What caused the crucifixion darkness & was crucifixion at 9 AM (Mark's gospel) or 12 Noon (John's gospel)?
Unexpected darkening of the sun has been recorded many years before Christ’s crucifixion, so this phenomenon is nothing new. And there were 2 such instances described the following way by the Indian epic the Mahabharata:
Book 2: Sabha Parva, section 79. flashes of lightning appeared in the sky though without clouds and the earth itself began to tremble. And Rahu came to devour the Sun, although it was not the day of conjunction and meteors began to fall…
Book 9, Shalya Parva, section 56: All the points of the compass became enveloped in a thick gloom. Thunderbolts of loud peal (or reverberating sound) fell on all sides... Hundreds of meteors fell, bursting with a loud noise from the welkin (or sky). Rahu swallowed the Sun most untimely!
A very ancient way of describing solar eclipses in the past whether natural or unnatural was to say that a shadow entity (which the Mahabharata calls Rahu) devoured the Sun. The flashes of lightning appearing in the sky though without clouds were likely bolides, or extremely bright meteors, especially ones that explode in the atmosphere.
The thick gloom that enveloped the sky in all directions was likely comet dust. When the Earth passes through a comet dust trail by passing through its tail, it can produce a meteor shower that comes by the hundreds.
Now notice how it says the earth began to tremble? This is probably due to a comet’s interaction with the earth when its atmosphere touches earth’s atmosphere due to extreme close contact. This means it was not only the comet’s tail that entered earth’s atmosphere that time, but also the comet’s coma! Needless to say, the darkening of the sun recorded by the Mahabharata although it was not the day of conjunction between the sun and the moon, was caused by a disintegrating comet that sent its exploding debris and dust violently towards earth.
And if the disintegration of a comet was indeed the cause of the untimely darkening of the sun during Christ‘s crucifixion, then one should see evidence of a meteor shower occuring on the exact day and hours mentioned by the gospels. And I will be showing this evidence in this video.
Unfortunately there is no consensus regarding the exact date of the crucifixion of Jesus. Scholars have provided estimates in the range of 30–33 AD. I personally believe Christ was crucified on Friday noontime April 3, 33 AD Julian calendar or April 1, 33 AD Gregorian calendar.
I made 4 videos to show that contrary to contemporary belief, Christ was born in 1 BC as tradition says, and not 4 BC as revisionists would have it. These videos are “Herod the Great didn't die on 4 BC - proven by the eclipse on Augustus' death & Midrash Rosh Hashana!”, “1 year error in redating Herod's death from 1 BC to 4 BC caused by faulty Olympiad calendar!”, “2 years error in redating Herod's death from 1 BC to 4 BC caused by coregency of Augustus & Tiberius”, and lastly “The census of Quirinius and the unidentified Governor of Syria from 3 BC to 1 AD”.
Also, in my previous video titled “Christ's birth and baptism, the true dates revealed with Biblical proof!” I gave November 24, 29 AD Julian calendar or November 22, 29 AD Gregorian calendar as the date of Christ’s baptism.
Now there is a unique combination of conditions for determining the year of Christ’s crucifixion after his baptism on November 24, 29 AD Julian calendar. The first condition according to John is that Christ was crucified on the day of Preparation of the Passover. Normally, the Passover lamb is sacrificed and prepared in the afternoon of the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan just before the sundown that will start the day of Passover on Nisan 15. This is because a Jewish day of one complete evening and morning starts from sundown and not midnight or sunrise as observed by other cultures.
However, if the afternoon of sacrifice and preparation on Nisan 14 fell on a Saturday or a Sabbath, then the day of Preparation of the Passover was done on Friday, Nisan 13 or the day before instead. Because obviously, work is forbidden on a Sabbath day and this apparently was the prevailing opinion and practice during Christ’s time.
The second condition according to John 19:31 and by using the Orthodox Jewish Bible translation, is that the day following Christ’s crucifixion was a Shabbat HaGadol, or a great Sabbath, which is the Sabbath immediately before Passover day.
If the Passover day falls on a day other than Sunday, then obviously the Passover day doesn’t immediately follow Shabbat HaGadol, and the day of Preparation of the Passover comes after Shabbat HaGadol and just the day before Passover. Also, if the Passover falls on a Saturday, then Friday, the day before is the Preparation of the Passover and the Saturday of the previous week is the Shabbat HaGadol.
But since the day of Preparation of the Passover was the day before Shabbat HaGadol according to John, then it can only mean that Passover day was the Sunday that came right after the Shabbat HaGadol during Christ’s crucifixion.
This unique combination of the day of Preparation of the Passover, followed immediately by Shabbat HaGadol, means Passover day was on Sunday and the day of Preparation of the Passover when Christ was crucified was on Friday. And the only year when this unique combination of conditions can all be fulfilled shortly after Christ’s baptism on November 24, 29 AD Julian calendar was in the year 33 AD.
