Last Supper Happens on Wednesday, Not a Thursday Says Expert

LONDON - The Last Supper took place on a Wednesday - a day earlier than thought - and a date for Easter can now be fixed, says a Cambridge University scientist aiming to solve one of the Bible�s most enduring contradictions.

Christians have marked Jesus� final meal on Maundy Thursday for centuries but thanks to the rediscovery of an ancient Jewish calendar, Prof. Colin Humphreys suggests another interpretation.

�I was intrigued by Biblical stories of the final week of Jesus in which no one can find any mention of Wednesday. It�s called the missing day,� Humphreys told Reuters. �But that seemed so unlikely: after all Jesus was a very busy man.�

Humphreys has concluded in a new book, �The Mystery Of The Last Supper�, that Jesus - along with Matthew, Mark and Luke - may have been using a different calendar to John.

His findings help explain a puzzling inconsistency between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, who said the Last Supper coincided with Passover and John, who said the meal took place before the Jewish holy day commemorating the Exodus from Egypt.

Researchers have long been puzzled by the apparent inconsistency.

Humphreys� research suggests Jesus, and Matthew, Mark and Luke, were using the Pre-Exilic Calendar, which dated from the time of Moses and counted the first day of the new month from the end of the old lunar cycle, while John was referring to the official Jewish calendar of the day.

�It was an extremely curious mistake for anyone to make because for Jewish people Passover was such an important meal,� said Humphreys, a metallurgist and materials scientist and a Christian.

�The contradictions have been known for a long time but not been talked about by the general public very much. I am using science and the Bible hand in hand to solve this question and showing the Gospels are actually agreeing, just using different calendars.�

If the Passover meal and the Last Supper did take place on a Wednesday it would help explain how the large number of events that the Gospels record between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion were able to take place.

�Many biblical scholars say that, for this reason, you can�t trust the Gospels at all. But if we use science and the Gospels hand in hand, we can actually prove that there was no contradiction.�

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