The Resurrection Shell Game

THE RESURRECTION SHELL GAME

The resurrection was celebrated on 4 April in 2010; in 2011 it will be celebrated on the 24th. In 2012 it will be celebrated 8 April. Who created this shell game? Everyone likes to blame the Catholics, is this another instance? Or are the Jews to blame? Who? When we lay anyone else in the grave, it's on an exact date. We put on their headstones the exact date of birth and the exact date of their demise. While we believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the grave, we also believe that He was put in the grave on an exact date. Why is it that this shell game has come to pass, and we just blindly accept all as is and not question why His resurrection and death move around on the calendar much like chessmen on their board? Shall we investigate the history of what many call Easter, and some, Resurrection Sunday?

It is written in Matthew's gospel, " Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour (Jews during the time of Christ reckoned time from 6 AM to 6 PM, hence, the ninth hour is 3 PM). And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' That is to say, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, 'This man calleth for Elias.' And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink. The rest said, 'Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save Him.' Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost." (Matt. 27:45 - 50) Here it gives evidence that He died shortly after the ninth hour.

Then Matthew's gospel says this: "When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, 'Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, "After three days I will rise again." Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, "He is risen from the dead": so the last error shall be worse than the first.' Pilate said unto them, 'Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.' So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, 'Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead; and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you." (Matt. 27:57 - 66, 28:1 - 7) This is a complicated reading, because it appears to many that He rose on Sunday by the way it was written, that an earthquake happened early Sunday morning and an angel of the Lord decended at that moment and rolled the stone away. Others will say that He had already risen on Saturday evening, at the end of the Sabbath. Let us further complicate the matter, shall we? We Gentiles view one day as from 12 Midnight to 12 Midnight = one day, but the Jews see it differently. Let's go back to Genesis, shall we? "And God said, 'Let there be light': and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Gen. 1:3 - 5) So from night to morning is one day, while we have calibrated a day to mean every 24 hours.

Our study bibles say Jesus died in 30 A.D. Is that Gregorian calendar, or Jewish calendar? For the sake of present day intervention, let us say that is Gregorian. Now we know that it was right after Jesus celebrated the Passover that we know as the Last Supper that He was taken, accused, beaten, crucified and risen, so it will be right after the Passover of 30 A.D. This is why the Gregorian calendar bounces the date of the resurrection of our Savior all over, because the Passover is the indicator of which week we celebrate His resurrection. Remember how Matt. 27:45 tells of darkness covering the land? That was a vernal equinox. Christ died on the day after the first night with a full moon following the vernal equinox day. This darkness that covered the land was a solar eclipse that occurred during crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That only could've happened, according to Romanian astronomers, the second time this combination repeated, which was April 3, 33 A.D. Since the Bible also mentions a solar eclipse that occurred during crucifixion of Jesus Christ. According to astronomy records, a partial solar eclipse was registered only in 33 A.D. So, this is how the scientists determined the exact dates of Christ's death and resurrection. They have determined that His death on the cross was April 3rd, and His resurrection April 5th, 33 A.D. But if He was in the ground according to the bible 3 nights and three days, and Genesis determines a day as night and day = one day, and the night of Apr. 3rd is one day the night of Apr. 4th is the 2nd day, and the night of Apr. 5th is the 3rd day, then He had to have arose on Monday, and not Saturday or Sunday, as just about everybody says. If it is proven that the only solar eclipse coinciding with His crucifixion and resurrection after the Passover is this Friday in 33 A.D. and dark and light = one day according to Genesis, it is then irrefutable. If they had recorded His life dates on His tombstone as we do today, it would've read that He died 4.3.33. Since nobody accepts that He rose on Monday, we obviously have a defect in the Romanian calculations!

Now we still have a calendar problem. There's a Julian Calendar, Gregorian calendar, and Jewish calendar. There are lunar calendars, solar calendars... There are unChristian calendars, such as Islamic, Hindu, Chinese, Malayalam, Bahai...such confusion! Here's a chart just showing the difference between the Jewish, or Hebrew calendar, and the Gregorian calendar:



Name of Month Month Number Length of Month Gregorian Equivalent

Nissan (Abib) 1 30 days March-April

Iyar 2 29 days April-May

Sivan 3 30 days May-June

Tammuz 4 29 days June-July

Av 5 30 days July-August

Elul 6 29 days August-September

Tishrei 7 30 days September-October

Cheshvan 8 29 or 30 days October-November

Kislev 9 29 or 30 days November-December

Tevet 10 29 days December-January

Shevat 11 30 days January-February

Adar 12 29 or 30 days (30 in leap year) February-March

Adar II 13 29 days March-April

Notice that the days are fixed from the first month of Nissan to the seventh month of Tishri? The fact is, from the first major Jewish holiday to the final major Jewish holiday in the Hebrew calendar the number of days are the same, meaning that the time from Passover in the month of Nissan - the first major Jewish holiday - to the final major Jewish holiday - the festival of Sukkot in the month of Tishri - is always the same, regardless of calendar calculations based on the moon.

According to the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, there was a civil Hebrew calendar from Gen. 1:1 (Creation) until Exod. 12:1. In Exod. 12:2, God said to Moses that because of the Passover event, the month that Passover occurred shall be the "head month", or first month of the Hebrew calendar, so since Passover occurred in the Springtime, the month name that was later assigned by Ezra and identified with the Passover event was the month of Nissan, which was first named Abib in Deut. 16:1. So to further complicate things, the Jewish people also have two calendars, a civil calendar that starts with October, and a religious calendar that starts with the spring.

So if we Gentiles had used the Hebrew Calendar, His death and resurrection would come on the same date every year, but because we typically use the Gregorian calendar, this is why His resurrection plays hopscotch on our calendar. This is why America accepts this annual shell game of His resurrection. And now, as Paul Harvey would say, you know the rest of the story...let us simply thank God that He came and did what He did!