Signs in sun, moon, stars and sky; unexpected light and darkness

[FransJVermeiren]

This thread is a further elaboration of my recent ‘darkness at noon’ topic. Below I have gathered several fragments from New Testament and early Christian writings which describe signs in sun, moon, stars, sky/heavens, and unnatural light/darkness changes. These ‘signs’ information is combined with other information, which I have divided in three categories: supplementary phenomena, messianic information and political/chronological information. I will comment on these fragments in footnotes and through a discussion of some main topics.
This OP is quite long. As I don’t know the maximum length of a post, I have cut it in three.

Part one: The texts

1. The phenomena accompanying the death of Jesus in the passion narrative of the synoptic gospels

Mk15: (33) And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. … (38) And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

Lk 23: (44) It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, (45) while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

Mt 27: (45) Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. … (51) And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split; (52) the memorials also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

2. The ‘signs’ part of the Synoptic Apocalypse

Mk 13: (24) But in those days, after that catastrophe, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light ,(25) and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (26) And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory.

Lk 21: (25) And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, (26) men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (27) And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Mt 24: (29) Immediately after the catastrophe of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; (30) then will appear the sing of the Son of man in the sky, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory;

3. Revelation
6:12-15:
(12) There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, and the full moon became like blood, (13) and the stars of the sky fell unto the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; (14) the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. (15) Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the hide-outs and among the rocks of the mountains.

4. Didache
XVI:6 and 8:
(6) And then shall appear the signs of the truth. First the sign spread out in the sky, then the sign of the trumpet, and thirdly the resurrection of the dead. … (8) Then shall the world see the Lord coming on the clouds of heaven.

5. Gospel of Peter
35-36
And in the night in which the day of the Lord was dawning, as the soldiers kept guard two by two in a watch, a great noise arose in the sky, and they saw the heavens opened, and two men come down from there with great light and approach the tomb.

6. Sibylline Oracles
3:796-808
I will tell you a very clear sign, so that you may know
when the end of all things comes to pass on earth:
when swords are seen at night in starry heaven
toward evening and toward dawn,
right away a cloud of dust is brought forth from heaven
to the whole earth, and the beams of the sun
disappear from heaven in mid-course, and the rays
of the moon appear and come again on earth.
There will be a sign from the rocks with drops of blood.
You will see a battle of infantry and cavalry in the clouds,
like a hunt of wild beasts, like a mist.
This is the end of the war which God, who inhabits heaven, is accomplishing.
But all must sacrifice to the great king.

8:202-208
The year as a whole is an era turned upside down.
The sun, seeing dimly, shines at night.
Stars will leave the vault of heaven. A raging storm with many a hurricane
will lay the earth desolate. There will be a resurrection of the dead
and most swift racing of the lame, and the deaf will hear
and blind will see, those who cannot speak will speak,
and life and wealth will be common to all.

7. The fourth book of Ezra
5:1-5:
Now about the signs: Behold, the days are coming when those who inhabit the earth shall be seized with great terror, and the way of truth shall be hidden, and the region shall be barren of faith. And lawlessness shall be increased beyond what you see yourself, and beyond what you heard of formerly. And the land which you now see ruling shall be in chaos and men will see it untrodden. But if the Most High grants you survival, you shall see that after the third upsetting (day), unexpectedly the sun shall shine during the night, and the moon during the day. Blood shall drip from wood, and the stone shall utter its voice. Peoples shall be troubled, and the stars shall fall. And the one shall reign whom those who inhabit the earth do not hope for.

8. Ascension of Isaiah
4:4-5
This ruler, with the appearance of that emperor, will come, and with him will come all those in power (of the army) of this world, and they will obey him in every wish. By his command he will cause the sun to rise at night, and the moon also he will make to appear at the sixth hour.

