Crucifixion darkness and eclipse

thumb|220px|A solar eclipse from August 2008. It takes about an hour for the moon to cover the sun, with total coverage lasting a few minutes.Astronomy: The Solar System and Beyond by Michael A. Seeds, Dana Backman, 2009 ISBN 0495562033 page 34
According to the Christian synoptic gospels, on the day Jesus was crucified, darkness covered the land for hours, an event which later came to be referred to as the "crucifixion eclipse". Although medieval writers treated the darkness as a miracle, various Christian historians have associated this it with prophecies and other reports of eclipses or periods of darkness. Using this period of darkness as a marker, and interpreting it as a solar eclipse or lunar eclipse, writers have suggested dates for Jesus' crucifixion. 
==Biblical account==
:See also Chronology of Jesus and Gospel harmony
According to the Synoptic Gospels, a period of darkness occurred during Jesus' crucifixion, which took place on the first day of Passover. The crucifixion narrative of the Gospel of John does not mention this and places the crucifixion on a different day. The Synoptic Gospels describe darkness beginning around noon ("the sixth hour") and continued until 3 o'clock ("the ninth hour"):
A verse in the Book of Amos predicts an earthquake during which the sun will set at midday. This has been interpreted by some Christians as a prophecy of the crucifixion darkness.Lockyer, H. (1971, December). All of the Miracles of the Bible (p. 243) [Eleventh Printing] Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. LCCCN 61-16752Rudman, D. (2003). The crucifixion as chaoskampf: A new reading of the passion narrative in the synoptic gospels. Biblica, 84, 102-107.
According to the beginning of the Book of Amos, an earthquake took place two years later; this was taken as a fulfillment of the prophecy. The earthquake is referred to in the later Book of Zechariah.
==Early Christian texts==
===New Testament Apocrypha===
The divisions in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, known as the Acts of Pilate, Christ's Descent into Hell, and The Paradosis, refer to a variety of physical phenomena accompanying the crucifixion and the subsequent executive responses by Caesar. According to Chapter XI of the Acts of Pilate, the darkness had started at midday; lasted three hours, and had been caused by the darkening of the Sun.Acts of Pilate. In W. Barnston (Ed.) (1984). The Other Bible (pp. 368). New York: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 0-06-250030-9. It also stated Pilate and his wife were disturbed by a report of what had happened. The Judeans he had summoned said it was an ordinary solar eclipse. The Christ's Descent into Hell described the many dead who had arisen and had appeared to many in Jerusalem shortly after the resurrection of Christ.Christ’s Descent into Hell. In W. Barnston (Ed.) (1984). The Other Bible (pp. 374). New York: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 0-06-250030-9. And, the Paradosis presented the interrogations in Rome by Caesar and his subsequent decree of severe punishment against both Pilate and the Judeans for causing the darkness and earthquake that had fallen upon the whole world.The Paradosis. In W. Barnston (Ed.) (1984). The Other Bible (pp. 378-379). New York: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 0-06-250030-9.
Other apocryphal works contain briefer accounts of the crucifixion darkness. The Gospel of Bartholomew stated darkness had accompanied the crucifixion of Christ.Gospel of Bartholomew. In W. Barnston (Ed.) (1984). The Other Bible (p. 351). New York: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 0-06-250030-9. The division of The Acts of John known as the Revelation of the Mystery of the Cross stated the darkness had started at the sixth hour and had covered the whole world.Revelation of the Mystery of the Cross. In W. Barnston (Ed.) (1984). The Other Bible (p. 419). New York: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 0-06-250030-9. 
===Letters===
The purported Letter from Pontius Pilate to Tiberius claimed the darkness had started at the sixth hour, covered the whole world and, during the subsequent evening, the full moon resembled blood for the entire night. The Gospel of Peter stated that the darkness began at midday, covered the whole of Judaea, and led people to go about with lamps believing it to be night.Gospel of Peter 5.15–19.
In a letter written under the name Dionysius the Areopagite (see Pseudo-Dionysius), the author claims to have observed a solar eclipse from Heliopolis, Egypt at the time of the crucifixion.Pseudo-Dionysius, Letter 7. According to the Orthodox Church in America," Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite the Bishop of Athens Dionysius, who is mentioned in Acts 17:34, was from Athens and received a classical Greek education. He studied astronomy at the city of Heliopolis, and it was in Heliopolis, along with his friend Apollophonos where he witnessed the solar eclipse that occurred at the moment of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ by Crucifixion. (The connection between the events was surely realized by him at a later date.) But even so, at the time of the eclipse he said, "Either the Creator of all the world now suffers, or this visible world is coming to an end." 
