THE CATASTROPHE AT THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS, AD 33

According to Finegan's Handbook of Biblical Chronology, there are only two possible dates for the crucifixion, viz. AD 30 and AD 33. The latter is the date given by Ussher. Finegan, with the best modern research at his fingertips, is unable to choose between them. AD 33 seems to be the correct date because the New Testament implies, and the apocryphal Acts of Pilate affirm, that there was an eclipse of the moon, as well as an obscuration of the sun, in the latter, or afternoon, phase of the crucifixion, and in AD 33 (but not AD 30) there was an eclipse of the moon on the day of the Passover, viz. the day of the crucifixion, and that eclipse occurred in the late afternoon.

The details of the eclipse are as follows: on Friday April 3rd (Passover) AD 33 there was a partial, lunar eclipse, i.e. an obscuration of a part of the face of the moon by the shadow of the earth. It commenced, on the modern reckoning, at 15h 40m local time in Jerusalem, and terminated at 18h 31m local time in Jerusalem. In normal circumstances this eclipse would not have been visible in Jerusalem at the time when it actually began, but the last traces of the eclipse would have been visible for about an half hour once the moon rose over the horizon at the longitude of Jerusalem, around 6pm, and as the sun set in the west. Further east in Babylon it would have been, in normal circumstances, visible for a longer period, from just after its maximum phase and for a little over an hour in total, and the many Jews who lived there would have been able to observe it clearly as the moon rose over the city. The whole eclipse lasted almost three hours (2h 51m).

According to Mark, the crucifixion lasted about 6 hours (from the 3rd to the 9th hour), and, according to Matthew, Mark and Luke, a darkness (Gk. skotos) occurred between the 6th and the 9th hours, during the latter half of the crucifixion. A difficulty arises, however, because, according to the other Gospel-writer, John, Pilate made his final pronouncement in the judgement of Jesus and Jesus was taken away to be crucified around the 6th hour. The Gospel writers seem to be using different time-schemes, since in John's Gospel Jesus had just been judged and dismissed to be crucified at about the 6th hour, whilst in the other three Gospels Jesus had already been on the cross for 3 hours by the 6th hour.

It has been suggested that John was using Roman time-reckoning and the other Gospel-writers Jewish reckoning. However, the Romans usually counted the daylight hours just like the Jews, starting from sunrise around 6am. The 3rd hour was around 9am, the 6th hour around 12 noon, and the 9th hour around 3pm (the precise time at any given date depending on the time of sunrise, which varied with the seasons). In any case, John is using Jewish terminology in that portion of the Gospel: "It was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour" he says (John 19. 14). "Preparation of the passover" is a uniquely Jewish expression, Friday being called "Preparation" because it was the day Jews prepared for the coming Sabbath, and Friday happened also to be the Feast of the Passover that particular year. It would seem rather improbable that John switched from Jewish to Roman terminology in the very same sentence

The explanation of the two time-schemes in the Bible is simple, but drastic. The Gospels clearly record that there was a darkness from the 6th to the 9th hours, but also Luke (23. 45) records that the SUN WAS COMPLETELY BLACKED OUT (eskotisthê, "darkened"), and Matthew reports (27. 51) that a great earthquake occurred at the same time. This blacking out of the sun could not have been a normal solar eclipse, because that is impossible when the moon is full and on the other side of the earth from the sun, as it always is at the Passover. These references, along with the difference of at least 3 hours between the two time-schemes in the Gospels, are indicators of a huge, and unusual, natural catastrophe.

