Thallus as having previously attempted to explain away the darkness that occurred at the point of Jesus’ crucifixion: On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. Africanus was educated enough to realize why the “explanation” offered by Thallus was “without reason”: solar eclipses cannot occur during full moon, because at that time of the lunar cycle’s full
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