37
Bible and Spade 26.2 (2013)
By Rodger C. Young
In the closing days of his life, Herod the Great was presented
with a crisis called the golden eagle incident. Herod had placed
a golden eagle over the entrance to the temple. Although he
professed that it was an offering dedicated to the Lord, it was
regarded as a desecration of the temple by two rabbis, Matthias
and Judas, who provoked a group of more than 40 individuals into
pulling down the eagle. Herod’s soldiers captured and executed
many of the participants; Matthias and Judas were burned alive.
After relating this sordid incident, Josephus comments that the
night after Matthias and Judas were executed by burning, there
was an eclipse of the moon (Antiquities 17.6.2–4/17.149–67).
This is the only reference to a lunar eclipse in all the
writings of Josephus. Perhaps a modern historian would not
have mentioned it, judging that an astronomical event like an
eclipse is independent of the activities of man, unless it preceded
some important occasion such as a battle and so inuenced a
decision such as whether or not to go to war. In the ancient
world, however, an eclipse was regarded as an omen or portent
whenever it happened. For Josephus, the eclipse in the night after
Herod put to death the two protesters was a sign of displeasure
from God. This is shown by the fact that Josephus describes,
immediately after the mention of the eclipse, Herod’s physical
suffering, a suffering from which he could nd no relief until
his death at some time between the eclipse and Passover. In the
Antiquities passage, the eclipse and Herod’s torment signied
the same thing: God’s solemn judgment on Herod after he put to
death individuals more righteous than himself.
Jonah and the Bur-Sagale Eclipse
Another famous eclipse, this time of the sun, may have
played a part in the account of Jonah and the Ninevites. The
time of Jonah’s preaching in Nineveh can only be estimated
very generally from the Bible. Second Kings 14:25 says that
Jeroboam II, king of Israel, restored the northern and eastern
borders of Israel according to the word of the Lord spoken by the
prophet Jonah, son of Amittai. Jeroboam II began a coregency
with his father Jehoash in 793/92 BC and reigned alone from
782/81 to late summer or early fall of 753 (Thiele 1983: 116;
McFall 1991: 45; Young 2005: 245). Assuming that Jonah’s
prophecy of restoration came early in the reign of Jeroboam,
Jonah’s ministry would have been in the rst half of the eighth
century BC, i.e. from about 793 to 750 BC. During this time
the Assyrian Eponym Canon records an eclipse of the sun that
occurred in the eponym of Bur-Sagale, in the month of Simanu.
Modern astronomical calculations date this eclipse to June
15, 763 BC, and show it was a total eclipse as it passed near
Nineveh.
1
For historians, the importance of this eclipse is that
it provided an absolute date that allowed assigning BC years
to the yearly eponyms of the Assyrian Eponym Canon (AEC).
The accuracy of the AEC dates was later conrmed when new
inscriptions were found, and also when compared to the data
derived from Ptolemy’s Canon for the century for which the
Canon overlaps with the AEC, 747 to 648 BC (Thiele 1983: 71).
Could the Bur-Sagale eclipse be part of the reason why Jonah,
when he nally got to Nineveh, found a city that was serious
about repentance? This has been suggested by various writers,
and if true it would suggest that Jonah’s trip to Nineveh took
place during the reign of Ashur-Dan III, who reigned from 773 to
755 BC. But the eclipse was not the only calamity during Ashur-
Dan’s reign. The AEC recounts a plague in 765, the eclipse and
a revolt in the city of Ashur in 763, a revolt in Ashur again in
762, a revolt in Arrapha in 761 and 760, and a plague plus a
revolt in the city of Guzana in 759. The year 758 was marked by
a campaign against Guzana and then “peace in the land,” after
which the king remained “in the land” for the following two
years. Although there were military campaigns in 755, 754, 749,
and 748, the AEC does not list any misfortune until the city of
Calah revolted in 746 BC, which was the ninth year of Ashur-
Dan’s brother and successor, Ashur-Nirari V. The Assyrians
regarded plagues and eclipses as divine signs of judgment for the
whole land (Wiseman 1979: 44). The plague of 765, followed by
38 Bible and Spade 26.2 (2013)
BC and Passover that year, insufcient
for the many activities that Josephus
relates happened during that time,
whereas there were an adequate 89
days between the eclipse of January
10, 1 BC and Passover that year. In
addition only about one-fourth of the
moon was fully eclipsed in 4 BC,
whereas in 1 BC the eclipse was total.
2
W.E. Filmer, writing in 1966, also
corrected the notion that Herod died in
4 BC by showing that this date arose
because historians did not realize that
Herod’s sons back-dated their reigns
to 4 BC. Herod had assigned them to
various posts at that time, although
they did not begin their independent
reigns until 1 BC when Herod died.
