Could Today, April 3rd, Be The Exact Parallel Date of the Crucifixion? Scholars, Sources and Loyola in the 1970's

 

On the whole I consider that the date A.D. 33 April 3 offers fewer difficulties than any of the
others, but my ambition has been rather to explain the character and tendencies of the different
lines of evidence than to arrive at a conclusion, and I believe, as I certainly hope, that my opinionhas in no part of the discussion been biased by the desire to support any particular conclusion. J.K. Fotheringham 1934

Those of us who studied at Loyola University in the 1970's remember Father Filas, S.J. as one of the pivotal scholars in the study of the historical Jesus, based upon his deep scrutiny of the Shroud of Turin.  Father Filas seemed to be Loyola's show-horse. I never had the opportunity to study with Father Filas, but many of my pals had the pleasure.  We were the south side L-crowd and took classes in the old brown stone Lewis Towers and the now long gone Marquette Center which was accessed by a bridge over Rush.  I missed out on Father Filas.

There were others, many other: Dr. Francis Swarzenberg, Dr. Larry McCaffery (Leo '43), Father Charles Ronan & etc.

I recall taking classes and a senior seminar on English histor from the War of Roses to the Stuarts with Dr. Lionel Trimble. Dr. Trimble was an exacting scholar who expected no less than exacting work from this former member of Janitors Local #25 and a senior hoping to graduate on time with Mike Manske, James "Molly" Molloy, Mike Miller, Mary Kay Harvey, Joe Phelps and Rita Buckley, with whom he had begun his baby steps on the scholastic throw rug.

Dr. Trimble argued for the very best sources, as the only key to unlocking the past.  Paper and parchment crumbles, rots, burns and tucks neatly away in places meant to shun the eyes of the curious. Censorship, neglect, wars, pestilence and the ancient examples of losing the TV remote affected history as well.

We must always be careful about jumping to conclusions - Irish Inquiry.

We must always be sceptical of partisanship when it comes to memory - Irish Alzheiners.

We must always look to 'the best sources.' One is an excerpt, unearthed, so to speak, and reprinted in Real Clear History,

Early this morning of good Friday, I finished reading a great old piece of scholarship by J.K. Fotheringham (14 August 1874 – 12 December 1936).  John Knight Fotheringham was a British scholar of Middle Eastern history and religious history.

Fotherigham dove into the deep end of the pool and came up with treasure chest packed with scholarship: Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Aramaic sources that includes Josephus, the Synoptic Gospels, as well as the Gospel of John, Tacitus, Annidazugga, as well as, what we should call, modern (His contemporaries) studies.

This is a dense read. It is slow going.  It was just like the dusty texts and manuscripts dumped in my mitts by Dr. Lionel Trimble concerning that nasty son of a bitch Perkin Warbeck.   Yet, we arrive at a scholar's conclusion. April 3, A.D. 33.

The primary morals of an undergraduate, wearing Orchestra Hall janitor's wear, come back and I nod with conviction.  Old Johnny Knight Fotherington nailed it.  Maybe.  

Divvy Chicago: Orders from Der BikeStag ( formerly Chicago Dept. of Transportation)

Now, I am a close-knit ethnic, Roman Catholic, meat eating (fish on Fridays),  south side dwelling heterosexual and then some, moderate-to-savage cigarette smoking, fossil-fueled motoring, tax-paying and tubby middle aged male - not cool. Unless. of course, I change and change utterly . . .Nah.

I hear tell of mean folks.  People who shout, "Hey That's My Bike!" whenever they spy two or more persons  aboard a Schwinn and out for a two-wheeled speed. Just mean.

I mean bikes are okay. If Jesus rode a bike he'd look like this -

 but He did not and the Romans nailed Him to Cross. Hey, I'm just sayin'!
Another morsel from the Right Sides of History - The Axis Armies used bicycles extensively in WWII



The Bataan Death Ride April 1942. Those ain't G.I.s aboard them Mitschwinbitsis.

I rode bicycles up to my twenty-fifth year on Mother Earth.  I took a header when the front tire of ten-speed blew like Susan Sarandon in White Palace.  I was biking back from a morning's fishing under Warner Bridge Road in Kankakee County, when this mechanical misfortune took me off the ten speed aficianado demographic for keeps.  

The hike back to Kankakee City which followed my ergonomic tossing of the bent frame in a big-assed dumpster somewhere near the Parkway Inn Tavern (above) in the region known as Altorff.  Fine folks there about the Brady family dominates the woods along the river -taught most the children, I did. Bandaged and spirited the seven mile perambulation to my windowless apartment above Home Appliances on Station Street was dedicated to Peace with Bikes.

Bikes are fine.  Most cyclists are grand folks, but every NPR listening jerk with a trust fund deemed it most important to become a mirror image of the bicycle messenger on PCP.  Congested,gentrified hipster communities attract bicycle fascists quicker than Obama makes a federal regulation. In recent years, after the new millenium, the bike lobby hooked Richard M. Daley through the gills and boated that bass.  Lance Daley cleared the way for Critical Mass activism to its supreme achievement (be like Seattle) -turning the Chicago Dept. of Transportation in Der  BikeStag.

I have nothing against bicycles nor the people who choose to ride them.  I have a universal dislike of jerks, JOs and Janissaries of agendas large, loud and limited.

Divvy is owned and operated, I think, by the City of Chicago in the same way that Chicago owns the Skyway and Parking Meters. The concept is swell:

• Ride Public Transporation
• Be a Divvy
• Bike away traffic
• Bike the shopping
• Bike the dining
• Bike the concerts
• Bike to court to bring suit against the Mexican Lanscapper you cut off when giving the finger to an elderly Jewish lady trying to cross Dearborn over by the Newbury library
• Bike the bars- you will not be charged with DUI unless you hit and scratch up Ald Cappleman's PriusLock the Bikes and make sure you lock it according to the code, People!
• Be Bangor, Be Bangalore, Be Bejing!

Already the the south and west side communities are Bike Deserts.  Is it Progressive, is it Hip, is it Coo, Is it Chicago Proco Joe to deprive people whose ancestors survived Maafa, Jim Crow and CPS the opportunity to Divvy? Is it Chicago values to break out Break Away Everyday in white upper class arugula and Whole Foods communities?

Divvy stations are taking up parking spaces - no parking -no driver - no customer at Wicker Park gin mill but walk-in trade. N.B. Biker peddlars don't tip

Bicyclists are as rare as Progressive philanthropists here in Gresham, Englewood, Roseland and even Chatham.  The bike lanes on Vincennes Ave. have faded like the last Rose of the 2012-13 Bulls Season.