finally tipped Judas against Him, beginning of John 12. So by this 13 Nisan, He's preceded the Passover with all the necessary disclosure that He will be arrested and handed over for crucifixion; so that when it happens, they all can remember that even as He raised Lazarus, so He too will be raised up. So He's completed His task of Due Diligence. Thus now the final week can roll out.

  So here on 13 Nisan, He's experiencing His sixth night of His final stay in Jerusalem, the third Passover of His Ministry (compare John 12 to John 2:13 and 6:4). So He's been doing this for three years. It will be the last night before He is deserted and jeered by everyone, even His disciples. People are fickle when they hear jackboots. And He knows this.

  There's no earthly reason why God should ever want to become like us, identify with us. There's no earthly reason why He should want to be Our King, Our Savior. What a horrible life that is. Like the jerks in Numbers 11, all we do is complain; our thank-you's, though quite sincere, last maybe five seconds. For we are dead batteries. So how is it, He chooses to be MADE sin, 2Cor5:21? You realize of course that as God He is Infinitely competent, holy. But He chooses instead, to ignore His Own Competence, become shame for us: im tasim asham naphesho in Hebrew of Isa53:10. Hebrew "asham" means a guilt offering as a substitute for the sin of the people. It's in the feminine, reflecting both the ewe (Heb: rahel) of Isa53:7e and the red heifer offering. English "ashamed" comes from this Hebrew word. So He Knows In Advance And In Detail How He'll Be Made Shame For Us. On that Cross, knowing all incompetence -- the reason for sin -- knowing all ugliness. Being that way, Himself. Not sinning Himself, so to BE that way? It's not like that experience ever dies, though the time on earth is long since past. God can't forget. No, there's no earthly reason for Him wanting to identify with our ugliness, our shame, our incompetence and needs for petty things. Because He Really is God, and Really Loves, Rom5:8. Absolutely.

  He yearns to put a big, fat "NOT GUILTY!" verdict on each of us. Hence He yearns for that Cross, Luke 22:15-19. By exchanging our sins with His Thinking, He Himself becomes bigger in His Own Soul (main theme of the DDNA webseries). Father thus benefits Son with Total Compatibility even in Son's Humanity, so the finity-Infinity 'gap' is closed, theme of John 17. Thus it can be said that the multiplicity of souls learning His Thinking, are 'dividends' on His Payment. So the "Not Guilty!" verdict is valid twice over: first, because He got made bigger by being made sin (main theme of Isa53:10-12, graphically); second, because His Thinking is replicated in us. Ahhhh. Sweet savor in many souls, even though each one of us is dinky, compared to Him. Because, the HOLY SPIRIT ALONE accomplishes all this, Eph2:10, Titus 3:5, Eph5:18, 1Thess 5, 2Cor5. God's Work is always God's Infinite Level. Even when happening a dot at a time in a believer's soul. Rom5:8, Not Guilty, Your Honor!

  Love is weak. Hebrew term "heheli" in Isa53:10a depicts lovesickness. That's the kind of "grief" it is: waYHWH haphetz dakk'o heheli: im tasim asham naphesho. So the LORD [Father] delights to crush Him, causing Him to be in lovesick grief: 'if you will give Your Soul as a Guilt-Offering for Sin.' Love disables everything else. Once you love enough, all else in life you once valued, you no longer desire. Love is all-consuming. Love is unknown to the human race, but it's the Integrity of God Himself, as my pastor shouted on 5/7/2000, the 50th anniversary of his being in that church. How true. Since Love disables all else, and it's all-consuming, the Object of that Love had better be Worthwhile. For Father or forget it. Nothing can compete, then. Not even, a Cross. And what does that Father do with this Love from His monogenes ("uniquely born", John 3:16) Son? Oh, look: "God demonstrates His Love toward us, in that while we were YET sinners, Christ DIED as a SUBSTITUTE for us", Romans 5:8 (corr trans). Notice the capped words: YET, DIED, SUBSTITUTE. So no longer sinners, His Death Substituted. So we become the Righteousness of God in Him, theme of Rom6-8. Father's Love is weak too, then. Spending it on us. Heheli. Lovesick. Conquering all.

  For this reason God will only allow there to be One Sinner in the universe, Isa53:12 (stated four ways in that verse, Biblical number of contract completion): His Son. MADE all sin, His Son, Romans 5:8, and main theme of Romans 6, 2Cor5. Metered, labored (huffing) Greek of 2Cor5:21 goes like this in translation: "Him never knowing sin, a substitute for sin He [Father] made; with the final purpose that we become the Righteousness of God in Him." The huffing "h" construction of the Greek sentence mimics the sound a sacrificial lamb would make when its throat is cut, and it tries to keep breathing. Notice how the sentence begins with the heroic accusative. So He is the Most SAVED Person in the universe, too: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani. Relying on the Holy Spirit to make Him Who Is Made Sin, Utter Propitiation to Father. The Most RESCUED Person, since He would never demand or expect Father to save One Made Sin. One Made Sin deserves to be separated forever, not saved. I am sin! I am sin! I am shame! I am tortured! For Father! Im tasim asham naphesho! If You Will Give Your Soul as a Substitute for Sin! I am incompetent!

  And He knows all this. And He knows that the following Friday night will be his last night in the GRAVE. To be Resurrected on FirstFruits.

  So He knows this will be his last peaceful night on earth. And it's a regular sabbath. So He rests.

• Saturday night 14 Nisan, begins the Passover, so it would normally be the first day of the week: but since it's Passover, it's a High Sabbath. It ends the following sundown, which is Sunday 15 Nisan. Gospels to read in their chronological (date-written) order: Matt26:45-27:1, 11-14; Luke 22:46-23:7; Mark 14:41-15:2; John 18:1-38.
  Each Gospel builds on the one(s) before it, to elaborate on any details or to highlight connections between facts relevant to the audience getting the newer Gospel. Bible always piggybacks on prior Divine Writ; so the new material uses keywords in that prior Writ, to tell you how to interpret the new material, as well as prove its Authenticity as New Divine Writ. So if there seem to be contradictions, it's the fault of the translations; for they don't first reference the keywords in the original-language texts so to know how to translate properly. We saw that problem above with the paraskeué verses, which are universally mistranslated simply because the translator(s) didn't notice the red-flag usage or omission of the article (inter alia). So this bullet is long. There is much to note which doesn't get much attention elsewhere, and is even popularly misrepresented: the true timing and psychology, the demonic herding, and the politics.

  Sometime during this night, the Lord is arrested well after dark, maybe even midnight. The odd thing about His arrest is the huge number of troops used, at least 200 Roman soldiers; musta made a racket, as they marched down the streets to go out of the walled city to the Garden of Gethsemane. They had to either take the loud and long southern route, or else illegally exit from the Antonia barracks through the eastern gate of the Temple out to the Mount of Olives.
  Jerusalem's layout before it was razed and rebuilt into its present shape, looked something like a trapezoid which is partially cut off like a half-done maze. It wasn't easy to get into due to its high location, but even once in, you had better know your way around. At its northeastern end you had the Antonia barracks, with the Temple kinda immediately beneath and more to the east, if you were looking at the page. At the southwestern end you had the classy section, where Herod's palaces were, one of which Pilate occupied. Just below that and to the southeast, was the poor section. To leave the nice southern end, you had to go eastward through the poor section and out the southern gate -- that was the shortest distance from where the Lord was, to the garden. Looks like it was about 1.6 miles from the house where they ate. [Apparently the Law's 3/4th mile limit of a sabbath day's journey started from outside the city walls. Gethsemane is within that distance. I'm guessing lengths based on the map, and I'm none too good with maps.]

  Technically there was a shorter, quieter way out for the troops: go north to get out, and then southeast to Gethsemane, which was opposite the eastern gate of the Temple, according to the map I have (source mentioned below). But the High Priest was located at the far south end of the city (the nice section). The Last Supper was held within a block of the High Priest's house, according to the map I have. So think: they'd need to reconnoiter, and coordinate with the High Priest, since that's where they would later bring 'the prisoner'. Wouldn't hurt to make a loud noise going down from Antonia to the High Priest's house, either -- to seek any hidden trouble, to encourage us sheep to stay in our pens, pending any trouble later. In any event, that's a huge body of troops for only 12 men who are unarmed. So the Sanhedrin must have told the Romans to expect serious trouble. Well, the first thing you do is reconnoiter, before you arrest. Any policeman will tell you that. Here, it's a surrounding of perhaps the inner city, which is needed. So march down the length, don't be coy, see what happens, go out the south gate. You cover your bases that way: especially, if you knew that's the route your prisoner and his entourage, had taken. They might have scouts, after all. You could pick these up, en route.

  John 18:3,12 says it was a "cohort" -- Latin term, technically a minimum of 200, max. of 600 Roman soldiers -- along with Temple guards and other officials from the Temple. Moreover the term chiliarch is used in v.12, so it's not a small body and not represented by a small commander. No mere 'detachment', like they show in the movies, that's for sure (man, how we don't do our homework). So the Sanhedrin plotters must have alleged that riots would break out if they arrested Him (thus maligning Him by insinuation, and see Mark14:2ff)! And the noise of so many approaching troops, well -- no one in the Garden would have been surprised, they'd have recognized the sound long beforehand.

  Scholars doubt it was that big a group of Roman soldiers. I don't doubt it at all. John is always very precise, and he likes using technical terms. Moreover, all the Gospel writers take the trouble to paint a swelling then dwindling mass, from this point forward. Gives you the sense of waves of people for one event, then suddenly very few, a trickle (when no one is looking). Then, back to waves again: "wave" and "sea" concepts denote people (and hence political games) in Bible. Conveys their attitude of cunning, using crowds to make it look right, what they were doing. For those hedging politically, the crowds furnished a way to hide, not quite commit: idea of safety in large numbers.

  The sound of so many people would be heard from blocks away. The Sanhedrin were counting on it. No stealth is going on here. Just the opposite of how movies portray that night.

  If you're a coward you need to intimidate. Best way to do that is mass troops and have them march loudly through the streets, AT NIGHT. People will be cowering the next day. Just like the typical coup d'etat in Latin America, Africa, or anywhere in history. The tactic has worked effectively from time immemorial. People are sheep.

  My Atlas of Bible and Christianity map, p.65 (Baker Books edition 1997), purports to show the route He took that Passover night, and the route of His Return, while under arrest. The map shows the alleged site of the Last Supper being in the Upper City (nice section of town), close to the residence of the High Priest at the edge of what the map calls the Essene quarter (not nice section of town), with the exit going along the south end of the city. So no troops could get out quietly, unless they first camped outside, and then met the Jews outside, and then converged on the Mount of Olives. But coming back it would be loud, even if they split up before re-entering the city. [Given all the commercialism and drooling over Bible relics, other than for the Dome and Wailing Wall, I trust the alleged locations of things not at all. The whole city was razed in 135AD due to the Bar Kokhba rebellion, and rebuilt on Roman lines by 140AD, lasting even to this day. But maybe that Atlas gets most of it right, who knows. It was on the seminary syllabus, like all the books I got. I didn't go to seminary, just found out what resources they use or recommend, and bought them.]

  The Lord and the disciples could have gotten away easily. So they WAITED for the troops to show up, for maybe three whopping hours. They'd have heard the troops a good 15 minutes before they arrived in Gethsemane, easily. The Lord and the disciples could have gotten away, vanished into the brush and slowly made their way out to distant parts of Israel, or even left the country. For remember: at this point no charge had been laid against Him. So there would be no justification for Pilate to scout the area. So why didn't they leave? Because the Lord knew what would happen.

  Ergo, we know Satan&Co. make everyone play the marionette during Passion Week. Not that man is innocent, but at this point, the demon boys are concentrating their efforts to herd people. They are trying to get Jesus killed before He can get to the Cross. It accounts for the puppet-like activities you see, a bunch of extras running out to the Garden, then in to the Sanhedrin, then around in the Sanhedrin, then out to the Praetorium, then to Herod, then back to the Praetorium: it would be funny, if not so tragic. They are under the most severe concentration of demon possession and influence the daemonboys can muster; the 'boys are anxious to herd the groups into their proper 'pens'. But you might know, it's not so easy to work with cows, because they are so dumb. We humans are too dumb to live: right here, that's an asset.

  Modern-day herding is just as wacko, and you see it on TV, routinely. Where do all those Arabs come from in their demonstrations, so suddenly? How is it that any group of humans so quickly mass-demonstrates? Where did all those thousand people find the time and the ability to mass below a Chicago freeway underpass in the 2005 daytime (see the videos in Youtube) -- claiming to see the Virgin Mary in a salt stain on the underpass column? What would possess them to imagine she would make an appearance there? Is that majestic or Virgin-like, to appear on an underpass in the form of a salt stain? Where did they find the time to buy pictures of her, candles, and congregate? Do you know how stupid and difficult it is to assemble below an underpass of a freeway? It's all steep and hilly, there's no parking, no restrooms, no nuthin'. Don't people have to work, tend their kids, go to the store? Where do they get all the free time, on what amounts to no notice? Where do people get so obsessed over cartoons of Mohammed, or off-color statements, or statements about color? Do we have nothing else to do in a day but fret?

  Of course, humans are bad enough, even without demon herding. The politics just drip off the Bible pages, but you have to read slowly and think about what's NOT said, using your own recognition of people games you see in life. It really helps to read Bible slowly, and pause to think a lot, when reading its (at times laconic, or wry) narratives. Keep asking why the words are what they are. Do this first in your favorite translation, then dig into whatever verses seem odd.

  It never fails but what a verse translation cuts God's Head off. Mistranslations are likewise demonic herding; they will always have something odd about them, and will always malign God in some 'vague' way. Check out Mark 3:5, Gen3:11, Jas4:5, Exo12:6, 6:20, and notice how those verses (pulled off the top of my head) all make Christ and God out to be stupid, evil, capricious, and lawbreakers. And every one of those mistranslations has persisted for centuries in every version I can remember seeing. No one bothers to correct them. But they are all blasphemous. Now that is typical function of demon thought transference, happening every day, to all of us: it's their counterpart to the "Filling of the Spirit" (in which the Holy Spirit controls your soul, with your continuing consent). They always mimic what God does for the believer. Always. No one is a match for them, they're too clever and nice. [Gen 3:11 makes God out to be a liar or withholder of information; Exo12:6 makes God out to break His own before-sundown Law; Exo 6:20, makes God out to break His own prohibition against marrying your father's sister (original text doesn't even have those words); Mark 3:5 makes the Lord out to be a sinner by anger (it's THEIR anger, not His, can't we read the Greek?) and James 4:5 makes the Holy Spirit out to commit the sin of jealousy (pros takes the accusative of hostility, did no one remember that). More on these verses are said in other websites. Point here is to show very brilliant scholars can be duped, blindsided. So it's easier to understand how the best legal minds in Israel get pushed about like so many cows, this Week. We are no match for Satan&Co.]

  Other really embarrassingly common examples of herding: how we don't read Bible to see how it never depicts Adam as a hunter-gatherer or even a meat-eater, but rather as a civilized person who was engaged in taxonomy (Gen 2); Cain was a farmer, for crying out loud, and he was mad at God for not accepting his produce; gets mad and builds a city. We don't read Bible to see that Gen1:2 depicts how the earth changed so Genesis 1 is about the restoration of the earth, not its initial creation. And instead, we are herded into all the silly evolution arguments, which are about HERDS of ape-like creatures who hunt meat and live like animals, in caves. Don't you think demons herded the animals to make them do tricks, prior to man's arrival -- since clearly they do that to us and we have brains? Do no brains turn on?

  And why do we let ourselves be herded into explaining away Bible miracles as natural phenomena? The billions of dollars we spend trying to 'reconcile' Supernatural God with natural law He creates? Sheesh! The unbeliever says he won't believe in God unless God never ACTS like God. Cute tautology, that. And we let ourselves be herded into such hasty and illogical arguments which don't even have a thing to do with what Bible says? And let's not mention the prolifers, who never read Bible in their lives -- which stridently says in the original-language texts that life begins ONLY at birth, viz., Gen2:7, Exo21:22 and 340 verses already referenced by category in NoWombLife.htm? So they can't see how their arguments make God into a sadist and a murderer (i.e., spontaneous abortion occurs routinely, especially in third-world countries)? Yeah, we're herded alright: we don't even question the fact that there are not three days between any Friday and Sunday...

  You gotta grow and stay in God's System if you're a believer; else you can kiss your independence, goodbye. Demon possession (in unbelievers) and influence (in believers) are rarely detectable. They mimic the unfelt quality of Filling, so you can't feel them. Rather, a lust insinuates itself, with a craving to perpetuate it -- often, this lust is more intellectual than physical, and always in the name of 'right' or 'rights' -- so it becomes a stealthy addiction. You'll see that addiction play, in the Sanhedrin. Seeing it here helps you to identify it in yourself, and in those around you. TV is a great medium for transmitting it, and a great medium for seeing how it functions. Parallels what you see in the Gospels, with real life. Chief characteristic is a marionetting which makes the one puppetted, behave out-of-character and foolish. Evolution is based on the irrational mathematical claim that a set can contain itself (that 1=1+1, essentially); that an inferior attribute set can make itself bigger. That's a prime example of the intellectual demon herding commonly practiced in the world today; in the world of Passion Week, on the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, etc. Only someone outside that 'loop', can tell what's going on.

  Judas seems to have left while the apostles were still eating, or just afterwards. It looks like, although the Sanhedrin plotters had bribed him earlier, they really didn't know IF he would return to tell them where Jesus was. So that might account for some of their haste: what if he changed his mind the next day? Judas was a believer. We know that absolutely, for Judas was picked as one of the 12. So he had believed in Christ. So "Satan entered" in Luke22:3 (and John 13:27), isn't demon possession: what Satan 'entered', was Judas' soul, and that means Satan had permission. Demon possession, by contrast, is an indwelling of the body; they take over your body: think of the naked guy among the tombs. Holy Spirit indwells our bodies, if that analogy helps you understand why demons can't possess believers.
  Demon influence is what happened to Judas, because he was a believer; soul manipulation pressure that feels 'good' in some perverse way, so the victim's consent is always given. The influence is designed to beat down the will to resist, since consent is required. Then, to foster some replacement behavior which frankly makes a fool out of the person. At first there is no awareness of the source, but the consent is to the good feeling, so it's a consent to whatever source of that feeling. My pastor calls the soul-manipulation pressure believers get from Satan&Co., "demon thought transference". They can and routinely do invade the soul with thoughts, feelings, all manner of stuff, in order to gain consent for repetition; generally, their influence is covert, so you mistake the thoughts and feelings for your own. Doesn't matter: if you give into those thoughts/urges, it's your fault; it's like an addiction, and it can get real bad, real fast. That's why people can be suddenly smart, charming, vicious, hallucinate visions, etc. Satan&Co. are real good at their craft, and believers are actually more vulnerable, since we lost our brains when we first believed in Christ.

  Matt26:25, Mark 14:19, Luke22:21, John 13:26-30 record the multiple times the Lord individually and collectively explained who would betray Him; Matthew focuses on the individual nature, showing how the Lord directly told Judas he'd be the initial betrayer; Mark takes time to show everyone initially asked the question, and apparently Judas had not yet asked, but dipped his bread into the water at the same time; Luke focuses on the collective announcement (and probably most of the disciples had their hands on the table, because they still didn't know who, after He'd said that, see Luke 22:23). Luke also parallels the betrayal, with the competition over which disciple would be the greatest, Luke 22:24. So the question of 'betrayal' is shown to have another side. John's account is autobiographical -- you can always tell, because he shuns mentioning his own name -- so that was his personal experience. (See his own confession to his own betrayal, expressed in third person, John 21.) In sum, that Last Supper explanation about betrayal was part of His larger brief on how He would be arrested that night, since He is the Passover Lamb, and how they all would betray Him. It was as always, a heads-up to head off, later suffering. When everyone betrayed Him, they could look back and know He didn't condemn them for it. So Judas is used as the prototype for us all.

  So on that Saturday night, it probably took Judas a good three hours to return to Gethsemane with an entire cohort of Roman troops, Temple guards, and all those priests. It would take time to go to the Sanhedrin, time to organize the plotters out of their homes; time to acquire permission to get a cohort (they don't just up and obey the Sanhedrin, you know). Since people tended to eat at roughly the same time, Judas would have to wait until they had finished eating -- he had left while the disciples were still eating. Since in the Exodus the firstborn were slain about midnight (i.e., Exo11:4), maybe they arrested Him at midnight. The Greek phrase for "midnight" is not in any of the Passion accounts, however. Again, it could not be a surprise. The Lord announced it at the Last Supper, even spent time explaining it, as we just saw; then Judas leaves. They all deliberately wait for him to return; the Lord admonishing them to pray -- obviously, so they can withstand the arrest. Which you'd bet they all intended to do. But instead they fall asleep. Just like us.

  The first two Temple trials (before Annas and then Caiaphas) take place during the night, and last all night (see John 18:12 on Annas, 18:24 on Caiaphas; overall story is in Luke22 through v.66, Matt26-27, Mark14ff, John 18ff); the third, before the joint body of the Sanhedrin (well, such as they could muster), takes place sometime at dawn (again, v.66). This last was but a rubber-stamping, very summary. It was at the Second (before-Caiaphas) Trial that He says the words they yearned to hear: He's Messiah. So they now think they have the indictment they need for the Romans, so spend the rest of the 'trial' blindfolding Him, punching Him, and mocking Him. That is how these religious people spent their most-sacred-of-days, Passover evening -- in direct fulfillment of Isa52:14-Isa53:4: ka'asher shamemu aleká rabbim, ken mishhat me ish mareyhu; wa toaro me bene adam.

  They knew His genealogy quite well: they'll use it to charge Him with sedition. Christ is no threat as a mere teacher. And they can't make a charge of sedition based on His behavior, which Pilate well knows. Intelligence about Christ and His Ministry is three-years-long, at this point. He's turned down the Zealots, He's snubbed the Sanhedrin, He's alienated the business community by telling them they're getting rich off misuse of Temple-related affairs, and he's told all the teachers they are lying. So how's He gonna get a following? But if He is Son of David, rightful heir, well -- even if He didn't want to take over, people around Him might rally. So forget all that kant fed by too many that the Sanhedrin and the Jews didn't know who He was. They KNEW, and they USED it to get Him indicted. Else, there's no threat to Rome even possible.

  As for their violation of that Most Sacred Holiday in the Jewish Calendar by everyone IN the Sanhedrin: again, this is demonism at work. Totally out of character. The demon boys take whatever deep negativity one has, use it to make you crave something which makes you later embarrassed -- and everyone around you (us readers of the Gospels, for example) can tell this is totally insane behavior. They Are Trying To Do Everything Short Of Killing Him. Because, that's the goal of Satan&Co., who are trying to beat the 4th day deadline (which is True Passover). So they are trying to hurt Him enough, hoping He might sin, and thus be disqualified for the Cross; failing that, they are trying to hurt Him enough so He can't survive to the deadline. Remember, His Body is Perfect, so it takes a fair amount to undo His Powerful Physique (forget the wimpy, skinny body you see in Bible movies). It's a real race for time. All the humans know, is they love the self-righteous anger they feel, and who knows whether it was their own, or strictly feelings 'sent' by the demonboys.

  So that's how they could even convene a 3rd Trial before the "whole body" (term in the Gospel accounts); a false messiah is the worst of crimes; but they didn't even examine whether He was false, or true. They Convict Him Based On Him Saying He's Messiah. That's illegal, for a number of reasons. The biggest reason: they are supposed to then test whether What He Says, Is True; if True, then He's NOT blaspheming, get it? It's not as though they lacked evidence to prove His Claim true. He'd spent the previous three years fulfilling prophecy after miracle after prophecy, and there were thousands who could validate what happened. Well, those folks weren't even called for depositions (would have taken a good year to gather)! So Mark's Gospel is oozing with sarcasm on this point, going so far as to prove the Sanhedrin themselves were constantly eyewitnesses to these proofs; and then always Mark's refrain: immediately, the more He Proved Himself Messiah, the More the Religious Jews Hated Him for it, thus fulfilling Isa52:14. Read the Gospel yourself. It's really enlightening. [Mark's Gospel is so scathing, because he's writing a generation later: he uses that format to say you current generation of believers are just as bad, always wanting a miracle, and immediately hating Him for proving Himself God. Again, the Synoptics are meant to be more than a re-telling of events. Rather, just as Deuteronomy is also a commentary on Numbers and Leviticus topics, so also later Gospels (Matthew's was first) comment on previous Holy Writ. So you have to look for the frame of reference for each Gospel, and know its date, to get the proper perspective on its purpose. It's all material from the Holy Spirit: that's why it's DIVINE WRIT, not just some human testimony. Dingong 'scholars' always forget that, so draw these incredibly crazy conclusions about the Gospels, oh where did they get their material. Especially, re Mark's.]

