WHAT IS ONE OF THE IMPORTANT CRITERIA IN THE AUTHOR OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN TO SELECT FACTS ABOUT JESUS OF NAZARETH IN HIS BOOK?... THE OLD NEW MOONS DECLARED FROM THE RITUAL CALENDAR OF THE SECOND TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM.
Author: José Marcel Cámpora. Degree in Legal and Social Sciences, Lawyer, Magister, University Professor, and Teaching researcher.
Because in general there are no historical records of ancient calendars prior to AD 70, there is a tendency to think that it is practically impossible to remake the Calendar of the days of Jesus (Yeshua) of Nazareth. In other words, due to a lack of records, tools or methodologies, it is estimated that it is not possible to verify their historical dates until now.
But an important key to this would be contained in the fourth gospel. Why did he make this statement? To answer this, we must in turn ask ourselves previously what was the criterion for selection of facts that the beloved disciple would have used to write about Jesus.
In this sense, we can remember that the same author indicated that although there were a large number of events that could have been written (John 21:25), throughout his letter he has decided to select the events that in his opinion would be the most it was worth recording in your written historical testimony. In the end, the central question is to know why he decided to choose the facts that he finally chose to write about the moments of the life of Jesus.
In other words, having so many other things that he could have written, for what reason (s) does the writer make a value judgment in favor of the things he writes and discard the rest?
An example to illustrate is with the day of the winter feast of John chapter 10, in which he chose to relate this fact of Jesus, in the Temple.
Assuming that its author was John, it turns out that according to Mark, Matthew and Luke, the beloved disciple was one of the few people who was present on the so-called Mount of «Transfiguration» (Mark 9:2; Matthew 17:1; Luke 9:28); He was also the one who witnessed the event of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37; Matthew 9:18-26; Luke 8:40-56). These events (real or not) were so impressive that he led them to capture them in their respective synoptic gospels. But why, in this other case of the beloved disciple, does he omit them? And instead, what is special about one of the days of the Hanukkah festival in Jesus?
How many «miracles» were there on that Hanukkah day? None!…
Is Hanukkah a festival of the ancient festivals of the ancient Moses Calendar? No.
So what could be the reason for such importance to Juan that it made a difference in him, for preferring to talk about this day of Hanukkah? … What was it that caught the attention of the beloved disciple so much and that led him to talk about this particular day, omitting the transfiguration, the event with Jairus’ daughter or in other important episodes? …
In his book all the Gospels. Full translation of the original languages of all known evangelical texts, by Professor A. Piñero, we can read from the Gospel:
John 10: 22-23 «… Then the festival of the Consecration of the Temple was taking place in Jerusalem, it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the Temple through Solomon’s portico …»
Dear friends, today thanks to the scientific research tool the «Calendar of Jesus of Nazareth» it can be methodologically suggested that the writer selected this last event because it would have relapsed during the first day of a month, that is, «Tevet».
In other words, that event fell on the declared new moon (“Rosh Chodesh”) of what was the ancient ritual Calendar of the Second Temple, in that case, the 6th (sixth) day of the Hanukkah festival, Tuesday 21-December- 32 the Gregorian Calendar (JDE No.1733103).
It is like the same thing that will happen again this year, when the New Moon can be seen from Wednesday December 16, 2020 from the Holy Land, on the 6th (sixth) day of the Hanukkah festival.
Both this day of Jesus on the Feast of Hanukkah; or, when he speaks of the event on the «third day» at the wedding of Cana in Galilee (John 2:1), remain at rest until the «second day» of Jesus together with the Samaritans (John 4:40, 43), or waiting at rest until the «second day» Jesus, without going to help the seriously ill Lazarus (John 11:6) among others in his Gospel, all share as a common factor that they were New Moon days, which in ancient times were considered holy days (see Num. 28:11; 1 Sam. 20: 5; 2 Kings 4:23; Isaiah 66: 22-23; Ezek. 46:11; Amos 8: 5).
For further details of the study, I cordially invite you to review the other dates in the scientific research project for the recreation of the calendar of Jesus, available at https://elcalendario.org, or join the group «Researching the Historical Jesus Calendar» at https://www.facebook.com/groups/elcalendario.org/?ref=share
And to remember you can see a video fragment of that day of Jesus during the Hanukkah festival, from the film «The Gospel of John», by Director Davit Batty, produced by Hannah Leader, and starring the actor Selva Rasalingam, in the Jesus’ role, for educational or outreach purposes only. Select the language you want, either in Hebrew, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Arabic or the desired language that you like, in a short trip in time to that event history of Jesus, below:
Hoping you enjoy a new intellectual experience and that you can contribute personally in a meaningful way, I thank you courtesy of spreading this to your friends and contacts.
Best regards from José Marcel Cámpora
Author www.elcalendario.org
REFERENCES
AJDLER, J. Jean. A Short History of the Jewish Fixed Calendar: The Origin of the Molad. Hakira, the Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Throat, p. 133-190, 2015.
DE VAUX, Roland. Instituciones del Antiguo Testamento. Ed. Herder, 1976, p. 256.
García, S. A. (1998). La datación histórica. Navarra: EUNSA, Ediciones Universidad de Navarra.
HOFFMAN, Roy. האגודה הישראלית לירח חדש. The Israeli New Moon Society. Tables of New and Old Moon Observations. Gathered by the Israeli New Moon Society. Tables in Excel 2003 format up to and including November 2015, Disponible en <https://sites.google.com/site/moonsoc/sightings> Acceso en: 25 feb. 2020.
HUMPHHREYS, Colin. The mystery of the last supper. Reconstructing the final Days of Jesus. Cambridge: University, 2011.
HUMPHREYS, Colin; WADDINGTON, W.G. Dating the Crucifixion. Nature, p. 743-46, 1983.
______ The jewish calendar, a lunar eclipse and the date of Christ’s Crucifixion. Tyndale Bulletin 43.2, p. 331-351, 1992.
LANDMAN, Isaac. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (Vols. 5, sec. Holidays). New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1901-1906, p. 410.
MANZANERO, A., GONZALEZ, J.L. Avances en Psicologia del Testimonio. Ed. Jurídicas de Santiago, 2013.
PIÑERO, Antonio. Todos los Evangelios. Traducción íntegra de las lenguas originales de todos los textos evangélicos conocidos. Madrid: digital Titivillus, 2009.
______ Aproximación al Jesús histórico. Madrid: Trotta. 2018.
PRATT, John. Newton’s Date for the Crucifixion. Royal Astronomical Society, 32 Núm. 3, p. 301-304, 1991.
QURESHI, Muhammad. A new criterion for earliest visibility of new lunar crescent. Sindh University Research Journal (Science Series). 42. 1-16. 2010.
ROITMAN, Adolfo. Del Tabernáculo al Templo. Navarra: Verbo Divino, 2016.
SEGURA, Wenceslao. Calendario Hebreo. España: WT Ediciones, 2017.
SCHAEFER, Bradley. Lunar visibility and the crucifixión. Royal Astronomical Society, 31 (1), p. 53-67, 1990.
VELASCO, J. Martín. Introducción a la Fenomenología de la Religión. Madrid: Cristiandad, 1978.