NASA lunar eclipse discovery linked to Jesus' crucifixion 'reveals exact day Christ died'

Astronomical revelation by NASA is reigniting age-old theological debates, potentially affirming Biblical descriptions of cosmic phenomena that followed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Scholars from Oxford University are now linking a centuries-old prophecy with a scientifically documented lunar eclipse — one that cast a blood-red moon over Jerusalem on a date eerily aligned with Christ’s death.

According to the Bible, the skies themselves bore witness to the crucifixion. “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord,” reads Acts 2:20.

NASA’s historical astronomical models, which chart the positions of the Earth, moon, and sun across millennia, confirm that a lunar eclipse occurred on Friday, April 3, 33 AD — a date long associated with the crucifixion of Jesus. This eclipse would have appeared in Jerusalem’s sky shortly after sunset, bathing the moon in a striking reddish hue.

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“Christian texts mention that the Moon turned to blood after Jesus's crucifixion—potentially referring to a lunar eclipse, during which the Moon takes on a reddish hue,” NASA noted.

Although NASA made this discovery in the 1990s, it has recently gained renewed attention on TikTok, coinciding with Good Friday, the solemn day commemorating Jesus’ death in Christian tradition.

Scholars believe this "blood moon" wasn’t just symbolic language, but a real astronomical event — one that the apostles may have witnessed and later described in Biblical texts. In fact, two Oxford researchers, Colin Humphreys and W. Graeme Waddington, have combined NASA’s findings with scriptural analysis to propose that the eclipse and the crucifixion were not only contemporaneous — but intrinsically connected.

The two scholars assert that Peter’s speech, recorded in Acts 2:20 and delivered 50 days after the crucifixion, wasn’t a prophecy of Christ’s return — but a direct reference to what had just transpired. “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,” Peter quoted from Joel 2:28–31, a prophetic passage believed to foreshadow spiritual upheaval and cosmic signs.

Humphreys and Waddington suggest that Peter's words were an affirmation of prophecy fulfilled, not foretelling. The Gospel of Matthew offers striking corroboration: “From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” This blackout, they argue, aligns with Joel’s vision of a darkened sun.

The duo also explored lesser-known texts from the New Testament apocrypha — writings about Jesus that were excluded from the canonical Bible due to questions of divine inspiration. One such passage, The Report of Pilate, adds yet another layer of celestial drama to the crucifixion narrative: “At his crucifixion the sun was darkened; the stars appeared and in all the world people lighted lamps from the sixth hour till evening; the moon appeared like blood.”

Such vivid testimony bolsters the claim that an extraordinary astronomical event unfolded alongside the crucifixion.

Today, Christians across the globe commemorate Good Friday, which always falls two days before Easter Sunday — a date determined by the first full moon after the spring equinox. This method of calculation ties Easter to Passover, the Jewish festival during which Jesus is believed to have been crucified.