Filmer’s ideas were accepted in Jack
Finegan’s Handbook of Biblical
Chronology (1998: 298–301), and
have been expanded and defended by
Andrew Steinmann (2009; 2011: 219–
54). Steinmann also discusses new
research on the Quirinius Census (Lk
2:1–2) that agrees with the 1 BC date
for Herod’s death. These more recent
studies are consistent with the writings
of the majority of early Church
Fathers, who dated Jesus’ birth, which
necessarily was before the death of
Herod, to sometime in either late 3 BC
or early 2 BC. The many considerations that support Herod’s
death occurring in early 1 BC are therefore in agreement with
the dates of lunar eclipses and dates for the start of Passover
in the years 5 to 1 BC, as calculated by modern astronomical
methods.
Year of the Crucixion
Astronomy again comes into play in the discussion of the
year in which the Messiah was put to death and rose victorious
from the grave. The four Gospels relate that the Crucixion
took place on the “Day of Preparation” for the Sabbath, i.e. on
a Friday. It was also the 14th of Nisan according to the ofcial
Jewish calendar in use in the rst century AD. Astronomical
calculations allow only two years in the range from AD 26 to
AD 36 in which Nisan 14, the rst day of Passover, was a Friday.
The years are AD 30 and AD 33. The rst of these has been
advocated by several writers who maintained that the 15th year
of Tiberius cited in Luke 3:1 for the start of Jesus’ ministry refers
to the 15th year of an assumed coregency between Augustus
and Tiberius that began sometime between AD 11 and AD
13, rather than starting the 15 years at the death of Augustus
in AD 14. However, all extant coins and inscriptions date the
reign of Tiberius as beginning in AD 14. The age of Jesus when
He began His ministry, “about 30” (Luke 3:23), is also more
consistent with the Crucixion in AD 33 than in AD 30, as
a revolt and eclipse in 763 and then revolts in the following four
years would only conrm in the mind of the Assyrians that they
were under divine displeasure. It is then appealing to think that
the “year of peace” in 758 and the lack of rebellions and plagues
in the following 11 years were a consequence of God’s mercy
because of the repentance of the nation. If so, this would date
Jonah’s appearance at Nineveh to 759 or 758 BC.
The New Testament: When Did
Herod the Great Die?
Such a correlation of Jonah’s ministry with the Bur-Sagale
eclipse and other events in Assyrian history is speculative.
In contrast, the usefulness of astronomy in determining the
chronology of two important New Testament events is now on
a rm footing. The rst of these is the date of Herod’s death, for
which the lunar eclipse on the night after the burning of Matthias
and Judas plays a decisive role. For many years the prevailing
opinion was that the eclipse mentioned by Josephus was the
one that modern astronomical calculations date to the 13th of
March, 4 BC. However, in 1880, F. Riess stated that Herod did
not die in 4 BC, “but soon after the eclipse in 1 B.C., because
the other data, namely the numerous events that took place
between the eclipse and the Passover, could not be squeezed
into the four weeks available in 4 B.C.” (Filmer 1966: 284).
There were only 29 days between the eclipse of March 13, 4
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=-07620615
NASA graphic showing the path of the solar eclipse of June 15, 763 BC. The eclipse
would have been seen as total in the area between the blue lines. The site of ancient Nineveh
(the city) is about four miles northeast of the center of the modern city of Mosul, Iraq; the
province of Nineveh occupied a considerably larger territory. If this NASA reconstruction is
correct, the eclipse would have been observed as only partial in the city, but total just a few
miles further north. The fact that modern astronomical programs show the eclipse as only
partial in the city itself has led some investigators to surmise that the eclipse mentioned
as occurring in the eponym of Bur-Sagale was some other eclipse at a different date.
This is usually done to support alternative biblical chronologies that do not agree with the
conventional interpretation of the Assyrian Eponym Canon (AEC). However, it is precisely
in the eighth century BC that the AEC is most assured of being correct, because various
copies of the AEC have been found that overlap this time, and these in turn overlap the
reigns of the kings of Assyria and Babylon given in Ptolemy’s Canon, which begins in 747 BC.
39
Bible and Spade 26.2 (2013)
are events related to Roman policy and the actions of Pilate.
A full discussion of the issues involved is found in Andrew
Steinmann’s From Abraham to Paul, page 219 n. 329 and pages
257 to 289.
3
Jack Finegan, who previously advocated AD 30
for the Crucixion and Resurrection, now advocates AD 33
(1998: 340, 368). In these considerations, astronomy narrowed
down the possible years to two choices. Other criteria were then
employed to decide between the two choices, criteria that rule
quite denitely against AD 30 in favor of AD 33. The death
of Christ therefore was on Nisan 14 (Friday, April 3), and His
Resurrection on Sunday, April 5, AD 33.