[FransJVermeiren]

Part two: table and footnotes

------ A ------	---------------- B -------------------	------------------- C ----------------	-------------- D -------------	-------------------- E ----------------
Source	Signs in sun, moon, stars and sky; light and darkness	Accompanying phenomena and information	Messianic indications	Political and chronological indications
Mk 15: 33, 38	Darkness at noon over the whole region (1)	Veil of the temple torn in two	A and B accompany the death of Jesus the messiah
Lk 23: 44-45	Darkness at noon over the whole region; the sun’s light failing	Veil of the temple torn in two	A and B accompany the death of Jesus the messiah
Mt 27: 45, 51-52	Darkness at noon over the whole region	Veil of the temple torn in two; earthquake; splitting rocks; memorials opened; bodies of those fallen asleep raised (2)	A and B accompany the death of Jesus the messiah
Mark 13 Synoptic Apocalypse	Sun darkened; moon doesn’t give its light; stars falling from heaven (3); powers in the heavens shaken; arrival of the Son of man in a cloud		Arrival of the Son of man: start of the messianic era	After the catastrophe
Luke 21 Synoptic Apocalypse	Signs in sun and moon and stars; powers of heaven shaken; arrival of the Son of man in a cloud	Great distress and fear	Arrival of the Son of man: start of the messianic era
Matthew 24 Synoptic Apocalypse	Sun darkened; moon doesn’t give its light; stars falling from heaven; powers of heaven shaken; sign of the Son of man in the sky; arrival of the Son of man in a cloud	All the tribes of Israel mourning (4)	Arrival of the Son of man: start of the messianic era	Immediately after the catastrophe (5)
Revelation 6: 12-15	Sun becomes black as sackcloth; full moon becomes like blood; stars fall from the sky; sky vanishes like a scroll that is rolled up	Great earthquake; mountains and islands moved; extensive hiding in hide-outs and among the rocks of the mountains (6)
Didache XVI: 6	The sign spread out in the sky (7)	The sound of the trumpet (8); the resurrection of the dead	Arrival of the Son of man
Gospel of Peter 35-36	Great light during the night (9); heavens opened	Great noise in the sky (10)	A en B accompany the resurrection of Jesus the messiah	The night in which the Lord’s day is dawning (11)
Sibylline Oracles 3: 796-808	Cloud of dust from the sky upon the earth (12); light of the sun eclipsed in the middle of the sky; rays of the moon appear and return to the earth	Swords in starry heaven; sign from the rocks; battle of horse and foot in the clouds (13); wild beasts (14)		End of all things; end of the war; worship of the great king (15)
Sibylline Oracles 8: 202-208	Sun shines at night; stars leave the vault of heaven	Storms that makes the earth (Palestine) desolate; resurrection of the dead (16)	Phenomena accompanying the start of the golden messianic era (17)	This year represents the turn of the era; Palestine destroyed
4 Ezra 5:1-5	Sun shining at night; moonshine during the day; stars shall fall	Jews seized with great terror; lawlessness (18); peoples are troubled	Blood drips from wood; the stone (19) utters his voice; third day (20)	Ruling nation in chaos and desolate (21); unexpected continuation of Roman rule
Ascension of Isaiah 4:4-6	Sun shining at night; moonshine at the sixth hour (22)		Opponent of the messiah (the beloved)	A ruler who looks like the emperor; surrounded by his generals; exercises supreme power (23)

Footnotes

(1) I translate γῆ as ‘region’ instead of ‘earth’ or ‘land’. This translation is supported by a clear message in the Gospel of Peter 15: But is was midday, and darkness held fast all Judea.

(2) See part 7 of the Didache series on my website (‘An intermezzo on the relation between Didache XVI and Matthew 27:51-53’), in which I argue that all these supplementary phenomena are related to the final stage of the war against the Romans.

(3) The disappearance of the stars from the firmament during that night is mentioned by several authors in different wording: ‘stars falling (from heaven)’, ‘the sky vanishing like a scroll that is rolled up’ (which makes disappear the stars sticking to that scroll), ‘the stars leaving the vault of heaven’. When the firmament is seen as a huge dome, the disappearance of the stars is interpreted as this dome being opened. When it is imagined as a huge canvas or scroll, it means that the scroll is rolled up. Or if the stars have been fixed to the vault of heaven, their disappearance is interpreted as falling down from that vault. The fire related phenomena that caused this disappearance can be twofold. The firestorm of Jerusalem caused such light pollution that the stars were not visible anymore. In a later stadium of the fire a huge cloud of smoke and dust formed above the region, also hiding the stars.

