Dr Paul Allen

Why do some historians like Tallus and Phlegon mention unusual events like eclipses during Jesus' crucifixion, and what do these accounts add to the narrative? We do not have any actual writings from Thallus, although some of his work was quoted by later writers. One such writer was Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian who lived in the early third century. He said that Thallus reported darkness at about the time of the crucifixion but dismissed it as a solar eclipse.  As Africanus points out, solar eclipses never occur at the time of the full moon. Origen reported, in Against Celsus 2.xiv, that Phlegon wrote about "the greatest eclipse of the sun" at the sixth hour.  William Lane Craig, a theologian and Christian apologist, has written a lengthy article (Thallus on the Darkness at Noon) in which he accepts that Thallus wrote the account attributed to him and demonstrates that there was, in fact, a darkness at the time Jesus was crucified. As we only have references to wha...

If we look at the intricacy of the drama of the events of Jesus’ crucifixion , we see that some amazing things took place so that Old Testament prophetic utterances were fulfilled to the minutest detail.  In the first instance, the Old Testament said that the Messiah would be delivered to the Gentile s (“dogs” or “congregation of the wicked”) for judgment (Ps. 22:16). It just so happened in the course of history that Jesus was put on trial during a time of Roman occupation of Palestine .  The Romans allowed a certain amount of home rule by their conquered vassals, but they did not permit the death penalty to be imposed by the local rulers, so the Jews did not have the authority to put Christ to death. The only thing they could do was to meet in council and take Jesus to Pontius Pilate , the Roman governor, asking him to carry out the execution. So Jesus was delivered from His own people to the Gentiles—those who were “outside the camp.” He was delivered into the ...