An earthquake of literal, Biblical proportions.
Social media is currently flooded with reactions to news that scientists may have proven a story from the Bible to be true. That’s a bit ironic, eh? Usually science and religion don’t get along all that well, but in this case, geologists believe they have linked an earthquake to the moment that Jesus Christ was crucified. For reference, the Bible makes many mentions of earthquakes and other disasters throughout the Old and New Testaments. In the book of Matthew, there are two different points around the crucifixion that mention earthquakes hitting the area near the Dead Sea, where Jesus died on the cross at the hands of the Romans.
Matthew chapter 27 verses 50 and 51 reads as follows:
“Jesus, again crying out loudly, breathed his last. At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces.”
There’s also an earthquake tied to the story of Jesus’ resurrection. That moment is explained in verse 2 of Matthew 28:
“There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.”
So there’s no wonder that social media got to talking when a study – albeit a 10-year-old one – resurfaced online that seems to confirm that an earthquake hit the area where Jesus died, right around the time when it’s historically believed that Jesus passed away on the cross.
Posts like this one have really gotten people talking:
And to be clear, that’s not just social media fodder… there’s an actual study that backs that claim up.
A team of geologists studied sediment that lays near the Dead Sea and made some shocking discoveries. Scholars believe that the crucifixion took place about 25 miles or so from the body of water. Interestingly enough (when you consider the Bible verses I cited earlier), they found signs and examples of two earthquakes rocking the region.
There’s believed to have been a major earthquake around 31 BC, and another smaller one between 26 AD and 36 AD. Biblical scholars have said that Jesus Christ would have likely been crucified around 33 AD. The entire timeline of those earthquakes – from 26 AD to 36 AD – match up with the period when Pontius Pilate would have governed the Romans. He’s the one that ordered the crucifixion of Jesus.
All in all, it’s a very cool intersection of science and religion working together to pinpoint and possible prove Biblical depictions. There’s obviously a lot of skeptics out there that think this study is more causal than anything else, and some have even said that the earthquake that occurred could have happened much later than the moment Jesus was crucified, and that the naturally occurring event was then included in the narrative of the Bible.
But there’s no doubt that scientists can pinpoint when earthquakes have happened in the past. Modern dating techniques make it very easy for geologists to date earthquakes occurring even thousands of years before 33 AD. And when you tack on the fact that astronomers may have also confirmed another Biblical detail when they revealed that a lunar eclipse most likely happened on April 3, 33 AD (right around the time that Jesus is believed to have died), there’s suddenly a whole lot of science backing up the accounts of the Bible.