The Lunar Eclipse of April 3, AD 33
In 1872, J.R. Hind published a paper in the British
scientic journal Nature in which he noted that the
“moon was eclipsed on the generally received date of
the Crucixion, AD 33, April 3.”
4
Bible scholars paid
little or no attention to this observation, because the best
astronomical calculations available at the time showed
that the eclipse would not have been visible from
Jerusalem. In the 20th century, however, there was a
major advance in the accuracy of historical astronomical
calculations, due largely to studies of the change of the
earth’s rate of rotation over the centuries. Using ancient
astronomical observations from Babylon and China,
the rate of slowing of the earth’s rotation is now known
precisely enough so that the timing of events such as the
rising of the moon or the sun as viewed from any point on
earth and at any time in the last 2000 years can be known
within about three minutes (Humphreys 2011: 90).
In 1981, a British scientist who had learned of the
improvements in astronomical accuracy thought it might
be interesting to revisit calculations for the eclipse of AD
33. Colin Humphreys, who was teaching at Oxford at the
time, asked Oxford astrophysicist Graem Waddington
to determine whether the lunar eclipse would have
been visible at Jerusalem, and if so, at what time it
would have been observed. Very ttingly, their ndings
were published in the same scientic journal that had
published Hind’s study 111 years earlier (Humphreys
and Waddington 1983). The results were as follows.
Moonrise in Jerusalem on the evening of Friday, April
3, AD 33 was at about 6:20 p.m., right after sunset.
The part of the moon that appeared rst was in the full
shadow (the umbra) of the earth. After several minutes,
the remainder of the moon was seen; this lower part was
in the partial shadow of the earth (the penumbra). The
eclipse lasted until about 7:11 p.m., at which time the
moon was restored to its usual brightness and coloration.
The accuracy of Waddington’s calculations has been
demonstrated by the acceptance of the paper by Nature, a peer-
reviewed scientic journal that would not have printed the paper
if there was anything wrong with its science. Waddington’s
calculation is also in general agreement with NASA gures
for this eclipse, although the NASA chart
5
suggests that the
eclipse would have been visible for several minutes longer
than Waddington’s estimate that ended the eclipse at 7:11 p.m.
Jerusalem time.
In determining what the eclipse looked like, Waddington
took into account other phenomena that physicists have studied
related to the appearance of the sun or the moon at sunset. These
phenomena are well known and may be observed on any clear
evening. The rst is that the moon or sun appears somewhat
oblate due to the refraction of the earth’s atmosphere. The second
is that, because there is more atmosphere for the sun’s or moon’s
light to go through at sunset, the shorter blue wavelengths are
ltered out, resulting in the familiar red color of either celestial
body at this time. In the case of an eclipsed moon, there would be
the extra darkness of the earth’s shadow on the face of the moon.
Further, some of the light reected back from the moon would
have passed through the earth’s atmosphere twice, adding to the
reddening. These considerations for the special case of a lunar
eclipse viewed at sunset mean that the fully eclipsed portion
would not be just red, but dark red. Blood red. The portion in
the penumbra (partial shadow) would show a lighter hue, red or
possibly orange/yellow.
This phenomenon (the reddening of an eclipsed moon as seen
at sunset) has been observed in modern times, and observers
Steven A. Austin
Dead Sea varves, showing the perturbation caused by an earthquake
that geologists date to sometime in AD 31, plus or minus ve years.
The head of a geologist’s pick is shown for scale. According to geologist
Steven Austin, the historical accounts in the gospels allow specifying
the date as April 3, AD 33, the day of the Crucixion (Austin 2012), a
specication that is more exact than is possible using geology alone.
Varves are layers formed by deposition of silt and/or pollen and other
organic material at the bottom of lakes. Due to a difference in runoff from
the surrounding terrain in the various seasons of the year, a single varve
layer usually consists of paired dark and light bands that represent one
year’s activity. Varves are therefore similar to tree-rings, and the counting
of varves can be used to determine the number of elapsed years since a
particular varve was formed.
40 Bible and Spade 26.2 (2013)
to make crucixion a very visible event, as a warning against
anyone else attempting the crimes for which the victims were
being punished. To that end, Jesus and the two thieves were
crucied by a public road, outside the city wall, with the charges
against them prominently displayed. The Passover in AD 33,
intended as a time of rejoicing and thanksgiving over God’s
great deliverance in the past, had instead assumed an ominous,
hateful, and tragic nature.
