“It Was in the Morning and the Darkness Dispersed”

Bryan Richards

Orson Pratt noted that this passage is evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. At the end of three days of darkness, it was morning, meaning that the darkness and destructions also started in the morning. Given the time difference between the Savior's crucifixion in Jerusalem and the New World, it makes sense that the destructions and darkness would both appear and disperse in the morning.

Orson Pratt

"Jesus was crucified and died on the cross at 3 o'clock in the afternoon at Jerusalem, and consequently for it to have been just three days and three nights, you might suppose that the darkness must have dispersed in the afternoon. But this book tells us that when the three days and three nights of darkness had passed away it was morning. Now why this discrepancy--for it seems to be one--between the Bible and the Book of Mormon? Can you account for it, and tell why it should have been morning in America? …Now you take a map of the world, and see the difference in longitude between the place where Jesus was crucified, and that where the writer of the Book of Mormon lived, and you will find that it is about seven and a half hours. Now you subtract seven and a half hours from 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and what time would it be when the three hours of quaking and the destruction of cities expired, or when the darkness commenced? Would it not be in the morning? Take away seven and a half hours longitude from 3 o'clock--the time that Jesus expired--and would it not be half past seven o'clock in the morning with the inhabitants of this land, while it was afternoon with the inhabitants in Jerusalem?" (Journal of Discourses, 15:259)

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