Another oddity was spotted by Julius Africanus in the third century in the claim
made in Luke, 23:44-45 ('And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a
darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and
the veil of the temple was rent in the midst'), as well as, albeit less
explicitly, in Matthew 27:45 and in Mark 15:33, and unanimously supported by
early Church fathers, that a solar eclipse occured during the crucifixion.
Indeed, Julius Africanus pointed out that a solar eclipse is an astronomical
impossibility near Easter.
--- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "vandermok" <vandermok@...> wrote:
> By the way, an oddity of the Christian Xmas is that St. Luke talks of
"shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night", but in Palestine the
sheep-rearing stopped in winter. For not talking of the uncertainty about the
year, because no document, apart from the Gospel, confirms the famous "census"
that obliged the Holy Family to move to Bethlehem.