Hidden and coherent chronology of Jesus’ life in the literary work of Maria Valtorta

Volume 8, Issue 2, April 2024     |     PP. 477-529      |     PDF (680 K)    |     Pub. Date: December 14, 2021
DOI: 10.54647/sociology84718    48 Downloads     2697 Views  

Author(s)

Liberato De Caro, Istituto di Cristallografia, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IC–CNR), via Amendola 122/O, 70126 Bari, Italy
Fernando La Greca, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy
Emilio Matricciani, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy

Abstract
Maria Valtorta (1897−1961) was a mystical writer active in the years of World War II. Her literary work contains a detailed life of Jesus, without any explicit dates with respect to the Julian calendar. She sets Jesus’ birth (Nativity) on Kislev 25, first day of the Hebrews’ feast of Hannukah, and Jesus’ age at his death, on a Friday, in 1737 weeks. She writes that the Passover of the year before his death fell on Saturday. All these chronological data are unusual in mystical writings concerning Jesus’ life and raise the question about their coherence and self-consistency. We have studied these data and show that they refer to a hidden and coherent chronology. The astronomical and calendar analysis of these data allow: i) To set Jesus’ crucifixion on 23 April 34, a unusual date but the only one that can harmonize Johannine and Synoptic traditions about the Last Supper; ii) To verify that the Nativity set on Kislev 25 is compatible only with the Eastern tradition, 6 January 1 AD; iii) To assess that between birth and death’s dates exactly 1737 weeks have elapsed. Maria Valtorta proposes also an original story about the Star of Bethlehem: the Magi would have realized the birth of the Messiah by counting the days elapsed between some astronomical conjunctions, decoding the meaning of the numbers, so obtained, through Gematria, in close agreement with all other details of her narration.

Keywords
Maria Valtorta, Jesus of Nazareth, Nativity Day, Hanukkah, Herod the Great, Magi, Star of Bethlehem, Gematria, Last Supper. Crucifixion.

Cite this paper
Liberato De Caro, Fernando La Greca, Emilio Matricciani, Hidden and coherent chronology of Jesus’ life in the literary work of Maria Valtorta , SCIREA Journal of Sociology. Volume 8, Issue 2, April 2024 | PP. 477-529. 10.54647/sociology84718

