Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 27:51
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
51. the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom ] St Luke has “rent in the midst.” The veil meant is that which separated the holy of holies from the holy place. The rending of the veil signifies that henceforth there is free access for man to God the Father through Jesus Christ. Cp. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Heb 10:19-20). The incident would be observed and made known to the Church by the priests, of whom afterwards “a great company were obedient unto the faith” (Act 6:7).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
51 56. Events that followed the Crucifixion. (1) The Veil of the Temple rent; (2) the Earthquake; (3) the Saints arise; (4) the Centurion at the Cross; (5) the Watching of the Women
Of these, (2) and (3) are peculiar to St Matthew.
Mar 15:38-41; Luk 23:45; Luk 23:47-49, where the grief of the spectators is an additional fact. St John omits these incidents, but records the breaking of the malefactors’ legs and the piercing of Jesus’ side.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The vail of the temple – This was doubtless the veil, curiously performed, which separated the holy from the most holy place, dividing the temple into two apartments, Exo 26:31-33.
In twain – In two pieces or parts. This was the time of day when the priest was burning incense in the holy place, and it is probable that he witnessed it. The most holy place has been usually considered as a type of heaven, and the tearing of the veil to signify that the way to heaven was now open to all – the great High Priest, the Lord Jesus, being about to enter in as the forerunner of his people. However, about the design of the tearing of the veil, the Scriptures are silent, and conjecture is useless.
And the earth did quake – Or shook. Earthquakes are violent convulsions of the ground, caused commonly by confined and rarefied air. This was probably, however, a miraculous convulsion of the earth, in attestation of the truth that the sufferer was the Messiah, the Son of God, and as an exhibition of wrath at the crimes of those who put him to death. It was not confined to Judea, but was felt in other countries. It is mentioned by Roman writers.
The rocks rent – That is, were torn asunder. Rocks are still seen at Mount Calvary thus rent asunder, which are said to be the ones that were convulsed when the Saviour died.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 27:51
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain.
The rent veil
I. The event as literally recorded.
II. The event in its spiritual significancy. What did the veil represent? The human nature of Christ, which was now suffering for sin. The veil of sin which separated between God and us. The abolition of Jewish ordinances. The removal of all distinctions between the Jewish and Gentile nations.
III. The effects it should produce upon us. Reverence for the person and work of Christ. Confidence in His offering. How to present all our services to God. The necessity of the veil of sin being removed from our hearts. That the veil of our mortal flesh must be rent before we can enter the holiest of all. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The rent veil
I. The intimations conveyed thereby.
1. That the ceremonial dispensation was now abolished. Into the holy place none were permitted to enter but the high priest alone, and he but once a year, and only then with the blood of the annual atonement. But now it is exposed to public view. The design of its institution having been accomplished, God Himself has thrown it open, thereby intimating that it is of no further use, but that another way of propitiating Him is established.
2. That the barrier between Jew and Gentile is thrown down. The offerings presented in the holy place were for the Jewish people only. But now an atonement has been made for the whole world.
3. That the way to the holiest of all is opened. The way into the holy place was with the blood and incense; the way to heaven is through the blood and intercession of Christ, who has not only abolished separation, but brought life and immortality to light. The mists which hung over the future have been dissipated by the rising of the sun of righteousness, who has shed life, fertility, and beauty over the entire prospect.
II. The encouragement afforded thereby. In the rending of the veil we have exhibited-
1. The gracious designs of God concerning us. He would have us no longer to be on the outside of the temple, , far off from Him. He would have us freed from all the evils of separation; He would have us enjoy all the pleasures that are at His right hand for evermore. This event ought to teach us-
2. Frequently to approach within the veil. There is nothing to hinder our approach; we are not confined to stated periods; the more frequently we come the more welcome we shall be.
3. Let us place all our confidence within the veil. Let us have the anchor of our hope there, sure and steadfast; thither the Forerunner has entered. (Pulpit Outlines.)
The rending of the veil
I. As A miracle attesting the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. As A Symbol of the putting away of the levitical dispensation.
1. There were many things about this veil which made it a very exquisite and beautiful type of the religion then existing. It was beautiful for appearance. Was there ever a system of worship that was more beautiful, more awe-inspiring, or more touching? On the outside of the veil there were pictured the things which really existed inside.
2. While the veil was very suggestive it was yet very obscure-it was one through which the glory streamed, and which, by and by, was to be broken down. This rending of the veil was, on the part of God, the glorious amen which the Father gave to the life of Christ.
III. As setting forth some of the great objects and results of the atonement.
1. It set forth the body of Christ, as the Apostle Paul tells us.
2. It gave men the truth about the old Levitical dispensation. It finished it, but did not abrogate it.
3. It is through the rent veil that a way was opened into the holy of holies. You can only get to the mercy-seat through the rent veil. It is through the rent veil that the Holy Spirit descends. The way is open to everybody. In the old dispensation only the high priest could go into the holiest once a year, and in a particular manner. Blessed be God, it is not so now! There is no veil now-nothing to keep you away. If there is a veil, you weave it with your own hands; it is in your own hearts. (S. Coley.)
Christ the only way to the Father
Theodore Parker, in one of his books, so flashingly bright with genius, but so awfully dark with infidelity, daringly asks why we cannot go ourselves before the All-Father, and speak to Him for ourselves, without talking by attorney, and whining about our Brothers name! Ah, he has made a great mistake. No, no; you can never get into that holiest place but through the rent veil, and you will be shut out for ever if you try to go in any other way. It is through Christ, and through Christ alone, that we can get access to the Father. I am glad to leave my case with Jesus. I am glad to go to the Father through my Saviour, and to use His name, which is ever fragrant with merit; but if any man shall go without that name, and should choose to stand OH the ground of bare justice, he will get justice, and he will not get any mercy. (S. Coley.)
The Divinity of Judaism
I should like you to notice that the very way in which God put away Hebraism, at the same time marked its Divinity. Supposing an Act of Parliament were passed in this year of the reign of Queen Victoria to repeal a law that was made in the time of Charles I.
do you not see that the very Act which would repeal the law would acknowledge that it was a law? for Parliament never repeals that which is not law, but the very form of repeal is itself an endorsement. So when God by a miracle repealed Hebraism, it was as if He had said that up to that moment it had been Divine. Thus, you see, in this way Christianity linksion with Judaism, and you are not to think that the New Testament throws any slur or slight upon the old dispensation. In fact, I should think that the Jews would have been quite right in keeping on their services if it had not been that God, by miracles, had put them away; for it was by miracle that He had instituted them, and it wanted the same authority to repeal as it did to enact. (S. Coley.)
The veil rent in twain
I. The event recorded. It meant broadly the end of the age of shadows: the end of the childhoods stage in mans education.
II. The special relation of the rending of the wit, to the event which it illustrated. The deep meaning is that it was rent at the crucifixion: it fixes our thoughts upon that death as the end of the incarnate life.
III. The light which this sign forecasts on the experience, the history, and the destiny of mankind
1. It proclaims that man as man has access to the heavenly temple.
2. That the powers of the world to come have entered into and possessed man and his world. The human is not an outer dependency but an inner province of the heavenly kingdom.
3. The final overthrow and abolition of death. The angel of death advances through the veil to meet us, to repay our tears with glories. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 51. The veil of the temple was rent] That is, the veil which separated the holy place, where the priests ministered, from the holy of holies, into which the high priest only entered, and that once a year, to make a general expiation for the sins of the people. This rending of the veil was emblematical, and pointed out that the separation between Jews and Gentiles was now abolished, and that the privilege of the high priest was now communicated to all mankind: ALL might henceforth have access to the throne of grace, through the one great atonement and mediator, the Lord Jesus. See this beautifully illustrated in Heb 10:19-22.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Mark, Mar 15:38, mentions only the rending of the veil. No more doth Luke, Luk 23:45. John mentions none of these things. It pleased God to give a testimony against this prodigious piece of wickedness by prodigious signs, both in the heavens and on the earth. In the heavens the sun, as we heard before, suffered an unusual, preternatural eclipse, which lasted three hours. In the earth, there was an earthquake, to that degree, that the rocks were rent by it. Earthquakes were sometimes no more than indications of Gods power and majesty, Psa 68:8; Joe 2:10; and some think, that by this earthquake Christ declared his Divine power. It is certain that the centurion concluded from it, this was the Son of God, Mat 27:54. But earthquakes were sometimes not only the indications of the Divine majesty and power, but also of his wrath, Psa 18:7,8; Joe 3:16; Nah 1:6. And such doubtless was this; to show that the earth abhorred what these men had done. Besides these,
the veil of the temple was rent: three of the evangelists mention it. It is not much material whether this were the outward veil, or the inward veil, or hangings, which parted the most holy place from the other part of the temple, though probably it was the inner veil. By this rending of the veil God testified his wrath against the Jews, and that he was leaving his temple amongst them. The veil also was a type of Christs flesh, Heb 10:20; the antitype being rent, it was reasonable that the type should also be so. By this also was showed, that the temple service was now at an end, and to continue no longer, and the partition wall between Jews and Gentiles was pulled down. For what Matthew speaks, Mat 27:52,53, of the graves opening, and the bodies of the saints arising, &c., probably it was not till Christs resurrection; only Matthew puts it in here, reckoning up together all the prodigious things that happened, for Matthew himself saith, Mat 27:53, they
came out of the graves after his resurrection, and it is not likely that the graves opened any considerable time before they came out of their graves. These now were the prodigies which attended the death of our Saviour.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
51. and the earth did quakeFromwhat follows it would seem that this earthquake was local, having forits object the rending of the rocks and the opening of the graves.
and the rocks rent“wererent”the physical creation thus sublimely proclaiming, at thebidding of its Maker, the concussion which at that moment wastaking place in the moral world at the most critical moment of itshistory. Extraordinary rents and fissures have been observed in therocks near this spot.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain,…. Just at the time that Christ spake with so loud a voice, and expired, and which was at the time of the offering up of the evening incense; and so must be seen by the priest that was then offering, and those that assisted him, for the incense altar was near the vail; and which must be a very astonishing sight unto them: the vail was of a very great thickness; it was made of fine twined linen,
Ex 26:31, and it is a rule with the Jews t, that
“where ever mention is made in the law of fine linen, or fine twined linen, it means a thread six times doubled:”
and whereas this was made of blue, and purple, and scarlet, Jarchi’s note on the place is, that
“every kind was doubled with each thread of six threads.”
His sense is more clearly expressed in his note on Ex 26:1,
“lo! here are four sorts to every thread; one of linen, and three of wool, and every thread is six times doubled; behold four sorts when they are twisted together, make twenty four doubles to a thread.”
Yea, some of them make it to be forty eight doubles u. What a thick piece of tapestry must this be! and this makes the rending of it the more amazing; for no doubt but that the vail of the second temple was made after the manner of the first; and this was rent
from top to bottom; and which was no less than forty cubits in length, which was the height of the holy of holies in the second temple; and which made the rent the more astonishing. The account the Jews give of the vail, is this w:
“R. Simeon ben Gamaliel said, on account of R. Simeon, the son of the Sagan, the thickness of the vail is an hand’s breadth, and it is woven of seventy two threads, and every thread has twenty four threads in it: it is forty cubits long, and twenty broad, and is made of eighty two myriads; (which is either the number of the threads in it, or the sum of the golden pence it cost. Some copies read, is made by eighty two virgins x;) two are made every year; and three hundred priests wash it.”
The Syriac version renders it, “the face of the gate of the temple”; by which may be meant, perhaps, the vail of the gate of Ulam, or of the porch y. The Jews have a tradition z that
“forty years before the destruction of the temple, the gates of it opened of themselves. R. Jochanan ben Zaccai reproved them, saying, O temple! temple! wherefore dost thou fright thyself? I know thy end is to be destroyed; for so prophesied of thee Zechariah, the son of, Iddo, “open thy gates, O Lebanon”, c. Zec 11:1.”
But whether this may be referred to in the above version, or has any reference to the evangelic history, I will not say. Other writers, as Josephus a, and Egesippus b, speak of the eastern gate of the city, which was of brass, and as much as twenty men could shut, opening of its own accord, before the destruction of the temple which perhaps the Jewish tradition rather regards. This rending of the vail was done, as some think, in token of mourning for, and testifying abhorrence at the crucifixion of Christ; the temple rending its garments, the vail, at the death of its Lord, proprietor, and type, as the high priest did his at supposed blasphemy; or to show that the Lord, who had taken up his residence in the most holy place between the cherubim, over the mercy seat, in thick darkness, was now about to remove, and leave the house desolate; or it signified the rending of Christ’s flesh, the breaking of his body for us, which was typified by the vail; see
Heb 10:20, and may also denote both the fulfilment and abrogation of the ceremonial law, which had its end in the death of Christ; and likewise the more clear discoveries of the mysteries of grace under the Gospel, in which they are laid to open view, and are beheld with open face: to which may be added, that this pointed out, that the way to the holiest of all, to heaven, of which this was a figure, was now made manifest; and was plain and accessible, as it was, first to Christ, who entered by his own blood, as the forerunner; and also to his people, who likewise have boldness to enter by the same.
And the earth did quake: whether this earthquake reached only to the spot of ground where Christ was crucified, and on which the city and temple of Jerusalem stood; or whether it extended to other parts of the earth; since, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, as Pliny c relates, there was an earthquake, in which twelve cities in Asia fell, is not certain. However, it was an indication of the divine anger and resentment, and in detestation of the sin of crucifying Christ; see Ps 18:7, and was an emblem of the shaking and removing of the Jewish church state and ordinances, Heb 12:26.
And the rocks rent; which were near Mount Calvary, and about Jerusalem; and, as we are told, the clefts are to be seen to this day, and which appear to be supernatural. This was also a token of divine wrath and fury, Na 1:5, and a rebuke of the stupidity and hardness of the Jews, who were unmoved when rocks were rent asunder, being harder than they; and an emblem of the future conversion of many through the powerful ministry of the word, and in consequence of Christ’s death; when hearts, as hard as rocks, were broke in pieces, stony hearts taken away, and hearts of flesh given; of which the three thousand being pricked to the heart under Peter’s sermon, were an instance.
t Maimon. Cele Hamikdash, c. 8. sect. 14. Kimchi in Sepher Shorash rad. . u T. Hieros. Shekalim, fol. 51. w Misn. Shekalim, c. 8. sect. 5. Shernot Rabba, sect. 50. fol. 144. 2. Bernidbar Rabba, sect. 4. fol. 183. 2. x Vid. Bartenora & Yom. Tob. in ib. y Vid. Bartenora in ib. z T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 39. 2. Jarchi & Kimchi in Zech. xi. i. Ganz Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 25. 2. a L. 8. c. 12. b L. 5. c. 44. c L. 2. c. 84.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Was rent (). Both Mark (Mr 15:38) and Luke (Lu 23:45) mention also this fact. Matthew connects it with the earthquake, “the earth did quake” ( ). Josephus (War VI. 299) tells of a quaking in the temple before the destruction and the Talmud tells of a quaking forty years before the destruction of the temple. Allen suggests that “a cleavage in the masonry of the porch, which rent the outer veil and left the Holy Place open to view, would account for the language of the Gospels, of Josephus, and of the Talmud.” This veil was a most elaborately woven fabric of seventy-two twisted plaits of twenty-four threads each and the veil was sixty feet long and thirty wide. The rending of the veil signified the removal of the separation between God and the people (Gould).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The veil of the temple. According to the Rabbis this was a handbreadth in thickness, and woven of seventy – two twisted plaits, each plait consisting of twenty – four threads. It was sixty feet long and thirty wide. Two of them were made every year, and according to the exaggerated language of the time it needed three hundred priests to manipulate it. This veil was the one which covered the entrance to the holy of holies, and not, as has been asserted, the veil which hung before the main entrance to the sanctuary. The holy of holies contained only a large stone, on which the high – priest sprinkled the blood on the day of atonement, occupying the place where the ark with the mercy – seat had stood.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
51. And, lo, the veil of the temple was rent. When Luke blends the rending of the veil with the eclipse of the sun, he inverts the order; for the Evangelists, as we have frequently seen, are not careful to mark every hour with exactness. Nor was it proper that the veil should be rent, until the sacrifice of expiation had been completed; for then Christ, the true and everlasting Priest, having abolished the figures of the law, opened up for us by his blood the way to the heavenly sanctuary, that we may no longer stand at a distance within the porch, but may freely advance into the presence of God. For so long as the shadowy worship lasted, (287) a veil was hung up before the earthly sanctuary, in order to keep the people not only from entering but from seeing it, (Exo 26:33; 2Ch 3:14.) Now Christ, by
blotting out the handwriting which was opposed to us, (Col 2:14,)
removed every obstruction, that, relying on him as Mediator, we may all be a royal priesthood, (1Pe 2:9.) Thus the rending of the veil was not only an abrogation of the ceremonies which existed under the law, but was, in some respects, an opening of heaven, that God may now invite the members of his Son to approach him with familiarity.
Meanwhile, the Jews were informed that the period of abolishing outward sacrifices had arrived, and that the ancient priesthood would be of no farther use; that though the building of the temple was left standing, it would not be necessary to worship God there after the ancient custom; but that since the substance and truth of the shadows had been fulfilled, the figures of the law were changed into spirit. For though Christ offered a visible sacrifice, yet, as the Apostle tells us (Heb 9:14) it must be viewed spiritually, that we may enjoy its value and its fruit. But it was of no advantage to those wretched men that the outward sanctuary was laid bare by the rending of the veil, because the inward veil of unbelief, which was in their hearts, (288) hindered them from beholding the saving light.
And the earth trembled, and the rocks were split. What Matthew adds about the earthquake and the splitting oft he rocks, I think it probable, took place at the same time. In this way not only did the earth bear the testimony to its Creator, but it was even called as a witness against the hard-heartedness of a perverse nation; for it showed how monstrous that obstinacy must have been on which neither the earthquake nor the splitting of the rocks made any impression.
(287) “ Cependant que le service, qui avoit les ombres de la Loy, a duré;” — “so long as the service, which contained the shadows of the Law, lasted.”
(288) “ Qui estoit en leurs cœurs.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MIRACLES ACCOMPANYING THE DEATH OF CHRIST
TEXT: 27:5153
51 And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; 52 and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS
a.
Why attribute to God what an earthquake may have actually done, i.e. the ripping of that veil? What causes earthquakes anyway? What happened that day anyway?
b.
Assuming that the veil of the temple was miraculously torn from the top to the bottom, what do you suppose was the purpose of God for this gesture?
c.
What kind of impression do you think the rending of this great curtain must have made on the priests, not to mention the one who might have been burning incense before it at the hour of prayer? (Cf. Mat. 27:46 with Act. 3:1; Luk. 1:9 f.)
d.
Since the veil of the temple was visible to none but priests who could have witnessed it, would priests be likely to tell the story of the end of that from which they derived their livelihood? If so, excluding inspiration for the moment, how could this great secret still leak out and be recorded by Matthew?
e.
What divine purpose do you discern in the opening of the tombs and the resurrection of the saints after Jesus own resurrection?
f.
Who do you think these saints were?
g.
What became of them after their resurrection? Did they have to die all over again? Where did they go?
PARAPHRASE
At this point the great veil in the sanctuary split in two from top to bottom. There was an earth tremor and boulders cracked. Even tombs were opened. The bodies of many holy people who had died were resurrected to life. They left their tombs after Jesus arose from the dead and went into the Holy City and appeared to many people.
SUMMARY
Miracles accompanied the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus: the great Temple curtain that veiled the Most Holy Place was ripped in two from the top by unseen hands! An earthquake split great rocks. Many saintly people who had died were resurrected and after Jesus resurrection made their appearance in Jerusalem before many witnesses.
NOTES
Mat. 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent. The heavy veil in question was located in the sanctuary to curtain off the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place (Exo. 26:31 ff; Exo. 36:35; 2Ch. 3:14; Heb. 9:2 f.; see also Wars, V, 54f.). In the tabernacle first, then in the temple, it served to distinguish the area of the common priests from the symbolic dwelling place of God. So long as this great veil remained intact, the atonement of mans sin was possible only through intercession by sinful high priests and imperfect sacrifices, on the Day of Atonement. Access to the glory of God and the fellowship with Him through prayer were barred by this veil too. (Cf. Heb. 6:19.) Incense and prayer were offered outside it. (Cf. Act. 3:1; Luk. 1:8-21.) Jewish tradition (Mid. 4, 7; I.S.B.E., 2938) declares the veil consisted of two exceedingly heavy draperies about 50 cm. apart. For this to be rent in two from the top to the bottom would be little short of a mighty miracle.
So, when the great veil came ripping in two and fell apart, the Holy of Holies lay exposed. However, since great golden doors stood behind the veil (1Ki. 6:31 f.; Wars, V, 5, 4f.), the priests could not yet gaze with impunity into that dark, bare room. The ark of the covenant had been gone for centuries. Where once the Glory of Israel spoke to His people from between the cherubim, there was now nothing (Wars, V, 5, 5; Mish., Yom. 5, 2). Until that great veil was replaced, the priests could verify that one more symbol of the great separation between man and God broke down seemingly of its own accord. Ever more clearly Ichabod was being engraved upon the Temple; its glory was at last departing never to return. Pagans had gazed upon the emptiness of the Holy of Holies before (Ant. XIV, 4, 4; Wars, I, 7, 6; cf. VI.4, 7 also Ant. XII, 5, 4?). Now, however, the Temples obsolescence is being dramatically revealed to men just at the hour that the Nazarene, Jesus of Nazareth, expired. Matthews Gospel practically shouts to those who knew the facts best, Priests of God and men of Israel, is there any connection between these events?
The ominous rending of this massive curtain, particularly from the top to the bottom at the moment of Jesus death, would suggest that God Himself opened the way for man to enter boldly into His presence and He did it through the perfectly atoning sacrifice of Christ (Heb. 6:19 f.; Heb. 9:8; Heb. 9:11-12; Heb. 9:24 ff.; Heb. 10:19 ff.) Further, this great veil was rent at the afternoon hour of prayer near the ninth hour when the officiating priest was in the process of offering incense at the incense altar located just in front of the veil. (Cf. Act. 3:1; Luk. 1:8-21.) The last daily sacrifice of the Old Covenant, whereby Israel consecrated itself daily to the Lord, was being sacrificed that afternoon. Unexpectedly, the old, symbolic ministry of the entire Levitical system, having fulfilled its purpose, came to the end of its usefulness, finding its perfect completion in Jesus. Godet (P.H.C. XXIV, 596) wrote:
As the high priest rent his robe in the presence of a great scandal, so God rent the veil which covers the Holy of Holies, where formerly He had manifested Himself. It implied a desecration of the most holy place, and consequently of the Temple, with its courts and altar and sacrifices. The Temple is profaned, abolished by God Himself. The efficacy of sacrifice has henceforth passed to another blood, another altar, and a new order of priesthood.
This event has tremendous significance for understanding millennial questions. Shall the Jerusalem Temple be rebuilt here on earth and its worship restored? By ripping apart that mighty veil, God proclaimed the end of that typical ministry because of the arrival of a superior ministry that was perfect and final, when Jesus our divine High Priest entered once for all forever into the true Holy of Holies, the presence of God, to intercede with his own blood for us. The veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom. What God has rent asunder, let not man join together!
Even without special revelation Matthew could have learned of rending of the great veil from a great many of the priests who were obedient to the faith (Act. 6:7). Indeed, could their conversation be explained by their insight into the meaning of this very sign?
The rocks were rent not improbably as a result of the earthquake.
1.
In this earthquake some discern a symbol of the shaking that began with the death of Christ, a shaking of all that is impermanent or contrary to the Government of God in the moral world until only that which is eternal shall remain. (Cf. Hag. 2:6 f.; Heb. 12:26 f.)
2.
Beginning from the starting point of literal earthquakes unquestionably caused by the Lord, it was possible for Jewish poets and prophets to develop poetic imagery based on fearful convulsions in nature whereby the covenant God of Israel revealed His majesty, might and holy wrath against sinners (Exo. 19:19; Psa. 68:8; Psa. 114:4-8; 2Sa. 22:8; Psa. 18:7; Psa. 77:18; Isa. 5:25; Isa. 13:13; Isa. 24:18 f; Isa. 29:6; Jer. 10:10; Jer. 49:21; Joe. 2:10 f.; Nah. 1:5 f.; Hag. 2:6; cf. Act. 4:31; Act. 16:26; Rev. 6:12; Rev. 8:5; Rev. 11:13; Rev. 16:18). Thus, for people prepared in this way by their literary heritage, it would be a short mental step from God the cause of the literal to His moral reasons for doing it.
Because Matthew points out that the Romans discerned the connection between the earthquake and the things that were happening (Mat. 27:54 : idntes tn seismn kai t ginmena) and the fact that they reacted positively to what they saw, it would appear that anyone should be able to see a significant connection between these natural phenomena and Jesus death. Although earths natural course regularly continues without interruption when other mortals suffer, here, however, it is brusquely interrupted just at the moment of THIS MANS death, and becomes one more portent that points to His world-shaking significance.
Mat. 27:52 and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many. Since many tombs were carved into the stone face of cliffs, even the opening of the tombs could be produced by the tremor as the rocks were rent. But here its effect stops. Other power is required to give life to the dead.
The fact that the saints are raised, not at the time their tombs are opened, but after his resurrection implies that their own resurrection is a result of His and dependent upon it. Death has been self-defeated by the death of our Lord. Life was not merely guaranteed for others but actually produced by His own resurrection. These resurrected saints become an earnest of what shall occur when Phase II of Jesus earthly victory shall occur at His Second Coming.
A simple reading of the text argues that they arose when He died, hence before He arose.
1.
But, if they rose first, they unquestionably remained in their graves until after his resurrection, since coming forth out of the tombs is connected with entering into the holy city. But even if they arose first, like Lazarus and many others, Christ remains the first-born from the dead, the first-fruits of them that slept (1Co. 15:20; Col. 1:18). He alone is the first to rise by His own power to die no more and guarantee life for all men by the power of His own immortality. These saints were raised only by virtue of His death and resurrection. In this sense His uniqueness is not affected by the hypothesis of their prior resurrection.
2.
A better view, better supported by the grammar, is to see the words as constituting one complex idea: they arose and, coming out of the graves after His resurrection, entered (egrthesan Kai exelthntes . . . met tn gersin auto eislthon). The resurrections and appearances in Jerusalem all occurred after Jesus arose.
Lenski (Matthew; 1130) and Hendriksen (Matthew, 976) argue that only their entrance into the holy city occurred after Jesus resurrection, whereas they left their tombs at the moment of Christs death. But to connect after his resurrection with their entrance into the holy city ungrammatically divides a participle (exelthntes) from its main (eislthon) and links it with a verb from which it is separated by and (ka).
The solution to the problem of when they arose is perhaps only literary in character, in that Matthew summarized the effects of Christs death in one place and proceeded to report the resurrection and Great Commission together without returning to report the saints resurrection in its chronological order. This is accepted literary style well documented in Scripture, but gives rise to the debate.
They appeared unto many: who are the many? Believers? Enemies? Since Jesus Himself appeared only to preselected believers (Act. 10:40 f.), perhaps these saints were sent to appear to His enemies. Their appearance in the holy city, Jerusalem (Mat. 4:5; cf. Isa. 48:2; Isa. 52:1), points to the directness and power of the evidence. Here, the nation of Israel was gathered for the Passover. Thus, critics at the very heart of Judaism could easily examine the facts: The amazing resurrections occurred after the Galilean from Nazareth was crucified! Could there be any connection? Would not this proof that God had visited His people serve to prepare minds for the Gospel of a risen Christ preached just over a month later?
What happened to these resurrected saints after their appearances during the post-resurrection period is not stated. Their spectacular resurrection was incomparably surpassed by the world-shaking tidings that are the heart of the Gospel: Christ Jesus arose! Possibly they eventually joined Jesus for the ascension. (Cf. Eph. 4:8 a [= Psa. 68:18]: When he ascended on high he led a host of captives. . . .Were these resurrected saints His captives to embellish His triumphant return to glory?)
God had neither totally abandoned Jesus nor absented Himself from the crucifixion, merely because He did not intervene to save His Son. He too was there. These miraculous events could not occur unless God had cared enough to intervene in this way. These supernatural acts say, Notice, I am here!
FACT QUESTIONS
1.
What unusual events accompanied the death of Jesus?
2.
Locate the veil of the temple, indicating its function there.
3.
At what hour was this great curtain torn?
4.
What other events usually occur at that same period in the Temple?
5.
When, precisely, did the resurrections cited occur?
6.
What unusual events occurred after Jesus resurrection?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(51) The veil of the temple was rent in twain.Better, the veil of the sanctuary, or, if we do not alter the word, we must remember that it is the veil that divided the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies that is here meant. The fact, which the high priests would naturally have wished to conceal, and which in the nature of the case could not have been seen by any but the sons of Aaron, may have been reported by the great multitude of the priests who became obedient to the faith (Act. 6:7). The Evangelists record of it is all the more significant, as he does not notice, and apparently, therefore, did not apprehend, the symbolic import of the fact. That import we learn indirectly from the Epistle to the Hebrews. The priests had, as far as they had power, destroyed the true Temple (comp. Joh. 2:19); but in doing so they had robbed their own sanctuary of all that made it holy. The true veil, as that which shrouded the Divine Glory from the eyes of men, was His own flesh, and through that He had passed, as the Forerunner of all who trusted in Him, into the sanctuary not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (Heb. 10:20-21). All who fulfilled that condition might enter into that holiest place, but the visible sanctuary was now made common and unclean, and there too all might enter without profanation.
The earth did quake, and the rocks rent.Jerusalem was, it will be remembered, situated in the zone of earthquakes, and one very memorable convulsion is recorded or alluded to in the Old Testament (Isa. 24:19; Amo. 1:1; Zec. 14:5). Here, though the shock startled men at the time, there was no widespread ruin such as would lead to its being chronicled by contemporary historians.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
142. THREEFOLD EFFECTS OF THE DEATH OF JESUS, Mat 27:51-54 .
The temple vail rent in twain, the earthquake, and the resurrection of saints.
When our Lord proclaimed the atonement finished, the stroke of his power smote three realms; the realm of grace, of nature, and of death. In the first, the temple’s vail was rent, indicatively of the departure of the old dispensation and its nullity at the approach of the new. In the second, the earth was rent, indicating that the same power would destroy and renew again the face of nature. In the third, the dead rose from their open graves, indicating that the dominion of the destroyer should be destroyed, and the human race be raised from his power to a complete resurrection.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
51. The vail of the temple The interior of the temple was an extended oblong room, divided into two apartments by a large curtain. The front one of these apartments was called the Holy Place; and the further one, concealed by a second curtain or vail, was called the Holy of Holies. Into the Holy of Holies none entered but the high priest; and he but once a year, on the great day of atonement. Vailed in this Holy of Holies, the divine presence was supposed to dwell. When the temple’s vail was rent from top to bottom, it was declared in fact that God no longer dwelt there. There was nothing to conceal. It was but an ordinary room, and the vail was but a rent cloth. It was also shown that the separation was removed; and that Judaism and Gentilism were no longer two, but one in a universal Christianity, an irrespective and impartial Gospel. Judaism is now dead. From the top to the bottom The vail or curtain was some sixty feet long; and it was impossible for it to be thus rent, as some have imagined, by the force of the earthquake. And the earth did quake, and the rocks rent Those who maintain that this earthquake was a mere natural coincidence, might as well go farther and say that the resurrection that followed was also in some way natural. It is indeed very unnatural to say that the darkness, the rending of the vail, the earthquake, and the resurrection, were natural. They are plainly all narrated by the evangelist as supernatural attendants of the transactions of the cross.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.’
