Last Supper celebrated a day late, physicist claims in book

Cath News ^ | April 17, 2011

[NYer]

Pascal Adolphe Dagnan-Bouveret's The Last Supper Wikipedia

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The Last Supper is commemorated a day late, a Cambridge University physicist claims in his new book, according to reports in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Belfast Telegraph.

Professor Sir Colin Humphreys argues that the last supper Jesus Christ shared with his disciples occurred on Wednesday, April 1, AD33, rather than on a Thursday as traditionally celebrated in most Christian churches.

The theory would explain the apparent inconsistencies between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke - which say the Last Supper was a Passover meal - and that of John, which says Jesus was tried and executed before the Jewish festival.

It would explain another puzzle: why the Bible has not allowed enough time for all events recorded between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

Sir Colin's book, The Mystery of the Last Supper, published this week, uses astronomy to re-create calendars, plus detail drawn from texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls to propose a timeline for Jesus's final days.

''The claim I make is that we're misinterpreting some parts of the Gospels because we don't understand sufficiently life in the first century AD,'' he said.

Sir Colin argues that Jesus celebrated Passover early using the pre-exilic calendar, dating from before the Jewish exile to Babylon, but still used by some marginal groups in society at the time. It would have been understood by early Christians as operating alongside the official Jewish calendar, he said.

He believes his findings, which are likely to cause ripples among millions of Christians, could present a case for finally introducing a fixed date for Easter, said the report in the Belfast Telegraph.

By ironing out all the perceived discrepancies in the timing of events, Prof Humphreys believes a date could be ascribed to Easter in our modern solar calendar.

FULL STORY

New theory on date of Last Supper (Sydney Morning Herald)

Last Supper 'was held day earlier' (Belfast Telegraph)

[NYer]

Catholic ping!

[Larry Lucido]

I’m always late for these things.

[Winstons Julia]

...and a dollar short?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Controversies and questions about the exact dating of the Passion Week events are nothing new. The biblical description is just vague enough to permit a number of hypotheses.

I think the Last Supper events really did go down on Thursday (Passover) night, and it really was an all-nighter for Jesus and the apostles and everybody else involved before his crucifixion. It would have been worth it from both Herod’s and Pilate’s point of view to rid themselves of a political nuisance, and both being pagans they couldn’t care less about doing it on Pesach. Shabbat would have been a bridge too far and given rise to too many complaints, though. That’s why Pilate had to see to it that the crucified men were dead before sundown.

[dfwgator]

It certainly proved that Jesus couldn’t have been married, because as Sam Kinison pointed out, no wife would believe a story about resurrection to explain a guy going out for the weekend with 12 of his best buddies.

[Revolting cat!]

Day late, date early, jeez, they were in a different time zone, Homer! What bout all those missing years, though?

[Adder]

‘I think Jesus is really reaching out to all sorts of people when he chooses not to use this official Jewish calendar,’’ he said.

HUH????

Yah..there’s so much evidence for something like that...

[Salvation]

Plus, the consideration of a different calendar.

[Jack Hydrazine]

A day late and a shekel short!

[Tanniker Smith]

...and a dollar short?

How about 30 pieces of silver?

[Winstons Julia]

No thanks. That was a disaster last time.

[Lee N. Field]

He believes his findings, which are likely to cause ripples among millions of Christians,

Yawn.

Is that all they've got this year?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Also she would have smelled that rat Judas from a mile away

OK! OK!

[csuzieque]

I thought the early Catholic Church aligned the holidays to coincide with Pagan holidays to coax the Pagans away from their festivities and into Christian celebrations. This is why Christmas is in December, not June or July. Same with Easter - the Pagan Spring celebration. There was much liberty taken(rewritten who knows how many times?) with the Gospels. Who knows what the “originals” said.

[Campion]

Easter is when it is because it commemorates events that happened at the time of the Jewish Passover, and which are theologically related to the Passover. In fact, Easter is called by a name derived from the Hebrew pesach in Greek and all of the Romance languages.

Passover is when it is because, according to the Jewish Scriptures, God said that's when it should be.

There was much liberty taken(rewritten who knows how many times?) with the Gospels. Who knows what the “originals” said.

I suggest you do some more research. We have a variety of manuscripts discovered at different times and places, all of which are in substantial agreement. We also have the writings of the church fathers, which quote the Gospels and the rest of the NT frequently. We have a pretty good idea of what the original text said, and when it was written to within a decade or two.

[Rashputin]

The ‘Jesus Seminar’ folks just voted and they don't believe Humphreys ever said that. They say the quote was probably added by a zealot who wants to advance the solar calender agenda.

[Hieronymus]

Not a terribly new theory—it has been around for a while and the Holy Father endorsed it four years ago in his Holy Thursday homily.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20070405_coena-domini_en.html

Given that Our Lord is God, it might be appropriate to think of the mainstream as celebrating Passover a day late, rather than the Church doing so a day early. There is also so much symbolism involved that I can see it handy for God to have arranged the double passover.

[Salvation]

That article is very interesting. Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

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