References

[ 1 ] (Adair 2012) Adair, Aaron. 2012. The star of Christ in the light of Astronomy. Zygon 47: 7−29.
[ 2 ] (Allison 1993) Allison, Dale C. Jr. 1993. What Was the Star That Guided the Magi?. Bible Review 9: 20−24.
[ 3 ] (Barthel et al 2015) Barthel, Peter, and George van Kooten (Eds.). 2015. The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi. Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Experts on the Ancient Near East, the Greco−Roman World, and Modern Astronomy. Leiden−Boston: Brill.
[ 4 ] (Bond 2013) Bond, Helen K. 2013. Dating the Death of Jesus: Memory and the Religious Imagination. New Testament Studies 59: 461−475.
[ 5 ] (Brown 1999) Brown, Raymond E. 1999. The birth of the Messiah. Yale: Yale University Press.
[ 6 ] (Bryan 2020) Bryan, Steven M. 2020. Onomastics and Numerical Composition in the Genealogy of Matthew, Bulletin for Biblical Research 30: 4, 515−539.
[ 7 ] (Chow et al 2009) Chow, Yuan H. and Dattani, Nirupa. 2009. Estimating conception statistics using gestational age information from NHS numbers for Babies data, Health Statistics Quaterly 41, pp. 21–27.
[ 8 ] (Carrol et al 2007) Carrol, Bradley and Ostlie, Dale. 2007. An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics. San Francisco, USA: Addison–Wesley.
[ 9 ] (Chevalley 2006) Chevalley, Patrick. 2006. Astronomic software Skychart, https://www.ap–i.net/skychart/en/start.
[ 10 ] (Clark et al 1977) Clark, David H. and F. Richard Stephenson. 1977. The Historical Supernovae, Oxford: Pergamon Press.
[ 11 ] (Cullen 1979) Cullen, Christopher. 1979. Can we Find the Star of Bethlehem in Far Eastern records?. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 20: 153−159.
[ 12 ] (Davis 1968) Davis, John James. 1968. Biblical Numerology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books House.
[ 13 ] (De Caro et al 2020) De Caro, Liberato, Fernando La Greca and Emilio Matricciani. 2020. Saint Peter’s First Burial Site According to Maria Valtorta’s Mystical Writings, Checked Against the Archeology of Rome in the I Century, J Multidisciplinary Scientific Journal 3: 366−400.
[ 14 ] (De Caro et al 2021a) De Caro, Liberato, Fernando La Greca and Emilio Matricciani. 2021. The search of St Peter’s memory ad catacumbas in the cemeterial area ad Duos Lauros in Rome, Heritage 4: 479−506.
[ 15 ] (De Caro et al. 2021b) De Caro, Liberato, Fernando La Greca and Emilio Matricciani. 2021. The Beginning of the Christian Era Revisited: New Findings. Histories 1, 145−168.
[ 16 ] (Derovan 2007) Derovan, David. 2007. “Gematria”, in Skolnik, Fred (Editor in Chief) and Michael Berembaum (Executive Editor), Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., vol. 7, Fey–Gor. Detroit (USA): Thomson Gale; p. 424.
[ 17 ] (Di Maio et al 1988) Di Maio, Michael, Jorn Zeuge and Natalia Zotov. 1988. Ambiguitats Constantiniana: The Caeleste Signum of Constantine The Great. Byzantion 58: 2, 333−360.
[ 18 ] (Doggett et al. 1994) Doggett, LeRoy E. and Bradley E. Schaefer. 1994. Lunar Crescent Visibility. Icarus 107: 388−403.
[ 19 ] (Duchesne 1889) Duchesne, Louis. 1889. Origines du culte chrétien: étude sur la liturgie latine avant Charlemagne. Paris: Thorin; pp. 247–54.
[ 20 ] (Engberding 1952) Engberding, Hieronymus. 1952. Der 25. Dezember als Tag der Feier der Geburt des Herrn. Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft 2: 25–43.
[ 21 ] (Epping 1889) Epping, Joseph. 1889. Astronomisches aus Babylon oder das Wissen der Chaldaer uber den gestirnten Himmel. Freiburg: Herder.
[ 22 ] (Farrar 1961) Farrar, F. W. 1961. Hystory of Interpretation, Grand Rapids: Baker, p. 168.
[ 23 ] (Fatoohi et al 1997-1998) Fatoohi, L.J. and Stephenson, F.R. 1997/1998. Angular measurements in Babylonian astronomy. Archiv für Orientforschung 44/45: 210−214.
[ 24 ] (Fedalto 2012) Fedalto, Giorgio. 2012. Da Pasqua il tempo nuovo. Questioni di cronologia ebraico−cristiana. Verona: Mazziana; pp. 53−71.
[ 25 ] (Finegan 1998) Finegan, Jack. 1998. Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Principles of Time Reckoning in the Ancient World and Problems of Chronology in the Bible. Revised Edition. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers; pp. 269−368.
[ 26 ] (Firpo 1983) Firpo, Giulio. 1983. Il problema cronologico della nascita di Gesù, Brescia: Paideia Editrice.
[ 27 ] (Fotheringham 1934) Fotheringham, John Knight. 1934. The Evidence of Astronomy and Technical Chronology for the Date of the Crucifixion. Journal of Theological Studies 35: 146−62.
[ 28 ] (Heidrick 2021) Heidrick, Bill. Website: http://www.billheidrick.com/works/hgemat.htm, web site accessed 17 June 2021.
