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To: XeniaSt

Well...he’s a little fast and loose on these dates. I have Redshift 5 astronomy software, and I used this in conjunction with the Hebcal Interactive Jewish Calendar (http://www.hebcal.com/hebcal/) to find the following:

1948:

The maximum for the lunar eclipse around Passover took place on April 23 at 13:42 Universal Time (ie: Greenwich Mean time which is 2 hours behind Jerusalem time). The time for Erev Pesach was the following sundown, approximately 3-4 hours later in Jerusalem. So, technically, it was on the previous day, relatively to the Hebrew calendar

The maximum for the lunar eclipse around Sukkot took place on October 18 at 2:32 UT. Erev Sukkot had begun the previous sundown, so this “date correspondence” is “correct,” as they would both have occured on the same calendar day in the Jewish calendar.

1949:

Lunar eclipse for Passover occured April 13, with a midpoint at 4:12 UT. Erev Pesach began the previous sundown, within the same Jewish calendar day, so this correspondence is “correct.”

Lunar eclipse for Sukkot occured October 7, midpoint at 2:56 UT. Erev Sukkot occured at sundown on October 7, so this makes the two events take place on separate days in the Jewish calendar. There is no “correspondence.”

1967:

Passover eclipse: April 23, 12:08 UT. Erev Pesach took place the following sundown, hours later. Different Jewish calendar days, no correspondence.

Sukkot eclipse: October 18, 10:05 UT. Erev Sukkot took place the following sundown, many hours later. Different Jewish calendar days, no correspondence.

1968:

Passover eclipse: April 13, 4;46 UT. Erev Pesach occured the previous sundown. Same Jewish calendar day, correspondence.

Sukkot eclipse: October 6, 11:41 UT. Erev Sukkot occured the previous sundown. Same Jewish calendar day, correspondence.

2014:

Passover eclipse will occur April 15, 7:47 UT. Erev pesach will have begun the previous sundown. Same Jewish calendar day, correspondence.

Sukkot eclipse will occur October 8, 10:54 UT. Erev Sukkot will begin the following sundown. Different Jewish calendar days, no correspondence.

2015:

Passover eclipse will occur April 4, 12:00 UT. Erev Pesach will have begun the previous sundown. Same Jewish calendar day, correspondence.

Sukkot eclipse will occur on September 28, 2:46 UT. Erev Sukkot will have begun the previous sundown. Same Jewish calendar day, correspondence.

Okay. So what does that all mean? Well, of the 12 events listed, only 7 of them actually correspond, in the Jewish calendar, to the eclipse and the feast occuring on the same day. Five eclipse events occur on the previous day, according to the Hebrew calendar. If one wants to simply look at Gregorian dates, and ignore the Jewish calendar (days beginning at sundown, etc.), that doesn’t solve the problem. Indeed, it makes it worse. Seven of the events, figured this way, would have Erev Pesach or Erev Sukkot occur on the previous Gregorian calendar day, and only 5 would correspond.

In short, while it is sort of “interesting” that these 12 events occur “within a day either way” of Passover and Sukkot, that is not the same as saying that they are as miraculously aligned as the article implies. If God really wanted this kind of described correspondence to “mean something,” He could have been more precise than this. Therefore, these eclipses very likely have no real significance whatsoever.


30 posted on 05/02/2008 12:09:33 PM PDT by magisterium
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To: magisterium

1948: “relatively” = “relative”

Long day. Sheesh!


31 posted on 05/02/2008 12:17:27 PM PDT by magisterium
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