The cosmic upheaval is alluded to in the Acts of the Apostles (2. 16, 20). Fifty days after the Passover, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter referred to the prophecy of Joel in the Old Testament (Joel 2. 31), as to an event of which his listeners had recently witnessed the fulfilment, that "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, BEFORE that great and notable day of the Lord come." The original Hebrew word for "blood" here represents a colour = blood-red, the colour of the moon when it is eclipsed (compare the phrase "AS blood" in Revelation 6. 12, below, and Isaiah 13. 10, below, which specifically says the moon will not shine, in an equivalent context.) The significance of the word "before" in this quotation from Joel is that the very same catastrophe is prophesied to occur twice, once, as here in Joel BEFORE the Day of the Lord, and once also at the end of the world, ON the Day of the Lord: see Isaiah 13. 9-10: "9 Behold, THE DAY OF THE LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: THE SUN SHALL BE DARKENED IN HIS GOING FORTH, AND THE MOON SHALL NOT CAUSE HER LIGHT TO SHINE .... 13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and THE EARTH SHALL REMOVE OUT OF HER PLACE, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and IN THE DAY OF HIS FIERCE ANGER. 14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land." Revelation 6. 12-17: "12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, AND THE SUN BECAME BLACK AS SACKCLOTH OF HAIR, AND THE MOON BECAME AS BLOOD; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 FOR THE GREAT DAY OF HIS WRATH IS COME; and who shall be able to stand?" In Joel the same unique combination of an extinguishing of the light of the sun and a reddening of the moon in a lunar eclipse is prophesied to occur BEFORE that great Day of the Lord. If we look back through the pages of history, we find that such an event has already occurred, and that was on the day of the crucifixion, April 3rd AD 33, as recorded in the Gospels and in secular history (for the latter, see below). Peter was, therefore, pointing out to the Jews that this prophecy of Joel, predicting the catastrophe BEFORE the Day of the Lord, had already been fulfilled at the crucifixion.

One way the sun could be extinguished if it was not eclipsed by the moon would be if the EARTH TILTED. Compare the earthquake or seismic shock mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, the terror of which, according to the apocryphal Acts of Pilate, persisted throughout the 3 hours of darkness. According to the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (v. 6), a huge seismic shock occurred just as Jesus was taken down from the cross and immediately before the sun reappeared (v. 6). Such an event would be a natural concomitant of a shift of the earth on its axis. (Notice that on the Day of the Lord, according to Isaiah 13. 13, the earth is specifically prophesied to "remove out of her place" at the time the sun is extinguished and the moon is eclipsed.) The sun, prior to this high in the noonday sky, will have suddenly disappeared below the horizon. This was the belief of the early Church. Tertullian (Adv. Marc. IV. 42) quotes the Old Testament prophets to this effect: "... Christ suspended on his gibbet! These proofs would still have been suitable for me, even if they had not been the subject of prophecy. Isaiah says: “I will clothe the heavens with blackness.” [Is. 50. 3] This will be the day, concerning which Amos also writes: “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that the sun shall GO DOWN [my emphasis] at noon and the earth shall be dark in the clear day.” [Amos 8. 9]" Likewise in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (v. 5), dating from around the first half of the second century AD, it is asserted that the Jewish authorities were concerned when the darkness fell at noon, because according to their Law the sun should not set on an executed criminal. If this phenomenon occurred on the afternoon of the crucifixion and continued around 3 hours, the lunar eclipse could have become visible in the eastern sky at Jerusalem, when in normal circumstances it would have been invisible beneath the eastern horizon. Peter implies that the reddening of the moon in eclipse had, indeed, been visible to the Jews in Jerusalem, and the apocryphal Acts of Pilate distinctly assert that the lunar eclipse was visible there during the period of darkness.