[ 29 ] (Hohenkerk et al 1992) Hohenkerk, C. Y., B. D. Yallop, C. A. Smith and A. T. Sinclair. 1992. Celestial Reference Systems. In Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac. Edited by P. Kenneth Seidelmann. Sausalito (CA): University Science Books; p. 99.
[ 30 ] (Holzmeister 1942) Holzmeister, Urban. 1942. La stella dei Magi. Civiltà Cattolica 9: 9−22.
[ 31 ] (Hughes 1976) Hughes, David W. 1976. The Star of Bethlehem. Nature 264: 513−517.
[ 32 ] (Hughes 1979) Hughes, David W. 1979. The Star of Bethlehem. An Astronomer's Confirmation, New York: Walker.
[ 33 ] (Humphreys et al 1983) Humphreys, Colin J. and W. Graeme Waddington. 1983. Dating the Crucifixion. Nature 306: 743−746.
[ 34 ] (Humphreys et al 1992) Humphreys, Colin J. and W. Graeme Waddington. 1992. The Jewish Calendar, a Lunar Eclipse and the Date of Christ's Crucifixion. Tyndale Bulletin 43: 331−351.
[ 35 ] (Hunger et al 1988-1996) Hunger, Hermann and Abraham J. Sachs. 1988–1996. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, voll. I−III, H. Hunger Ed., Wien: Verlag der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
[ 36 ] (Hunger et al 2001) Hunger, Hermann, Abraham J. Sachs and John M. Steele. 2001. Astronomical diaries and related texts from Babylonia. Lunar and Planetary Texts. Vol. V. Wien: Verlag der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
[ 37 ] (Ian 2018) Ian, Paul. 2018. Revelation: an Introduction and Commentary. (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
[ 38 ] (Jastrow 1908) Jastrow, Morris. 1908. Hepatoscopy and Astrology in Babylonian and Assyria, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 47: 646−676.
[ 39 ] (Kennedy et al 1971) Kennedy E. S. and David Pingree. 1971. The Astrological History of Masha’allah. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[ 40 ] (Kepler 1614) Kepler, Johannes. 1614. De anno natali Christi. (= De vero anno quo Aeternus Dei Filius humanam naturam in utero benedictae Virginis Mariae assumpsit). In Gesammelte Werke. Chronologische Schriften. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1953. Vol. V, pp. 5−126.
[ 41 ] (Kraabel 1982) Kraabel, A. Thomas. 1982. The Roots of Christmas. Dialog 21: 274−280.
[ 42 ] (La Greca and De Caro 2017) La Greca, Fernando, and Liberato De Caro. 2017. Nuovi studi sulla datazione della crocifissione nell’anno 34 e della nascita di Gesù il 25 dicembre dell’1 a.C. Annales Theologici 31: 11−52.
[ 43 ] (La Greca and De Caro 2019) La Greca, Fernando, and Liberato De Caro. 2019. La datazione della morte di Erode e l’inizio dell’era cristiana. Annales Theologici 33: 11−54.
[ 44 ] (La Greca and De Caro 2020) La Greca, Fernando, and Liberato De Caro. 2020. Approfondimenti sulla nascita di Gesù nell’1 a.C. e sulla datazione della Crocifissione nel 34. Annales Theologici 34: 13−58.
[ 45 ] (Leeming et al 2003) Leeming, Henry, and Kate Leeming. 2003. Josephus’ Jewish War and its Slavonic Version – A Synoptic Comparison, Leiden−Boston: Brill.
[ 46 ] (Léna 1996) Léna, P. 1996. Un fenomeno celeste? Il mondo della Bibbia 7: 16−17.
[ 47 ] (Lichtenstein 1913) Lichtenstein, Jechiel. 1913. Kommentar zum Matthäus−Evangelium (hebr.). Leipzig.
[ 48 ] (Lieberman 1987) Lieberman, Stephen, J. 1987. A Mesopotamian Background for the so–called Aggadic ‘Measures’ of biblical hermeneutics?, Hebrew Union College Annual 58, pp. 157–225.
[ 49 ] (Marchant 2009) Marchant, Jo. 2009. Decoding the Heavens, Windmill Books, London, UK.
[ 50 ] (Martin 1998) Martin, Ernest L. 1998. The Star that Astonished the World. Portland: ASK Publications.
[ 51 ] (Martindale 1909) Martindale, I. Cyril. 1909. Epiphany. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
[ 52 ] (Matricciani 2019) Matricciani, E. 2019. Deep Language Statistics of Italian throughout Seven Centuries of Literature and Empirical Connections with Miller’s 7 ∓ 2 Law and Short-Term Memory. Open Journal of Statistics, 9, 373-406. doi: 10.4236/ojs.2019.93026.
[ 53 ] (Matricciani and De Caro 2017) Matricciani, Emilio, and Liberato De Caro. 2017. Literary Fiction or Ancient Astronomical and Meteorological Observations in the Work of Maria Valtorta?, Religions 8: 110, 1−23.
[ 54 ] (Matricciani and De Caro 2018) Matricciani, Emilio, and Liberato De Caro. 2018. A Mathematical Analysis of Maria Valtorta’s Mystical Writings. Religions 9: 373, 1−23.
[ 55 ] (Matricciani and De Caro 2020) Matricciani, Emilio, and Liberato De Caro. 2020. Jesus Christ’s Speeches in Maria Valtorta’s Mystical Writings: Setting, Topics, Duration and Deep‒Language Mathematical Analysis. J Multidisciplinary Scientific Journal 3: 100−123.
[ 56 ] (Méhat 1966) Méhat, A. 1966. Etude sur les ‘Stromates’ de Clément d’Alexandrie, Patristica Sorbonensia, 7, Paris: du Seuil, p. 202.