The Gospel writers describe further disturbances. About noon
a darkness overtook the land that lasted for three hours. We are
not told whether it was caused by clouds or a dust storm. Then at
approximately 3 p.m., when the Figure on the central cross died,
there was an earthquake—something
that we no longer associate with divine
displeasure, but which must have
had this signicance for at least one
individual, a Roman centurion who
was stationed near the cross of Jesus.
With more insight and acuity than
possessed by many modern critics
of the Gospel accounts, this soldier
concluded that the righteous man who
had just died was truly God’s Son.
After the earthquake, there may
have been a respite from the troubling
phenomena of nature. The darkness
lifted; the atmosphere became clear
again. The terrifying sight outside
the city wall came to an end as three
bodies were removed from public
display and buried. Soon there would
be the appearance of the Passover
moon. In the wisdom of God, the
feast of Passover always took place
in the middle of the lunar month,
guaranteeing that a full moon would
illuminate the nighttime activities of
the festival. Everyone knew that the
comforting sight of the rising full
moon could be expected right around
sunset.
Shortly after the sun set in the west,
the moon rose in the east. It was dark.
Dark red. Bloody red.
If God spoke to people in ancient
times, we would not expect Him to
use a modern language such as French or English. We would
expect Him to use as His medium of communication a language
that they would understand. For the Jews, this would be Hebrew
or Aramaic. In the modern world, an eclipse of the sun or moon
should not convey any message of divine displeasure or coming
judgment. We pride ourselves on our scientic knowledge; these
are natural phenomena, the cause of which, and the timing of
which, are well understood, and their meaning to us is only that
the laws of physics are being obeyed. However, that was not
the signicance that the people of Israel would have assigned to
the lunar eclipse in April of AD 33. For them, as for Josephus
when writing about Herod, the eclipse was God speaking in
have used just this terminology: the moon appeared “blood red.”
In January 2001 an eclipse of the moon was visible from Wales
at sunset. The front page of The Times for January 10, 2001
showed a picture of the moon with a caption underneath reading
“The blood-red moon over the Welsh borders last night.” The
accompanying write-up continued with, “Thousands of people
who braved freezing temperatures to watch last night’s total lunar
eclipse were rewarded with a stunning view of one of nature’s
marvels: the Moon turned blood-red” (Humphreys 2011: 86).
The Daily Mail for this date used the same expression: “The
rst total lunar eclipse of the 21st century turned the moon blood
red.”
The day of the AD 33 eclipse—Friday, April 3—must have
been a difcult one for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The city
was crowded; Jewish people and proselytes had gathered from
all areas of the land and from far countries for the celebration
of the Passover. For some, the day had started before dawn with
a mob scene before the Roman governor and before their own
leaders, in which they had been incited to demand the death
of the miracle-worker from Galilee. Mob hysteria is always
emotionally taxing, but even more so when the emotions are
being manipulated toward putting someone to death. Once the
consent of Pilate was obtained, there followed the horrible scene
of the crucixion of the three malefactors. Roman practice was
NASA 2011
NASA image of a total lunar eclipse, as viewed at sunset. In this image, the moon is in
the full geometric shadow (the umbra) of the earth. That does not mean, however, that no
light from the sun was getting through to the surface of the moon and being reected back
to earth. In a total lunar eclipse, some sunlight is bent slightly while passing through the
earth’s atmosphere and reaches the surface of the moon. It is then reected back, passing
once again through much more atmosphere than when the moon is viewed higher in the
sky. The shorter (blue) wavelengths are ltered out on both passages through the earth’s at-
mosphere, resulting in the unusual color of a the umbral part of a lunar eclipse when viewed
at sunset, a color described as “blood red” by modern observers.
41
Bible and Spade 26.2 (2013)
a language they
understood. God
was revealing His
displeasure toward
those who had put
to death Someone
more righteous than
themselves.
This then is the
problem for the
skeptic. The lunar
eclipse, especially
with the unusual
darkening that only
occurs in those places
on the globe that
observe it at sunset,
did not happen at an
arbitrary time, even
an arbitrary time in
the earthly ministry
of the Son of God. It
happened on the day
that Christianity has
always maintained
was the most
important day in the
history of the world
since Creation: the
day on which the
Lamb of God died for
the sins of mankind. The Resurrection, two days later, was God’s
sign that Jesus was who He claimed to be, the Messiah whose
suffering and death were for our sake (Is 53:5,6,8,10,11,12), after
which He would rise from the dead (Is 53:10,11; Ps 16:10,11).
Most people today would claim they had never seen a miracle.
