Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 138–144

“And Jesus, crying out again with a loud voice, gave up his spirit.” As for Matthew, who says that Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit, but does not make plain what that loud voice was with which he cried out again, one could say that he cried out again with the same words he had cried out above, “God, my God.” But since Luke writes plainly what words he cried out as he gave up his spirit, saying, “Into your hands I commend my spirit,” we can understand in this passage too that the words he cried out again as he gave up his spirit were these: “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” If, then, to give up the spirit, or, as John writes, to hand over the spirit, were the same as to die, what is said in this passage, “he gave up his spirit,” would have to be understood simply. But since the wise define death as nothing other than the separation of the soul from the body, let us see whether simply to die is one thing, and another to cry out with a loud voice and give up the spirit, as Matthew, whom we are expounding, relates; or to commend the spirit into God's hands and send it forth, as Luke says; or to bow the head and hand over the spirit, as John relates. To die belongs to all men, even the wicked, since the souls of all, even of the unrighteous, are separated from the body; but they cannot say what Christ said as he went out of his body. But to cry out with a loud voice and so give up the spirit, that is, to commend the spirit into the Lord's hands and so send it forth, or to bow the head and hand over the spirit, belongs only to the saints, who by good works have prepared God for themselves, as Christ did, so that when they go out of the world they can confidently commend or hand over their spirit into God's hands. If, then, we have understood what it is to cry out with a loud voice and so give up the spirit, that is, to commend it into God's hands (for so we explained above, bringing in the account of the evangelist Luke), and if we have understood what it is to bow the head and hand over the spirit, let us hasten to keep our life, so that at our departure we too may be able to cry out with a loud voice and so give up the spirit, or bow the head and hand over the spirit, like Jesus, who bowed his head and went out as if resting it on the Father's bosom, the Father who could cherish and strengthen it in his bosom. And if you wish to hear what it profited Christ to cry out with a loud voice and so give up the spirit, that is, to commend the spirit into the Lord's hands and so send it forth, or to bow his head on the Father's bosom and hand over the spirit, it is what the prophet says: “For this reason he did not leave his soul in hell, nor let him see corruption.” If, then, we too so conduct ourselves that we can commend our spirits into God's hands, or bow our head on God's bosom and so hand over the spirit, without doubt he will neither leave our souls in hell nor let us remain in corruption for ever; but he who called Christ back from hell after the third day will call us back too at the proper time; and he who granted him that his flesh should not see corruption will grant us, not that our flesh should not see corruption, but that it be freed from corruption at the proper time. For he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth; but we will be righteous if we withdraw from our sins, even if only at some point. Then, since he cried out again with a loud voice, saying, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” and gave up his spirit, signs therefore took place over him as he gave up his spirit, and wonders bearing witness to his dignity, in this way: “And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” As long as Jesus had not undertaken death for men, he who was appointed the expectation of the nations, the veil of the temple veiled the inner parts of the temple. For they had to be veiled until he who alone could reveal them should make them plain to those who wished to see, so that through the death of Christ Jesus, who destroyed the death of believers, those freed from death might look upon what is within the veil. What those things were it is not the time now to explain, since they call for a long and difficult interpretation; it is more fitting to explain them in the third book of Kingdoms and the second book of Chronicles, where the temple and the things placed within the veil are described. Here it is written only that the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. One who understands the Scriptures with care will ask, observing that there were two veils: one inner, which veiled the Holy of Holies, and the other outer, whether of the tabernacle or of the temple, which were figures of the holy tabernacle which the Father prepared from the beginning. Of these veils of the temple one was torn in two from top to bottom when Jesus cried out with a loud voice and gave up his spirit, showing, as I think, this mystery: that at the passion of the Lord Saviour the veil that was outside was torn from top to bottom, so that, from the beginning of the world to the bottom, that is, to its end, the veil being torn, the mysteries might be made public which until Christ's coming had, with reason, been hidden. And if we did not know only in part, but everything were already made plain while Christ's beloved disciples are still in the body, both veils would have had to be torn, the outer and the inner. But as it is, since we are being led forward to the knowledge of new things, the outer veil is torn from top to bottom for the time being, so that when what is perfect has come, and the rest that remains has been revealed, then the second veil too may be taken away, so that we may see what is hidden within the second veil as well: the true ark of the covenant; and we may see, as they are in their nature, the cherubim and the true mercy seat, and the store of manna in the golden jar, and all things plain and greater than those shown through the law of Moses, in which God said to him, “Make everything according to the pattern of the things shown you on the mountain.” It is no wonder, then, that the veil of the temple which veiled the inner mysteries was torn, so that the disciples of Christ, receiving spiritual eyes, might see the things which had been shown to no one before Jesus. For no one but the high priest alone saw what was within the second veil. But Aaron, and those descended from him, had neither the power nor the dignity to reveal to anyone else what they saw; only he who was made high priest for ever with an oath, according to the order of Melchizedek, could, through the dispensation of his death, tear the veil of the temple in two from top to bottom, so that what was inside might be seen by eyes able to see such things.

