The Payment

29 entries, in the order they happened: 26 where the Bible speaks and 3 where the historical record answers.

Every entry in this era

• c. AD 8The boy in the templeAt twelve, Jesus stays behind in the temple at Passover, hearing the teachers and asking them questions. Mary and Joseph find him after three days.
• AD 17Twelve cities of Asia fall in one nightAn earthquake by night throws down twelve cities of Asia. Sardis suffers most, and Philadelphia is among them; Tiberius remits their taxes and pays…
• c. AD 28–29The baptismJesus comes to John at the Jordan to be baptised. The Spirit descends like a dove, and a voice from heaven names him the beloved Son.
• c. 30 ADThe temptation in the wildernessIn the wilderness the tempter offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for one act of worship: terms published two thousand years early.
• c. AD 28–30The twelve calledBy the Sea of Galilee Jesus calls fishermen, Simon and Andrew, James and John, and later chooses twelve apostles.
• c. AD 28–30Water into wine at CanaAt a wedding in Cana the wine runs out. His mother tells the servants to do whatever he says, and he turns water into wine, the first of his signs in…
• c. AD 28–30The acceptable year of the LordIn the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus reads Isaiah's proclamation of release and says, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." He stops…
• c. AD 28–30The Sermon on the MountOn a mountain in Galilee Jesus teaches the Beatitudes, and a prayer that asks, in the ledger's own words, for our debts to be forgiven as we forgive…
• c. AD 28–30Five loaves, five thousand fedFive loaves and two fishes feed five thousand men, with twelve baskets left over. Besides the resurrection, it is the only miracle all four Gospels…
• c. AD 28–30The transfigurationOn a high mountain, before Peter, James and John, his face shines as the sun, and Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, stand with him.
• c. AD 30The temple clearedHe rides into Jerusalem on a donkey to crowds, then overturns the tables of the money changers in the temple.
• c. AD 30The last supperAt the Passover meal he gives the cup as his blood of the new testament, shed for the remission of sins.
• c. AD 30"What is truth?"Before Pilate he says he came to bear witness to the truth. Pilate asks, "What is truth?" and goes out without waiting for an answer.
• c. AD 30 (found 1990)The high priest's bone boxIn 1990 a family tomb south of Jerusalem gave up an ornate bone box inscribed "Joseph son of Caiaphas", most likely the high priest who handed Jesus…
• c. 30 ADThe cry from the cross“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani”: the Gospel, written in Greek, keeps this cry in the sound it was spoken in.
• c. AD 30 (written c. AD 116;…Rome's record of the crossTacitus: "Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our…
• c. AD 30Mary at the crossHis mother stands by the cross. He gives her to the disciple he loved, and from that hour the disciple takes her into his own home.
• c. 30 ADThe veil tornThe veil of the Temple is torn in two from the top to the bottom. The direction is the point: opened from the inside.
• c. 30 ADHis legs not brokenThe soldiers break the legs of the two men crucified beside him and, finding him already dead, leave his unbroken.
• c. AD 30The powers spoiled at the crossColossians says that at the cross God disarmed the powers, made a public show of them, and triumphed over them: three finished actions, in the past…
• c. 30 ADGrace ends seed as the borderThe cross ends bloodline as the border of the war: since the fall touched every line, no clearing could ever finish the job, and the victory is grace…
• c. AD 30Why it had to be graceIt had to be grace: keep human freedom and keep the human race, and every other move fails.
• c. AD 30The empty tombOn the first day of the week the women find the tomb empty. In John's account Mary Magdalene is the first to see him risen, and the first sent to…
• c. AD 30ThomasThomas will not believe without touching the wounds. When he has seen, Jesus blesses those who have not seen and yet believe.
• c. AD 30, the week of the…The spring feasts, from the cross to PentecostLabelled speculation, stated at full strength: the spring feasts, fixed centuries in advance, are kept in the week of the cross and at Pentecost.
• c. AD 30, forty days laterThe ascensionForty days after the resurrection he is taken up from the Mount of Olives, and two men in white say he will come again in the same way they saw him…
• c. 30 AD, fifty days laterPentecostAt Pentecost each listener hears the message in his own language, and the presence moves off one bloodline and one building onto all people.
• c. 55 AD; planted, unpaidThe last enemyPaul writes that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. “Last” is a place in line, with everything else still standing in front of it, and we are…
• c. 60–62 ADPrincipalities and powersEphesians says the fight is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers.