CHRIST’S BIRTH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 10, 10 December 1936, Page 17

CHRIST’S BIRTH

INTERESTING RESEARCH. ASTRONOMICAL PROOFS. At the Congress of the Italian Society of Sciences which was held at Naples in 1934, Professor Domenico Argentieri, who is well-known for liis astronomical studies, read a paper on -he date of Christ’s birth which has .’voked considerable interest among itudents of Christian chronology. Proessor Argentieri rejected the years letween 8 and 4 8.C., because in those years Quirinus was not Governor of Syria, as the Gospel states that lie was at Christ’s birth. He then made researches in the .period between 11-9 8.C., and found that of these three years only the year 11 satisfies all the requirements. Dealing with the appearance of the Star in the East to the Wise Men, he says that in the period from 28 to 4 B.C. there was only one comet recorded by the Roman and Chinese historians. This was Halley’s comet, which appeared from August until the autumn of the year 12 8.C., and according to Professor Argentieri tho date coincides with Herod’s massacre of the Innocents. Moreover, tlie first Christians remembered clearly that Christ was horn on the day alter the Saturday, and that for this reason the day on which He was born was called

dies dominion. Professor Argentieri has found that in the 12 years immediately preceding the Christian era December 25. the clay imposed by the tradition of the Roman Church, fell on a Sunday only in the year 11 B.C. After rejecting the years A.D. 30 and 33, which are the dates generally accepted, Professor Argentieri fixes the date of Christ’s death at A.D. 27. From the Epistle to the Galatians he (led ices that the conversion of St. Paul took place 17 years before tho death of Herod Agrippa. which occurred in the year A.D. 44; this would imply that Jesus Christ lied not later than tho year A.D. 27. On tho other hand, St. John says that at the first Easter of His life in public tho Jews said to Christ: “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?” From this “forty ami six” it is clear that public life of Christ was begun on . the Easter of tho year A.D. 24, and as it lasted at least three years the Crucifixion cannot have taken place before the year 27. Thus, according to Professor Argentieri’s historical arguments, Christ died in the year 27. Passing to the astronomical proofs, Professor Argentieri calculated tho spring lunar crescents lor a long series of years and found that during the 14 years from A.D. 20 to 33 the only year in which the Jewish Easter

(15 Nisan) fell on a Friday was the year 27. lii this year the spring astronomical new moon was seen on March 26 at 8.27 p.m. mean civil time of Jerusalem. From the moment of the astronomical new moon up to G p.m. of the following day (March 27) 21 hours 33 minutes passed. On the other hand, the interval sufficient to render the lunar crescent visible is 20 hours 42 minutes. It is therefore certain that on the evening of March 27 at 6 p.m. the lunar crescent was visible at Jerusalem and at that same hour the first Nisan began. Thus the 15th Nisan ended at 6 p.m. on April 11, which was a Friday. Professor Argentieri concludes that on that Friday Christ died, and that He, therefore, lived 36 years and 107 days.