Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Why Did Jesus Die at 3:01 PM?

Jesus’ Death at 3:01 pm

The Eclipses That Day


At noon, or the sixth hour of the day, a strange thing happened. The sky suddenly became dark. From Ignatius' letter, which we will quote later, it appears that the sky was darkened for three hours to mark the time that Jesus actually hung on the cross. Matthew 27:45 says,


45 Now from the sixth hour [noon] darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour [3:00 p.m.].

This was not a natural solar eclipse, for astronomers have charted all the lunar and solar eclipses visible in the Middle East for the past 5,000 years. In fact, since Passover always fell on a full moon, it was impossible to have a solar eclipse at Passover, for solar eclipses can occur only at the time of the new moon (that is, when no moon appears in the sky at night). Likewise, eclipses of the moon are seen only at the time of the full moon. And so, while there have been lunar eclipses at Passover on occasion throughout history, there has never been a natural solar eclipse on that day. The darkness that fell over the land at noon during the time Jesus hung on the cross was supernatural, not natural.

Astronomers tell us that in the late afternoon of Passover, Friday, April 3, 33 A.D., while Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were hurrying to bury the body of Jesus, there was also a lunar eclipse. The eclipse began in Europe at 3:01 p.m. when Jesus died, and it was already eclipsed when the moon rose over Jerusalem at 5:10 p.m. that evening.

It is impossible to have a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse on the same day, because the sun and the moon must be in opposite positions in the sky for these two kinds of eclipses. Yet on this great day in history, God marked the time for all to see by a spectacular miracle.

In Bonnie Gaunt's book, The Bible's Awesome Number Code, page 55, we read:

"It was on a lonely hill outside the walls of Jerusalem that this Heavenly One, who came to earth to be born, to suffer, and to die as a man, hung on a cruel cross that afternoon. The hill was called Calvary. Its Greek name was Kranion, whose numeric value is 301.

"At 3:01 in the afternoon, as he looked heavenward and said, 'It is finished,' the moon began to eclipse. It was at 3:01 Greenwich Time that the eclipse began. God makes no mistakes with His timing, nor does He rely on coincidences. The word 'moon' in the New Testament is Selene, and its Gematria is 301. Yes, He who had formed the moon and put it into its orbit around the earth, now had given up His human life at 3:01, on a hill called Calvary (301) precisely when the moon (301) began to eclipse. It was the exact hour when the priests were killing the lambs for Passover. 'Lambs' [in Hebrew] has a numeric value of 301."

For those unfamiliar with numeric values (gematria), the Hebrew and Greek letters served as their numbers as well as letters. Hence, each letter carries a numeric value, and one can add up the value of each letter to obtain the numeric value of any word or sentence in the Bible. In this manner, Bonnie Gaunt shows mathematically the precision of God in timing the first minute of His death (3:01 p.m.) in accordance with an eclipse of the moon (301) on a hill called Calvary, whose numeric value is 301. His death coincided with the Passover "lambs" (301) that were being killed at that same moment.

Why did God also blot out the sun at noon on the day Jesus was crucified? Astronomers tell us that on Abib 14, 33 A.D. at noon, the sun was positioned on a star called El Nath in the head of Aries, the ram. El Nath means "the wounded, or the slain." That was the moment the sun was darkened. Assuming there were no clouds to block their vision, if the people in Jerusalem had looked up to see where the sun had been shining, they would have seen El Nath, the slain ram.
Some say the darkness at noon was a sign of creation in mourning. No doubt it was, but the divine law sheds additional light on this event.


If we explain this phenomenon beginning with Moses, we note first that no one was allowed to kill the Passover lamb while it was dark. If the darkness had not ended in mid-afternoon, the people could not have observed the Passover that year, because they were forbidden to slay the lambs after dark. But the darkness lasted only until the ninth hour, or mid-afternoon. The sun came out, and the people began to kill their Passover lambs.
At that moment Jesus spoke His final words and died (Matthew 27:46-50).


God brought darkness so that no one would kill the lambs until Jesus died. This certainly identified Him as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. He was, as John the Baptist had proclaimed, "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). It was important enough in the plan of God that no one should kill the Passover lambs until the moment Jesus died on the cross. Jesus could not have died on any other day than Abib 14, for this was the appointed time set by the prophetic law of Passover.

Furthermore, God blotted out the sun for three hours in order to prevent the people from killing the Passover lambs until the moment Jesus died on the cross. As we showed earlier, rabbinic tradition allowed them that Friday to kill the Passover lambs as early as 12:30 p.m. after the evening sacrifice had been slain. So God brought darkness to the land in order to force them to conform to the time of Jesus' death--as the law said, "between the two evenings." It was the precise moment in history when the Lamb of God was destined to die for the sin of the world.

