Page 91 - BV18

The Significance of the Year A.D. 30 91

Priest selected the black stone every time for ready supply to make sure that the “western
forty straight years! lamp” (under all circumstances) would stay
lit. But what happened in the forty years
The odds of a black stone coming up forty times from the very year Christ said the physical
in a row are almost astronomical in scope. And, Temple would be destroyed and in the very
according to Pascal’s Table of Binominal Coef- year that Christ became a new, resurrected
ficients (a table of odds first devised by the “Temple” for the Jewish people and for all the
French scientist Pascal over four hundred years world? Every night for forty years the west-
ago in which he showed odds in a pyramid style), ern lamp went out -- and this was in spite of
the numerical odds of this happening under nor- the priests each evening preparing in a special
mal circumstances would see the outcome as be- way the western lamp so that it would remain
ing one chance in 1,099,511,627,776. Whew! constantly burning all night!

But the Jewish records show this rare phenome- Now, using the chances, according to
non occurred with regular consistency for forty Pascal’s Table of Binominal Coefficients
straight years! (which show that there can be only one
chance in 1,099,511,627,776 for a black
That still does not conclude the matter. Both stone to come up in the right hand for forty
Talmuds also report (from eye-witness ac- occasions), imagine what the odds would be
counts) another sign that boggles the imagina- for the western lamp (that was supposed to be
tion. Beginning in A.D. 30 (the very year of the “eternal” flame for the nation) to go out
Jesus’ crucifixion), the western light of the Me- each of the 365 days of a year for forty
norah (which is the Hebrew name for the seven years? The odds of that happening are so as-
branched lampstand in the Holy Place) went out tronomical that even mathematicians would
for a period of forty years. This Menorah was stagger at trying to show a normal decimal
positioned with its seven lamps facing north. answer like that given in Pascal’s pyramidical
The western lamp was that which was next to the illustration.
Holy of Holies and it was the most important for
that reason. In fact, we are told in the Talmud But that is still not all. For forty straight
that at dusk the lamps that were unlit in the day- years the crimson strap never changed its
time (the middle four lamps remained unlit, color to white as it had often done in the pre-
while the two eastern lamps normally stayed lit vious two hundred years. This is a ceremony
during the day) were to be relit from the flames not mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, but it
of the western lamp (which was a lamp that was was associated with the Day of Atonement
supposed to stay lit all the time -- it was like the from at least the time of Simon the Righteous
“eternal” flame that we see today in some na- (an honorable and upright High Priest who
tional monuments). Josephus, citing an earlier lived in the third century B.C.). It was noticed
historian, said that on the Temple Menorah there that on the Day of Atonement, when Simon
was a flame that was supposed to be kept lit night would go into the Holy of Holies, that a crim-
and day (Apion 1:22; and also see Tam. 3, 9; 6, 1; son-colored thread that he had in association
Sifra, Emor 13, 7; Sif. Num. 59; Yoma 33a; etc.). with his person miraculously turned white for
the forty years he was priest and that the ‘lot
This “western lamp” was to be kept lit at all for the Lord’ always came up in his right hand
times. For that reason, the priests kept extra res- (Yoma 39b). It appears that this positive indi-
ervoirs of olive oil and other implements in cation in both ceremonies (with the “white”

The Berean Voice November-December 2002