Mishnah Yoma 4:2, 6:8 describe the Yom Kippur scarlet-cord ritual (Lev 16 + Isaiah 1:18). Babylonian Talmud Yoma 39b records that for forty years before the Temple's destruction (AD 70), the cord ceased to turn white — i.e., from c. AD 30 onward, the traditional date of the crucifixion. Rodkinson PD 1903 translation cited; ≤50-word direct quote, attribution visible. The Jewish scribes had every interpretive reason not to preserve this detail; they preserved it anyway.
*Yoma* 39b — The Forty-Year Witness
The scarlet cord of Yom Kippur stopped turning white in AD 30.
Primary passage:Leviticus 16:21 →
Commentary
Featured voice
John Calvin
Commentaries
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses. A copious description is here given of what we have recently adverted to cursorily, as it were, i.e., the solemn atonement which was yearly made in the seventh month; for when Moses was instructing them as to what sacrifices were to be offered…
Full verse-by-verse commentary and cross-references live on the verse page →