His death was followed by amazing activity, although whether it all followed immediately we do not know. The first activity was in the Temple where the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. There is a difference of opinion as to which veil is meant, the veil which separated the Holy Place in the Temple from the Holy of Holies, and prevented access to that Most Holy Place for any apart from the High Priest once a year, or the veil that guarded the way into the Holy Place where the priests operated. Both were only symbolic for they had been replaced by doors, but the veils were hung over the doors so as to preserve the old features of the Tabernacle. The tearing of the veil was almost certainly intended by the evangelists to indicate that the way into the presence of God was being laid open (compare Heb 10:19-20). Alternately it might have been intended to signify that God had deserted the Holy of Holies (compare Eze 11:22-23), or have indicated a similar thing to His ‘rending of His garment’, or have been the earnest (sample and guarantee) of the Temple’s later destruction, an indication that its relevance had now ceased because God was no longer there.
In favour of the outer veil being torn is the fact that it would then be a sight visible to all, and if a sirocco was the cause of the sudden darkness, that could also have caused the splitting of the veil. Or it could equally have been caused by the earthquake. In favour of the inner veil is its deeper symbolism, and its greater importance in Judaism, and while it would then not be seen by all, such a happening would certainly not be able to remain hidden. Too many priests would become aware of it, to say nothing of those who had to replace the veil.
The Jewish Talmud (the Gemara – Rabbinic comments on the Mishnah which latter was the written record of the oral Law) states that forty years before the destruction of temple, thus around this time, something happened which made the massive doors of the temple open of their own accord (Babylonian Talmud Yoma 39b), and such an event could certainly have caused the veil to split.
Furthermore, that strange things happened in the temple some time prior to its destruction at the fall of Jerusalem is recorded also by Josephus (Jewish Wars 6:5.2 – although not referring to this particular event). Among other things Josephus describes how the eastern gate of the inner court, which was of brass and very heavy, which took twenty men to shut and rested on a base strengthened with iron, and had bolts fastened very deeply into the firm floor which was made of one solid stone, opened of its own accord. It would thus seem that the temple mount was subject to earth movements which caused strange things to happen from time to time. It may well therefore also have happened forty years before, especially as there was also an accompanying earthquake.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
‘And the earth quaked, and the rocks were torn asunder,’
Not only was the veil torn in two but ‘the earth quaked and the rocks were torn asunder’. The heavenly veil was torn in half, the earthly rocks were ‘rent asunder’. Creation itself was bearing witness to what had happened to God’s Son. This might indicate that the rendings were intended to indicate strong reaction on the part of God, similar to the rending of garments, or that God was acting to reveal His anger at what had been man’s response to His Son. This would tie in with 2Sa 22:7-8 (also Psa 18:6-7), ‘in my distress I called on YHWH, I called to my God. From His Temple He heard my voice, and my cry came to His ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked, the foundations of the Heaven trembled and quaked because He was angry.’ When we consider that behind these words is also the idea of a kind of resurrection, ‘the cords of Sheol were round about me, the snares of death came on me — He sent from on high and took me, He raised me from many waters — He brought me forth also into a large place, He delivered me because He delighted in me’ ( 2Sa 22:6 ; 2Sa 22:17; 2Sa 22:20), and that the Psalm ends with, ‘great deliverance gives He to His king, and shows loving kindness to His Anointed One (Messiah), to David and to his seed for evermore’ (Mat 27:51), the application is clear. The fact that the Psalm is repeated twice in Scripture confirms its importance.
It is thus tempting from this Psalm to combine the three incidents. YHWH hears the voice of His Son, tears aside the curtain in the Holy of Holies, (or at the door of His Sanctuary), comes out in His anger and causes the earth to reel and the rocks to be rent asunder (compare Nah 1:6), and then from the opened tombs brings forth resurrected saints as witnesses to His Son and as the firstfruits of what He has accomplished. As in the days of Ezekiel the Temple is no longer to be seen as His Dwellingplace, nor Jerusalem as a fit place for the bodies of His ‘holy ones’. (Many Jews made great efforts to be buried near Jerusalem).
However, previously the High Priest had torn His garment at what he considered to be the blasphemy of Jesus, so we might see here that God has rent in half the veil in the Temple and torn asunder the rocks on the ground in order to indicate how He felt about the blasphemy committed on His Son. On top of this, the rending of the rocks is probably also to be seen as preparatory to what follows in the opening of the tombs.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 27:51. The veil of the temple was rent, &c. While Jesus breathed his last, the veil of the temple was miraculously rent from top to bottom; most probably in the presence of the priest who burned the incense in the holy place at the evening sacrifice; for the ninth hour, at which Jesus expired, was the hour of offering that sacrifice. The sudden rending of that veil was a supernatural sign of the destruction of the temple being at hand, and of the dissolution of the Jewish oeconomy. The earth also trembled, and the rocks rent, in token of the Almighty’s displeasure against the Jewish nation, on account of the horrid impiety whereof they were now guilty. Mr. Fleming tells us, that a deist, lately travelling through Palestine, was converted by viewing one of these rocks, which still remains torn asunder, not in the weakest place, but across the veins; a plain proof that it was done in a supernatural manner. Mr. Sandys, in his travels, p. 264 has given a natural description and delineation of this fissure; and Mr. Maundrell tells us, that it was about a span wide at the upper part, and two spans deep, after which it closes, but opens again below, and runs down to an unknown depth in the earth. He adds, that every man’s sense and reason must convince him, that this is a natural and genuine breach. See Fleming’s Christology, vol. 2: p. 97 and Maundrell’s Journey from Aleppo, p. 73.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 27:51 f. Not an ordinary earthquake, but a supernatural phenomenon, as was that of the darkness in Mat 27:45 .
] “Hie wendet sich’s und wird gar ein neues Wesen” [at this point the history enters upon a fresh stage, and something entirely new appears], Luther. The style of the narrative here is characterized by a simple solemnity , among other indications of which we have the frequent recurrence of .
] , the veil suspended before the holy of holies, Exo 26:31 ; Lev 21:23 ; 1Ma 1:22 ; Sir 30:5 ; Heb 6:19 ; Heb 9:3 ; Heb 10:20 . The rending in two (for , comp. Lucian, Tox. 54; Lapith. 44), of which mention is also made by Mark and Luke, was not the effect of the convulsion in nature (which was a subsequent occurrence), but a divine , accompanying the moment of decease, for the purpose of indicating that in this atoning death of Jesus the old dispensation of sacrifices was being done away, and free access to the gracious presence of God at the same time restored. Comp. Heb 6:19 f., Mat 9:6 ff., Mat 10:19 f. To treat what is thus a matter of divine symbolism as though it were symbolical legend (Schleiermacher, Strauss, Scholten, Keim) is all the more unwarrantable that neither in Old Testament prophecy nor in the popular beliefs of the Jews do we find anything calculated to suggest the formation of any such legend. The influence of legend has operated rather in the way of transforming the rending of the veil into an incident of a more imposing and startling nature: “superliminare (the lintel) templi infinitae magnitudinis fractum esse atque divisum,” Evang. sec. Hebr. quoted by Jerome. See Hilgenfeld, N. T. extr. can. IV. p. 17. The idea underlying this legend was that of the destruction of the temple.
What follows is peculiar to Matthew. The rocks in question were those in the immediate neighbourhood, and so also with regard to . The opening of the graves is in like manner to be regarded as divine symbolism, according to which the death of Jesus is to be understood as preparing the way for the future resurrection of believers to the eternal life of the Messianic kingdom (Joh 3:14 f., Joh 6:54 ). The thing thus signified by the divine sign a sign sufficiently intelligible, and possessing all the characteristics of a genuine symbol (in opposition to Steinmeyer, p. 226) was so moulded and amplified in the course of tradition that it became ultimately transformed into an historical incident: . , . . . For a specimen of still further and more extravagant amplification of the material in question material to which Ignatius likewise briefly alludes, ad Magnes. 9, and which he expressly mentions, ad Trall, interpol. 9 see Evang. Nicod. 17 ff. This legend respecting the rising of the Old Testament saints ( ) is based upon the assumption of the descensus Christi ad inferos, in the course of which Jesus was understood not only to have visitsd them, but also to have secured their resurrection (comp. Ev. Nicod.; Ignatius, ad Trall. l.c.). But it is quite arbitrary to assume that in those who are thus alleged to have risen from their graves we have mere “apparitions assuring us of the continued existence of the departed” (Michaelis, Paulus, Kuinoel, Hug, Krabbe, p. 505; Steudel, Glaubensl. p. 455; Bleek). Besides, the legend regarding the rising of the saints on this occasion is, in itself considered, no more incompatible with the idea of Christ being the . (1Co 15:20 ; Col 1:18 ) than the raising of Lazarus and certain others. See on 1Co 15:20 . It is true that, according to Epiphanius, Origen, Ambrose, Luther, Calovius (comp. also Delitzsch, Psych, p. 414), the dead now in question came forth in spiritual bodies and ascended to heaven along with Christ; but with Jerome it is at the same time assumed, in opposition to the terms of our passage, that: “Non antea resurrexerunt, quam Dominus resurgeret, ut esset primogenitus resurrectionis ex mortuis;” comp. also Calvin, and Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 1, p. 492. In the Acta Pilati as found in Thilo, p. 810, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, and Noah, are expressly mentioned as being among the number of those who rose from the dead. The names are given somewhat differently in the Evang. Nicod.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1412
SIGNS ATTENDANT ON OUR LORDS DEATH
Mat 27:51. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.
THE incarnation and death of Gods co-equal, co-eternal Son are facts so incredible, that nothing but a concurrence of the most unquestionable proofs can justify us in believing the Scripture report concerning them. But God has been pleased to give us proofs equal to the occasion. The birth of Christ was attested by a multitude of angels, who were sent from heaven to announce and celebrate the event: and the death of Christ was attested by a variety of signs and wonders, which could not fail to impress all whose minds were open to conviction. The miraculous darkness for the space of three hours at mid-day has been already noticed: and we have now to notice two other phenomena, the earthquake, and the rending of the veil. We may suppose indeed that these two events might happen without any particular interposition of Providence to effect them, or any particular end to be answered by them: but such a construction is altogether precluded, both by the prophetic declarations respecting them, and by the light thrown upon them in the New Testament. It shall be our endeavour at this time,
I.
To illustrate these phenomena
These, like the miraculous darkness, may be considered as testimonies from God to the truth of Christs Messiahship: but we shall direct our attention to them rather as signs, or emblematic representations, of mysteries at that time accomplished. In this view let us notice,
1.
