The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 589

thy hnncls I commend my spirit." With a asunder. Tho direction of the rent would loud voice. This loud cry at the moment show that no human hands had torn it of death proved thnt ho lnid down his life apart, nnd the rending seems to have pre- voluntarily; no man could take it from him ceded the earthquake. 'rhe violent aot wna (John x. i7, 18); he himself willed to die; supcrn0turnl, And of a typical uoture, as wo and this preternatural voice proceeded from a.re taught by Heb. ix. 6-12. The snnctunry one who died not altogether from physic.al enshrined the presence of God, from which oxh0ustion, but from determined purpose. the veil excluded every one but tho high Yielded up the ghost (lr.,p~"• .. ~ ,rv,v,ua); priest on one speoinl occasion, thua denoting liternlly, d,"smissed his spirit; e1rdJ1it spiri- the imperfect reconciliation between God and tum). The phrase has been interpreted to his people, and that the way to the holiest siguify that Clirist exerted his power to was not yet made mnnifest. The rending of &llticipate the actual moment of dissolution; this veil betokened the opening of the access but tliere is no necessity of importing this to heo.ven through the wounded body of idea into the expression. It is used ordi- Christ ; as we read in Heb. x. 19, 20, " Hav- narily to denote the a.et of dying, e.s we so.y, ing boldness to enter into the holiest by the "He expired." Perhaps the exertion of blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, utt.ering this great cry ruptured some organ which he hath conseora.ted for us through ti.Je of the body. We know from the effect of veil. that is to say, his flesh." "When thou the piercing of his side t.hat his sacred heart hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou was previously broken; and thus he verily didst open the kingdom of heaven to a.11 and really died npon the crass. He, being believers." The distinction between Jew in the form of God, an<l equal with God, a.nd Gentile was abolished, the mysteries of became obedient unto death, even the death the old Law were opened and manifested, all of the cross, swfcred death for every man. rites and ceremonies were made of sacra- It is to be noted that the death of Christ mental efficacy, and ministered grace. How oc~urred at 3 p.m., tlie very time when the soon this ominous ocourrence was discovered, Paschal lambs began to be slain in I.he we know not. The priest who offered in- temple courts. Thus the long-prepared type cense a.t the evening sacrifice a.bout this was at last fulfilled, when " Christ our aame hour must have seen· it, and spread Passo,·cr was sacrificed for ns." abroad among his comrades the news, to Vcrs. 51-56.-Signa following tM lleath which me.ny would attach a. meaning fote.l to the security of their religion. Dnt this of Cl.rut. (Mark xv. 3S--41 ; Luke xxili. was comparatively a private sign; the next 47-49.) one was of a. more comprehensive and publio Ver. 51.-.&.nd, behold. St. Matthew thus chara.oter. The earth did quake, and the introduces his account of the portents which rooka rent. The last verb is the same as attendee! the de.ith of the Bon of God. The was used just before in the case of the veil. rending of the veil is mentioned by the There was a local earthquake at this awf1:1,l synoptists o.s conseq ucnt on, and occurring moJ!lent, as if the very land shuddered at sil.uult,u:wouoly with, the completion of the the terrible crime that had been committed. ineffable s..crifice. The veil of the temple The Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jeru0 ( Tov ""ov). There were two principal veils salem is supposed to cover· the Golgotha of in the prc..ent temple-one between the the Crucifixion (see on ver. 33). ".An open- vestibuk and the holy place, and one other ing, faced with silver, shows the spot where whicli is that licre referred to, a constituent the cross is said to have been sunk in the part of the edifice. This was the veil between rock, and less than five feet from it is a. long the holy place and the holy of holies, which brass open-work slide, over a cleft in the was moved aside only once a year to e.dmit rock, which is a.bout six inches deep, but is the liigh priest to the shrine on the great supposed by the pil!!tjms to reach to the Duy of Atonement (Exod. :u:vi 33). It was centre of the earth. This is said to mark the large and costly, some sixty feet high, and rending of the rocks at the Crucifixion" made of rich materials. J usephus (' Bell. (Geikie, 'Holy Land a.ud Dible,' p. 447). J ud.,' v. 5. 4) tells us of one of the veils in TLe fa.et of the earthquake is testified by the tewple, that it we.s a Babylon:a.n curtain, Phlegon, whose words .were quoted b7 Julius embroidcr~d with linen in various colours, .Africant1B, in his 'Chrouogra.phia. (frag- woven togtther with wonderful a1t, such as ments of which work have been published the eye loved to rest upon. Was rent in by Routh and others), and by Euscbins, twain from the top to the bottom. An apocry- in bis 'Chronicon • (the passage, no longer plrnl Gospel(' The Gospel of the Hebrews'), extant in the original, being preserved by quoted Ly St. Jerome, in 1.-0c., asserts that the Jerome, and in an Armenian versicn; see exquisitely carved liniel to which the veil Morison, on vcr. 45). The rending of the waB fosu,ned was at this moment shattered rocks is attested by St. Cyril, Bi,hop or to piwes, and in its fall tore the curtain J erw!alem (' Cateolics.,' xiii. 33), who spra.ks oe. uvn. 1-66.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 595