“And the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” “And the earth shook”: that is, all flesh, at the new word and the new things according to the new covenant, and the new song, and all the new and heavenly things coming upon the earth; as the prophet too says of this very thing in one place, “All who saw them were troubled,” that is, the disciples of Christ, “and every man feared.” Again, the Lord says through another prophet, “Yet once more, and I will shake the heaven and the earth, the sea and the dry land.” Having said a little about the shaking of the earth, let us say something, not without profit, about the rocks split at the passion of the Lord Saviour, which were, as I think, a figure of the prophets. For at Christ's coming the law and the prophets were made plain; so that for those who turn to the Lord, when Moses is read, the veil that had been laid over their heart is taken away, and the veil that lay over the reading of the Old Testament is abolished in Christ. So now the rocks have been opened and split, so that we may see the spiritual mysteries placed in their depths. We prove that the rocks then split are the prophets: first, from the fact that Christ is called the spiritual rock, and it stands to reason that all imitators of Christ are likewise called rocks, as they are also called the light of the world because their Lord himself is the light of the world; then, from the fact that Peter himself was called a rock by the Lord, when it is said to him, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” But it is shown most of all from the fact that all against whom the gates of hell do not prevail, who have in themselves the work of the name “rock,” that is, the apostles and prophets, are themselves rocks too, and are the foundations of those who are built upon them, as the Apostle says: “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ our Lord himself being the chief cornerstone.” And those especially are built upon the apostles and prophets who belong to the spotless Church, who imitate Christ's apostles and do not despise the prophets, but search their Scriptures too. Now let us speak of the opened tombs. The hour has come, as Christ promised, when those who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son and live. Therefore, when they heard the voice of the Son of God, the tombs were opened, which had been closed as long as the dead were in them; and they were opened so that those who had risen might come out of the tombs, not before the resurrection of the Firstborn from the dead, but after his resurrection; and so that, rising, they might leave the tombs and go into the holy city, and appear and be made known to many who wish and are able to see the holy city of God and the bodies of the saints raised in it. For the bodies of sinful souls, that is, of souls dead to God, are called tombs. But when by the grace of God such souls have been raised to faith, their bodies, which were formerly the tombs of dead souls, become the bodies of holy souls, and seem to come out of themselves when they cease to be the tombs of dead souls and begin to be the bodies of holy ones. Great things, then, came about from Jesus' crying out with a loud voice and giving up his spirit, and these same great things are always happening, every day. For when is the veil of the temple not torn for the saints, from top to bottom and from beginning to end, to reveal what is held within? When does the earth, which before Christ's death was immovable, not shake and tremble for those worthy of salvation? When are the rocks not split, as we have explained? So the tombs too are always being opened, and many bodies of saints who have fallen asleep rise and come out of the tombs (yet after the resurrection of him who died for us) in those who have risen and follow him and walk with him in newness of life. So too those who are worthy to have their citizenship in heaven, who say, “But our citizenship is in heaven,” enter the holy city at every time; and their light shines before men, and they appear to many who see and understand their good works, and therefore glorify their Father who is in heaven. But we must also say and understand this about these things: every letter of the Gospel, as a letter, gives life to the scribes of the Gospel, if I may call them so; but the Spirit, who goes beyond the nature of letters, illuminates more fully, by diviner movements, those to whom the Gospel is not veiled; for they do everything to see the mysteries that come about in their soul through the resurrection of Christ. For he who believes the Scriptures is edified with a certain edification; but he is filled with greater knowledge who sees that the veil of Scripture is torn from top to bottom, and sees what is within it. And blessed is he for whom the earth and all earthly things are shaken; for they are shaken by Christ for this purpose; and his feet will not be shaken, nor will he say, “But my feet were almost shaken.” And how much more blessed is he who sees the split rocks with the eyes of the soul than those who saw these things happen bodily at that time? And if someone, seeing the tombs opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep rising and coming out of the tombs after the resurrection of Christ's body, becomes wholly a stranger to the tombs and, entering the city of God, becomes a member of its household, how much more will he be edified than those who saw these wonders bodily? I think that he who enters the holy city and appears to many as one who is in it differs greatly from one who believes according to the history and does not rise from simple faith to the higher mysteries.