The earthquake
[This had been predicted by the Prophet Haggai [Note: Hag 2:6-7; Hag 2:21.]: and though we might have justly regarded the expressions used by him as designating only some great political convulsion, yet we have reason to think that they had a literal accomplishment in the event before us. It must be remembered, that, at the giving of the Law, the whole of Mount Sinai quaked greatly [Note: Exo 19:18. Psa 18:7.]. Thus at the termination of that, and the introduction of the Christian, dispensation, a similar miracle was wrought; the earth quaked to its very centre; and the rocks were rent asunder: and we are warranted by an inspired Apostle to declare, that that phenomenon shadowed forth the abolition of the whole Jewish economy, and the establishment of Christianity in its place [Note: Heb 12:26-27.]. It is observable, too, that the Apostle lays all the stress on one particular word of the prophet; (a word which superficial readers would have overlooked;) and shews, that it was intended by God himself to foretell, and to explain, the earthquake which we are now speaking of. The tabernacle and all the things belonging to it were made by the hands of men, and therefore were not intended to continue beyond a certain period: but, under the Christian dispensation, every thing is spiritual and of Divine origin, and consequently is destined to endure for ever: the removal of the former, therefore, and the establishment of the latter, being fixed in the Divine counsels, they were predicted by the prophet, and expressly marked in that one word which the Apostle so correctly notices; This word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken, may remain.
What obligations do we owe to God for the light which the New Testament reflects on the Jewish writings, and for the confirmation which it receives from them! No uninspired author could ever have discovered such mysteries in so obscure a passage; nor can any one who beholds this inspired exposition of it, withhold his admiration of the unfathomable depths of Gods wisdom and knowledge.]
2.
The rending of the veil
[This was not a mere accident arising from the earthquake, but an appointment of God for the fuller manifestation of his own purpose and grace.
There were two veils in the temple; the one separating the holy place from the outer court, and the other separating the holy place from the holy of holies. This latter veil was for the purpose of screening from the view of men the ark and the shechinah, that bright symbol of the Deity. This was the veil that was rent in twain from the top to the bottom: and the rending of it denoted three things; first, That the rending of Christs body was the means of bringing us nigh to God; next, that the mysteries which had hitherto been hid in God were now fully revealed; and, lastly, that a new way of access to God was now opened for all people.
Christ speaks of his own body as being typified by the temple [Note: Joh 2:19; Joh 2:21.]: and well he might do so, since in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. But as opening a way for our admission to the Divine presence, it was more particularly typified by the veil; the rending of which marked the violent nature of his death, and the blessed effects resulting from it. This is declared by an inspired Apostle, who, speaking of our having a way consecrated for us through the veil, adds, that is to say, his flesh. And this accords with innumerable assertions of Holy Writ, which declare that Christ hath made peace for us by the blood of his cross, and that, whereas we were once alienated from God, and enemies to him in our minds by wicked works, he hath now reconciled us to him in the body of his flesh through death [Note: Col 1:20-22.].
Moreover, the mystical intent of all the types and figures was now exhibited in the clearest view. As the veil on the face of Moses intimated, that the Jews could not discern the end and reason of the ceremonial law, and the taking away of that veil in Christ enables us to behold, as in a glass or mirror, the glory of the Lord; so the rending of the veil shews us, that all the ends of the ceremonial law were fulfilled in Christ, and that to us is given the substance of what the Jewish Church possessed only in types and shadows. If we do not now comprehend the glorious designs of God in the work of Redemption, it is not because he has interposed a veil to hide them from us, but because we have a veil upon our own hearts, which we have not desired him to take away. It must be our fault, I say, and not his; for from that hour in which Christ died upon the cross, and especially from that hour when the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, to reveal him unto men, the face of the covering that had been cast over all people was destroyed, and the veil that had been spread over all nations was taken away [Note: Isa 25:7-8.].
But that which was most fully and most immediately intended by the rending of the veil, was, to open for all people a free and personal access to God, that so they might obtain all his blessings for themselves, without the intervention of carnal sacrifices, and an earthly priesthood. To shew to men that no such access was allowed them under the law, was the use and intent of the veil [Note: Heb 9:7-8. The Holy Ghost this signifying, &c.]; and to make that way open both to Jews and Gentiles, was the design of God in rending the veil [Note: Heb 10:19-20. with Eph 3:18.]. This further appears from the time when the veil was rent: for it was at the time of the evening sacrifice, when the priests were in the holy place, trimming the sacred lamps, and offering incense before the Lord. They, of course, must have beheld the interior of the sanctuary; and therefore had in themselves an evidence, that God had opened for them a new way of access unto his throne. This is called a new and a living way; new, because it never was revealed before; and living, because it would secure eternal life to all who should come in it; whereas, if even the high-priest himself had presumed to enter through the veil on any other than the day of atonement, or in any other manner than that prescribed by the law, he would have been struck dead upon the spot, or have been put to death as a presumptuous transgressor: but now every person in the universe may come to God, and find acceptance with him at his mercy-seat: if only he take the blood of his great Sacrifice, and bring it by faith to the throne of God, he shall find that there no longer exists any difference between Jew and Greek, bond and free, male and female, but that we are all one in Christ Jesus [Note: Gal 3:28.].]
Such is clearly the import of these phenomena: we now come,
II.
To shew the improvement we should make of them
Here we might suggest many things; but for brevitys sake we shall confine ourselves to two, which are particularly suggested by the holy Apostle. We should,
1.
Receive and honour the dispensation which God has introduced
[Consider the nature of that dispensation which preceded it; how dark, how unsatisfactory, how burthensome! Compare with it the dispensation under which we live, a dispensation of light and liberty, of peace and joy See the two contrasted by the Apostle [Note: Heb 12:18-24.]; and then hear him declaring the abolition of the one, and the establishment of the other, and prescribing our duty in reference to that which we are privileged to enjoy [Note: Heb 12:25-29.]: hear too the argument with which he enforces an obedient attention to it: He reminds us of the judgments which fell on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, for refusing to comply with Gods former appointments, which were carnal and earthly, and appeals to us respecting the impossibility of our escaping, if we disregard those which are spiritual and heavenly, since God, at this time, no less than formerly, is, to those who offend him, a consuming fire [Note: Heb 12:29.]. Comply then with the commands of God, and receive not the grace of God in vain. Only remember wherein the main difference between the two dispensations consists: the one consisted altogether of forms and shadows; the other contains the substance: in the one, the sacrifices were beasts of the field, and the priests who offered them were guilty creatures like ourselves; in the other, Christ is our Sacrifice, and our great High Priest; and in his mediation and intercession must be all our salvation and all our hope. The earthquake shook the whole legal fabric, and removed it all, so that the Church is liberated from all its observances: in like manner must all legal principles be removed from us; and the freedom granted to the Church, must be realized in our hearts In a word, we must be new creatures in Christ Jesus: old things must pass away, and all things must become new.]
2.
Avail ourselves of the liberty which he has conferred upon us
[God invites us all to come to him without fear: He says, Draw nigh to me, and I will draw nigh to you But here is the difficulty. To be outward-court worshippers is easy enough: but to get within the veil, to approach God as seeing him that is invisible, to pour out our souls before him, to ask with a full assurance of obtaining whatsoever we stand in need of; to live in the habit of such intercourse with him as enables us to say, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ; this requires continual watchfulness and unintermitted exertion. Yet this is the state to which we ought to aspire. The Apostle, after having, in a fore-cited passage, told us, that we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God; adds, Let us draw near with a true heart; in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience [Note: Heb 10:19-22.]. This is the glorious privilege to which we are brought. None need to stand at a distance: the golden sceptre is held out equally to all; and we may ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. We are all, without exception, a royal priesthood; he who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, hath also made us kings and priests unto our God [Note: 1Pe 2:9. Rev 1:5-6.]. Let none then stand at a distance as unworthy to approach him, but let us go even to his throne, and open our mouths wide that he may fill them ]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Ver. 51. The veil of the temple was rent ] To show that there was an end to the Levitical liturgy, and that now there was free and open access for all saints to the throne of God’s grace, for the veil was a figure of the spiritual covering which was before the eyes of the Church till Christ’s coming.
And the earth did quake ] To work a heartquake in the obstinate Jews, as in some it did; others of them had contracted such a habitual hardness, such a hoof upon their hearts, as neither ministry, nor misery, nor miracle, nor mercy could possibly mollify.
And the rocks rent ] So they do wherever Christ makes forcible entrance into any heart. “I will shake all nations, and then the desire of all nations shall come,” Hag 2:7 . A man will never truly desire Christ till soundly shaken. God’s shaking ends in settling; he rends us, not to ruin, but to refine us.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
51 56. ] SIGNS FOLLOWING HIS DEATH. Mar 15:38-41 .Luk 23:47-49Luk 23:47-49 . The three narratives are essentially distinct. That of Luke is more general giving only the sense of the centurion’s words twice using the indefinite and not specifying the women. The whole is omitted by John.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
51. ] The gives solemnity. This was the inner veil , screening off the holy of holies from the holy place, Exo 26:33 ; Heb 9:2-3 . This circumstance has given rise to much incredulous comment, and that even from men like Schleiermacher. A right and deep view of the O.T. symbolism is required to furnish the key to it; and for this we look in vain among those who set aside that symbolism entirely .
That was now accomplished, which was the one and great antitype of all those sacrifices offered in the holy place, in order to gain , as on the great day of atonement (for that day may be taken as the representation of their intent), entrance into the holiest place , the typical presence of God . What those sacrifices (ceremonially) procured for the Jews (the type of God’s universal Church) through their High-priest, was now (really) procured for all men by the sacrifice of Him, who was at once the victim and the High-priest. When Schleiermacher and De Wette assert that no use is made of this event in the Epistle to the Hebrews, they surely cannot have remembered, or not have deeply considered, Heb 10:19-21 . Besides, suppose it had been referred to plainly and by name what would then have been said? Clearly, that this mention was a later insertion, to justify that reference . And almost this latter, Strauss, recognizing the allusion in Heb. , actually does. Schleiermacher also asks, how could the event be known , seeing none but priests could have witnessed it, and they would not be likely to betray it? To say nothing of the almost certain spread of the rumour , has he forgotten that ( Act 6:7 ) “a great company of the priests were obedient unto the faith?” Neander, who gives this last consideration its weight (but only as a possibility, that some priests may have become converts, and apparently without reference to the above fact), has an unworthy and shuffling note (L. J. p. 757), ending by quoting two testimonies, one apocryphal, the other Rabbinical, from which he concludes that ‘ some matter of fact lies at the foundation’ of this (according to him) mythical adjunct .
