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BIBLICAL TRUTH AND EVIDENCE
Jason Ashe · Sedspnroot3t561 0116mr at72g1161i8c6cM Att45p: uf9l186mA06g6 ·
NON-CHRISTIAN HISTORIANS DOCUMENTED THE DARKNESS OF THE EARTH DURING THE CRUCIFIXION
Three of the four gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, and Lu...
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BIBLICAL TRUTH AND EVIDENCE
Jason Ashe · Sedspnroot3t561 0116mr at72g1161i8c6cM Att45p: uf9l186mA06g6 ·
NON-CHRISTIAN HISTORIANS DOCUMENTED THE DARKNESS OF THE EARTH DURING THE CRUCIFIXION
Three of the four gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) document the three-hour darkness during Christ's crucifixion (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44–45) This event is corroborated by four non-Christian eyewitness testimonies that also describe the darkness.
Thallus wrote a history of the eastern Mediterranean world since the Trojan War. Thallus wrote his regional history in about AD 52. Although his original writings have been lost, he is specifically quoted by Julius Africanus, a renowned third century historian. Africanus states, “Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away the darkness as an eclipse of the sun—unreasonably as it seems to me.” Apparently, Thallus attempted to ascribe a naturalistic explanation to the darkness during the crucifixion.
Phlegon was a Greek historian who wrote an extensive chronology around AD 137:
“In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e. ,AD 33) there was ‘the greatest eclipse of the sun’ and that ‘it became night in the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.” Annular (ring) eclipse. An eclipse could NOT have caused darkness at the crucifixion because they don’t occur during the full moon. Phlegon provides powerful confirmation of the Gospel accounts. He identifies the year and the exact time of day. In addition, he writes of an earthquake accompanying the darkness, which is specifically recorded in Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 27:51). However, like Thallus, he fallaciously attempts to interpret the darkness as a direct effect of a solar eclipse.
Africanus composed a five volume History of the World around AD221. He was also a pagan convert to Christianity. His historical scholarship so impressed Roman Emperor Alexander Severus that Africanus was entrusted with the official responsibility of building the Emperor’s library at the Pantheon in Rome. Africanus writes:
“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 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.”
Africanus rightly argues that a solar eclipse could not have occurred during the lunar cycle of the Passover. He also questions the link between an eclipse, an earthquake, and the miraculous events recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. Eclipses do not set off earthquakes and bodily resurrections. We also know that eclipses only last for several minutes, not three hours. For Africanus, naturalistic explanations for the darkness at the crucifixion were grossly insufficient, as he showed by applying real science. Africanus would later in life convert to Christianity.
Tertullian, the famous second century apologist, also hails the darkness as a ‘cosmic’ or ‘world event’. Appealing to skeptics, he wrote:
“At the moment of Christ’s death, the light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened at noon-day, which wonder is related in your own annals, and is preserved in your archives to this day.”
Apparently, Tertullian could state with confidence that documentation of the darkness could be found in legitimate historical archives.
Matthew 27:45 records that darkness came over all the land. A similar account is found in Mark 15:33, which states that darkness covered the whole land. Additionally, Luke 23:44 recounts the same event, stating that darkness came over the whole land. The Bible does not suggest that this darkness was confined to Jerusalem alone, but rather extended across the earth. The accounts of this unusual darkness that came over the earth were documented by four historians from different geographical locations. Thallus resided in Rome, Phlegon lived in Tralles (modern-day Turkey), Sextus Julius Africanus resided in Emmaus, in Palestine, and Tertullian lived in Carthage, located in what is now Tunisia.
We have an extensive array of extremely early, historically reliable, and highly respected sources for the darkness that covered the land during the crucifixion. The list of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Thallus, Phlegon, Africanus, and Tertullian. The Darkness at the crucifixion was not metaphor but a real documented event.
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Apr 23
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