wales@cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) (04/03/91)
Chuck -- Regarding your comment on the end of the "Shroud of Turin" article in the newsgroup, where you said you weren't sure about the details with regard to eclipses and the Crucifixion: A solar eclipse can occur only at new moon (since it requires the moon to be positioned between the sun and the earth). Since Passover comes at full moon, it is flatly impossible to have a solar eclipse during Passover. The reported darkness during the day of the Crucifixion could thus not possibly have been due to a solar eclipse. I would tend to attribute it to a storm (sand and/or rain). A lunar eclipse, on the other hand, can occur only at full moon (since it requires the earth to be positioned between the sun and the moon). It is very possible for a lunar eclipse to occur at Passover. Indeed, some researchers believe there may in fact have been a lunar eclipse on the evening just after the Crucifixion -- and that this may help explain why Peter quoted Joel's prophecy about the moon being turned into blood (Acts 2:20; Joel 2:31). There was, in fact, a partial lunar eclipse in April of AD 33 -- on one of the two most likely dates for the Crucifixion (based on astronomical calculations of which Passovers could have begun on a Friday or Thursday evening; the other reasonable possibility is in AD 30; I can give you more info on this line of research if you want). The precise timing of the AD 33 eclipse is sufficiently uncertain, though, that experts dis- agree on whether it would or would not have been visible from Jerusalem. Feel free to post this to the newsgroup if you wish. Rich Wales <wales@CS.UCLA.EDU> // UCLA Computer Science Department 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (213) 825-5683