The Date of the Cross

Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:3–8)

If we view the creation of the world in seven days as speaking to us beyond just telling us about the literal days of creation, then we see God’s choice of that time frame as intending to tell us about something deeper. Why a week of seven days? Why not just create everything at once? Why have a rest day at the end of the week? If you believe in an omniscient and purposeful God, then you know that God’s choice of seven days with a rest period at the end must entail something greater. Does it lay out a prophetic, preordained time frame for the entire history of the whole universe? If you believe, like I do, that it does, then we see that the earth is about six thousand years from the time of creation, and the “week” of creation speaks prophetically to us about the way God marks time.

Believing that each literal day of creation speaks prophetically for an entire millennium of the human age, it follows that the “Sabbath rest” of God would come at the end of the first six days, or six thousand years. Hence, so many students of prophecy believe we are in the time of the end. This fits perfectly with the fact that the Bible clearly states Christ will come and reign for one thousand years.

Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years. Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison. (Revelation 20:6,7)

What could more aptly be called God’s prophetic “day” of rest than Christ, the Messiah, ruling the world in righteousness? The Bible says there will be no war (Isaiah 2:4), people will live to old ripe ages as in the days before the flood (Isaiah 65:20), and the Messiah will rule the world with righteousness (Psalm 9:8). It certainly seems that the millennial reign of Christ will be a long age of rest after millennia of war and destruction.

Assuming then that there is a prophetic link between the literal seven days of creation and the preordained history of mankind on this earth, it makes sense that we should be looking to the soon return of the Lord since we are coming to the end of the first six thousand years of human history according to the biblical chronologies and the secular histories. In fact, some people think we are already passed the six-thousand-year point going from the most accepted dates for the birth of Christ. But we are not.

There are several dates that have been suggested for Christ’s birth, and no one really knows with certainty. It is the creation of the modern dating system for our calendar that split the ancient past with the modern through the designation of BC/AD. This was done by a Christian monk in the sixth Century and set the entire system of counting the years to the assumed date of Christ’s birth in AD 1. For anyone who holds to the “one year as a thousand” prophetic timekeeping, this creates a real problem now that we are past 2020! Yet this entire construction was arbitrary in the first place, and it was based upon the wrong thing!

While it is true that there are some gaps in the biblical chronology, they can be reasonably filled in through known secular history to yield a truth that indeed human civilization was around four thousand years old at the time of Christ’s life, according to the Bible. If we accept that it was exactly four thousand years from the first Adam to the last Adam, the only questions are when did that first four-thousand-year period end and when did the new two thousand years begin? The Gregorian calendar has conditioned us to think it must be based on the date of Christ’s birth, which no one knows. I would suggest that it should be based on the date of the cross.

Whereas there are several dates given for Christ’s birth and no tangible way to precisely pin down the day using Scripture, it is obvious that using this as the dividing line for history is problematic. We have no such problem with the date of the cross. True, there are several dates offered for it as well, but the Bible tells us the exact date of His death. And thus, we can triangulate with known historical data to pin down the exact day with incredible precision. That date is April 3, AD 33, or Abib 14, AD 33 on the Jewish calendar. Having this date and holding that the millennium must begin at the end of the six-thousand-year period establishes that Abib 2033 is when Christ will return; hence, Abib 2026 is when the final week of Daniel begins.

The Day of the Cross: April 3, AD 33 

Like the date of Christ’s birth, there have been several days suggested for the date of Christ’s death, and there are passionate defenses of each position. But there is only one date that fits every available piece of evidence, and it is not close.

Evidence no. 1—The first piece of evidence is right from Scripture. We are told definitively that Christ was slain on Passover. That equates to Abib (Nisan) 14 on the Jewish calendar. Any day given NOT on Passover is NOT correct.

Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. (Exodus 12:6)

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?” (Mark 14:12)

But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? (John 18:39)

Jewish days begin in the evening. Christ had His Passover meal with His disciples on the evening of the fourteenth and was slain on the afternoon of the fourteenth before the first Day of Unleavened Bread began.

