The darkening of the sky I suspect was just a pure miracle, not caused by any natural phenomena. The Crucifixion darknesswould have been observable to many hundreds of thousands of peopleif not millions. Africanus does this by noting that the eve of Passover falls on a date of a near full moon, i.e., when the moon is opposite the sun in relation to the earth. Sure, there is a degree of speculation as to whether this actually was an occurrence during the Crucifixion (I fully realize there a 10-year swing is 3650-ish days according to modern calendar, which means a .0274% chance that it was on the actual day), but here again is evidence that the transcription from ancient origins thatPhlegon relied on and passed to writers who referenced his collected materials is scientifically plausible. Indeed Phlegon, who is an excellent calculator of olympiads, also writes about this, in his 13th book writing thus: "However in the fourth year of the 202nd olympiad [32 CE], an eclipse of the sun happened, greater and more excellent than any that had happened before it; at the sixth hour [around noon] day turned into dark night, so that the . The time from Friday 3 PM to sunset was counted as one day. However, unlike the New Testament, of which there are 25,366 early copies, many of these ancient writer's manuscripts are fragmented. It is important to readThallus comments to completely understand the issue. He quotes Phlegon as stating it was the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad, conflicting with Africanus who quotes Phlegon as stating it was the 2nd year; He asserts this occurred at the Passover both in the 18th year of Tiberius (spring 32AD) and in Olympiad 202.4 (spring 33AD); The reality is, Plinys statement is not evidence against the Crucifixion darkness. The Biblical Astronomer, 8(84). Here, the skeptics case isseeminglymore plausible on first glance. Each year of an Olympiad began on 1st July. [3]. An earthquake occurred in Bythinia and overthrew a great part of the city of Nicaea" It corresponds approximately to April in our modern Gregorian calendar. According to NASA, there WAS an actual solar eclipse in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCSEmap/0001-0100/33-09-12.gif. At His own free-will, He with a word dismissed from Him His spirit, anticipating the executioners work. He was athletically built and his firm, steady voice brought the audience to a hush. If his ministry was for 3 years, then he was crucified aged 36, and the darkness and earthquake would have occurred in that year of 36CE. His boyish face was flush and confident now. EARTHQUAKE AND DARKNESS THAT OCCURRED AT JESUS DEATH WAS RECORDED IN SECULAR HISTORY. So, we have evidence as strong for these miracles at the crucifixion and resurrection as we have for many other events in history that no one ever questions. 2004. Next, we consider the Gospel of Matthew. The darkness and earthquake were evident not just in Jerusalem but also in Nicea which is over 300 miles away from Jerusalem! On this day, Christians recall especially that part of the Creed in which we affirm of Jesus Christ: for our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered, died and was buried. These things we affirm to be historical facts. Another historian, Philipon (with Origen), confirms the historicity of Phlegon's statement by writing, "And about this darkness - Phlegon recalls it in the OlympiadsPhlegon 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 of Tiberius Caesar.". In reply. Read more . Pliny then proceeds and gives only two examples. Volume 2 contains the quotes on this webpage. The dates of the Olympic Games, recorded in Phlegon's Olympiad In ancient Greece the Olympic Games were held in the July of the first year of each Olympiad, which was a 4 year period running from July to June of each succeeding year. With this principle in mind, let us now consider the evidence. Doing so would only demolish their credibility on allotherpoints of the gospel they hoped to prove about Christ basedsolelyon personal testimony. This one too is during the 202ndOlympiad, although in the first year, not the fourth. Change). . This argument is sufficient to diffuse the skeptics argument with regard to Pliny. Donations to this ministry aretax-deductible. Contact Dr Richard Kent and recommendations, Bible Prophecy Concerning The Crucifixion, The Blood Covenant In Relation To The Crucifixion, Recording of The Crucifixion by Contemporary Historians, The Three Hour Period Of Darkness Is Confirmed By Many Historians, The Ad 33 Date Of The Crucifixion According To Phlegon, A Secular Greek Historian, The Ad 33 Date Of The Crucifixion From Bible Prophecy, Caiaphas Prophesied About The Crucifixion, In Gethsemane Jesus Sweated Blood, The Disciples Slept, And Judas Betrayed Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot Betrayed Jesus Christ For Thirty Pieces Of Silver, The Timing Of The Night Before The Crucifixion, Jesus Christ Stood In Our Place At The Six Trials, Jesus Was Condemned To Death For "blasphemy", The Crowd Choose Barabbas Rather Than Jesus. Second, though the Passover week celebrations of the Jews are well understood, no written records exist regarding the calendar and New Moon from the time of Christ, as the Jews used them. