Crucifixion darkness

thumbnail|Christ on the Cross, 1870, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, showing the skies darkened The crucifixion darkness is an event described in the synoptic gospels in which the sky becomes dark in daytime during the crucifixion of Jesus for roughly three hours. Quotes about Old Testament Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:... Book of Amos 8:8-9 KJV. New Testament Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. Gospel of Matthew 27:45 KJV. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. Gospel of Mark 15:33 KJV. And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Gospel of Luke 23:44 KJV. Others The earliest possible reference to Jesus comes from the middle of the first century. Around 55 C.E., a historian named Thallos wrote in Greek a three-volume chronicle of the Eastern Mditerranean area from the fall of Troy to about 50 C.E. Most of his book, like the vast majority of ancient literature, perished, but not before it was quoted by Sextus Julius Africanus (ca. 160-ca 240), a Christian writer, in his History of the World (ca. 220§). This book likewise was lost, but one of his citations of Thallos was taken up by the Byzantine historian Georius Syncellus in his Chronicle (ca. 800). [...] This fragment of Thallos used by Julius Africanus comes in a section in which Julius deals with the portents during the crucifixion of Jesus. Julius argues that Thallos was "wrong" to argue that this was only a solar eclipse, because at full moon a solar eclipse is impossible, and the Passoverr always falls at full moon. Julius counters that the solar eclipse was miracolous, a darkness induced by God. Thallos could have mentioned the eclipse with no reference to Jesus. But it is some likely that Julius, who had access to the context of this quotation in Thallos and who (to judge from other fragments) was generally a careful user of his sources, was correct in reading it as a hostile reference to Jesus' death. The context of Julius shows that he is refuting Thallos' argument that the darkness is not religiously significant. [...] <p>Who is Thallos? Perhaps he is the Thallos to whom the Jewish historian Josephus refers, a Samaritan resident of Rome who made a large loan to Agrippa (Ant. 18.6.4 § 167) and who may have been Augustus's secretary. But this rest upon two successive conjectures, one textual and one historical. [...] The proposed emendation adds a theta to [the Greek word] allos to make it "Thallos". The second conjecture identifies this proposed Thallos in Josephus with the Thallos mentioned by Julius Africanus and Eusebius. Since this name is not common and since the first-century time is the same, this identification is at least possible. Unfortunately for this argument, we have no other record of this Thallos as a writer.<p>(If our dating is correct) [Thallos was] the first ancient writer known to us to express literary opposition to Christianity. Moreover, Thallos is also the only non-Christian to write about a Jesus tradition before that tradition was written in the canonical Gospels. Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament. An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids/Cambridge 2000. ISBN 978-0-8028-4368-5 pp. 20-23. See also Crucifixion of Jesus Descent from the Cross External links Category:Episodes of the life of Jesus