ECLIPSE. We do not meet with this word in Scripture. The Hebrews seem not to have philosophized much upon Eclipses. They considered them as miraculous effects, and sensible marks of God’s anger. Job seems to say, that an Eclipse is caused by Vide Joel ii. 10, 31. and iii. 15. Job xxxvi. 32. Job ix. 7.the interposition of the hand of God between us, and the Star eclipsed. In manibus abscondit lucem, & præcipit ei ut rursus adveniat. In another place he says, That God commandeth the Sun, and it riseth not, and sealeth up the Stars. Ezekiel speaks in a more particular manner, saying, that God Ezek. xxxii. 7.covers the Sun with clouds, when he deprives us of the light of it by an Eclipse.
The Eclipse which happened at our Saviour’s Matth. xxvii. 45.death, is a miracle not to be contested, since the Moon being then at the full, could not naturally cause an Eclipse. Besides, Eclipses generally last about an hour only, whereas this continued three; From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. Origen, with many others after him, believed this darkness to Origen. in Matth. xxvii.be particular to Judæa, which is very often described by the name of all the Earth. Others are of opinion, that our whole Hemisphere was then covered with darkness. Julius Africanus, Eusebius, and St. Jerom have cited Phlegon, the Emperor Adrian’s freed-man, who said, that in the fourth year of the two hundred and second Olympiad, Jul. African. apud Syncell. Euseb. & Hieron. in Chronic.which is the year of Jesus Christ’s death, there was the greatest Eclipse of the Sun that had been ever seen to that time, for at noon-day the Stars in the Heavens were plainly discernable. Tertullian refers the Heathens to Tertul. Apolog. c. 21. Rufin. l. 9. c. 6. Hist. Eccl.their publick records, to find there the time when it was night at noon-day.
Lucian a Priest of Antioch, who suffered martyrdom in 312, is introduced by Rufinus, speaking in this manner to the Heathens: Consult your annals, and you will find, that when Jesus Christ died, the Sun disappeared, and the day-light was interrupted by uncommon darkness. Thallus an ancient Author, is likewise named by Julius Africanus, as having taken notice of the extraordinary darkness attending the Passion of our Saviour. The spurious Dionys. Areopag. Ep. 7. ad Polycarp.Dionysius the Areopagite says, that when he was at Heliopolis in Egypt, he observed the Eclipse which happened upon this occasion; and as he knew that according to the rules of Astronomy it could not happen at that time, Allophanes, who was then his fellow-student in that city, cried out, These, dear Dionysius, are supernatural and divine changes; or, these are changes of things that are divine. Suidas makes Dionysius himself use this expression, Either the Divinity itself suffers, or compassionates some other, who is suffering.