Evidence no. 2—Jesus died at about 33, probably closer to 34, after a ministry of about 3.5 years.

Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age… (Luke 3:23a)

Firmly establishing the true beginning of Jesus’ ministry is an exercise in futility owing to the paucity of evidence from the historical, biblical record. However, it can be determined, to a high degree of certainty that the time elapsed from of His baptism by John, until his death, was a period not greater than three- and one-half years. This is firmly established from the Gospel of John.

Following Jesus’ baptism, we are given this sequence of Jewish festivals:
• Passover – John 2:13
• A feast of the Jews – John 5:1; this is either a Feast of Weeks, or another Passover.
• Another Passover – John 6:4 (Also called a feast of the Jews like John 5:1)
• Feast of Tabernacles – John 7:2
• Feast of Dedication [Hannukah] – John 10:22
• Passover – John 11:55, 13:11; this was the Passover at which Jesus was crucified

Now, we must remember that we are told nothing about Jesus’ ministry following His baptism, save that He went into the wilderness for forty days, and then returned sometime after that to Galilee where He first interacted with those He would later call as disciples, turned water into wine, and other things. All of this was before that first Passover, recorded in John 2. How long is anyone’s guess. Luke tells us, with an absolute certainty, when John began his ministry, and this allows us to form a maximum boundary for the extent of Jesus’ ministry.

• Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, (Luke 3:1-3)

It is known history that Tiberius became emperor in August, AD 14, with the Roman Senate formerly declaring him such in September. Thus, John the Baptist would have begun his ministry no earlier than the Fall of AD 28. Depending on how the regal reign of Tiberius was calculated by Luke, it is conceivable that John began his ministry in AD 29, but certainly no later than the Fall of that year. Thus, if Jesus was baptized by John in the Fall of AD 29, it would mean his official ministry lasted about 3.5 years. However, since the first recorded Passover from the Gospel of John is the one that occurred in AD 30, that would mean an extensive amount of time passed in which hardly any works of His are recorded. This seems highly improbable at best, but not impossible. Most scholars put His ministry at 3.5 years because of these facts, but the truth is we have no way of knowing for certain when He was baptized by John. All we are told is when John began his ministry and given a few festal dates that allow us to determine a maximum and relative minimum of time for Jesus’ own ministry.

Evidence no. 3—Given the earliest acceptable date for Christ’s birth in 4 BC, then you only have a small range of dates for the Passover.

Monday, April 18, AD 29

Friday, April 7, AD 30

Tuesday, March 27, AD 31

Monday, April 14, AD 32

Friday, April 3, AD 33

Wednesday, March 24, AD 34

Evidence no. 4—Christ rose “three days” after His crucifixion on a Sunday.

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. (Matthew 28:1)

This means we can thin down the possible dates even more. March 24, AD 34, does not work because, being on a Wednesday, it would mean Jesus would have been in the ground 3.5 days (Wednesday night to Sunday morning)!

Friday, April 7, AD 30

Friday, April 3, AD 33

Now there are many who advocate for the AD 30 date entirely based upon a birth date for Christ in 4 BC. So how do we decide between the two? For this, I am entirely indebted to the work of Frederick A. Larson in The Star of Bethlehem. Here we can draw from an obscure historical character in the Roman Empire to categorically dismiss AD 30. Aelius Sejanus was a captain of the Praetorian Guard. He served as regent for Tiberius Caesar between AD 26–31. During this time, he plotted to seize the throne from Tiberius but was betrayed by Tiberius’s sister-in-law, Antonia. Tiberius had him executed on October 18, AD 31.

Why does this date matter?

Sejanus was the man who appointed Pontius Pilate under Tiberius’s authority. Sejanus hated the Jews and Pilate, following Sejanus’s lead, instituted anti-Jewish policies as prefect of Judea and purposefully antagonized the Jews. For example, he installed images of Tiberius in the Jewish temple at Jerusalem, done purposefully to antagonize the Jews. Pilate was no friend of the Jews and seemed to go out of his way to harass and antagonize them. Philo, a first-century contemporary of Christ, recorded that Pilate also proposed to set up a colossal idol in the holy of holies itself, the most sacred part of the temple at Jerusalem. Josephus reports that Pilate seized religious offerings made by worshipping Jews to pay for Roman work projects.