The Archko Volume, a 19th-century forgery purporting to be a collection of ancient documents concerning Jesus, contains a report by Pontius Pilate about the crucifixion events.
==Ancient historians==
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.George Syncellus, Chronography 391. 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. It is unclear whether Thallus himself made any reference to the crucifixion.Loveday Alexander, 'The Four among pagans' in Bockmuehl and Hagner, eds, The Written Gospel, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), page 225.
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".Chronicle, Olympiad 202, trans. Carrier (1999). 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. Ambraseys verified the reality of the earthquake that had rocked Nicaea and other cities throughout Bythenia.
Tertullian, in his Apologeticus, tells the story of the darkness that had commenced at noon during the crucifixion; those who were unaware of the prediction, he says, "no doubt thought it an eclipse".Tertullian, Apologeticus, Chapter 21, 19 cited in Bouw, G. D. (1998, Spring). The darkness during the crucifixion. The Biblical Astronomer, 8(84). Retrieved November 30, 2006 from . He suggests that the evidence is still available: "You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives."Tertullian, Apologeticus, Chapter 21, 19
The early historian and theologian, Rufinus of Aquileia (between 340 and 345 – 410), in his expanded work of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, includes a part of the defense given to Maximinus by Lucian of Antioch, shortly before he suffered martyrdom in A.D. 312.Rufinus, Ecclesiastical History, Book 9, Chapter 6 Lucian, like Tertullian, was also convinced that an account of the darkness that accompanied the crucifixion could be found among Roman records. Ussher recorded Lucian's corresponding statement given to Maximinus as, “Search your writings and you shall find that, in Pilate’s time, when Christ suffered, the sun was suddenly withdrawn and a darkness followed.” Ussher, J., & Pierce, L. (Trans.)(2007). Annals of the World [p. 822]. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Publishing Group. ISBN 0890515107
The next prominent Christian historian after Eusebius, Paulus Orosius (A.D. 375 – 418), wrote circa A.D. 417 that Jesus "voluntarily gave himself over to the Passion but through the impiety of the Jews, was apprehended and nailed to the cross, as a very great earthquake took place throughout the world, rocks upon mountains were split, and a great many parts of the largest cities fell by this extraordinary violence. On the same day also, at the sixth hour of the day, the Sun was entirely obscured and a loathsome night suddenly overshadowed the land, as it was said, ‘an impious age feared eternal night.’ Moreover, it was quite clear that neither the Moon nor the clouds stood in the way of the light of the Sun, so that it is reported that on that day the Moon, being fourteen days old, with the entire region of the heavens thrown in between, was farthest from the sight of the Sun, and the stars throughout the entire sky shone, then in the hours of the day or rather in that terrible night. To this, not only the authority of the Holy Gospels attest, but even some books of the Greeks." Orosius, P. (A.D. 417). The Seven Books of History Against the Pagans. In, R. J. Deferrari (Trans.) & H. Dressler, et al. (Vol. Eds.) (1964). The Fathers of the Church – Vol. 50 (1st short-run printing 2001, pp. 291-292). Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 978-0-8132-1310-1.
==Historicity==
Various writers have said that the account in the synoptic gospels is mythical. During the nineteenth century, Kersey Graves argued the biblical account was “too incredible and too ludicrous to merit serious notice.”Graves, K. (2007). The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors (pp. 113-115). Sioux Falls, South Dakota: NuVision Publications, LLC. ISBN 1-59547-780-2 {Original work published 1875}. His arguments stemmed from Gibbon's comments on the silence of Seneca and Pliny about the crucifixion darkness. Burton Mack suggests the story was an invention originated by the author of the Gospel of Mark.
 
The unusually long length of time the eclipse is supposed to have lasted has been used an argument against its historicity, as has the lack of mention of the darkness in secular accounts and the Gospel of John.Carrier (1999). One view is that the account in the synoptic gospels is a literary creation of the gospel writers, intended to heighten the sense of importance of a theologically significant event by taking a recent remembered event and applying it to the story of Jesus, just as eclipses were associated in accounts of other historical figures: 
"It is probable that, without any factual basis, darkness was added in order to wrap the cross in a rich symbol and/or assimilate Jesus to other worthies".Davies, W. D, and Dale C. Allison, Matthew (Continuum International, 1997), page 623.
