John 12:1-19, Jesus anointed at Bethany, the triumphal entry.

We are now at A.D. 30.

Spikenard is still available ( and still expensive)

The most important week in history is about to begin.

This raises one question:

Passover A.D. 30 was the most important in world history, so let us find out the exact date. To find out we must know about

The Jewish calendar is luni-solar. Leap months occur in year 3,6,8,11,14,17 and 19  to make Passover occur early spring. The keys on a piano can help memorize which year has a leap month. (The Muslim calendar on the other hand is strictly lunar, so the month of Ramadan occur 11 days earlier every year, making 103 Muslim years every century).

We must synchronize time with a total solar eclipse, which gives the perfect time for starting a Jewish new month. There was a perfect Solar eclipse in 2006.

There is a second source for solar eclipse calculations

The eclipse had its maximum 11 37 A.M. Nov 24 A.D. 29 over Jerusalem (solar time)

But there is one more twist in the calculations:

Now back to the biblical narrative:

Prophecy from Psalm 118:²⁵ Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. ²⁶ Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord, and from Zechariah 9:⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

The sign was not that he rode on a donkey. Lots of people rode on donkeys. No the sign was that the donkey colt was unbroken, and that was the sign.