A total lunar eclipse occurred over the ancient city of Jerusalem, an event meticulously recorded by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. According to Josephus, the eclipse took place shortly after King Herod the Great brutally executed several popular Jewish scholars who had pulled down a golden Roman eagle from the gates of the Second Temple. The local population viewed the bloody, darkened moon as a divine manifestation of heavenly anger over Herod's cruelty, and Herod passed away from a painful disease shortly after.

This specific astronomical event is heavily utilized by modern historians and biblical scholars to establish the accurate chronological timeline for the death of Herod and the birth of Jesus Christ. It heavily shaped late-antique Christian prose and early medieval religious poetry, which frequently used the eclipse as a motif for the divine judgment of tyrannical kings.