(4) Because of the loss of their Temple and their capital.

(5) Matthew is even more specific than Mark. We can see the catastrophe, the firestorm of Jerusalem, as the cause of what is going to happen. The signs that appear immediately after the fire are its direct and frightening effects.

(6) The use of underground hide-outs is mentioned here and also in Matthew 27:52: starving inhabitants of Jerusalem hid in memorials and underground passages, and appeared again after the fall of the city.

(7) This verse explicitly mentions that the sign is spread out. It refers to the flat mushroom form of the smoke cloud over Jerusalem and its environs.

(8) The sound of the salpinx heralding the final victory of the Romans.

(9) Jerusalem and its environs are lighted by the burning city. This phenomenon is described as the sun rising during the night in Ascension of Isaiah 4:5.

(10) The great noise occurs only once but it fits perfectly, as it describes the roar of the firestorm consuming Jerusalem. It corresponds with Josephus’s mention of the ‘deafening din’ at the burning of the temple (War V:274).

(11) The ‘day of the Lord’, not in the sense of a Sabbath, but as the pivotal moment of the start of the messianic era. As the ‘day of the Lord’ can only be connected with the end of the war (which the Jews thought to win, of course), it is a strong chronological clue. See the discussion below.

(12) The cloud of dust is an interesting and elucidating addition. In a firestorm ashes, dust and smoke are sucked into the air. The mist of Sibylline Oracles 3:806 can also point in that direction. Josephus also mentions a cloud of smoke and dust in an earlier stage of the siege (War V:471): At first there arose a dense cloud of smoke and dust as the flames were smothered by the debris, but as the mass of timber was burnt away, a vivid flame burst forth.

(13) Cf. Josephus War VI:288 for the sword and 298 for the battle. The imagery here is identical to Josephus’s description of portents of the fall of Jerusalem.

(14) Wild beasts: the Greek θηρίον is also used for wicked persons with a ‘bestial’ nature. Roman soldiers belong to this category.

(15) Here the subjugation to Vespasian is formulated neutrally. The deep disappointment and humiliation of the Jews are more overtly worded in the last verse of the 4 Ezra fragment.

(16) Resurrection of the dead like in Matthew 27:52 and Didache XVI:6.

(17) Cf. Mt 11:5; Lk 4:18-19; Lk 7:22; 4Q521.

(18) The lawlessness label seems to have been reserved especially for Titus. Cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and Didache XVI:4.

(19) Lapis in the Latin version; the Greek equivalent is λἰθος.

(20) I see these verses as messianic. The blood on the wood is a down-to-earth description of Jesus’ crucifixion. This is explicitly confirmed in the Epistle of Barnabas XII:1. Similarly, again, he describes the cross in another prophet, who says, “And when shall all these things come to an end? says the Lord. When the tree shall fall and rise, and when blood shall flow from the tree.” Here again you have a reference to the cross, and to him who should be crucified.
In my opinion the stone using his voice again is a veiled description of Jesus’ resurrection/survival. In one instance in the New Testament (1 Peter 2:4) Jesus is also called λἰθος: Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious. (I believe λἰθος should preferably be translated as gem here.) Jesus using his voice again when leaving his hide-out is also described in 4 Baruch chapter 9:14: And after three days, his soul came into his body and he lifted up his voice in the midst of (them) all and said, ‘Glorify God, all (of you) glorify God.’ These messianic wood and stone verses are enclosed by the signs in sun and moon on one side and the falling stars on the other, showing a close connection between Jesus’ execution and survival, and the ultimate days of the war.

(21) Referring to the great fire of Rome in 64 CE and/or the chaos of the civil war after Nero’s death (68/69 CE).

(22) The same time of day as in the Passion narrative of the synoptic gospels and the Gospel of Peter 15.

(23) It is Titus, the ruler looking like the emperor, who gives the command for the destruction of Jerusalem, with a firestorm during the night and a huge cloud of smoke that dims the light in the middle of the day to the intensity of a moonlit night. There is also a clear reference to the imperial cult in one of the following verses of Ascension of Isaiah (chapter 4:12).

