(Daniel 9:20-26)
An angel told Daniel that the Messiah, the Prince, would come after 69 weeks, or sevens, and that He would be cut off in the middle of the next week,1Dan 9:26-27 or seven—that is, after 3 ½ years.
From Luke’s gospel, we understand that Jesus began His ministry in A.D. 27, the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius.2Luk 3:1
The apostle John explained four Passovers, which prove that Jesus had a 3 ½-year ministry, ending in A.D. 31.
The first Passover is in John 2:13. It is followed by an unnamed feast in John 5:1. In John 4:35, Jesus said, “You say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest.” The next feast was the Passover, which cannot have been later than the feast of John 5:1. The third Passover is mentioned in John 6:4, and the fourth is the Passover that ended Jesus’ life, in A.D. 31. The sudden jumps in time to the three Passovers of the first six chapters were all introduced by the Greek phrase, “after these things” (μετα ταυτα) from the Book of Revelation.
We can also prove the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, which can only have occurred in A.D. 31. According to the rules set out in the Old Testament, the Passover is held on the 14th day of Nisan. From the moon record of the U.S. Navy Observatory,3please see Passover dates 26-34 A (intercontinentalcog.org), a pdf of the old website of the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department is attached we can see that the 14th day of Nisan in the year A.D. 31 was on a Wednesday.
However, Luke 24:21 and Matthew 28:1 tell us that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday. This is because the Jewish festival rules do not allow the Passover to fall on a Wednesday. For example, in 2000, 2002, and 2003, the Passovers were all moved to the 15th day of Nisan.
In the year A.D. 31, the Passover was also moved to the 15th day of Nisan. This fulfilled the Targum of Hosea 3:2, which said, “I redeemed them by My Memra (My Word) on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan.”
God prophesied the day, month, and year of Jesus’s crucifixion.
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