If at any time they have read the many Old Testament prophecies
of the Messiah that were fullled in the life of Christ, then they
have observed a miracle without recognizing it, because the
prediction of these events beforehand, and then their fulllment,
are a miracle. This includes, but is not limited to, the prophecies
in Isaiah just cited. The deniteness and clearness with which
Isaiah 53 describes the person and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth
is testied to by the fact that this portion of Isaiah is not read
in the synagogues. Besides these prophecies, the other miracle
attesting to the signicance of the Crucixion is the Resurrection
two days later. Unbelief has never provided a credible alternative
explanation of this event, and the halls of atheism have many
unoccupied alcoves where those who attempted to discredit the
bodily resurrection of Christ became convinced that the Gospel
accounts were true, and so became believers, and, in many cases,
fervent evangelists for the truth.
To these two classes of miracles that testify to the meaning
of Christ’s death—the prophecies beforehand and the
Resurrection—there must be added the testimony of the lunar
eclipse. It has been customary for skeptics to deny the natural
phenomena that the Bible associates with the death of Christ.
Modern science cannot prove the darkening of the sun while
Christ was on the Cross, so the Gospel accounts are rejected
on this matter, with no evidence to the contrary. Neither can we
prove from science that an earthquake occurred on that day, and
so this also is denied, again with no contrary evidence. Recent
reports based on varve samples from the Dead Sea state that
there was an earthquake in Judea sometime between AD 26 and
AD 36 (Williams et al. 2012), and a more recent examination of
varve strata near the Dead Sea concluded that the epicenter of
the earthquake was near Jerusalem (Austin 2012). The authors
of the rst study were objective enough to point out that the
Dead Sea varve data are compatible with an earthquake on the
day of the Crucixion, while they also offered two alternatives:
1) that the earthquake was not on that day but the author of
Matthew’s gospel “borrowed” the earthquake from its actual day
of occurrence; or 2) Matthew just invented it altogether as an
“allegorical ction” (Williams et al. 2012: 1226). Some reports
of this paper went beyond what was actually said and stated that
the varve evidence showed that the Crucixion could be set at
April 3, AD 33, whereas the paper only stated that the data are
consistent with this date, while the actual date of the Crucixion
is determined by other means. Stating that the varve data give the
actual day, month, and year of the Crucixion was a regrettable
misinterpretation of what can be deduced from considering only
the geological data without reference to the historical accounts
in the gospels. Worse yet was the approach of some in the secular
press and in anti-Christian blog sites who said that although the
varve data showed there was an earthquake about this time, it
Michael Luddeni
A modern reconstruction of the appearance of the moon rising over the Mount of Olives on the evening
of April 3, AD 33, as viewed from Jerusalem at approximately 6:22 p.m. The rst visibility would have occurred
about two minutes earlier. At this time, the upper left section was in the full shadow (umbra) of the earth, while
the lower portion was in the penumbra (partial shadow). The color of the upper (umbral) portion would have
been similar to what is shown in the previous picture, which shows the case when the entire moon is in the
umbra. The lower portion would have been a lighter red, fading possibly to yellow/orange. The eclipse lasted until
approximately 7:11 p.m. local time, after which the moon would have appeared in its usual coloration.
42 Bible and Spade 26.2 (2013)
These verses are followed by the physical manifestations of
verses 30 and 31, and then the closing verse of Joel’s prophecy
(2:32), which refers to the salvation procured through the death
of the Messiah and offered to all who will believe and call
on His name. This verse reads, in the NIV translation, “And
everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as
the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.”
This does not refer to the end time at the conclusion of history. It
refers to our present age, an age that began with Christ’s atoning
death and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
Consequently, the verses that introduce Joel’s prophecy and
the verse that concludes the prophecy have the same frame of
reference. They do not refer to the Second Coming of the Lord.
With this background, let us look at the intervening two
verses that speak of physical or natural phenomena. Many
commentators have said these marvels refer to the end of the
age rather than the time implied by the preceding and following
verses, namely the beginning of the Gospel dispensation. The
signs are as follows: “I will show wonders in the heavens and
on the earth, blood and re and billows of smoke. The sun will
be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Joel 2:30-31, NIV).
Verse 32 then presents the offer of salvation and a promise of
deliverance. The deliverance possibly refers to when Christians
escaped death in the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in AD 70
because they heeded the words of the Savior in Matthew 24:15–
18 and Mark 13:14–16 and ed the city.
There is nothing in the verses dealing with the physical
phenomena related to the outpouring of the Spirit that must be
put off until the end of the age. The sun had turned to darkness
on the day of the Crucixion (Mt 27:45, Mk 15:33, Lk 23:44).
