Eclipses, history and the Bible

Ancient eclipses, both solar and lunar, are the bedrock of modern astronomy as it relates to the movement of the earth around the sun and the movement of the moon around the earth. Because eclipses are periodical and predictable, they are of great value to historians.

Historians and astronomers are also very dependent on each other. Astronomers are able to verify many ancient astronomical observations (events) from a variety of sources, including Ptolemy’s Almagest. But actually, astronomers first need a reliable, approximate date or year to confirm records of observed events like a solar or lunar eclipse. Mistakes are possible, but unlikely, and astronomers and historians are usually well aware of when predicted dates are really just educated guesses. Appropriately, they warn readers when giving tentative information.

There is an important exception however which involves the history of the Near East and Ptolemy’s Canon, not to mention the Bible. Having survived 19 centuries of scrutiny, Ptolemy’s Canon is an invaluable aid to astronomy and historical research. Its oldest information dates to what is called the era of Nabonassar, believed to be 747 BC (or its equivalent) since the second century AD. Ptolemy used the regnal information of Near East kings and Babylonian astronomical records, especially of lunar eclipses, to establish dates much as modern astronomers and historians do.

Ptolemy actually relied heavily on Babylonian material gathered and translated by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus several hundred years before him. The earliest lunar eclipses Ptolemy was able to find have long been dated (mistakenly) to 720 and 721 BC. These three eclipses of the moon in such close proximity present a fairly unique astronomical cluster that modern astronomy is able to almost exactly verify when comparing contemporary calculations to Hipparchus’ translation of the Babylonian observations.

To say these eclipses are mistakenly dated would invoke a storm of protest by leading authorities of the day. The issue has been around for centuries, but the debate largely ceased by at least 1700. From this same era, a footnote in Whiston’s translation of Josephus’ writings indicates that these eclipses were well understood by historians and theologians. What was there to understand? Hezekiah’s sign.

Hezekiah’s sign followed the trio of lunar eclipses described by the Babylonians by not many years. Here is the problem. The Bible says the shadow of the sun went backwards ten steps (on the step sundial of Ahaz). This poses a serious problem to astronomers. By calculation, these eclipses seem to occur how, when and where the Babylonians said in the year Ptolemy’s Canon identifies. But for a shadow to go backwards, the earth’s rotation had to change, in this case not merely stop but go backwards. Or the whole universe would need to reverse-rotate by a Ptolemy-like view of the heavens.

Somewhere between Ptolemy’s era, c. 150 AD, and Whiston’s day theologians succumbed to the science of man. It means Bible scholars and authorities abandoned literal interpretation to satisfy astronomers and historians, an error which permeates all chronology and biblical interpretation to this day. For example, reference and study bibles that give dates for Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem basically deny the truth of the Bible regarding Hezekiah’s sign, not to mention many other details found in the books of Kings, Chronicles and Isaiah. Instead, theologians acquiesce to an interpretation supporting a smoke-and-mirrors miracle that somehow made the shadow go backwards without altering the earth’s rotation as science understands it.

Other Jewish writings plainly say the sun went backwards in the sky. Theologians silently skirt the implications that the God of Joshua’s long day could not or would not work such a miracle, preferring to render subsequent centuries of praise as hollow and foolish to the bewilderment of every angel in heaven.

The Bible says the shadow of the sun went backwards and Bible chronology supports it, though at the expense of our imperfect history of the Near East and Ptolemy’s Canon. Science actually helps us solve the problem, an 18-year error in our understanding of the history of the region.

The science of when and where an eclipse is seen and how it appears depends on the movement of the earth and moon around the sun. In addition, the rotation of the earth (360° in 24 hours) determines the local time of eclipses of the moon, in this case what time the Babylonians saw the three eclipses, two near moonrise and one near midnight. Normally, eclipses recur in cycles of 18 years, 10 or 11 days, 7 to 8 hours. The last few hours cause a lunar eclipse seen after moonrise to recur 7 to 8 hours later next time, then 7 to 8 hours the following, then 7-8 hours the third time. So after three more eclipses, 54 years and a month later the third eclipse occurs near moonrise again. It is impossible for two eclipses of the same family to both occur at moonrise back-to-back (18 years apart).

But there are times when science must bow to the sovereignty of God or eventually He will confound the wisdom of man. In this case, God reverse-rotated the earth or the universe to fulfill Hezekiah’s request. It took about 20 to 30 minutes to slow the earth’s (or universe’s) rotation, then about 3 hours 20 minutes for the shadow to move back 10 steps. Then a similar period of slowing followed by another 3 hours 20 minutes as the shadow returned to its beginning position. Hezekiah would not have seen this latter period as anything other than normal, but it is critical to the science of eclipses because every subsequent solar and lunar eclipse known to man was now about 7 hours 30-40 minutes behind schedule. It was as if the usual cycle had only been 18 years 10-11 days.

This has peculiar consequences. Modern science cannot predict it and of course works back in time (history) based on current (technically off-schedule) eclipses. To the Babylonians, the leading astronomers of the day, the consequences were more radical. For the 18 years following Hezekiah’s sign, every eclipse of the moon was identical to its preceding family member. Some eclipses that were expected to recur (after 3 cycles), could not be seen in Babylon at all. The Babylonians were so astonished that the Bible notes they came to inquire about the “wonder done in the land” on their subsequent visit to Jerusalem to see miraculously healed Hezekiah — a lunar eclipse viewable in Babylon and Jerusalem had occurred the night* the angel of the Lord destroyed the Assyrian army outside Jerusalem! At the wrong time (7-8 hours early)!

The fact that modern science wrongly but exactly confirms Ptolemy’s trio of eclipses as precisely on schedule is scientific evidence of the duration of Hezekiah’s sign. As for the Babylonians, they kept records of observed and predicted eclipses by (Saros) families — in other words, lists of eclipses or predictions at 18-year intervals. By keeping accurate records, the Babylonians compiled lists which later magi would be unable to understand. It would appear that their predecessors were guilty of a rash of scribal errors. Eventually, the embarrassing and potentially dangerous duplicate records were eliminated as information was transcribed to new clay tablets. By Nebuchadnezzar’s era, about 150 years later, it seems Babylonian science could measure and describe an eclipse of the moon to within 4 minutes (1°) of accuracy. At some point before Hipparchus’ time, they became victims of their own sophistication, though without suffering any practical consequences. Except that 18 years of history had now vanished.

To historians, the sudden reappearance of the missing 18 years is more humbling than damaging. It does expose some fraud by Sargon and Sennacherib in Assyrian records, but nothing historians cannot accept. Science suffers no real damage either, except to take the Bible more seriously and acknowledge God can and did reverse-rotate the earth…or the universe. I have to smile, because there is tangible Assyrian historical evidence in the British Museum that He did.


* Passover eve, 14 Abib, 713 BC or April 11/12, 713 BC proleptic Gregorian (Midrash Rabbah, Exod., 18:5;
Song, 1:12:3). Hezekiah’s sign was probably April 9.