Was the Last Supper Actually on a Wednesday?

A Cambridge University professor claims that the Last Supper was not on Maundy Thursday, but rather on a Wednesday. April 1, A.D. 33, to be exact :

“If you look at all the events the Gospels record – between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion – there is a large number. It is impossible to fit them in between a Thursday evening and Friday morning.”

“But I found that two different calendars were involved. In fact, the four gospels agree perfectly,” he added.

Prof Humphreys argues that Jewish people would never have mistaken the Passover meal for another meal because it is so important.

He suggests that Matthew, Mark and Luke used an old-fashioned Jewish calendar – adapted from Egyptian usage at the time of Moses – rather than the official lunar calendar which was in widespread use at the time.

“In John’s Gospel, he is correct in saying the Last Supper was before the Passover meal. But Jesus chose to hold his Last Supper as a Passover meal according to an earlier Jewish calendar,” Prof Humphreys said.

The Last Supper was therefore on Wednesday, 1 April AD33, according to the standard Julian calendar used by historians, he concluded.

The Pope suggested in 2007 that Jesus used the solar calendar of the Qumran community , which was probably employed by the Essenes. But Humphreys shows that when the date of Passover is calculated using this calendar, it would have fallen a week later, after both Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Sounds like an intriguing hypothesis. Could Humphreys be right?

(Via: Robert King Wulff)