DATES

The Book of Mormon narrative gives few actual dates for when things happened. And, most people try to equate them to the current calendar. What we have to remember is that the Nephites were most probably using the Hebrew calendar:
 

Okay, let’s look at the few times we have the actual date for a Book of Mormon event:

ALMA 10:6 – Alma and Amulek were preaching to the city of Ammonihah. Amulek recounts that is was on the 4^th day of the 7^th month that he’d been led to meeting Alma, which would have put it right between the Feast of the Trumpets and Yom Kippur – a fine time to be led to prophet and to be reformed so one could adequately repent for Yom Kippor!

ALMA 14:23 – Alma and Amulek are in prison on the 12^th day of the 10^th month. According to the Hebrew calendar I don’t see any significance. But, they’ve been there since the scripture above – a little over three months!

ALMA 16:1 – peace until the 5^th day of the 2^nd month … I don’t see any significance on the Hebrew calendar.

ALMA 49:1 – another war begins; no Hebrew calendar significance.

ALMA 52:1 – Lamanite king found dead in his tent on the 1^st day of the 1^st month; no Hebrew calendar significance. But the end of the war would have made for a good Passover two weeks later.

ALMA 56:1 – Moroni received a letter from Heleman; no date significance that I can see.

3 NEPHI 8:5 – the signs of Christ’s death in the Old World are manifest on the 4^th day of the 1^st month by nephite reckoning. But wait! He was crucified the day before the Passover began – on the 14^th of that month. What’s wrong? I’ve wondered this for many years. And when I found what I think is the answer I wrote the following:

NOTE: The following is my personal opinion; it should not be considered church doctrine: The Book of Mormon tells us the Nephites began recounting time from the time of Christ’s birth (3 Nephi 2:8), and it would probably be safe to assume most of us take this to mean that they simply reset the year - but not the month and day. Recently, however, while reading the Book of Mormon, I've discovered what I think indicates that the year, month, and day - all three - might have been reset. There are very few times we're given the actual date upon which something happens in the scriptures - we have the Hebrew calendar  giving us the dates and times of the feasts, festivals, fasts, and Sabbaths, and we have the date Solomon’s temple was begun. We also know that the Pentecost occurred during Shavuoth. As rare as specific dates appear in the scriptures, they have begun to catch my attention as being symbolically important. So, why does the Book of Mormon make a point out of giving us the date the signs of Christ’s death were manifest? Samuel, the Lamanite prophet who had testified among the Nephites, prophesied of the signs of Christ’s birth in the Old World. Likewise, he prophesied of specific calamities that would mark the death of Jesus in Jerusalem: "But behold, as I said unto you concerning another sign, a sign of his death, behold, in that day that he shall suffer death the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his light unto you; and also the moon and the stars; and there shall be no light upon the face of this land, even from the time that he shall suffer death, for the space of three days, to the time that he shall rise again from the dead. "Yea, at the time that he shall yield up the ghost there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the rocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up; "Yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath. "And behold, there shall be great tempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great. "And many highways shall be broken up, and many cities shall become desolate." (Helaman 16:20-24) Upon the death of Jesus in the Old World, all the calamities Samuel prophesied would happen in the New World did in fact occur. And the writer of the account gives us the day, month, and year: "And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land…" (3 Nephi 8:5) Passover, in the Hebrew calender, is on Nisan 14th - the second Sabbath of the month. Christ's death was on the 13th, the day before Passover, and His resurrection was on "the first day of the week" - Sunday, Nisan 15th. But, according to the Book of Mormon, His death was on Nisan 4th. If the Nephites did in fact reset the day and month of the calendar - along with the year - this would have put Jesus’ actual birthday as Nisan 1st according to the Nephites - Nisan 10th according to the Jerusalem calendar, the Tuesday of His final week of life; the day after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his second cleansing of the temple. Here is how the calendars in the Old World and the New World would vary:

	Hebrew / Jerusalem				Nephite / New World
	Saturday	Nisan 7th	Sabbath in Jerusalem
	Tuesday	Nisan 10th			Nisan 1st	Resetting of calendar in the New World / Jesus' possible birthday
	Friday	Nisan 13th	Death of Jesus		Nisan 4th	Signs of Jesus' death manifested; massive upheaval; beginning of three days of darkness
	Saturday	Nisan 14th	Passover in Jerusalem		Nisan 5th
	Sunday	Nisan 15th	Resurrection		Nisan 6th	three days of darkness ends
	Monday	Nisan 16th			Nisan 7th	Nephite Sabbath - the day after the darkness ends
	Saturday	Nisan 21st	Sabbath in Jerusalem		Nisan 12th
	Monday	Nisan 23rd			Nisan 14th	Nephite Sabbath / Passover in the New World / this Sabbath would end the 8-day mourning period for those killed in the upheaval that accompanied Christ's death

Latter-day Saint belief has set Jesus’ birthday as April 6th according to the current (Roman) calendar. This doctrine is supported by the wording of the revelation found in the Doctrine and Covenants: "THE rise of the Church of Christ in these last days, being one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh, it being regularly organized and established agreeable to the laws of our country, by the will and commandments of God, in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April…" (D&C 20:1) This has been publicly supported by such leaders as the late President Charles W. Nibley of the First Presidency, who expressed his personal belief that April sixth was the Savior’s actual birthday, and Elder James E. Talmage of the Quorum of the Twelve, who referred to the above scripture while writing that we as Latter-day Saints believe Christ was born on April Sixth. Because of the difference between the Roman and Hebrew calendars, Passover - which is commemorated yearly according to the Hebrew calendar on Nisan 14th - varies between mid-March and mid-April on the Roman calendar. Thus, it is completely possible that Jesus was born on April sixth as it falls within that time period. If this line of thinking has any merit, we could place Jesus' birthday on Nisan 10th of the Hebrew calendar - four days before Passover. However, remember that the First Presidency has directed us that we as a church follow the general Christian tradition of celebrating it on December 25th. In the Old World, Jesus was crucified on Nisan 13th, the eve of Passover. Sometime past the ninth hour He was given a sponge with vinegar, and shortly afterwards He gave up the ghost. The ninth hour, being roughly Three P.M. in modern time reckoning, would have been roughly sunrise on the east coast of North America. And with His death in Jerusalem, there was several hours of devastation by atmospheric and seismic holocausts in the New World, followed by darkness upon the face of the land for three days and nights, the light returning the next day, which would have been Nisan 7th according to Nephite reckoning, and would also have been the Sabbath. the seventh day of the month, and would have been a Sabbath - Jehovah’s holy day would have been the first day of light among the Nephites since His death, thus adding yet another meaning to the celebrating of the Sabbath for the Nephites - that of the return of Light to the world. Eight days after the return of light was another Sabbath - Nisan 14th, the Passover. Interestingly enough, it is a Jewish tradition that one mourns only for eight days. Thus, at the end of this eight-day mourning period, and in a symbolic act of closure of their grief and sorrow over the events of the month, they met as families to celebrate the "passing-over" of Death and the gaining of spiritual and physical freedom from those who would enslave and persecute them for their beliefs. Can you imagine - Nephite families sitting among ruined homes which they have just begun to repair, commemorating the passing of the Angel of Death over those who marked their doorposts with the blood of the Passover Lamb? Suddenly the spirit of Passover would not seem centuries old; but barely a week old. As a father myself, my heart almost skips a beat as I imagine a little Nephite boy asking - "Father, why is this night different than all the rest?" It is safe to say this was the final Passover among the Nephites - Christ visited them towards the end of the thirty-fourth year would love to know on what day of the calendar...!) , and He proclaimed an end to the Law of Moses, having fulfilled it with His atonement, death, and resurrection. The Passover Lamb had been slain; the very earth shuddered and groaned, and those whose hearts were not marked by the Lamb’s blood had been destroyed. The people mourned for eight days and then immediately commemorated this great, ancient feast one final time, having witnessed both the traditional purpose of the feast - that of the freeing of Israel from those who would enslave them and the passing over of the Angel of Death - and that which this festival pointed them - the sacrifice of God’s Passover Lamb and His victory over Death and Sin.