Crucifixion of Jesus

====Darkness====
{{Main|Crucifixion darkness}}
[[File:Christ at the Cross - Cristo en la Cruz.jpg|thumb|''Christ on the Cross'', by [[Carl Heinrich Bloch]], showing the skies darkened]]
In the synoptic narrative, while Jesus is hanging on the cross, the sky over [[Judaea]] (or the whole world) is "darkened for three hours," from the sixth to the ninth hour (noon to mid-afternoon). There is no reference to darkness in the Gospel of John account, in which the crucifixion does not take place until after noon.<ref>Edwin Keith Broadhead ''Prophet, Son, Messiah: Narrative Form and Function in Mark'' (Continuum, 1994) p. 196.</ref>

Some ancient Christian writers considered the possibility that pagan commentators may have mentioned this event and mistook it for a solar eclipse, pointing out that an eclipse could not occur during the Passover, which takes place during the full moon when the moon is opposite the sun rather than in front of it. Christian traveler and historian [[Sextus Julius Africanus]] and Christian theologian [[Origen]] refer to Greek historian [[Phlegon of Tralles|Phlegon]], who lived in the 2nd century AD, as having written "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".<ref>{{cite web |author=Origen |author-link=Origen |title=''Contra Celsum (Against Celsus)'', Book 2, XXXIII |url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/origen162.html |access-date=May 5, 2008 |archive-date=January 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190109124702/http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/origen162.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Sextus Julius Africanus further refers to the writings of historian [[Thallus (historian)|Thallus]]: "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 Saviour falls on the day before the Passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun."<ref>{{cite book |title=The ante-Nicene fathers |last=Donaldson |first=Coxe |publisher=The Christian Literature Publishing Co. |volume=6 |year=1888 |location=New York |page=136 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5gsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA136 |access-date=November 28, 2015 |archive-date=April 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407154456/https://books.google.com/books?id=P5gsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA136 |url-status=live }}</ref> Christian apologist [[Tertullian]] believed the event was documented in the Roman archives.<ref>"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."{{cite web |author=Tertullian |author-link=Tertullian |title=''Apologeticum'' |url=http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian01.html |access-date=May 5, 2008 |archive-date=April 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220406140313/http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian01.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Colin Humphreys and W. G. Waddington of [[Oxford University]] considered the possibility that a lunar, rather than solar, eclipse might have taken place.<ref name="HumWadJASA">Colin J. Humphreys and W. G. Waddington, ''The Date of the Crucifixion '' Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 37 (March 1985)[http://www.asa3.org/aSA/PSCF/1985/JASA3-85Humphreys.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408114419/http://www.asa3.org/aSA/PSCF/1985/JASA3-85Humphreys.html|date=April 8, 2010}}</ref><ref>[[Colin Humphreys]], ''The Mystery of the Last Supper'' Cambridge University Press 2011 {{ISBN|978-0-521-73200-0}}, p. 193</ref> They concluded that such an eclipse would have been visible for 30 minutes in Jerusalem and suggested the gospel reference to a solar eclipse was the result of a scribe wrongly amending a text. Historian David Henige dismisses this explanation as "indefensible",<ref name="henige">{{cite book | last=Henige | first=David P. | author-link=David Henige | title=Historical evidence and argument | publisher=University of Wisconsin Press | isbn=978-0-299-21410-4 | year=2005}}</ref> and astronomer Bradley Schaefer points out that the lunar eclipse would not have been visible during daylight hours.<ref>Schaefer, B. E. (March 1990). Lunar visibility and the crucifixion. Royal Astronomical Society Quarterly Journal, 31(1), 53–67</ref><ref>Schaefer, B. E. (July 1991). Glare and celestial visibility. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 103, 645–660.</ref>

In an edition of the BBC Radio 4 programmed In Our Time entitled Eclipses, [[Frank Close]], Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, stated that certain historical sources say that on the night of the Crucifixion "the moon had risen blood red," which indicates a lunar eclipse. He went on to confirm that as Passover takes place on the full moon calculating back shows that a lunar eclipse did in fact take place on the night of Passover on Friday, 3 April 33 AD which would have been visible in the area of modern Israel, ancient Judaea, just after sunset.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qmnj|title=BBC Radio 4 – in Our Time, Eclipses|access-date=December 31, 2020|archive-date=April 6, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220406140313/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qmnj|url-status=live}}</ref>

Modern biblical scholarship treats the account in the synoptic gospels as a literary creation by the author of the Mark Gospel, amended in the Luke and Matthew accounts, intended to heighten the importance of what they saw as a theologically significant event, and not intended to be taken literally.<ref>Burton L. Mack, ''A Myth of Innocence: Mark and Christian Origins'' (Fortress Press, 1988) p. 296; George Bradford Caird, ''The language and imagery of the Bible'' (Westminster Press, 1980), p. 186; Joseph Fitzmyer, ''The Gospel According to Luke, X–XXIV'' (Doubleday, 1985) p. 1513; William David Davies, Dale Allison, ''Matthew: Volume 3'' (Continuum, 1997) p. 623.</ref> This image of darkness over the land would have been understood by ancient readers, a typical element in the description of the death of kings and other major figures by writers such as [[Philo]], [[Dio Cassius]], [[Virgil]], [[Plutarch]] and [[Josephus]].<ref>David E. Garland, ''Reading Matthew: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the First Gospel'' (Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 1999) p. 264.</ref> [[Géza Vermes]] describes the darkness account as typical of "Jewish eschatological imagery of the day of the Lord", and says that those interpreting it as a datable eclipse are "barking up the wrong tree".<ref>Géza Vermes, ''The Passion'' (Penguin, 2005) pp. 108–109.</ref>