It is probable that this catastrophic tilting of the earth at the crucifixion was a subject that the first generation of Christians continued to refer to in their preaching. In the Acts of the Apostles (17. 6) the Jews of Thessalonica in Greece stirred up the pagan inhabitants of their city against the Christian missionary Paul by identifying the Christians as "these that have turned the world upside down." The word "turn upside down" here is Gk. anastatoô, a verb constructed from the adjective anastatos, which means "made to rise up and depart, driven from one's home, Hdt. 2. of cities and countries, ruined, laid waste" (Liddell-Scott-Jones, Lexicon, s.v.). It is used literally of persons removed from their homes in Acts 21. 38, of the known world in Acts 17. 6, and figuratively of doctrinal disturbance in Gal. 5. 12. In Thayer's Lexicon, four out of the five occurrences of this word in a variety of Greek translations of the Old Testament (it is not found in secular writers) refer to physical removal from a place. With the other two New Testament uses being literal and figurative respectively, the nuance of the word in an ambivalent passage like Acts 17. 6 must be decided from a combination of the balance of probability, in light of its usage in Old Testament Greek translation, and of deductions drawn from the context in which it occurs. First, as it is a geographical location that is the object of the disturbance in Acts 17. 6, a literal interpretation, as of cities and countries, "ruined, laid waste," is preferable. It would have certainly been a gross exaggeration, in fact a falsehood, to have claimed at that time that Christians had socially or psychologically unsettled the whole oikoumenê - the inhabited Roman world - when this was only the beginning of the first mission to the native Gentiles of Europe, specifically aimed at Gentiles, that is known from the New Testament. It would also have made nonsense of the Jews' objection that "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither [to Thessalonica] also:" on the figurative interpretation, the Jews would have been excluding Thessalonica from the realms of the civilized Roman world! It should accordingly be read in this sense: "These Christians who caused a physical upturning of the whole world are now also present right here in Thessalonica!" No doubt, like Peter on the Day of Pentecost, the Christians pointed to the huge catastrophe at the time of the crucifixion of the Messiah as a fulfilment of such scriptures as Joel 2 and Amos 8. The Jews would not have been able to deny the event itself, but they certainly would have rejected the Christians' interpretation of it. And if they accepted a connection between the crucifixion and the catastrophe at all it will have been only to confirm themselves in their belief that Jesus was Beelzebub, the chief of the devils, and lord of natural catastrophe. They could blame the cosmic devastation on Jesus and his disciples, just as the Romans of the later Empire blamed the Christians for the natural catastrophes which fell at that time on the Empire, because the Christians threatened their social fabric. The Thessalonians had reason, by their own lights, to believe such an accusation because it was only a short time prior to this that an earhquake had rocked the neighbouring city of Philippi and miraculously freed Paul and his fellow-apostle who were in prison there at the time (Acts 16. 25f.).

The earth's tilting in this way would also produce AN ALTERATION OF CLOCK-TIME. This assumes that the sun slipped down the space of approximately 6 hours in the sky at around 12 noon (the 6th hour of the day) to a position just below the horizon. Such a position is the minimum necessary to effect a blacking out of the sun and a visible appearance of the lunar disk above the eastern horizon.

This 6th hour is the time-mark used in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) to fix the beginning of the catastrophe. The same time-scheme is used in the Synoptic Gospels to fix the beginning of the crucifixion three hours earlier at the 3rd hour. John's Gospel, on the contrary, states that Jesus was dismissed by Pilate from the Praetorium, to be crucified, "about" the 6th hour. If the sun set abnormally at 12 noon on the day of the crucifixion, then the daylight had been suddenly shortened by a half. This foreshortening would EXACTLY HALF THE LENGTH OF EACH HOUR IN THE PRECEDING PERIOD OF DAYLIGHT, the daylight between sunrise and sunset being divided by custom into 12 equal, hourly, portions (John 11. 9). The length of these portions could vary depending on the length of daylight at any particular time of year - in winter the 12 hours were several minutes shorter than in summer. In this case, the daylight was catastrophically shortened, and sunset had fallen at 12 noon, so the same principle, applied now, WOULD TURN WHAT HAD BEEN COUNTED AS THE 3RD HOUR (IN THE PRE-CATASTROPHE OR NORMAL TIME-SCHEME USED BY THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS) INTO THE 6TH HOUR OF THE (POST-CATASTROPHE) TIME-SCHEME USED IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL.

The catastrophe lasted about 3 hours in total, from the 6th to the 9th hour, according to the time-scheme used in the Synoptic Gospels. In the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (v. 6), a great earthquake occurred just after Jesus expired and was taken off the cross and immediately before the re-emergence of the sun. Then reference is made in all of the Gospels to an "evening" interval of undetermined length at the end of the day, during which Jesus' body was hurriedly taken away from the cross and buried to avoid labouring on the Sabbath day (the Sabbath commenced, under normal circumstances, at sundown, around 6pm Friday). The events that are said to have occurred in this evening period, the petition of Joseph of Arimathaea to Pilate, the inquiry into and confirmation of the death of Christ, and the deposition of Jesus' body, would seem to require something like 2 hours. The use of the word "evening" here implies that sunlight had returned, if only to fade again shortly thereafter. I.e. the phase of seismic shocks at the end of the 3 hour-darkness coincided with a re-emergence of the sun a little above the horizon and a short twilight period of 2 hours during which the sun finally set as normal. An interval of 2 hours would mean that, what would, in normal circumstances, have been 12 daylight hours, had been foreshortened that Friday by one hour, to 11 hours in all (6 normal hours of daylight after sunrise, followed by 3 hours of abnormal darkness, followed by 2 hours of twilight). This means that the lunar eclipse timed by modern reckoning to have begun at 15h 40m that Friday (a reckoning which takes no account of natural catastrophes) would have actually begun an hour earlier, according to the adjusted time-scheme, i.e. about 20 minutes before the 9th hour, as the Synoptic Gospels call it, in the last half-hour of darkness. It was also visible as it concluded for about half an hour as the sun set normally at around 6pm. A twilight period of much longer than 2 hours would have meant the lunar eclipse would not have been visible in the period of catastrophic darkness as the Acts of Pilate assert it was, because we know the eclipse lasted for 2h 51m in total and terminated at 6. 31pm. A twilight of about 2 hours duration, between the 9th and the 11th hour, would have allowed the lunar eclipse to have been visible for 20 minutes before the 9th hour, and, indeed, it would have taken almost that long for the shadow to produce a significant obscuration of the lunar disk. On the other hand, a twilight any shorter than 2 hours would have left too little time for the transpiring of events connected with the deposition of Jesus' body from the cross, as recorded in the Gospels.

