The whole series of events from the Triumphal Entry to Jesus's crucifixion (including the enquiry by the High Priest, a trial before the Sanhedrin,a trial before Herod Antipas, and a trial before Pilate, not to mention various previous activities such as the Cleansing of the Temple, the preaching in the Temple, and the Last Supper) is supposed to have taken six days
... This is an impossible speeding up of human political and judicial proceedings ... The history to be argued here is that Jesus's Triumphal Entry took place just before the Feast of Tabernacles, and his execution took place on the Feast of Passover, about six months later. The most obvious feature that points to autumn as the date of the Triumphal Entry is the palms which were in evidence on Palm Sunday. At Passover time,there are no palm branches in the region, and it is unlikely that Jesus's admirers would have greeted him with withered palm branches left over from the previous autumn. Furthermore, palm branches played (and still play
today) an essential part in the rites of the Festival of Tabernacles. The
"branches of trees" mentioned in the Triumphal Entry accounts
are also important in these rites, being used in profusion to roof over
the "tabernacles" or booths which give the festival its name,
and to accompany the use of the palms (see Leviticus xxii. 40).
A curious confirmation of autumn being the time of the Triumphal Entry
can be found in the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree, which happened
immediately after his Entry. Jesus, apparently, came across a fig tree
without fruit, and said, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for
ever"... Now this must have occurred in the autumn, as no one would
expect to find a fig tree bearing fruit in the spring. The reason for Jesus's
angry reaction is probably this: the Hebrew Prophets had foretold that
the time of the Messiah would be one of unprecedented fertility of plants
and animals (Joel ii. 22: "...the fig tree and the vine do yield their
strength"). Jesus, with his Galilean belief in evil spirits, may have
thought that the fig tree contained an evil spirit that was fighting against
the kingdom of God. Use of the cry "Hosanna "by the crowd (Hebrew,
"hosha-na,"meaning "save, please") also confirms an autumn date for Jesus's
Entry. This cry has a special liturgical use in the rites of Tabernacles,
and in no other festival. The cry was addressed to God, not to Jesus, and
meant something like "Save us, God, through your Messiah." The
word "save" is especially associated, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures,
with God's mercies through rulers and fighters who protected Israel against
their enemies. A prayer for such salvation was offered up in the Feast
of Tabernacles and would have been especially fitting as an accompaniment
to Jesus's Entry on a mission of salvation.
This leads us to an even more important point: that the Feast of Tabernacles
was in a special sense a Royal festival. In general, the Jewish royal family
had little part to play in the ceremonials of the Jewish religion; but
the exception was the Feast of Tabernacles. In this festival, the King
actually entered the Temple Court and read aloud " the paragraph of
the King, " i.e., the portion of the Mosaic Law relating to his duties
(Deut. xvii. 14-20)....
The Reading of the Law by the King was performed every seven years.
No doubt Jesus timed his Entry to coincide with the end of the Year of
Release, on the expiry of which the King's Reading of the Law took place.
He would have carefully planned the timing of his Coronation and his Royal
Progress so that he arrived in Jerusalem just in time for the Festival.
He would then enter the Temple Court as King and renew the rite performed
by his great predecessors on the Jewish throne. This act more than any
other would signalize his accession to the throne and his intention to
carry out the duties of king and savior.
One particular figure must have been in Jesus's mind, namely his great
ancestor, King Solomon.... It was on the Feast of Tabernacles that Solomon
performed the Dedication of the First Temple, offering a long, moving prayer
to God, standing on a platform specially built in the Temple Court.
We can see now why Jesus's first action on entering Jerusalem was the
Cleansing of the Temple. This action has been much trivialized by the Gospel
writers, who have presented it as an individual demonstration in which
Jesus chased out the money changers with a whip. The action was far more
important than this: Jesus, as rightful King, carried out a thorough-going
reform of the Temple, cleansing it from the corruptions of its venal Sadducean
High-Priesthood. Jesus was at the height of power. Though he had no
organized army, the Jewish masses applauded his every move. The Temple
police, who would have acted sharply against mere individual violence,
were powerless to hinder Jesus's reforms. He may have even appointed a
new High Priest, which as King he was entitled to do. (This is the first
thing that the insurgents did in the Jewish War of 66 A.D.).
Having cleansed the temple administration, Jesus must have carried through
his plan of re-dedicating the Temple for the Messianic age by appearing
in the Temple Court, like Solomon at the Dedication of the First Temple,
to read "the paragraph of the King." No doubt, like Solomon too,
he took the occasion to address a prayer to God for his new regime, and
perhaps to give a prophetic message to the people. So much we can gather
from a confused and garbled account, found only in the Gospel according to John, of a visit by Jesus to the Temple on the Feast of Tabernacles -- though John represents this visit as being a distinct occasion from the Triumphal Entry.
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