In the Gospel of Mark, the miraculous darkness accompanies the temple curtain being torn in two.Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Mark," p. 51-161 Some scholars question the historicity of the darkness in the Gospel of Mark and suggest that it may have been a literary creation intended to add drama.Davies, W. D, and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saing Matthew, Volume III (Continuum International, 1997), page 623. To Mark's account, Matthew adds an earthquake and the resurrection of saints.Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Matthew," p. 129-270 Modern seismologists have studied the earthquake that rocked Nicaea and other cities throughout Bythenia.Ambraseys, H. (2005). Historical earthquakes in Jerusalem – A methodological discussion. Journal of Seismology, 9, 329-340. The Gospel of Luke and the Seven Books of History Against the Pagans by Orosius refer specifically to the darkening of the sun.Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Luke," p. 267-364 The Gospel of John does not report any wondrous miracles associated with Jesus' crucifixion.
==Dating the crucifixion==
Astronomical determinations of the date of the crucifixion have been derived from calculating the dates when the crescent of the new moon would be first visible from Jerusalem, which was used by the Jews to mark the first day of a lunar month, for example Nisan 1. Popular estimates have been April 7, 30 AD, April 3, 33 AD, and April 23, 34 AD.Schaefer, B. E. (1990). Lunar visibility and the crucifixion. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 31, 53-67.Pratt, J. P. (1991). Newton's date for the crucifixion [correspondence]. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 32, 301-304. 
Extra-biblical records have been incorporated with the determinations of the year of the crucifixion. Eusebius connected the solar darkening with the 18th year of Tiberius’ reign and the earthquakes to the year of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Since Tiberius (42 BC – 37 AD) ascended the throne in 14 AD, the 18th year of his reign would have occurred in 32 AD, or, using Jewish ecclesiastical reckoning, between Spring of 32 and Spring of 33.Humphreys, Colin J., and W. G. Waddington, "Dating the Crucifixion," Nature 306 (December 22/29, 1983), pp. 743-46. Also, the darkening recorded by Phlegon yielded 32 or 33 AD. The fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad ran from summer of 32 to summer of 33 AD because the first Olympiad occurred in 776 BC. The Olympics were conducted every four years from 776 BC until 393 AD.
==Crucifixion eclipse models==
===Total solar eclipse===
Records of solar blackouts exceeding a half hour have been attributed to total solar eclipses. For example, the T’ang Dynasty and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s accounts of the hour long solar darkness of 879 AD were attributed to the total solar eclipse of October 29, 878 AD. However, a solar eclipse could not have occurred on or near 14th of Nisan, because solar eclipses only occur during the new moon phase, and 14th of Nisan always corresponds to a full moon.
Solar eclipses are also too brief to account for the crucifixion darkness. The length of the crucifixion darkness described by biblical and extra-biblical sources was more than a full order of magnitude for the totality of solar eclipses. Seven minutes and 31.1 seconds has been the established maximum limit of solar eclipse totality.Meeus, J. (2003, December). The maximum possible duration of a total solar eclipse. Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 113(6), 343-348. The maximum duration of the total eclipse of November 3, 31 AD, was only one minute and four seconds. The maximum duration of the total eclipse of March 19, 33 AD, was only four minutes six seconds. Neither one had paths of totality passing near Jerusalem. Eclipses lasting at least six minutes, that were close to the crucifixion year, occurred on July 22, 27 AD, for a maximum duration of six minutes and thirty-one seconds and on August 1, 45 AD, for a maximum duration of six minutes and thirty seconds.
Astronomer Mark Kidger compared the apocryphal Gospel of Peter passage with historical eclipses.Kidger, M. (1999). The Star of Bethlehem: An astronomer’s View (pp. 68-72). Princeton, N. J: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05823-7. He indicated the total eclipse of November 24, 29 AD had the greatest geographical proximity to the site of the crucifixion. He determined its path of totality had passed slightly north of Jerusalem at 11:05 AM (see the NASA diagram of the path of totality for that eclipse ) Kidger indicated the maximum level of darkness at totality was just 95% for the eclipsed over Jerusalem. His research indicated that level of darkness would have been unnoticeable for people outdoors. His calculations indicated the eclipse had been total in Nazareth and Galilee for one minute and forty-nine seconds. Kidger concluded the population in Jerusalem lacked the necessity and the time to light their lamps for that total solar eclipse. Their behavior, as described in the Apocryphal Gospel of Peter, had been caused by a considerably longer period of darkness.
