Darkness during the 6th to 9th hour
One of my favorite and most reliable kinds of evidence from external sources is what is called “indirect evidence from disinterested sources“. One in particular stands out in my mind in relation to this question or application, because it addresses this barely noticed or talked about factor of the crucifixion story. The unexpected total darkness that allegedly consumed the nations around Israel for about three hours while Jesus suffered the cross.
The New Testament use to be the only known historical source for this phenomena, and of course that situation brought forth the typical accusation among modernist scholars, that “these myth-makers were obviously using a dramatic addition”, or perhaps these ignorant people didn’t understand the natural lawfulness of eclipses and read into it some element of spiritual significance, etc.! They claim, “You know those ancients, and how easily a smart person could manipulate them with knowledge of such things.” Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?
Since then, however, we have acquired much new data, again much of it has been brought forth by the spade of the archaeologist, and again these self-proclaimed “Higher“ critics have contracted serious ‘hoof in mouth’ disease, yet they spew their rhetoric continuously in carefully engineered presentations like “From Jesus to the Christ“, aired on Bill Moyer’s, Frontline. Take a look here at some of the external evidence for this one event alone.
Sometime between the years 50 and 100 A.D., a Historian named Thallus wrote a History of the World. It covered from the fall of Troy, to the mid-first century! He records the above mentioned phenomenon very casually, assumes it to be an eclipse of the Sun, without even remotely connecting it to the Jesus events. Thallus, with no regard for the Jesus story tells us that this occurred in the middle of the day.
In Thallus, we have the first external confirmation of this Biblically recorded phenomena from a totally disinterested source. Indeed in the middle of the day (called morning to the Hebrews), the whole known world fell under a sudden darkness and this was his record of that event. Again, Thallus is drawing absolutely no connection to the crucifixion, yet records the occurrence of the phenomena.
Years later, another Historian, Julius Africanus, in his ‘History of the World’ argues against an eclipse as the most probable explanation! Yet further attests to the sudden darkness as occurring in the middle of the day, the ‘what it was’ being the issue that was debated against Thallus.
In the case of Thallus he wrote neutrally concerning the facts during the lifetime of the men who engineered the crucifixion. But as far as the Chrestos was concerned, to a patriotic Roman citizen, He was nothing more than another crucified enemy of Rome? So no mention of Him is made. Now if as the critical school originally had claimed, that this strange darkness was merely the addition or a devise…near to the time there would have been some rebuttal even regarding Thallus’s declaration. Wouldn’t you think? If Caesar even suspected what Thallus wrote was a lie, what do you think would have happened to Thallus? Yet, again, nothing happened to him. Rome accepted this History as a true accounting of the facts!
Last of all there is Phlegon, another disinterested Roman Historian that was previously a slave who had been set free by none-other than Tiberius Caesar only decades after the event. He records the event of the darkness as being exactly between the 6th and the 9th hour of the day (as Romans think of a day). He adds this was during the full moon of the very month specified in the crucifixion account (same hours, same exact day?). Here is Phlegon, another disinterested and more likely hostile source, confirming the time, and the day, which happened to be the Passover. He tells us that this happened “on the Full Moon”…an interesting additional piece of evidence.
The Scriptures say that this mysterious darkness occurred. That it occurred during the day hours when it should have been light is attested by ALL extant Historians we have found so far. So though void of any interest in perpetuating this Jewish movement in the eyes of Rome, Phlegon unknowingly ties the event of the darkness to the very Passover recorded in the Gospels, without ever mentioning its alleged relation to Y’shua/Jesus!
The problem is that a Solar Eclipse, as Thallus assumed had occurred, cannot happen during or right after a full moon. This makes this historically verified phenomenon
a) Not astronomically verifiable
b) Yet factually having occurred
c) In the middle of the daylight hours
What do you think? I do not believe based on the only actual evidence, we can conclude this was referring to between the 6th and 8th hours of the Hebrew evening portion of the day. Especially because in scriptural context the story opens with "When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.."
Perhaps you fif not know of this additional evidence, so I offer it to you for consideration because I know you are an honest person.
brother Paul