Re: The Millennium

[David Bowman <dbowman@TIGER.GEORGETOWNCOLLEGE.EDU>]

Regarding James Wheeler's correction:
> Herod the Great was the ruler who died in 4 BCE, and was also the ruler
> that ordered the slaughter of innocents.  4 BCE is thus after the birth of
> Jesus.  The Herod who was involved in the trial was Herod Antipas, the son
> of Herod the Great.  Easter is usually dated by the solar eclipse that was
> observed in Jerusalem on Good Friday.

This does fix Jim Riley's mixup regarding the identity of the relevant
Herods, but the last part is surely historically incorrect and
astronomically impossible.  According to the gospels the crucifixion of
Jesus occurred during the time of the Jewish Passover.  The Pascal lambs
were butchered for the seder and that meal was eaten during the middle of
the month of Nisan.  The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar with the month
boundaries occurring on the new moons.  Thus mid-month is a full moon.
Solar eclipses cannot occur during a full moon.  (Lunar eclipses can only
occur during full moons and solar eclipses can only occur during new
moons.)

As I recall, Easter is dated as the Sunday following the Pascal full moon
which is (I think) the first full moon following the vernal equinox.

Btw, the dating of the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE is an inference
drawn primarily from the writings of Josephus (in his _Antiquities of the
Jews_) who mentioned a lunar eclipse which occurred shortly before Herod's
death.  Assuming that that eclipse was a full lunar eclipse and including
a couple of other historical tidbits constrains Herod's death to be in the
spring of 4 BCE.  If the eclipse was partial then I think a couple of other
dates become possible as well.

David Bowman
dbowman@georgetowncollege.edu