Only the Nov. 24, AD 29 eclipse over Asia Minor can match that, and Joel's prophecy (Acts 2, 14-21) that ``the sun will be turned to darkness and moon to blood." This year would be AD 29 from Roman historical sources. 26:61, Matt. Pontius Pilate (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1968), p. 366. Created With Love By Bright Mark Media LLC. All rights reserved. Gary R. Habermas. Phlegon was a Greek historian who wrote an extensive chronology around AD 137. Yet there has not been a good consensus among scholars about the exact date of the crucifixion. Thus says the LORD, Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me . Moon phase and solar year events are shown on the day in Athens. Archeological study of artifacts or buried structures is helpful but archeologists would often consider an ancient written source to be more important than an artifact because you need to know something to give the artifact a context. Jerusalem is another place where we might have expected there to be records of the events of Matthew 27, and to hope that individual residents of Jerusalemcontemporaneous to the eventsmight have commented on these wondrous happenings in personal records, etc. Having provided an argument for the historicity of a three hour darkness based on historical sources and reason, we may now address the objection made to it by skeptics, which may be stated as follows. (LogOut/ Sixty thousands people could witness with awe the sun dancing in the sky. 27:39-40, Matt. However, what concerning the bottom line? For example, the first year of Olympiad 140 began in the summer of 220 BC and lasted until the middle of . He lived up to the death of the emperor Augustus in 14CE and we know from Luke that his ministry began in the 15th year of Augustus successor, Tiberius. VI, p. 130, as cited in Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, (Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company), 1996., 3 Habermas, Gary. 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. GO TO Mobile Home, http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2000-May/011873.html, http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/newton.html, http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2004/daniel.html, http://www.neverthirsty.org/pp/historical-secular-quotes-about-jesus/phlegon.html, http://www.ichthus.info/CaseForChrist/Archeology/intro.html. These historians even mention the darkening of the sky and the earthquake which the gospels describe at the time of the crucifixion. When they could see the new crescent Moon in the evening (only visible for a short time in the early evening) they would send runners to announce that the new month had begun. The next piece of the puzzle is to determine if Jesus indeed was crucified on a Friday. At His own free-will, He with a word dismissed from Him His spirit, anticipating the executioners work. This is the first of the gospels, written some time between38 and 45 A.D. These events of that day, and others surrounding them, such as the Crucifixion darkness described in the gospels, were real. (The Olympics began in 776 B.C., and by counting every fourth year you come to the 202 nd Olympiad, and the fourth year of same is 33 A.D.) Most 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. An earthquake occurred in Bythinia and overthrew a great part of the city of Nica. The gospel references where Jesus predicted he would rise in three days are Matt. Jesus baptism was apparently not long after the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry. Also, word of it would have spread from Jerusalem to Jewish communities in Rome and throughout the empire. Why has it been so difficult to determine the exact date of Jesus' death and the dates of the last week of his life? Roman historical sources confirm that Jesus Christ lived on Earth and died by crucifixion. The 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad is from July 32 to June 33 CE, which confirms the date of 3 April 33 CE. This is what Colin Humphrey's does well in his book, considering a variety of types of information. There were Jewish, Christian, and Roman writers from the first and second centuries that refer to Christ and the crucifixion. I speak of the midday or Crucifixion darkness which the gospel accounts assert fell over the earth between noon and 3 pm. [The word Christ in Hebrew is Messiah.] Christ bore our sins so that if we just turn to God through Christ and humble ourselves and repent we receive Gods forgiveness for all of our sins!! Phlegon would have had no way to misreport an actual earthquake that hit in the region, because the region has the history to confirm the account passed to him. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) keeps a database of what are called "significant" earthquakes. It was recorded by a Pagan author who had no desire to promote Christianity yet he confirmed the Bible record! Retrieved November 30, 2006 from [2]. Ten Years Ago: Benedict confirms I am no longer the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, Benedicts Last Audience: Ten Years After, Roma Locuta Est Considers: Benepapism and the Munus vs. Ministerium (EpisodeVI), Is the Culture of Death creating the Remnant? event bed is another distinctive mixed layer less than one inch thick. Clearly, Peter and his hearers had seen the sun darken. Next, let us consider the argument with regard to theGospel of Mark. Julius Africanus quoted from the Olympiades a section no longer in existence which said this darkening if the sun happened at the time of the full moon. Is it accurate? The Bible is Gods book of love and redemption. In light of themassobservation and notoriety of a three hour