This book uses terms from four fields — biblical scholarship, rabbinic literature, calendrical science and astronomy — and not every reader is at home in all four. This glossary gives a short, workable description of every load-bearing term; it does not replace the explanation in the chapters, but makes it easier to follow. At the close, the whole case stands in a single image.
H.1 · Glossary
Aviv — the ripening stage of the barley at which the crop stands "in the ear"; the biblical condition (Exodus 13:4; Deuteronomy 16:1) that decides whether the spring month may be called Nisan or whether an intercalary month must be added. See omer, intercalary month.
Base rate — how often a "hit" would occur even without the supposed cause. Without a base rate a hit says nothing: a Wednesday 14 Nisan falls twice in eleven in the window AD 26–36 — a measured frequency of 0.18, conservatively 3/11, against a chance level of 1/7 ≈ 0.14 (ch. 7, appendix A), so the strength of the case lies not in the Wednesday itself but in its crossing with the measured day-axis.
CALCULATED / DOCUMENTED / CONSTRUED — the three marks of the book. Calculated: you can recompute it yourself. Documented: seen in the primary source, with its location. Construed: a reading or a choice, which weighs as much as one grants it. The marks may never blur into one another (ch. 2).
Conjunction (astronomical new moon) — the moment at which moon and sun stand at the same ecliptic longitude; the moon is then invisible. The first visible crescent follows roughly a day and a half later. Not to be confused with the "new moon" of the observational calendar, which is precisely that first crescent.
Crescent (first lunar crescent) — the narrow, young lunar crescent that first becomes visible to the naked eye after the conjunction; its first appearance opens 1 Nisan. Its visibility can be recomputed with Yallop's criterion (appendix C).
Double construction — the expression "three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:40, after Jonah 1:17), which names the nights separately. The book argues (ch. 3, appendix B) that it is a measure (full days) and never counts inclusively within the Hebrew and Aramaic corpus searched — unlike the bare ordinal "on the third day". The qualification belongs with it: there is one late Latin exception — Augustine, in the fourth century, does count it inclusively — but that is an interpreter arguing the point, not a source that uses the idiom so. Appendix B §B.3c weighs him in full.
Equinox (spring) — the moment at which the sun crosses the celestial equator northwards (around 22–23 March, Julian, in the first century). Several calendar rules bind Nisan to the equinox; which binding applied is the narrowest link (ch. 8).
Erev Pesach — the eve of, and the day before, the Passover: the fourteenth of Nisan, on which the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the temple. The book reads this as the day of death (ch. 5).
High sabbath / festival sabbath — an annual day of rest that falls on a festival date (here 15 Nisan), distinct from the weekly sabbath. The two-sabbaths reading (ch. 4) distinguishes the festival sabbath (Thursday 26 April) from the weekly sabbath (Saturday 28 April).
Inclusive reckoning — the Jewish custom of counting a day already begun as a whole one: "on the third day" can then span Friday→Sunday. The rule is documented for the ordinal (Jerusalem Talmud, Shabbat 9:3, the onah rule), but — so Chapter 3 argues — not for the double construction.
Intercalary month (Adar II) — see intercalation.
Intercalation — the insertion of a thirteenth month (Adar II) to keep the lunar year in step with the solar year. An intercalated AD 31 shifts Nisan into April and 14 Nisan onto Wednesday 25 April; whether AD 31 was in fact intercalated is not documented (appendices D and E).
Lunation — one complete lunar cycle from conjunction to conjunction (≈ 29.5 days). The "March moon" or "April moon" is the lunation whose crescent opens Nisan.
Omer — the first sheaf of the barley, waved in the temple on 16 Nisan (Leviticus 23:10–11); its ripeness is the aviv test. It could, if need be, be fetched from further afield (m. Menachot 10:2) — a weakening of the aviv argument (appendix E).
Onah — "a part of the unit of time counts as the whole": the rabbinic rule behind inclusive reckoning.
Ordinal "on the third day" (τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ) — the supple form of the resurrection predictions, open to inclusive reckoning; to be distinguished from the double construction (ch. 3).