] Not an ordinary earthquake, but connected with the two next clauses, and finding in them its explanation and justification.
] It would not be right altogether to reject the testimonies of travellers to the fact of extraordinary rents and fissures in the rocks near the spot. Of course those who know no other proof of the historical truth of the event, will not be likely to take this as one; but to us, who are firmly convinced of it, every such trace, provided it be soberly and honestly ascertained, is full of interest.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 27:51 . , introducing solemnly a series of preternatural accompaniments, all but the first peculiar to Mt. , the veil between the holy place and the most holy. : this fact, the rending of the veil, is mentioned by all the Synoptists, though Lk. introduces it at an early point in the narrative. It might have happened, as a natural event, an accidental coincidence, though it is not so viewed by the evangelist. A symbolic fiction, according to Brandt. The legendary spirit took hold of this event, magnifying the miracle. In the Hebrew Gospel the rending of the veil is transformed into the fracture of the lintel of the temple: “Superliminare templi in finitae magnitudinis fractum esse atque divisum” (Jerome, Com. ). , etc.: an earthquake, preceding and conditioning the greatest marvel of all, the opening of the graves and the resurrection of many saints (Mat 27:52-53 ). We seem here to be in the region of Christian legend. Certainly the legendary spirit laid hold of this feature with great eagerness, expanding and going into details, giving, e.g. , the names of those who rose: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. ( vide Evang. Nicod. , c. 17, and The Acts of Pilate in Thilo’s Codex Apocryphus , N. T., p. 810).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Matthew
THE VEIL RENT
Mat 27:51
As I suppose we are all aware, the Jewish Temple was divided into three parts: the Outer Court, open to all; the Holy Place, to which the ministering priests had daily access to burn incense and trim the lamps; and the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest was permitted to go, and that but once a year, on the great Day of Atonement. For the other three hundred and sixty-four days the shrine lay silent, untrodden, dark. Between it and the less sacred Holy Place hung the veil, whose heavy folds only one man was permitted to lift or to pass. To all others it was death to peer into the mysteries, and even to him, had he gone at another time, and without the blood of the sacrifice, death would have ensued.
If we remember all this and try to cast ourselves back in imagination to the mental attitude of the ordinary Jew, the incident of my text receives its true interpretation. At the moment when the loud cry of the dying Christ rung over the heads of the awestruck multitude, that veil was, as it were, laid hold of by a pair of giant hands and torn asunder, as the Evangelist says, ‘from the top to the bottom.’ The incident was a symbol. In one aspect it proclaimed the end of the long years of Israel’s prerogative. In another it ushered in an epoch of new relations between man and God. If Jesus Christ was what He said He was, if His death was what He declared it to be, it was fitting that it should be attended by a train of subordinate and interpreting wonders. These were, besides that of my text, the darkened sun, the trembling earth, the shivered rocks, the open graves, the rising saints-all of them, in their several ways, illuminating the significance of that death on Calvary.
Not less significant is this symbol of my text, and I desire now to draw your attention to its meanings.
I. The rent veil proclaims the desecrated temple.
That conception, that the death of Christ Jesus was the de-consecration-if I may coin a word-of the Temple, and the end of all its special sanctity, and that thenceforward the Presence had departed from it, is distinctly enough taught us by Himself in words which move in the same circle of ideas as that in which the symbol resides. . .. You remember, no doubt, that, if we accept the testimony of John’s Gospel, at the very beginning of our Lord’s ministry He vindicated His authority to cleanse the sanctuary against the cavils of the sticklers for propriety by the enigmatical words, ‘Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will build it up,’ to which the Evangelist appends the comment, ‘He spake of the Temple of His body,’ that body in which ‘all the fulness of the Godhead’ dwelt, and which was, and is to-day, all that the Temple shadowed and foretold, the dwelling-place of God in humanity, the place of sacrifice, the meeting-place between God and man. But just because our Lord in these dark words predicted His death and His resurrection, He also hinted the destruction of the literal stone and lime building, and its rearing again in nobler and more spiritual form. When He said, ‘Destroy this Temple,’ He implied, secondarily, the destruction of the house in which He stood, and laid that destruction, whensoever it should come to pass, at their doors. And, inasmuch as the saying in its deepest depth meant His death by their violence and craft, therefore, in that early saying of His, was wrapped up the very same truth which was symbolised by the rent veil, and was bitterly fulfilled at last. When they slew Christ they killed the system under which they lived, and for which they would have been glad to die, in a zeal without knowledge; and destroyed the very Temple on the distorted charge of being the destroyer of which, they handed Him over to the Roman power.
The death of Christ is, then, the desecration and the destruction of that Temple. Of course it is; because when a nation that had had millenniums of education, of forbearance, of revelation, turned at last upon the very climax and brightest central light of all the Revelation, standing there amongst them in a bodily form, there was nothing more to be done. God had shot His last arrow; His quiver was empty. ‘Last of all He sent unto them His Son, saying,’ with a wistful kind of half-confidence, ‘They will reverence My Son,’ and the divine expectation was disappointed, and exhaustless Love was empty-handed, and all was over. He could turn to themselves and say, ‘Judge between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done that I have not done to it?’ Therefore, there was nothing left but to let the angels of destruction loose, and to call for the Roman eagles with their broad-spread wings, and their bloody beaks, and their strong talons, to gather together round the carcase. When He gave up the Ghost, ‘the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.’
A time of repentance was given. It was possible for the most guilty participator in that judicial murder to have his gory hands washed and made white in the very blood that he had shed; but, failing repentance, that death was the death of Israel, and the destruction of Israel’s Temple. Let us take the lesson, dear brethren. If we turn away from that Saviour, and refuse the offered gifts of His love, there is no other appeal left in the power of Heaven; and there is nothing for it after that except judgment and destruction. We can ‘crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.’ And the hearts that are insensitive, as are some of our hearts, to that great love and grace, are capable of nothing except to be pulverised by means of a judgment. Repentance is possible for us all, but, failing that, the continuance of rejection of Christ is the pulling down, on our own heads, of the ruins of the Temple, like the Israelitish hero in his blindness and despair.
II. Now, secondly, the rent veil means, in another way of looking at the incident, light streaming in on the mystery of God.
What does that Cross tell us about God that the world did not know? And how does it tell us? and why does it tell us? It tells us of absolute righteousness, of that in the divine nature which cannot tolerate sin; of the stern law of retribution which must be wrought out, and by which the wages of every sin is death. It tells us not only of a divine righteousness which sees guilt and administers punishment, but it tells us of a divine love, perfect, infinite, utter, perennial, which shrinks from no sacrifice, which stoops to the lowest conditions, which itself takes upon it all the miseries of humanity, and which dies because it loves and will save men from death. And as we look upon that dying Man hanging on the cross, the very embodiment and consummation of weakness and of shame, we have to say, ‘Lo! this is our God! We have waited for Him’-through all the weary centuries-’and He will save us.’ How does it tell us all this? Not by eloquent and gracious thoughts, not by sweet and musical words, but by a deed. The only way by which we can know men is by what they do. The only way by which we know God is by what He does. And so we point to that Cross and say, ‘There! not in words, not in thoughts, not in speculations, not in hopes and fears and peradventures and dim intuitions, but in a solid fact; there is the Revelation which lays bare the heart of God, and shows us its very throbbing of love to every human soul.’ ‘The veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.’
The Cross will reveal God to you only if you believe that Jesus Christ was the Incarnate Word. Brethren, if that death was but the death of even the very holiest, noblest, sweetest, perfectest soul that ever lived on earth and breathed human breath, there is no revelation of God in it for us. It tells us what Jesus was, and by a very roundabout inference may suggest something of what the divine nature is, but unless you can say, as the New Testament says, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . .. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,’ I fail to see how the death of Christ can be a revelation of the love of God.
I need not occupy time in dilating upon the contrast between this solid certitude, and all that the world, apart from Jesus Christ, has to lay hold of about God. We want something else than mist on which to build, and on which to lay hold. And there is a substantial, warm, flesh-and-blood hand, if I may so say, put out to us through the mist when we believe in Christ the Son of God, who died on the cross for us all. Then, amidst whirling mists and tossing seas, there is a fixed point to which we can moor; then our confidence is built, not on peradventures or speculations or wishes or dreams or hopes, but on a historical fact, and grasping that firm we may stand unmoved.
Dear friends, I may be very old-fashioned and very narrow-I suppose I am; but I am bound to declare my conviction, which I think every day’s experience of the tendency of thought only makes more certain, that, practically for this generation, the choice lies between accepting the life and death of Jesus Christ as the historical Revelation of God, or having no knowledge of Him-knowledge, I say,-of Him at all; you must choose between the barred sanctuary, within which lies couched a hidden Something-with a capital S-or perhaps a hidden Someone whom you never can know and never will; or the rent veil, rent by Christ’s death, through which you can pass, and behold the mercy-seat and, above the outstretched wings of the adoring cherubim, the Father whose name is Love.
III. Lastly, the rent veil permits any and every man to draw near to God.
If I might use abstract words, I would say that Christ’s death potentially opens the path for every man, which being put into plain English-which is better-is just that by the death of Christ every man can, if he will, go to God, and live beside Him. And our faith is our personal laying hold of that great sacrifice and treading on that path. It turns the ‘potentiality’ into an actuality, the possibility into a fact. If we believe on Him who died on the cross for us all, then by that way we come to God, than which there is none other given under heaven among men.
So all believers are priests, or none of them are. The absolute right of direct access to God, without the intervention of any man who has an officially greater nearness to Him than others, and through whom as through a channel the grace of sacrament comes, is contained in the great symbol of my text. And it is a truth that this day needs. On the one hand there is agnostic unbelief, which needs to see in the rent veil the illumination streaming through it on to the depths of God; and on the other hand there is the complementary error-and the two always breed each other-the superstition which drags back by an anachronism the old Jewish notions of priesthood into the Christian Church. It needs to see in the rent veil the charter of universal priesthood for all believers, and to hearken to the words which declare, ‘Ye are a chosen generation, a spiritual house, a royal priesthood, that ye should offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ.’ That is the lesson that this day wants. ‘Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, let us draw near with true hearts in full assurance of faith.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
the veil. Greek. katapetasma = that which is spread out downward, or that which hangs down. Septuagint for Hebrew. masak, (Exo 26:37; Exo 35:12; Exo 40:5). Occ only here; Mar 15:38. Luk 23:45. Heb 6:19; Heb 9:3; Heb 10:20. Not the same word as in 1Co 11:15, or as in 2Co 3:13-16 (Exo 34:33, &c).
in = into. Greek. eis. Not the same word as in verses: Mat 27:5, Mat 27:19, Mat 27:29, Mat 5:40, Mat 5:43, Mat 5:59, Mat 5:60.
from the top = from above, as in Luk 1:3. See note there. Greek. anothen. First of thirteen occurrences.
and. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton in verses: Mat 27:51-53.
rent = were rent.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
51-56.] SIGNS FOLLOWING HIS DEATH. Mar 15:38-41. Luk 23:47-49. The three narratives are essentially distinct. That of Luke is more general-giving only the sense of the centurions words-twice using the indefinite -and not specifying the women. The whole is omitted by John.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 27:51. , …, was rent, etc.) Therefore the approach to the Holy Places was now free.[1212]- , the earth) i.e. the globe (see Mat 27:45), but especially the Land of Israel and the vicinity of Jerusalem.[1213]- , …, the rocks, etc.) Travellers relate that rents in the rocks, the opposite sides of which correspond to each other, are still to be seen.
