JC can you do a cliff's notes version? a summary of sorts? in a nutshell (with a box around it) for those who have lack of time and lack of concentration. Something more helpful to those of us who just want a short forthright answer? have mercy on the slow....
Sure.
One way I like to approach this is simply to observe that you can't have a trial at noon and it get dark at noon and Jesus impaled at 9 a.m. or 9 p.m. and it not be two days. Obviously the trial should be the day before at noon and the darkness to occur the following day at noon. The Bible is quite clear Jesus dies on a day of perparation before a sabbath day, so just on this basis we're looking at the trial on Wednesday, Nisan 19 and Jesus death on the 20th. Why? Because Passover is eaten on the sabbath day of the first day of unfermented cakes, for an intents and purposes on the 15th, not the 14th. But there is confusion regarding that because some don't understand the technical reference is that the DATE changes at midnight at which time passover ends. Even so we know that the Jews left Egypt that very night the same night they ate passover and that is the 15th. If this is equivalent to the time in the gardent when Jesus got arrested then we know he was arrested on the 15th. That means preparation for passover on the 14th is not an option. The next option is the next day of preparation, which is the 20th. That was on a Thrusday. But here we get a confirmation that this is the correct date because Jesus is said to have died one day before a sabbath day and rise one day afterwards and yet be in the grave for parts of "three nights" (Matt. 14:40). That can only happen if you have two sabbath days back to back. That is the situation in 33 CE, the following weekend had two sabbath days in a row, the special holiday sabbath of passover falling on Friday the 21st and then the regular sabbath on the 22nd. So everything works out perfectly when Jesus' death is correctly dated to Nisan 20th, Thursday, 33 CE.
The only issue really is the poor translation of John 19:14 where "de" is used in front of preparation which is used to indicate "nearly" or "just before". Thus it was not actually on the day of preparation that the trial took place, but instead the afternoon before preparation was to begin. The Jewish secular days began in the evening or at nightfall, so this was the last division of the day before the next day. John 19:14 thus is better translated: "It was almost preparation for passover. The hour was about the sixth." When Jesus is being placed into the tomb and preparation is mentioned, the "de" is not used. Therefore, there is absolutely zero conflict between the synoptic gospels and John as some inadequately expert scholars claim.
Here's a confirmation calendar for April of 33 CE. You can see where the full moon falls on a Friday.
Again, in case you want to double-check the scriptures, you should include the historical scenario of the Jews not changing the calendar date until Midnight. That means that the sabbath days that began at sunset were made up of two calendar days. In the case of the first day of unfermented cakes, it would begin in the evening of the 14th and end in the evening of the 15th, with the date change at midnight. That's why passover is always spoken of as being eaten on the 14th and the festival of unfermented cakes being celebrated during the day of the 15th. But it's all still the same sabbath day. Passover is eaten on the sabbath day of the 1st day of unfermented cakes. Once you understand that, then there is no problem figuring out precisely when Jesus ate passover, was arrested, had his last trial, was impaled, when it got dark and when he died.
JC
But that might not work either....??? Cheers, LC