"and the sun was darkened" - From the Easter Bible Lesson

[Laurie]

Do any of you Bible scholars out there know if there was a solar eclipse on the day Jesus was crucified? I am curious. It would be a way to zero in on the the actual date.

[Peter J]

It would need to be a pretty special eclipse - three hours long. I'm sure there are scholars who have looked into this ...

[livinglightly]

Wikipedia lists some non biblical accounts of the solar eclipse around 32 33 ad.



Tertiary documents
The 3rd-century Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus, in a section of his work surviving in quotation by George Syncellus, stated that the chronicler Thallus had called the darkness during the crucifixion a solar eclipse.[5] Africanus objected based on the fact that a solar eclipse could not occur during Passover; the earth was between the sun and the moon during that holiday.

The church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (264 – 340), in his Chronicle, cited a statement of the 2nd-century chronicler Phlegon of Tralles that during the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (AD 32/33) "a great eclipse of the sun occurred at the sixth hour that excelled every other before it, turning the day into such darkness of night that the stars could be seen in heaven, and the earth moved in Bithynia, toppling many buildings in the city of Nicaea".[6] In the same passage, Eusebius cited another unnamed Greek source also recording earthquakes in the same locations and an eclipse. Eusebius argued the two records had documented events that were simultaneous with the crucifixion of Jesus.

Tertullian, in his Apologeticus, provided a brief description of the darkness that had commenced at noon during the crucifixion. He also indicated that those who were unaware of the prediction for the noontide onset of darkness had called it an eclipse.[7]

[Courtenay]

Hi everyone,

Hey, that's fascinating, livinglightly! Thanks for that. Most scholars I've read assume that the darkness during the crucifixion is just a myth, or a wild exaggeration at the very least. But then, they say the same thing about the healings too. :D

Love, Courtenay

[curlilox]

British scientists Colin Humphreys and W.G. Waddinton of Oxford Univ. calculated the most likely date of the crucifixion of Jesus to be April 3 of the year 33AD. Their calculations are based partly on a lunar eclipse which occurred on the day of crucifixion using the Julian clendar (old Jewish and Roman calendar). See csmonitor.com archives issue of January 3, 1984. The prophet Joel predicted the eclipse. See Joel 2:31.

[Laurie]

This is such neat information. I'm going to check Fred Aspanak's eclipse page.

[livinglightly]

my understanding is that science would say it were impossible to have an eclipse during Passover. But in Christian Science we know that the stars and moons respond to the divine. The divine is not guided by the stars and moon.

Given the way Jesus life reversed the seeming material laws of nature, it may make sense that even this eclipse would be a demonstration of the supremacy of divine law over material laws. That heavens do not predict but respond.