“The centurion and those who were with him guarding Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and what was taking place, were greatly afraid, saying: Truly this was the Son of God.” Mark writes thus: “The centurion who stood by, seeing that he cried out and breathed his last, said: Truly this man was the Son of God.” And Luke: “The centurion, seeing what had happened, glorified God, saying: Truly this man was righteous.” According to Mark, the centurion marvels not because the veil of the temple had been torn from top to bottom, nor because of the other signs that Matthew reports, that the earth shook, that the rocks were split, or that the tombs were opened. It is worth seeing, then, what else happened, beyond what is written in Mark, to make the centurion marvel and say, “Truly this was the Son of God.” And see whether we can say, in one way, that he marvelled at the words Jesus spoke to God with a cry and with greatness of meaning; and, understanding as far as he could, suspecting something, he marvelled and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” But in another way: perhaps Pilate, wishing to gratify the whole people who had said, “Crucify, crucify him,” and fearing an uproar of the whole people, did not order, according to the custom of the Romans regarding those who are crucified, that the body of Jesus be struck under the armpits, as those who condemn men found guilty of greater crimes sometimes do. For those who are not struck after being fastened to the cross endure greater torment, living on in very great torment, sometimes through a whole night, and after that through a whole day as well. Since, then, Jesus had not been struck, and was expected to hang long on the cross and suffer greater torments, he prayed to the Father and was heard, and as soon as he cried out to the Father he was received; or, as one who had power to lay down his life, he laid it down when he himself wished. The centurion was amazed at the wonder that had happened, and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” For it was a miracle that he was received after three hours, who might have lived two days on the cross, according to what happens to those who are hung but not struck; so that it seemed a benefit from God that he breathed his last, and the merit of his prayer rather than the violence of the cross. What Mark relates further on, when Joseph went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, indicates the same thing. For he says that Pilate wondered whether he was already dead, and calling the centurion asked him whether he had already died; and when he heard it from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. For if the custom among the Romans regarding those crucified and struck had been observed in Christ's case, why would Pilate have wondered whether he was already dead? See, then, whether it does not show a new miracle, that he was already dead, and that Pilate called the centurion and asked whether he was already dead. And see whether Matthew too does not show that Christ's torment was of this kind, when he says, “The centurion and those with him were guarding Jesus.” Why were they guarding him, unless so that, hanging longer on the cross, he might be tortured more, neither killed nor taken down? Yet the centurion, according to Matthew, not only said of Jesus, “Truly this was the Son of God,” but also feared him, the earthquake throwing him into fear. Perhaps he also knew from experience about the earthquakes that occur among the nations, and was amazed to see what this earthquake was. And observe that in Mark, where the centurion is not reported to have seen any miracle, he calls Jesus a man, Son of God; but the one who was amazed by the tearing of the veil or by the earthquake does not say that he was that man, but the Son of God. And the wording of Luke's account also agrees with our treatment of Mark's text, since he too writes, “Truly this man was righteous”; and in Luke nothing else is said except about the veil: “The centurion,” he says, “seeing what had happened, glorified God, saying: Truly this man was righteous.” That something of this kind happened at the time of Christ's condemnation, and that Pilate did not order the custom to be kept of striking Christ's body, John too shows, writing that they asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. What need was there to ask and make entreaties about this, if it had been done according to custom? So the Jews, after their cruel condemnation, took pity on those who, as they supposed, were living on in terrible torment. And they broke the legs