MATTHEW 27:51 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“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;”
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The cosmic signs at the moment of death: the temple curtain torn from top to bottom (the direction communicates divine agency, not human tearing), the earthquake, the split rocks. The torn curtain — the veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place — communicates the new access to God's presence that the death has opened. Hebrews 10:19–20 interprets the torn curtain explicitly.
Church Fathers on Matthew 27:51
Great things were done at the moment that Jesus cried with a great voice.
The wording sufficiently shews that the veil was rent just when He gave up the ghost. If he had not added, 'And, lo!' but had merely said, 'And the veil of the temple was rent,: it would have been uncertain whether Matthew and Mark had not inserted it here out of its place as they recollected, and Luke had observed the right order, who having said, 'And the sun was darkened,' adds, 'And the veil of the temple was rent in twain;' [Luke 23:45] or, on the contrary, Luke had…
; Or, The veil of the temple is rent, because from this time the nation was dispersed, and the honour of the veil is taken away with the guardianship of the protecting Angel.
Read all 22 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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