We've Got Last Supper Date All Wrong: Prof

His explanation could provide a fixed date for Easter
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 18, 2011 11:18 AM CDT
We've Got Last Supper Date All Wrong: Prof
A photo released 24 May 1999 showing Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' after restoration in Milan's Santa Maria delle Grazie church.   (Getty Images)

Fascinating new information to keep in mind in the week leading up to Easter: Christians have been marking Jesus's Last Supper on the wrong day, according to a Cambridge professor. Rather than being held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Friday's crucifixion, the Last Supper actually occurred on a Wednesday, scientist Colin Humphreys says. And he believes his finding could allow Easter to finally be given a fixed date: April 5.

Humphreys' theory, detailed in his new book The Mystery of the Last Supper, explains apparent date-related contradictions in the Gospels, the Telegraph reports. Three of the Gospels claim the Last Supper coincided with the start of Passover, while the fourth disagrees. Humphreys concludes that may be because the authors were using two different calendars, one Jewish, one lunar. In inserting an extra day between the Last Supper and the crucifixion, his theory also explains how there could have been time for so many different activities to take place between those two events. (More crucifixion stories.)

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