NASA scientists announced that they may have determined the day the New Testament claims Jesus was supposed to have been crucified.
The Daily Mail reported that NASA made this discovery in the 1990s but went unnoticed until it was published recently in ABP News, an Indian Hindi-language news service. NASA’s research was based on a verse in the New Testament:
“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land,” reads Matthew 27:45.
Similarly, in Acts 2:20, the New Testament writes, “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.”
Scientists hypothesized that this could refer to a lunar eclipse that appeared over Jerusalem shortly after sunset. During a blood moon eclipse, the moon takes on a reddish hue. They believe the New Testament is describing a lunar eclipse on Friday, April 3, 33 CE.
Christians believe Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, which falls two days before Easter Sunday. The first full moon determines the timing of the Easter holiday after the first day of spring, a system meant to align with Passover.
Biblical scholars Colin Humphreys and W. Graeme Waddington from the University of Oxford used NASA’s findings along with textual references to the crucifixion to support that the moon indeed took on the color of blood after the death of Jesus. They argue that NASA’s data helps to complete the puzzle and illuminate the details of the historical event.
“Christian texts state that the moon was turned to blood after the crucifixion of Jesus—possibly referring to a lunar eclipse, during which the moon takes on a reddish hue,” NASA stated, adding that sky-monitoring technology identified the ancient eclipse that was visible in Jerusalem shortly after sunset.
Celestial science is often used to verify Biblical events. In 2017, researchers from Ben Gurion University discovered the scientific explanation behind the miraculous Biblical account of the sun standing still for Joshua during battle. The study suggests that the miracle of the sun standing still when Joshua fought five armies to help the Gibeonites was actually attributable to natural causes – namely, a solar eclipse.