According to Pollata, the Greek word, ΕΓΕΝΕΤΟ (it-became),The Greek Elements (1971). Saugus, CA: Concordant Publishing Concern, (page 37). indicates the onslaught of darkness had transpired too rapidly for a solar eclipse.Pallotta, C. (1995). The Crucifixion Eclipse (pages 2, 4). Brooklyn, NY: Marian Media Apostolate. He sites Merk, A. S. J. (Ed.) (1951). Novum Testamentum Graece Et Latine, (pages 104, 181, 298, 307). Romae: Sumptibus Pontificii Instituti Biblici. It takes approximately an hour for the darkness to reach the beginning of totality.Brewer, B. (1991). Eclipse (Second Edition)(page 33). Seattle, Washington: Earth View. ISBN 0-932989-91-2. The Greek phrase, ΣΚΟΤΟΣ ΕΓΕΝΕΤΟ (darkness came about) appears in the crucifixion accounts of the Codex Alexandrinus, Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, and the Codex Sinaiticus.The Concordant Version of the Sacred Scriptures (1955). Saugus, CA: Concordant Publishing Concern, (pages 27, 118, 177, 274). Most English versions of the Bible do not describe a sudden darkening.
Some speculations have explained the crucifixion darkness in terms of heavy cloud cover. Another possible natural explanation is a khamsin dust storm that tends to occur from March to May.
Jesus' crucifixion took place around Passover, the middle of the lunar month and the time of a full moon. Solar eclipses naturally take place only at the time of the new moon. For this reason, medieval commentators viewed the darkness as a miraculous event rather than a natural one. Humphreys' and Waddington's reconstruction of the Jewish calendar, associating the crucifixion with a lunar eclipse rather than a solar eclipse, has been used to infer the date of the crucifixion.Colin J. Humphreys and W. G. Waddington, The Date of the Crucifixion Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 37 (March 1985)
===Lunar eclipse===
Humphreys and Waddington of Oxford University reconstructed the Jewish calendar in the first century AD and arrived at the conclusion that Friday April 3 33AD was the date of the Crucifixion. Humphreys and Waddington went further and also reconstructed the scenario for a lunar eclipse on that day. They concluded that:
"This eclipse was visible from Jerusalem at moonrise. .... The start of the eclipse was invisible from Jerusalem, being below the horizon. The eclipse began at 3:40pm and reached a maximum at 5:15pm, with 60% of the moon eclipsed. This was also below the horizon from Jerusalem. The moon rose above the horizon, and was first visible from Jerusalem at about 6:20pm (the start of the Jewish Sabbath and also the start of Passover day in A.D. 33) with about 20% of its disc in the umbra of the earth's shadow and the remainder in the penumbra. The eclipse finished some thirty minutes later at 6:50pm."
Moreover, their calculations showed that the 20% visible of the moon was positioned close to the top (i.e. leading edge) of the moon. The failure of any of the gospel accounts to refer to a lunar eclipse is, they assume, the result of a scribe wrongly amending a text to refer to a solar eclipse.
In Acts 2:20, the Apostle Peter refers to a "moon of blood" in the context of a prophecy from Joel. A "moon of blood" is a term also commonly used for a lunar eclipse because of the reddish color of the light refracted onto the moon through the Earth's atmosphere. Commentators are divided upon the exact nature of the this statement by Saint Peter. The investigation by Humphreys and Waddington concluded that the moon turned to blood statement probably refers to a lunar eclipse, and they showed that this interpretation is self-consistent and seems to confirm their conclusion that the crucifixion occurred on April 3, 33. 
Using his approach to computing "celestial glare", Bradley Schaefer opposed the views of Humphreys and Waddington with respect to the visibility of the lunar eclipse, since his computations of celestial glare would not allow a visible lunar eclipse during the Crucifixion.Schaefer, B. E. (1990, March). Lunar visibility and the crucifixion. Royal Astonomical Society Quarterly Journal, 31(1), 53-67Schaefer, B. E. (1991, July). Glare and celestial visibility. Publications of the Astonomical Society of the Pacific, 103, 645-660. Ruggles also supported Schaefer's views.Ruggles, C. (1990, June). Archaeoastronomy – the Moon and the crucifixion. Nature, 345(6277), 669-670. However, using different computational mechanisms, based on the approach originally used by Isaac Newton, John Pratt and later Bradley Schaefer separately arrived at the same date for the Crucifixion as Humphreys and Waddington did based on the lunar eclipse approach, namely Friday, April 3 33 AD.Pratt, J. P. (1991). "Newton's Date for the Crucifixion". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 32 (3): 301–304. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1991QJRAS..32..301P.
