Mark 15:33

This most glorious light took away its rays from the world, lest it should see the Lord hanging, and lest the blasphemers should have the benefit of its light. Wherefore it goes on: "And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour."

Luke added to this account the cause of the darkness, that is, the darkening of the sun.

If this had been the time for an eclipse, some one might have said that this which happened was natural, but it was the fourteenth moon, when no eclipse can take place. There follows: "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani."

At the ninth hour, the tenth piece of money which had been lost is found, by the overturning of the house.

For when Adam sinned, it is also written that he heard the voice of the Lord, walking in paradise, in the cool after mid-day [Gen 3:8]; and in that hour when the first Adam by sinning brought death into the world, in that same hour the second Adam by dying destroyed death. And we must observe, that our Lord was crucified, when the sun was going away from the center of the world; but at sunrise He celebrated the Mysteries of His Resurrection; because He died for our sins, but rose again for our justification. Nor need you wonder at the lowliness of His words, at the complaints as of one forsaken, when you look on the offense of the cross, knowing the form of a servant. For as hunger, and thirst, and fatigue were not things proper to the Divinity, but bodily afflictions; so His saying, "Why hast Thou forsaken me?" was proper to a bodily voice, for the body is never naturally wont to wish to be separated from the life which is joined to it. For although our Saviour Himself said this, He really shewed the weakness of His body; He spoke therefore as man, bearing about with Him my feelings, for when placed in danger we fancy that we are deserted by God.

Or, He speaks this as man crucified by God for me, for we men have been forsaken by the Father, but He never has. For hear what He says; "I am not along, because the Father is with me." [John 16:32] Though He may also have said this as being a Jew, according to the flesh, as though He had said, Why hast thou forsaken the Jewish people, so that they have crucified Thy Son? For as we sometimes say, God has put on me, that is, my human nature, so here also we must understand "Thou hast forsaken me," to mean my nature, or the Jewish people. It goes on: "And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias."

These however I suppose were Roman soldiers who did not understand the peculiarity of the Hebrew tongue, but, from His calling Eloi, thought that Elias was called by Him. But if the Jews are understood to have said this, they must be supposed to do this, as accusing Him of folly in calling for the aid of Elias. It goes on: "And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink, saying, Let along; let us see whether Elias will come to take Him down." John shews more fully the reason why the vinegar was given to the Lord to drink, saying, that Jesus said, "I thirst," [John 19:28] that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. They however applied a sponge full of vinegar to His mouth.

Here he points out a similitude for the Jews; a sponge on a reed, weak, dry, fit for burning; they fill it with vinegar, that is, with wickedness and guile.

Matthew has not related, that the man who brought the sponge filled with vinegar, but that the others spoke about Elias; from whence we gather that both said it.

Though the flesh was weak, yet the heavenly voice, which said, "Open me the gates of righteouness," [Ps 117:19] waxed strong. Wherefore there follows: "And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost." We who are of the the earth die with a very low voice, or with no voice at all; but He who descended from heaven breathed His last with a loud voice.

He who both rules over death and commands it dies with power, as its Lord. But what this voice was is declared by Luke: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." For Christ would have us understand by this, that from that time the souls of the saints go up into the hands of God. For at first the souls of all were held in hell, till He came, who preached the opening of the prison to the captives.

A second time, in fact, let us show that Christ is already come, (as foretold) through the prophets, and has suffered, and is already received back in the heavens, and thence is to come accordingly as the predictions prophesied. For, after His advent, we read, according to Daniel, that the city itself had to be exterminated; and we recognise that so it has befallen. For the Scripture says thus, that “the city and the holy place are simultaneously exterminated together with the leader ,”, undoubtedly (that Leader) who was to proceed “from Bethlehem,” and from the tribe of “Judah.” Whence, again, it is manifest that “the city must simultaneously be exterminated” at the time when its “Leader” had to suffer in it, (as foretold) through the Scriptures of the prophets, who say: “I have outstretched my hands the whole day unto a People contumacious and gainsaying Me, who walketh in a way not go …

41. First, then, let us consider what the hour really is at which He can have been crucified; and then we shall see how it happens that Mark has reported Him to have been crucified at the third hour. Now it was about the sixth hour when Pilate, who was sitting, as has been stated, at the time upon the judgment-seat, delivered Him up to be crucified. The expression is not that it was the sixth hour fully, but only that it was about the sixth hour; that is to say, the fifth hour was entirely gone, and so much of the sixth hour had also been entered upon. These writers, however, could not naturally use such phraseologies as the fifth hour and a quarter, or the fifth hour and a third, or the fifth hour and a half or anything of that kind. For the Scriptures have the well-known habit of dealing simply with the round numbers, without mention of fractions, especially in matters of time. …

54. Matthew proceeds in the following terms: “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.” The same fact is attested by two others of the evangelists. Luke adds, however, a statement of the cause of the darkness, namely, that “the sun was darkened.” Again, Matthew continues thus: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani! that is to say, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? And some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.” Mark’s agreement with this is almost complete, so far as regards the words, and not only almost, but altogether complete, so far as the sense is concerned. …

1. On Pilate’s judgment and condemnation before the tribunal, they took the Lord Jesus Christ, about the sixth hour, and led Him away. “And He, bearing His cross, went forth into the place that is called Calvary, but in Hebrew, Golgotha; where they crucified Him.” What else, then, is the meaning of the evangelist Mark saying, “And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him,” but this, that the Lord was crucified at the third hour by the tongues of the Jews, at the sixth hour by the hands of the soldiers? That we may understand that the fifth hour was now completed, and there was some beginning made of the sixth, when Pilate took his seat before the tribunal, which is expressed by John as “about the sixth hour;” and when He was led forth, and nailed to the tree with the two robbers, and the events recorded were enacted beside His cross, the completion of the sixth hour was fully reache …