The heavenly sign was clear. In Judaism the moon, the reflex or image of the sun, symbolized the Messiah, the "Image" of God. The SHADOW of death passed over the Messiah during those last minutes He was upon the cross. But it was not a total eclipse. Within three days the Messiah, like the moon within three hours, recovered His full Glory! Furthermore, the heavenly sign was matched by an earthly one. In the New Testament, Jesus is called the Passover Lamb of God, Whose sacrifice on Calvary remitted, once for all time, the sins of the world. The hours during which the shadow of death passed over the morally spotless, snow-white, Lamb of God, Jesus, and the literal shadow passed over the face of the snow-white, full, moon, were the very hours, 9th to 11th, during which the snow-white, Passover, lamb was slain in the Temple (Josephus, Wars, VI. 9. 3). This period was designated as the only proper time to sacrifice the Passover lamb, by Jehovah Himself, when the ceremony was instituted in Egypt at the Exodus. And there in the Books of Moses, for a reason which has defied the ingenuity of scholars to explain, this period, called the "evening-time" in Deuteronomy 16. 6, is also called, more specifically, the time "between the two evenings" (Exodus 12. 6 etc.). The prophetic Spirit signified by this unique expression the timing of the greater Passover Sacrifice of which the literal Passover was a type - that period precisely from the 9th to the 11th hour between the two evenings God Himself created on Good Friday: the first evening fell catastrophically at noon and benighted the world till the 9th hour, and the second fell at the 11th hour to close the day, and return the world to relative normality.

Another mystery is cleared up by this close reading and re-examination of the Gospel records of the crucifixion. Jesus prophesied He would be "three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth" (Matthew 12. 40). On the usual understanding of the chronology of the crucifixion and burial, Jesus spent no more than 3 days and 2 nights in the bowels of the earth. There is no way another night can be fitted into the scheme without forcing the evidence one way or the other. But now we can see that an extra, 3-hour-long, night of complete darkness has been supernaturally interposed by God Himself into the Friday of the crucifixion. The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus' giving up the ghost immediately before the account of the earthquake and rending of the Temple veil. In the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (dating from around the first half of the second century AD), Jesus expires just before an earthquake at the end of the 3 hours of darkness and the return of light. According to the apocryphal Acts of Pilate, the fear of the earthquake persisted during the period of darkness between the 6th and 9th hours. Hence, we can conclude, Jesus gave up the ghost during the period of darkness. That is night number 1. (The Jews reckoned pars-pro-toto in chronology, so any part of a night or day counted as one night or day in estimations of the duration of time.) Then followed the equally abnormal shortened day of around 2 hours called "evening" in the Gospels. That's day number 1. (The beginning of day was always sunrise amongst the Jews, and night began at sunset, so here there was, indeed, a sunrise, though an abnormal one, a re-emergence of the sun above the western horizon, followed two hours later by a sunset. Undoubtedly it was a "day", judged by the astronomical criteria used to determine these things. For the same reason, the Gospel of John counts the earlier, shortened day from sunrise to noon, when the sun set catastrophically, as a day with 12 hours, with its midpoint at the 6th hour = 9am on the modern reckoning. Note also how the Jewish authorities in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter [v. 5] are said to have been concerned that what the Law said about the sun setting on a criminal's execution applied to Jesus during the period of three hours' darkness.) Then followed Friday night, night number 2, followed by Saturday daytime, day number 2. Then followed Saturday night, night number 3, followed by Sunday morning, day number 3, when Jesus rose from the dead. Total: 3 days and 3 nights, just as Jesus had prophesied.