[excerpt from the writings of Stephen Jones]

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow, just stumbled across this, and it made me happy. Praise God for His wonderful timing! Gods timing and plans have come up in my life a lot recently but this is the best.
Thankyou for this.
God Bless
<><

Karen said...

Hi Katy,
Greetings and blessings to you as well!
So happy to have you stop by and glean whatever Father has for you. This is a an excerpt of a writing by Stephen Jones....this is his website if you are interested:
http://www.gods-kingdom-ministries.org/

Ellysia said...

Hi Karen,

This is amazing..
I was searching all about the eclipses when Jesus died... And this blog has answered my questions clearly..

Thanks and God Bless!

Karen said...

Hi Ellysia,

You're most welcome and blessings right back atcha!

In His Great Love For All,
Karen

Catherine said...

Thank you for your very informative article. I'm 'making sure' of some of the claims about 'blood moons', eclipses, and the positioning of virgo with the sun, moon etc, on Rosh Hashanah this 29th Sep. Is too much being 'read' into these 'alignments' and eclipses? Your article has got me wondering now, because the darkness that fell during Jesus' death was not due to astronomical causes ie a solar eclipse, but was supernatural, so verses like Matt 24:29 and Rev 12:1,2 need not have an astronomical meaning or cause, but a supernatural meaning or cause???

Karen said...

Hello Catherine,

The Bible, I believe, is to be understood on many levels...it can be literal, or at the body level or our outer life, but we are exhorted to "hear what the spirit is saying", so it is also metaphysically or allegorically to be understood as well.

So, to answer your question, I believe it can be both.

Many blessings to you on your journey,
Karen

joseline.eugene said...

Joseline said....
Lord, our God is always prompt and does not delays with His deeds. These people who go around the world with the Doomsday theory should read this to understand God's ways, He does what He says and does not rely on human calculation.

Delia Lopez said...

Hi I hate to start something but check out the scriptures. Daniel says the messiah will be cut off midweek wednesday. He was in the grave for 3 days and 3 nights or he was not the messiah. He was out of the grave at the end of the sabbath as it dawned toward the 1st day of the week so saturday night he was gone. Mary was at the grave after going to get Peter and I think John and they investigated and left and she sees a man she thinks is the gardener as he is carrying the first fruits offering it is by now so dark she does not recognize him till he speaks. He was in the grave wed night thurs night and fri night. Thursday, friday and sabbath. You can go through the new testament and see where his body had to be taken down the next day was a high sabbath thursday the first day of unleavened bread. Then they bought and prepared spices after the sabbath and then they rested on the 7th day sabbath in accordance with the commandment.

Anonymous said...

Delia,

If you are referring to Daniel chapter 9, Daniel's prophecy pertaining to midweek is in reference to 3.5 years following the beginning of the 7 year tribulation during the end times. Daniel's prophecy translated as weeks has been accepted by both Jewish teachers and Christian teachers as a 7 year period. This must be a true interpretation since it predicts the death of Christ. This link:
http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/weeks.htm

does a pretty good job summing it up.

Anonymous said...

6 uipairDelia Lopez is exactly right.

Sunday Christians should wake up to see the obvious. Of course she also said, if you missed it, that Yeshua, as His mama called Him, was resurrected on Saturday evening, the first day of the week, NOT SUNDAY.

Soooo...Choosing the year by when the moon was full on a Friday gives the wrong year. It was not 33AD.

Anonymous said...

I studied how Jesus couldn't of died on a friday and raise up a sunday. Jesus said "for three days and three nights I'll be in the belly of the earth"

So if we count fri night, sat morn and sat night, sunday morn sun night, and monday morning. That would mean Jesus rose on MONDAY... However wasn't there a "high sabbath" which was held on the wednesday before the saturday sabbath? If Jesus died on a wednesday that would mean he was raised on a saturday.... Does this change anything that you have come to in conclusion?

Karen said...

The Jewish day was reckoned from sundown to sundown.....the following link may help answer your question.

http://carm.org/how-long-was-jesus-dead-tomb

Jon said...

ELNATH (Beta Tauri). Equally well called El Nath, Elnath lies at the tip of the great northern horn of Taurus, the Bull.

Karen said...

Jon, it appears that the star El Nath was assigned to the constellation Aries in older records.
Quote:
Alpha (α) Aries, Hamal, is a yellow star on the forehead of the Ram.

Hamal, from the constellation title (Arabic hamal, "ram"), was formerly written Hamel, Hemal, Hamul, and Hammel; the Italian astronomer Riccioli (1598–1671) having Ras Hammel from Al Ras al Hamal, the Head of the Sheep.

Burritt's Atlas of 1856 had El Nath, from Al Natih, the Horn of the Butting One, is appropriate enough for this star, but in our day is given to beta (β) Taurus (El Nath).