of the first, and likewise of the second; but Jesus had no need of their intercessions or of the entreaties they made to Pilate; and so, coming to Jesus, since he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Or perhaps the Jews did this not from mercy but chiefly because of the Sabbath, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath; for that Sabbath was a great day. We have treated these things because it is written that the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus, and so on, seeing the earthquake and whatever was taking place, were afraid. It is probable that they saw how the veil of the temple had been torn to the bottom, and the other things that show the mystery we have explained above, and they were greatly afraid; for this is what the word “greatly” indicates. But see whether the passage does not also admit a moral interpretation in this way: there are some who receive Christ and guard him; and when they have seen the veil torn, as we explained, and the rocks split, as we expounded, and the tombs opened, as we expounded, and the bodies of the dead saints coming out of the tombs and entering the holy city, that is, the Church, they are brought to the fear of God and bear witness that he who suffered such things is the Son of God. And it will be no wonder if someone has confessed the Son of God, the Word, and Wisdom, and Truth, and all that the Son of God is called. And he is praiseworthy who is not troubled by what seems to have befallen him in a human way, and confesses that he was the Son of God. “And many women were there, watching from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” Of these women they say that Isaiah prophesied, saying, “Women coming to the spectacle, come; for it is not a people that has wisdom.” For he calls the women who were far off and saw Jesus from afar; he calls them to the word, so that they may leave the senseless and forsaken people and come to the new covenant. I think those women blessed who are built up to blessedness by the spectacle of the Word and the death of the body of Jesus. For everything that is in Christ, if it is truly seen, makes the one who sees it blessed. They watch, then, the putting to death of the body of Jesus, and the way in which he commended his spirit to the Father with prayers. These first followed from Galilee; and, to speak boldly, using the authority of the Scripture that says “Galilee of the Gentiles,” they followed from a place that was not straight nor firm, but had a certain circling; for this is what Galilee is understood to mean, a rolling or whirling; leaving it, they followed Jesus, not idle, but doing what he commanded and what pleased him; for they followed him, ministering. Every soul that shares in some portion of the graces, and in the Lord himself, ministers to Jesus with a ministry like the ministry of the angels, of whom it is written that angels came and ministered to him. Many women, then, were watching Jesus at that time; but those named especially, as watching more attentively, ministering more, and following better, are: Mary Magdalene, who answered the more to the meaning of the name of her home town, from which she is called Magdalene; for that place means “magnification.” And this Mary Magdalene belonged to magnification for no other reason than that she had followed Jesus, had ministered to him, and had watched the mystery of his passion. Among the chief women there was also Mary the mother of James and Joseph, or, as Mark says, the mother of James the less and Joseph; named after the patriarch Jacob, the supplanter of his brother, and after Joseph, at whose birth his mother says, “May the Lord add to me another son.” She too followed the Lord, ministered, and watched the dispensation of his passion, since she was the mother of a faithful man, not a great one, as the patriarch Jacob was, but a lesser, and of another Joseph. Among the women there was also the mother of the sons of Zebedee, perhaps a woman standing in the mystery of thunder, because of her faith and holy life, and because she followed the Lord, ministered, and was a witness of all that was done to him; since the sons of Zebedee were called sons of thunder. For her sons were John and James; and therefore John heard the words of the seven thunders, which, as more eminent than all scripture, he was commanded not to write. And if we must conjecture and give the name of the mother of the sons of Zebedee too, I say that she was Salome, called “peaceable.” I conjectured this on seeing that three chief women are named in Matthew and in Mark, the women of whom we are now speaking. The present evangelist names two, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and calls the third the mother of the sons of Zebedee; but in Mark that third is called Salome. And according to Mark, the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee went up with Christ to Jerusalem. For this is the end of those who leave Galilee of the Gentiles and follow Jesus: that they not only go up to Jerusalem, but go up to it with Jesus. For this is what is meant by saying that they went up together with Christ.

