The Supernatural Darkness at the Crucifixion of Our Saviour.

THE SUPERNATURAL DARKNESS AT THE

CRUCIFIXION OF OUR SAVIOUR.

“AND it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth, [or country,] until the ninth hour, and the sun was darkened,” Luke 23:45, and Matthew 27:45. This event is recorded, not by the evangelists only, but by Phlegon, of Tralles or Seleucia, in Asia. This learned author flourished soon after the death of Christ, about the middle of the second century. He was one of the freed men whom Adrian the emperor caused to be taught the sciences; he wrote several works worthy of the learned and polite court where he resided. That in which we are the most interested, is a Universal History in twelve books. It is in these annals that Origen, and the learned defenders of Christianity, found the evidences of the circumstance here in question. The words of Phlegon are these: - “In the fourth year of the 202d Olympiad, there was the greatest eclipse of the sun that had ever been beheld. About the sixth hour of the day, it produced a night so dark that the stars in the heaven were visible, and it was attended with a terrible earthquake.” M. de Cheseux, Calmet, and others, have proved, by their judicious observations, that the fourth year of the 202d Olympiad, mentioned by Phlegon, was exactly the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, and consequently the same year in which Jesus Christ was crucified.

Those who wish to see some judicious remarks on this passage, may consult Mr. Addison’s excellent Treatise on the Christian Religion; translated by M. Seigneux de Corevon, (vol. i, p. 82.) This learned translator concludes, that Phlegon used the word eclipse to express the miraculous darkness, either because he was ignorant of the real sense of the word, or because the public, who are ignorant of astronomy, expressed themselves thus on the phenomenon which happened in Judea. “Add to this,” says M. Seigneux, “that the darkness which reigned in the middle of the day, and during three of the most luminous hours, was altogether sufficiently wonderful to strike the whole world with astonishment, who might learn the truth of this prodigy from thousands of witnesses. And this Phlegon had in view, and it is easy to see that the apologists for Christianity have cited them in this manner.” Tertullian tells the Pagans, “that in the hour when Jesus Christ expired, at the time when the sun was in the midst of his career, the day was darkened: this fact is preserved in your archives. Dies, medium orbem signante sole, subducta est. &c. Eum mundi casum in archivis vestris habetis.” (Apolog Cap. 21.) “This prodigy,” adds the learned translator, “has received the testimonies of two other celebrated Pagan authors in addition to that of Phlegon; we have that of Thales, (according to Euseb. Chron. Graec. page 77,) a Greek author who wrote the Syriac History in the first century of the Church; in his third book he mentions this miraculous darkness.

“Julius the African, the most ancient historian that the Christians have had, strengthens the proof given by these Pagan authors. He was born in Palestine: he lived in the third century. His work is lost, save what is preserved as a quotation by Eusebius concerning the miracle of which we speak, and the proof which Julius brought to establish the divinity of Jesus Christ according to Phlegon’s evidence and that of Thales. To this may be added what Rufinus says in his ecclesiastical history concerning Lucian, a priest and martyr, who said to his judges:f3 Consulite annales vestros; invenietis Pilati temporibus, dum pateretur Christus, media die fugatum solem, et interruptum diem.”

Finally, as God could shake the earth without forming a new volcano, so he could arrest the light of the sun, and cause a sudden darkness without the interposition of the moon, and without deranging the planets. Grotius, and some other apologists for the Christian religion, endeavour to render this miracle more extraordinary than is needful, and thus have unfortunately given to some philosophers a pretext for rejecting it. Judicious persons, like M. Seigneux, hold a just medium between incredulity which rejects the best attested facts, if they are extraordinary, and that passion for the marvellous which admits false miracles, or enlarges the true ones. Here I will introduce the argument by which Mr. Ferguson has proved that Jesus Christ is the Messiah promised by the prophets. Daniel, in his prophecy, Daniel 9:25, thus expresses himself: “Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks, - and after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.” I will here give an extract from Mr. Ferguson’s Analysis of Astronomy and Physics, concerning this prediction.

“The darkness which accompanied the crucifixion of our Saviour could not be occasioned by a natural and regular eclipse of the sun; for it happened during the feast of the Passover, which was always celebrated at the full moon, at a time when the earth is between the sun and that planet, and when the moon cannot pass between the earth and the sun, and, by consequence, when it was impossible for her to produce an eclipse of the sun.

“He was crucified on the preparation for the Jewish Sabbath; and this Sabbath being on a Saturday, the crucifixion took place on the Friday; therefore the full moon of the Passover fell this year on the Friday.

“It appears from astronomical calculations, that from the twentieth to the fortieth year of our Saviour, the full moon never fell on a Friday but once; and this happened on the third of April, in the thirty third year of our Saviour’s life, computing his birth according to the common era; the thirty - third year of our Saviour’s life was the 4746th year of the Julian era, and the fourth year of the 202d Olympiad. Phlegon, a Pagan author, informs us that in the fourth year of the 202d Olympiad, there was the greatest eclipse of the sun that was ever beheld; for the day was so completely changed into night that the stars were visible.

“The canon of Ptolemy fixes the year 4256 of the Julian era, for the time in which Artaxerxes Longimanus published his edict for Esdras to rebuild Jerusalem, and re - establish the Jews in their own country. And according to the prophecy of Daniel, Christ was to suffer death seventy weeks of years, or 490 years after this command. Add 490 years to 4256, and you have 4746, the same year of the Julian era in which the death of Christ took place, according to astronomical calculations. An event supported by a Pagan author, who regarded preternatural darkness as an eclipse of the sun, because he was no astronomer.”