  Note well: they are very aware of Trinity. It's not Trinity being disputed here, but whether HE is the Promised Son. "Son of God" was the basis for the indictment -- a false "Son", not that there is no such thing. See: if there were no such thing as "Son of God" it couldn't BE a criminal charge to claim. Everyone would just laugh, and walk away. The crime was to lie and claim you were that "Son of God" under the Law. But if it was true, then it's not a crime, since that's the promise of the Law (viz., middle of Isa63, Ps110:1, the very shemah itself, everything in the Temple being a 2Sam7 downpayment-depiction of that Future Son). Messiah means God-man. It never means a mere man. A mere man can't rule Israel and the world himself forever. A mere man can't BE a "Son of God", get it? 2Sam7 is not a dynastic promise. It's "God with us" (=Immanuel) ruling forever, which the Temple depicted long prior. Christ Himself living as King Himself forever. So the blasphemy would be someone claiming to be "the Christ" (term is used in Daniel 9, LXX) -- who wasn't. That's a lie, and punishable by death under the law (see Jeremiah 25-29 on false claims and the capital punishment from God).

  So what do we know about this "whole body" of the Sanhedrin, who violate what they consider their most sacred holiday on absolutely no notice? We know they are AFRAID. Think about the time it takes for the Sanhedrin to do all this running around, especially on the Most Important Holiday of the religious year, one which mandates Everyone Go To Jerusalem, and then also mandates Shutting Down Jerusalem Until The Following Sunset. You don't just slap together a joint meeting of the Sanhedrin (about 70 senior official folks, plus scribes and other assistants), especially when it's Passover, for crying out loud! This is the Highest Juridical Body In The Land! So they must be afraid, to be so obedient to a few.

  But afraid of what? Division #4 (Postscript link at pagetop) says more about it, but here's the gist: they were afraid of being accused of believing in Christ. Because, many of them secretly did believe in Him. John makes quite a point about how from the beginning, Christ was persecuted, but the persecutors had a tough time pinning something bad on Him. It's no accident that for three years, Christ couldn't be arrested. No evidence, and not enough "yes" votes, either. Why? Well, because in safer days, when the plotters who were against Him from that first second (i.e., John 5) -- in safer days, the plotters didn't have enough fear power to garner "yes" votes. But these weren't safer days. Messiah didn't side with the Zealots, didn't side with the Sanhedrin, openly explained why the Mishnaic prescriptions were anti-God, and had been telling all Israel that the priesthood was corrupt: using some very nasty epithets, like "whitewashed tombs" (Matt23:27), "hypocrites" (16 verses, starting with Matt6:2!), "you are of your father, the devil" (the worst thing one can say, see John 8:41ff). Remember also, He'd cleaned out the Temple as His first official act on entering Jerusalem (John 2:13) -- that didn't sit well with those profiting from Temple business. In short, over the 3 years the Lord had alienated every interest group. So it wasn't safe to believe in Him now. Some -- probably like Judas -- were so disappointed, they turned iconoclastic. But others just faded into the wallpaper, perplexed. For God is never politically-correct: He's GOD, not dog.

  So the first two trials were designed to get Him to say something they could use as a valid charge before the whole Sanhedrin. Badgering the Witness, replete with mocking and punching Him blindfolded, once they got Him to say the Truth -- yes, He is the Messiah. Then, to hold the Joint Meeting of the Sanhedrin the next morning, though that still violates the Passover. To get them to assemble, there must have been a lot of pleading and cajoling, threats, claims that this is an emergency, etc. See: these are the top jurists of the Land. And the penalty for violating any sabbath, especially the High Passover Sabbath, is death, under the law (i.e., in Exo31:14, which the Mishnah conveniently forgets). This is the Most Important Sabbath in the Jewish year. More sacred than all others. And for what did they assemble? What national catastrophe could justify assembly on pain of death under the Law? How could they claim they didn't deserve to die for the violation? Look: even if we pretend the Lord was lying, it's a charge of blasphemy, not imminent invasion or a Trojan horse ploy.

  So they are afraid. So now the Judas story is a bit wider, and we can all understand better what the Lord meant at the Last Supper. It's one thing to believe, but when your life is at stake -- does that belief last? Generally, no. And there are 1000 excuses, all of them valid, to say no. But only one reason, to say yes: and only His Strength, enables that yes to stick, since even He in His Perfection lived on it: the Word, under the Spirit.

  After these trials, but still before Passover ends at sundown, they take the Lord to Pilate at about dawn (prowsias and proi, used in Matt, and Mark, John); in doing this they again violate the Passover Sabbath (Matt27:1-2, Mark 15:1, Luke 23:1, John 18:28, very sardonic). Each of the three Temple Trials violates the Passover Sabbath, as does the trip to Pilate. So within 24 hours, a whole bunch of religious people violate the most sacred day of their religion -- FOUR times.
  This is a great example of what demon possession/influence does to crowds. Satan&Co. are all about derision, so they pick whatever would make you a fool, and then make you crave it. 'Make', though, with your free consent. But it feels so good (intellectually or physically), you want to keep doing it. So: notice how these legalistic Jews are violating the one rule they themselves most respect and revere. I can't imagine how bad they felt after the Resurrection, when a lot of them would be considered too unimportant, to 'herd'. For they would realize what happened. Judas killed himself -- no doubt, because Satan stopped influencing him, so Judas had the awesome freedom to recognize what he'd done.

  And if the Sanhedrin were in their right minds this day, they'd realize one thing above all else: they are committing political suicide. They are cutting out their constituent base in one blow. For the Jewish citizens hated Rome and hated Herod. So what are the Sanhedrin doing? Cuddling UP, with both! And all that, just to get (what they consider) a pseudo-Messiah, executed? Jerusalem has seen hundreds of pretenders in the prior 100 years! So why not go through the normal process with This One, too? For they end up ASKING A FAVOR from both rulers, in order to get Him executed. They wouldn't normally have to do that. But they are in such a hurry. Why? And who helps them? Their political enemies! Man, that's like President Bush asking Pat Robertson for illegal help (the latter is a vehement critic of the former), and then advertising to all America, that he'd done that! Just how long do you think President Bush would have a viable Administration after that? Not five minutes. So, apply the same principle back to 30AD, here, then multiply the outcry by a bizillion percent. Look: this is a nation of people who rioted because Pilate displayed some Roman decorative shields in his own Government seat! How much more, when these same people see their own leaders, cozy UP to the same guy they rioted against?

  After all, they had recognized it was stupid to arrest Him during the Festival, Mark 14:2. So how is it, less than a week later (The Lord only arrived the previous Sunday, remember), they do the very thing that they feared to do? I mean, they do arrest Him, and on the very first day of the Festival, violating the Sabbath, to do it. That's like you saying, "Well, I don't want to go outside in my underwear in 10-degree weather." But immediately after you said that, you do it! That's the kind of insanity going on, here. Again, we're looking at demonism. But as always, with the victims' consent.

  Worse: did they intend to provoke a riot, by sending so many troops in the dead of night, and during the Festival Week -- which was exactly what would start a riot, so they didn't want to arrest Him before the Festival a week or less prior? So why are they doing it? Sure, Judas had gotten all hot and bothered over the perfume thingy (Mark 14:10), thus finally deciding to betray Him. But Judas was emotional. The Sanhedrin, were trained lawyers. Frankly, it was an insane thing to do, to arrest Him then -- a really stupid political move. Sure, at the moment they are thinking that they cower the people. But how long until the people recognize The Sanhedrin are Cozying Up to the Romans? Wouldn't give two cents for their lives, after He's crucified.

  In Part IVc (link at pagetop), I spent a lot of time explaining Satan's strategy and how demon influence works. But clearly people can be plenty stupid without demon help. How do you tell the difference? There is a cleverness underneath the behavior which you know can't be of human origin. It's just like the surgical cleverness of Bible mistranslations which reverse meaning to insult God, or make the Bible look like it wants man's works (the two most common reversal categories). Just as you know not one Bible scholar ever living would malign God on purpose, so you also know these guys are UNaware that their actions are propelling them into Temple Destruction and Diaspora -- on a sheer political basis, prophecy or no prophecy.

  Satan&Co. need to kill the Jews; it's one of the three cardinal Macro Tactics they must follow. So think: the Romans are already upset with Jews because they are so hard to govern. This action will worsen that situation, big-time. The Sanhedrin are commandeering an entire cohort, so that gets the Romans thinking, oh, there's a riot brewing; and, the Jews seeing the cohort, will get even angrier at such visible evidence of their oppression (they already did, at Caesarea, when Pilate took over, about four years prior); so now both sides -- Romans and Jews, has nothing to do with Jesus -- will be more likely to fight. And their fighting is vicious. It's not a football game. So all this activity is just going to hasten the destruction of Jerusalem by flaring up the sides. Very bad move. Very orchestrated with the long-strategic-eye, by Satan&Co. That's how you see Who's Really Pulling The Strings.

  Then there's the problem of bad stuff happening on your watch; if bad enough, it doesn't even matter whether it's your fault. You don't survive, period. And, they won't. You should check, but if memory serves, I think that everyone in power who was involved on this day either died, was ousted, banished, or otherwise severely discredited within only seven years. Jerusalem never really recovered. The resultant chaos and power vacuum and factions just chewed everyone up. Really, that happens whenever a mature believer is messed with -- and Our Lord is #1 -- but you see the same story happen when Paul was executed, when Methusaleh died (but that's the meaning of his very name -- après moi, le deluge), between the time David retired and died (7 years, per 1Kings 1:1 and 6:1), etc. It's a pattern. But on the ground, you always find incredibly stupid political moves made by the ones guilty -- and almost always, those folks were smart. Yeah, not when arrogance takes over...

  So they go to Pilate (4th trial), maybe just before 6am: Greek word proi in Mark, John means fourth Roman watch of the night, which ends at 6am. At that point, Pilate had been procurator for about four years. About the same time the Lord began His public ministry, Pilate had newly been appointed. If you're a Roman, Judea is about the last post in the Empire, you want to receive. So he must have been under a dark cloud, already (and would leave that way, too, by 36AD). So it's reasonable to expect that Pilate was well-informed about this Messiah by his own spies. So he did know what he was getting into. And he would want as much delay as possible, even if he had no concern about the innocence of this Prisoner brought before him. One big thing, was that he didn't want to alienate the Jews further -- he had gotten into trouble for that, not long prior. So any chance he had to pawn off responsibility, he'd want to take. In short, he'd give the Sanhedrin a wary reception. Especially, since the "whole body" of them show up. Pilate had to know that was completely weird. Usually only a delegation was needed. And it's Passover for crying out loud. So he'd use every tactic he could to slow them down.
  The Roman Empire, despite its self-delusion that it was still a republic, honored kings. The Sanhedrin are claiming this Jewish by-rights-King, was stirring up the people. Now if you're a Roman Emperor doling out control in the provinces, you look for a king around which the local people will rally. That makes the Empire more profitable. Rome used that talent for localizing rule to good effect. The Herods were used for that reason, and that's why they attached themselves to the descendants of the Maccabees, centuries prior. So here was a real king, whereas the Davidic line had been very low key for centuries. Clearly power-grabbing wasn't a goal, even as it had not been for centuries, by the sons of David. So in case Rome had trouble with the Herods -- and it did, lots of trouble with the sons -- well, use of a rightful King would be potentially important. So Pilate would need time to think. Above all, he'd have to test Herod in the matter, since Herod would maybe want an alliance of his own with this King. So there's no way Pilate would quickly agree to the crazy assembly of the Sanhedrin. Too important, not to hurry.

  That's why Pilate's deft questionning of the Lord occurs. Testing the water. That's why the Lord's deft questionning of Pilate occurs, removing the entire political context and instead focusing on the nature of His Messiahship as a Salvation Purpose -- which of course Pilate well knew. And that's why the indictment will read in three languages over His Cross, "King of the Jews".

• Sunday night, 15 Nisan, begins the First Legal Working Day, but Day Two of Unleavened Bread. It ends the following sundown, Monday 16 Nisan. Gospels: Luke 23:6-12. So travel and work have been off-limits since Friday night, until Sunday night. Jerusalem was Shut Down By Law. So the soonest you could work or travel, was effectively Monday, since on Sunday night you still had a festal meal . This bullet is also long, since Bible movies and documentaries routinely fail to show the cultural protocols of the Passover, of the people in the Middle East, take time.

  Law Key To Interpretation → To do anything at night during Passover week, is roughly analogous to working on Christmas Day at dinnertime. Folks just don't do that, unless forced. Frankly, that's against the Law, too. The Meals Are Mandated Each Evening.

  This Is The First Day That Activity Could Have Legally happened. So the soonest He could be sent to Herod (5th Trial), would be Monday; Herod wouldn't be so stupid as to accept seeing Him on a High Sabbath; and by sundown, there is entertaining to do. Herod was trying to ingratiate himself with the Jewish public, and was funding the restoration of the Temple (which his dad had begun). So Herod was witty, brilliant, cunning, and quite the entertainer; so he'd not agree to see them that night, either. Sorry, not enough time for preparations to receive any delegation, not enough food, would be a valid excuse. To see Herod meant an entourage, and gifts. Just like you don't walk in the Oval Office whenever you feel like it, even if you're the First Lady. You make appointments, you follow protocols. There must be an entourage, because political protocols are required between the Roman procurator, the Sanhedrin, and the Galillean tetrarch who was a client (well a tarnished client) of the Roman Caesar. Screw up the protocols, and you create what amounts to an 'international incident'. Moreover, we know from Luke 23:7-12 that there was an entourage from the Sanhedrin, itself. So definitely this took some time. The Jews needed that Sunday night, as well; especially since they'd spent the prior 24 hours railroading the Lord to get to Pilate, in the first place. For if now they have to go to Herod, they must prepare. But by Sunday night when they can leave, they won't be able: like it wryly says in John 18:28, that dawn ON the Sabbath in a place they aren't supposed to be, well they conveniently ignore that, but 'remember' their own rule about being in a Gentile domain (definitely their own law) -- so they didn't want to defile themselves from eating the Passover that Sunday night. [Nerd note: I don't know of a real Mosaic Law proscription on their entry into Pilate's place, since it's daytime; and if there was one, they'd only be unclean until evening, so could eat the Passover. The Law they truly broke, is their injustice and their work, penalty for which was death under the Law of Moses. By the way, "preparation" and "Passover" are and were used as generic terms in Judaism, so are not reserved terms for only specific days, i.e., Fridays and the first night of Passover week. John is quoting their thinking, so using their conventions.]

  Neither would Herod. In the Middle East especially, hospitality and diplomatic courtesies must be extended (place to stay and rest), even if only travelling across the street -- the distance you could travel on the sabbath was 2000 paces, about 3/4ths of a mile beyond the city wall. Herod was in Jerusalem for the Passover, Luke 23:7. So a prospective entourage must be fed: this is ingrained Middle Eastern hospitality. Doesn't matter if you only came to ask a single question, it's expected that you chit-chat. Since the laws on throwing out leftovers plus fresh preparation meant you kept your portions close to your body counts, well -- Herod's palace wouldn't likely be ready for a delegation. You're not supposed to eat with non-Jews, either, so that presented problems with respect to the Romans who accompanied Him. Plus, we also don't know if Herod had, despite all these difficulties, chosen for the Lord to stay at the palace (i.e., hoping for an alliance, or at least some plea or other gesture from Him). Given the Luke 23 account, I bet he did.

  In short, one needed more time during Passover. As importantly, Middle Eastern hospitality -- especially in the house of an official -- is expected to be lavish. And long. You sit, you eat a little, you talk a little, you have another little glass of tea or some kind of curdled drink. So with the tea, Herod would milk this situation for all it's worth. So there would be a delay, if only to prepare for these enemies-turned-guests. And for the goyim Roman guards, separate provisions would have to be made for them, since you can't have them under the same roof as where you eat the evening meal that week (Exo12:43-48).

  So it was Monday the Lord probably spent with Herod. Herod and Pilate did not get along. Neither did Herod and the Sanhedrin. So Herod would quickly understand he's got unique opportunities to explore, and would want to use all his charm to negotiate the best deal. You don't get your political enemies coming to you hat-in-hand, very often.

  Put yourself in his place, so you can see why to delay, suited him. Surely Herod had gotten intelligence about it over the weekend, but what could he do? Until Monday, he'd not be in a position to invite anyone to the palace for consultation. This was not a hasty man. This was a scheming man. You can't keep political power without becoming thoughtful about what you do, analyzing all the possible results. It's like chess, to be in political power: and far more dangerous. Politicians thus always delay stuff. They need time to consider their options, test the political winds, try to guess which side to take for their own best advantage, both short- and long-term. So they first delay an action pushed on them. Just as any good attorney would do. They don't want to go into battle, blind. And here, the factions are many: the Sanhedrin is split religiously and politically, with Herod having some ties to the Pharisees who hated the Lord (i.e., Mark 3:6); the Zealots have ties, and they are also split. Then there's Pilate. Maybe some deal which can be worked out with the Lord Himself.

  Herod needs time to assess the directions in which all these fractious parties might go, before he decides anything. And this is the first time he'll get to talk to the Lord Himself. That matters, for Herod well knows the Lord is the rightful King of Israel. Herod is used to making deals with kings -- that's how his (great- ?) grandfather got them all enmeshed with the Maccabeans, and later with Augustus Caesar!

  In addition to all this, Herod himself was double-minded, and appeared to suffer neurotic if not psychotic episodes due to it (i.e., imagining John the Baptist had risen from the dead); the guy's complicated. On the one hand, he had some genuine curiosity about the possibility of Messiah being Christ, as deftly recorded in the Greek of Luke 9:9 (using the imperfect tense of zetew), showing that Herod desperately wanted to meet Him; as evidenced by his episodes and his erstwhile on-again, off-again support for John the Baptist (you don't spend time listening to someone like that, if uninterested); on the other hand, Herod feared the crowds; he feared political rivalry; he liked to put down anyone who was his enemy. Herod badly wanted approval, liked to think of himself as the great conciliator. It was a family trait, frankly. [It's hard to tell if Luke 13:31 is a lie told the Lord by the Pharisees, since they didn't like Him. It's possible Herod waxed both hot and cold, for the guy was moody, so maybe was in a rage at the time of Luke 13:31, versus Luke 9:9; the latter is like a love need. Greek verb zetew is used for seeking something you desperately want. Herod's dad was like that, too (dad was Herod the Great, a very capable -- and capricious -- man).]

  Herod was extremely rich. His dad was probably the wealthiest man in the Middle East, which is saying a lot. His dad rebuilt most of Jerusalem, including the Temple, which at this point has undergone a good 48 years of construction. All of Caesarea was completely built by his dad's money, and it's no cheap thing to make an artificial harbor. Jerusalem in his dad's day had better games and chariot races than even Rome had -- all courtesy of his dad's money. Even the 'divine' Augustus would seek to vacation with Herod the Great in Judea. Which is quite a statement, considering that Judea's people were the most vicious, contentious, pettifogging and annoying people in the Roman Empire (they were famous for it). That money didn't come through taxes, but through smart and very large business deals which benefitted many. For two years during a famine, Herod the Great had imported grain from Egypt to feed Jerusalem -- all at his own expense. So think: when you are that rich and that interested in being approved, and here's the possibility of Messiah Himself -- you are threatened but extremely desirous of HIS approval. For one thing great wealth teaches you, is that nothing is worthwhile. You reach the pinnacle of life, thinking all the way up that it would buy you peace. When you get to the top, you find all you acquired, was ennui. Only God's Wealth -- Word in you -- satisfies. So there is this awesome tiredness and a kind of yearning for something better, to ease the cynicism. Hence the very wealthy often become eccentric, trying to assuage the realization that nothing is what it was cracked up to be. A person needs hope, or he dies. But great wealth, great power, dash all hopes. Satan is the most powerful, richest, most talented person ever to come from the hand of God. And the most miserable. Having rejected God, what else can he look up to?

  So the Lord didn't arrive until Monday, probably none too early, either; Herod would want that, to buy extra time. The event would be a kind of staged affair. First, the receipt of the prisoner and delegation, followed by an interim while the feet were washed and other ritual greetings, a little time to freshen up before a formal audience. Then, back-scenes questions so to get informed, before the formal proceedings begin. Then, a round of formal proceedings, followed by a meal. Then, another round of formal proceedings, a break, some more back-room politics, and maybe a third round. Then, a meal. During this time, Herod would be waiting for some signal from the Lord that He wanted either a private discussion, or that He was prepared to offer something: for during the formal proceeding, everyone postures. So Herod would expect the Lord to be doing that as well. Any real offers or ideas or information wouldn't be presented at the formal proceeding.

  So then He probably stayed overnight, and probably ate with Herod (given Herod's personality, that would make sense), or at least appeared before Herod in lieu of the night's entertainment (if Herod wanted to mock Him publically). Point is, it was not a rush job. The Sanhedrin obviously were trying to railroad the Lord, which fact alone would make a man like Herod, slow things down. Adept politicians always think ten steps ahead, before taking even one; and no one was more adept, than the Herods. [Bible talks about more than one "Herod". Because everyone writing and reading the Gospels contemporaneously knew which Herod was meant, you won't often see distinctions made in the text. So you have to carefully parse out which Herod is in view.]

  Again, this is a unique opportunity for Herod. The political value of a son of David with whom he could ally, was unprecedented. Herod had long tried to gain political legitimacy. Yes, there was the problem of competition, but alliance was how the Herods got their status 100+ years prior, with the Hasmoneans (aka Maccabeans). So it's natural to first seek alliance. Herod would not rush it, would want the Lord to linger around as long as possible. Look how long he kept even John the Baptist in jail, before executing him, and even then -- reluctantly?

  And Herod just had to appreciate the irony. His dad had, after all, tried to kill this Messiah person when He was born. At that time in 4BC, Herod was in his last year of life, outliving his kill-the-baby order by only four months or so -- probably the reason for the census, frankly, since until then dad Herod the Great himself handled the taxes and remitted them to Rome, often rebating taxes to the Jews. It was a fabulous arrangement for Rome, since due to Herod's handling, the Roman presence could be cheaper and lower, thus not exciting the Jews so much. But back then, Herod's dying was slow and obvious; so the mammoth tax reform of his pal Augustus, which had started in the provinces probably 12BC using that roving emissary and close associate of the family, Quirinius -- would finally have to be implemented in Herod's territory. Couldn't trust the fractious sons to be as loyal to Rome as their father. So here what his dad couldn't achieve, a son was called on to do, nab Messiah. Oh, how rich. History takes strange turns. [I don't understand why the Augustan tax reform scheme doesn't get more attention, when we look at Luke 2. The only person who could handle it for the provinces would have been Quirinius. There was much opposition to the ending of tax farming in Rome, and it didn't go through the provinces right away. Rome used the Herods to keep a low profile, and therefore didn't even run the tax reform itself, but through Herod. You should be able to prove this fairly readily on the internet. As to the reason for a sudden switch in 4BC, well that's a logical supposition. Even so, you shouldn't find Roman records, the new scheme would still be handled by the Jews, owing to their sensitivity and Herod being in charge; and in any event, the papyrus or parchment used for the rolls would be outdated after a year or two, and the material reused. These would have to be annual census-takings for taxes, especially since a head tax was part of the new tax reform scheme. And it wouldn't even be necessary, until Herod was dying. He'd been handling the payment of taxes to Rome with his own infrastructure, since he was made King of Judea, decades earlier. He was close to Caesar. So he was trustworthy.]