Details of the Lunar Eclipse, Passover April 3 (Julian = April 1 Gregorian) AD 33:

Beginning of lunar eclipse Jerusalem time (on the modern reckoning): 15h 40m (at Babylon 16h 31m), which corresponds (on the time-scheme used in the Synoptic Gospels, according to this reconstruction, with a loss of one hour in the late afternoon) to 20 minutes before the 9th hour.
Maximum phase of lunar eclipse Jerusalem time: 17h 05m (at Babylon 17h 56m); moonrise at Babylon 18h 18m.
Normal moonrise (on the absolute horizon) at Jerusalem 17h 57m.
Termination of lunar eclipse Jerusalem time: 18h 31m (at Babylon 19h 22m).
Under normal circumstances, the lower rim of the moon would be approximately 6° above absolute eastern horizon at Jerusalem at that time.
Normal sunset at Jerusalem 17h 58m.
Shadow 1.700000 semi-shadow 0.660000

THE HOURS OF THE CRUCIFIXION IN THE 4 GOSPELS:

Matthew 27.45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?.... 50 ¶ Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; 52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.... 57 ¶ When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple: 58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. 59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Mark 15. 22 ¶ And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. 23 And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not. 24 And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. 25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. 26 And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors. 29 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, 30 Save thyself, and come down from the cross. 31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. 32 Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him. 33 ¶ And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?.... 7 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.... 42 ¶ And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. 44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. 45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.

Luke 23. 44 ¶ And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.... 50 ¶ And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: 51 (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. 53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. 54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.

John 19. 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! 15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. 16 ¶ Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.... 31 ¶ The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs.

TESTIMONY OF THALLUS AND PHLEGON:

Thallus was a historian who wrote some time between AD 33 (as can be deduced from his mention of the catastrophe at the crucifixion, for the dating of which, see below) and AD 180 (when he is cited by Theophilus of Antioch). Phlegon's floruit was c. AD 140. From the Chronography of Julius Africanus (fl. first half of the third century AD), apud George Syncellus (p. 609, 21 Bonn.) = Müller section 8 [fr. Greek]: "ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH OUR SAVIOR’S PASSION AND HIS LIFE-GIVING RESURRECTION. As to His works severally, and His cures effected upon body and soul, and the mysteries of His doctrine, and the resurrection from the dead, these have been most authoritatively set forth by His disciples and apostles before us. On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Savior falls on the day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time but in the interval between the first day of the new moon and the last of the old, that is, at their junction: how then should an eclipse be supposed to happen when the moon is almost diametrically opposite the sun? Let that opinion pass however; let it carry the majority with it; and let this portent of the world be deemed an eclipse of the sun, like others a portent only to the eye. Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth — manifestly that one of which we speak. But what has an eclipse in common with an earthquake, the rending rocks, and the resurrection of the dead, and so great a perturbation throughout the universe? Surely no such event as this is recorded for a long period. But it was a darkness induced by God, because the Lord happened then to suffer."

Immediately following this passage Syncellus quotes Eusebius' Chronicle verbatim in the original Greek as follows: "Jesus Christ ... underwent his passion in the 18th year of Tiberius [AD 32-33]. Also at that time in another Greek compendium we find an event recorded in these words: "the sun was eclipsed, Bithynia was struck by an earthquake, and in the city of Nicaea many buildings fell." All these things happened to occur during the Lord's passion. In fact, Phlegon, too, a distinguished reckoner of Olympiads, wrote more on these events in his 13th book, saying this: "Now, in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad [AD 32-33], a great eclipse of the sun occurred at the sixth hour [noon] 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."

