becoming Flavius Josephus. He wrote detailed histories of Israel and the relationship between Israel and the 

Roman empire. 

JST (Jerusalem Standard Time)   the time in Jerusalem by the modern time zone standard, used in this book 

as a convenient way to specify time, even in past centuries; GMT plus 2 hours. 

Julian calendar    calendar system devised under the direction of Julius Caesar; the basis for the modern 

Christian calendar; differs from the Gregorian calendar in that it places a leap year every 4 years without 

exception; used by Orthodox Christians; reformed under Pope Gregory XIII. 

leap month, Jewish calendar    every 2 or 3 years, the Jewish calendar adds a 13th month, the month of 

Second Adar (AdarII), to keep the Jewish lunar calendar more or less in synch with the solar year. In a leap 

year, Second Adar (AdarII) follows First Adar (AdarI). Adar is the month before Nisan. See Jewish calendar 

above. 

leap year, Jewish calendar   Leap years in the Jewish calendar have 13 months, instead of 12 months. In the 

modern Jewish calendar, leap years follow a specific pattern, called the Metonic cycle, but, in ancient times, 

leap years were decided upon by the Jewish religious leaders, every 2 or 3 years as needed. 

lunar calendar   In a pure lunar calendar, each calendar month coincides with the phases of the moon. One 

lunar month has an average length of 29.5306 days. Twelve lunar months are approx. 11 days short of a solar 

year. Thus, the months of a pure lunar calendar, (e.g. the Islamic calendar), recede through the seasons. Each 

lunar calendar year begins about 11 days earlier compared to a solar calendar year, (e.g. Julian or Gregorian 

calendars). 

lunar eclipse    when the shadow of the earth covers a portion of the visible disk of the moon; occurs only 

about the time of the full moon. 

lunisolar calendar   a calendar system based on both the phases of the moon and the solar year. The Jewish 

calendar is lunisolar; the months are based on the phases of the moon, but the calendar is periodically adjusted 

(by adding a 13th month every 2 or 3 years) to keep the calendar more or less in synch with the solar year. 

Mary of Heli   the Virgin Mary's older sister, also called:  Mary the wife of Clopas  (Jn 19:25). 

Mary Cleophas   the Virgin Mary's niece; daughter of  Mary the wife of Clopas.  

Metonic cycle   the set pattern of leap years used in the modern Jewish calendar. In this pattern, the 3rd, 6th, 

8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years are leap years. 

new moon   considered the start of the lunar cycle, one half lunar cycle from the full moon, when the moon is 

not visible from earth because of its proximity to the sun. See also: astronomical new moon, crescent new 

moon. 

non accession year system   a calendar system which counts the first partial year of the ruler's reign as year 

one. The next calendar year is counted as year 2 of that ruler's reign, even if year one was only a small fraction 

of a year.

1270

 The Jewish calendar system counted the years of a king's reign in this way.

1271

observation based calendar    ancient calendar system used by the Jews, which counted the start of each 

month according to the first observation of the crescent new moon.  

Passover    also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread; one of the three great feasts in the Jewish faith; 

celebrates the Jews exodus from Egypt and their freedom from slavery; occurs at the start of the harvest 

season. 

Passover, preparation day of   Nisan 14; the day before the first holy day of Passover; the day on which the 

Pascal lambs are killed and prepared for the Pascal meal. 

PFM (Pascal Full Moon)   the first EFM (Ecclesiastical Full Moon) after March 20 is called the Pascal Full 

Moon and is used to determine the date of Easter. In the current Christian liturgical calendar system, Easter is 

the first Sunday after the PFM. 

292