Myth or History? | 3 Hours of Darkness During Jesus' Crucifixion

Skeptics say that the Gospels are full of legends. One of those is the three hours of darkness that happened during Jesus' crucifixion. But we actually have external historical references to this darkness, primarily from the Roman historian Thallus. But is the reference from Thallus valid and does it fail to corroborate the Gospels?

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[nasasjanitor]

Man, I really needed this. I've been currently struggling with this particular story, but now my doubts have been cleared. Thank you for this, God bless.

[insightsinthetext]

Skeptics: You are misrepresenting history.
Erik: (provides quotes from historians without overstating, provides detailed answers)
Skeptics: YOU ARE MISREPRESENTING HISTORY.

[floydthomas]

What about Phlegon?

A pagan writer named Phlegon wrote this:
“In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad, there was an eclipse of the sun, greater than any which had occurred previously.
At the sixth hour, the day became as dark as night, and the stars were visible in the sky. An earthquake in Bithynia destroyed many buildings in Nicaea."
The 202nd Olympiad has been calculated to run from July AD 29 to June AD 33

[reasonforge]

Skeptics reinforce the standard argument from silence with excuses to treating all sources that were not silent with suspicion. It is a super duper powerful argument they use and it works like this. Event X certainly did not happen, because not everybody reported that X happened, and those that seemed to report it weren't really referring to it, and those that were unambiguously referring to it can not be believed because they believe event X happened, which obviously it didn't. They are so very Hume-istically brilliant!!

[DanielApologetics]

Just what YouTube needed! A 5 minute video on this topic. Nice job. Btw, to answer your pinned comment; this chalkboard background is cool - the old one cooler!

[ultramarinechaplain]

So skeptics say when its recorded by secular sources, its fake, but if its not recorded, it shows the gospels are no reliable. So there really is no way to satisfy the skeptics

[macdavy]

Phlegon He reported that in 33 AD, there had been the greatest eclipse of the sun, and it became night in the sixth hour of the day, with stars appearing in the heavens. Although Phlegon wrote this chronology in 137 AD, more than 100 years after the estimated year of the crucifixion, his account is still considered a source

[__.Sara.__]

I've never heard of Thallus, or that Tertullian mentioned him in his writings. That's a very interesting connection, thank you for what you do! About the background, I think both look good! Your content is what shines 🤩

[liberatedfreak]

I really love the chalkboard style!

There’s a reason solar eclipses should not be considered as explanations for the 3 hour darkness. Jesus died at Passover time (14th or 15th Nisan… there’s a debate there) but Passover always happens at the full moon, so by the laws of cosmological physics the sun has to be on the other side of the planet from the moon, so a solar eclipse is out of the question. So Africanus was right. Not only the wrong time of year, but the wrong time of month. Also, eclipses only last tops 3 minutes, not 3 hours.
A much better hypothesis, if someone is looking for a naturalistic explanation would be a khamsin dust storm - relatively common in that part of the world at that time of year. That would also explain why the phenomenon wasn’t witnessed elsewhere in the Mediterranean, because it was a localised darkness. See articles by Colin J Humphreys on that subject.

Regardless, the video content was awesome and I learned some new stuff! Keep it coming… love your work.

[farmercraig]

The darkness fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy written by Amos 8:9, “in that day, said the Lord God, I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear of day”.

[lukefox]

We also potentially have an account from an ancient Chinese source. The History of the Later Han Dynasty Volum 1 records

“Yin and Yang have mistakenly switched, and the sun and moon were eclipsed... In the day of Gui Hai, the last day of the month, there was a solar eclipse. [The emperor] avoided the Throne Room, suspended all military activities and did not handle official business for five days.” History of Latter Han Dynasty, Vol. 1, Chronicles of Emperor Guang Wu, 7th year”.

The 7th year of Guang Wu dates to around 33AD, and I've heard people say this specifically refers to April. This is more Vague but could potentially be the same event. I am by no means an expert of ancient Chinese astrologers but I know eclipses were meant to be bad omens. I do wonder, however, whether its common language for them to point out that "yin and yang have mistakenly switched" is this a common comment or could they potentially have realized the eclipse occuring on a full moon and known it would have been scientifically impossible.

[brothermagdi]

i witness circumstance like this myself
this darkness happened in Egypt in 2003 when all suddenly in about 2 pm, most area of Cairo became darkened
and all people was terrified, we thought it may be the end day
by the way it was no eclipse it was just many clouds which b looked the sunlight

[sathviksidd]

At first glance, I thought this would be a three hour long video lol
Not disappointed. Infact, it was simple and great

[douglasgorden]

The explanation that the darkness was caused by an eclipse must be ruled out because a solar eclipse can only occur during a new moon (when the moon is between the sun and the earth)

Passover has always begun during full moon. (When the earth is between the sun and the moon.)

The gospels also record the darkness as lasting several hours. A total eclipse can only last about 7 1/2 minutes.

The gospels frame this as a supernatural event, not a more common natural event.

[kennettallgren]

Thank you for this video. The black background is fine by me

[DeAngeloJohnson-eebt]

“But even their own authors have made mistakes about these matters; for instance, Thallus, who wrote the history of the Eastern Kingdoms, and Castor, who composed an account of events in Italy and Greece. These writers make out that there was a darkness at full moon - which is impossible. For it is evident that there can be no eclipse of the sun at full moon.”

This can be found in Book II, Chapter XV of “To the Nations” (Ad Nationes) in Tertullian's work.

[danielmalinen]

We should take a step back, forget the established translations, and check what word the author of the Gospels used. The anonymous author who wrote the Gospel of Mark ended up using the word “skotos” and this metamorphical word is used outside the Bible to describe the moment of the death, the darkness of the heart, the gloom atmosphere, and the blindness of the mind. The word doesn't appear to describe physical worldly darkness elsewhere than in the Gospels or so we have imagined it based on the translations. But when any word is translated from one language to another it loses information or its meaning can change completely. And this has apparently happened in this case as well. That's why translating is always hard job and needs a lot of interpretation of the texts. And still, some translation errors and ambiguous or bad translations still occur.

[nzhpzsp]

Very underestimated channel!
Also, could you make a video on Odyssey and Gospels?

[MusicByTomas]

Man your videos are awesome. I'd love to hear your take on the "Zombie" episode in Matthew 27

[jhmejia]

So what we know is that
1. Solar eclipses and things like that were often seen as signs, and could be used to show the importance of an event.
2. There could not have been a “natural” solar eclipse according to the Bible (since Passover happened on the full moon, plus solar eclipses only happen for like 10 minutes).
3. The only attestation, outside the Bible, of the event seems to be by Thallus, which is considered by modern scholars to be of dubious historical value
4. The event also came alongside things like an earthquake and Jewish zombies, for which both of which there’s no extant sources outside the synoptic gospels

Seems to me like this was added to the Bible, or at least the oral traditions and sources the Bible was based on, as a way to show the significance of Jesus’ death…