“When evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered the body to be given.” He who asked Pilate for the Lord's body was not just anyone, but rich with praiseworthy riches; and because he had been appointed a councillor (decurio), he truly bore the mystery of the name of Christ, which is ten. That is why he gladly asked Pilate for the body of Jesus as a great favour, and did not allow him to hang on the wood. Therefore he is praised by the evangelists as a righteous and good man, who had been a disciple of Jesus, and who perhaps rendered the fruits of his discipleship, as in many things, so also in the case of the body of Christ, because he was waiting for the kingdom of God, as Jesus had taught.

“And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away.” He wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb where no one had been dead, keeping the body of Jesus for a singular resurrection. I think that the linen cloth had more cleanness after the body of Christ had been wrapped in it than before; for the body of Jesus, even when in death, as the body of Jesus, cleansed whatever it touched, and renewed still more that new tomb which had been hewn in the rock. And do not think that it was written by chance, or said casually, that he wrapped the body in a clean linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb, and that the tomb was hewn in the rock: a clean tomb, made cleaner by the body of Jesus than it had been before the body of Jesus was laid in it. You will ask whether there are men who have nothing more than the body of Jesus, who are new and hewn in the rock and are his clean tomb, and are therefore saved. It follows that there are others besides these who have Jesus living: some of them have Jesus living as he was before the passion, others as risen from the dead; some as he appears to many, having no form or comeliness; others have him transformed in glory; and others see him ascending, and hope to be caught up with him in a cloud, so as to be with him always. Matthew, then, wrote that the tomb was new, but did not expressly say that it was hewn in the rock. And Luke and John made plain that it was new, untouched by any dead body; one of them said, “In which no one had yet been laid,” and John, “In which no one had yet been laid”: plainly, if no one had ever been laid there, but some were laid there afterwards; for this is what is meant, for those who consider carefully, by the words, “in which no one had yet been laid.” We ask, then, whether we should not understand this passage in this way: that he who said, “We were buried with Christ through baptism, and rose with him,” was himself also buried, after Christ and with Christ, in the new tomb, understood spiritually, hewn in the rock; and so are all who have been buried with Christ in baptism, so that they may rise with him from the new tomb of him who is the firstborn from the dead and holds the first place in all things. And Joseph rolled not many stones to the door of the tomb, but one, and a great one, greater than the strength of those plotting against him could move, yet not greater than the strength of the angel who came down from heaven, rolled the stone away from it, and sat on it; for all things that concern the body of Christ Jesus are clean, and new, and not simply great, but all very great.

“And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb.” After these things, the love of the two Marys, Magdalene and the mother of James and Joseph, bound them to the new tomb, because of the body of Jesus that lay there. And observe this: earlier these two Marys, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, whom we take to be Salome herself, watched from afar the wonders that took place in Christ's passion, and his body hanging on the wood. But here the three did not remain; for the mother of the sons of Zebedee is not written as sitting opposite the tomb together with Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph. Perhaps the mother of the sons of Zebedee could come only so far; but these two, as greater in love, were not absent even from what was done afterwards.