Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Veil Was Torn
Matthew 27:45-56
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. · WEB
Three hours of darkness, one cry out of a psalm, and a curtain torn from the top down.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour Matthew 27:45.
Midday to mid-afternoon, the brightest hours, gone dark. The prophets had said the day of the Lord would be darkness and not light Amos 5:18–20, and Egypt's ninth plague was darkness before the night the firstborn died Exodus 10:21–22.
About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?" That is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46.
Matthew keeps the words in the language he spoke them in, which is what people do with a sentence they never forgot. It is the opening line of a psalm Psalms 22:1, and quoting a first line was how a whole passage was named — that psalm goes on to the divided clothing, the pierced hands and feet, the mocking heads, and ends in a declaration to all the nations. But it is not a device. A man does not scream a reference. He is saying the line because it is the true one, and the forsakenness is real; this is what it cost, and the sin of the world is what stands between them.
Some of them who stood there... said, "This man is calling Elijah" Matthew 27:47. They mishear the name of God as the name of a prophet, and settle down to see whether a rescue comes.
Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit Matthew 27:50. Crucifixion kills by exhaustion; a loud cry at the end is not how it goes. The verb is active — he yielded it, which is the same claim made all along.
Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom Matthew 27:51. The curtain closed the holy of holies, where one man went one day a year with blood Leviticus 16:2. It is torn while the lambs are being killed, and the direction is the whole meaning: from the top — not opened from the human side.
The earth quaked and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered into the holy city Matthew 27:51–53. Matthew alone reports it, and reports it plainly and without explanation. The dead are described as fallen asleep, which is Scripture's ordinary word for them John 11:11–14, and the raising is dated after his resurrection — nothing comes out of a grave before he does.
"Truly this was the Son of God!" Matthew 27:54. The confession the chief priests would not make is made by a Roman officer commanding the execution detail. It is the same title used to taunt him an hour before, and it is the last thing said about him before the burial.
Many women were there watching from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, serving him Matthew 27:55. The eleven are not mentioned, because they were not there. The women are named.
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