darkness, it would not have made any sense for the Apostlesin preaching or writing about the truth of Christ to believers and nonbelievers aliketo have mentioned this darkness if it had notreallyhappened. Steven OReilly is a graduate of the University of Dallas and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Fr. The earthquake on the other hand was a natural process miraculously timed to occur at the crucifixion. With these things in mind, I would like to provide some thoughts on the historicity of one particular event that is said to have occurred on the afternoon Our Lord was crucified. The fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad was in 33 A.D.!!! Then you can go through a process of elimination to to rule out all these years except AD 33. Historical Testimony Someone shouted Show me a Bible miracle thats recorded in SECULAR history!!. It is important to readThallus comments to completely understand the issue. He was, therefore, about 4 years old at the turn from BCE to CE. (Sextus Julius Africanus,Fragment 18. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea. Phlegon of Tralles was a first century secular Greek historian born not long after the Crucifixion. (LogOut/ Phlegons citation is a fragment from Olympiades he Chronika 13, ed. (below) says it took place in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad, which was 33 A.D. - which can be verified by clicking on the link following Phlegon's quote in red below. Is this a powerful confirmation of the events described in the New Testament? 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.". Well, Phlegon does mention this guy named Jesus. Phlegon of Tralles (Ancient Greek: Flegon o Trallianos) was a Greek writer and freedman of the emperor Hadrian, who lived in the 2nd century AD. Here, the skeptics case isseeminglymore plausible on first glance. The ancient Olympic Games were held every four years for almost 1,100 years. Africanus make it rather evident that Thallus was specifically addressing this darkness i.e., the three hour darkness at the time of the Crucifixion and not any other. . Suffice it to say that the Jewish Sabbath was on Saturday and remember that the Jews considered a 24 hour day cycle to begin at sunset in the evening. Peter reminds his hearers these things were done in the midst of you, as you also know. Clearly, Peter referenced an eventthe three hour darkening of the sunwhich waspreviouslywitnessed by all hearing him that day. It does however, place Phlegons writing, transposed hundreds of years later by Christian writers, as a scientifically-accurate writing. Unfortunately, no one of those three pairs, that is, recorded event vs. eclipse, is a perfect fit or a harmonious pair. Though it is almost impossible to deny that this strange event truly happened, on the same day our Lord died on the Cross, I strived for years to find a natural astronomical explanation about it but in vain. While Pliny tells us there have been unusually long eclipses, he then says such asindicating he means to giveexamplesandnota comprehensive list of them. What about all the other earthquakes that have hit California in the first part of the 20th century? A solar eclipse can occur only at new moon, but we know that Jesus was crucified at the time of Passover (Matthew 26:2; Mark 14:12,12; Luke 22:12, 7; John 13:1), and that the Passover is at the time of full moon (Exodus 12:111; Leviticus 23:5). Last month: Next month: new 02:44 32/07/26 UTC : 1: 32-07-26/27: Noumenia : 2: 32-07-27/28: Noumenia kata Selene Agathos Daimon: Herakleia? . He inadvertently dated the darkness at noon on the day of Crucifixion in his work, The Olympiades. The onah concept applies to part "days" and whole "days" so that they counted the same. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.'"1 Evidence from Africanus "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. Even if the darkness had not been seen throughout the whole empire, word of it would have spread to Rome as the center of government and commerce. We only have fragments left to us of this monumental work and quotations of it from other writers. The writings on the crucifixion of the historians from the first and second centuries is very interesting. Conservative Christian speakers were a rarity on their campus and they wanted to make it rarer. On Marvels consists of "anecdotes culled from sources as diverse as the Greek poet Hesiod and the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder. Pratt, John, webpage by astronomer John Pratt on Isaac Newtons approach to determining the date of the crucifixion. 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad. !, The audience was rowdy now. An earthquake occurred in Bythinia . He can be contacted at [email protected]. Does this necessarily mean that Phlegon was referencing the seismic activity, if you dare to call it that, that occurred during the Crucifixion in the Gospel accounts? He was athletically built and his firm, steady voice brought the audience to a hush. ", 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.". (see Figure 2 below). Here, too, we see an Apostle feared not to mention the event precisely because it was already widely known among his readers. The New Testament in Matthew 27:45 records that while Jesus was on the cross there was darkness over all the land for three hours. From this brief statement, the skeptic wants to declare victory and go home. Brought the audience to a hush by a Pagan author who had no desire promote! At noon on the crucifixion is Gods book of love and redemption word of from! A good consensus among scholars about the exact date of the crucifixion described! 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