Daily Archives: June 24, 2014

I found the seventh pairing! I figured if God was behind all this sky and calendar synchronicity, there had to be SEVEN pairs, not six. And I was right. 🙂

This pair breaks the pattern in some interesting ways.

Datability of significant events in Jesus’ First Coming:

• For the other six pairings, the datability can be derived from clues found in the Bible.
• The Herod pair breaks this pattern in that it requires both Scripture and the account by secular historian Josephus.

Calendar days and dates:

• For the other six pairings, the 1st and 21st century Hebrew months match each other and the 1st and 21st century Common months match each other.
• The Herod pair breaks this pattern in that only the Hebrew calendars are identical, while the Common calendar is off by one date.

Weekdays and dates of the eclipses:

• For the other six pairings, the weekdays and dates of the eclipses were* one day of the week and one number date earlier in the 1st century than in the 21st century.
• The Herod pair breaks this pattern in that the Hebrew days and dates are identical (Sabbath, Tevet 14), while the Common date is one earlier rather than one later in the 21st century.

Jewish holidays:

• For the other six pairings, the eclipses were on significant dates in the Jewish ecclesiastical calendar – Passover, Sukkot, and year end.
• The Herod pair breaks this pattern, in that the eclipses were both on Sabbath and the significant event was not a holiday, but the cruel execution of rabbis for defying Herod’s sacrilege.

Eclipse paths:

• For the other six pairings, the eclipses were not visible from the Holy Land. For the five other lunar eclipses, the paths of the pairs nearly overlap, with just a time zone or two between them.
• The Herod pair breaks this pattern, in that the two eclipses were visible from the Holy Land and the paths did not overlap so closely. However, the paths demonstrate an interesting feature, which is that they each seem to be centered on the dominant persecuting empire of the time.

*Some of the 21st century eclipses have not happened yet, but for grammatical simplicity, I am using past tense rather than the cumbersome were/will be.

Background Reading (also see sources cited at the bottom of these posts):

“Herod the Great died in 1 BC”
Why the traditional date given for the death of Herod the Great (4 BC) is wrong.
https://polination.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/herod-the-great-died-in-1-bc/

“Dating the Slaughter of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt”
How the Bible’s account can be dated by referencing the “Star of Bethlehem” and Josephus’ account of Herod’s death.
https://polination.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/dating-the-slaughter-of-the-innocents-and-the-flight-into-egypt/