[1212] Matthew and Mark place this rending of the veil after the death of Christ. Luke places it before the words, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Both events occurred at this same incomparable moment. Luke, inasmuch as combining the darkness of the three hours with the rending of the veil, indicates, (1) that after the darkness was ended, all the remaining events, up to the death of the Saviour, mutually succeeded one another in most rapid succession; and (2) that the rending of the veil, which occurred at the very moment of His death, has no less close connection with the supernatural darkness than with the subsequent miracles. To be left by God was the same to the soul of Jesus, as to die was to His body: the former was signified by the darkness, the latter by the rending of the veil. His quickening the Spirit followed immediately after He had drunk the cup of death the uttermost (1Pe 3:18), and that quickening produced the greatest effects upon things visible and invisible alike.-Harm., p. 576
[1213] Those great commotions in created things went on, in continuous succession, from the moment of Christs death to His resurrection, exerting their influence especially in the kingdom of things invisible.-Harm., l. c.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
veil
The veil which was rent was the veil which divided the holy place into which the priests entered from the holy of holies into which only the high priest might enter on the day of atonement, (See Scofield “Exo 26:31”) Lev 16:1-30 The rending of that veil, which was a type of the human body of Christ Heb 10:20 signified that a “new and living way” was opened for all believers into the very presence of God with no other sacrifice or priesthood save Christ’s. (cf); Heb 9:1-8; Heb 10:19-22.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the veil: Exo 26:31-37, Exo 40:21, Lev 16:2, Lev 16:12-15, Lev 21:23, 2Ch 3:14, Isa 25:7, Mar 15:38, Luk 23:45, Eph 2:13-18, Heb 6:19, Heb 10:19-22
the earth: Mat 28:2, Psa 18:7, Psa 18:15, Mic 1:3, Mic 1:4, Nah 1:3-5, Hab 3:10, Hab 3:13, Heb 12:25-27, Rev 11:13, Rev 11:19
Reciprocal: Exo 30:6 – veil Exo 36:35 – veil of blue Num 4:5 – they shall 1Sa 14:15 – the earth quaked 2Sa 22:8 – the earth 1Ki 19:11 – an earthquake Job 9:5 – which overturneth Job 14:18 – the rock Psa 60:2 – made Psa 77:18 – earth Psa 97:4 – the earth Jer 10:10 – at Dan 9:27 – cause Joe 2:10 – earth Nah 1:5 – mountains Luk 19:40 – General Heb 9:3 – the second Heb 10:20 – through Rev 15:5 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:51
This veil separated between the holy and most holy rooms in the temple. Through it the high priest went on the day of atonement to offer a service of blood for the sins of the people (Lev 16:29-30). Jesus died at the hour that the animal was slain for the sacrifices, and hence it was fitting that this veil be rent at the same time, signifying that the great High Priest was ready to offer himself as a ransom for all. The quaking of the earth and rending of the rocks was God’s method of opening the graves, the significance of which will be explained in the next two verses.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
[The veil of the Temple was rent in twain, etc.] let us hear what the Fathers of the Traditions say concerning this catapetasm or veil; “The wall of the pronaon was five cubits, the pronaon itself eleven. The wall of the Temple was six, the Temple forty. The taraxis one cubit; and the entrance, twenty.” What taraxis means, Maimonides will tell you; “In the first Temple there was a wall one cubit thick, separating the Holy from the Holy of Holies; but when they built the second Temple, it was doubted whether the thickness of that wall should be accounted to belong to the measure of the Holy, or to the measure of the Holy of Holies. Wherefore they made the Holy of Holies twenty cubits complete, and the Holy forty cubits complete; and they left a void cubit between the Holy and the Holy of Holies, but they did not build any wall there in the second Temple: only they made two hangings, one contiguous to the Holy of Holies, and the other to the Holy; between which there was a void cubit, according to the thickness of the wall that was in the first Temple; in which there was but one catapetasm [or veil] only.”
“The high priest [on the day of atonement] goes forward in the Temple, till he comes to the two hangings that divide the Holy from the Holy of Holies, between which there was a cubit. R. Josi saith, There was but one hanging there; as it is said, ‘And the hanging shall separate [to, or] between the Holy and the Holy of Holies.’ ” On which words thus the Gemara of Babylon: “R. Josi saith rightly to the Rabbins, and the Rabbins to thee: for he speaks of the tabernacle, and they, of the second Temple; in which since there was not a partition-wall, as there was in the first Temple, there was some doubt made of its holiness, namely, whether it should belong to the outward part of the Temple or to the inward; whereupon they made two hangings.”
While, therefore, their minds were troubled about this affair, not knowing whether they should hang the veil at the Temple, or at the inmost recess of it, and whether the void space between of a cubit thick should belong to this or that; they called the place itself by the Greek word taraxis; that is, trouble; as Aruch plainly affirms, and they hung up two veils, that they might be sure to offend neither against this part nor that.
You will wonder, therefore, that Matthew doth not say veils; in the plural; or perhaps you will think that only one of these two veils was rent, not both. But it was enough for the evangelists Matthew and Mark, who speak of this miracle, to have shewed that that fence between, which hindered seeing into the Holy of Holies, and going into it, was cleft and broken. This is it they mean, not being solicitous in explaining particulars, but contented to have declared the thing itself. Perhaps the priest, who offered the incense that evening, was in the Temple at the very moment when this miracle happened: and when he went out amazed to the people, and should tell them, The veil of the Temple is rent it would easily be understood of a passage broken into the Holy of Holies by some astonishing and miraculous rending of the hangings. Compare Heb 10:19-20.
When the high priest went into the inmost recess of the Temple on the day of atonement, he went in by the south side of the outward hanging, and the north side of the inner. But now both are rent in the very middle, and that from the top to the bottom.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 27:51. The vail of the temple, etc. The vail before the Holy of Holies, separating it from the Holy Place. This may have been a result of the convulsion mentioned in the next clause, but the accounts do not indicate this. Supernatural agency is more than probable in view of the significance of the occurrence. This took place toward the time of the evening sacrifice. Even if at first known only to the priests, it would still be made known to Christians, since a great company of the priests were afterwards converted (Act 6:7). It was a sign of the removal of the typical atonement, through the completion of the real atonement, which insures us a free access to God, Heb 6:19; Heb 9:6; Heb 10:19.
And the earth did quake. The earthquake and the events mentioned next, are peculiar to Matthews account. Here, too, miraculous power is most probable. This was a token of the greatness of the death of Christ, a sign, too, of the influence of His death upon the destiny of the earth itself.
And the rocks were rent. The effect of the earthquake, splitting the foundations of the holy city. A sign of wrath, but more than this. Travellers still point to extraordinary rents and fissures in the rocks in the neighborhood.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here we have an account of several extraordinary and wonderful things which occurred and fell out about the time that our Saviour died.
Observe, 1. The vail of the temple rent asunder, that is, the hanging which parted the holy from the most holy place, to hide the mysteries therein; namely, the ark of the covenant and mercy-seat, from the view of the ordinary priests. This vail was now rent from the top to the bottom, and the rending of it did impart these great mysteries:
1. That now our great High Priest was entering into the most holy place with his own blood, having made the atonement for us. By his own blood entered once into the most holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. Heb 9:12
2. That the means whereby he entered into the most holy place, was by the rending of his humanity, his soul from his body, typified by rending of this vail; accordingly his body is called a vail. Consecrated through the vail of his flesh. Heb 10:20
3. That now by the death of Christ all those dark mysteries vailed up formally in the most holy place, as the ark of the covenant and mercy-seat are now unfolded and laid open, and the use of the whole ceremonial law at an end, and the Jewish temple-service ceased.
4. That now the kingdom of heaven, the most holy place, is open to all believers. Christ, our great High Priest, is entered in with his own blood, and hath not closed the vail after him, but rent it asunder, and made and left a passage for all believers to follow him, first in their prayers, and next in their persons. Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way wich he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; let us draw near with a true heart, &c. Heb 10:19-20.
Observe, 2. The earth quaked. As there was an universal eclipse, so likewise an universal earthquake, at our Lord’s crucifixion, which did awaken many of the saints (that died before our Saviour’s incarnation) out of their dead sleep. These arose both as witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, and also as sharers in it. But none of them arose till Christ was risen, he being the first fruits of them that slept. And those holy persons that arose with him, possibly attended him to heaven at his ascension.
From hence we learn, That Christ was the Saviour of those who believed in him before his incarnation, as well as those that believed in him since his incarnation: And that the former are partakers of the fruit and benefit of his death and ressurection, no less than the latter. Others conjecture, that those who rose out of their graves, were such as believed Christ, and died before him, as old Simeon, &c. Accordingly they understand, The hour is coming and now is, that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of man, Jos 5:15 of this resurrection here mentioned. And whereas it is said they went into the holy city, and appeared to many; it is probable they were known to them unto whom they did appear: And if so, they must have lived in the time of their knowledge.
Observe next, What influence and effect the sight of those prodigious things had upon the centurion convinced of the divinity of Christ, than the unbelieving Jewish doctors. Obstinacy and unbelief filled their minds with an invincible prejudice against Christ; so that neither the miracles done by him in his life, nor wrought at his death, could convince the high priests, that Christ was any other than an imposter and deceiver.
Observe lastly, Who of Christ’s friends were witnesses of his death: They are women, who followed him from Galilee, and ministered unto him: Not one of his dear disciples, except St. John, who stood by the cross with the Virgin Mary. What a shame was this for the apostles, to be absent from a spectacle upon which the salvation of the whole world did depend! and what an honour was this to the female sex in general, and to these women in particular, that they had the courage to follow Christ to the cross, when all the disciples forsook him and fled!
