The Book of Mormon Witness
The Book of Mormon, a testament of Jesus Christ from the new world, includes passages that support all of what we have discussed and adds additional understanding. For example, the book references contemporary prophetic words known to the Israelites about three days of darkness and also gives insight into the motives of the God of the Old Testament in establishing these patterns:
"And the God of our fathers, who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos, which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel." (3 Nephi 19:10)
Prophetically speaking, Helaman wrote many years before the crucifixion:
"At the time that he shall yield up the ghost there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the rocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up... and behold, there shall be great tempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great." (Helaman 14:21-23)
These prophecies were fulfilled with precision. The Book of Mormon account for that day reads:
"Behold, the rocks were rent in twain; they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch that they were found in broken fragments, and in seams and in cracks, upon all the face of the land. And it came to pass that when the thunderings and the lightnings, and the storm, and the tempest, and the quakings of the earth did cease - for behold, they did last for about the space of three hours; and it was said by some that the time was greater; nevertheless, all these great and terrible things were done in about the space of three hours - and then behold, there was darkness upon the face of the land." (3 Ne. 8:18-19; 10:9)