NASA's discovery of a lunar eclipse related to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ went viral on TikTok during Holy Week, according to ABP News. The Daily Mail reported that this discovery was made in the 1990s but went unnoticed at the time.
According to NASA, which tracks the positions of the Earth, Moon, and Sun on different days of ancient history, the words in the New Testament are signs of a lunar eclipse that occurred on Friday, April 3, 33 CE. Scholars have determined this date as the probable day of the crucifixion because there was a lunar eclipse on that day.
Biblical historians believe that the lunar eclipse identified by NASA is the one mentioned in the Bible, which was observed in Jerusalem shortly after sunset, causing the moon to turn red. This phenomenon aligns with descriptions in Christian texts of the moon turning to blood after the crucifixion.
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.
The Gospel of Matthew states, “From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” This passage describes the sky turning dark during the crucifixion.
In the Book of Acts 2:20, it is written, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.” This verse references the celestial phenomena that scholars believe correspond to the lunar eclipse.
A passage from the apocryphal text The Report of Pilate states, “At His crucifixion the sun was darkened, the stars appeared, and throughout the world, people lit lamps from the sixth hour until evening, the moon appeared as blood.” Although the New Testament apocrypha were not included in the traditional biblical canon because they were not considered divinely inspired, these texts contain writings about the life of Jesus, his infancy, his divine nature, and his relationships with his family and disciples.
While some scholars argue that these verses predict the Second Coming of Jesus, others—including Humphreys and Waddington—believe they describe the events that unfolded on the day Jesus died. They argue that Peter's excerpt—“the sun will be turned to darkness”—directly refers to Matthew 27:45 and aligns with the three-hour darkness mentioned in the Gospels.
Humphreys and Waddington contended that Peter was not prophesying the Second Coming but was telling the crowd that the prophecy of Joel had been fulfilled. The passage from Joel 2:28–31 says, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.”
NASA's discovery sparked interest in aligning the biblical accounts with astronomical events. Early Christians wanted Easter to reflect the timeline, so they sought a system that would keep Easter connected to Passover and the resurrection of Jesus. Good Friday, the day of the Crucifixion, always falls two days before Easter Sunday, determined by the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.