The only important or clear earthquake mentioned in the New Testament (except the doubtful one of Matt, xxviii, 2) is that which happened at the cruci- fixion of the Saviour of mankind (Matt, xxvii, 50-1 ; comp. Luke xxiii, 44-5 ; Mark xv, 33). The concomi- tant darkness is most naturally held to have been an attendant on the earthquake. Earthquakes are not seldom attended b}' accompaniments which obscure the light of day during (as in this case from the sixth to the ninth hour, tliat is, from 12 o'clock at noon to 3 o'clock P.M.) several hours. If this is the fact, then the record is consistent with natural phenomena, and the darkness which sceptics have jileaded against speaks actually in favor of the credibility of tlie Gos- pel. Now it is well known to naturalists that such obscurations are by no means uncommon. It may be enough to give the following instances. A verj^ re- markable volcanic eruption took place on the 19th of January, 1835, in the volcano of CosegUina, situated in the Bay of Fonseca (usually called the coast of Con- chagua), in Central America. The eruption was pre- ceded b}' a rumbling noise, accompanied hy a column of smoke wliich issued from the mountain, increasing until it assumed the form and appearance of a large dense cloud, which, wlien viewed at the distance of thirty miles, appeared like an immense plume of feath- ers, rising with considerable velocity, and expanding in every direction. In the course of the two follow- ing daj'S several shocks of earthquakes were felt ; the morning of the 2i'd rose fine and clear, but. a dense cloud of a pyramidal form was observed in tlic direc- tion of the volcano. This graduallj' ascended, and liy 11 o'clock A.M. it had spread over the -whole firma- ment, entirely obscuring the light of day, tlie darkness equalling in intensity that of the most clouded night: this darkness continued with little intermission for three days ; during the whole time a fine black pow-
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der continued to fall. This darkness extended over half of Central America. The eonvul.-sion was such as to chanjie the outline of the coast, turn the course of a river, and form two new islands. I'reciselj* analoj;ous phenomena were exbiliited on occasions of earthquakes that took place at Cartago, in Central America, when there prevailed a dense black fog, which lasted for three days {Recreations in Physical Geography, p. 38-_'). In the case of the volcanic eruption which overwhelm- ed Herculaneum and Pompeii (A.D. 79), we learn from the younger Pliny that a dense column of vapor was first seen rising vertically from Vesuvius, and then spreading itself out laterally, so that its ujjper portion resembled the head, and its lower the trunk of a pine. This black cloud was. pierced occasionally by flashes of lire as \\\\(\. as lightning, succeeded hy darkness more profound than night, and ashes fell even at Mi- senum. Tliese appearances agree perfectly with those witnessed in more recent eruptions, especially those of Monte Nuovo in 1538, and Vesuvius in 1822. Indeed earthquakes appear to exert a verj' marked influence on our atmosphere : among other effects, Lyell {Prin- ciples of Geology, i, 400) enumerates sudden gusts of ■wind, interrupted by dead calms : evolution of electric matter or of inflammal)le gas from the soil, with sul- phureous and mephitic vapors ; a reddening of the sun's disk, and a haziness in the air often continued for months (Joel ii, 30, 31). Other interpreters, however, understand the earthquake in Matt, xxvii, 54 to have been merely some special and supernatural operation of God, in attestation of the marvellous work that was in progress, producing a tremulous motion in the im- mediate locality, and in connection therewith a sensible consternation in the minds of the immediate actors ; hence there is no other historical allusion to it. This view is con:'ivmed by its being in the second case con- nected wifh tlie angeVs descent (Matt, xxviii, 2; conip. 1 Sam. xiv, 15). Like the one that occuiTed at Phil- ippi (Acts xvi, IG), it is perhaps to be regarded as a somewhat exeejjtional phenomenon, wrought for a spe- cific purpose, and consequently ver^' limited as to its .'ijhere of action. Kor does it appear from any notices ef Scripture that the phenomena of earthquakes, in the ordinary and extensive sense of the term, played more than a very occasional and subordinate part in the scenes and transactions of sacred history. Treatises in Latin on the earthquake at our Saviour's passion have been written by Berger (Viteb. 1710), Posner (Jen. lC72),Schmcrbauch (Lubben. 1756), Schmid (Jen. lG8o). See Darkness.
An earthquake devastated Judaja some j'ears (31) before the birth of our Lord, at the time of the battle of Actium, which Josephus {Ant. xv, 52) reports was such "as had not happened at any other time, which brought great destruction upon the cattle in that coun- try. About ten thousand men also perished by the fall of houses." Jerome writes of an earthquake which, in the time of his childhood (about A.D. 315), destroyed Kabljath Moab (Jerome on Isaiah, xv). ■ The writers of the ^liddle Ages also speak of earthquakes in Palestine, stating that they were not only formida- ble, but frequent. In 1834 an earthquake shook Jeru- salem, and injured the chapel of the nativity at Bethle- hem. In 1837 (Jan. 1) Jerusalem and its vicinity were visited by severe shocks of earthquake, yet the city remains without serious injure' from these subterrane- an causes. This last earth(iuakc totally overthrew the village of Safed, in (ialilee (Thomson, Land and Book, i, 428 sq.). For a full account of these and others, af- fecting various parts of Syria, see Kitto, Phys. IJist. of Palest, vol. ii, ch. iv. Comp. Bulengei-, in Graevii Thesanr. v, 515 sq. ; Forbiger, Ilandb. d. alt. Geogr, i, C3G sq.