Paraskeuê (παρασκευή) — "preparation"; the technical name for the day before the sabbath, hence the Friday, but originally the day of preparation before any day of rest. Mark glosses it as prosabbaton, "fore-sabbath" (Mark 15:42). The hinge of Chapter 6: how paraskeuê came to mean "Friday".
Parker & Dubberstein — the standard work Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.–A.D. 45, which reconstructs the Babylonian lunar calendar (with its fixed nineteen-year intercalation cycle) for these centuries. The Babylonian rule — 1 Nisanu after the equinox — has been recomputed against its anchor (appendix C).
Seder — the ritual Passover meal on the evening of 15 Nisan; the "seder problem" (ch. 5) is the tension between the Synoptics (Jesus ate a Passover) and John (the leaders had not yet eaten it).
Seventy weeks — the prophecy of Daniel 9:24–27; 457 BC + 483 years to the Anointed One (the baptism, AD 27). The book brings it in firewalled, after the weighing, as a construed second witness (ch. 17).
Sign (Hebrew ot, אוֹת; Greek sêmeion, σημεῖον) — a testable mark that God sets down so that it can later be recognised and checked (Deuteronomy 18:22). Exact fulfilment is, by its very nature, essential; on this hangs Chapter 3.
Tequfah — the Hebrew word for the equinox or solstice point; in the calendar debate, the boundary to which Nisan is bound.
Tishri reckoning — the counting of regnal years from autumn (Tishri) to autumn, as the Judaean scribes did; decisive for the 457 line (ch. 17) and for the ministry window (ch. 9). As against Nisan reckoning (spring to spring).
Zone A / q (Yallop) — the quantity q measures how well a young crescent can be seen; zone A means "easily visible to the naked eye". The crescent of 11 April AD 31 falls well within zone A (appendix C).
H.2 · The whole case in one image
The image below sets the two axes of the book and their crossing in a single timeline: the day-axis (the sign, the two sabbaths) and the year-axis (the calendar, the ministry), which touch at exactly one point — Wednesday 25 April of the year 31. It is a summary, not proof; every element is grounded and marked in the chapter where it belongs.
The conceptual timeline: the day-axis and the year-axis, crossing on Wednesday 25 April AD 31.
This book uses terms from four fields — biblical scholarship, rabbinic literature, calendrical science and astronomy — and not every reader is at home in all four. This glossary gives a short, workable description of every load-bearing term; it does not replace the explanation in the chapters, but makes it easier to follow. At the close, the whole case stands in a single image.
H.1 · Glossary
Aviv — the ripening stage of the barley at which the crop stands "in the ear"; the biblical condition (Exodus 13:4; Deuteronomy 16:1) that decides whether the spring month may be called Nisan or whether an intercalary month must be added. See omer, intercalary month.
Base rate — how often a "hit" would occur even without the supposed cause. Without a base rate a hit says nothing: a Wednesday 14 Nisan falls twice in eleven in the window AD 26–36 — a measured frequency of 0.18, conservatively 3/11, against a chance level of 1/7 ≈ 0.14 (ch. 7, appendix A), so the strength of the case lies not in the Wednesday itself but in its crossing with the measured day-axis.
CALCULATED / DOCUMENTED / CONSTRUED — the three marks of the book. Calculated: you can recompute it yourself. Documented: seen in the primary source, with its location. Construed: a reading or a choice, which weighs as much as one grants it. The marks may never blur into one another (ch. 2).
Conjunction (astronomical new moon) — the moment at which moon and sun stand at the same ecliptic longitude; the moon is then invisible. The first visible crescent follows roughly a day and a half later. Not to be confused with the "new moon" of the observational calendar, which is precisely that first crescent.
Crescent (first lunar crescent) — the narrow, young lunar crescent that first becomes visible to the naked eye after the conjunction; its first appearance opens 1 Nisan. Its visibility can be recomputed with Yallop's criterion (appendix C).
Double construction — the expression "three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:40, after Jonah 1:17), which names the nights separately. The book argues (ch. 3, appendix B) that it is a measure (full days) and never counts inclusively within the Hebrew and Aramaic corpus searched — unlike the bare ordinal "on the third day". The qualification belongs with it: there is one late Latin exception — Augustine, in the fourth century, does count it inclusively — but that is an interpreter arguing the point, not a source that uses the idiom so. Appendix B §B.3c weighs him in full.
