|
Home
Store
CHAPTER XVII.
THE APHANASIA, OR DARKNESS AT THE CRUCIFIXION.
1. MATTHEW tells us (xxvii. 31) that when Christ was crucified, there
was darkness all over the land for three hours, and "the earth did
quake, and the rocks were rent, and many of the saints came out of their
graves."
Here we have a series of events spoken of so strange, so unusual and so
extraordinary that, had they occurred, they must have attracted the
attention of the whole world—especially the amazing scene of the sun's
withdrawing his light and ceasing to shine, and thereby causing an
almost total darkness near the middle of the day. And yet no writer of
that age or country, or any other age or country, mentions the
circumstance but Matthew. A phenomenon so terrible and so serious in its
effects as literally to unhinge the planets and partially disorganize
the universe must have excited the alarm and amazement of the whole
world, and caused a serious disturbance in the affairs of nations. And
yet strange, superlatively strange, not one of the numerous historians
of that age makes the slightest allusion to such an astounding event.
Even Seneca and the elder Pliny, who so particularly and minutely
chronicle the events of those times, are as silent as the grave relative
to this greatest event in the history of the world. Nor do Mark, Luke or
John, who all furnish us with a history of the crucifixion, make the
p. 135
slightest hint at any of these wonder-exciting events, except Mark's
incidental allusion to the darkness.
Gibbon says, "It happened during the life of Seneca and the elder Pliny,
who must have experienced its immediate effects, or received the
earliest intelligence of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in a
labored work, has recorded all the phenomena of Nature's earthquakes,
meteors and eclipses, which his indefatigable curiosity could collect.
Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest
phenomenon, to which the mortal eye has been witness since the creation
of the world." (Gibbon, p. 451.)
With reference to the "bodies" of the dead saints coming out of their
tombs (for it is declared their "bodies arose;" see Matt. xxvii. 52),
many rather curious and puzzling questions might be started, which would
at once disclose its utter absurdity.
We might ask, for example:—
1. Who were those "many saints" who came out of their graves, seeing
there were as yet but few Christians to occupy graves, if they had been
all dead, as the enumeration at Antioch made out only one hundred and
twenty? (See Acts.) 2. How long had they lain in their graves? 3. How
long since their bodies had turned to dust, and been food for worms? 4.
And would not those worms have to be hunted up and required to disgorge
the contents of their stomachs in order to furnish the saints with the
materials for their bodies again? 5. And were the shrouds or grave
clothes of those saints also resurrected? or did they travel about in a
state of nudity? 6. For what purpose were they re-animated? 7. And
should not Matthew have furnished us, by way of proof, with the names of
some of these ghostly visitors? 8. How long did they live the second
time? 9. Did they die again, or did they ascent to heaven with their
new-made bodies? 10. What
p. 136
business did they engage in? 11. Why have we not some account of what
they said and did? 12. And what finally became of them?
Until these questions are rationally answered, the story must be
regarded as too incredible and too ludicrous to merit serious notice.
3. Nearly all the phenomena represented as occurring at the crucifixion
of Christ are reported to have been witnessed also at the final exit of
Senerus, an ancient pagan demigod, who figured in history at a still
more remote period of time. And similar incidents are related likewise
in the legendary histories of several other heathen demigods and great
men partially promoted to the honor of Gods. In the time-honored records
of the oldest religion in the world, it is declared, "A cloud surrounded
the moon; and the sun was darkened at noonday, and the sky rained fire
and ashes during the crucifixion of the Indian God Chrishna." In the
case of Osiris of Egypt, Mr. Southwell says, "As his birth had been
attended by an eclipse of the sun, so his death was attended by a still
greater darkness of the solar orb." At the critical juncture of the
crucifixion of Prometheus, it is declared, "The whole frame of nature
become convulsed, the earth shook, the rocks were rent, the graves
opened, and in a storm which threatened the dissolution of the universe,
the scene closed" (Higgins). According to Livy, the last hours of the
mortal demise of Romulus were marked by a storm and by a solar eclipse.
