Can we determine when Jesus died?

We have already determined that Jesus's earthly ministry lasted 3½ years and that He would have been around 34 years old at the start of His ministry. If Jesus was actually born in 6 BC, this would put the start of His ministry somewhere between late AD 28 and late AD 29. This means that He must have been put to death 3½ years later in AD 32 or AD 33.

We have also seen that Daniel Chapter 9 appears to prophesy that the year in which Jesus would be put to death on the cross would be AD 33. Can we confirm this? Yes we can – and we can even narrow it down to the exact day!

Jn. 19:42 states that Jesus was buried on the eve of the Sabbath (Shabbat in Hebrew), i.e. on a Friday, which was also the eve of Passover (Jn. 19:31, cf. Lev. 23:5), i.e. Nisan 14. Let's look at a table of Passover dates for years near to those in which we are interested:—

As we can see, the only years that have Nisan 14 on a Friday are AD 33 and AD 36. The AD 36 date would put Jesus in His forties, making Luke’s estimate of Jesus being “about 30” when He began His ministry (Lk. 3:23) way out! This means that Jesus must have died at 3 p.m. (Lk. 23:44-46) on Friday April 1st, AD 33 (according to the Gregorian calendar) or April 3rd (according to the Julian calendar), aged 37 years, 6 months and 7 days (assuming He was born on September 25th, 6 BC).

In the Hebrew timekeeping system, clock times were measured from sunrise until sunset, and this period of daylight was divided into 12 “hours”, whether it was summer or winter (Jesus himself said in Jn. 11:9 that there are 12 hours of daylight). However, since we now know that Jesus died on April 1st (Gregorian), which is pretty close to the vernal (spring) equinox, we can safely assume that sunrise was very close to 6 a.m. and sunset was close to 6 p.m., so the Hebrew “hours” at this time of year would have been virtually the same length as “real” hours. So, for example, in the Hebrew system, “the ninth hour” would mean nine hours after sunrise, i.e. 3 p.m.

In the Roman timekeeping system, on the other hand, clock times were measured from midnight to midnight, as we do. So, in the Roman system, the same phrase “the ninth hour” could mean either 9 a.m. or 9 p.m.

But now we have a problem. When Mt.27:46-50, Mk. 15:34-37 and Lk. 23:44-46 say that Jesus died “at about the ninth hour”, do they mean 9 a.m., 3 p.m. or 9 p.m.? Let’s look at the evidence.

Mt.27:45, Mk. 15:33 and Lk. 23:44 all say that “darkness came over the land” from the 6th to the 9th hour. This could either mean:

a) 6 a.m. – 9 a.m. (Roman)
b) Noon – 3 p.m. (Hebrew)
c) 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. (Roman)

Option (a) isn’t possible because to say that “darkness came over the land” at sunrise would be silly, since it had already been dark up until that time anyway!

Option (c) also isn’t possible, because to say that “darkness came over the land” at sunset until 9 p.m. would also be silly, since it was going to get dark at sunset anyway, and it would also suggest it got light again at 9 p.m.!

Thus, the only option is (b), which means that all the authors of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are using the Hebrew timekeeping system.

So what about John’s gospel? We read in Jn. 1:39 that when some of Jesus’s first disciples went and saw where he was staying and spent the day with him, “it was about the tenth hour”. Does that mean 10 a.m., 4 p.m. or 10 p.m.? In order to have spent the day with him, it must mean 10 a.m. (otherwise there wouldn’t have been much of the day left!) This suggests that John is using the Roman timekeeping system. Likewise, in the woman-at-the-well story, Jn. 4:6 tells us “it was about the sixth hour”. 6 p.m. seems a reasonable time for this – just before sunset when it was cool enough for the woman to come and draw water. The same verse tells us that Jesus was tired from His journey, and He is more likely to be tired at sunset than at noon.

(The fact that John was writing for a Graeco-Roman audience is evidenced by the fact that John feels he has to provide translations for so many Hebrew/Aramaic words – see for example Jn. 1:38, 1:41, 1:42, 4:25, 9:7, 20:16. His description of Christ as “the Word” in the first chapter is a Greek philosophical concept for communicating Jesus as the Logos to a Christianized Gentile audience. John's Logos would not be understood by Jews. In addition, John often employs the title “the Jews” when discussing the opponents of Jesus, which he would hardly be likely to do if he was writing for a Jewish audience!)

OK, so with all this in mind, let’s look at what times of day the gospels record the final events of Jesus’s life on Earth as happening:

• Mt. 26:20 and Mk. 14:17-18 say that the Last Supper took place during the evening.
• Jn. 13:30 says that Judas went out to betray Jesus at night.
• Mt. 26:31-34 and Mk. 14:30 say that Peter would deny Jesus at night.
• Mk. 14:67, Lk. 22:55-56 and Jn. 18:18 say that, during Jesus’s trial before the Sanhedrin, Peter was warming himself by a fire. It is unlikely that he would have needed to do this during the daytime in April, so it suggests that this was at night.
• Mk. 14:72, Mt. 26:75, Lk. 22:60 and Jn. 18:27 say that the cock crowed, suggesting that Jesus’s trial was still going on at dawn.
• Mk. 15:1 and Jn. 18:28 say that Jesus’s trial before the Sanhedrin ended early in the morning.
• Jn. 19:14 says that Jesus appeared before Pilate took place at about the 6th hour (John uses the Roman system, so this means 6 a.m.)
• Mk. 15:25 says that Jesus was crucified at the 3rd hour (Mark uses the Hebrew system, so this means 9 a.m.)
• Mt.27:45, Mk. 15:33 and Lk. 23:44 say that darkness came over the land from the 6th to the 9th hour (all these gospels use the Hebrew system, so this means between noon and 3 p.m.).
• Mt.27:46-50, Mk. 15:34-37 and Lk. 23:44-46 all say that Jesus died at about the 9th hour (i.e. 3 p.m.).
• Mt. 27:57 and Mk. 15:42 say that Jesus was already dead before evening, which confirms the 3 p.m. time of death.

This means that we can now finally say that Jesus died at 3 p.m. on Friday April 1st (Gregorian), AD 33. The Devil thought he had made a fool out of Jesus on that April Fool’s Day, but it was the other way round (Heb. 2:14, 1 Cor. 1:25), for on Sunday April 3rd, AD 33 (Jn. 20:1), it was discovered that He had been raised from the dead. Jesus then appeared to His disciples over a period of 40 days (Acts 1:3), i.e. until Thursday May 12th, when He ascended into Heaven. The Holy Spirit was then sent (Acts 2:1-4) at Pentecost (Sivan 6), which was Sunday May 22nd.

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