The Renewed Covenant (New Testament) writers, as well as Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44-45, and Dionysius the Areopagite, a Greek astronomer, were four eyewitnesses who recorded this epic fulfillment of Amos’ prophecy. Individually and in one accord, each determined that the miracle of this darkened sun event lay with its profoundly unusual length. It was Luke alone, of the followers of Yahusha, who clarified that the darkness over all the earth was overtly related to the occulted sun. However, the other two disciples covertly stated it.”

But, you may ask, how did each of these disciples of the Messiah declare that the darkness was related to the sun itself? The answer lay in the fact that they all identified the time of day as the period between the 6th and the 9th hour. Each daylight, as ruled by the sun, was divided into twelve equal portions as portrayed on the sundial, the trusted measuring device of all ancient nations. (John 11:9). All agreed that the sun was shining as usual from sunrise to the 6th hour (noon). It was the sun that was obscured from noon (6th hour) until the 9th hour. At the 9th hour, the sun was shining again as usual until sunset at the end of the 12th hour at its natural time as registered on a sundial.

Consider that the words “stricken sun” are not even necessary here because the use of the term “hour” testifies to the single measuring unit of time represented by the sun alone.

In letters written under the name Dionysius the Areopagite, the author claims to have observed a solar eclipse from Heliopolis at the time of the crucifixion. Parker, John (1897). “Letter VII. Section II. To Polycarp–Hierarch. & Letter XI. Dionysius to Apollophanes, Philosopher.” The Works of Dionysius the Arepagite. London: James Parker and Co. pp. 148–149, 182–183.

 

According to the Orthodox Church in America, Dionysius, who is mentioned in Acts 17:34, was from Athens and received a classical Greek education (i.e. Atticism). He studied astronomy at the city of Heliopolis, and it was in Heliopolis, along with his friend Apollophonos where he witnessed the solar eclipse that occurred at the moment of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ by Crucifixion. (The connection between the events was surely realized by him at a later date.) But even so, at the time of the eclipse he said, “Either the Creator of all the world now suffers, or this visible world is coming to an end.” Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite the Bishop of Athens, Wikipedia.org

There were a total of four eyewitnesses who testified that, indeed, it was the “sun” that was darkened on that most epic day of Earth’s history.

The church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (A.D. 264 – 340), in his Chronicle, quotes Phlegon [second century A.D.] as saying that during the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad:

“A great eclipse of the sun occurred at the sixth hour [noon] that excelled every other before it, turning the day into such darkness of night that the stars could be seen in heaven, and the earth moved in Bithynia, toppling many buildings in the city of Nicaea.” Chronicle, Olympiad 202, trans. Carrier (1999)

The record of that day by the Greeks should not be overlooked, particularly regarding the stars shining at noon, as they were expert astronomers who fully utilized the sun, moon, and stars for all their timekeeping.

It appears that divine intervention ordained the mid-lunar month event of the occulted moon, which was already in a relatively favorable position or at the moment of a solar eclipse. Yahuah may have merely brought the moon closer to Earth and caused it to align with the sun for a period of three hours. A three-hour eclipse is not unheard of, as NASA records these events. These occur during a perigee moon when the moon is larger and closer to Earth. This would facilitate the earthquake event and the stars that could have become visible in the shamayim to serve Yahuah’s prophetic purposes.

The Sorrowing Eternal Father’s Announcement to the World

So what might a sorrowing Eternal Father want to portray to earthlings on that epic day of conflicting emotions of the sacrificial death of His only begotten son through an epic three-part orchestrated “signal” event of the sun, moon, and stars? 

With the added assistance of Divine intervention, the astronomical sign portrayed in this Stellarium image illustrates what could have been. NASA has no recorded evidence of this occurring at noon in that region for any date within the past 20 years.  But I firmly believe that on that day, both the occulted sun and the occulted moon were together at the feet of the “he lamb,” the constellation Aries, at exactly midday (noon/the sixth hour).

Might our sorrowing Eternal Father have utilized this timely astronomical event to announce to the whole earth, “Behold, the LAMB, My Only Begotten Son, who takes away the sin of the world?” This is the very story revealed and synchronized to the stars. It is by starting the New Year utilizing the full moon as the New Moon, together with the constellation Bethula (Virgo), on the 14th of the month, that allows for the constellation Aries to be in the sky at precisely noon, allowing the three-part orchestration of sun, moon, and stars to announce the prophetic fulfillment of this grand and all-encompassing event.

