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How long did the darkness last?
Synoptics: From the sixth to the ninth hour (Matt. xxvii, 45; Mark xv, 33; Luke xxiii, 44).
According to Matthew and Luke this darkness lasted from the time that he was suspended upon the cross until he died. Yet his executioners are ignorant of it. Luke says: “His acquaintances, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things [the crucifixion]” (xxiii, 49), which they could not have done had this darkness really occurred.
If this darkness occurred, and began at the sixth hour, as stated by the Synoptics, then, according to John, the conclusion of the trial, the sentencing of Jesus, the preparations for his execution, and the journey to Golgotha, all took place during the darkness, a conclusion which the nature of the narrative utterly precludes.
Christian apologists have cited Phlegon who notices an eclipse which occurred about this time. But there is a variance of at least six years in regard to the time that Jesus was crucified. Besides an eclipse could not have occurred within two weeks of a Passover, on the occurrence of which he is declared to have been executed. Farrar says: “It could have been no darkness of any natural eclipse, for the Paschal moon was at the full” (Life of Christ, p. 505). Geikie says: “It is impossible to explain the origin of this darkness. The Passover moon was then at the full, so that it could not have been an eclipse. The earlier fathers, relying on a notice of an eclipse that seemed to coincide in time, though it really did not, fancied that the darkness was caused by it, but incorrectly” (Life of Christ, Vol. ii, p. 624, Notes). “The celebrated passage of Phlegon,” says Gibbon, “is now wisely abandoned” (Rome, Vol. i, p. 589, Note).