Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 

    None of the penumbral lunar eclipses (those with two dashes in the last columns), listed above, could have 

been the lunar eclipse prior to the death of Herod. Penumbral eclipses are not noticeable to the casual observer 

and may be difficult or impossible to discern with the naked eye, even for a knowledgeable observer. This is 

particularly true for penumbral eclipses with small magnitudes. In penumbral eclipses with smaller 

magnitudes, only the lighter portion of the penumbra covers a portion of the moon's surface. Furthermore, the 

penumbral eclipses above that are of greater magnitude (> 0.4) did not occur between the Day of Atonement 

(Tishri 10, in the autumn) and the Passover (Nisan 14, in the spring), as required by Josephus' description (see 

chapter 12). 

    Several  of the remaining eclipses, those that are umbral rather than penumbral, can also be ruled out 

because they did not occur between the months of Tishri and Nisan:   0008 Jun 03,  0007 May 24,  0003 Sep 

05,  0001 Jul 17, 0000 Jul 05, and 0001 Jun 24. In addition, the eclipse of   0005 Apr 04 (6 

B.C.

) is ruled out 

because it occurred during the Passover that year. According to Josephus, a number of time consuming events 

occurred between the lunar eclipse and the death of Herod and the subsequent Passover (see chapter 12). Thus 

the eclipse could not have occurred during the Passover. 

    Interestingly, we can also rule out any eclipse which occurred immediately after the Day of Atonement at 

the start of the Feast of Tabernacles. Every able bodied adult Jewish man was required by the Jewish Law to 

attend the Feast of Tabernacles (Deut 16:16). With so many devout Jews staying in and around Jerusalem for 

the feast, Herod would not have chosen such a time to put to death 40 students of the Temple and two of their 

teachers.

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 Furthermore, Josephus, a Jewish priest, would most likely have made mention, if the deaths of 

these Jewish martyrs occurred at the start of the holy Feast of Tabernacles. He mentions the Day of 

Atonement (Tishri 10) in association with the high priest, the one whom Herod later deposed, but he does not 

associate the deaths of the Jewish martyrs (at the time of the eclipse) with the Feast of Tabernacles. On this 

basis, the following eclipses are ruled out:   0005 Sep 27 and   0004 Sep 15. In addition, the Sept. 27 eclipse in 

6 

B.C.

 ( 0005) occurred during the daylight hours in Jerusalem (UT + 2 hours), and so was not visible. 

    Note also that the Sept. 15, 5 

B.C.

 eclipse ( 0004) would have preceded the month of Tishri if spring of 5 

B.C.

contained the leap month of AdarII. In 5 

B.C.

, the decision as to whether or not to add a leap month before the 

month of Nisan could have gone either way (because the Passover would begin close to the Spring Equinox). 

With the leap month of AdarII added, the eclipse would be ruled out because it would have occurred before 

Tishri. Without the leap month added, the eclipse would have occurred during Tishri, at the start of the Feast 

of Tabernacles. In either case, the eclipse is ruled out as the eclipse at the time of Herod's death. 

    As explained in detail in chapter 12 of this book, one lunar month is not a sufficient length of time to 

contain all of the events Josephus describes from the eclipse to the death of Herod to the subsequent Passover. 

On this basis, the eclipses of   0004 Mar 23 and   0003 Mar 13 are ruled out. Note that the March 13, 4 

B.C.

 ( 

0003) eclipse is often cited as the eclipse before the proposed date for the death of Herod in 4 

B.C.

    The March 13, 4 

B.C.

  ( 0003) eclipse has two additional problems. First, it began very late at night. The 

umbral shadow could first be seen on the moon at about 01:42 hours on Mar. 14, Jerusalem Standard Time 

(JST):  the time of greatest eclipse (00:52) minus S.D. partial (70 min.) and adjusted for Jerusalem Standard 

Time (by adding two hours). Second, this eclipse at its time of greatest magnitude (02:52  JST) covered only 37 

percent of the moon's visible disk. An eclipse such as this one, occurring very late at night and affecting 

considerably less than that 37% of the moon for most of the time of the eclipse (the 37% was at the time of 

greatest magnitude) would not have been likely to have been noticed by many persons, remembered in 

association with the events of the previous day, and recorded in the history of Josephus. 

    An ideal candidate for the eclipse before Herod's death would be a total eclipse of the moon beginning in 

the early evening when many persons are still awake and outside. Such an eclipse would have at least 3, and 

preferably 4 or more, months between the eclipse and the Passover, in order to allow for all of the events 

described by Josephus. 

    There are six remaining lunar eclipses, in the period 10 

B.C.

 to 1 

A.D.

, to be considered. The  0009 Dec 10 

eclipse (10 

B.C.

) was an early morning eclipse. The time of greatest eclipse was 04:58 hours U.T., that is, 06:58 

hours Jerusalem time. The eclipse would have first been visible about 82 minutes earlier (05:36 hours), when 

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