  It's a complex set of facts, in a nation and people long on grudges and machination. So it's not surprising that the Luke 23 account reveals that it took some time, probably all day: imperfect of eperotaw plus ikanos in Luke 23:9 could mean interrogation or interest, and that it lasted all day, for a long time. Looks like an interrogation much like what happened on Passover night, trying to get Him to say something that could be used against Him with the Romans; it would be more important to do that, since after seeing Pilate the first time (4th Trial), Pilate didn't find Him guilty, and only conceded to send Him to Herod as an escape from having to judge Him. So again: yeah, it probably lasted all day. Text doesn't seem to say how long, but given Herod's personality and the delicate political situation, it makes more sense to argue that the Lord stayed there overnight on Monday. It would be an honor to be invited to stay. And, it would buy Herod time to think. The Sanhedrin would jump at the chance. Doesn't matter that Herod's residence was a short march away from Pilate. It's a palace, for crying out loud. Wouldn't you jump at the chance to stay?

  Here's the political meaning of an overnight visit. If He'd be kept there overnight, Herod could maybe get some secret message during that night: for during the day, one must save face, especially in that cultural milieu. Also, that night would give Herod some 'quiet time' with the more influential leaders of the Sanhedrin to cut a deal, or at least get a better sense what they wanted, needed, and the political winds among them. So when the following morning the Lord is still mum, not having sent the desired olive branch; when Herod is now briefed on the Sanhedrin and how he can use them; well, that's when the mocking likely began. Probably had one more formal proceeding after a nice breakfast. Then, using the Lord's silence in the morning proceeding as an excuse, the mocking could begin. Took time to mock Him with Kingly robes (ibid) with the assistance of his troops (Greek text is quite clear that Herod AND the soldiers were doing this, not just the latter). But Herod didn't indict Him (see Luke 23:13-15). Looks like His not answering Herod, riled up the latter's famous temper, but not his famous guile (ibid). OR -- maybe Herod was angry alright, but used the anger to palliate the Sanhedrin by mocking Him even as the Sanhedrin did late Passover night (sans blindfold and punching) -- so his not finding Christ guilty, would kinda slip past their recognition. After all, they were aching to make fun of Him over and over; they are his guests, so -- shouldn't a good host and his own troops, oblige?

  Herod is basically appeasing both Pilate and the Sanhedrin by what he does here. He's not going against anyone, but not going strongly FOR anyone. The not-guilty and the no-punching, agrees with Pilate. The mocking, agrees with the Sanhedrin. And by not coming out strongly against the Sanhedrin, Herod tacitly agrees with their control of the final outcome. Which Pilate already agreed to as well, by not sending them away, when they came to him. So everyone's violating trial rules. As always, in the name of expediency. How modern.

  Seems like Satan&Co. didn't want this to happen, and are making the best of a bad situation; they must have overplayed their 'encouragement' to hate, for "Galilean" is an epithet, something you said to insult a person (Galileans were considered stupid and unlearned by the elites); had they not said He was from Galilee, Herod would not have been invoked by Pilate. So Satan&Co.'s goal was to get Pilate to order His Crucifixion back on Sunday morning, so that by Monday He'd be on a Cross, not in front of Herod. But Pilate wasn't as easy to manipulate as the Sanhedrin were. Pilate's weakness was that he didn't want to be falsely accused, himself. And he had some genuine understanding that Jesus was innocent. Pilate's other weakness, though, was the need to keep the factions in tow -- not really a weakness, but definitely a problem -- so he'd have to commit political suicide himself, to believe in the Lord versus going along with the crowd. So the Sanhedrin would have to themselves threaten a riot to overcome Pilate's deft manipulation of their 'cause'. Which, they had begun doing, right away: first saying that the Lord Himself was seditious; when that didn't work they threatened to report Pilate to Caesar, just as they had already done, four years prior. It would prove to be too great a threat.

  The Sanhedrin lost everything they sought, this day. Their two enemies are now friends (Pilate and Herod), and they are dependent on both of them. Jerusalem won't long be in the dark about their manipulation, especially since they so loudly tramped Roman troops through the streets. Never ask a favor from one enemy, let alone two. For now whatever bad comes from this affair, only the Sanhedrin can be blamed. But for other reasons, Pilate would be gone by 36AD, and Herod by 39AD: both accused by their respective Caesars.

  Meanwhile, a another day's delay has occurred. Lamb was set aside on true 10 Nisan, which was nominal 14 Nisan, Passover night. Two more days remain until the proper time for slaughter. And He knows that's the schedule, every moment He breathes, mocked and punched, mocked and not punched, shuttled between one palace to another: all of which, are rightfully His.

  I honestly can't think of a stronger testimony to the character of God than This One: would He be so forebearing, if He didn't KNow how worthwhile it was? God is not sentimental, not a wimp, can get whatever He wants with a nanosecond's thought. He can just think it, and this whole universe would be wiped out as if it never existed. We'd never even know. One second we're here, and next, poof! Same truth exists, a bizillion years from now. Ab initio, poof! So what is so wonderful, that Holy God would ever want us to exist? Surely can't be any kind of need.

• Monday night, 16 Nisan, begins the 2nd Legal Working Day, but Third of Unleavened Bread. It ends sundown Tuesday, 17 Nisan. Gospels: Luke 23:7-12; then Luke 23:13-24, Matt 27:15-18, Mark 15:6-14, John 18:38b-40. (John concatenates Tues-Wed votes.) It takes time for the guard escorting the Lord to go to Herod and to get back to Pilate, even though the two palaces are near each other. Takes time to assemble the necessary crowd-control security, too. For you just know hordes of people milled around outside, waiting to see what would happen. We see the people do it routinely on the nightly news, hundreds of thousands as if by magic, suddenly-appearing throngs, whether to watch an accident or catch a glimpse of a celebrity, or to storm a UN office or radio station. Instantly. Weird.

  Probably the Lord stayed overnight, and was mocked (etc.) the next morning or early afternoon, prior to being sent back to Pilate in mock-king apparel, Luke 23:11. Pilate thus calls everyone together (Luke 23:16) to announce the flogging for the next day, Wednesday: gotta be the next day, because that's his decision announced, and you see him carry it out as previously announced (i.e., in John 19:1ff). They are protesting it, trying to get a crucifixion. So he'd not give in to them ON Tuesday, but would buy time. Pilate must show and enforce his authority, even if only to buy time.

  This tactic would also give him time to learn more, maybe talk with Herod, who knows. But after Herod sending Him back without a conviction, Pilate would need to stall, at least to ponder the possible traps Herod might be laying for the Sanhedrin, or maybe for Pilate himself. They make some kind of alliance through this: what a gruesome thing.

  People are gross. Looks like the mocking He gets after flogging on Wednesday is in imitation of what Herod did on Tuesday. Think of it: Saturday night, He is mocked and punched for being King of the Jews. Tuesday, same thing, but no punching. Next day will be His Crucifixion, and it is preceded with flogging, followed by mocking, more punching and spitting -- this time by the Romans? And Pilate -- who was His only defender -- allowed it?

  This is not normal behavior by authority, obviously, and here the only three authorities in the Land -- Jewish, Herodian, Roman -- all engage in this silly, violent behavior. The Sanhedrin did it, thinking they could make Him incriminate Himself further; for in the Middle East, to so mock, punch, and especially dishonor a person is supposed to bring a rage reaction in the victim. It's considered noble to react. But He didn't. So they despised Him the more. Same, in the Herodian trial, especially since He did do the proper thing during the formal proceedings, and not answer Herod's questions (considered a sign of innocence). Hence the baiting, to get Him to slip. You could maybe argue that was Pilate's motive for allowing (next day) the mocking, as well.

  But frankly, it's demonism, plain and simple: the demons herding the mockers were pressing good feelings into the mockers every time they ridiculed or baited Christ, to make them want to keep it up: for the real goal, was to make the Lord SIN. Sins are mainly thoughts. One sin alone would have invalidated the Cross. The mockers were thus mocked. And notice how patently: both flavors of demonism -- the quiet oh-so-holy kind, and the violent, silly kind -- play in the same people! What, can't they distinguish between the two? If you are holy, then you're not punching and wrapping robes around the victim -- that's not holy, even by human standards. So look: they behave just as mindlessly, as that tomb guy in Gadarenes who kept on gashing himself. Only far worse -- these are people with brains, rulers in the Land. Their last day of brains, to be sure. For you don't survive a demonic encounter: you become walking dead after that, even if still breathing, Matt12:45. Only antidote is faith in Christ.

  Absent 1Jn1:9 and living in God's System, we're all satanfodder. How many similarly violent behaviors have you seen by masses in the Middle East? It's so routine, you probably turn the channel. Flag burnings, effigies, beatings in the streets -- it's pretty common even in our allegedly civilized 20th century. The way Americans behaved in the 2000 elections over chads, was unbelievable. Fielding was right, in Lord of the Flies. People are innately cruel. They like being cruel. And the most vicious among them, are often Christians who haunt the chat channels. So this 30AD crowd and all the silly mocking behavior isn't so far-fetched, after all.

  Meanwhile, another day's delay has occurred. Lamb was set aside on true 10 Nisan, which was nominal 14 Nisan, Passover night. One more day remains until the proper time for slaughter. And He knows that's the schedule, every moment He breathes, knows what awaits him in the morning, and where He will be the following night; all this, while shuttled between one group of people and the next, one prison to another, the Topic of Every Conversation -- all of which are rightfully His, Isa53:8.

  It's really not possible to live a normal life on this planet once you see what happened to Him in Bible. More real than if you had been there, colors all you see and think forever afterwards. So no one who was there ever forgot this day or the next, and none of them were ever normal afterwards.

• Tuesday night, 17 Nisan, begins the Third Legal Working Day, Fourth of Unleavened Bread. It ends sundown Wednesday, 18 Nisan, THE CRUCIFIXION. Gospels: Matt27:19ff, Mark 15:15ff, Luke 23:25ff, John 19:1ff. Timing in these verses are hard to grasp in translation, much easier in the original Greek. [Hebrew writing style concatenates to show parallels, and since Jewish events are being related, the Greek is Hebraistically used. Moreover, native Greek rhetoric is similar, for a Greek play is a one-day 'snapshot' with lots of flashbacks and flashforwards. Even before Solomon, there were many close ties between the Hebrews and the Greeks. So there is a lot of cultural and linguistic blending, between them. So these Gospel accounts are written Hebraistically and with Greek drama rhetorical devices. We modern Westerners demand dry chronological recountings, or we suspect the truth of the witnesses. God doesn't use that style: even Chronicles and the begats have wordplay in them. For lessons are to be learned, not just the chronology, and wordplay is essential information which likewise makes a verse memorable, tasty. Again, English can't translate the flash-backs and flash-forwards as the Greek language can (it was an important part of the drama). In Greek, one switches to participles and nouns, using bland or no verbs, to stress the drama. Parallelism is just as much accomplished by uniting two votes as one (which John does, in 18:38-40), as by presenting them in parallel-logic or drama-circle format (which John does, in 19:5-14). So it's hard to follow these events in translation, and you might disagree with the way verses are parcelled out between 17 Nisan's day and here on 18 Nisan. However you parse the verses, the chronological order is still plain: the flogging was intended to reverse a crucifixion decision (playing on pity, maybe). And both the flogging and the crucifixion happened on 18 Nisan. So Tuesday must have been a play for time.]

  From these verses you see the Sixth and Seventh Trials, both playing on Wednesday; the Lord is flogged so badly, He no longer looks human, fulfilling Isa52:14. (No mere "39 lashes": that's a Sanhedrin punishment method, not the Roman one, 2Cor11:24.) Matthew Mark and Luke selectively show the people twice voted for Him to be crucified, after which He was flogged and mocked, presented a final time, and final vote again for Him to be crucified. Three is the acclamation number needed, apparently. John 19 inserts more explanation about what happened between the flogging and the final vote, so you realize more than three acclamations were solicited. Pilate still tried to get them to reverse their vote, looks like three more times (depending on how you add up the verses). When that doesn't work, he goes to the Judgement Seat, and the final (7th?) vote of the day ensues.

  You don't just slap a crowd together to vote for crucifixion. It takes a long time to get anyone to assemble anywhere, let alone enough of a crowd that early in the morning, just so that Pilate could justify releasing a prisoner. It was done by acclamation, so many people had to be outside the Praetorium, clamoring. So instead of using the legal working days for preparation of the harvest and First Fruits, the Passover plotters and that crowd were busy arranging to be together on time. Think of trying to shoot a movie scene with thousands of 'extras' (actors hired only for background effect), where you have to get them all in the same wide-angle shot -- takes all day to get them assembled properly. Which means they must have stayed up all night. Maybe they camped outside the Praetorium? On a Passover week night? Pilate ordered them to show up Wednesday morning (probably sending out the order on Tuesday, Luke 23:14). But for them to be so organized so quickly at the crack of dawn, Wednesday morning? There are only two gates into the Upper City where Pilate was. What a mess, getting in and out of it.

  Again, if we couldn't routinely see this insane crowding behavior in real life for centuries -- look at the throngs in Hitler's day, the big Hungarian brouhaha at its radio station, the huge crowds for the Pope's funeral, any downtown march, any big game -- the Bible description would appear to be fictious, even hallucinatory.

  So imagine: at sunrise or shortly before, thousands of people willing to cram like sardines in front of Pilate, all wanting to vote for YOUR DEATH, most of whom don't even know you. And what they do know of you, is all nice. But they hate you for that. Because you are nice. Because you said nice things about God, how much He loves them. For this, you are to be crucified, and they are dripping with excitement at that prospect.

  How odd the crowd, bright and early that Wednesday morning. How did they find food? Bathrooms? For this all started very early on Wednesday. To wit:

  • Pilate remonstrates with the crowd's vote, but gives in;
  • followed by, the flogging and mocking, which had to take at least an hour;
  • followed by, an official presentation for a vote again sometime near 6am, Jn19:5, 14 (Roman time, told in circular drama format); that had to take at least another hour, especially with all the going back and forth between Pilate, the crowd, the talking with the Lord again.
  • Followed by, the final (7th?) round of threats that if Pilate releases Him, they will report PILATE as being seditious. So he caves in, John 19:12: poor guy probably never had a decent night's rest from that day onward. The only way out for him was to believe in Christ, right then and there.

  • Followed by, the trek to Golgatha, which also wasn't easy or fast because the city was subdivided with walls, kinda like a maze; but Golgatha was outside the city walls. That's another thing Mel Gibson's movie spent lots of time on, and depicted well. Turns out scholars dispute where Pilate set up his Praetorium, whether in Antonia Fortress, which was at the northwestern corner of the Temple's own fortress walls; or, in the Upper City, in one of the two of Herod's palaces. Atlas of the Bible and Christianity, p.65 in the 1997 Baker Books edition has a map with Jerusalem's walls as estimated at that time. From the map, looks like the Upper City around what they say was Gabbatha could have a packed crowd of maybe 5,000-20,000 people (?) depending on what buildings were there at the time (Upper City dimensions are about 125000 sq. metres, 500 metres wide, 250 metres deep on the map).

    So whichever location was the Praetorium, there was no easy way to get out to Golgatha: if you've ever driven in a US city's streets, you understand gridlock. Takes longer to go a mile in gridlock, than to go 20 miles on wide, relatively-empty roads. Jerusalem's streets are narrow, you have a very emotional group of people; crucifixion was designed to be as long-and-drawn-out as possible, to warn would-be criminals not to commit crimes. So dragging it out was deemed good jurisprudence, and it's not at all far-fetched for the whole assembling, dissassembling, etc. to take two hours. (I was in Washington, DC for the bicentennial. It took nearly seven hours to exit from the Washington monument out to very nearby Arlington, by bus -- normal travel time should have been no more than 30 minutes. Takes a good two hours to even leave a popular football or NASCAR stadium after the game/race, because of the gates and the crush of people. That too, is based on personal experiences I'd rather not recall. Totally ruins the trip, the crowds. So imagine how exhausted the Lord must have been, by the time He even GOT to Golgatha.]

  • So the Lord is ON the Cross by 9am (Mark 15:25, Hebrew time).

  So He suffers a trying-to-kill-Him beating and mocking on the day He'd have to GO to the Cross. All bunched up on Him. Then, the Cross itself. Bible in your soul is way more powerful than we know, Isa53:10-11! [Again, Mel Gibson's "Passion of Christ" movie really shows the essential brutality meant in Isa52:14's Hebrew: and His Love of the Cross depicted in Isa 53:10-11, quite well. Like all Bible movies its timing is off, though. If you just ignore that, you'll have a real, gripping sense of what Bible says happened to Him ON that fateful Wednesday. The movie is excellent: the timing, the long hair on Christ, and the weird Satan scenes are unBiblical, along with some other items; but maybe he elected to use the familiar, to get across the unfamiliar -- the extreme brutality, which no other Bible movie seems willing to touch. The movie's not intended as an all-comprehensive portrayal of the Week. His Passion is its focus. Very well done.]

  So He is crucified, dying before sunset -- between 3-4pm. Between 12pm-3pm, He paid for our sins. The Gospel accounts give you the hour in both Roman time (John 19:14, vote sequence beginning at 6am) and Hebrew time (Matt27:45-46, Mark 15:33-34, Luke 23:44-45), so you know when He was ON the Cross paying for sins: during a darkness so thick you can't see your hand in front of your face. Greek word is "skotos", and it is a specialized word for a darkness which BLINDS you (we get the English verb "scar" from a derivative of skotos). My pastor stresses that it was a supernatural darkness, every time he covers the Crucifixion. So it wasn't an eclipse or other 'natural' phenomenon. God does miracles, k? Here, one to advertise to a dark and blind world, and -- as my pastor stresses more -- to give privacy to the Son while Father judges Him for our sins. [Term is used in the nominative case in 74 verses in Bible, according to BibleWorks, and the first place is in Gen1:2. It's used in the LXX for the Hebrew hoshek, and is the SAME darkness as covered Egypt. THICK darkness, like a scar thickens the skin, nothing being able to circulate through it. There's nothing natural about it. It's always used in double-entendre, a mirror of our own negativity. See stronger-than-Strong's lexicons for the etymology and usage for both hoshek and skotos, in Bible.]

  Here's a NIV paste from BibleWorks of a great summary passage on the timing: Mark 15:25-33 "25 It was the third hour when they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. [27 Some manuscripts left, 28 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "He was counted with the lawless ones" (Isaiah 53:12)] 28 29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!" 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! 32 Let this Christ, [32 Or Messiah] this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. 33 At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour."

  Parallel timing passages are: Matt. 27:45; Mk. 15:33; Lk. 23:44; Jn. 4:6; 19:14. If you read those Chapters, you'll see the whole story of that morning and what had led up to it. People try to claim contradictions in these accounts, forgetting that not all the events depicted are the same, but repeats with variances. For example, Mark recounts that both of those crucified with Him hurled insults. But clearly one of them changed his mind and believed, Luke 23:39ff.

  So too, in those verses, about time: Mark passage is in Hebrew time, as is Matthew and Luke. But John uses Roman time. The two are about six hours apart. Roman time counts from midnight, but Hebrew time is measured from sunrise-to-sunset. So "ninth" hour means only three hours to sunset remain, in Hebrew time (roughly 12 hours from dawn to dusk, so 3pm=ninth hour). So the "third hour" in Hebrew time = 9am (roughly). But in Roman time, used in John 19:14, it's an earlier time marker, just after the flogging. John is merely summarizing, so the Lord was presented to the people at about 6am, for that third and final vote, just after dawn. John's Gospel was written in the 90's AD, so must use Roman time; the others were written while the Temple was still standing, so use Hebrew time.

  So He suffered a total of maybe 10+ hours of brutalization: by 6am, His skin flayed off His Back by the infamous Roman stone-and-bone, lacerated in face and body, punched beyond recognition. Then He had to endure yet another three hours of jeers, hatred, and the long trek to Golgotha. Then for six interminable hours, being crucified, the LAST THREE of which God Himself imputed and judged our sins on Him, in accordance with the Isa53:10-12 contract. Thus was fulfilled Isa52:14, His being BRUTALIZED beyond human semblance: k'asher shamemu aleká rabbim; ken mishhat me ish mareyhu; wa toaro me bene adam! Hebrew "me ish" and "me bene adam" also signify His Hypostatic Union; hence the Hebrew double entendre conclusion, God-Man gets therefore Beyond-Human Rejection and Brutality. And how He survived to stay on it that long, I'll never understand. Bible in your soul is way more powerful than we know, Isa53:10-11!

  But of course we don't know that most important passage -- the essence of our salvation -- since half of it sits in the LXX, never translated in published Bibles. Interesting, how we don't read Bible in translation, even with respect to this most important day. We inculcate children with false stories of this day. We repeat those false stories in documentaries and movies. Over and over. Golly, if people did to us the same lying we do to our own kids about this day, we'd be marching on Washington for yet another law!

  • For example, no Gospel verse says the Lord couldn't carry His cross-beam, even in translation; thus exposing every Bible movie ever made to yet another charge of bad scholarship.
  • Matthew reports Simon being forced to carry it.
  • Luke says much the same thing, but stresses that he was behind the Lord walking, and the Lord is talking -- so you have to wonder if the soldiers didn't have other motives for forcing Simon to carry it.
  • Next-generation Gospel from Mark, has the full background on the guy, including his sons -- who must have been well known, at that point -- so the guy became a believer.
  • But then in his Gospel to the third generation, John uses wry wordplay, begging the question as always. John 19:17 is pointed like his three paraskeué verses of the same Chapter, and parallel to them: the idea that no one could carry HIS True Cross, the burden of our sins. For clearly John knew the prior Gospel accounts of Simon of Cyrene. So Jn19:17's construction "ton stauron" is monadic; but you can't translate that in English. Closest trans might be "Carrying His Own True Cross, HE went out.." So 60 years after the event, Simon baby had gotten too much adoring attention, and everyone forgot about The One Who GOT Crucified? John tends to make testy remarks when stuff like that happens, i.e., 1Jn3:18 burns from the page, its anarthrous constructions sarcastically setting the reader straight on Whose works are the ONLY works, so we better get Word in us: God's. So of course he stresses Whose Cross it really was, back in John 19:17. Would help if someday Bible debunkers would learn what rhetorical style was, even in their native language, before they go crying that the Bible contradicts itself. They clearly cannot read Bible at all. [One famous Bible debunker claims that Paul is denying the Virgin Birth in Romans 1:3. I looked it up. Um -- Mary is the Seed of David, and Paul is stressing the Virgin Birth there, even as he always does -- since he is the only virgin apostle, duh -- pregnancy is a running theme of Paul's in every letter, very witty. So that Bible debunker flunked English, his native tongue. Won't say more, it's too embarrassing, guy has been debunking Bible for at least 20 years, proving every time he can't even read English. The same guy quotes Tacitus who tells us Christ was executed under Pilate (yep, I've got The Annals) -- but then goes on to use the "Chrestus" quote in Suetonius to claim Christ was alive in 45AD, and the debunker doesn't see how he contradicted himself in his own book? Suetonius is not saying "Chrestus" was alive then, but that his followers were kicking up trouble. It's real plain, the Roman style of attributing to the leader, the actions of a follower, when the leader is dead. Surely Suetonius knew what Tacitus knew, since Tacitus was 15 years older, and wrote the Annals when Suetonius was in his age 30's. That's just one teeny example of bad scholarship among the debunkers. If I say more about this particular guy, his identity would be known. It's just like at Christ's Trials -- those against Him, contradict themselves and look foolish. We are all fools. Let's pray for those among us who like us in former days, are still skotizw. And then pray for our own remaining darknesses, since like Christ said, if we are dark who are supposed to be light, how great is the world's darkness!]

  See Isa53trans.htm for a closer-to-the-original-text, graphic translation of the blow-by-blow description of what happened to Him; foretold, seven centuries prior. And here seven centuries later, those looking at Him while He's ON the Cross, knew that Isaiah prophecy better than anyone, in its original, violent, too-graphic-to-print words. So for the last three of those hours, they had the darkness of their souls mirrored back to them so they could remember the Chapter. They didn't.

  Neither do we.

