4th year of the 202nd Olympiad, in the 18th year of Tiberius. Is it accurate? The Bible is Gods book of love and redemption. He takes the Bible at face value rather than questioning the details in Scripture in some way, which I believe is the right approach. Also, word of it would have spread from Jerusalem to Jewish communities in Rome and throughout the empire. . The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) keeps a database of what are called "significant" earthquakes. event bed is another distinctive mixed layer less than one inch thick. AD 33 is too early for his crucifixion, surely. I will address that below as well. AD 33 is a generally accepted year of His crucifixion. There are also complicated issues about various calendar systems in use at the time of Christ that create confusion. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.'"1 Evidence from Africanus It also gives a link to download Lightfoot's entire New Testament commentaries in four volumes as free PDF files. The year given by Phlegon for this eclipse is the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e., 33 A.D.), which is consistent with one of the possible dates of the Crucifixion (i.e., April 3, 33 A.D.). The second quote is recorded by Philopon. In chapter 28, Matthew provides an accountprobably sourced to either one of the guards and or a Jewish elderof how the guards were bribed, and the lie was spread that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus (cf Matthew 28:1-15). The fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad was in 33 A.D.!!! 4th year: Begins 32-06-27/28: Hekatombaion 29 Metageitnion 30 Boedromion 30 Puanepsion 29 Maimakterion 30 Poseideon 29 Poseideon-2 30 Gamelion 29 . Are you sure that you will enter heaven to be with God in the afterlife? Now let us consider how he might have categorized the Crucifixion darkness. Christ still changes lives like he did in the first century. Unfortunately, Africanus does not quote Phlegon directly. Those issues do not change the conclusion for various reasons. The first of the two speakers stepped forward again. His chief work was the Olympiads, an historical compendium in sixteen books, from the 1st down to the 229th Olympiad (776 BC to AD 137), of which several chapters are preserved in Eusebius' Chronicle, Photius, and George Syncellus. (Julius Africanus, Chronography, 18.1) [4]. The darkening of the sky I suspect was just a pure miracle, not caused by any natural phenomena. If his ministry was for 3 years, then he was crucified aged 36, and the darkness and earthquake would have occurred in that year of 36CE. The Historical Jesus. It is important to readThallus comments to completely understand the issue. The darkness and earthquake were evident not just in Jerusalem but also in Nicea which is over 300 miles away from Jerusalem! Moon phase and solar year events are shown on the day in Athens. VI, p. 130, as cited in Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, (Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company), 1996., 3 Habermas, Gary. There too, nobody could give a plausible explanation. We will analyze from two perspectives: one that asserts both Phlegons writing to be uncompromised and authentic, and one that assumes Phlegon has been compromised and is unauthentic. What Was Achieved By Jesus At The Crucifixion? They were not myths or literary devicesas skeptics or modernist biblical scholars might now suggest. We believe that the period of darkness referred to by Phlegon is the same period of darkness referred to in the New Testament, since the event is unique. Nisan was the month the Passover was celebrated, a very important time for the Jews commemorating their deliverance out of slavery in Egypt. So the daylight part of a day (or any part thereof) is an onah and the evening is an onah and the entire dark period of the night is also an onah. 27:63, Mark 8:31, Mark 9:31, Mark 10:33-34, and John 2:19. Africanus refutes the attempt of Thallus to explain away this darkness as being a regular solar eclipse. The ancient world still has historical buildings standing to this day built two millennium ago; wouldnt it be logical to build an extremely strong building that could withstand an earthquake in an earthquake-prone location? This research again confirms Phlegons writing. The Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI: Now available through other book sellers, Roma Locuta Est Considers: Benepapism and the Munus vs. Ministerium (EpisodeII), Roma Locuta Est Considers: Introduction to Benepapism (Episode I). The website for this is the National Geophysical Data Center (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov). Therefore, it is possible Phlegons source witnessed the Crucifixion darkness from there at the same hoursuggesting the darkness and earthquakes reached far beyond the region around Jerusalem. At Fatima, the miracle was localized though still within many miles of the town. In addition, he writes of an earthquake accompanying the darkness, which is