Thanks to the advances of modern astronomy and the research
of Humphreys and Waddington, we now know that the moon did
indeed “turn to blood” in a way that the Jewish people would
have understood, and this happened on the evening of the day
when their Messiah was crucied. The only question remaining
might be about the blood and re and billows of smoke. It is
not clear what these words describe, but casting the prophecy to
the Second Coming does nothing to clarify their meaning. We
cannot be dogmatic, but a reasonable interpretation is that they
refer to the overthrow of Jerusalem by the Romans, at which
time many were slain (“blood”) and the temple and much of the
city were burned (“re and pillars of smoke”).
It is doubtful that anyone understood the import of Joel’s
prophecy in the time between the darkening of the sun and
moon on Friday, April 3 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost, seven weeks later. During this time, there were
unsettling rumors that Jesus, whom many regarded as a prophet,
was alive and had appeared to His disciples. What was puzzling
about these rumors was that they would be easily extinguished if
the authorities could produce Jesus’ body; this they could not do.
Instead, the ofcial story was that Jesus’ disciples had stolen the
body. Surely no thinking person could believe that; this would
have been a capital offense if it were true, and no one was even
trying to arrest the disciples.
The confusion, for many, came to an end on the Day of
Pentecost. As the second of the three feasts which all Jewish
did not happen at the death of Christ, and therefore Matthew’s
account was a lie. Since the varve data cannot be used to
determine the day on which the earthquake happened, these data
cannot be used to say it was not on the day of the Crucixion
any more than they can be used to say it was on that day. By
twisting what was actually said in a scientic study, skepticism
has once again been diligent in building its case to dismiss the
evidence in the Gospel accounts and conrm unbelief based on
no real evidence.
But stubborn unbelief cannot dismiss the eclipse. The
principles of modern science, which we are told must be
believed above any belief in the supernatural (which is not a
scientic statement, but a religious statement), now prove that
the foreboding eclipse happened just after the death of the
Christian (and Jewish, and universal) Messiah, and there is no
doubt what the eclipse would have meant to the people of that
time.
This was, in a sense, a “natural” miracle. Its miraculous aspect
lies in its timing: the timing and trajectory of the moon’s orbit
around the earth so there was an eclipse at this time, and also
the timing of the earth’s rate of rotation so that, at the longitude
of Jerusalem, the earth’s atmosphere would cause the moon to
appear with a dark red color when it rose over the horizon. This
third testimony to the importance of Christ’s death should be
especially meaningful to those who say they will only believe
what can be proven by science.
6
The Prophecy of Joel
It gets worse. Worse, that is, for the edice of unbelief, but
better for the household of faith. The physical phenomena
associated with the death of Christ were foretold hundreds of
years before by the prophet Joel. Before looking at the specics,
Joel’s prophecy, as found in Joel 2:28–32, should be examined
in light of other Old Testament scriptures that touch on the same
theme.
The two verses in Joel’s prophecy that deal with signs in the
physical realm are verses 30 and 31 (in the Hebrew Bible these
are verses 3 and 4 of chapter 3). The preceding two verses that
introduce the prophecy have as their subject the pouring out of
the Spirit of God on all esh—men and women, servants, old
and young. This will be accompanied by the spiritual gifts of
prophecy, visions, and dreams. The coming of the Spirit was
foretold by the Lord in his Last Supper discourse (Jn 16:7–15).
It is also spoken of in Ez 11:19–20 and 36:26–27, where God
says that he will replace the stony heart of His people with a
new heart of esh and put His Spirit in them. It is the subject of
Jer 31:31–34, where God promises to bring in a new covenant
with His people that will be marked by His speaking directly to
their hearts and minds instead of through prophets and priests.
Christian doctrine has always been that these prophecies in Joel,
Ezekiel, and Jeremiah look forward to the age of the Holy Spirit,
that is, the church age, which began with outpouring of the
Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Christ’s
Resurrection. Verses 28 and 29 of Joel chapter 2, “I will pour
out my Spirit on all esh...” therefore refer to the beginning of
the Church age.
43
Bible and Spade 26.2 (2013)
Notes
1
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas-1/SEatlas-0779.GIF.
2
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCLE/5MCLE-Figs-05.pdf.
3
The present author has a full review of Dr. Steinmann’s book on the ABR
website, www.BibleArchaeology.org.
4
This citation and the following discussion of the scientic ndings related to
the lunar eclipse of April 3, AD 33 are taken from Humphreys 2011, chapter 6.
5
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEhistory/LEplot/LE0033Apr03P.pdf.
6
To accept as true only what can be proven scientically rules out the basic tenet
of this philosophy, which cannot be demonstrated scientically. This foolishness
was the premise of the old and thoroughly discredited “logical positivism.”
Bibliography
Austin, Steven A.
2012 Jerusalem Earthquake of 33 A.D.: Evidence within Laminated Mud
of the Dead Sea, Israel. Paper No. 235–11, annual meeting of the
Geological Society of America, Charlotte NC. Online at https://gsa.
confex.com/gsa/2012AM/webprogram/Paper204688.html.
