On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 4:05 PM, wrote:

Yada,

I recently learned of a detail about some of Josephus' manuscripts that I thought might be helpful for your site. Sorry if you are already aware. Anyway, supposedly there are earlier manuscripts of Josephus' writings which list a later date for Herod's death etc.as opposed to the traditional 4 BCE timing.

I've been running some astronomical retro calculation software to look for a solar eclipse the day of the Messiah's death and was only able to find an eclipse on or around March 19th of 33. I haven't yet checked May of that year. There was, however, a lunar eclipse on the April 1, 33 CE. I'm still left wondering what was meant by the "darkness over the land" testimony - not convinced they were referring to a solar eclipse just yet, but I'll be sure to let you know if I find anything significant.

"S"

"S"

The URL in your email didn't take me to the site on Josephus, but I was able to Google him and find what you were saying. This is most helpful. It provides one additional confirmation of the 2 BCE date that I wrote about.

It's interesting that the oldest Josephus MSS in the original language dates to the 11th century.

The same site goes on to report many other things which are useful, including a confirmation of 33.

Yada