It appears that Yahuah had advanced knowledge that both the identity of His authentic anointed Son and the original New Moon would become subjects of controversy in the centuries following the crucifixion. So, He placed the authenticity of the actual lunar phase displayed in the middle of the lunar month in the safety of the Abrahamic Covenant.

This foundational covenant also identifies the long-promised authentic Messiah and His pre-ordained crucifixion. Thus, we can know with certainty that Passover, the 14th of the lunar month, nearly 2000 years after Abraham, was also to occur in a dark lunar phase in the middle of the lunar month by day. As a result, the full moon is the original first day of the lunar month, as established by yet another principle in Scripture. Refer to the article, The Night Was Dark.

As discovered earlier in this Word Study, the simple version below compares the NKJV with the Creator’s Calendar New Restored Interlinear Text as found in the original Hebrew. 

Was There Motivation for Calendar Alterations

Here is an illustration of the three days and three nights that the Messiah lay in the tomb. It highlights the lunar phases as they would have occurred during those days.

Take a moment to thoughtfully consider the lunar phases shown in the graphic above, which so beautifully confirm the testimony preserved in Scripture. Notice how it was the dark moon that occurred on the 14th of Aviv, revealing that the original New Moon (the first day of the lunar month) has always been the full moon from the beginning. At first glance, this may seem hard to accept, especially since it stands completely opposite, 180 degrees removed, from the calendar followed by the Jewish people for the last two thousand years. This naturally invites us to ask: Was the Bible mistaken in its timekeeping, or was it the Jewish leaders, during their Roman captivity, who shifted the calendar? Watch this one-minute video, which focuses on this question: VIDEO.

Upon closer examination, the weight of evidence confirms that the Scriptural record is faithful and true, and supported even by non-Jewish historians of that era. And when we consider the circumstances, a motive for such a calendar change emerges with startling clarity. After the Jewish leadership’s role in the crucifixion of Yahusha the Messiah on Passover, the 14th day of the lunar month, they had every reason to alter the record. By shifting the New Moon to the dark conjunction, they could blur the very signs in the heavens that testified against them: the three hours of supernatural darkness from noon to 3:00 p.m., perfectly fulfilling the ancient prophecy of Amos 8:9-11. This adjustment would help shield them from the ongoing, day-by-day witness of the Temple ceremonies that had pointed directly to Yahusha as the promised Messiah. In this way, they could claim innocence before future generations, hiding the very evidence that the heavens and the Scriptures had so clearly declared on that most sacred day…“Behold the Lamb of Yah, who takes away the sins of the world.”

 For more on the lunar phase at the crucifixion, refer to The Sun was Darkened from the Sixth to the Ninth Hour.   

Blind Leading the Blind

Why do the Yahudim (Jews) and Christians (of every denomination) overlook these verses above from Amos 8:9-11 that highlight the long-promised Messiah’s sacrificial death in the middle of the lunar month with the largest solar eclipse ever to be witnessed on earth? Might it be because the truth carries with it incriminating evidence that they are no longer synchronized with the true beacons of astro-luni-solar time?

The Romans, who coined the term Christianity, and indeed are represented today by the Mother Roman Catholic Church, because of their hatred for the Yahudim (Jews), altered their calendar. They eliminated the moon from their calendar, except for determining the date of Easter Sunday. This began as early as 46 B.C. with Julius Caesar, which included an eight-day continuous weekly cycle. Later, the eight-day week was abandoned, and a seven-day continuous weekly cycle was established and finally enacted into law by Constantine in A.D. 325. Refer to the article Constantine’s Creed.

Following A.D. 70, the Jews were taken into Roman captivity and ultimately pressured to adopt Roman and Babylonian calendar principles. Today, neither the Romans nor the Jews maintains a single unit of time as preordained at creation and recorded in Scripture. Link.

However, correct lunar time is not the only thing removed from the radar of each of these highly religious groups. The most important of all is the identity of the authentic Messiah.  Today, the Yahudim (Jews) deny that the Messiah has ever come. Part of the problem is that their choice of calendar, which begins with either the dark conjunction or the first visible crescent as the first day of the lunar month, will never identify Him by the prescribed solar eclipse criteria on that mid-lunar month Passover event of the 14th day of His sacrificial death. 

Then, because the Romans have implanted into the paradigms of most of the world today a seven-day planetary week that cycles without end, it has been assumed that the Messiah died on Good Friday and rose on Easter Sunday.  This lunar eliminated time-measuring system, together with the name Jesus Christ, actually identifies the imposter Messiah who does not fit the time stamp of Scripture’s required criteria. There is much more extenuating evidence of a continued cover-up.