Wherever Eusebius obtained this quotation (perhaps from the same kind of compendium he mentions earlier in the passage), this was not all that Phlegon had to say about the "eclipse", as is clear from the passage of Phlegon epitomized about a hundred years earlier than Eusebius in Africanus, and from the passages from Phlegon summarized by Origen (below). In Eusebius' quotation only the sixth hour is mentioned, in Africanus' epitomy the eclipse is said to have lasted from the sixth to the ninth hour. Also Africanus' citation mentions the fact that the moon was "full" at the time of the eclipse. This proves it was not a normal eclipse of the sun and that it did, indeed, as Eusebius' quotation puts it, excel "every other [eclipse] before it." The Greek word ekleipo, whence the word "eclipse", does not always refer to an occultation of the sun by the moon. It means, simply, "to fail" or "to desert a position" (e.g. in the sky). In one of its earliest occurrences in Greek literature with reference to the sun, in Herodotus VII. xxxvii. 2, it DOES NOT (and cannot, according to the evidence of eclipse cycles) indicate a normal eclipse of the sun, but precisely an abandonment by the sun of its position in the sky and a premature nightfall. As Macan says in his commentary: "The disappearance of the sun from his seat in heaven is apparently conceived in terms of motion. Herodotus is of course aware of the (apparent) motions of the sun, diurnal and annual (cp 2 24-25); it is not to be supposed that the motion here posited is in a visible direction analogous to either of those: it is apparently a direct retreat, or evanishment, from a cloudless and clear sky." This was a phenomenon comparable, semantically, to that which was a historical reality at the crucifixion. In the 4th century texts of the Gospel of Luke, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, and in a few other texts (Pap. 75, C, L, Coptic), Luke 23. 44-45 reads: "(44) And it was now about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour, (45) THE SUN HAVING FAILED (or LEFT ITS POSITION) ...." (Greek: tou ‘êliou eklipontos.) The word is ekleipo as in Herodotus. This seems not only to explain why the AD 33 event was referred to as an "eclipse" but also to reflect a belief that something similar to the phenomenon recorded by Herodotus was believed to have occurred at the crucifixion, it being well known (cf. Africanus) that no normal eclipse was possible at the Passover full moon.

Phlegon in Eusebius confirms the concomitant shockwave which caused severe damage in Nicaea Bithynia. Of course, Phlegon's local reference here does not mean the damage was limited to that locality, but only that the records he had available to him, like those in the unidentified compendium, related to Nicaea. In Origen's summary, Phlegon refers to "great earthquakes" plural, though Origen seems to be quoting from memory. We have the evidence in the Gospels and early Christian literature that earthquakes also affected Judaea. Our sources do not allow to track the damage outside of those two regions, though the apocryphal Acts of Pilate [below] refer to the "swallowing up" of the whole world by the infernal regions, which seems to be something more than a poetic description of a normal earthquake.

Both Phlegon and the compendium quoted by Eusebius confirm the dating of the crucifixion to AD 33, as the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad and the 18th year of Tiberius exclude AD 30, but include AD 32 and AD 33, and, further, AD 32 is excluded because Passover was not a Friday that year.

The account of Phlegon is summarized as follows by Origen, a friend of Africanus:

"And with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place, Phlegon too, I think, has written in the thirteenth or fourteenth book of his Chronicles." (Origen, Against Celsus 2. 33)

"Regarding these we have in the preceding pages made our defence, according to our ability, adducing the testimony of Phlegon, who relates that these events took place at the time when our Saviour suffered." (Origen, Against Celsus 2. 59)

[Phlegon mentioned Jesus also in connection with his foreknowledge in the same part of his work: "Now Phlegon, in the thirteenth or fourteenth book, I think, of his Chronicles, not only ascribed to Jesus a knowledge of future events (although falling into confusion about some things which refer to Peter, as if they referred to Jesus), but also testified that the result corresponded to his predictions. So that, he also, by these very admissions regarding foreknowledge, as if against his will, expressed his opinion that the doctrines taught by the fathers of our system were not devoid of divine power." (Origen, Against Celsus 2. 14)]

Philopon, a Christian Neo-Platonist, fl. 6th century AD (De opif. mund. II. 21) wrote, "Phlegon mentioned the eclipse which took place during the crucifixion of the Lord Christ, and no other [eclipse], it is clear that he did not know from his sources about any [similar] eclipse in previous times."