Equinox (spring) — the moment at which the sun crosses the celestial equator northwards (around 22–23 March, Julian, in the first century). Several calendar rules bind Nisan to the equinox; which binding applied is the narrowest link (ch. 8).
Erev Pesach — the eve of, and the day before, the Passover: the fourteenth of Nisan, on which the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the temple. The book reads this as the day of death (ch. 5).
High sabbath / festival sabbath — an annual day of rest that falls on a festival date (here 15 Nisan), distinct from the weekly sabbath. The two-sabbaths reading (ch. 4) distinguishes the festival sabbath (Thursday 26 April) from the weekly sabbath (Saturday 28 April).
Inclusive reckoning — the Jewish custom of counting a day already begun as a whole one: "on the third day" can then span Friday→Sunday. The rule is documented for the ordinal (Jerusalem Talmud, Shabbat 9:3, the onah rule), but — so Chapter 3 argues — not for the double construction.
Intercalary month (Adar II) — see intercalation.
Intercalation — the insertion of a thirteenth month (Adar II) to keep the lunar year in step with the solar year. An intercalated AD 31 shifts Nisan into April and 14 Nisan onto Wednesday 25 April; whether AD 31 was in fact intercalated is not documented (appendices D and E).
Lunation — one complete lunar cycle from conjunction to conjunction (≈ 29.5 days). The "March moon" or "April moon" is the lunation whose crescent opens Nisan.
Omer — the first sheaf of the barley, waved in the temple on 16 Nisan (Leviticus 23:10–11); its ripeness is the aviv test. It could, if need be, be fetched from further afield (m. Menachot 10:2) — a weakening of the aviv argument (appendix E).
Onah — "a part of the unit of time counts as the whole": the rabbinic rule behind inclusive reckoning.
Ordinal "on the third day" (τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ) — the supple form of the resurrection predictions, open to inclusive reckoning; to be distinguished from the double construction (ch. 3).
Paraskeuê (παρασκευή) — "preparation"; the technical name for the day before the sabbath, hence the Friday, but originally the day of preparation before any day of rest. Mark glosses it as prosabbaton, "fore-sabbath" (Mark 15:42). The hinge of Chapter 6: how paraskeuê came to mean "Friday".
Parker & Dubberstein — the standard work Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.–A.D. 45, which reconstructs the Babylonian lunar calendar (with its fixed nineteen-year intercalation cycle) for these centuries. The Babylonian rule — 1 Nisanu after the equinox — has been recomputed against its anchor (appendix C).
Seder — the ritual Passover meal on the evening of 15 Nisan; the "seder problem" (ch. 5) is the tension between the Synoptics (Jesus ate a Passover) and John (the leaders had not yet eaten it).
Seventy weeks — the prophecy of Daniel 9:24–27; 457 BC + 483 years to the Anointed One (the baptism, AD 27). The book brings it in firewalled, after the weighing, as a construed second witness (ch. 17).
Sign (Hebrew ot, אוֹת; Greek sêmeion, σημεῖον) — a testable mark that God sets down so that it can later be recognised and checked (Deuteronomy 18:22). Exact fulfilment is, by its very nature, essential; on this hangs Chapter 3.
Tequfah — the Hebrew word for the equinox or solstice point; in the calendar debate, the boundary to which Nisan is bound.
Tishri reckoning — the counting of regnal years from autumn (Tishri) to autumn, as the Judaean scribes did; decisive for the 457 line (ch. 17) and for the ministry window (ch. 9). As against Nisan reckoning (spring to spring).
Zone A / q (Yallop) — the quantity q measures how well a young crescent can be seen; zone A means "easily visible to the naked eye". The crescent of 11 April AD 31 falls well within zone A (appendix C).
H.2 · The whole case in one image
The image below sets the two axes of the book and their crossing in a single timeline: the day-axis (the sign, the two sabbaths) and the year-axis (the calendar, the ministry), which touch at exactly one point — Wednesday 25 April of the year 31. It is a summary, not proof; every element is grounded and marked in the chapter where it belongs.