Good Friday 3 April AD 33 – Lunar and Solar Eclipses as Christ died on the Cross
The fellow who made the video about the Star of Bethlehem (a compelling argument, I might add), also did some research about what happened in the heavens on Good Friday.
Let’s break it down.
Passover begins on the 14th day of the Jewish lunar month of Nisan. Moreover, Passover begins at twilight, dividing 14 Nisan and 15 Nissan. The Gospels say the Lord was crucified on Preparation Day, a Friday. 14 Nisan 14 fell on a Friday Preparation Day, twice: 7 April AD 30 and 3 April AD 33. Daniel in 444 BC prophesied (Daniel 9:21–26) that the Anointed one would be cut off in 476 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem: AD 33.
The Bible records that, at the time of the crucifixion and death of the Lord, there were signs, including a “blood moon” or lunar eclipse.
Only one Passover lunar eclipse was visible from Jerusalem while Pilate was in office. It occurred on 3 April 33.
On 3 April the Moon rose already in eclipse. It rose the color of blood. That means that the eclipse began before it rose, in the constellation of the Virgin (at the time of Christ’s birth there was a New Moon, in the constellation of the Virgin).
The eclipse started at 3 pm when Christ was breathing His last.
But remember that a lunar eclipse is a syzygy!
If there is an eclipse in one direction there is an eclipse in the other direction too.
If you were standing on the Moon during that syzygy of 3 April 33, you would see a total eclipse of the Sun.
The blotted Sun would be in the heart of the constellation of the Ram (cf. “the Lamb who was slain”).
You can try this out for yourselves. Go to the online astronomy aid Starry Night. HERE
Move your location to Jerusalem and then plug in the time of about 7 pm and date 3 April 33 and adjust your view to ESE. You will see the Moon has just risen and there is a label for your Earth’s shadow. The Moon had risen at about 6:30 pm in the totality of the eclipse. HERE
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With the daylight turned off, and the horizon removed, and then looking at an angle down through the Earth below the horizon, at 3 pm, you see the Moon and Earth’s shadow converging in Virgo.
Then you can switch to the view from the Moon!
You must adjust your view a little and turn yourself right with a few clicks. But you will find it. In the screenshot, below, you can see where Earth and Sun are in Aries. Since the Earth would be larger in the Moon’s sky than in this screenshot, the Sun would be in total eclipse. Adjust for UTC + 3 hours to the right time in Jerusalem from 1500 to 1800. HERE
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In read around the question a little more, I find that, using different date calculators, there are some problems of the day of the week. Also, there are arguments for dating the Crucifixion to 1 April 33. If that is the case, then the phenomena described above occur on Easter Sunday. Much hinges on which calendar the Lord and His disciples were using for their own Passover meal, if the last Supper was a Passover meal (Joseph Ratzinger argued that it was a related sacrificial meal but not a seder.)
Definitive? Not quite. But it is not to be discounted that God, from all Eternity knowing exactly what would happen, set the heaven’s in motion in so precise a way that its signs would help us to understand the mysteries taking place, which were in other ways foreshadowed. In the sacraments (a term interchangable with “mystery” in many contexts), visible signs help us to understand that insensible graces and transformations are taking place. If in the signs of the sacraments, why not too signs in the heavens?