[FransJVermeiren]

Part three: Discussion

At the end of this overview of the signs in sun, moon, stars and sky in the New Testament and in other early Christian writings, we are able to better understand the imagery of the coming of the Son of man on a cloud. Since creation the pre-existent messiah had been present in heaven near God or even as a part of God (see GJohn chapter 1). During the fire of Jerusalem the vault of heaven was unfolded, as became clear from the disappearance of the stars. Between the open heaven and earth a temporary connection was present which allowed the pre-existent messiah to move from heaven to earth and to become a human being, a ‘son of man’. The connection piece between heaven and earth was the mushroom type of smoke and dust cloud covering Jerusalem and its environs. The vortex of this cloud can be imagined as a spiral staircase through which the messiah reached the earth. In Matthew 24:30 this connecting cloud is called ‘the sign of the Son of man in the sky’.
Old Testament precursors of the ‘signs’ imagery are Joel 2:10 (also concerning the capture of a city) and Jeremia 33:19-21 (describing the disruption of the day and night sequence).

The texts above, in combination with relevant Dead Sea Scrolls, provide a clear view of how their writers saw the transition from the era of degeneration under Roman rule to the golden messianic era. For these authors a complete turn of the era would take place with the ultimate victory of the Jews over the Romans. God would intervene by bringing about this final victory, and he would send his messiah to establish Jewish dominion over the world for ever (not for a limited period like the rule of the empires of the past, including the Romans whose rule would end very soon). That things turned out completely the opposite didn’t mean that the Jewish freedom fighters were not eagerly looking for the arrival of God’s sent messiah. As no messiah rose who achieved the final victory over the Romans, a small ‘subsitute’ victory became the start of the messianic era, and as a result the man who accomplished this small personal victory became their messiah. At the decisive battle of Jerusalem, which was the eagerly observed moment of God’s intervention, something exceptional and spectacular happened to the Galilean priest and rebel leader Jesus son of Saphat, who survived his execution by the Romans. With this new ‘substitute’ messiah the Jews had to bury their ultrahigh political ambitions of world dominion. They gnashed their teeth at the continuation and tightening of Roman occupation. And the one shall reign whom those who inhabit the earth (the Jews) do not hope for. (4 Ezra 5:5)

In the table above I have only mentioned the chronological clues in the verses under consideration. If we look to the broader text to which these verses belong, we see that there are chronological indications pointing to the war in all the writings under discussion except the passion narratives of the gospels. The Synoptic Apocalypse, Didache XVI and Revelation do not provide incidental chronological/war information; these texts are dedicated to the war in their entirety. In all these writings Jerusalem firestorm information, Jewish messianic information and Flavian political/chronological information is intertwined. In full contradiction with the other text of the table above, the passion narratives stage Pontius Pilate as their most important chronological anchor. Comparison with the other ‘signs’ texts shows that the chronology of the gospels has been forged.

I did not work out the element of the ‘powers of heaven that are shaken’. Maybe this is a summarizing ‘signs’ phrase. Another possibility is the interpretation of the δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν as ‘those in power in heaven’. In this view the celestial beings who rule the heavens (God and his angels) are disturbed by the aggressive infringement of their realm.

The Epistle of Barnabas XII:5 speaks of ‘a sign when Israel is falling’ (ἐν σημείῳ πίπτοντος τοῡ ʼΙσραἠλ) without any further specification. Probably here the different signs are condensed into one single overarching sign. This verse is a highly important one as it closely connects the ‘sign when Israel is falling’ with Jesus’ execution and survival.

The Jewish revolutionaries of the first century CE aimed at bringing about a decisive change in the world balance of power. The authors of the early Christian texts were perfectly informed of the great and disastrous clash with the Romans, and of the special fate of one of their leaders, Jesus son of Saphat, at the very end of the war. Because of the overwhelming victory and harsh rule of the Romans, they had to hide the real course of events in apocalyptical texts that were only comprehensible to informed insiders. They could not openly propagate their new worship of a rebel leader who had survived his execution by the Romans. To give their story a chance in the hostile Roman world the writer of GMark produced an antedated and repainted account.

References to other Christian or Jewish ‘signs’ texts of that period are welcome. As well as your comments, of course.