It was only a partial eclipse in Jerusalem.
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
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But a total eclipse of the heart.
Once upon a time, I was followed by y'all
Now I've been sold out by a nark
Nailed up on a cross, it's a total eclipse of the heart
90% obscurance will make the sky darker, especially if it was a cloudy day.
90% of the sun obscured is still quite bright, not something I would describe as darkness.
If it's the middle of the day and it suddenly gets very noticably darker with no cloud near the sun, 2000 year old desert people will shit their pants
It took 1 hour 22 minutes from the beginning of the eclipse to the maximum and a little more than that time from maximum until it ended. I would not call that suddenly. And we don't know if there were no clouds.
I experienced almost this exact thing last year, it's something that could fairly easily be missed.
I mean, you can see the moon in the sky during the day time... Especially if the air is clear, and I'm pretty sure they didn't have smog back then.
It's always hilarious when people pretend an eclipse comes out of nowhere and they totally wouldn't see the cause, whether or not they understood it fully.
The other explanation is that people just assumed that the day when it went dark was when Jesus died since the news maybe came to after both events.
Like "Oh, shit, I knew something bad happened that day" when they hear about when Jesus died and it slowly morphed into the main narrative.
Humanity covered a larger area than an eclipse covers even back then. Perhaps localized cultures like around Jerusalem would've had such talk, but not ... most people.
Jesus time Christianity was pretty much confined to that area. It was very early on in the exponential growth curve. The circumcision requirement was not removed which really slowed things down.
So, good for the Christians, bad for people outside of the area believing them on that point.
If we’re going by “the Bible says,” then we also have to acknowledge that the Gospels clearly place the crucifixion right after Passover, which occurs in springtime, not in November. Either this eclipse isn’t the explanation for the alleged three hours of darkness, or the Gospels got the timeline of the Passion completely wrong.
Or they just made up the sky getting darker because that's a very common motif in mythology. It's by far the simplest explanation.
Oh, absolutely. I’m just here to call out the inconsistency.
Most Christian/Catholic holidays have been moved to overlap pagan holidays. Easter is based on the full moon after the spring equinox which changes year to year, but the actual date of death obviously couldn't do that. Same with Christmas being moved to cover yuletide.
All four gospels have Jesus being crucified just before, during, or shortly after Passover, so the traditional date isn't a major retcon centuries later to fit existing dates like Christmas is (allowing, of course, for the fact that we have no assurance who wrote the gospels or when exactly -- but it's still not like the appropriation of Yule or Saturnalia).
There is so much interesting real world science and history that can be applied to these stories to help us see how humanity has strived for better and worse consistently in circles of power. And that luck, and people are always at the center of it.
But, nope, cant have real people to look up to and real stories to tell, we need the manufactured and cleaned ones that make specific people happy.
I would live to know more about Amun, the rise of cities devoted to singe deities and how that lead to the Exodus. Discuss how the crucification of Jesus may have been flawed leading to the rebel leader being able to heal his injuries in a limestone cave. But nope. He was a victim and that's all that matters so wear the mark of victimhood to prove you are a victim too.
I'm an atheist, but coming from a Christian background I think you've got some details wrong. For example, from a theological standpoint Jesus wasn't a victim, he knew he was going to be crucified and moved forward anyways because he was going to take on the sins of humanity.
Of course that's not real, but if you're going to criticize religion might as well try to frame the criticism in a way that would make sense to your audience.
Yes, that's the story that makes him special for the people that need it.
Why wear the symbol that was used to kill him other than to remind people of it?
It's to remember when he went from victim to master of his fate. For the audience not hearing it they relate far more to the victim and needing saving by the master of choices.
My point is specifically the stories of the real world obviously won't relate to the ones reading fanfic. And thus make it hard to talk about the interesting real world of it all.
Biblically iirc it happened after Longinus stabbed Jesus in the side and regained his sight.