Cassiodorus, the Christian chronicler, fl. 6th century AD, confirms the unique nature of the eclipse: Cassiodorus, Chronicon (Patrologia Latina, v. 69) "Tib[erius] Caesar V [Cusp., et solus] coss. [Cusp., Domitius et Scribonianus]. Under these co[n]s[ul]s Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered the VIIIth day before the Kalends of April, and an eclipse [lit. failure, desertion] of the sun occurred, such as never was before or since." [Latin: "Tib. Caesar V [Cusp., et solus] coss. [Cusp., Domitius et Scribonianus.] His coss. Dominus noster Jesus Christus passus est VIII calend. Aprilis, et defectio solis facta est, qualis ante vel postmodum nunquam fuit."] The date here, VIII calend. Aprilis, corresponds to 25th March Julian, and is a traditional date of the crucifixion, with a discrepancy of 9 days between that and the historical date. Different calendars were used in different parts of the Empire and the historical date of the crucifixion, viz. April 3 Julian, may well have appeared in some local calendar - which also happened to be adopted by the early Church - in a form which in the Julian calendar would be read as VIII calend. Aprilis. In the same way, even in modern chronology, the Julian date April 3 is read as April 1 Gregorian, with a discrepancy of 2 days.

TESTIMONY OF THE ACTS OF PILATE :

From the Acts of Pilate, First Greek Form (as extant, not older than 4th century AD, but a work of this name, the Acts of Pontius Pilate, is referred to by Justin Martyr, I Apol. 35, 48, in the middle of the 2nd century AD, in his defence before the Emperor, who would have been able to examine these Acts himself, so this may be a reworking of earlier, genuine material): "And at the time he was crucified there was darkness over all the world, the sun being darkened at mid-day, and the stars appearing, but in them there appeared no luster; and the moon, as if turned into blood, failed in her light. And the world was swallowed up by the lower regions, so that the very sanctuary of the temple, as they call it, could not be seen by the Jews in their fall; and they saw below them a chasm of the earth, with the roar of the thunders that fell upon it. And in that terror dead men were seen that had risen, as the Jews themselves testified; and they said that it was Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, and Moses and Job, that had died, as they say, three thousand five hundred years before. And there were very many whom I also saw appearing in the body; and they were making a lamentation about the Jews, on account of the wickedness that had come to pass through them, and the destruction of the Jews and of their law. And the fear of the earthquake remained from the sixth hour of the preparation until the ninth hour."

TESTIMONY OF THE GOSPEL OF PETER

A large fragment of this apocryphal, Docetic, Gospel was discovered at Akmim (Panopolis) in Egypt in 1886. The following section deals with the catastrophic events at the Crucifixion: This work is mentioned with disapproval by Serapion of Antioch towards the end of the second century AD (apud Eusebius Hist. Ecc. VI. xii. 2-6) and is datable to around the middle or earlier half of that century. It is therefore an early witness to traditions current in second century Church circles concerning the catastrophic events at the Crucifixion.

"5. [The Crucifixion is in progress at this point in the narrative] And it was noon, and darkness came over all Judaea: and they [the Jewish leaders] were troubled and distressed, lest the sun had set, whilst he [Jesus] was yet alive: [for] it is written for them, that the sun set not on him that hath been put to death. And one of them said, Give him to drink gall with vinegar. And they mixed and gave him to drink, and fulfilled all things, and accomplished their sins against their own head. And many went about with lamps, supposing that it was night, and fell down. And the Lord cried out, saying, My power, my power, thou hast forsaken me. And when he had said it he was taken up. And in that hour the vail of the temple of Jerusalem was rent in twain. 6. And then they drew out the nails from the hands of the Lord, and laid him upon the earth, and the whole earth quaked, and great fear arose. Then the sun shone, and it was found the ninth hour: and the Jews rejoiced, and gave his body to Joseph that he might bury it, since he had seen what good things he had done. And he took the Lord, and washed him, and rolled him in a linen cloth, and brought him into his own tomb, which was called the Garden of Joseph."

TESTIMONY OF THE PUBLIC ARCHIVES IN PAGAN ROME AND OF PILATE'S LETTER TO TIBERIUS:

Tertullian (fl. first half of the third century AD), Apol. XXI: "But the Jews were so exasperated by His teaching, by which their rulers and chiefs were convicted of the truth, chiefly because so many turned aside to Him, that at last they brought Him before Pontius Pilate, at that time Roman governor of Syria; and, by the violence of their outcries against Him, extorted a sentence giving Him up to them to be crucified. He Himself had predicted this; which, however, would have signified little had not the prophets of old done it as well. And yet, nailed upon the cross, He exhibited many notable signs, by which His death was distinguished from all others. At His own free-will, He with a word dismissed from Him His spirit, anticipating the executioner’s work. In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives. [XXI. 19: "Et tamen suffixus multa mortis illius propria ostendit insignia. Nam spiritum cum verbo sponte dimisit, praevento carnificis officio. Eodem momento dies medium orbem signante sole subducta est. Deliquium utique putaverunt qui id quoque super Christo praedicatum non scierunt. Et tamen eum mundi casum relatum in arcanis vestris habetis."] Then, when His body was taken down from the cross and placed in a sepulcher, the Jews in their eager watchfulness surrounded it with a large military guard, lest, as He had predicted His resurrection from the dead on the third day, His disciples might remove by stealth His body, and deceive even the incredulous. But, lo, on the third day there a was a sudden shock of earthquake, and the stone which sealed the sepulcher was rolled away, and the guard fled off in terror: without a single disciple near, the grave was found empty of all but the clothes of the buried One. But nevertheless, the leaders of the Jews, whom it nearly concerned both to spread abroad a lie, and keep back a people tributary and submissive to them from the faith, gave it out that the body of Christ had been stolen by His followers. For the Lord, you see, did not go forth into the public gaze, lest the wicked should be delivered from their error; that faith also, destined to a great reward, might hold its ground in difficulty. But He spent forty days with some of His disciples down in Galilee, a region of Judaea, instructing them in the doctrines they were to teach to others. Thereafter, having given them commission to preach the gospel through the world, He was encompassed with a cloud and taken up to heaven, — a fact more certain far than the assertions of your Proculi concerning Romulus. All these things Pilate did to Christ; and now in fact a Christian in his own convictions, he sent word of Him to the reigning Caesar, who was at the time Tiberius. Yes, and the Caesars too would have believed on Christ, if either the Caesars had not been necessary for the world, or if Christians could have been Caesars." It has been noted in this connection "Great stress is to be placed on the fact that Tertullian was probably a jurisconsult, familiar with the Roman archives, and influenced by them in his own acceptance of Divine Truth. It is not supposable that such a man would have hazarded his bold appeal to the records, in remonstrating with the Senate and in the very faces of the Emperor and his colleagues, had he not known that the evidence was irrefragable."

Philopon (De opif. mund. II. 21) wrote, "Phlegon mentioned the eclipse which took place during the crucifixion of the Lord Christ, and no other [eclipse], it is clear that he did not know from his sources about any [similar] eclipse in previous times ... and this is shown by the historical account itself of Tiberius Caesar."

ON THE PHYSICAL POSSIBILITY OF A RAPID POLE SHIFT AND RETURN

There seems to be evidence that precisely the kind of catastrophe it is suggested here took place in AD 33 can take place and has taken place. Einstein, no less, was inclined to accept the evidence that polar shift had occurred in the relatively recent geological past (in the Pleistocene). Attached here (PDF - to download, right-click and select "Save Target As...") is a paper on this subject. It suggests a quite small asteroid, say 1000 metres across (smaller than the Arizona meteor crater!), or even 500 metres across, could tilt the earth to a PERMANENT new position on its axis if the torque produced by the angle of impact was sufficient and the gravitational pull of the sun and moon at the time was in the right direction. Also it describes an alternative scenario in which the sun and moon were in a different position and the effect of the asteroid impact would then be REVERSED (completely or otherwise) after a short period of time. I.e. the earth would tilt and then tilt back again, the damage in that case being limited to the immediate destruction caused by the impact. The same paper suggests this huge movement could take place over a few days or even a few HOURS (exactly as in AD 33, on the proposed reconstruction.) The paper describes catastrophic effects accompanying a tilt of about 20 degrees, but only for a situation in which the tilt remained permanent. The author says the most catastrophic effects would only gradually build up in that case, the main devastation, apart from extensive earthquake and volcanic damage, being by tidal flooding and wind. A temporary tilt - of the kind he says would occur if the sun and moon were not pulling in the same direction as the torque produced by impact, and of the kind it is suggested here took place in AD 33 - would not allow time for the buildup of effects of the same tremendously catastrophic magnitude. The sun and moon in AD 33 were actually pulling in opposite directions, as the moon was full at that time. Also this paper presumes that human life continued after even a permanent tilt of the earth in the Pleistocene, and conditions under the alternative scenario of a temporary tilt and return to at or near the original axis are less devastating.