Luke also relates how cruel Pilate was toward the Jews when he killed worshippers who were offering sacrifices.

There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. (Luke 13:1)

When we get to Jesus before Pilate, we find a man who wants to placate the Jewish leaders rather than antagonize them. What had changed? Sejanus was dead. Not only that, but Tiberius also began to root out Sejanus’s appointees and allies. Many were tried, tortured at length, and executed in ways designed to maximize terror. Suetonius wrote about this; as did Tacitus.

Tiberius also issued countermands to Sejanus’s orders and policies, including his anti-Semitic policies. This new mandate ran contrary to all Pilate had been doing before. After October 18, AD 31, Pilate lived in a lethal political context. If Jesus’s “trial” happened after this date, it goes a great way toward explaining Pilate’s strange ambivalence toward Jesus and the Jewish leadership. His old prejudices and behaviors could cost him his life. Knowing this context, we can also understand why Pilate would genuinely dread the chant of those Jews who demanded Christ’s execution.

From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.” (John 19:12)

Larson has also shown that there was a blood moon on the evening of Abib (Nisan) 15 and that it could be seen rising from Jerusalem in an eclipse the day Jesus’s body was put in the ground! “A life fully lived, blotted out in blood.”

Adding to the historical realities that Larson lays out, is the fact of the date of John the Baptist’s ministry beginning. If indeed, John started his ministry sometime between the Fall of AD 28 and the end of AD 29, there is no possible way to maintain a death date for Jesus of AD 30, given what we do know from John’s Gospel regarding the feasts Jesus participated in following His baptism until His death, which spans a period of two, full years minimum.

All this evidence taken together means that April 3, AD 33, is the best option for the date of the cross. This of course means that the birth of Christ was NOT in 4 BC, but that is a story for another time. I prefer the date of June 17, 2 BC, also derived from Larson’s work. Knowing the exact date of Christ’s death on our calendar is not the only thing we need though to establish it firmly on the prophetic calendar. It is the triangulation of that date with the fourteenth day of the first month that is the key to synchronizing this most pivotal event in human history with the prophetic time clock regarding the second coming.

Having pinned down the date of Jesus’s death, it makes theological sense that the cross should be the date around which every other event hinges. It was when the old creation was spiritually put to death, the sin of Adam and Adam’s race atoned for, and the new creation of mankind in Christ brought forth with the resurrection! What a way to close out the first four thousand years and usher in the new two thousand years. But there is more.

If we are to count off the Jubilee cycles from the beginning unto Christ’s death, we have eighty times fifty years. From the cross until the end of this age and the ushering in of the millennium kingdom, we have forty times fifty years. That is forty cycles of Jubilee. Forty years is the biblical definition for a generation. Jubilee is the time of rest. Our rest as believers in the time since Christ died and rose is found in Him. No need to wait!

There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. (Hebrews 4:9,10)

So, the Lord’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. (Numbers 32:13)

I find it more than a little compelling that the main scriptural text connecting a generation to forty years has to do with the people of Israel NOT entering their promised land rest. Christ came and gave rest to all who put their trust in Him. As Lord of the Sabbath, we who are found in Him live a life of perpetual rest. We are the generation who entered! Christ told His disciples that “this” generation would see all the signs of His coming before it passed, and yet He did not return in the days of His disciples.

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. (Matthew 24:34)

What if this is the prophetic connection? We are in the fortieth iteration of Jubilee cycles since the day of the cross, and the culmination of that final cycle will be in Abib 2033! Even more, the LAST trumpet will be blown on the Day of Atonement in 2032, signaling Jubilee, which begins the following “first day of the first month.” This will be the Great Jubilee of the millennium. Perhaps this is the “generation” referenced by our Lord that would see all the signs before His coming. A generation of divine rest in Christ is about to become a reality for everybody! Wow! This is certainly profound and interesting to ponder upon.