  Sadly, we must take a sidetrip on the darkness phenomenon, since people spend ooodles of time trying to figure out if they can 'prove' it: time which could be spent correcting "Good Friday" to "Good Wednesday", at least. Skip the indented paragraphs below if you aren't troubled by the idea that God can just flat decree darkness so thick you can't see your hand in front of your face. Else, I hope they help you orient to a God who can wiggle His Nose, so to speak, and get anything He wants. But He Wants To Love Us instead.

  So here goes, about the darkness: my pastor maintains God just flat ordered it to give Him Privacy on the Cross -- that's a speculation, since The Why is all-important in Bible translation and interpretation. Technically, the Greek words for the darkness in the Gospel verses are the same words as used for a solar eclipse; but you can use those words metaphorically (i.e., in drama to designate Divine Judgement), or literally. As noted earlier, Greek word skotos is used for the Hebrew hoshek, and the latter always signifies a mirroring-back to man, his own negativity, even when talking about mere sky; Bible words are always multiple-entendre, all at once (omniscience comprehends all meanings at once, see). So it means supernatural darkness, else it sends no message. If it were merely natural, then who'd think anything was out of the ordinary? Darkness which was merely natural or eclipse-caused wouldn't have impacted the Egyptians in Moses' day; wouldn't have to be something the Holy Spirit fixed, in Genesis 1; wouldn't be of much interest to a Gospel writer. Point is, it was ABnormal, and that's why people think of GOD doing it.

  The Gospels depict the darkness as literal; but that doesn't mean a literal solar eclipse occurred. Eclipses of any type are merely due to the relative positions of earth, moon and sun in their orbits; so eclipses occur every year, whoopee: 2 solars annually on average, per Encarta. Understand, people on the earth by that time had been studying the stars for centuries, and knew when to expect eclipses, comets, other movement in the skies. They needed that information for agriculture, calendars, etc. Sure, they attributed stellar phenomena to be from the gods -- but the regularity would not have wowed them. The usage of eclipses in drama to signify the snuffing out of a great person was just that -- drama. For the analogy between greatness and light was a great metaphor everyone used. So even if there was no eclipse when a great person died, to say his death was accompanied by or predicted by "portents in the heavens" was a way to say the person was important. Poetic expression, at very least.

  No total eclipse remains in that total status for three whopping hours, either. You should be able to prove that with any scientific source you respect.

  Now note the contrast: God can make covering darkness any way He likes, and if He decided to coincide the Cross with an eclipse, well that would be a Divine Orchestration. Or -- much more likely -- He could just flat order the darkness during that time, local or global, His Choice. It cracks me up how everyone wants to pen God into some natural phenomenon, in order to justify belief. Worse, we moderns think that we can track stuff back eons into the past, forgetting that we rely too much on constants, ignoring that if a potato can be nuked (microwaved) in nine minutes or baked in an hour, well we'd better stop ASSuming the only way the universe got here, is in what amounts to 'baked' time. Einstein is beyond Newton, but doesn't that mean something beyond Einstein? All mankind's sins were paid for on the Cross in only three hours. So there's something beyond Einstein. Anyway, our calendars are so messed up, we can't read the ancients' calendars all that well; or, can't tie them to our own, when we can read them. Always the flaw in the premise, somewhere. Always lots of controversy in science, Bible or no Bible.

  But the stupidest ASSumption is this: to expect God to 'obey' the natural phenomena He creates is to say He's only God if He's NOT God. That means salvation can't work, since salvation requires supernatural phenomena. Cute tautology for an atheist too fragile-of-ego to face the fact God exists; but rather stupid and unscientific idea for a Christian to embrace. Maybe God just flat ordered the sun to go out, maybe it was a local blackout. Who knows. It happened. He's Omnipotent, speaking all light in Earth's corner of the universe into restored existence, Gen1:3's "Light, Be!" (literal Hebrew). Gen1:1, Son creates the entire universe in a nanosecond, bereshith barah Elohim... Get over it.

  You test for Divinity by the Intelligence you see in an alleged holy book. The Consistency and Justice and Character of the alleged Divine Author. You can't ever rely on empirical evidence, any more than you can convict a defendant on circumstantial evidence in a criminal trial. You need intent, which requires Proof of Character and Motive. How much more true, when defining who is 'guilty' of being God?

  ISBE Encyclopedia in BibleWorks notes that the final stage of the siege of Jerusalem began on 14 Nisan, 70AD and ended the 8th of Elul, 134 days later. Further, that on Tish b'av (9th of Ab) the Temple and the lower city were burnt. The Dowley Atlas mentioned earlier equates Tish b'av to 28 August, 70AD. So this day, 14 Nisan 30AD, the day He purchased our salvation, is 40 years later mirrored with another final-stage siege of Jerusalem proper. Only God can orchestrate time. So if you want a conundrum to ponder, skip the darkness thingy. Go over how God orchestrates time, beginning with either Mirroring.htm (for principles) or GeneYrs.xls (spreadsheet showing the orchestration of time in 490/1050-year increments tied to believers, since Adam).

• Wednesday night, 18 Nisan, begins the Fourth Legal Working Day, Fifth of Unleavened Bread. It ends sundown the following day, Thursday, 19 Nisan. Here's the irony, as we saw in the six paraskeué verses prior to this Daily Chronology section; like every other legal working day in Passover week, it's "preparation", because the festal meal has to be ready BY sunset. But this is the True Preparation Anniversary, the True Preparation Day for which the whole world has been groaning in labor, Isa53:10: for this is the first night and first day the Lord is in Paradise. The "preparation" verses above tell us what everyone did that day: the Sanhedrin thought they were covering their tracks, the Lord's Body had been covered and buried, His disciples were together preparing embalming ointment, people were visiting with and talking about, all their dead relatives who'd come back to life (resuscitation, not resurrection), the earthquakes, the darkness of that day. Many mouths talking.

  For above all, our sins got covered. Hebrew kopher, from which we get "Kippur". Atonement by covering (replacing) payment. All sins covered, for God is Holy and no sin can go unpaid Him. So forget "limited" atonement. God is unlimited, so the payment due Him must be unlimited, too. That's one reason why Christ had to be resurrected, to be that Living Payment, theme in Romans 6. His Thinking paid for sins on the cross (see Grail.htm if you doubt that), and His Continued Living means His Thinking keeps on going, paying for our shortfall (we will always be comparatively puny, no matter how big we are post-death). Else there could be no heaven. Again, because God is unlimited, and He Knows Everything at Once. So He should be always paid. We can't ever do even one dot of paying. So much for the goofy idea you can get wet, chant something, pray something, do works to get saved. What a crock.

  So THAT night -- 18 Nisan nominally -- the True Sabbath began, since it was truly 14 Nisan post-sunset. And we saw from the Preparation (paraskeué) verses, how people spent that night, too: the Sanhedrin were still plotting, not made secure by His Execution; Matt27:62, they posted a guard outside His tomb. Penalty for sleeping on the job was that you got your uniform torched to wake you up, Rev16:15 (the Lord 'borrows' that Roman custom as a metaphor to make His point). So you "keep your clothes" if you were able to stay awake. So if you died trying to get your burning clothes off, too bad. Strong incentive to stay awake.

  So the believers were staying awake, busy preparing ointments, still not secure that He would rise. We are all human: we think, therefore we are insecure. But our Salvation just got secured, this night. Due to, this Day.

  Looks like Judas hanged himself on this day, too, given the order of presentation in Matt27. So the day the Lord is buried, maybe Judas is still swinging in the breeze by nightfall, contravening Deut 21:23 (probably why he chose to die that way, cursing himself). [Nerd note: Peter is relating gossip about Judas, not the truth, in Acts 1. It's the Matt27 account which answers that gossip with the Truth. Just because the Bible quotes someone, doesn't mean that someone is telling the truth: Peter was having a bad hair day in Acts 1, which is why he does something against the law, ordering lots for a replacement disciple. The Lord hand-picked the disciples, and Peter forgot that. So at that moment in Acts 1, he's not given to know or rightly tell, the story of what happened to Judas, either. In short, Peter is out of fellowship when he's talking. Who can't empathize?]

  There's an old law about how if you miss the Passover, you can nonetheless celebrate a mini-version of it, on the 14th night during the second month, Num9:11. He'll be back on earth that 14th night. Gotta wonder, if they celebrated it with Him.

• Thursday night, 19 Nisan, begins the Fifth Legal Working Day, Sixth of Unleavened Bread. It ends sundown the following day, Friday, 20 Nisan. So this is a day of Preparation for the End of The Holiday. Two types of preparation were required: a) for the Ending Unleavened Bread Meal, as well as for the regular sabbath, since both happen on the same day; but also b) for First Fruits, which would happen the next day (after the sabbath). Each of these preparations had overlapping commonalities, yet also significant differences, particularly with respect to the grain offerings. For example, you had to make special wave offerings and animal sacrifices on the first day of First Fruits, which obviously in this year had to be readied before Friday night (excepting the grain).

  Part of what makes First Fruits a big deal, is the accounting you must go through, to decide what amount and what products to offer. You can't eat or sell anything 'new' until you've done this accounting, and made the offering. You're not even allowed to harvest the grain until First Fruits, Deut16:9. So you have to determine what's the total of the "first" crops, animal babies, etc. Can take all day, to do that. In fact, that accounting began on Monday, but it takes lots of time. Then you have to bundle up what's to be offered, checking again that the animals are without spot or blemish, the grain isn't moldy, etc. Lots of work. Then the rabbi has to inspect it, etc. to see if it meets the 'cleanness' criteria. Lots of work. It's not some slapdash thing you can pick up at a grocery store, like our canned-goods drives at Christmas...

  This is the second night-and-day the Lord is in Paradise.

• Friday night, 20 Nisan, is a regular sabbath AND a High Sabbath; for it begins the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread. It ends sundown the following day, Saturday 21 Nisan. John 19:31 flat tells you this, and never says how many days intervened between the day He died, and the upcoming sabbath. Translations add assumptions. Classic problem of Bible mistranslation. Had they noticed the anarthrous construction versus the common articles in John 19:31, they'd not have made such assumptions. For you don't parallel an anarthrous noun with common nouns. Anarthrous noun, "paraskeué", used by John in wordplay. Common nouns, sabbaton and hemera (sabbath and day, respectively). John is not quoting them when he says "paraskeué", but is making his own wry comment. After that, he's quoting them: for John is pointing out their ruse -- that because The Preparation is on the Cross, they want His legs broken -- to defeat the prophecy in Ps34:20. John doesn't have to quote that prophecy, since it's also a rule of the Passover, no broken bone on the Paschal Lamb. All that was explained in the John 19:31 review (intra-page link at pagetop).

  So it's a double sabbath, now. This is the third night-and-day the Lord is in Paradise, His Last. How appropriate, that the double-sabbath should be for the Double-God-Man to be in two places at once (human spirit in heaven, soul in Hades), on His Last night-and-day. [Human spirit committed (not 'commended') to the Father, and soul in Paradise.]

• Saturday night, 21 Nisan, Ends the Last Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread; you eat a festal meal to commemorate that ending. Moreover, technically, 21 Nisan at sundown becomes the first day of the week, so also begins First Fruits. So Christ is Resurrected sometime on Saturday night. Those tomb guards will be embarrassed and severely punished: maybe executed, given the brutality of those times. But you can bet they believed in Him.

  So notice the nexus: Passion Week begins and ends flanked by double-sabbaths, depicting the Hypostatic Union. The first double-sabbath is double in number, but the second double-sabbath -- on which completion, He Completes His Resurrection -- this second double-sabbath, is double in Quality -- ending High Sabbath AND regular sabbath, all at the same time. Do you get this glory pun on the Lord's God-man nature? On His Victory, both as God and as Human? God Loves puns, makes them constantly. Well? Why not make Time itself show the Measure Measured Back to Christ for His Victory in the very calendar itself, the Glory application of Matt7:1-2? This same "measure" terminology is used in Eph4:11-16, especially in verses 13 and 16, tying them together (v.16 saying how v.13 gets accomplished) -- and all these verses tie to Isa53:12 in the LXX, which uses the same terms (Him measuring out His Inheritance of Everything to the "great ones"). Paul also uses the same measuring terms in Romans 12:1-3 (explicitly, in v.3, the earliest expression of what becomes Eph4:16 that I can find).

  Wait! Oh no -- Triple the Quality, not merely double, ooops -- because it's also the First Fruits, obeying that Law perfectly! Notice how First Fruits works: the Last Day of the Feast of Unleavened bread, even were it not a Saturday, would be a sabbath. But here it is also a regular sabbath -- which by Law is the kick-off criterion for First-Fruits.

  This matters a lot. For First Fruits is the kick off of Weeks, and Weeks ends with Pentecost. So note Trinity depicted; so note how apt Acts 2, which explains why the Holy Spirit is descending upon everyone ON that full harvesting completion of Pentecost. For in the Jewish Law, as we saw in Division #1, you don't celebrate Weeks until Pentecost, and only ON Pentecost. Harvest of salvation, to fulfill Jer31:31-34, His Head in Our Heads. By the Head Who Wrote the Bible, the Holy Spirit. That's why the Matt16:18 announcement of shift from Vashti (played by Israel, this time) to Esther (played by Church this time) was essential: Israel missed the Harvest, so now the Gentiles will be used to complete it, and rescue Israel. So the Tribulation and Millennium will STILL occur -- but now the period of Pentecost is elongated. To what day, no one knows, Acts 1:7.

• Sunday morning, 22 Nisan, is still First Fruits, and still the first day of the week. It really began at sundown on 21 Nisan, but as just noted -- you ended the holiday with the meal, so no one went anywhere that night. Sunday morning around dawn, is when the ladies visit the tomb and find Him gone, looks like they went there more than once with different groups of the disciples; looks like the disciples went there more than once, as well. Makes sense: you go once, you believe, and then doubt it. You bring someone else along maybe, the second time. Each time you say something slightly different than you said before, maybe working it out in your mind, maybe seeing better or differently, the time before. It's called 'reconciling' in accounting: looking at a thing from different angles, to get a fuller picture. The parallel Gospel passages are Matt28, Luke 24, Mark 16, and John 20. Clearly they weren't afraid of getting caught; seems like some suspected others of having taken His Body, still clueless/disbelieving that He Rose. Bodies in shock over a body tend to circle back pinching themselves, anyway.
  Conversely, maybe some of the verses in these passages are adulterated, but I haven't spent enough time to find out if that's true. Bible adulterations can be detected, just like any counterfeit. Also, wanna-be bible verses and books always have a lurid quality and malign who they depict: classic demonic-authored patterns are Book of Enoch, (the more-sophisticated and erudite) Book of Mormon (and its related texts), and the Koran. But not all adulterations are demon-authored, and the human ones often have really stupid errors (like the guy who gave up trying to adulterate the Genesis 5 roster in the LXX -- he'd have been an incompetent embezzler). So I'll later comment on the accounts.

  First Fruits itself is not a sabbath, begins at sundown, Co-Terminous with the Ending-of-Unleavened-Bread, festal meal. So the meal, celebrates both occasions. Heh: He is Resurrected at this point. That's why you see so many verses about Him travelling on the road, meeting people who at first don't know who He is; this is the First Legal Working Day Since The Sabbath. Just like the Bible says, He Rose On the First of the Week. And now we know how His Week really transpired.

Whew. Now we can see how important it is to know the Jewish holiday schedule and the Jewish calendar. All this timing you know immediately, simply because you know on what DAY the Passover began: Saturday. And how do we know it began on Saturday? Let's review what we saw at the beginning of Division #2: He rose "on the first day of the week" (Matt28:1, Mark16:2,9, John 20:1, etc. see the Greek); so it's just a matter of backtracking, to realize THAT year, Passover began and the Unleavened Bread Feast ended, each on a Saturday night. Which backtracking you couldn't prove correct, unless you knew the Laws related to the Holidays.

Reminder: the original Exodus date is the basis for the "Day of Preparation" -- apt phrase, since the Jews were preparing to leave before even knowing if Pharaoh would relent; and the first Sabbath for them, thus became their first full day of freedom. Thursday night, they eat the Paschal lamb in Egypt. Friday, they're quickly off out into the wilderness, taking most of the Egyptian population (and their goods) in tow: about six million people, two-thirds of which are not of Jewish bloodline, but are suddenly of Jewish Faith, Gen15:6. So the new day beginning on Friday night, is their first day of freedom and first Sabbath. So we can indeed pinpoint the date He was crucified, using the very age-old system God had established on that first Exodus date, 1470 years prior.

One can also thus pinpoint the exact year the Crucifixion occurred. This is especially important, since all the regular calendars (Gregorian, Julian, Judaic) are messed up. Man always rejects the absolute when he can glorify himself. So the world's people have always had lunar and solar calendars (you need them for agriculture); but then they always crafted their official calendars based on events which glorify man. These latter calendars don't often reconcile to the lunar and solar calendars. Worse, we don't always know for sure how they always reconciled lunar and solar calendars: each year, adjust by number of days' difference; each three years, add a short month; each six years, add a whole month. Depending on how much accuracy you needed for farming (etc)., you could adjust in variant ways. And, folks did. But the glorify-man civil calendar system wasn't reconciled. It didn't matter, since the calendar premise was different, relative-to, like birthdays.

So no wonder man's calendars are so horrible to research; relative, not absolute; not reconciled to the Absolute, either, Rom5:12. So bad were they, back in 45BC Julius Caesar had to completely redo the horrific Roman calendar which then existed, due to this glorify-man system. Thus a wholesale fiat based on solar years was instituted with 365-day years, and one added day every 4 years to intercalate (correct for the true solar year). This was a good idea, except that all one's past could no longer be exactly dated. Problem was, the Julian calendar still wasn't right: it was now too fast by about 11 minutes a year. So in 1582, Pope Gregory redid it all again, and instituted our BC/AD dating system. But to do that, he flat cut off 10 days (allegedly making up for the too-fast 11 minutes each year). That wasn't the right number of days to cut off: he only cut off based on the too-fastness going back to 325AD's vernal equinox; not going back all the way to 45BC. We moderns repeated this stupid cut-off method in 1752, and cut off yet more days. All this cutting off means messing up what days things fall on, both the dates and the days-of-the-week; for all you have to work with on reconciling to past societies' datings, are their calendars. So now you can't really backtrack properly. Let's not even talk about today's Jewish calendar: wrong premise, wrong dating of that premise, despite the clear Adam's Fall premise, Genesis 5 roster and 1050-year Divine Accounting system chronology in the Bible. Incredible. So when talking about the past using man's calendars, you can never balance: you're lucky if you can get good approximates.

• There are only certain years in the time period which will have a Sat-Sat holiday period: 7 such weeks per 50 years.
• Among those years, an even narrower group of years will be an n+1 intercalation year AND a Sat-Sat holiday.
• Then, even fewer of those years, will also include the year(s) Pilate was governor.

Technically: the Original Exodus in 1440 BC took place on the Original 15 Nisan, which was a FRIDAY. So the first Passover, 14 Nisan was a THURSDAY night. In Jewish accounting, a "day" is measured from sundown to sundown, as we saw earlier in the "Why Passover" intra-page link, above. So 15 Nisan begins on the night of 14 Nisan. 1440BC+30AD's Real 14 Nisan was the Day He was crucified, per those sardonic, tweaking "Preparation" verses, plus the way the Lord talks at the Last Supper. We know it was a Wednesday, from the "third day" verses; from the "first day of the week" verses we know He Rose sometime after that Saturday night. Moreover, the sum of the years from the Exodus is 1470; it's evenly divisible by 7; so Wednesday is the 'end of the week' relative to that original 14 Nisan. Finally, the Original Exodus is an unadjusted year (base year, since intercalation would have occurred already back in Elul); so it isn't until the next year that intercalation becomes necessary.

God often states Jewish sacred calendar dates using the regular (solar) calendar's conventions, to interrelate them. It's a handy way of reconciling both calendars. That's also why 1 Nisan is the first day of the sacred lunar year, but is the seventh month of the civil lunar calendar (since intercalation was supposed to occur in Elul, just before the new year begins). Jewish sacred calendar begins on what we call the vernal equinox, which in our calendar, occurs roughly 21 March; the lamb was to be set aside on the 10th of the month, our March 30. Slaughtered on our April 3rd, and eaten that 14th day. Frankly, that's usually the right date in each of our modern years; 7th is the usual proper really-Bible date for Easter, as it's First fruits. However, the equinox 'drifts' a bit. You can just observe the holiday properly by knowing the equinoxes and counting as Bible bids you in Exodus 12. Sample (editable) calendar for 2015-2016 is here: Intercal.xls

Jewish calendar back then wasn't intercalated in Elul as it should have been (nor is it intercalated properly now), so ran short by 5.25 days. Which running short, means that Day One of year n+1, is really day -4 of year n+1; Day One of year n+2, is really day -9 of year n+2, etc. So in one possible scheme, every six years, year "n+6" gets an extra 31.5 days (usually at the end, corresponding often to our Feb-March, when it should have been intercalated a week before the autumnal equinox); so had it been intercalated, the real dates would corollate. But that corollation only works for a portion of the following first year after the reset. In the other possible schemes, the intercalation occurs either once every 4th year, or even at the end of the prior year: intercalation through the centuries, was not consistently done the same way.

But in all events, if the Crucifixion had happened after intercalation, we'd know: Passover would have been 'on time' on the sacred calendar, since it's in the first month of that calendar. But in the year of the Crucifixion, the official date for Passover is four days later than the correct one: the Lord cannot BE the Passover and EAT Passover if the calendar were 'on time'. Ergo God's telling us that He ate the Passover, so we can know the official calendar was four days too 'fast', not yet having been intercalated. So we also know the reset was done at the beginning of the year before the Crucifixion. Makes it easier to find the real year of death, as noted above. God's Calendar is fully disclosed in Bible: so we can always fix the date using it. That's what I've done here, simply use God's Calendar. Closest approximate date in 'our' calendar (going by that vernal equinox system) would be something like 30 March 30AD for the Arrest, and 3 April 30AD for the Crucifixion if if if March 21 in 'our' terms was then the true vernal equinox: else, you'd have to adjust backwards or forwards for the days March 21 is 'off' from the true vernal equinox that year (see Intercal.xls).

So 30AD is an n+1 year, a year after the next base year (corrected, intercalated); doesn't matter if they intercalated every year, every three years, or every six years. So n+1 is the first adjustment year, since it is the first year following the base year. Let's again label the base year, "n", like we did back in Division #1; so the "n" year, begins with "1 Nisan" and needs no adjustment; but as the year goes on, it lags behind the solar year. So that "n" year which began accurately, goes 'off' 5 days by its own end. So by that end, you add 5 days to the year before you start up the new year with 1 Nisan; and if you don't do that, you've begun the new year 5 days too early. Hence the need to tell us on what day of the week He Rose; and for how long He'd be in the grave. Which, the set-aside and slay rules for the Paschal lamb, depict.

God foreknew in what year all this would happen, so He set up the Holiday itself in light of these facts. The "preparation" verses in the Gospels thus all attest to His Fulfillment of the Correct Calendar by their pointed use of "preparation", a term nowhere else in the Bible, Greek word paraskeué. We saw all this, back in the "Preparation" section of Division #2. So now you know the wry undertone of the Lord's handing around both Bread and Cup to signify they were eating and drinking HIS Body and Blood. For it wasn't the right Passover Date; for He would be captured (set aside) that night; for He would be slain at the right time for the Passover sacrifice (even according to Temple rules at the time, per Fausset's Dictionary in BibleWorks): by 3pm, before sundown, four days later. Exactly as the Mosaic Law prescribed. Exactly as God Who Authored that Law, required.