God can make women glorious professors of his truth, and arm them against the fears of sufferings, contrary to the natural timorousness of their tempers. These women wait upon Christ’s cross, when apostles fly, and durst not come near.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 27:51. And behold Immediately upon his death, while the sun was still darkened; the veil of the temple The inner veil which divided the holy from the most holy place; though made of the richest and strongest tapestry; was rent in two from the top to the bottom: so while the priest was ministering at the golden altar, (it being the time of the evening sacrifice,) the sacred oracle, by an invisible power, was laid open to full view: God thereby signifying the speedy removal of the Jewish ceremonies, the abolition of the Mosaic dispensation, the breaking down the partition- wall between Jews and Gentiles, who were both to be now admitted to equal privileges, and the opening a way, through the veil of Christs flesh, for all believers into the most holy place. And the earth did quake There was a general earthquake, probably through the whole globe, though chiefly at and near Jerusalem: God testifying thereby his wrath against the Jewish nation, for the horrid impiety they were committing. And the rocks rent Mr. Fleming (Christology, vol. 2. pp. 97, 98) informs us, that a Deist, lately travelling through Palestine, was converted by viewing one of these rocks. For when he came to examine the clefts of it narrowly and critically, he was convinced that the rent had been made in a supernatural manner, as he acknowledged to his fellow-travellers, saying, I have long been a student of nature and the mathematics, and I am sure these rents in this rock were not made by a natural, or ordinary earthquake; for by such a concussion the rock must have split according to the veins, and where it was weakest in the adhesion of its parts; for this I have observed to have been done in other rocks, when separated or broken by an earthquake, and reason tells me, it must always be so. But it is quite otherwise here, for the rock is split athwart and cross the veins in a most strange and preternatural manner. This, therefore, I plainly see to be the effect of a real miracle, which neither nature nor art could have effected. Sandys (Trav., p. 264) has given an accurate description and delineation of this fissure; and Mr. Maundrell (in his Journey from Aleppo, p. 73, 74) tells us, that it is about a span wide at the upper part, and two spans deep; after which it closes, but opens again below, and runs down to an unknown depth in the earth.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
CHAPTER 28
CONCURRENT MIRACLES
Luk 23:45-49; Mar 15:38-41; Mat 27:51-56. Our Lord has already expired on the cross, and now we proceed to consider the concurrent miracles so overwhelmingly attesting His Divinity, and pouring a cataract of conviction on the multitude, which rankled like Scythian arrows in their spiritual vitals, preparing them for the glorious Pentecostal revival which followed at the end of fifty days. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The old dispensation was on the plane of justification, which is symbolized by the outer court of the temple, in which the shewbread had to be renewed frequently, as it would get stale and moldy, while the lamps had to be supplied with oil and lighted, or they would go out, thus in constant need of human agency and attention. Not so with the inner court of the temple, the Holy of Holies. There the manna in the golden pot was always fresh and delicious, while Aarons rod constantly exhibited swelling buds, evolving leaves, blooming flowers, growing fruits, and ripe almonds, delicious to the taste and ready to be eaten. Meanwhile the Shekinah, the symbol of the Divine presence, kept the temple bright as cloudless noonday all the time, so no one could discriminate the night as it went by, as perennial noonday did there abide, so wonderfully illustrating the truly sanctified experience. The moment Jesus expired on the cross, the dispensation of Christian perfection was inaugurated, God with His own hand tearing down the veil, and admitting all the inmates of His temple into the Holy of Holies, the Old Testament saints being priests and the New Testament saints high priests unto God. You see this veil was rent from the top to the bottom, showing that the sanctifying power always comes from heaven. When you get it by priestcraft or carnal ordinances, it is always spurious.
The earth did quake, and the rocks were rent. During both of my tours in the Holy Land, as Calvary had more charms for me than any other spot, I spent much time praying and meditating on this holy mount, where Jesus laid down His life for me. I could have no idea as to the number of my visits to that hallowed summit, or the time I spent there. Though one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven years have rolled away, the footprints of the old earthquake that visited the land are still obvious. I saw them in the irregular ruptures of the great rocks.
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the sleeping saints did rise, and coming out from the tombs after His resurrection, did come into the holy city, and were made manifest unto many. There is an Oriental tradition that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as other eminent prophets and saints, did rise at that time. We have no revelation as to what became of them. I doubt not but that they accompanied our Lord the ensuing forty days and ascended with Him to heaven. You see that though the great stone tombs were broken up by the earthquake, occurring at 3 P.M., Friday, when Jesus bowed His head and died, yet they did not come out of the tombs till after He arose at the early dawn the ensuing Sunday morning.
Good reasons for this: He was to be the first fruits of them that slept, the antecedent resurrections being abnormal and abortive, as the persons arose with their mortal bodies, and consequently died again. As these resurrections, above described, were subsequent to our Lords, they of course received their immortal bodies, no more subject to death, and consequently flew away to heaven, constituting a prelude of the glorious first resurrection, including all the members of the Bridehood, and taking place at the Lords premilennial coming. (Rev 20:4-6.)
Mar 15:39-41. And the centurion, standing in front of Him, and thus crying out He expired, said, Truly this was the Son of God. And there were women from a distance looking on, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome; who , when He was in Galilee, were accustomed to follow Him, and minister unto Him; and many other women having come up along with Him to Jerusalem. Luk 23:47-48 : And the centurion seeing that which took place, glorified God, saying, Truly this was a righteous Man. And all the multitudes being present at this sight, seeing the things which took place, were going away, beating their breasts. Mat 27:54 : And the centurion, and those along with him, having charge of Jesus, seeing the earthquake and the events which took place, became alarmed exceedingly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. Thus you see, an awful pall fell on the vast multitude, so that even the heathen Roman soldiers, who, under the rigor of military law, had been forced to execute this bloody work stalwart men, who never knew fear on the battle-field tremble and quake with paralyzing trepidation and heart-convulsing terror, confessing outright, Surely this was the Son of God. Among the Jews, beating the breast denoted the deepest sorrow and most terrible anguish. Luke says the multitudes who were present at that awful scene went away beating their breasts. O what a volcano of conviction came upon the Jews, who were there from all parts of the world attending the Passover, and returning to their homes in all lands were thus so wonderfully prepared for the coming of the apostles and the preaching of Jesus! As these Roman soldiers were Gentiles, and the time had arrived for the evangelization of the Gentile world, I trow the convictions fastened on them transformed them into prolific seed-corn, soon to germinate in many countries throughout the world-wide Roman Empire.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 51
The veil was rent; in token of the final abrogation of the sacred solemnities which that veil had concealed, by consummation of the great sacrifice for sin, which they had foreshadowed.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
27:51 {14} And, behold, the {q} veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
(14) Christ, when he is dead, shows himself to be God Almighty, and even his enemies confess the same.
(q) Which separated the holiest of all.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The immediate results of Jesus’ death 27:51-56 (cf. Mar 15:38-41; Luk 23:45; Luk 23:47-49)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Earthquakes often accompanied divine judgment and the manifestation of God’s glory in the Old Testament (1Ki 19:11; Isa 29:6; Jer 10:10; Eze 26:18). [Note: See R. J. Bauckham, "The Eschatological Earthquake in the Apocalypse of John," Novum Testamentum 19 (1977):224-33.] This one may have been responsible for the rending of the temple veil, the splitting of the rocks, and the opening of the tombs. The temple stood on a geological fault that has caused minor damage throughout history. [Note: D. Baly, The Geography of the Bible, p. 25.] The supernatural occurrences that accompanied Jesus’ crucifixion hinted at its spiritual implications.
One writer suggested that the sentence begun in Mat 27:51 should really end with "were opened" or "broke open" in Mat 27:52. [Note: J. W. Wenham, "When Were the Saints Raised?" Journal of Theological Studies 32 (1981):150-52.] There were no punctuation marks in the original Greek text. Thus the two events that accompanied the earthquake were the rending of the temple veil and the splitting of the rocks. These things happened when Jesus died.
The resurrection of the saints (lit. holy people) that Matthew described happened when Jesus arose from the dead. This explanation obviates the problem of people coming out of their graves when Jesus died but not showing themselves until He arose. Matthew did not answer many questions that we would like answers to such as what type of bodies they had and whether they died again or went directly to heaven. They were Old Testament saints. I suspect that they experienced the same type of resurrection that Lazarus did. Perhaps Matthew mentioned their resurrections here to help us appreciate the fact that Jesus’ death provided the basis for the resurrection of believers who died before the Cross as well as after it. Maybe he placed it here also to avoid breaking the narrative flow of chapter 28 and to connect Jesus’ death immediately with resurrection. [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 582.] The King had authority over life and death.
"This event is nowhere explained in the Scriptures but seems to be a fulfillment of the feast of the first fruits of harvest mentioned in Lev 23:10-14. On that occasion, as a token of the coming harvest, the people would bring a handful of grain to the priest. The resurrection of these saints, occurring after Jesus Himself was raised, is a token of the coming harvest when all the saints will be raised." [Note: Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 236.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The inner veil of the temple is probably in view here, the one separating the holy place from the temple courtyard (cf. Heb 4:16; Heb 6:19-20; Heb 9:11-28; Heb 10:19-22). [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., pp. 1079-80.]
"According to Jewish Tradition, there were, indeed, two Veils before the entrance to the Most Holy Place (Yoma Mat 27:1). . . . one Veil hung on the side of the Holy, the other on that of the Most Holy Place. . . . The Veils before the Most Holy Place were 40 cubits (60 feet) long, and 20 (30 feet) wide, of the thickness of the palm of the hand . . ." [Note: Edersheim, The Life . . ., 2:611.]
The tearing happened at 3:00 p.m., the time of the evening incense offering. A priest would normally have been standing in the holy place offering incense when it tore (cf. Luk 1:8-10). Some early non-biblical Jewish sources also report unusual phenomena in the temple 40 years before its destruction in A.D. 70, one of which is the temple curtain tearing. [Note: See Robert L. Plummer, "Something Awry in the Temple? The Rending of the Temple Veil and Early Jewish Sources that Report Unusual Phenomena in the Temple around AD 30," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48:2 (June 2005):301-16.]
"The fact that this occurred from top to bottom signified that God is the One who ripped the thick curtain. It was not torn from the bottom by men ripping it." [Note: Barbieri, p. 90.]
This was a supernatural act that symbolized the opening of access to God and the termination of the Mosaic system of worship. This event marked the end of the old Mosaic Covenant and the beginning to the New Covenant (cf. Mat 26:26-29). Jesus Himself now replaced the temple (cf. Mat 26:61). He also became the great High Priest of His people. The rent veil also prefigured the physical destruction of the temple, a necessary corollary to its spiritual uselessness from then on.