On Monday I was one of millions to journey into the path of the total eclipse that passed over the width of the United States. I was in absolute awe watching the total eclipse. The corona glistened in splendor, a few planets winked into the sky, the entire horizon looked like a sunset in every direction. If you’ve never experienced a total eclipse, I highly recommend experiencing one.
How does the eclipse relate to the world of the Bible? I could easily refer to several passages of gloom and doom about the sun going dark, but there’s a more definitive connection that can be made.
Have you ever wondered where we get dates in the Bible? For instance, it’s commonly said that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. We certainly don’t have any inscriptions, nor does the Bible provide that date because our reckoning of years was a millennium away from being formed. Instead, the Bible and the cultures around Israel marked the years by the reigns of their kings (in the fourth year of king so and so…).
We have to go to ancient Assyria (modern Iraq) for our answer. Each year a Limu was appointed, who was a high official in the kingdom. His name was assigned to that year. The Assyrians had lists of Limus, which provides relative dates. Our absolute dates arrive by Limu Bar-Sagale in which a total solar eclipse was recorded. Using modern astronomical calculations, this eclipse was determined to be on June 15, 763 BC. With this in mind, the calendars were aligned, allowing scholars to start giving absolute dates to the events of the ancient world!
