Archaeology & Crucifixion
By Lalith Mendis –March 25, 2016
Dr. Lalith Mendis
There is evidence that the crucifixion of Christ may be the only day on which a Blood moon, noonday darkness & global or multi-tectonic earthquake coincided.
But what about the bloody moon? – Crucifixion April 3rd AD 33
Blood moon is when sometimes in a total lunar eclipse, the earth which comes between sun & moon casts a red shadow on the moon.
The earthquake during crucifixion was global in scope (affecting every tectonic boundary) as Tertullian & Africanus document.
The answer to that question fixes the date of the crucifixion with precision. Beyond reasonable doubt, in fact, because a “blood moon” has a specific meaning. In ancient literature, not only the Bible, it means a lunar eclipse. Why bloody? Because when the moon is in eclipse it is in the Earth’s shadow. It receives no direct light from the sun, but is lit only by the dim light refracted and red-shifted by the Earth’s atmosphere. The moon in eclipse does glow a dull red, as you know if you have seen it.
This matters, because with Kepler’s equations we can determine exactly when historical eclipses occurred. Perhaps it will not surprise you to learn that only one Passover lunar eclipse was visible from Jerusalem while Pilate was in office It occurred on April 3, 33 AD, the Day of the Cross.
That day followed a night of horrors predicted by the prophet Isaiah. In place of sleep for Jesus there were torch-lit hours of interrogation and mockery, spittle in the face and beatings, barbed lashes tearing flesh from his back and thorns pressed into his scalp. Isaiah wrote that the messiah would be beaten until “marred beyond human likeness” And so, Jesus was brutalized during multiple “trials” and retrials before priests Annas and Caiaphas), King Herod and Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. In the end, his fate was decided by a mob. He was marched to Golgotha, the “place of the skull,” and crucified. He would die within six hours.