I believe Friday, April 3, 33 AD Julian calendar was Nisan 13 that year, and later in this video I will show my proof. But for now, let me work on this assumption. Using Stellarium and setting the location at Jerusalem for this day, the time zone to Asia - Jerusalem, the time correction to JPL Horizons, and the time to 3 in the afternoon, we see the radiant of the meteor shower Pi Virginids barely entering the Northeastern sky to be followed closely by Theta Virginids about 1 hour later. These 2 meteor shower radiants with accompanying thick and gloomy comet dust remained in the sky until about 5 AM the following day. However, since the sun set at 5:53 in the afternoon that day, it appeared that the darkness caused by these 2 meteor showers lasted only for about 3 hours since the darkness caused by the comet dust was barely distinguishable from the darkness of the night.
Looking at Mark’s account of the crucifixion darkness, we read the following:
Mark 15: 33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.
According to Mark, the mysterious darkness lasted for 3 hours, but he also said that the darkness started at 12 noon and not 3 in the afternoon. However, if we compare Mark’s account of the crucifixion with John’s we can see that Mark’s timing is 3 hours earlier of John’s:
Mark 15: 25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him.
John 19: 14 & 16 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon… Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So why is Mark’s timing 3 hours earlier than John’s? Note also that according to Mark, the unexpected darkening of the sun happened 3 hours after Christ was crucified, so that using John’s timing, this darkness should have happened 3 hours after noon, which totally agrees with the time the Pi Virginids meteor shower radiant started to appear that day. So I believe John’s timing is the correct timing in Jerusalem.
So does that mean Mark’s timing of events was wrong? Not necessary, it really depends on the targeted audience Mark was writing his gospel for. And Mark’s targeted audience must be staying in a location where the time zone is lagging behind by 3 hours compared to Jerusalem’s time zone. And this will make it appear that Mark’s recorded timing of the same event was 3 hours earlier than John’s.
Christ’s crucifixion is a solemn event that must be commemorated every year on the exact day of the year that it happened. And for some 1st century Christians, even the exact time of Christ’s death was important to them so that they wanted to know what local time the crucifixion of Christ took place.
So who were the people Mark wrote his gospel for? Mark the Evangelist became the first bishop of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt and in east-central Africa in about the year 43 AD. Christianity also eventually grew towards northwestern Africa (known today as the Maghreb). Most scholars date the gospel of Mark to about 66–74 AD, either shortly before or after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD.
After Jewish defeat in the First Jewish-Roman War in 70 AD, Roman General Titus deported many Jews to Mauretania, which roughly corresponds to the modern Maghreb also known as Northwest Africa. This region includes Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.
Jerusalem's longitude position is 35° east, Mauritania is 12° W, and Morocco 6° W. The globe is divided into 360° and 24 hours so that there is 15° per hour of time zone in the globe. This means the time zone that is 3 hours lagging behind Jerusalem’s time zone should be located somewhere near 45° west of Jerusalem or 10° W longitude, and Mauritania, where many Jews were deported by Titus after 70 AD, belongs to this time zone.
Mark the Evangelist became the first bishop of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt and Africa in about the year 43 AD. By 70 AD, Christianity should have spread as far as Mauritania already. So it is not unreasonable for me to say that Mark wrote his gospel with the Christians and Jews in Mauritania in mind, and therefore used Mauritania’s time zone which is 3 hours lagging behind Jerusalem’s time zone, in timing Christ’s crucifixion and the darkness that happened on that same day.
In the 19th century, the gospel of Mark came to be seen as the earliest of the four gospels, and as a source used by both Matthew and Luke. So it is not surprising that the gospels of Matthew and Luke both used Mark’s timing when discussing the crucifixion darkness.
Now let me show you why Friday, April 3, 33 AD was Nisan 13 that year. Passover day on Nisan 15 is a spring festival and should always fall on the first full moon right after the spring equinox. Leap months are added at the end of a year whenever the first day of Nisan for that year occurs very early and the first day of Nisan for the following year occurs relatively very late.
The spring equinox is determined when the Sun’s right ascension is exactly 0H. In the year 33 AD, the spring equinox occurred on March 20, and the first full moon after the spring equinox was seen on the night of April 3. Also, the first night when the moon was visible just after it turned 1 day old was on the night of March 20. This night should have been the start of Nisan 1, because remember a Jewish day starts from sundown.
However, using Stellarium, one can see that the radiant of the meteor shower Theta Virginids was high in the sky that night, and I believe this night was the first time this meteor shower started and became active. Because of this, the moon could not have been sighted that night, just like the sun was not visible during the time of Christ’s crucifixion on April 3 which is when I believe the Pi Virginids meteor shower started and first became active.
Since the moon was not sighted on sundown of March 20, Nisan 1 for the year 33 AD was declared to start on the following sundown of March 21, 33 AD instead. Because by then the night sky was clearer from the thick and gloomy comet dust caused by the newly created Theta Virginids, and the 2 days old moon was already visible.
Consequently, this means that Nisan 13 started on sundown of April 2 on Thursday which was when Christ was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. And Nisan 13 ended on Friday just before sundown of April 3, 33 AD. This Friday was when Christ was crucified, and when the Preparation of the Passover was observed, since Nisan 15 or Passover day started on sundown of April 4 Saturday, when the afternoon of that day was a Sabbath and therefore the preparation of the Passover cannot be done.
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