The Crucifixion

The Crucifixion

There are moments in history that secular scholars, scientists and historians outside the Bible have tried to explain away — and simply could not. The three hours of darkness at the crucifixion is one of them. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record it. From the sixth hour to the ninth hour — noon to 3pm — darkness covered the land. Not a cloud passing over the sun. Not a storm rolling in. Total darkness. At midday. Now here is where it gets scientifically impossible. The crucifixion happened during Passover. And Passover by Jewish law always falls on the 14th of Nisan — which is always a full moon. This is not a debatable point. The Jewish calendar is lunar. Passover requires a full moon. There was a full moon over Jerusalem the day Jesus died. And solar eclipses — the only natural phenomenon that can cause sudden darkness at midday — are physically impossible during a full moon. This is basic astronomy. A solar eclipse requires the moon to pass between the earth and the sun. That can only happen during a new moon — when the moon is on the same side of the earth as the sun. During a full moon the moon is on the opposite side of the earth entirely. A solar eclipse during a full moon violates the laws of the solar system. The darkness at the crucifixion was not a solar eclipse. It could not have been. And the people who tried hardest to explain it away were not Christians. Thallus was a Roman historian writing around 52 AD — just twenty years after the crucifixion. He was not a follower of Jesus. He was a secular historian trying to provide rational explanations for events that were circulating in the ancient world. He mentioned the darkness and tried to explain it as a solar eclipse. A Christian historian named Julius Africanus, writing in the early third century, quoted Thallus and then pointed out what Thallus apparently missed — that a solar eclipse during a full moon is astronomically impossible. He wrote: "This darkness Thallus explains as an eclipse of the sun — unreasonably as it seems to me." Unreasonably. Because the moon was full. Because the science didn't work. Because there was no natural explanation. Phlegon of Tralles — another secular Greek historian writing in the second century — also recorded an extraordinary darkness and earthquake occurring during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius was the emperor during the crucifixion. These men had no reason to support the Christian narrative. They were not believers. They were historians recording events they could not explain. What happened at noon on Good Friday broke the laws of astronomy. Creation did not malfunction. Creation responded. The sun that God had made refused to shine on the moment His Son was dying in the darkness of the world's sin. Even the sky bore witness. Share this with someone who says there is no evidence outside the Bible for the crucifixion.