Luke 23:45

And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:44-49 We have here the death of Christ magnified by the wonders that attended it, and his death explained by the words with which he breathed out his soul. He was willing to offer himself. Let us seek to glorify God by true repentance and conversion; by protesting against those who crucify the Saviour; by a sober, righteous, and godly life; and by employing our talents in the service of Him who died for us and rose again.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 27:45-50.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

43. Jesus said, &c.—The dying Redeemer speaks as if He Himself viewed it in this light. It was a "song in the night." It ministered cheer to His spirit in the midnight gloom that now enwrapt it.

Verily I say unto thee—"Since thou speakest as to the king, with kingly authority speak I to thee."

To-day—"Thou art prepared for a long delay before I come into My kingdom, but not a day's delay shall there be for thee; thou shalt not be parted from Me even for a moment, but together we shall go, and with Me, ere this day expire, shalt thou be in Paradise" (future bliss, 2Co 12:4; Re 2:7). Learn (1) How "One is taken and another left"; (2) How easily divine teaching can raise the rudest and worst above the best instructed and most devoted servants of Christ; (3) How presumption and despair on a death hour are equally discountenanced here, the one in the impenitent thief, the other in his penitent fellow.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 23:34"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the sun was darkened,.... There was an eclipse of it, which was preternatural, it being now full moon, and lasted three hours, and so total, as to darken the whole earth; and now was the prophecy in Amos 8:9 literally fulfilled: and the vail of the temple was rent in the midst. The Persic version renders it, "the gate of the temple"; and so the Syriac version, "the face of the gate of the temple"; See Gill on Matthew 27:51.

Geneva Study Bible

{14} And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.

(14) Christ enters bravely and resolutely into the very darkness of death, and he does this so that he might overcome death even within its most secret places.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 23:45. τοῦ ἡλίου ἐκλιπόντος: this phrase (a well-attested reading as against the T.R. ἐσκοτίσθη ὁ ἥ.) ought to mean the sun being eclipsed, an impossibility when the moon is full. If all that was meant was the sun’s light totally failing, darkened, e.g., by a sand storm, the natural expression would be ἐσκοτίσθη.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

45. And the sun was darkened] Instead of these words some MSS. (א, B, C, &c.) read “the sun eclipsing,” or “failing.” The reading seems only to be an attempt, and that a very unsuccessful one, to account for the darkness. That it could not have been due to an eclipse is certain, for the Paschal moon was at the full.

the vail of the temple was rent in the midst] The veil intended must be what was called the Parocheth, or inner veil, which hung between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. It was very heavy, and splendid with embroidery. It is alluded to in Hebrews 6:19; Hebrews 9:3; Hebrews 10:19-20. The obvious significance of the portent was the departure of the Shechinah or Presence of God from His now-deserted Temple. This particular event is (naturally) not mentioned by the Jews, but we may have a reference to it in the various omens of coming wrath which they say occurred “forty years” before the destruction of the Temple, and in which Jochanan Ben Zakkai saw the fulfilment of Zechariah 11:1. For a fuller account of these events see Matthew 27:51-53; Mark 15:33. Jerome on Matthew 27:51 says that a great lintel over the gate of the Temple fell and was shattered.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 45. - And the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. This was the inner veil, which hung between the holy place and the holy of holies. It was rich with costly embroidery, and very heavy. Before the willing surrender of life told of in the next versa (46), our Lord spoke twice more. These fifth and sixth words from the cross are preserved by St. John (John 19:28, 30). The first of these, "I thirst " - an expression of bodily exhaustion, of physical suffering - was predicted as part of the agony of the Servant of God (Psalm 69:21). The second, "It is finished!" tells that "the earthly life had been carried to its issue. That every essential point in the prophetic portraiture of Messiah had been realized. The last suffering for sin had been endured. The end of all had been gained. Nothing was left undone or unborne" (Westcott). Luke 23:45

Vincent's Word Studies

Veil

See on Matthew 27:51.