Darkness over the Earth the skies darkened when Jesus was crucified

Introduction

Roman Writers

The Chinese contribution

Discussion

Conclusion

Extraordinary events are often recorded, but their explanations are controversial. Sceptics deny that there is anything special about the event.  It was an eclipse, they affirm. Such a one was Thassus., a pagan Roman writer  who decided that the darkness was  an unexpected eclipse. Julius Afrianus, writing in the early fourth century, cited the works of Thassus, which are known today only in fragments. These promoted the eclipse  theory, though they claimed that it was un unusually long eclipse. Phlegon wrote in a similar vein, but Origen, a renowned Christian writer took up the challenge. Eclipses, he stated happen only at full moon. The Passover, the festival during which Jesus was crucified, always takes at the first sabbbath after the first full moon of the month of Nisan. 

It is an astronomical fact that  solar . ..eclipses do not happen at full moon, but they happen at new moon. so as the crucifixion occurred round about full moon an eclipse could not happen. . There was a   lunar eclipse about the time of the crucifixion, when the moon characteristically went red, but this  would only be visible at night, so it does not account for day time darkening. 

Other writers brought up the issue. the fact that people ere thinking of the best explanation of the phenomenon means that it cannot be wished away. Modern Liberal Christians tend to treat the phenomenon as fictitious, meant to justify Christian faith in Jesus; significance. But any documentary account from nonChristian cultures that affirms the darkness would fatally undermine the liberal belief. Sources from India, Iran or China  that made reference to the darkness would  undermine the sceptical belief.

The documentary support for the darkness comes from an unlikely source China.  The Chinese were governed by the Han dynasty during the period in which the phenomenon occurred, 31 to 33 AD..  The Emperors of China took astrology seriously, and they were keen on predicting  eclipses because they were thought to be messages from Shang di, the high God, who was above form and was above the heavens. So seriously did they take eclipses that astronomers who failed to predict an eclipse would suffer the death penalty.

But in the early thirties A.D. there was an unusual event, an unpredicted solar phenomenon occurred, causing the sunlight to be dimmed for the hours between modern 12 o clock and six pm, the hours when Jesus was on the cross. Six hours, this is far in excess of the seven to ten minute timing of an eclipse of the sun. The people from the emperor downwards were terrified. There is no record of astronomers being executed, as the emperor realized that this not an event in the ordinary run of things, but it behoved the emperor to make an act of devotion assuage the obvious anger of Shang Di. the high God. Furthermore, the penitent  emperor issued a decree that all prisoners would be released. On the third day after the darkening the sun had a rainbow aura around it. 

The fact that a mysterious solar phenomenon was seen in two separate spaces, several thousand miles apart, and probably in other places as well, discredits explanations derived from astronomical or atmospheric phenomena mrely local to the Middle East. Dust storms do not stretch from the Middle East to China. Clouds are world wide so the Chinese, who are an educated people knew how to distinguish clouds from other aerial features. We  are dealing with a solar phenomenon of world wide extent. It was by no means an eclipse. The eclipse theory is the most credible from among poor, inadequate explanations. 

The fact that a person who had displayed strange powers and was thought by some to be linked to God cannot be overlooked. A supernatural event or a miracle cannot be ruled out. There is no other credible solution.