And similar stories are furnished us by several writers of Cæsar and
Alexander the Great. With respect to the latter, Mr. Nimrod says, "Six
hours of darkness formed his aphanasia, and his soul, like Polycarp's,
was seen to fly away in the form of a dove." (Nimrod, vol. iii. p. 458.)
"It is remarkable," says a writer, "what a host of respectable
authorities vouch for an acknowledged fable—the preternatural darkness
which followed Cæsar's death." Gibbon
p. 137
alludes to this event when he speaks of "the singular defect of light
which followed the murder of Cæsar." He likewise says, "This season of
darkness had already been celebrated by most of the poets and historians
of that memorable age." (Gibbon, p. 452.) It is very remarkable that
Pliny speaks of a darkness attending Cæsar's death, but omits to mention
such a scene as attending the crucifixion of Christ. Virgil also seeks
to exalt this royal personage by relating this prodigy. (See his
Georgius, p. 465.) Another writer says, "Similar prodigies were supposed
or said to accompany the great men of former days."
Let the reader make a note of this fact—that the same story was told of
the graves opening, and the dead rising at the final mortal exit of
several heathen Gods and several great men long before it was penned as
a chapter in the history of Christ.
Shakespeare, in his Hamlet says:—
"In the most high and palmy days of Rome,
A little ere the mighty Julius fell—
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."
These historical citations strongly press the conclusion that this
portion of the history of Christ was borrowed from old pagan legends.
4, Many cases are recorded in history of the light of the sun being
obscured at midday so as to result in almost total darkness, when it was
known not to be produced by an eclipse. And it is probable that these
natural events furnish the basis in part for those wild legends we have
brought to notice. Humboldt relates in his Cosmos, that, "in the year
358, before the earthquake of Numidia, the darkness was very dense for
two or three hours," Another obscuration of the sun took place in the
year 360, which lasted five or six hours, and was so dense that the
stars were visible at midday. Another circumstance of this kind
p. 138
was witnessed on the nineteenth of May, 1730, which lasted eight hours.
And so great was the darkness, that candles and lamps had to be lighted
at midday to dine by. Similar events are chronicled for the years 1094,
1206, 1241, 1547, and 1730. And if any such solar obscurations occurred
near the mortal exit of any of the Gods above named, of course they
would be seized on as a part of their practical history wrought up into
hyperbole, and interwoven in their narratives, to give eclat to the
pageantry of their biographies—a fact which helps to solve the mystery.
ORIGIN OF THE STORY OF THE APHANASIA AT THE CRUCIFIXION
There is but little ground to doubt but that the various stories of a
similar character then current in different countries, as shown above,
first suggested the thought to Christ's biographers of investing history
with the incredible events reported as being connected with the
crucifixion. The principal motive, however, seems to have grown out of a
desire to fulfill a prophecy of the Jewish prophet Joel, as we may find
many of the important miraculous events ingrafted into Christ's history
were recorded by way of fulfilling some prophecy. "That the prophecy
might be fulfilled" is the very language his evangelical biographers
use.
Joel's prediction runs thus: "And I will show wonders in the heavens,
and in the earth, flood and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be
turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and
terrible day of the Lord come." (Joel ii. 30.) A little impartial
investigation will satisfy any unprejudiced mind that this poetic
rhapsody has not the most remote allusion to the closing events in the
life of Christ, and was not intended to have.
But his biographers, writing a long time after his death, supposing and
assuming that this and various other texts,
p. 139
which they quote from the prophets, had reference to him, and had been
fulfilled, incorporated it into his history as a part of his practical
life. The conviction that the prophecy must have been fulfilled, without
knowing that it had, added to similar stories of other Gods, with which
Christ's history became confounded, misled them into the conclusion that
they were warranted in assuming that the incredible events they name
were really witnessed at the mortal termination of Christ's earthly
career, when they did not know it, and could not have known it.
This view of the case becomes very rational and very forcible when we
observe various texts quoted from the prophets by the gospel writers,
or, rather, most butcheringly misquoted, tortured or distorted into
Messianic prophecies, when the context shows they have no reference to
Christ whatever.
from Crucified Saviors
|