Filmer, W.E.
1966 The Chronology of the Reign of Herod the Great. Journal of
Theological Studies 17: 283–98.
Finegan, Jack
1998 Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition. Peabody MA:
Hendrickson.
Humphreys, Colin J.
2011 The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of
Jesus. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
Humphreys, Colin J. and Waddington, W. Graem
1983 Dating the Crucixion. Nature 306: 743–46.
McFall, Leslie
1991 A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and
Chronicles. Bibliotheca Sacra 148: 3–45.
NASA
2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTIeUYKll2o (video explaining
eclipses).
Riess, F.
1880 Das Geburtsjahr Christi. Freiburg, Germany: Herder. Cited in Filmer
1966: 283–84.
Steinmann, Andrew E.
2009 When Did Herod the Great Reign? Novum Testamentum 51: 1–29.
2011 From Abraham to Paul: A Biblical Chronology. St. Louis MO:
Concordia.
Thiele, Edwin R.
1983 The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, third ed. Grand
Rapids MI: Zondervan/Kregel.
Williams, Jefferson B.; Schwab, Marcus J.; and Brauer, A.
2012 An Early First-century Earthquake in the Dead Sea. International
Geology Review 54, 1219–28.
Wiseman, Donald J.
1979 Jonah’s Nineveh. Tyndale Bulletin 30: 29–52.
Young, Rodger C.
2005 Tables of Reign Lengths from the Hebrew Court Recorders. Journal
of the Evangelical Theological Society 48: 225–48.
men were required to attend, Jerusalem was again crowded with
Jews and proselytes from the various nations of the empire.
And once again there was a physical phenomenon, this time the
sound of a strong wind that was centered on the place where
the disciples of Jesus were gathered. This was accompanied by
the people hearing various languages in which God’s word was
proclaimed. The purpose of the wind and the languages was to
assemble the people so that they could hear God’s explanation of
the events that had troubled them, as spoken by His chosen agent
for this task, the apostle Peter. When the crowd had gathered,
they witnessed the outward signs of the coming in power of
God’s Spirit, providing a visual and audible afrmation that
the prophecies of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Joel regarding a new
dispensation when the Holy Spirit would indwell all His people
were now realized. For the disciples, the manifestations were not
only outward, but inward; the Holy Spirit had come to indwell
them and provide an internal witness to God’s reality. Paul
later referred to this precious truth in Romans 8:16: “The Spirit
Himself testies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
Empowered by that Spirit, Peter preached to the assembled
thousands, boldly proclaiming that the One they had crucied
had indeed risen from the dead and God had made Him both
Lord and Messiah. The text he started from was the prophecy
of Joel.
As found in Acts 2:16–21, Peter quoted all three parts of Joel’s
prophecy: the introductory verses about the day when God’s
Spirit would be poured out on all esh; the two intermediate
verses about the physical manifestations on earth and in the
skies; and the conclusion that “everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be saved.” For Peter, Joel’s prophecy was being
fullled, and had been fullled, before the eyes of his audience.
He did not say, “This is similar to what Joel spoke of,” but “This
is what (touto estin to) was spoken by the prophet Joel.” Or, in
the memorable rst words of the KJV, “This is that.” The people
were witnessing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit referred to in
the rst part of the prophecy, just as, seven weeks previously,
they had witnessed the sun turning to darkness and the moon to
blood spoken of in the middle verses. For Peter and his listeners,
Joel’s prophecy was for the immediate present, not some distant
future time. And for at least three thousand individuals that day
his sermon made sense out of the whole ministry of Jesus of
Nazareth and the many things they had been puzzling over since
His death and reported resurrection. They now understood, and
“Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about
three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41,
NIV).
The skeptic can always nd some reason to cast doubt on
most of these events, even when there is no contrary evidence,
and he or she will nd an audience among the similar-minded.
But it is no longer intellectually defensible to ignore the eclipsed
moon that became visible three and one-half hours after the death
of the Messiah, and what its blood-red appearance would have
meant to those who witnessed the Crucixion. May God grant
that reection on the timing and science of this event will lead
those who value scientic objectivity, and are willing to follow
the truth wherever it leads, to a full understanding of this and all
other events related to Christ’s ministry, death, and resurrection.
Rodger C. Young has a BA degree in physics from
Reed College, Portland OR, and BA and MA degrees
in mathematics from Oxford
Unversity, where he was a
Rhodes Scholar. He has also
done graduate work in theology
and biblical languages at
Nazarene Theological Seminary.
Following his retirement from
IBM in 2003 he has devoted
himself to the study of biblical
chronology and related subjects.