specifically recorded in Matthews Gospel (Matthew 27:51): Secular Geologist, Jefferson Williams of Supersonic Geophysical, and colleagues Markus Schwab and Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences, researched the Dead Sea and revealed that at least two major earthquakes occurred: A widespread earthquake in 31 B.C. The Romans, for example, are known to have have kept archives which included data on eclipses of the moon and sun. He wrote that during the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad there was a period of unexplained darkness and there was an earthquake that collapsed buildings in Nicea in northern Asia Minor. Regarding thissame2nd century historian, Africanus also wrote: Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth manifestly that one of which we speak(Sextus Africanus,Fragment 18. Assume Jesus died Friday afternoon about 3 PM as we reckon time today. Luke clearly goes out of his way to be specific about when this year was, by relating it to six different important officials. In Wadi Zeelim, located above the southwestern shore of the modern Dead Sea exists an outcrop of laminated Dead Sea sediment. So how should we understand the statement about Jesus being dead three days and three nights? In the verses above, Peter cites a scripture which speaks of various signs which God did by Him, inclusive of thesun being darkenedand the moon turning red. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. This is a clear Bible prophecy foretelling that God would cause the punishment for our sins to fall upon Jesus. On the Circumstances Connected with Our Saviours Passion and His Life-Giving Resurrection, The Wheels of the Formal Correction turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine. It is significant that Jesus be crucified on a Friday because that is the normal time when the passover lamb was sacrificed by the Jews. Colin Humphreys estimates that Jesus' ministry began in 30 A.D. Why would the Apostles allude to a darkness their hearers and readersknewdid not happen? Thus, upon closer examination, theforce of the skeptics objection inevitably dissolves away into nothingness as we examine the works of other ancient writers who the skeptic would cite as asilentwitness for their case. This would include the April 33 AD date I have used above for the crucifixion. https://creation.com/darkness-at-the-crucifixion-metaphor-or-real-history, http://www.icr.org/article/greatest-earthquakes-bible/, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/47555983/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/quake-reveals-day-jesus-crucifixion-researchers-believe/#.Wiu9sUqWaUk, http://www.wall.org/~aron/blog/darkness-at-noon/. An earthquake occurred in Bythinia and overthrew a great part of the city of Nicaea" He dabbed the sweat from his pallid face and intoned Are you at peace with God? Trallianus, Olympiades: In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad, [AD 32-33] a failure of the Sun took place greater than any previously known, and night came on at the sixth hour of the day [noon], so that stars actually appeared in the sky; and a great earthquake took place in Bithynia and overthrew the greater part of Niceaea," Even if the darkness had not been seen throughout the whole empire, word of it would have spread to Rome as the center of government and commerce. Thesestatements reveal several key things: 1. Originally written in Aramaic, it was intended for a Jewish audience. Created With Love By Bright Mark Media LLC. Jerusalem is another place where we might have expected there to be records of the events of Matthew 27, and to hope that individual residents of Jerusalemcontemporaneous to the eventsmight have commented on these wondrous happenings in personal records, etc. !, The audience was rowdy now. There are no surviving records after this date. Next, let us consider the argument with regard to theGospel of Mark. I believe Colin Humphreys is probably correct that the date of the crucifixion of Christ was Friday April 3, A.D. 33. Copyright Like The Master Ministries. Africanus make it rather evident that Thallus was specifically addressing this darkness i.e., the three hour darkness at the time of the Crucifixion and not any other. . 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad. Indeed Phlegon, who is an excellent calculator of olympiads, also writes about this, in his 13th book writing thus: "However in the fourth year of the 202nd olympiad [32 CE], an eclipse of the sun happened, greater and more excellent than any that had happened before it; at the sixth hour [around noon] day turned into dark night, so that the . On the subject of unusually long eclipses of the sun, Pliny states the following: Eclipses of the sun also take place which are portentous and unusually long,such asoccurred when Csar the Dictator was slain, and in the war against Antony, the sun remained dim for almost a whole year(Pliny the Elder,Natural History,II, 30) [Italics added]. Bursa is approximately 600 miles from Jerusalem. /*