The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
⛓ Read Joel 2 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Quotation1
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
'The sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining' (also 2:31, 3:15) is a primary source for Mark's three-element luminary collapse. Joel's day-of-the-LORD theophany combines earth-quaking, heaven-trembling, and darkened sun/moon/stars, matching Mark's whole cluster and reinforcing the multiply-attested character of the imagery.
High confidenceAllusion5
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Joel's day of the Lord: the earth quakes, the heavens tremble, sun and moon darken, the stars withdraw their shining. Jesus' combination of cosmic signs and shaken heavenly powers maps closely onto Joel's portrait. High coherence and recurrence.
High confidenceJoel 2:10 (and 3:15) 'the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining' supplies the same triad of darkened sun, moon, and stars as the heralds of the Day of the LORD.
High confidence'The earth quakes... the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining' yokes the earthquake, darkened luminaries, and stars together exactly as Rev 6:12-13 does; recurrence of Joel's cosmic-portent cluster reinforces the link.
High confidence'The sun was darkened' echoes Joel's day-of-the-LORD signs, 'the sun and moon are darkened' (Joel 2:10; 3:15), language Luke himself cites in Acts 2:20. Availability is confirmed by Luke's own use; the cosmic-portent register fits the crucifixion's apocalyptic framing.
Medium confidence'The sun and the moon are darkened' on the day of the LORD; with Joel 2:31 ('the sun shall be turned to darkness') this supplies the eschatological darkening-of-the-heavens motif framing the crucifixion as a day-of-the-LORD event.
Medium confidenceEcho3
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Joel's day-of-the-Lord darkening — 'the sun and the moon are darkened' — belongs to the prophetic cluster of cosmic gloom at divine judgment that Mark draws on (cf. Mark 13:24, quoting Joel/Isaiah). The crucifixion darkness signals the eschatological day breaking in, cohering with Joel's imagery.
Medium confidenceIn Joel the locust-Day-of-the-LORD darkens sun and moon (2:10; cf. 2:2 'a day of darkness and gloom'); Rev 9:2 darkens 'the sun and the air' by the pit-smoke (per 9:2-3 sequence). Same eschatological darkening tied to the locust visitation, strengthening the Joel matrix already controlling the pericope.
Medium confidence'The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining' on the day of the LORD. Reinforces the luminary-darkening of v. 12; overlaps with Isa 13:10, so registered as a faint secondary echo.
Low confidence