44 Bible and Spade 26.2 (2013)
Eclipses, whether of the sun or the moon, are not rare. There
are from two to ve solar eclipses that can be viewed from
somewhere on earth each year, and every year there is at least
one lunar eclipse of one type or another. “Total” lunar eclipses
are those for which the entire moon is covered by the earth’s
full shadow (the umbra) at some time during the eclipse.
“Partial” eclipses are those for which only a portion of the
moon’s surface is covered
by the earth’s full shadow,
and “penumbral” eclipses
are those for which no part
of the moon is covered
by the earth’s umbra, but
a portion of the moon is
slightly darkened by being
in the earth’s partial shadow,
or penumbra. Penumbral
eclipses are usually too
faint to be observed by the
unaided eye. The other two
types can be seen by anyone
who is on the night side of
the earth when the eclipse
occurs, unless their visibility is
obscured by clouds.
It might be thought that
during a total lunar eclipse
the face of the moon could
not be seen at all, since the
moon’s entire surface is in the geometric shadow of the earth.
However, the accompanying graphic from NASA shows
how some sunlight is bent (refracted) as it passes through the
earth’s atmosphere, and thereby reaches the moon’s surface.
The shorter blue wavelengths are scattered by the earth’s
atmosphere and the light that does reach the moon during a
lunar eclipse therefore takes on a reddish tinge. The reddening
becomes more pronounced and deeper when the moon is
viewed from those longitudes of the earth where it is just
after sunset or just before sunrise. In these cases, the light
returning to the earth again travels horizontally through the
earth’s atmosphere and undergoes further reddening, taking
on a dark red color. An additional phenomenon in effect
for such observers is that the moon, when observed at the
horizon, appears to be enlarged. NASA (2011) states that “For
reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists,
low hanging moons look unnaturally large when they beam
through trees, buildings, and other foreground objects.”
This phenomenon has been known for a long time, and an
explanation was offered by the Christian philosopher George
Berkeley (1709) in his insightful book on the theory of vision.
These two effects—the apparent enlargement of the moon
when seen on or near the horizon, and its reddening during an
eclipse—combine to make a lunar eclipse viewed at sunset or
sunrise an impressive sight. The accompanying article touches
on the psychological effect this must have had on the people
Eclipses: the Science and the Pseudoscience
of Jerusalem at the time of the lunar eclipse immediately after
the death of Christ.
As explained in the associated article, the timing of the
lunar eclipse at the death of Christ has only been established
since 1981, and the Christian community has not had long to
reect on its signicance. Recently, however, there has been
an unfortunate misuse of the science of eclipses that can only
tend to discredit the genuine
science associated with the
lunar eclipse of AD 33. A
popular speaker has claimed
in his television show that
there will be blood-red lunar
eclipses visible at Jerusalem
on April 15, 2014 and
April 4, 2015 at the start of
Passover in these two years,
and on October 8, 2014
at the time of the Feast of
Tabernacles in that year. It is
then claimed that this is not
the speaker’s idea, but comes
straight from NASA. NASA
is also cited as showing
there will be a solar eclipse
on March 20, 2015. These
phenomena are presented
as signs of the end times for
Israel and the world.
Despite such claims, NASA tables show that Jerusalem
will be on the day side of the earth all during the two lunar
eclipses of 2014, and hence these eclipses will not be visible
from Jerusalem, much less be seen as blood-red from there.
The lunar eclipse of September 28, 2015 will be visible from
Jerusalem just before sunrise, and will indeed appear blood-
red to those who rise early enough to see it. The shadow of
the solar eclipse of March 20, 2015 will pass between Iceland
and Great Britain in the far North Atlantic. Hardly anyone will
see it unless they make a special effort to be in its path. The
pseudoscience that has misrepresented these astronomical
facts can be a stumbling block to anyone investigating the
claims of Christianity. Whereas true science is always on the
side of the Gospel, any dishonest or questionable means used
to support the cause of Christ will cause skeptics to think
that they can also ignore valid arguments that support God’s
eternal truth.
— Rodger C. Young
Bibliography
Berkeley, George
1709 An Essay towards a new theory of vision. Gale Ecco, 2010;
originally published in Dublin, Ireland, in AD 1709.
NASA
2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTIeUYKll2o (video
explaining eclipses).
NASA 2011
NASA diagram showing the diffraction of the sun’s rays during
a total lunar eclipse, whereby the light striking the (otherwise dark)
surface of the moon takes on a red color. Observers at the top or
bottom of the globe in this diagram would be observing the effect
at sunrise or at sunset, and for them there would be a special second
reddening as the reected light returns horizontally through the
atmosphere.
