The Symmetry of Christ's Life: The First and the Last

"I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." (Rev. 9:3 RE)

The Last Day of Christ's Mortal Life

The previous post reviewed how the events of Christ's final week in mortality correctly lined up with the Hebrew calendar and days of the week, differing from historic Christian traditions about it. It was based on the clarifications in Covenant of Christ and the Testimony of St. John. And it noted that the modern calculated Hebrew calendar does not align with how it worked in antiquity. That is, anciently Hebrew months were determined based on actual first observation of the lunar crescent in the sky right after sunset using the naked eye. And neither the modern, calculated Hebrew calendar nor John Pratt's revision to it allowed for what took place that week to happen on the days they actually occurred on.

Here is how those events lined up:

(click to enlarge)

Within the single last day of the mortal life of the Sacrificial Lamb of God, from sundown to sundown of 14 Nisan, the following events all took place:

• The Last Supper (Testimony of St. John 10)
• His suffering in Gethsemane (T&C 4:5 and T&C 161)
• His betrayal, judgment, crucifixion (while the Passover lambs were being slain), and burial (Testimony of St. John 11)

Within that single day, the Messiah had perfectly offered up all that the Father had required of him, in order that he would be able to redeem the entirety of this creation from the Fall. Only overcoming death itself remained. (see Testimony of St. John 7:12)

His resurrection on that Sunday morning just before sunrise on 17 Nisan of 33 AD was witnessed in many ways. Adrian wrote of the Jewish Feast of the First fruits. In the heavens at the very moment of His resurrection on that date of that year, the Morning Star (which Christ identifies as His symbol in Rev. 9:4 RE) just barely became visible to the naked eye in the morning sky for the first time in that 585-day Venus cycle. (where it appears alternately in the evening then morning) The Morning Star witnessed his overcoming of death, rising into the eastern dawn sky as the brightest visible star.

The Question of the First Day of Christ's Life

So, a person could then ask the question: Do we now have the keys necessary to determine when His birth actually occurred on the Hebrew calendar? Yes, we do.

In Joseph Smith History 16:2 (T&C 1), we have the following:

"The rise of the church of Christ in these last days, being one-thousand eight-hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh, it being regularly organized and established agreeably to the laws of our country, by the will and commandments of God in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month, which is called April..."

If one accepts the literal meaning of what Joseph Smith gave us, then this would suggest that Christ's birth was precisely 1,830 years prior to this event on April 6th, 1830--that is, on April 6th of 1 BC using the same Gregorian calendar. (There is no "zero" year between BC and AD.) Joseph's wording suggests that he intentionally aligned this 1830 event with Christ's birthdate on the calendar we use.

I believe the work of the late John Pratt further established that date in additional ways, noting alignments with other sacred calendars and with heavenly alignments. For example, that date is precisely when both Venus and Mercury appear at their individual brightest in the Eastern pre-dawn sky. It is also precisely the date on the Mayan calendar that that culture associated with the mortal birth of Quetzalcoatl, their name for Christ.

John's research further narrowed the timing of Christ's to the evening--after dark and before midnight--of what we would call April 5th, 1 BC.  But because Hebrew days begin with the evening before, this still aligns with Joseph Smith's statement.

So, if that is correct, then which actual day would that have been on the observational Hebrew calendar at the time can be figured out. It requires determining when the last astronomical New Moon occurred before that date. Modern measurements of lunar motions are precise enough that it can be determined for that time frame in 1 BC with a precision of a couple of hours--plenty close enough. AstroPixels - Moon Phases: -0099 to 0000 AD is one of several places you can look up that precise time. (It's year 0000 there, which is 1 BC.) It occurred in the middle of the day on March 24th on the Julian calendar, or Wednesday, March 22nd, 1 BC, using the Gregorian calendar.

But that's the astronomical "New Moon"--the moment that the Moon and the Sun invisibly pass by each other in the sky. (The Moon is too close to the Sun to actually see at that moment, except during solar eclipses.) The beginning of the Hebrew month was marked by the first observation of the crescent moon after sunset--usually about a day after the astronomical New Moon occurs. That marks the first day of the month, which in this case was the first day and of the first month of the year, the first day of Nisan, or 1 Nisan. If you then carefully count the Hebrew days from that day, we find the moment that Christ was born:

(click to enlarge)

It puts his birth on 14 Nisan, which in this case actually does align with the modern, calculated Hebrew calendar. That is, His first day of mortal life was the very same day as His last day of mortal life. This is the day the "Sacrificial Lamb of God" (as his cousin John names him in the Testimony of St. John 1:9,12) was both brought into the world and also sacrificed. And "If ‘the condescension of God’ included the Mother of God, as well as Her Son, then She was also a critical participant for providing the sacrificial lamb required for our redemption." She then provided the very sacrificial lamb to this fallen world in Bethlehem by the shedding of Her own blood on the very day the Passover lambs were being sacrificed around her. (see Mary, the Mother of Christ in the Covenant Edition Glossary) His arrival marked the end of the age of the Sacrificial Lamb, which is the correct name for the constellation we call Aries. (see Preserving the Restoration, p. 243)

Surely there is more to this story, but at the least, it shows another perfect symmetry of chiasm in the life of the Messiah, where the first was precisely the last.