Here's where we run into our first disagreement. All four gospel accounts agree that Jesus was killed on a Friday sometime during the Passover holiday, but was it on Passover itself or was it the day before?

●      In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke (known collectively as the "synoptic" gospels), Passover falls on a Friday, so Jesus was tried and killed on the very day of Passover.

●      In the gospel of John, however, Passover falls on a Saturday, so Jesus was tried and killed the day before Passover, known as the Day of Preparation. (A Passover feast would have had to be prepared the day before the Sabbath, because of the biblical injunction to do no work on the Sabbath.)

Why is it so important whether Passover landed on a Friday or a Saturday? Because that will determine in which years the crucifixion could have happened. Thanks to computers, we can search for dates between 26 and 36 C.E. (when the date ranges above overlap) and when Passover either landed on a Friday or a Saturday.

Using those criteria, you get three possible dates for the crucifixion (depending on the gospel):

●      April 11, 27 C.E. (Mark, Matthew, Luke) on Passover

●      April 7, 30 C.E. (John), the day before Passover

●      April 3, 33 C.E. (John), the day before Passover

Most scholars think that 27 C.E. is too early, since the gospel of Matthew indicates that John the Baptist began preaching in the "fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius," which would have been 28 C.E. at the earliest. In the Bible's chronology, Jesus begins his mission after John, so 28 C.E. is the absolute earliest starting date.

And that's how biblical scholars ended up with two finalists for the date of Jesus' crucifixion: April 7, 30 and April 3, 33.

Bond writes that the majority of scholars side with April 7, 30, as the true date. This is the date favored by people who believe that Jesus' mission was relatively short or that it began as early as 28 C.E. A smaller group of scholars are just as certain about April 3, 33, believing that Jesus' mission lasted three years and started closer to 30 C.E. They also affirm this date because it coincided with a lunar eclipse, which Pilate may have referenced in a letter to the emperor Tiberius.