Some scholars (ISBE, for example), picked up on John 19's odd usage of paraskeué, claiming John said the meal they ate wasn't the Passover meal, that John's account differed in timing from the other Gospels. Well, they didn't notice the anarthrous usage of paraskeué, or they'd have clued into the wordplay: no, it's not the true Passover, because He's the Preparation, the Real Passover, and since He's EATING the Passover, the Jewish calendar is 4 days FAST. All of John 19 is wordplay on True versus false Passover; hence the wry conclusion that the "preparation of the Jews" -- using the article, this time -- is so apt. We saw all this in the review of John 19:42 (link at pagetop). Read the chapter with that idea in mind, see if you don't suddenly 'get' what John wryly sketches, throughout. If the scholars had done that, they all would have smiled, had many great sermons to pass on: and this webpage wouldn't ever be necessary. For you learn about anarthrous constructions in first-year seminary; it's just a question of remembering to look for them. My pastor repeated their importance so much I remember them in my sleep. But I'd not remember squat apart from 1Jn1:9, and apparently most people don't know about how its use turns on the Authorization for His Brains to replace your own, John 14:26, Eph4:23 (Greek). That latter verse especially tells us it's God's Design to make us brainouts, so He gives us His Brains, instead. Kinda nice upgrade, doncha think? So think 1Jn1:9 as a habit, and you'll get God's Thinking building your brains -- and never apart from His. Spiritual dendrites, DDNA.

So 30AD is the year following an "n" year; so here designated as an "n+1" year. Which we know, because it's divisible by 7. Hence 30AD begins four days short/overstated (the first day is a 1, hence a 4-short, not 5-short). So 30AD's elapse of number of years from 1440BC would still be divisible by 7, relative to the original Exodus year, yet be an "n+1" year for intercalation purposes, because the intercalation problem initially began a year after the Exodus. So immediately you know you have the right year. Prior right possible year is seven years too early: John became a national herald in the 15th year of Tiberius (including his co-regency period), Luke 3:1, 26AD; Christ hadn't announced Himself prior, and wouldn't until late that year or early the next year.

So what about Pilate's tenure? For if his tenure was long enough, one could posit more than one Passover week containing a Sat-Sat 'spread'. Well, Encarta 2004 on my XP computer says Pilate was procurator from 26 to 36 AD; other sources don't vary much from that; it seems pretty reliable to say Pilate ruled for 10 years, and was dismissed by (later Emperor?) Vitellius, then the Legate of Syria, in 36AD -- over some incident regarding how he murdered Samaritans who followed yet another Messianic pretender. Maybe those dates are wrong, but you can see he wasn't procurator for so long that you could use more than one matching Sat-Sat Passover period during his tenure: the other two potential Sat-Sat years would have been 23AD and 37AD, outside the range of Pilate's tenure. Further, we know from Tacitus' Annals that this "Chrestus" was executed by Pilate, so it's not only from the earlier Gospel accounts that we know about Pilate's ruling period; Tiberius died March 16, 37AD; Pilate was out of power by then (replaced by Marcellus) for some months. [The extra-Biblical accounts are mostly anti-Christian; Josephus and Tacitus are regarded as being the more reliable, and both of those guys didn't like the Christians. There's a lot of flamboyant material on Pilate in the fake gospels, in legends, etc. Discount it all. You can tell the reliability of a piece of information by whether it is self-promoting. Any lurid story is self-promoting, and there's a lot of lurid stuff pandered about nearly every actor connected in any way, with Bible. Very sad.]

Above all, the next possible right year would be seven years out -- and that was too late -- because God's Timeline had run out. For Israel had rejected the Last David, so the Scheduled Ending of Time being 37AD -- based on the 1000th anniversary of David's death, the allotment in Daniel 9:25-26 -- had to be shortened to 30AD, the 1000th anniversary of David's Retirement from Kingship. For only David could elect to throw down His Crown, so Israel's negativity couldn't invalidate the 1000-year limit. So the Last David also had to throw down His Crown by then, in order to preserve Time. For again, 30AD+1440BC is evenly divisible by 490. That completes the Daniel 9:25 accounting. No time left, as we saw in the "FirstFruits" pink table (its link is at pagetop) in Division #1. So no other year fits but 30AD, since Bible proves from Exo12:40-41 compared to Gen47:9 and all the Bible verses on ages provided from Jacob prior, that 1440BC is the right year of the Exodus. God dates everything in terms of years-to or years-from the Exodus, in Bible. So you use it to track backwards to Adam, and forwards from the Exodus itself. Thus you can audit whatever BC/AD date seems likely. Whew: so it doesn't matter how much man's calendars are screwed up, you can use God's Calendar to find out God's Dates.

Note how fabulous this sevening is: say that 1440BC wasn't the right date of the Exodus. Correction would affect the entire timeline, so you could audit the proposed correction against ALL events within that entire timeline. If the correction doesn't keep the events fitted, then the 'correction' is still wrong. God's entire timeline is crafted based on years-from the heroes He created; so, He gives you the years-from dates in the begats, years-from Exodus, etc. He also sets all those events within an absolute 1050-year 'house', which holds two 'promise' units of 490 years each (490+70+490 and 1000+50): kinda like phosphates and sugars in DNA are structured with the GACT bases. So you can always audit your years-from math. [So if 1440BC were wrong, then maybe the entire timeline needs to be moved up or down, depending on where the error is located. But that move-up never workS. So it won't solve the 3BC Birthyear problem (really 25 Chislev 4BC, which in subtraction works like early 3BC). Frankly, it looks like when we converted to BC/AD from the Roman AUC system, we counted down 6-5-4-0. We somehow just flat cut out three years, kinda like we flat cut out 10 days from the annual calendar in 1582, trying again again to adjust to the vernal equinox. But if you count from Adam, you don't find any anomalies like this. The numbers all balance, and they balance to many BC and AD dates we can prove apart from the AUC system. So most of the timelines and Bible-related dating schemes you find on the internet and elsewhere, are implicitly adjusting upward 3 years, and then have to contort with lunar years, in an effort to balance. They never balance. They can't balance. That's why everyone just finally resigns and says He was born circa 4 or 3BC. (If you see an earlier year, like 6BC, you're looking at someone trying to adjust for the 3-year discrepancy, by adding backwards that amount.) So you don't change 30AD, to 33AD. You don't change 70AD, to 73AD. So it's our calendaring, not God's, which is wrong.]

Again, Bible normally follows solar-adjusted calendars and conventions; hence 14 Nisan is Passover rather than 15 Nisan, since Passover begins AT sundown of the same solar day. So when Bible suddenly switches to lunar calendar and conventions, it waves a red flag. Witness: The Passover for the Sins of the World shouldn't be EATING Passover Himself, so you know exactly how far off the calendar is, so you know exactly what year it is. I mean, the Lord spends Passover night saying He Himself IS the Passover. So why isn't He dead already, get it? God is never coy. Good thing, huh.

How any Jew can miss all this convergence, I'll never know. Only God can orchestrate time, and God Bases His Mirroring Accounting System, and hence all history, ON the Jews. They know this. They are even quite puffed up about it (ignoring Moses' warnings in Deuteronomy; parallel warning to us is in Rom11). They know all history is constructed around them, but They Don't Remember Why: Messiah. Who came and Advertises His Success by the Presence of Two Stone Witnesses right where the 2nd Temple, used to stand. So they don't remember God's Accounting System, either. Worse, I can't find anyone on the internet who even knows about it, whether Jew or Gentile. Why? Daniel 9 is one of the most famous chapters in the Bible. So it tips you off to God's Accounting System, which is used all over the Bible. Hence the frequent plea you test my webpages. Especially, with respect to Bible's dating system. It works, but you have to audit it in order to see how and how well it works.

So it's not as though the Christians could control the timing of the Jewish calendar, the Sanhedrin, Pilate and Herod! And since for centuries Christians have called His Crucifixion "Good Friday" without doing their math, clearly no one cooked the New Testament to make all this convergence -- no one even could read the Book well enough to know what to cook up.

Here's proof, yet again. (In accounting you must go over and over the same data from different angles, to audit it.) Ok: The Arrest nominally occurred on the Jewish calendar's 14 Nisan. We know that, because Bible stresses how He was arrested ON Passover night, after having eaten the meal with the disciples; then, goes into a lot of detail about what transpired for the rest of the week. So we know which Passover night it was, the First (and official one). But we also know from the Law (i.e., the OT verses in Division #1) that the Lamb is supposed to be SET ASIDE on the 10th day of Nisan, but SLAIN on 14 Nisan, BEFORE sunset. And we also know that since He rose the "first day of the week", He was crucified on Wednesday -- and thus slain and buried BY sunset.

So: when we add up this data, we derive the following results.

• The date He was arrested, was true 10 Nisan,
• He is slain exactly 4 days later, which therefore is true 14 Nisan, just as the Law would have commanded.
• That timing results in the "first day of the week" being First Fruits, the day He was Resurrected (really, beginning Saturday at sundown) -- again, just as the Law commands.
• But it was simultaneously both the nominal and corrected calendar's FirstFruits date!
  Nominal calendar: 14 Nisan (really 10 Nisan) - 21 Nisan (really 17 Nisan) makes First Fruits occur the NIGHT of 21 Nisan, which in Jewish accounting begins 22 Nisan, FirstFruits. But look:
  corrected calendar: 10 Nisan arrested, 14 Nisan Crucified -- 22 Nisan is still FirstFruits, a set date on the calendar.

That He was only 3.5 days in the grave is accounted for by the fact that the Law requires that date for FirstFruits, whether or not the calendar was properly reset. For it must begin after the last day of Unleavened Bread (at sundown or after). Numbers 28:26 makes a big stink of this, explaining that FirstFruits is piggybacked on the last day of Unleavened Bread, whenever it falls; only a piggybacking sabbath (i.e., in Fri-Fri Passover weeks) can change (add one day) to the date. Trouble is, Numbers 28:26 is mistranslated. I need to figure out how to best retranslate it so you can see the stress in the original-language texts. The LXX brings out the stress, by pointedly not using the nominative case, but instead the dative. So: Numbers 28:26 will eventually be retranslated in Division #1, and then the text here will be updated. Point is, FirstFruits is a floating date, whereas the Passover is not. So that's why He resurrects 3.5 days after the Crucifixion, rather than 7 days later. God foreknew everything, so fashioned the Passover holiday in light of what HE foreknew, so we could know for sure Who is Messiah. Only God can orchestrate or foreknow, Time.

On the other hand, I expected that on the corrected calendar, the very same Saturday would be FirstFruits; on a corrected calendar, His Resurrection occurred on 18 Nisan. So in 30AD, Israel would have pondered that, too. So to say three days and three nights -- i.e., the metaphor of Jonah -- instead of seven days and seven nights (the latter takes you to 21 Nisan on the corrected calendar) -- tells you much. The Resurrection date would be right for the wrong reason. Meaning, a warning of Israel's rejection. All from the belly of a whale. Note therefore another prophetical tool for identifying the True Messiah versus all the false ones, this bald accounting anomaly of three days, versus the expected seven. Ouch, Israel is compared to the Assyrians in Ninevah, and compared to Jonah's initial disobedience in fleeing to what they called Tarshish (Spain)! You'd think Rabbi Akiva would have recognized all these OT prophetical convergences which only occur in 30AD; instead, he backed the pretender Bar Kochba. No convergences occurred then. Jonah was three days and three nights in that whale/fish, not a week. So it took a three years for BarKochba to be defeated (132-135AD). Hint hint.

See how God's Accounting System catches possible interpretation errors? Why weren't we all taught about it, from Sunday school, forward? Well: if you were Satan&Co., wouldn't you do your dangdest to keep this information from theologians? Who cares if some brainout gets it -- keep it away from the public!

The Calvinists, who should know better, don't realize they deny and denude Divine Sovereignty, when they claim man lost his free will at Adam's Fall; when they claim Christ died only for the elect; when they claim God's Grace is Irresistable. Thus they depict God as a weak tyrant, who absent force is unable to save mankind.

The Catholics alike denude Divine Sovereignty and Essence when they say like the Koran, that for God to be more than "one", "diminishes" Him (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Unicity" definition). They denude the Work of the Cross when they say their baptising you saves you, versus the Baptism of the Cross itself. They cut Christ out altogether, when they make the first-year-seminary grammar error of treating Petra (Bedrock) the same as "Petros" (chip), and make Peter the Foundation of the Church in Matt16:18. And of course, the Catholics totally deride their "Mother of God" by assigning her virginity a higher place than her faith, as if it weren't a sin to refuse her Rightful King husband Joseph, other children (that's against the Mosaic Law, for a wife to deny sex to her husband).

Can't think of bigger blasphemies than these. All said by well-meaning, nice, moral people on any given day. So of course these folks can't see the accounting for the Passover, and thus can't see the accounting for the Rapture, which goes back to the time of David's Civil War, mirrored in Passion Week, housed wholly in the Jewish Christ. Oh well. Satan&Co. work awfully hard to obscure the truth from us. We are all cannonfodder, apart from living in God's System!

In any event, due to confluence of FirstFruits no-matter-what -- see the 'doubling' play on the Hypostatic Union? Just like Isa52:14's "me ish" and "me bene adam" phrases? Now who on earth can 'manage' to make that convergence -- and via it, to tie to Isa52:14's depicting Him with min preposition's double-entendre of Beyond-Human yet born-from-human? It's not as though every Jew in Israel didn't know the calendar was running four days late: the harvesting required you to know.
• And we know He rose on First Fruits, from Scripture (that's why He's called First-fruits, and so are we).
• Because, First-fruits is only one DAY. It, like Passover, kicks off a whole series of days, but it itself, is but one day.

  So the Bible tells us how to adjust the Jewish calendar that year, in typical Jewish fashion: By Defining His Resurrection Date, so you can easily track backwards. If we keep tracking backwards, we thus know that the Jewish calendar at the beginning of that year was four days off (really five, but since you are subtracting the difference, it ends up being 4). Because, 1 Nisan is the beginning of the year.

You have to be deaf dumb and blind to miss the fact He's Messiah, sorry. Which we ALL are, Eze16:6. Pray for Israel. God vindicated them, and they can't even see that fact, so they can't enjoy knowing How He Delivered On His Promise! Since the Jews who caused this Timing to Complete according to the Law, His Prophesied Payment for Sins -- since they did not believe in Him -- no Christian could have manipulated the dates, to prove the Bible right. The OT (both Hebrew and Greek versions) was written by Jews, not Christians. The folks who did this arresting and slaying also were the ones who ran the calendar. Not, the Christians.

It matters to phrase the argument like this. Jews disregard Christian testimony, because they consider Christians goyim. Kinda like how your parents don't get over the fact you grew up and are now truly smarter than they are, so also the Jews don't get over the fact they are trapped in the past. The parent slaved to make your life better, so his is worse than yours. So s/he's not as smart as you turned out, because he had to slave, so you could be the king. No little amount of resentment accompanies that realization. Paul states the case well, in Romans 9-11. Book of Hebrews elaborates throughout, showing how the Jews are our parents, and solely due to their failure, we Church inherited the abrogated Bridal contract. So now they can get that contract upgraded, through and with -- us their kids! They can get more "now" (=moniker for Church "age").

GOD FULFILLED HIS PROMISE. But they won't hear that from a non-Jew. And any Jew who believes in Christ is deemed a non-Jew (some sects in Judaism actually hold a funeral for any of their kin who believe in Christ). So: they won't hear from our mouths, but the math is clearly not our invention. We didn't control the calendar or the people, and it's all objectively provable: only God can be the Doer, here. Not, us.

So Christians need to be sensitive to Jewish needs. Think how hard it is to raise a kid and then have that kid be superior to you. In essence, Judaism raised Christianity, so we owe these our teaching parents -- for better or for worse -- our very lives. And these our faith-parents, can't take being empty-nesters. But they need saving, by the kids: isn't that how it should happen? Should it ever matter that your parents weren't the best -- still, they raised you. And you couldn't BE superior, if they hadn't. You'd be dead, never-born, absent them. So God will save the Jews too, theme in Romans 11. So if we can learn to just point out the math, and let IT do the talking, not us -- they can add up the OT verses, themselves. If they are willing, that is. Most will not be.

• the 1470th anniversary of the SET ASIDE date, under the Law, Exo 12:3.
• It was also the 1430th anniversary of the date they entered the Land, Josh 4:19.

  His Crucifixion was also

• the 1430th anniversary of their first Passover in the Land, Josh 5:10ff.
• Israel was in Egypt for 430 years, Exo 12:40-41 to the day.
• Which means, Jacob entered Egypt on 15 Nisan 1870BC, Gen47:8-9 compared to the chronology of Isaac and Abraham in Gen 25 and end of Gen 5 and 11, respectively.
• So the day He's Crucified, come sundown, becomes also the 1900th anniversary of Jacob's entry into Egypt. Which of course is why Passover is instituted, in the first place.
• And that original Passover, was the 490th anniversary of Joseph having been made a slave (Gen37:2 through end of chapter, compared with Chapter 39).
• Not to mention, 30AD is the 490th x 2 anniversary year of the Temple, had it never been razed, counting from the dedication date in 1Kings 8:1. Which Temple, is based on King David, 2Sam7, 1Kings 6:12-14, all of Chapter 8, and 9:6 in context of each chapter.
• Not to mention, David is born 400 years after the Exodus -- an exact mirroring restitution of the 400 years of slavery promised Abraham, in Gen15:13.
• Not to mention, David becomes King 430 years after the Exodus, 2Sam5:4-5 (which is how you know he was born 400 years after the Exodus). Another exact mirroring restitution of Jacob's family's time in Egypt.
• Not to mention, Christ is born in the 1000th anniversary of David's becoming King over all Israel, showing how God answered those thousand-sacrifices at Solomon's investiture (1Chron 29:21 plus Daniel 9:25-26, when you factor in Messiah must be mirrored the same 40 years' ruling time as His human father David).
• Not to mention, Christ dies on the 1000th anniversary of David's Retirement from Kingship, fulfilling 2Sam7.

  Hmmm. Lots of accounting convergence here, huh. Based on Justice Principles Disclosed in Bible Accounting Terms, not based on hallucinated Bible Codes!

  You can understand maybe they didn't clue into all this convergence, on the night they arrested Him. But after they had managed to get Pilate to give the order to Hang Him On Wood -- given Deut 21:23 -- somebody's brain-lightbulb went on: for they had to know that the day He was crucified, was the exact 1470th anniversary of the Original Passover itself. That's the third "490" after that Original Passover (1470/490=3). Most importantly, that's the last 490 of Israel's allotted time, the very year Messiah was supposed to die, per Daniel 9:25-26; all Israel knew that deadline. It converges with the 1000th anniversary of David's Death, and the removal of the 7 years, converges with the 1000th anniversary of David's Retirement from Kingship. Which removal is due to Israel's rejecting Messiah, Matthew 24 -- which the Lord explained from Matt16:18 onward, to warn Israel of the consequences.

  So that's why they wanted His legs broken, to be able to refute the claim He's Messiah: Passover lamb isn't allowed to have its bones broken, so if they can break HIS legs, they can point to that prophecy rule, and say He didn't 'meet' it, so He's not the Messiah (Exo 12:46, Num9:12, Ps34:20, Ps22:17). So they DID realize what they'd done -- belatedly -- and besought Pilate to get His Legs Broken, so to cover up this phenomenal date convergence. Every Jew in Israel could count from the Exodus. Repeat: If they left those bodies on the crosses over that contemplative ending to the holiday over the next three days, too many people would realize He WAS the Messiah. So they had to do 'something' to credibly deny the claim. Or they would all be murdered by the crowd.

  Deut 21:22-23 has zippo to do with the sabbath. any sundown would be illegal, and it doesn't become illegal, unless the person is DEAD. Crucifixion takes from three to seven days, to kill you. Moreover, their going to Pilate Now versus all those other times people were crucified, by both Herod and Pilate, i.e., the Zealots? Why was it okay for people to die on crosses all those other times after sundown? See the coverup? So for the Jews to claim that it has something to do with Passover is an blatant coverup, sorry (see John 19:31 in context of 19:14-42, because it's a main point John makes, there was a coverup).

  For Jewish mnemonics are all based on numbers and the alphabet. See how Psalm 119 is constructed. Every Hebrew letter is a number. So kids learned their numbers and their letters by catchy combinations of Scripture dates and events. Remember "Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands"? That's but one teeny example of the way the common people popularly played with numbers and events.

  To better understand how well-known this convergence would be, pick the most important holiday in your own home nation's history. Now pretend there was a prophecy of an event occurring on that date which was a multiple of a number of years also important in your nation's history. Pretend further that every other major happy date in your nation's history, also converged on that same day -- and you were alive on that very day. You'd not miss the meaning. Look how nations celebrate 50 years, or 100 years or 200 years from their founding, from their royal dynasties? So how much more, if there was a prophecy that on the 1470th anniversary of Bastille Day France would be guaranteed rulership of the world -- for that's analogous to what the Messiah prophecy means laterally -- who wouldn't add up the facts on that anniversary? If instead of "Bastille Day" and "King" you substituted "4th of July" and "peace between the Republicans and Democrats" -- what American wouldn't be trumpeting the news? Why, we'd all declare what -- a Jubilee year! And that's precisely what "Jubilee" signified, under the Law: a permanent Jubilee, Messiah Home and Ruling.

  So next pretend that your leaders murdered that King or peace. What would 'the people' do? Same thing they always do in history: rise up in arms!

  You've got every kind of convergence going on here. It's the 1000th anniversary of David's retirement from Kingship. Everyone knew -- and the Sanhedrin used -- Christ's Kingship Rights. That's why Pilate had to worry about revolt threats by the Sanhedrin, since obviously those opposing them would take up some crusade in the Name of Christ, even though Christ Himself refused that help (long known, since for three years the Zealots had been trying to get Him to join them, but He never did). Civil war in Judea was a common problem, and since the area was so important to commerce traversing the Land over three continents, well that's the last problem Pilate wanted. So here He is: King, and known to be one, waiting for Israel's vote. Which we saw, is No: John 18:40, give us Barabbas! A rebel, rather than their Royal. So convergence of politics, of religion, of time, and especially of prophecy. Which anyone on the upcoming sabbath, would be able to ponder or read at leisure...

  By the end of the first 490 after the Exodus, the Temple was completed; by the end of the 2nd, the Temple was gone; but by the end of the third, the Temple became Our Savior and Paid for all the Sins of the World, just as predicted. And the Kingship, became Permanent. All as prophesied, To The Very Day. And of course 3.5 days after His Crucifixion and again according to the Law, just as HE had explained beforehand, He was Resurrected. Which Resurrection day, is the day the FirstFruits are to be offered in the Temple (see Hebrews 6 and 9, which is about how First Fruits=Christ, forever). That's why He's called the "FirstFruits". Everyone knew that from the OT, because Passover Is All About Messiah Coming The First Time To Pay For Sins.

  30AD's 490 time-grant tracks all the way back to Adam, frankly. Between Noah and Abraham, 490 years; at this point, both Isaac and Jacob each get 490-year grants, which is why the 18th Dynasty of Egypt can be 'born' (in the 490th year from Isaac). Joseph had become the 490 person for the 12th Dynasty; 490 years after his enslavement, is the Exodus -- else Moses couldn't be developed, which is why the 18th Dynasty had to rise. And the Exodus, exists due to Moses. 490 years after that, comes the 1st Temple. It only lasts 364 years, but God takes from the 126 years remaining, plus the two 70-year voting peiods, and crafts from them a 616-year grant (true Accountant, God), in answer to Daniel's prayer -- 616-70-70-49-364-70+7 -- which takes us down to 30AD, thus balancing to the end of the Temple's 2nd 490, had it never been razed. In short, from Adam through Christ, you can track the 490's and the 1000's in their proper order and shifting. Jews knew genealogies by heart, and love continuity. Wouldn't take too long on the sabbath, to realize this 'coincidence' of the third 490, was no coincidence at all: and that the Messiah is the culmination of history, just like Dan9:25 baldly says. After all, they had four more days to think about what had happened at the Crucifixion.

  When a big event happens in a nation, people talk about it. Look how we fill the internet and chatrooms, with the latest news!

Um, 1000 angels flying in midheaven announcing He's the Messiah wouldn't be more proof. Numbers can't lie, be influenced by religion or politics or ego. You can always say you hallucinated the angels. You can always say religion, politics, or ego motivates any circumstantial evidence. But you can't hallucinate the results on a calculator; they're either wrong or right, and someone can always duplicate the results. Whose Author is clearly God Alone. Shemah, Yisroel.

