The moons, eclipses, and timing

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A lunar eclipse on April 3, A.D. 33, the day Jesus Christ died on the cross. Perfect timing by the God who ordained it all.

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I don't see a reference in this thread to the 1983 article by Humphreys and Waddington ("Dating the Crucifixion," Nature v306, 22/29 Dec 1983), but I believe this is the original publication of these claims.The authors interpreted the red moon of Joel's prophecy to be a lunar eclipse (a reasonable inference) and searched for lunar eclipses which would have been visible from Jerusalem between AD 26-26. They claim that there was only one eclipse in this period which occurred at Passover time, the one on 3 April AD 33. (This is not quite correct; the 25 April AD 31 eclipse also occurred at Passover, but this eclipse was only 35% complete versus a 60% eclipse in AD 33.) The AD 33 eclipse also occurred on a Friday, which is the traditional day for the crucifixion.(A solar eclipse at Passover time is impossible, of course. Passover must always occur at a full moon, but a solar eclipse can only occur at a new moon.)Edited by kbertsche, : No reason given.

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As I pointed out upthread, the 33 AD eclipse was at best marginally observable from Jerusalem. The link to Espenak's page at NASA that Calypsis gave in the OP shows this - "fourth contact," which is the moment of the moon leaving the umbral shadow, was right after moonrise as seen from Israel. At best there would have been a nick out of the north edge of the moon, and in bright twilight at that.

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Noticeable, if you were really looking, but not very exciting.

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I was merely summarizing the claims of Humphreys and Waddington in their Nature article. They admit that the eclipse maximum would have been before moonrise, and calculate that the eclipse ended about 30 min after moonrise.Would this have been noticed by first-century Jews? Remember that Jewish days began at sunset. The people would have certainly been watching the skies that evening, because sunset would start both the weekly Sabbath and the annual Passover. They would almost certainly have noticed an unusually reddish moonrise. But would they consider it significant? This is debatable.

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The above shows the points of the eclipse of 3 Apr 33 CE

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This occurred after sun set and according to Jewish Law the remains had to be removed from the cross before sunset on Friday since sunset started Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath and the eclipse occurred after sunset.

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Yes, your quote and comments agree with the the claims of Humphreys and Waddington.

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There would not have been a red moon for them to notice. The red moon is caused by the Earth's atmosphere transmitting a small amount of the light that hits it around and filling in the Earth's shadow slightly. Most of the longer wavelengths (blue) is left behind, scattered for us to see in the sky. The operative words, however, are "small' and "slightly"; very little light is carried round into the shadow and even a small amount of full sun light blinds us to the extra red component.

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Why is "full sun light" relevant? We are discussing the case of a full moon. Moonrise and sunset occur at approximately the same time; there is no "full sun light" after moonrise. The people would have been watching for the sun to set in the western sky, and almost certainly would have also noticed the moonrise in the east.

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Some portion of the moon's surface receiving full sunlight, not the observers.

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AbE: Actually, let me modify that somewhat. Full sunlight is an over statement. I should have said direct sunlight. Even if the Sun is only peaking around the Earth a little bit (Moon in the Earth's penumbra) the redness is washed out.

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OK, this makes sense. If the moon were entirely in the penumbra, redness would probably not be seen. But if part were in the unbra, this part should appear reddish.