[ 57 ] (Michalski 2021) Michalski, Mateusz. 2021. Tikkun Chatzot – semiotics of synagogues on the example of the synagogue in Siemiatycze. Architectus 65: 3−10.
[ 58 ] (Molnar 1999) Molnar, Michael R. 1999. The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi, London: Rutgers University Press.
[ 59 ] (Mosley 1981) Mosley, John D. 1981. Common errors in “Star of Bethlehem” planetarium shows. The Planetarian 10: 4−7.
[ 60 ] (Neugebauer 1955) Neugebauer, Otto. 1955. Astronomical cuneiform texts, vol. 3. London: Institute for Advanced Study.
[ 61 ] (Nodet 2011) Nodet, Étienne. 2011. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Herodians. In Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus (4 vols). Edited by Tom Holmén and Stanley E. Porter. Leiden−Boston: Brill, pp. 1525−1543.
[ 62 ] (Nothaf 2012a) Nothaf, C. Philipp E. 2012. The Origins of the Christmas Date: Some Recent Trends in Historical Research. Church History 81: 903–911.
[ 63 ] (Nothaf 2012b) Nothaf, C. Philipp E. 2012. Dating the Passion. The Life of Jesus and the Emergence of Scientific Chronology (200−1600). Leiden−Boston: Brill.
[ 64 ] (Paffenroth 1993) Paffenroth, Kim. 1993. The Star of Bethlehem Casts Light on its Modern Interpreters. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 34: 449−460.
[ 65 ] (Panaino 2012) Panaino, A. 2012. I magi e la loro stella, Milano: San Paolo Ed.
[ 66 ] (Parker et al 1956) Parker, Richard A. and Waldo H. Dubberstein. 1956. Babylonian Chronology 620 B.C. – A.D. 75. Providence: Brown University Press.
[ 67 ] (Pedersen 1983) Pedersen, Olaf. 1983. The Ecclesiastical Calendar and the Life of the Church. In Gregorian Reform of the Calendar, edited by George V. Coyne, Michael A. Hoskin, and Olaf Pedersen. Vatican City: Pontificia Academia Scientiarium; pp. 17−74.
[ 68 ] (Pratt 1990) Pratt, John P. 1990. Yet another Eclipse for Herod. The Planetarian 19: 8−14.
[ 69 ] (Quéré 1996) Quéré, F. 1996. I magi alla luce della stella. Il mondo della Bibbia 7: 12−15.
[ 70 ] (Roll 1995) Roll, Susan K. 1995. Toward the Origins of Christmas. Kampen (NL): Kok Pharos.
[ 71 ] (Ruggles 1990) Ruggles, Clive. 1990. The Moon and the Crucifiction. Nature 345: 669−670.
[ 72 ] (Schaefer 1990) Schaefer, Bradley E. 1990. Lunar Visibility and the Crucifixion. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 31: 53−67.
[ 73 ] (Sinnot 1968) Sinnott, Roger W. 1968. Thoughts on the Star of Bethlehem. Sky & Telescope 36: 384−386.
[ 74 ] (Strack et al 1924) Strack, Hermann L., and Paul Billerbeck. 1924. Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch. Zweiter Band. Das Evangelium nach Markus, Lukas und Johannes und die Apostelgeschichte. München: Beck, p. 812-853.
[ 75 ] (Strobel 1977) Strobel, August. 1977. Ursprung und Geschichte des frühchristlichen Osterkalenders. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
[ 76 ] (Talley 1991) Talley, Thomas Julian. 1991. The Origins of the Liturgical Year. 2nd ed., Collegeville, MI: Pueblo, pp. 79–155.
[ 77 ] (Talley 2003) Talley, Thomas Julian. 2003. Afterthoughts on The Origins of the Liturgical Year. In Western Plainchant in the First Millennium: Studies in the Medieval Liturgy and Its Music, Edited by Sean Gallagher et al., Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, pp. 1–10.
[ 78 ] (Teres 2000) Teres, Gustav. 2000. The Bible and Astronomy. The Magi and the Star in the Gospel. Budapest: Springer.
[ 79 ] (Valtorta 1993) Valtorta, Maria. 1993. The Book of Azariah. Isola del Liri (Fr): Centro Editoriale Valtortiano, p. 64.
[ 80 ] (Valtorta 2001a) Valtorta, Maria. 2001. The Gospel as revealed to me. Vol. I, Isola del Liri (Fr): Centro Editoriale Valtortiano.
[ 81 ] (Valtorta 2001b) Valtorta, Maria. 2001. The Gospel as revealed to me. Vol. II, Isola del Liri (Fr): Centro Editoriale Valtortiano, p. 375.
[ 82 ] (Valtorta 2001c) Valtorta, Maria. 2001. L’Evangelo come mi è stato rivelato. Vol. I. Isola del Liri (Fr): Centro Editoriale Valtortiano, p. 204.
[ 83 ] (Valtorta 2001d) Valtorta, Maria. 2001. The Gospel as revealed to me. Vol. VI. Isola del Liri (Fr): Centro Editoriale Valtortiano, p. 143.
[ 84 ] (Valtorta 2001e) Valtorta, Maria. 2001. The Gospel as revealed to me. Voll. I-X, Isola del Liri (Fr): Centro Editoriale Valtortiano.
[ 85 ] (Valtorta 2006) Valtorta, Maria. 2006. Quaderni del 1945−1950. Isola del Liri (Fr): Centro Editoriale Valtortiano, p. 394.
[ 86 ] (Wright et al 2002) Wright, Addison G., Roland E. Murphy and Joseph A. Fitzmyer. 2002. Una storia di Israele. In Nuovo Grande Commentario Biblico, a cura di Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Roland E. Murphy. Brescia: Queriniana, pp. 1605−1641.