And now all these people were running around speaking foreign languages, telling how the First Fruit had Accomplished the Very Purpose of Jubilee! That's why He Resurrected, on the very Day of the First Fruits offering; for Resurrection means Victory, beginning with His Death (note how Paul accounts the death with victory, resurrection and First Fruits=Christ, in 1Cor15). Double-ouch.

Thus it has been, ever since. For haven't we learned their 'tongues', since the Bible is preserved in its original-language texts? Aren't we 'burning' with desire to talk about His Salvation? Look: millions of goyim, for crying out loud, Freely Witness to The Fulfillment Of His Long Promise to the Jews, century after century! It's as if a downpayment on the Millennium began early! Like Paul says in Romans 9, I could wish myself forever tortured, would that but save them. But instead I must wallow in sackcloth and ashes: writing plaintive webpages, praying my eyes out, mourning the blind bobbing facing the Wailing Wall that mutely points to Daniel 9:26c. To Matt24. And finally, to Rev11:1, the fake Temple which God Didn't Authorize, Satan's Final Solution. Moths to muth, they will flock to it, warned away by the then-Living Two Witnesses who alike are dressed in Temple Mourning; no longer blocks of Stone, one Wailing and one Abominating. But they won't hear then, either. Tsav latsav, tsav latsav, Tish b'av wa shav, b'vo'o lolev -- and all fall in the Pit. [Tish b'av is 9 Av, destruction day of both first and 2nd Temples in Jewish tradition (backed up by history). "tsav latsav" is rendered "rule on rule" or "line on line", but it has the meaning of mindless rote-observance, the way Isaiah uses it in Isa 28:10. Learning nothing. Qal perfect 3rd person singular of "shub" is shav"; b'vo'o is qal infinitive construct of "bo"; and "lolev" is lo+leb. I'd rather not translate it.]

So Israel is VINDICATED, get it? Her God is proven to be the One and Only True God. But they don't get it. This is like winning a bizillion-dollar lottery, everyone all over the world rushes to congratulate you, century after century -- but you deny you are the winner. I mean, we in the West didn't invent this God. It's ISRAEL's God, who is the Real One. All the others -- and we in the West used to call even trees gods, how bizarre -- all the other 'gods' are either demons or hallucinations. Who doesn't like to be proven, right? So why is Israel incensed at Isa52:15, coming true?

Note the Advertisement Heard: people all over the world were not only familiar with Israel's God, they were rather divided over Him. Israel's centrality geographically virtually insured this outcome; and the scandalous nature of her Us-First religion, well -- apocalyptic stories always travel fast and widely. So it's no surprise that you can't find a culture anywhere from the 1st century onward, which didn't retool its religion toward two concepts: monotheism and messianism. So every other culture had to invent stuff to 'compete', as well. You see it linguistically, religiously, and especially in that first century. Would be great to write a book on it, but hey -- you'd be on everyone's hit list, if you disclosed a creditable job of research. Sometimes it's better to play dumb.

So get this: as a result of His Crucifixion's worldwide fame -- which the Jews themselves had promoted for centuries prior -- they themselves suddenly had to reconfigure their spin on the nature of God, and on all the prophecy about Messiah. They've been doing it ever since that first century, and vigorously, too. Lately, it's even vogue to claim that Isaiah 53 is about Israel redeeming mankind -- look it up on the internet, see for yourself! I love reading how they try to make blatant prophecy about Him mean something else. Especially, since the Hebrew is so clear. Dunno how you can twist out me ish and me bene adam in Isa52:14. That's not about a nation, but a God-Man. For preposition "min" means BEYONDNESS; as in, beyond-human. As in, beyond-the-womb. Deft writer, that Isaiah, who uses antiphony in the first person (Father talking), second person (Son addressed, or Son addresses Father), and third person (the sacred "He" usage). So Who Is Talking To Each Other in eternity past of Isa53:10-11? Even the Isa53:10's LXX blatantly demonstrates the Plurality of Infinite Gods, and the verse is in Mosaic-Law nomenclature: "If You [Plural, God] will give Your Soul [singular, Humanity] as a substitute for sin [im tasim asham, red heifer offering, Hebrew], You will see long-lived seed." Divinity doesn't have a soul, since Infinite, get it? [The LXX was written by Jews, not Gentiles, three centuries before Christ, translation from an older Hebrew OT than we have. The Jews, believer and unbeliever, used it during the Lord's day, as did the Lord Himself. You'll not find a verse in the NT which shows the Pharisees or Saducees disputing Trinity: only that the Lord claimed to be the Son Himself. So it's there for anyone to see, that they weren't monotheistic back then. Not too hard to change napheshka to naphesho, either. There was some adulterating of the OT, but not a lot: there's no doubt in my mind Isa53:10-11 in the LXX was excised from the Hebrew OT we have. How much Talmud was adulterated is a hot topic on the internet, but how true that is, you'll have to research yourself. I've not investigated the claims about its adulteration, and I really don't want to. The Jews were always persecuted, and maybe they took drastic measures. I would have, in their place.]

So how do you get a nation Israel, from that? Israel isn't God, is she? Israel isn't brutalized beyond human recognition by her own people, as Isaiah depicts happens to "My Righteous Servant" [Father talking, there in Isa53:12, see also 52:13, 53:2]. But Someone going to the Cross, was brutalized beyond human recognition. So much so, people for centuries afterwards were shocked by it, and believed in HIM. How come? Why believe in Him, and not in the nation Israel? See: when you lie, you get caught. And the louder among the religious Jews are lying about what Bible says is God's Number. YHWH is the concatenation of two verbs, hayah and hawah: "to be" and "to become", respectively. He Who Always Was, Becomes. God-man, baby. As a Baby. Growing up, saving the World. THAT is Israel's Shining upon the Gentiles, and we should be Forever Grateful to Her.

For Bible itself is always tritheistic, never montheistic. Three Equal, Infinite Gods. Nothing at all like polytheism, which by definition depends in the INequality of 'the gods'. Wordplay on Trinity is so thick in the OT, you can't run into a verse with "God" somewhere in it, that doesn't have wordplay or soundplay on their Threeness-Yet-Uniqueness. The shemah in Deut 6:4 is the most famous quote in Judaism, but "echad" there is wordplay for Unique Father, Unique Son, Unique Spirit, Voluntarily United. For "echad" also means "unique", "first", "head", and "united". Hebrew words have many layers of meaning, and in the Bible especially, you always read the meanings as stacks. Question is, what meaning is first, which one next, etc. Greek of Bible tries to do the same thing: NT does it more, but OT does it as much as possible. It's deliberate, to use "echad" to mean all those meanings at once.

Judaism is not monotheistic, nor ever was. But some among them retooled the spin on Bible as if monotheistic, so the God-man prophecies could be denied: for if God becomes Man, um -- Who is the God Judging our sins ON that Man? So in essence they merely chopped "echad" to only mean one in number. But they didn't much adulterate the OT to blot out all the references to the Holy Spirit, the Son, the Father. So you can tell it's a spin, not the Bible, this false claim of monotheism. Sadly, Christendom bought the same Satan's mystery math, the kooky idea that 1+1+1=1. You know, the Westminster Creed. As if God had to be hydra-headed, to be Infinite. Part IVa (link at pagetop) goes through all this in much more detail.

Christians are so pious in their insistence that they are monotheists. Okay, then: Which One? Only Father? Only Son? Only Spirit? Can't be more than one, if MONO(=one, get it) theistic! Keystone Kops, this.

So note the irony: messianism came from the Jews, so when the Messiah came, everyone heard about it, and many believed. But the success of that centuries-long advertising coming to fruition, made the Pharisees and Saducees invent 'monotheism'. Which the world also bought, including Christians after the first century ended. After, not before. Because salvation is juridically invalid if God isn't Three Independent, Infinite Persons. No hydra-headed jurisprudence works. If I take money from one pocket and transfer it to the other, I didn't 'pay' for anything, and I didn't 'get' any payment, either.

So the success of their telling everyone about Messiah, and their success in covering up both Messiah via redefining "God" to a hydra-headed One-In-Number, was widespread! Evidence is overwhelming!

You also couldn't ignore that both the Roman and the Jewish governments had acknowledged His Kingship, which no 'messiah' pretender had ever garnered -- so much so, when Pilate hung the indictment on His Cross, the Sanhedrin suddenly realized their use of His Kingship to procure indictment was indeed a bad move. Backpedalling, they pretended HE alleged Kingship. Kinda hard for them to make that claim, since Pilate never talked to Him until the Sanhedrin brought Him on the charge He was a KING stirring up sedition. See a false king can't well stir up sedition, but one with credentials -- genealogy from David, for example -- could. But of course He Himself wasn't political, as Pilate well knew. But the Sanhedrin did politically (ab)use His Royalty to Pilate. So now they were exposed -- all via that little sign in three languages which hung above His Cross. Free advertising.

The Sanhedrin really blew it back when they made an issue of Him coming from Nazareth, demanding that one check the prophets as proof, John 7:52 (see context). For that meant people did check the prophets. And lo! "Nazareth" means Dedicated, and the Dedicated One was provably born in Bethlehem, as all those shepherd s and even Herod proved, back 30+ years prior! Registration of a birth is something you must do in Temple. Dedication of the first born is in the Law, as Luke 2 recaps. So in claiming Christ is the rightful King and having previously bidden people to look in the prophets, means the Sanhedrin knew by the time they arrested Him, that He was born in Bethlehem. After all, they had charge of the birth registration, and He can't be a King, without a Birth Certificate they issued!

They can't go to Pilate and accuse Christ of sedition unless they can prove He's a King. They got nothing else they can use, since He didn't advocate sedition, Himself. So they have to claim others would rally around him, and THAT's the threat to Rome. Kinda like how France was able to use its Dauphins, kinda like Herod's reasoning in killing a potential baby king -- you do that, because of the others who will rally around and foment revolution. So to make that claim provable, the Sanhedrin had to have His Birth Certificate. Which proved He was born in Bethlehem. Which was attested by those magi who went running around Jerusalem, not Bethlehem -- they didn't know where, so they weren't there at the birth -- but we know where, because Herod ASKED the Sanhedrin where at that time, and then decided to kill babies in Bethlehem (Matt2). And attested by the shepherd s IN Bethlehem, who actually saw Him on the day He was born there (Luke 2). All this was advertised for 30 years before He announced Himself. [Matt 2:16 is often used by scholars to claim that a two-year elapse occurred between brith and slaying order. But that makes no sense given the immediacy of Matt2:1's Greek, showing the arrival of the magi followed hard on the actual Birth: "Now as soon as He was born in Bethlehem" would be a better translation of the first clause in that verse, because in Greek, participles are usually coterminous with the main verb of the same sentence. Moreover, Matthew is making soundplay (between gennethentos, the participle of His Birth and paregenonto, the main verb of the magi's arriving, hence two 'arrivals', split-screen). A better explanation for the two-year calculation is that any baby under two years old would still be nursed by its mother, so the assasins wouldn't have to ASK how old the child was. They just watched for suckling children, and slew. Also, it would take some time to spy out and kill the babies. Once the killing began, the children would be hidden. So it would maybe take two years to kill them all, even going from the immediate announcement, at His Birth. Much more about the Matthew and Luke Birth accounts is in the "Bible's True Nativity Narrative" link in LvS4a.htm.]

All the Gospels, and especially John's, stress how Pilate kept on saying, "King of the Jews". If memory serves, I think John records Pilate saying it four or five times. Notice also, how the mocking on Passion Week's Saturday night, Tuesday, and Wednesday is all directed at His Kingship. All that could not have gone on had there been no solid evidence He was the King; had everyone not accepted, that evidence. After all, that was the only truth the Sanhedrin, Herod, and even Pilate could agree on. And of course, being a king isn't a crime. But it's the only truth they had which could be used against Him. So they accepted it, and used it against Him.

Now think about how you love hero movies. The noble king who fights for his people and wins. The noble king who gets executed, and what happens next? The people are inspired, they war and win for their dead, sacrificing hero! Who doesn't like such stories? Who doesn't retell such stories, over and over and over that's why cable TV is in nearly every household, even among those on public assistance in the US? Kings after all tax people, they don't sacrifice for people. Not in the real world, anyway. Okay, but this IS the real world. Whoa: Word travels fast, when the King is actually Sacrificing, for a change.

So: having two governments corroborate this One as a King, with the word spreading like wildfire, such that you have all these copycat gospels and religions claiming now to be 'just like' Him: now you consult Bible. After all, it might be a copycat, itself. Or -- pssst! -- a corruption, as people keep claiming century after century since the Babylonian Exile. Because you want to find the right 'king' story. Because, it's popular to talk about celebrities, kings -- look how everyone on the internet seeks to trace his genealogy back to some famous person? Look how obsessive is the idea of some Survivor of David, earning Dan Brown and others cashing in on the popularity, millions? So: you don't think news of this Messiah's Kingly Sacrifice travelled the globe in a few short years? Guess again!

Thus the Sanhedrin had to realize their use of His Kingship was about the stupidest thing they could do. Instead of it causing an end to the claim of Him being Messiah, it fueled the news all over the world!

And if some human were capable of concocting such a genius match, hey -- we should find his descendants and beg them to take over world rule. Of course, there aren't any such descendants. No one is smart enough to marshall all of the OT in a single book (each book of the NT), using deft nuances in Greek language which play on the Hebrew. Sorry, Charlie. Only GOD is that smart. For most of man's history, he's not even been able to get his hands on a complete Bible, during OT times or New -- so how is it, that such smart reference-backs to books largely unavailable to anyone, are so finely attuned? Full Bible would have to be poured over by people on computers, for crying out loud -- to even SEE all those reference-backs, let alone to craft them!

Took me 34 adulthood years under a pastor who taught Bible in the original-language texts, to see the convergence. Someone else just starting out in such teaching, couldn't see it. Someone learning Bible in translation, couldn't see it. And no one however taught, could see it absent God teaching your human spirit, with 1Jn1:9 used -- for the Holy Spirit doesn't teach you when in a state of 1Jn1:8 or :10 -- except to teach you are out of fellowship. So witness: billions of Christians are out of fellowship for centuries, misdating and misinterpreting Bible. They didn't even have a Bible, largely -- because, they weren't interested. Bible always goes 'hidden' to those who don't want it. So then: how could all this convergence with all the OT, be there in all the NT? Surely only God could cause it.

So the Arabs shouldn't feel bad that they also advertised the correctness of Daniel 9 by building the very abomination Daniel talked about -- the Dome over the Holy of Holies (Part IVa has the details). Oh no: the Sanhedrin went the Arabs one better. Satan&Co. must have been laughing their heads off; oh, the hapless humans, so punctiliar about ceremonies, dates, and history; yet so blind to the meaning of them! Both back then, and ever since.

The real reason they took over the Temple Mount, was due to the Koranic claim Abraham sacrificed Ishmael, not Isaac. Click here for IshmaelnotIsaac.doc, which is a paste of verses and commentaries from the Koran. Islamic software used is "The Alim", which you can buy on the internet. So in fairness only what the Koran says, only how Moslems interpret it, is in that Word doc. You can find plenty of corroboration on the internet. There is also a claim that Mohammed rose to heaven from that very Rock, but I can't yet find it in the Koran or the Hadith. I'll keep trying to search it. Finally, there is a claim that Christ has a 2nd Coming, in the Koran. Harun-yahya.com, a devout Moslem website, has whole books on the topic, which you can freely download in zip format, or buy on CD. Point is, Moslems don't realize how they are being derided by the very Koran they believe in.

How cruel Satan&Co. are to Moslems. They blatantly have them take this Rock (=Petra, in LXX of OT), switch the sacrifice object to Ishmael in the Koran, but yet claim David -- a descendant of Isaac -- was a hero in "Allah's" eyes. David, to whom the Temple was promised; David, whom God directed to that Rock as a result of David's SIN in numbering the people -- whom God directed to that Rock, to sacrifice on the same Rock as Abraham had (end 2Sam), the threshing floor of Araunah, on Mt. Moriah (later named Mt. Zion). So in the Koran, notice: there's no claim that David is a descendant of Ishmael. There's no claim that the Bible is adulterated with respect to David, or the Temple. Pretty cruel, huh. So cruel, they have this Abominating Dome built on a reversal of 586, the year (BC) the Temple was destroyed. To destroy it again, get it? To advertise it's destroyed, to advertise the Real God is the God of the Bible, not the Koran, to advertise Daniel 9:26 is valid!

Dunno about you, but it's very comforting to know we are all equally stupid. The Jews make certain very dumb mistakes, the Arabs make other 'flavors', and of course we Christians of any race, make our own flavors of error, in every generation, in every sect among us. So we all live in glass houses, and prove ourselves deaf stones, but we all have (potentially, if we want) the Same Real God Who is out to make us Living Stones: Diamonds. Just a question of correctly identifying Him. Him, Who made that promise of many nations of sons to Abram-then-a-goy when he was 75 years old way back in 2085BC, Gen12. So it matters not at all what race you are, Gal3; because when you do what Abram did, Gen15:6, you are his son. That's how Isaac became the son of the promise, Rom9; that's how Jacob and not Esau became the son of the promise, ibid. Whew. No one need be left out! We can all be stupid, together!

Now to extra stuff regarding the Seven Trials. Some of this material is repetitive, as it was covered in Division #2's daily recount. There were Seven Trials, not the two or three movies (and shallow teaching) about Passion week, usually cover. First, again remember: Jewish time runs sunset to sunset; so it was still Passover night, when they arrested and tried Him the first Three Times: Annas, Caiaphas, and a third Joint Trial before what should have been a quorum of the Sanhedrin. All three Trials were illegal under their own terms. Bible documentaries and movies tend to prey upon audience prejudices, so you always see a too-sympathetic presentation of the Sanhedrin, or a too anti-semitic one. Just look at the political machinations of the government in your own home country, and you'll better know the truth. We are all too human.

Every political body ever born is burdened with takers and givers. The larger the body, the more difficult it is to have any accountability. So the more stuff slips through the cracks; the more any laws passed, are watered-down compromises. Power is a heady and crazy thing: something about masses of people looking at you makes some fancy they are gods, and others throw in the towel. By the end, most throw in the towel, but it's too late then to leave power. You get accustomed to it. Kinda like drugs.

So the goal of these illegal trials wasn't even necessarily about Christ Himself, so much as a wrangling for position within the Sanhedrin. He was just a convenient tool for manipulating the Sanhedrin, itself. So at the illegal trials, the goal of the plotters -- and it was a faction, not the whole body -- the goal of the plotters, was to get Him to behave or say something which could convict Him, really. You know that, because they really didn't need to bribe Judas, they could have just sent out the Temple guards to summon Him. They were the Sanhedrin, they had authority.

Of course, they couldn't get the votes they needed for that authorization from the Joint Sanhedrin. So they had to resort to a ruse: because it wasn't legal to arrest Him, without a quorum vote and sufficient "Yes" consent of the entire group. So much for the goofy movie portrayal of all the Jews being against Him. Not so. In fact, you tend to know the opposite, that too many Jews were FOR Him (as Gospels repeatedly attest, duh), since they had to resort to this secret ruse.

Again, the Gospels make this plain, even in translation. Matthew focuses on the Kingship, and you see the Jews inside and outside the Sanhedrin, split over that. No one disputes that He's King -- they dispute whether He is THE King Promised in 2Sam7. Luke focuses on the historical play itself, and you see the zigzag. Mark focuses on the hostility of the Pharisees and Saduccees hating Him more for every miracle He does. So the miracles -- an essential proof of Messiahship -- only make them hate Him, but certainly couldn't be used as evidence in a Trial. It would turn the tide toward Him, not against Him. John focuses on Him being the Son of God. Again, can only convict Him of that, if it's not true. But they couldn't agree on whether it was true. Not until, that ruse was played. And there was no testimony they could use, even then. They have to flat pronounce Him a liar when He admits it's true He's Messiah. Kangaroo court.

So: grab an evening's worth of beverage, your Bible and a quiet room, and just read the Gospels like a novel: first Matthew, then Luke, then Mark, then John, to follow the chronological order in which those Gospels, were written. NIV and NASB seem to read best (even translations can't wholly mask meaning if you read enough). By reading in that order, you get the equivalent of a movie with a lot of graduated flashbacks which fill in details. The repetition of data will help solidify the story in your mind, as well.

So it's a classic story of one group within a larger group, hungry for and trying to gain, power over that larger group. Happens every day in every state, nation, even the freakin' PTA (Parents-Teachers' Association, in the US). Think: a true Messiah appearing then would be a threat to those who were wrong for Israel, and a boon for those who were right. So those wrong, would lose their coveted status, sooner or later. In their own eyes, they were fighting for their survival, pure and simple.

So the plotters weren't succeeding; so, they used this not-so-secret arrest to upset Him; it was meant to be obviously illegal, in-His-Face; they thought they could thus get Him to say or do something wrong, if sufficiently upset. They needed something to denigrate Him in the eyes of those among their number who believed in Him. So they wanted Him to fight when they arrested Him; they were expecting a reciprocating denunciation. So, they were baiting Him by all those illegalities and punchings. And it was supremely frustrating, that it didn't work! Woulda worked if they'd have attacked the Zealots like that. But they never 'got it' that His Mission was not political. So they don't get a conviction, except by asking Him whether He is Messiah. Now -- if He IS Messiah, then He's not guilty. But they ignore that also, since all they have is the possibility that He's blaspheming. And, since "Messiah" is a political powder keg issue with the Romans (so they think, and wrongly), well they can use His Admission of Messiahship, to convict Him under the Romans. But as we saw earlier, that backfired. Kingship was a problem for Pilate, if they would therefore revolt. Messiahship claim was not a problem, since everyone knew the Messiah was not making a political claim: just as Christ admitted to Pilate (John19), "My Kingdom is not of this world."

Now that puts the rest of the Sanhedrin in the same blackmail bind Pilate will soon be in. The rest of the Sanhedrin now must choose whether to admit they believe in Him -- or stay silent. If they admit, it's open political war, with emphasis on "war", not nice. Political suicide, potentially followed by confiscation of goods, and other high-handed tactics. For now the plotters got a Roman cohort behind them. No longer a theological debate, but an open avowal, come what may. You can imagine how reluctant they'd be to do that, under the fait accompli they were handed. He is arrested. He says He is Messiah. It's true or is not, and given the evidence which they all had been following for three years -- it's time to fish or cut bait. Notice that HE is not asking them to choose, but the plotters are demanding they side with them or against them. Big risk to take. Putting one's faith money where the mouth is. So the mouths, closed. Just like His was, though for quite different reasons.

Here's the interplay between human and demonic involvement: the latter works like enduement. Enduement basically enhances greatly something which exists. So if they had a little fear, demon enduement would magnify it greatly. Thus even if the plotters didn't have enough clout, fear inserted in just the right way and 'dosage', would make those believing in Him imagine a greater threat than existed. Fear is a temptation, and a sin. So they'd have to believe a lot, to resist the temptation, recover from the sin. Always some kernel of truth is used to carry the power; lies don't have enough. So it's not lies but shaded truth, what-if truth, which is Satan&Co.'s specialty. The lie is unspoken, sorta between-the-cracks. Then only we are responsible, for believing a lie.

So notice the kernel of truth: if the plotters could accuse Him without cause and illegally; then all those who believe in Him will likewise be accused. We here in the 21st century saw how mere accusations ended the jobs of thousands of people at very large US companies; ended the careers of many priests in the Catholic Church. Unproven accusations, all. No trial was yet held before these folks lost everything. Enron's Trial (1/2006) is just now getting underway, six years later. But Arthur Anderson -- which was never tried -- is dead. So this weird Bible story of the Sanhedrin winning by mere accusation isn't so farfetched, anymore.

