The Gospels record that when Jesus was on the cross darkness covered the sun. Every spring we can pick up popular news magazines that tell us that the darkness recorded in the Gospels must be fiction because there was no eclipse in the area of the eastern Mediterranean anywhere near the time of Jesus Crucifixion. What are we to make of this?
Well, one of the benefits of being a human being is that we have records. And we can look back in history and see what others, especially the skeptics, have said about this darkness. And just as Jesus used the silly words of the Pharisees and Saduceees to confound Pharisees and the saducees, so the words of the skeptics confound the skeptics.
One of the first people who tried to explain away the darkness that occurred during the crucifixion was a pagan Greek historian named Thallus. About A.D. 50, merely 20 years after the event Thallus wrote that there was an eclipse in the eastern Mediterranean saying that the darkness at the time of the crucifixion was just a chance coincidence. It had noting to do with the death of Jesus. It would have happened whether or not Jesus had been crucified that day.
But do you notice that Thallus does not deny the darkness? He experienced the darkness. His audience had experienced it, too, and would have laughed him to scorn if he had said that it had not happened. But the enemies of Christ must for their own comfort devalue or deny all evidence of his Divinity. Thus thallus says the darkness was merely a natural occurence.
But the ancients were not stupid. They could calculate the times and places of eclipses almost as well as modern astronomers can calculate them, and the Ancients did it thinking the sun circled the earth! One such ancient, who's words come to us through a 9th century manuscript is Julius Africanus, a Roman lawyer who lived from the middle of the first century to the later part of the second century. Julius pointed out that Thallus must have made an error because an eclipse is impossible during Passover because at Passover, as at all times of the full moon, the moon is in opposition to the sun.
So, the modern skeptics who say the darkness did not happen because there was no eclipse are wrong. Eyewitnesses, both the holy Evangelist and the pagan Christ-hater say the darkness happened. And the ancient skeptic Thallus, who admits the darkness but denies its super-natural origin is wrong, because he misstated the obvious fact that an eclipse is not possible during a full moon.
So what do we make of the darkness? What does it mean? Another ancient, our father among the saints, John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople explained it…
"And what is meant by the words you lied down and slumber as a lion? For as the lion is terrible not only when he is awake but even when he is sleeping, so Christ also not only before the cross but also on the cross itself and in the very moment of death was terrible, and wrought at that time great miracles, turning back the light of the sun, cleaving the rocks, shaking the earth, rending the veil, alarming the wife of Pilate, convicting Judas of sin, for then he said I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood; and the wife of Pilate declared Have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things in a dream because of Him. The darkness took possession of the earth, and night appeared at midday, then death was brought to nought, and his tyranny was destroyed: many bodies at least of the saints which slept arose. These things the patriarch declaring beforehand, and demonstrating that, even when crucified, Christ would be terrible, said you lied down and slumber as a lion."
It is understandable that ancient skeptics blame an eclipse. It is understandable that modern skeptics say there never was any darkness at all. The unrighteous are afraid of the God who made that darkness. And the wicked are right to fear this God. But they fear Him not enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment