In 1983, Colin Humphreys and W. G. Waddington noted that the reference to a solar eclipse is missing in some versions of Luke and argued that the reported sun's darkness could be accounted for by confusion with a partial lunar eclipse that had taken place on 3 April AD 33: lunar eclipses can last much longer than solar ones.
In 1983, scholars Colin Humphreys and W. G. Waddington noted an omission in some versions of Luke, where they proposed an alternative explanation for the reported sun's darkness: it could have been a result of confusion with a longer-lasting partial lunar eclipse that occurred on April 3, AD 33.