Bible accounts in Matt26, Luke 22, Mark 14, John 18, show you two spearheading plotters: Annas and Caiaphas. Since those were the most influential people, you can understand how the next morning, the Gospels recount that the whole Sanhedrin convened and convicted Him. (Read Matt 27:1, Luke 23:1, and then Mark 15:1.) In the inspired Greek Bible text, you see lots of stress on the Enormous Size of the group who came to arrest Him. Next, there's stress on the smallness of the conspirators in that night's two Trials; then, back to the Enormity of the Group condemning the next morning (3rd Trial), going to Pilate (4th, 6th-7th Trials), going to Herod (5th Trial), etc. [John pointedly leaves out the Sanhedrin convocation: see how John 18:1-27 reads, then breaks to them leading Him to Pilate from Caiaphas, not the Joint Sanhedrin, in v.28. It's called haughty omission or omission because DISapproved, a tactic God uses in the OT, dropping someone from mention or never mentioning someone -- as if they died or never existed, passing over them. (He replaces all the sons of Levi with Amram in the genealogies, very insulting, see "Jochebed" link in MisTrans.htm for details.) So John's saying the joint convocation was not determinative, but rather a rubber-stamping. Rhetorical omission is also used to dismiss significance (i.e., no Roman church mentioned in Rev1-3). So John's purpose in writing was to show the machinations, treating the convocation as a kangaroo court. Very illuminating, when you read the Gospels in their chronological order: you can see that the earlier Gospels were saying the same thing as John, in context. Again, Matt26, Luke 22, Mark 14 parallel John 18. Matt27:1's use of "hoste" emphasizes that the intent was to find grounds to get Him executed. It's an Atticism (dramatic Greek). You'll find "hoste" also used in the very dramatic John 3:16. Note the contrast of purpose: they conspired to kill Him, and Father wanted to kill Him also -- to SAVE us. Amazing, how much Doctrine you can learn from a single Greek word.]

When you're part of a corporation, you yourself might go along, even if you disagree, because of the corporation. Really, everyone's kinda doing that in this story, for varying reasons (Pilate and Herod are playing a go-along game with the Sanhedrin, too, though neither of them thought Christ guilty, see Luke 23:13-15).

One of the political games factions play within a corporate body (civil, religious, whatever), is commonly called "an end run" in American slang. The term comes from football, and it's the idea of forcing an unethical corporate result, using only a few members. So the faction tries to do something in such a way that the others in the corporate body, must approve, in order to avoid some shame. In short, it's like a coverup. [That's basically what happened to Nixon with respect to Watergate -- he didn't start it but got stuck with it, and tried to cover it up -- so if you know that story well, you can analogously understand how a faction of the Sanhedrin, pulled off a caper which forced the whole group, to agree to it. Lots of people think that's how we got into Iraq, too. I vehemently disagree, since WMD is lucrative and easily transportable; Saddam HAD done it, which is why Israel bombed him back in 1994 or so; so Saddam woulda done it again for the money, if nothing else. Either way, you can see how the machinations of a faction can force on the whole body an outcome, if played cleverly and boldly. That's what happened during Passion Week. You can see it happening in Congress every day.]

The plotters had much to do; they'd left their religious duties, undone. This matters, for the plotters make a political bid to get control of the Sanhedrin; so they have to keep up appearances. Especially, Annas and Caiaphas. The corporate body afforded them a way to beg off responsibility, if Christ hadn't said the magic words, I am He. If He'd not done that, Annas and Caiaphas could pretend over-enthusiastic underlings had arrested Him, sorry-about-that. Of course, the reason why those underlings were so enthusiastic, was that Caiaphas had sanctioned their activity, and they were out to curry favor with him (he was the new president/high priest of the Sanhedrin that year). And, being loyal underlings, wouldn't say Caiaphas sanctioned it all. Annas was Caiaphas' father-in-law, and had formerly been a president/high priest of the Sanhedrin (see John 18).

So the Law means nothing to them, but power does. So they don't care that they violate the Sabbath, so long as they can justify the violation, ex post facto. Which they can now do, solely because Christ admitted to Caiaphas that He is the Messiah. It's still Passover, and they ARE violating it. Selectively.

Pilate has to pay close political attention, whether he wants to or not. Pilate well knows Jewish law (you can tell that, by the way he talks in the Gospels), and of course would need to know it well, to BE the governor. Pilate has his own intelligence sources, and already knows that this King of the Jews did not side with the Zealots (who were political conspirators), did not side with the other rebellious factions, and did not encourage His followers, to engage in a political upheaval. So the Lord's "My Kingdom is not of this world" and how if it were, He'd not be in front of Pilate, was believable. So "Messiahship" as a claim from This One, was no political threat. After all, for three years He had fomented, taught nothing but Look Up To Father. So the Trial of the Lord before the Romans, had all the Evidence in His Favor.

Pilate must have been falsely accused himself, to be so sensitive to the Lord's being falsely accused, i.e., Matt27:18's statement that he knew they accused Him out of envy. Pilate must have had some positive volition toward God, too. For the Lord takes time with him, in His inimitable fashion of asking illuminating questions. So Pilate could hear That One Speaking to him, and of course the Holy Spirit is testifying to Pilate at the same time. Two Witnesses. Trouble is, Pilate has this job of keeping the peace, so the most important commercial landmass in three continents won't be in upheaval; for trade is thicker than blood, and blood is thicker than loyalty to some god-story convincingly told for millenia...

But these plotters in the Sanhedrin, are newly making a political threat VIA That One: they imply (and by Wednesday will say openly) that if Pilate doesn't crucify That One, he can expect a revolt. Matt26-27, Luke 22-23, Mark 14-15, and John 18-19 (read in that order) show their scheming and how they were trying to box Pilate into condemning Him. So it's a different revolution problem, Pilate faces: he's being blackmailed to execute That One in order to prevent the plotters from fomenting a revolt. Which, he can ill afford. So he's interested in accommodating the Jews -- and his own safety -- as much as he can. The political tension between Herod and the Sanhedrin was something he used to keep both sides favoring him (divide and conquer, always valid). So when they come to him hat-in-hand to indict this Royal Jew, well he's got yet a third way to go. Maybe ally with That One? So now you know why that Fourth Trial (the one about Kingship and the Truth), occurred.

But That One doesn't seek alliance, but the far costlier option of FAITH; and Pilate is left rather nervous, just as those believing in Him among the Sanhedrin. Whichever side Pilate picks will be political suicide for him, and Jerusalem is already the armpit of the Roman world (he must have been accused of wrongdoing, to get that governorship). So what to do? Oh, this Royal is a Galillean? Ok! So Pilate next sends the Lord to Herod (5th trial, Luke 23:6).

So they used His Royal Lineage to get Him crucified, they weren't disputing it. They were coy at first, inventing related stuff as if He were a political conspirator. Pilate saw through all that. But when they threatened on Tuesday and Wednesday to blackmail Pilate (we have no king but Caesar is an implied threat to report Pilate as anti-Rome); when they finally threatened to revolt if this King wasn't crucified, well Pilate gave in. They gave him an ultimatum, essentially. This is the Highest Governmental Authority in Israel, who's doing the threatening, not some rabble; so Pilate can't treat them like the normal rebel crowd, rounding them up and executing them. If he did that, he'd have open rebellion all over Israel. You don't send cohorts against duly constituted authority -- that itself, is a type of rebellion, and then Pilate would be the guilty one.

The Sanhedrin wanted Him crucified because He said He's the Messiah; but Pilate already knew about that legend, didn't care about it. But Pilate had to care about a blood-descendant of David as potential King of the Jews, who was riot/civil war material. Christ wouldn't have denied His Messiahship, and didn't. But before Pilate, the bigger issue was His Political Eligibility. That's why Pilate queried him about the Kingship, not about His Messiahship. That's what made Pilate 'indict' Him; notice that the indictment hanging above the Cross was "Basileus" (King), not "Christos" (Messiah). For "Messias" was a Savior role, a non-political thing God accomplishes. The Kingship, would come after He saved us. Pilate knew the distinction. [17 verses in NT use the phrase Basileus to show this.]

Matt 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 18 all cover this event in varying facets (each Gospel has a threaded theme, so leaves out or puts in data relevant to that theme). Read all four chapters. Start with Matthew, then read Luke, then Mark, then John (that's the order in which the Gospels were actually written, so each version purposefully advances what was given in the prior Gospel). Even in translation, it's reasonably clear what was the political issue presented Pilate, versus the true reason the Sanhedrin wanted Him crucified. The distinction is important. (Too bad the dingdongs today who claim the Jews didn't know He was Son of David, don't even do this much easy homework before they froth at the mouth.)

Herod mocked His Royalty, right there in front of the Sanhedrin. Luke 23:11's "mocked" has the connotation in Greek of disdain, worthy of contempt, useless. Because Christ wasn't acting macho about Himself, it rankled; it seemed also like the very-common practice of haughty distance -- to someone haughty, like Herod. People can't handle someone superior to them, so they have to put down such a person. Since Christ wasn't fighting and wasn't answering (which was more odd, since His Body was Perfect, so you can imagine how fit He looked), well -- He had to be mocked. To not mock Him was to admit He was right. Arrogance can't take anyone else being right. So as you can see, it's because they knew He was Royal, that they mistreated Him so. He didn't act the way Royalty should, didn't conform to human glory ("hadar" keyword in Isa53:2c). He didn't hadar us, so He didn't hamad (please) us, see...

Herod wasn't a Jew, but tried real hard to be considered one, even going so far as to divorce his first wife and marry his half-sister, who was half Jewish (by a different mother, who was a descendant of John Hyrcanus). So you know that Herod would be punctilious about observing Passover. Herod wouldn't receive Christ illegally; he would distance himself from the Sanhedrin, especially because THE Son of David was coming to see him. This politeness could maybe garner Herod some deal, he didn't know yet. So that first morning Christ appeared before Pilate, He stayed there. Not until sometime Monday could Christ even be transported to Herod. Herod was observing Passover, which is why He was in Jerusalem, get it? So the last thing he wants to do, is alienate the very Jews whose favor he was currying (his family was always bickering-to-the-death over who had the crown, so Herod needed friends). Since not until the second day of the Feast of the Unleavened bread can you work, well Christ spent up to the first 48 hours of His imprisonment in the Roman jail (not yet whipped). You read in Division #2 how long the visit with Herod probably took, so that info won't be repeated here.

Upshot: Herod, ever the opportunist for more power, decides to ally with Pilate and even the Sanhedrin plotters -- but, hedging his bets, sends Him back to Pilate (meaning Christ-not-guilty), 6th trial (see John 19:1-6). This return constrained Pilate to offer to flog Him; to re-verify with the Sanhedrin and the crowd, their vote. Pilate had to summon them, so the rest of Tuesday (whatever remained), was spent preparing to assemble in front of the Praetorium the next day, Wednesday, the Day He'd end up being flogged in order to avoid being crucified -- which didn't mollify the crowd. My my. A day of preparation each Passover day, but all these people are preparing, to Kill their True Paschal Lamb, Jn19:42 (verse link at pagetop).

Which brings us back to: God out-plotted the plotters, and used their machinations, to bring about the Correct Timing of His Set-Aside (Arrest) and Slaughter (Crucifixion) to coincide exactly with the proper 10 and 14 Nisan, main theme in the Greek of John 19. Track the anarthrous constructions versus what would have been the normal parallels, but for the absence of the articles. John keeps on contrasting True (anarthrous) with false (article fronting) with God's purpose realized out from false (monadic use of article, climax verse in 19:42). So notice: for all the plotters' savvy, machinations, and smarts, they were pawns; by their own hands, exactly fulfilling the Passover holiday prophecies! (Passover, like all holidays in Judaism, is inherently prophetic, which is why God instituted the holidays, in the first place. Prophecy belongs only to Israel, because she is the nation out from whom Messiah comes: see Rev19:10.) And in David's 1000th anniversary-of-kingship year, too! See, arrogance makes fools out of geniuses. But God blesses everyone, anyway. That's a great comfort, when the self finally recognizes its own brainout-ness...

So by burying Him, Joseph and Nicodemus leave their families and fellow Levites short-handed for the entire following week; and they have to disclose why they are 'unclean'. This is blatant admission they believe in Messiah, so these two must do what the rest of the Sanhedrin avoided. You have to disclose details, so the rabbinical procedure can be certified. They already made themselves public with Pilate, but this is a public declaration, not much different from standing in front of a crowd. For those who hear about it will spread the word faster than a cobra can spit. Notice how famous Simon of Cyrene became, a generation after Matthew's &Luke's Gospels: Mark's 2nd generation version had the family tree and homestead in the text. John pulled another pointed rhetorical omission, for Christ's own Cross (you know, the Real One, Paying for Sins?) was getting sidelined, looks like (John 19:17). So Joseph and Nicodemus doing any burying would be front-page news. Encouraging some among the Sanhedrin, probably, to likewise admit their belief. Too bad it didn't happen a few days prior, huh. Better late than never.

Moreover, they'd have to admit it over and over and over again to a wide variety of people. Handy evangelism, that. For no one can do business with them at all once they have begun the burial procedure (if you transact with an unclean person you also become unclean, as does whatever you yourself touch, hence the need for advance disclosure). So they had to buy the linen strips, bathe and otherwise prepare the Body, immediately and in great haste. After they touch Him, they can't do anything else for the next seven days. See the huge sacrifice those two Pharisees made? They must admit they are unclean, and why. So much for the oft-heard lie in movies and fake gospels about their faith being a secret! They risked everything, and publically, too. You can't prepare a body for burial during Passover week without rabbinical review and some kind of admittance that you conformed with the Law when you did it -- because of the law of uncleanness. You defile everyone at table if you break that law, so it's a public concern, if you bury a body. Remember, the technical penalty for breaking the sabbath was death. [Note how deft that rule about uncleanness: germs or disease wouldn't spread well, since the person quarantines himself and washes.]

Due to the 490 dating system, it had to be known what the Deadline Year was. Ever since Daniel 9, the earth's days were numbered. However, it was still not known what year Messiah would be sacrificed, but rather only what the last year must be, in order to buy yet another 490 years, if at all. That's why the ambiguity in Dan9:26, and the syntactical break in the text between that verse and Dan9:27, exist. It was possible for time to be inserted, but not guaranteed; nor was there a guarantee of how much time would be inserted. So again, this undefined gap in time, would be known but not predictable. Now you know why Church had to be inserted -- to Justify Continuing Time. It's not titillating, it's terrifying.

But He does become the Bread of Life and during the Feast of the Unleavened Bread He gets eaten! Who we eat To Remember Him Every Communion, Luke 22:19, 1Cor11:24-27. Who we eat daily as we feed on His Thinking, Matt4:4. Daily, as in Sabbath. For He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Hence, Convergence Of All Holidays in Him, Ez45! [The "prince" in Ezekiel 45 is the High Priest, not the Lord (see 44:3); for the Lord gets the Temple itself; it's someone from the Tribulation who lives through it.]

Whoa: Time orchestrated for the Son BY the Father, provable all the way back to Adam. Could you ask for a bigger, constantly-provable miracle 'sign', than that? Yeah, but we don't see the phenomenal sign that hits us daily in the news, the abomination of the Dome and the Wailing Wall (both mutely testifying to Daniel 9:26c), so well we won't 'see' God's obvious orchestration of time, either. [I truly feel sorry for the millions of sincere ecumenical folks who don't realize that "eat" is everywhere a Bible metaphor of Belief. So eating Christ is to eat His Thinking, just as He explained in Luke 22, 1Cor11, and especially, Matt4:4. Mannah means Belief, hence Exo16 reads as it does. You pick the quail, or God's Bread. Bread of Heaven, His Thinking, in your soul, that's True Food. Not, some dippy, magic, transubstantiating wafer you put on your tongue, only after which you can have breakfast. (Episcopalians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Anglicans and I-don't-remember-how-many-other denominations believe in the dippy-wafer thingy, never mind that the Eucharist is everywhere about Remembrance, in Bible.) "My food is to do the Will of Him Who sent Me." Can the Lord make it plainer, what eating means?]

But you are First Fruits now. Hidden, unrecognized like He was. Remember Rom8:23, 11:16, 1Cor15:23, 2Thess2:13 (NRS), James 1:18, Rev14:4? Since He is "the Preparation" as those Gospel verses all attest with their anarthrous or monadic constructions, and we are an extension of Him in the world (1Jn4:17), so we need to Prepare. For He's passing over Israel, yet again: passing them-who-play-Vashti right on by collecting the Esthers among them. So the Vashtis among the world, are like Egypt (pointed analogy to Pharaoh Amenhotep II in Romans 9). After which passing over -- again and again and again, who knows how long -- He will have Tribulation pass over them so they can turn and be healed -- along with the rest of the world which goes for the Fake Temples, the Fake Churches, the Fake Anything-but-the-Real-God. So who knows when His next Preparation Day aka the Rapture, will arrive? [That's the point the writer of Hebrews is making in Hebrews 4. You can see it threaded throughout his letter beginning in Chapter 1, even in translation: read Hebrews maybe two dozen times, with your 1Jn1:9 Spirit-Filled brain on. Try it, now that you know more about the OT sabbath-and-holiday meanings...]

It's no "sign" if He was normally wrapped like babies then, merely placed diagonally on a large cloth and then belted in a few places to keep him like a papoose -- nothing abnormal about that. So He was instead wrapped as if He had been born dead. You must wind strips around a dead body because eventually it will burst from the decomposition. That's why they did the mummy thing in Egypt. So: imagine being Joseph and Mary, slowly winding those baby belts over and over and over across and around His tiny Body -- as if He were dead? And just as intentionally, putting Him on hay in a feeding trough? How can they not know their own perilous future?

My pastor spent a lot of time on Luke 2:12 explaining that this Baby is wrapped in death bandages (i.e., L1854, 92SD, 12/24/2000). I couldn't figure out how he got that, until I did some digging in BibleWorks. For he's always taught us that if you want to know the meaning of a word in Bible, then you consult the Bible for all the usages, thesauretically. Lexicons usually list most occurrences, but when words are rare, they tend not to analyse usage much. Always have to analyze, since God so often takes a word and makes it have an opposite or ironic meaning, in order to tweak. So: the same Greek words in Luke 2:12 are used in Ezekiel 16:4 in the LXX; context is that of a baby drowning in its blood -- representing mankind in sin, topmost level; but Israel in the immediate context. Ezekiel 16:4's Hebrew for "swaddling" is doubled verb hatal (to entwine, enwrap): the doubled construction apes the doubling of muth in Gen2:17; the verb is nowhere else used in Bible. Noun hittul is used for bandage, and is only in Eze30:21; noun hatulla, swaddling band, is only used in Job38:9 for the sky, not a baby. So In Eze16:4, the equivalents in Greek are verb sparganow and cognate noun spargana. That's the only verse in the OT which uses those words. So one would remember it well. So the doubled usage of hatal and sparganow/spargana in Ezekiel 16:4 stresses what the binding is not. (see also the usage in Euripides' Ion). So what kind of binding is it? Death binding. For if you are an abandoned newborn with the umbilical cord uncut, you are literally bleeding to death; hence drowning in your own blood as it pools out from your body, and around your body. [Medical note: at birth, the umbilical cord must be clamped in two places, to prevent the baby's blood from exit. Then, between those two places, the cord is cut. After about a week, the cord dries up and falls off what then becomes, your navel. But if this isn't done, then the cord acts like a pipeline for the blood -- out of the body. So you die by strangulation/drowning in your own blood, since you have no motor ability as a newborn; or you die by bleeding to death, whichever occurs first.]

So this verse is kinda easy to remember and understand, huh.

So the parallel between a dying baby and a Baby coming to die for the spiritually dead, is pregnantly used in Luke 2:12. Gabriel is in essence interpretatively quoting Ezekiel 16:4 to them. The shepherd s would remember this vivid, gruesome analogy, and they would know the Greek text; so when Gabriel gives them the LXX keyword sparganow, well they'd immediately link it up with that text. [I don't count the Apochrypha verse in Wisdom, since here the topic is prophecy, and Gabriel is basically telling them prophecy fulfillment, so the "sign" will be a witty parallel to Eze16:4.] Moreover, Gabriel is also concatenating in Isaiah 1:3-6, hence the manger; in v.6 the only bandages there are medical (Hebrew verb habash and Greek noun katadesmos). The verse 6 words are common and frequent. With no baby connotation in them. So much for the claim that the Baby will be wrapped in a normal way, which would be no sign of anything. Shepherds have a lot of time on their hands, so they can spend it memorizing and analyzing the Word. That's what David did. So when these shepherd s heard the angel, they immediately remembered Eze16:4; so they knew He'd be wrapped like a corpse. Because Eze16:4 is flat telling you that: a baby left abandoned, will only get death bandages. For it will soon die. So He's wrapped that way and in a feeding trough to wrap up death, attesting to the fulfillment of Isa 1:3-6, 53:10-11.

God ever merciful, uses the same verb dew (pronounced "DEH-oh") for His burial, as in Ezekiel 16:4. Of course the shepherd s would know that meaning, without the NT. And now we can, too: verb dew is in John 19:40. So now the analogy is complete, and we know what they knew when they first heard sparganow: look for a Baby wrapped as if for burial. To bury sin forever. Look for a Baby in a manger -- so you know where to feed yourself.

Now I understand why my pastor went ballistic in Christmas 2000, talking about how we don't know our Bibles, excoriating all those inane Christmas pageants. Sweetness-and-light Churchinanity dishonors the Lord. Utterly. Look: there's nothing sweet about this scene. They were in danger, yet they loved Him anyway; and it's as if God responded by trashing them. Come on, they're in a STABLE, for crying out loud! Muck is in there; bugs are in there; it's nothing nice at all. On top of that, they have to wrap their Own Savior as if for BURIAL? Besides all that, imagine the cruel mindset of people in Bethlehem, to consistently turn away a pregnant woman and her husband? So that all they can do, is 'lodge' in a germ-ridden stable, probably a cave -- like you use for defecating, or burying the dead? It's not as though we didn't have lots of Bible information on how caves and stables were used. And outside, well -- people sought their lives! And this is a God you worship? Yeah, if you are DEDICATED, Nazar.

Repeating the corrected translation of Luke 2:14: "Glory to God in the highest levels/by agency of the highest ones [as true of angels, no human gender post-death, Matt22:30, Mark 12:25]; and upon earth, tranquility/Reconciliation/Peace by agency of men [generic term] with whom He is well-pleased."

An alternate translation of the last clause is also valid, so long as you understand both meanings are intended: "tranquility in men Approved [by God]." For the Greek preposition "en" never has merely one layer of meaning, except in phrases of physical places. [Even then, the physical place often denotes a 'spiritual' or 'mental' place, so you should look for that wordplay.] It means "in" (a location, mental/spiritual or physical), "by means of", "through"; and if a passive verb is meant, it means "by personal agency of". The better lexicons do explain all this. Lots of verses about the Holy Spirit's Personal Agency use en plus passive verbs, and all of them are mistranslated (so you can't understand what His Filling Ministry is about, from a translation). The preposition should always be tracked in the NT, for its many meanings always denote relationships, cause and effect, origin and mechanics. Every NT writer makes deft use of that preposition (same for Greek OT, but NT usage is extremely pointed). [Fortunately, it's a natural thing to name your sins to God, or there'd never be any comprehension of Scripture. I remember doing it as a kid, never even knowing 1Jn1:9 was in the Bible, and not really knowing much Bible, either. I know others who did the same thing. So right here you realize what a miracle it is that anyone ever got saved or learned even a smidgen from Bible, for the translations really mask and mislead the reader about the Holy Spirit's nature and role.]

And hello -- no adjective is ever the object of a preposition. We even know that in English! So look: upsistos in the plural is the object of the Greek preposition "en"! Here in Luke 2:14, the verb "to be" is in ellipsis; that's an Attic Drama rhetorical technique, and Luke is a whiz with Attic Greek -- angels would be as well. (Hebrew is elliptical like this as well, especially in Isaiah 52:13-54:1.) So: ellipsis of verb means highest dramatic climax in a play. So here, the entire elliptical construction is something God receives (so passive); something mankind receives from those highest ones (the two clauses are equated by kai, showing cause and effect, blessing by association), so also passive.

My pastor really stressed the Royal Family of God meaning in L.1858 92SD, if you are under him and interested. He didn't cover these Greek-geek facts, except for the meaning of eirene, which he translated as "tranquility" of soul, which of course results from Occupation of Christ. I looked up the verse in BibleWorks and thus translate it based on the Greek text. Point is, Luke is explaining the origin of the Dedication of the Royal Family of God. Which, since he's writing about 30 years into the Church Age, is rather relevant. Matthew's writing from the Jewish perspective; Luke JOINS the Jewish Law to show the new covenant preparation (Ps110:1) role of Church, dedicated-to-Him; beginning with, this dramatic event with the Jewish shepherd s who were the only ones to see those angels pass in review.