Gaskel argued a lunar eclipse during the day of the crucifixion could have received significant attention.Gaskel, C. M. (1993, December). Beyond visibility: The "Crucifixion eclipse" in the context of some other astronomical events of the times. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 25, 1334. 183rd AAS Meeting [Abstract 27.04].
===Miracle===
Because it was known in medieval times that a solar eclipse could not take place during Passover when there is a full moon, it was considered a miraculous sign rather than a naturally occurring event.Chambers, G. F. (1908). The Story of Eclipses [p. 110-111]. New York: D. Appleton and Company. The astronomer Johannes de Sacrobosco wrote, in his The Sphere of the World, "the eclipse was not natural, but, rather, miraculous and contrary to nature".Robert Bartlett, The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2008), page 68-69.
==Similar accounts of darkness==
Medieval accounts of large solar eclipses often described them as having very long duration, such as the one seen at Reichersberg in 1241, which was said to have lasted four hours; modern estimates suggest the period of total darkness lasted around 3 minutes and 30 seconds.John F. A. Sawyer, "Joshua 10:12-14 and the solar eclipse of 30 September 1131 B.C.", Palestine Exploration Quarterly 1972 A solar eclipse took place on 3 June, 1239, visible from many parts of Europe. This was documented in Coimbra, Toledo, Montpellier, Marola, Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Cesena and Split. Accounts of the duration vary considerably, from Cesena (one hour), to Coimbra (three hours) and Florence ('several hours'). However, an astronomer of the period, Restoro d'Arezzo, wrote an eyewitness report, which has been described as "the earliest known which gives a meaningful estimate of the duration of totality". He described seeing the Sun "entirely covered for the space of time in which a man could walk fully 250 paces," which is consistent with the modern estimate of 5 minutes and 45 seconds.Restoro d'Arezzo, Delle composizione del mondo (1282) Book 1, Chapter 16, cited in Stephenson, F. R. (1997), Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), page 398See also John F. A. Sawyer, "Joshua 10:12-14 and the solar eclipse of 30 September 1131 B.C.", Palestine Exploration Quarterly 1972, page 145, who estimates the duration of totality at 5 minutes 50 seconds. Although total darkness in an eclipse never lasts more than a few minutes, it has frequently been recorded that observers perceive it as having lasted as much as two or three hours. The astronomer F. R. Stephenson suggests that the long durations described in medieval, European accounts may have been influenced by the Passion narrative in the Synoptic Gospels; several texts closely resemble the wording of the Vulgate (Latin) gospel account. He does not however apply that explanation to the other records of large solar eclipses from non-European countries.
==Notes==
==Further reading==
*Carrier, R. (1999). Thallus: an analysis (1999). Retrieved May 24, 2002 .
*DeLashmutt, G. (2005). Chapter 19 (Matthew 27:45-54) The events accompanying Jesus’ crucifixion. In Teaching outlines of the gospel of John. Xenos Christian Fellowship. Retrieved on March 10, 2005 .
*James, M. R., (Trans.). (1924). The gospel of Nicodemus, or acts of Pilate. In The apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved May 28, 2002 from the Wesley Center for Applied Theology Noncanonical Homepage .
*Lohmann, K. J., Hester, J. T., & Lohmann, C. M. F., (1999). Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 11, 1-23.
*Stewart, D. (n.d.). What Everyone Needs to Know About the Bible. Orange, CA: Dart Press. Retrieved May 28, 2002 from the Blue Letter Bible web site .
*Thiede, C. P., & d'Ancona, M. (1996). The Jesus Papyrus (pp. 59–64, 101-127, 135-137). New York: Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. ISBN 0-385-48898-x.
==See also==
*Christian eschatology
*Computus
*Good Friday
*International Heliophysical year
*Palm Sunday
*Solar eclipse
*Triumphal entry
 
 
Category:Christian miracle narrative
Category:Jesus and history
Category:Solar eclipses
Category:Fringe theory