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This is a text widget. Moon phase and solar year events are shown on the day in Athens. At Fatima, the miracle was localized though still within many miles of the town. Phlegon had specifically stated in his Olympiades: "In the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad, there was a great eclipse of the Sun, greater than had ever been known before, for at the 6th hour the day was changed into night and the stars were seen in the heavens.". This comes from how Jewish scholars would interpret passages such as in Jonah where Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and also in Esther where Esther prayed and fasted for 3 days when she went to speak with King Xerxes. I believe Colin Humphreys is probably correct that the date of the crucifixion of Christ was Friday April 3, A.D. 33. Edit them in the Widget section of the, Repost: The Historicity of the Crucifixion Darkness. These aspects of the problem are critical and it shows the Jewish mindset about the calendar and counting days was quite different than our modern mindset. Is there any evidence of global or regional darkness in 36CE? The website for this is the National Geophysical Data Center (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov). We have already seen there is strong reason to believe a record of the Crucifixion darkness was held in the Roman archives. The audience began to show its disdain. Yet there has not been a good consensus among scholars about the exact date of the crucifixion. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Why preach something that was manifestly untrue? The darkness and earthquake were evident not just in Jerusalem but also in Nicea which is over 300 miles away from Jerusalem! The fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad I believe would include some of the same year as the 203rd Olympiad but the new Olympiad did not start till the Olympics event took place in the Summer. The first quote below is unique to Origen. https://creation.com/darkness-at-the-crucifixion-metaphor-or-real-history, http://www.icr.org/article/greatest-earthquakes-bible/, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/47555983/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/quake-reveals-day-jesus-crucifixion-researchers-believe/#.Wiu9sUqWaUk, http://www.wall.org/~aron/blog/darkness-at-noon/. Phlegon's greatest work was the writing of a history book, called The Olympiades. It is impossible to have the Moon block the Sun at Full Moon, which is when Passover took place. From this brief statement, the skeptic wants to declare victory and go home. Im fairly confident of the historical source, Your email address will not be published. The darkness during the crucifixion. At New Moon, the Moon is positioned between the Sun and the Earth with the dark side of the Moon facing the Earth. This firmly connects Jesus and the gospels to Roman history. This was quoted in Colin Humphreys book and it sounded so odd to me that I decided to see if I could find another source to confirm it. How could the science not possibly confirm this level of coincidence? The onah concept applies to part "days" and whole "days" so that they counted the same. It also gives a link to download Lightfoot's entire New Testament commentaries in four volumes as free PDF files. So a 24 hour daily cycle was from sunset to sunset. 27:63, Mark 8:31, Mark 9:31, Mark 10:33-34, and John 2:19. Steven OReilly is a graduate of the University of Dallas and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Retrieved November 30, 2006 from [2]. From the direct quote above, it is clear Phlegons source is an observer in Bithynia (in modern day Turkey), which is well over 500 miles away from Jerusalem. What miracles!!? Updated May 2013 These events of that day, and others surrounding them, such as the Crucifixion darkness described in the gospels, were real. Your email address will not be published. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.'"1 Evidence from Africanus The terms "day" and "night" sort of overlapped in their way of thinking. ", Africanus quoted a section of Phlegon's work as follows: "During the time of Tiberius Csar an eclipse of the sun occurred during the Full Moon.". 2. Someone shouted Show me a Bible miracle thats recorded in SECULAR history!!. No, but again, it doesnt have to either. However, history provides a sufficient answer as to why such documentary evidence has not survived on these topics of great interest. The last known Olympic celebration was held in the year 261 CE ( Common Era, also known as "AD" from the Latin Anno Domini which means In the Year of the Lord in English). Sure, its certainly possible to wildly claim an earthquake happened somewhere, at some time, as they occur on Earth all the time; I could generalize that a major earthquake hit San Francisco in 1900, as I was born approximately 80 years later and have no direct source, but would I be inaccurate in claiming that? The astronomical science tells us there was no solar eclipse over Bithynia in that year. (LogOut/ Even if there was an issue of corruption or inaccuratetranslation of the Phlegon writing, how could the science possibly have been faked when there would have been no way of faking it hundreds of years later without it being obviously exposed? And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. (Luke 23:44-45 ). Thesestatements reveal several key things: 1. . 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