Obviously, the Bible is a book and it tells a story, and every story is designed to teach truth. So every word in the Bible, is True. But not dull and boring, like the washed-out, God-reversing translations. So: if you want the story to be memorable, you have to write it in a fashion which invites desire to recall that story. Hence Gospels don't cover all the same events, nor with the same style of discourse; when they cover the same event or time period, they focus on different characteristics. Sometimes they juxtapose events separated by time: some of the events happened more than once with different individuals, or a kind of grouping theme is used for teaching. For their audiences needed information to justify and reason out what had happened. The Gospels weren't written simply to tell a story, but to give you information you could live on; the audience were already familiar with the story, but needed to analyze the material, learn the lessons of it so they could better live on it, themselves. Hence the different presentations of the Gospels: no copycatting is going on. Each repetition of information presented prior is for the purpose of teaching new or deeper lessons. The accounts are true, since the Holy Spirit provided the material: i.e., keyverb parakolouthew in Luke 1:3 means via the Spirit he learned what to write; verb always means you got your information from an authority, and that Authority is always God, theme of 1Cor2. It's the product of receiving katechew, instruction, because you are akolouthew, a disciple. Other NT verses always use parakolouthew that way: Mark 16:17 (which might be a spurious verse, but the meaning is clearly Divine); 1Tim4:6, 2Tim3:10. The reader is thus expected to use 1Jn1:9 as needed and do that same 'investigation' under the Spirit, as he reads. [BTW: "Theophilus" means Lover-of-God, so isn't necessarily at all one specific person. Luke really likes wordplay, and is trained in classical Greek, using it often.]

Our vaunted Bible teachers and scholars don't do what Luke does. Instead, they debate inanities. These inanities fill shelf after shelf in the average seminary. Incredible chaff. Like whether the Gospels were derived from Joseph and Mary, as if mere human witnesses were used to compile the Gospels; whether Mark got his stuff from Peter, or Luke from Paul. If they just looked at the sheer genius of the words in Gospels (or anywhere in Bible) they'd have zero doubt Who Wrote The Book. But they don't seem to get the wit, the genius of the wording. So they call "contradictions", what are instead Divinely-Witty commentaries on the OT made in the NT; they find puzzling, mistranslated verses -- never checking the original text. Or when they do check, they misread what's there, but call it scribal error, such as in 1Kings 6:1. But Bible gets blamed as corrupted. Worse, they deem the Gospel accounts 'problemmatic' because the accounts don't all use the same words, tell the same story in the same order, as if truth could only be repeated verbatim, to remain truth. Worst of all, they keep on analyzing in terms of human consensus about meaning, when what instead matters is BIBLE Consensus, and the Testimony Of The Holy Spirit. Just like Luke is saying, in Luke 1:3. Just like Peter said, in 2Pet1:20-21. No wonder there's yet to be a Bible documentary or movie which is more than 30% accurate; most lately are lucky if they get 10% right. Sorry, this is the Lord's Word, and it doesn't deserve such shoddy 'scholarly' treatment, for centuries!

No salt, or lost salt. Anything salty loses that salt when washed or burnt. Some among our vaunted Bible scholars don't seem to know that. Water hitting a salt dome like a wave, takes the salt with it, or leaves behind a mass of nothing useful; that process is sometimes done on purpose (i.e., to desalinate), and it's called "leaching". The salt 'drowns', so that leaching is like bleeding to death. That's how your table salt is made: salt is left behind due to a slow removal of water i.e., at the seashore, but now you have to remove the salt from the sand; you do that, by washing the sand and then let the water sit and evaporate: the salt, is left behind. Additionally, enough salt puts out a fire (i.e., baking soda is a prime ingredient of fire extinguishers); but conversely, if not enough salt, the fire burns it up. If you want to make something saltless -- a handful of cashews, for example -- just run it under water for a second or two. For Bible IS salt, which is why the sacrifices always required salt. So salt in you if enough, means all the burnings of this life, only make you tastier, still. So if leached from you via this world's watery urges, well everything is tasteless, after that. So no salt in you just consumes you up with this world's burning. So the 'scholar' who claims Mark 9:49-50 are "difficult"; who then tries to make "salt" there be something else (like petroleum or asphalt, lol!) because he thinks he thus defends Bible, well -- if he doesn't know these kitchen and industrial basics about salt, how can he read Bible?

On the flipside, it's utterly exhausting, to work in Bible. I can't even imagine how one could competently study Bible without BibleWorks: all that painstaking assembly of the occurrences of a word, in what form and usage, patiently gathered up in the lexicons. They must have been completely dead at the end of every workday. Even with BibleWorks, the Bible itself is so intricate: for you start down one analysis path, take two steps, then have to wind around to 16 other topics, before you can come back to the initial one. Writing these webpages is draining in the extreme, and reading them is no picnic, either: so how much more, teaching or having to play the academia game?

Worse, pastors, teachers and scholars are Divinely-gifted to key what they say to a 'flock', an audience. So if the audience isn't interested, even the most avid pastor or scholar will have to capitulate. It's part of their JOB to capitulate: laymen like us get to shake the dust off and go to the next town -- but like Jeremiah, they have to remain behind, trying to awaken the recalcitrant! So if we the stupid cows decide to get off our high horses and Learn The Word, then these guys will be authorized to ramp up what they teach, to The Real Truth. It's all the rage now to learn Bible in the original-language texts, but the scholarship is so bad, you want to vomit. But even that desire wouldn't be there, had there not been a mass of believers -- however stupid we may be -- wanting it. So let's want the competence, now. After 18 centuries, we finally came to want the original-language texts, so God rolled them out from 1830-1890; so now let's want to Learn Them As They Are Written. Then and only then do we really honor our teachers -- who after all, are afflicted with a need to teach us what we want to hear!

Pray to God for better teachers and scholars -- better still, that God will cause those we have, to use their obviously God-given gifts! We need these people, and we need them doing their God-given jobs -- but they won't be motivated to, if we remain dull cows, ever making cute dolls in cradles, with fake stars that never stood over anyone -- and calling that the story of His Birth. It wasn't. Let's get interested in what it really was, so that scholars and teachers have what they need to teach us how it really was. End commercial message.

Note how the penalty for not observing the sabbath is death, in Exo31:14-15. That's there, to remind them of what life apart from God, is like. That's why it's so serious. As in Gen2:17, the warning in Exo31:14-15 is also repeated twice (Bible likes to repeat, and "2" means "repeat", in Hebrew). Believers can't die spiritually, since reborn forever (depicted by eating the Paschal lamb, remember). But there still are two other types of death: capital punishment (viz., what happened to the first Exodus generation in the wilderness, compare Num14:2 in context to Num14:29); and then, death of blessing on TOP of salvation (so saved, happy about it, but no added rewards, see Heb11's spare roster of the winners versus the multitudes). So to have sabbath violation be severe, helped them learn what it meant to have a sabbath, in the first place. For sooner or later, even a child will start asking genuine questions (rather than whining), when a rule is severe.

So if you had trouble remembering the Dual Purpose of the Sabbath, you'd be pretty likely to remember the penalty for violating it. So that would trigger your remembrance of the positive meanings: 1) God Rested On the Seventh Day, and 2) God brought them out from Egypt so they could Rest in Him. Promise of Rest, then. Rest from something (work), rest for something (learning Him, being in fellowship with Him). See, children don't know what's good for them, so you have to give them very simple rules. Hoping that, when they grow up, IF they grow up (3rd-class condition), they will understand the Truth Behind The Rules: that to live apart from God, is by nature -- death.

Deepest death is this thought: I deserve. That's how Satan fell, Isa14:13-14. That's how the woman and Adam fell, Gen3. Not one member of the human race born from that couple, has escaped such a thought. All sin is based on it. All evil is based on it. Turn on the TV, you see that thought everywhere; it blankets the airwaves, the soundwaves, and is strongly encouraged by every discipline, especially those related to religion, psychology, and politics. But see how arrogant is that thought: no one deserved to be created. No one deserved to be born. Life is a Gift you didn't have; you didn't exist to deserve, anything. Neither did I. So to make a claim of "I deserve!" when Even God Didn't Make Himself, is the crassest arrogance on the planet.

Me-ness is altogether death, because it's completely based on "I deserve". So nothing is more destructive to happiness than the "me" thing. If you grow up spiritually, the "me" thing (congenital defect from Adam's sin) is gradually replaced by the "He" thing -- living FOR God, rather than living for self, theme of 2Cor5. This world is all self-preoccupied, which is why life is as bad as it is. Everyone manipulating everyone else. Everyone with his hurt feelings, his demand for his rights, his claims on other people's loyalties, his gripes, his i-deserves, his guilt, which is quintessentially an i-deserve function, yuck! What garbage! [Guilt is a reaction, based on an irrational assessment that you could have done something you didn't do. It's irrational, because if you truly could have done it, you would have. The fact that you can't because you weren't willing, or because you were truly unable, is beside the point. You can't do something you don't want to do or are unable to do. So guilt has no place in the spiritual life, and God doesn't give it any: guilt is a sin, John 5:12ff, Luke 5:22 (two different occasions). It's a sin, because the i-deserve preoccupation is based on an irrational claim of self-merit. Which, if you fail, makes you guilty. But if you have no merit to start with, then the failure is natural, and guilt is therefore an inappropriate conclusion. So again, is a sin. God is never irrational. So I must use 1Jn1:9 a bizillion times a day, for I can't often tell if the temptation of guilt turned into a sin. That's ok. Better to name it than to overlook its presence..]

But a child doesn't know all that. A child only knows "bad" and "good" in terms of what sensations he gets from his sin-nature body, which is innately self-preoccupied. Mommy, mommy, look at ME! Daddy, Daddy, see ME ride my bike! It's cute when they're young. But not when they are old. Hearing about all the teeny preoccupations of a child who didn't grow up is a kind of hell. If on the telephone, you ache to hold it away from your ear. If in person, you try to keep your face neutral, and generally fail to stifle a yawn. And if they notice you yawning, harrrumppphhh! How dare you not pay attention to ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME! Never mind, you've already been stuck there for 8 freaking hours listening to the same what-i-ate-for-lunch, what-i-bought, oh-my-illnesses -- drivel! And what about YOUR life? Oh, you're lucky if you can say "I'm fine", without interruption!

Sigh. So if the child doesn't grow out of all that, he becomes utterly prickly, miserable; and an extreme burden to everyone else. Psychologically-needy people are children, even at age 80; and they constantly tyrannize everyone around them. All of them, little hitlers (however sweet and charming, which Adolf Hitler often was) -- who never grow up. Oh yeah, the I deserve! syndrome has this happy ending: death alone stops the bleeping thing!

Hence the goal is to grow up spiritually, so that bleeping I deserve! syndrome will but bleep weakly, something like mere background noise. It can't be killed until the body, DIES. Still, spiritual growth promises happiness entire: to go from being me-preoccupied (and people-stress is just an extrapolation of me-ness), to being God-occupied. First Commandment, Loving God With All Your Heart And Soul And Understanding (=dianoia). Which happens, if you learn Him. Which thus causes you to remember Him: because you WANT to. If you love someone, you want to be reminded of that person everywhere you go. If you hate someone, you want to avoid that person everywhere you go. The "me" thing always excludes anything and anyone else, so is a form of hatred. Christ threw away the "me" on the Cross, and happily, too: Phili2:5-10, Heb12:2. Now, think: if as God He in effect threw away the use of His Godness, in favor of Gifting Father; if as Perfect Humanity He in effect threw away the use of His Abilities, in favor of Gifting Father: what do you think must be true happiness in life? Heck, we daily prove it's more fulfilling to live for something higher, bigger, more noble, or we'd not be even looking beyond our own four walls. Heck, it's more fun to even fix dinner or go to a movie -- if you're doing it with/for Someone Else You Enjoy!

So to have the penalty for violating the sabbath be death, is a blessing. Reminds you, why you are here: to Rest in The Lord. Instead of, arresting on yourself. Of course, it takes time to see this fact, since we all start out as self-absorbed children. So we get the Grace Gift of Life, the Grace Gift of time, and these Wonderful Commandments -- which to a child, sound 'mean'. But which Save Our Lives, if we but look up and remember -- look UP, not sideways, not inward, but UP -- to Him.

NAU Zechariah 1:7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows:

NAU Zechariah 7:1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. [This and subsequent chapters are extremely interesting, for God plays on all the Chislev priestly course names.]

NIV Daniel 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. [So this is 597BC.]
Dan 1:21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

[That's 536BC, the first year Cyrus takes over direct Kingship from his uncle Darius the Mede (known to history as Darius Cyaxares II), who died. Daniel leaves the palace after that, no longer an adviser to the king, so probably he left in 536 or 535BC. Thus we know why there is a hiatus, why Daniel got thrown in the lion's den, even while under Darius' protection; why Persia 'forgets' about the decree for Temple reconstruction, until Darius "the Great" (rebuilding hiatus runs from 537BC-522 or 521, more likely 521 since Darius came to power in 522). Thus you know when Daniel went into the lion's den. Thus you can surmise that Darius' protection of Daniel, even while submitting Daniel to that den, probably resulted in someone murdering Darius, himself. Thus you can understand why there would be a building hiatus, since the far-away Cyrus would realize he'd have to compromise with the scheming satraps who caused Darius so much trouble. [Darius Cyaxares II, a son of Astyages; he was also the uncle of Cyrus II, "the Great", who was Astyages' grandson.]
Alternatively, you can read Daniel 1:21 as the first year Cyrus took power, 539BC, with Chapters 2ff as what happened next, down to 536BC. The words "King Cyrus" don't add "of Persia", a distinction you see in other Bible verses for this period; which is why I read Daniel 1:21 as a summary statement for the whole book, ending 536BC, when Cyrus first became direct king of Babylon, as well. Notice how either reading still fits the same dates.

Haggai shows us how Israel's the cause of Persia subsequently 'forgetting' the decree, because Israel dragged its heels in rebuilding. Clearly there was a lot of long-simmering Babylonian opposition to Daniel and the Jews, with the result that finally Cyrus himself had to take direct control. The opposition will continue; you can see the love-hate relationship still playing out, even as late as 614-629AD, as Persia and Rome battle over Jerusalem, with the Jews playing to whomever looks like the victor -- to Get The Temple Rebuilt. Fordham University's Halsall's Medieval Sourcebook has some contemporary records it publishes on the web. Other websites also exist.]

NIV Daniel 5:29 Then at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, [30 Or Chaldeans] was slain,
31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
[So this is 538BC, ties to Daniel 9:1. So "Darius the Mede", who is Cyrus the Great's uncle, meets this 3rd highest ruler of the kingdom, as he enters Babylon in triumph. The new ruler will need all the support he can get. So it's understandable that his next two years' rule are fraught with political infighting among his newly-conquered nobility. So his seeming wimpiness over Daniel is understandable, too. But the courage in defending Daniel once he's in the lion's den at Darius' order, is astonishing. Just like Nebuchadnezzar. Makes you wonder if Nebuchy wasn't assassinated, too.]

[Again, this has to be 538BC, as it's the first thing a new conqueror needs to do, set up the administration of his new empire.]

[This Darius is Cyrus' uncle, known to history as Darius Cyaxares II; "Xerxes" is the Persian title for Cyrus. "Son" means adopted heir, a long practice of kings. It's a kind of double entendre, too, for Darius was the actual son of Astyages, but Cyrus his nephew -- who was a grandson of Astyages -- defeated the latter. So we know it's still 538BC.]
2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

[Since Darius was ruling in Babylon from 538-536 for Cyrus, this would be the last year of Darius the Mede, and is thus the third year of Cyrus measured absolutely; Daniel 1:21 measures from the time Cyrus was directly over Babylon, which would have been the year Darius the Mede died. Notice also Daniel 10:2, 21b and 11:1, how Darius the Mede is spoken of as if dead. It wouldn't at all surprise me if he were murdered for defending Daniel and the Jews, especially given the way Daniel 11:1 begins.]
2 At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks.
3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris,


[Notice how after the Foundation is laid, Daniel gets his vision on the 24th day of the month. This is a rhetorical style you'll see repeated in Zechariah, Haggai, Jeremiah Ezra and Nehemiah. Notice how the frequency of revelation on a "24th" day skyrockets after the Temple foundation is laid on 24 Chislev 521BC. 25th begins at sundown. Note also that the 24th priestly course occurs in Elul and Adar, the two months of conception for Elizabeth and Mary, respectively.]

NIV Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:

2 "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: "'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.
3 Anyone of his people among you-- may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.

4 Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day.
5 After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred feasts of the LORD, as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the LORD.
6 On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, though the foundation of the LORD's temple had not yet been laid.
8 In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem , Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work, appointing Levites twenty years of age and older to supervise the building of the house of the LORD.
10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel. [The underlined bold font here ties to Haggai underlined bold font.]

[Psalm 117 and 118: 21-29 are probably what they were singing, in Ezra 3:11. See also Ps106-108, and especially 106, which is on the theme of remembrance and recounts Israel's history. Psalm 119 was the Psalm of the to-Babylon death march, so their memorializing it in song, here in Ezra 3:11, would be certain; Psalm 118 looks like a lead-in to Ps119, and 118 ties the most to the laying of the Temple foundation. For Bible takes a refrain or key clause, to tie in a slew of other verses, so you know the content. The refrain in Ezra 3:11 is the theme of many Psalms, but especially those numbered from 100-118. So they were singing them. This type of concatenated index-quoting style runs rife throughout the NT. For example, James famously uses indexing in Jas4:5, but that verse is always mistranslated, so scholars keep looking for a quote which doesn't exist; because James is indexing, indirectly referencing a whole slew of OT verses against jealousy (pros with the accusative of hostility, in James 4:5).]

NAU Psalm 117:1 Praise the LORD, all nations; Laud Him, all peoples!

2 For His lovingkindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD is everlasting. Praise the LORD!
NAU Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
2 Oh let Israel say, 'His lovingkindness is everlasting.'
3 Oh let the house of Aaron say, 'His lovingkindness is everlasting.'
4 Oh let those who fear the LORD say, 'His lovingkindness is everlasting.'
NAU Psalm 118:21-29
21 I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, And You have become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone.
23 This is the LORD'S doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 O LORD, do save, we beseech You; O LORD, we beseech You, do send prosperity!
[How witty: God answers this clause in Haggai 2 (next section of quotes, below)!]
26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.
27 The LORD is God, and He has given us light; Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You.
29 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

5 They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.
6 At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, [6 Hebrew Ahasuerus, a variant of Xerxes' Persian name] they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.
7 And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language. [7 Or written in Aramaic and translated] [7 The text of Ezra 4:8-- 6:18 is in Aramaic.]
[History calls the v.6-7 rulers Cyrus' son Cambyses, and Pseudo-Smerdis: so this is the interregnum period between 529 when Cyrus died in Egypt (battle-related), and 522 when Darius the Great comes to power. ISBE under Cambyses says Darius was a general under Cambyses, not mentioning the nobles' story. It is Darius Hystaspis.]
23 As soon as the copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum and Shimshai the secretary and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop.
24 Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

2 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem . And the prophets of God were with them, helping them.
3 At that time Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates went to them and asked, "Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?"

NIV Haggai 1:1-8 1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua [1 A variant of Jeshua; here and elsewhere in Haggai] son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.'"
3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:
4 "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
7 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD.

13 Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD.
14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God,
15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.
[This is a kind of pun: they had FIRST begun working on the Temple foundation in the second month of the second year of Darius the Mede during Daniel's day, Ezra 3:8. So now ANOTHER Darius, but this one the King of Persia (Darius the Great) is ruling. It's a tweak at the time lapse and how God matches and keeps His Promises, I'd bet money on it. Notice how the verse ties to Ezra 4:24 and 5:1.]

NIV Haggai 2:9-10 9 'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty.'

10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai:

16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.
17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,' declares the LORD.
18 'From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid. Give careful thought:
19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit. "'From this day on I will bless you.'
20 The word of the LORD came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month:
21 'Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I will shake the heavens and the earth.
22 I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.
23 'On that day,' declares the LORD Almighty, 'I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,' declares the LORD, 'and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,' declares the LORD Almighty.
[Given God's repeated oaths and stress, I really think this is a prophecy that Messiah will be born on the 25th of Chislev (in Jewish night-first accounting, the 25th begins on the solar day of the 24th at sundown). The doubled-message on the 24th of Chislev, itself the anniversary of the laying of the 2nd Temple foundation in 537BC -- the rhetorical style of doubling signifies Hypostatic Union -- this message, is too rich to be accidental or insignificant. Notice the tie between Temple and Zerubbabel, who is a forefather of both Joseph and Mary via Nathan son of David and Bathsheba in the Matt and Luke genealogies. So the 25th of Chislev is either David's birthday, the birth of his kingship over all Israel, or the birth of the Temple promise -- born the day David died. I can't yet tell which of David's significant dates it is. But it surely is a prophecy of Messiah's birthday, especially when you look at the meanings of the names of the 10th-12th priestly courses -- which David designed under orders by the Lord, see last seven chapters of 1 Chron.]

NIV Zechariah 1:1-7 1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo:

2 "The LORD was very angry with your forefathers.
3 Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Return to me,' declares the LORD Almighty, 'and I will return to you,' says the LORD Almighty.
4 Do not be like your forefathers, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.' But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the LORD.
5 Where are your forefathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6 But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your forefathers? "Then they repented and said, 'The LORD Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.'"
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.
[From this point onward the book goes straight into the prophecy related to choosing Zerubbabel, and there is no more exhortation to begin work on the Temple. Notice how it is 60 days after the blue font, which seems to represent the day the foundation stone was laid, way back in that 2nd year of Cyrus, which was probably 537 BC (post-Darius the Mede, Cyrus ruled directly, and Daniel had served during Cyrus FIRST year POST-Darius).]

NIV Ezra 5:6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates, the officials of Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius.

7 The report they sent him read as follows: To King Darius: Cordial greetings.
8 The king should know that we went to the district of Judah, to the temple of the great God. The people are building it with large stones and placing the timbers in the walls. The work is being carried on with diligence and is making rapid progress under their direction.
9 We questioned the elders and asked them, "Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?"
10 We also asked them their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.
11 This is the answer they gave us: "We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, one that a great king of Israel built and finished.
12 But because our fathers angered the God of heaven, he handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylon, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.
13 "However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God.
16 So this Sheshbazzar [Zerubbabel's Persian name, per Fausset's, but ISBE sorta disagrees, yet proves the better from Scripture that it was Zerubbabel] came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem. From that day to the present it has been under construction but is not yet finished."
17 Now if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives of Babylon to see if King Cyrus did in fact issue a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.

2 A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and this was written on it: Memorandum:
3 In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be ninety feet [3 Aramaic sixty cubits (about 27 meters)] high and ninety feet wide,
4 with three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury.
5 Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God.
6 Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and you, their fellow officials of that province, stay away from there.
7 Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site.
8 Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God: The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop.
9 Whatever is needed-- young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem-- must be given them daily without fail,
10 so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons.
11 Furthermore, I decree that if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to be pulled from his house and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it. And for this crime his house is to be made a pile of rubble.
12 May God, who has caused his Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to change this decree or to destroy this temple in Jerusalem. I Darius have decreed it. Let it be carried out with diligence.
13 Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence.
14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.
15 The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. [That would be 516BC.]

NAU Zechariah 1:7 7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows:

NAU Zechariah 4:6-10

6 Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts.
7 'What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'"
8 Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
9 "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
10 "For who has despised the day of small things? But they [who despised, AND the seven] will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of [yet-future, see also Rev8:2] Zerubbabel-- these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth." [See also 2 Kings 21:13, Isa28:17, Isa34:11, Amos 7:7-8, Rev 8:2 to see that the 'Zerubbabel' Who will have the Plumb Line of Justice, is God Himself -- ties to Isa52:10, 13, 53:1, and 53:10's "prosper", "His Hand" clauses. Hence this future Zerubbabel, is the God-Man, the Messiah Himself.]