Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew Mark and Luke John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
us see if Elijah will come to take him down. 37. And Jesus, having uttered a loud voice, expired. 38. And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom. 39. And when the centurion, who was standing opposite to him, saw that he thus expired after crying aloud, he said, Certainly this man was the Son of God.
40. And there were also women looking on from a distance, among whom was Mary
Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James the less and of Joses, and of Salome; 41.
(Who also, when he was in Galilee, had followed him, and ministered to him,) and many others, who had also gone up with him to Jerusalem.
44. Now it was about the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the land 1610 till the ninth hour. 45. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 46. And Jesus having cried with a loud voice, said, Father into thy hands
I commit my spirit. And having said this, he expired. 47. And when the centurion saw what happened, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. 48.
And all the multitudes who were present at that spectacle, when they saw what was done, returned, smiting their breasts. 49. And all his acquaintances, and the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, beholding these things.
Matthew 27:45. Now from the sixth hour. Although in the death of Christ the weakness of the flesh concealed for a short time the glory of the Godhead, and though the Son of God himself was disfigured by shame and contempt, and, as Paul says, was emptied, (Philippians 2:7) yet the heavenly Father did not cease to distinguish him by some marks, and during his lowest humiliation prepared some indications of his future glory, in order to fortify the minds of the godly against the offense of the cross. Thus the majesty of Christ was attested by the obscuration of the sun, by the earthquake, by the splitting of the rocks, and the rending of the veil, as if heaven and earth were rendering the homage which they owed to their Creator.
But we inquire, in the first place, what was the design of the eclipse of the sun? For the fiction of the ancient poets in their tragedies, that the light of the sun is withdrawn from the earth whenever any shocking crime is perpetrated, was intended to express the alarming effects of the anger of God; and this invention unquestionably had its origin in the ordinary feelings of mankind. In accordance with this view, some commentators think that, at the death of Christ, God sent darkness as a Mark of detestation, as if God, by bringing darkness over the sun, hid his face from beholding the blackest of all crimes. Others say that, when the visible sun was extinguished, it pointed out the death of the Sun of righteousness. Others choose to refer it to the blinding of the nation, which followed shortly afterwards. For the Jews, by rejecting
Christ, as soon as he was removed from among them, were deprived of the light of heavenly doctrine, and nothing was left to them but the darkness of despair.
I rather think that, as stupidity had shut the eyes of that people against the light, the darkness was intended to arouse them to consider the astonishing design of God in the death of Christ. For if they were not altogether hardened, an unusual change of the order of nature must have made a deep impression on their senses, so as to look forward to an approaching renewal of the world. Yet it was a terrific spectacle which was exhibited to them, that they might tremble at the judgment of God. And, 1610"Par toute la terre, on, tout le pays;" — "through all the land, or, through all the country."