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Luke 23:44

And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
Read Chapter 23

Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
“Saying this, he gave up his Spirit.” He suitably “gave up” the Spirit, because he willingly gave him up. Matthew says “yielded up his Spirit,” because what is yielded is spontaneous, but what is lost is unavoidable. Since this is true, he added, “with a loud voice.” He did this with a glorious declaration that he descended to death for our sins. I do not blush to confess what Christ did not blush to proclaim in a loud voice. This was a clear revelation of God witnessing to the separation of the Godhead and the flesh.
< 1 min1/16
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Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
The veil is torn. This declared the division of the two peoples or the profanation of the mysteries of the synagogue. The old veil is torn, so that the church may hang the new veils of its faith. The veil of the synagogue is taken away, so that we may see the inner mysteries of religion with unveiled eyes of the mind. Even the centurion confesses the Son of God whom he had crucified.
< 1 min2/16
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Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
The sun also is eclipsed to the sacrilegious, that it may overshadow the scene of their awful wickedness; darkness was spread over the eyes of the unbelieving, that the light of faith might rise again. The veil also is rent, by which is declared the division of the two people, and the profanation of the synagogue. The old veil is rent that the Church may hang up the new walls of faith. The covering of the synagogue is drawn up, that we maybe hold with the eyes of the mind the inward mysteries of religion now revealed to us. It took place also at that time when every mystery of Christ's assumed mortality was fulfilled, and His immortality alone remained; as it follows, And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said. The flesh dies that the Spirit may rise again. The Spirit is commended to the Father, that heavenly things also may be loosed from the chain of iniquity, and peace be made in heaven, which earthly things should follow. His spirit then is commended to God, but though He ...
1 min3/16
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Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
For He commends to His Father through Himself all mankind quickened in Him; for we are His members; as the Apostle says, You are all one in Christ.
< 1 min4/16
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
What is here said of the darkness, the other two Evangelists, Matthew and Mark confirm, but St. Luke adds the cause whence the darkness arose, saying, And the sun was darkened. This darkening of the sun it is quite plain did not happen in the regular and fixed course of the heavenly bodies, because it was then the Passover, which is always celebrated at the full moon. But a regular eclipse of the sun does not take place except at new moon. DIONYS.When owe were both at Heliopolis together, we both saw at the same time in a marvelousmanner the moon meeting the sun, (for it was not then the time of new moon,) and then again from the ninth hour until evening supernaturally brought back to the edge of the sun's diameter. Besides, we observed that this obscuration began from the east, and having reached as far as the sun's western border at length returned, and that the loss and restoration of light took place not from the same side, but from opposite sides of the diameter. Such were the mir...
1 min5/16
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Bede

AD 735
But Luke, wishing to join miracle to miracle, adds, And the veil of the temple was rent in two. This took place when our Lord expired, as Matthew and Mark bear witness, but Luke related it by anticipation. By invoking the Father He declares Himself to be the Son of God, but by commending His Spirit, He signifies not the weakness of His strength, but His confidence in the same power with the Father.
< 1 min6/16
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Cyril of Alexandria

AD 444
When they fastened to the cross the Lord of all, the sun over their heads withdrew and the light at midday was wrapped in darkness, as the divine Amos had foretold. “There was darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour.” This was a plain sign to the Jews that the minds of those who crucified him were wrapped in spiritual darkness, for blindness in part has happened to Israel. In his love for God, David even curses them, saying, “Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see.”Creation itself mourned its Lord. The sun was darkened, and the rocks were split, and the temple put on the mourners’ clothes. Its veil was split from the top to the bottom. This is what God signified to us by the voice of Isaiah, saying, “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering.” Commentary on Luke, Homily
1 min7/16
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Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
Perhaps the Spirit, when he saw the Son hanging naked, lifted himself up and tore in two the clothing. Perhaps the symbols, when they saw the Lamb of symbols, tore the curtain apart and went out to meet him. Perhaps the spirit of prophecy, which was dwelling in the temple and had come down to herald his coming to humanity, flew away at that very instant to announce in the heights concerning our Lord’s ascent into heaven. “The tombs split apart,” so that he might show that he could have torn the wood of the cross apart. He did not tear apart the cross through which the kingdom would be torn from Israel. He did not shatter the cross through which sin would be chased out from the middle of the Gentiles. Instead, the Spirit tore the curtain apart. To show that the Spirit had came out from the temple, it summoned the righteous that came out of the tombs as witnesses to his going out from the temple. These two departures were proclaiming each other mutually. The Spirit anointed and sanctifie...
1 min8/16
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Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
If he had been the son of a foreign god, the sun would not have been eclipsed when the Lord was raised on his cross. The Creator would have spread out a more intense light, because his enemy would have been withdrawn from his sight. He would have caused his light to shine on the Jews, because they would have been doing his will. He would have clothed the temple with a curtain of glory, because its enemy’s death would have purified its sad impurities, and the breaker of its law would have gone out from it. Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron
1 min9/16
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Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
God was victorious over the Egyptians, and he lit up the way for the Hebrews with the pillar of fire in the month of Nisan. The sun became dark over them because they had returned evil for goodness. Just as God split the sea, the Spirit split the curtain in half, since they rejected and unjustly crucified the King of glory on the Skull. The curtain of the temple was torn in two for this reason. Created beings suffered with him in his suffering. The sun hid its face so as not to see him when he was crucified. It retracted its light back into itself to die with him. There was darkness for three hours. The sun shined again, proclaiming that its Lord would rise from Sheol on the third day. The mountains trembled, the tombs were opened, and the curtain was torn, as though grieving in mourning over the impending destruction of the place. Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron
1 min10/16
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Greek Expositor

AD 1000
This miracle then took place that it might be made known, that He who had undergone death was the Ruler of the whole creation.
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Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
But it becomes us to inquire how our Lord distributes Himself into three parts at once; into the bowels of the earth, as He told the Pharisees; into the Paradise of God, as He told the thief; into the hands of the Father, as it is said here. To those however who rightly consider, it is scarcely worthy of question, for He who by His divine power is in every place, is present in any particular place. There is another explanation that at the time of His Passion, His Divinity being once united to His humanity, left neither part of His humanity, but of its own accord separated the soul from the body, yet showed itself abiding in each. For through the body in which He suffered death He vanquished the power of death, but through the soul He prepared for the thief an entrance into Paradise. Now Isaiah says of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is no other than Paradise, Upon my hands I have painted your walls; whence it is clear, that he who is in Paradise dwells in the hands of the Father.
1 min12/16
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John Chrysostom

AD 407
Now this voice teaches us, that the souls of the saints are not henceforth shut up in hell as before, but are with God, Christ being made the beginning of this change.
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John of Damascus

AD 749
Or to speak more expressly, In respect of His body, He was in the grave, in respect of His soul, He was in hell, and with the thief in Paradise; but as God, on the throne with His Father and the Holy Spirit.
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Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
(and when did it "shudder exceedingly "except at the passion of Christ, when the earth also trembled to her centre, and the veil of the temple was rent, and the tombs were burst asunder?. And so the "pressure "must be maintained up to that hour in which the orb-involved from the sixth hour in a general darkness-performed for its dead Lord a sorrowful act of duty; so that we too may then return to enjoyment when the universe regained its sunshine.
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Theophilus of Antioch

AD 184
By this then our Lord showed that the Holy of Holies should be no longer inaccessible, but being given over into the hands of the Romans, should be defiled, and its entrance laid open. Whereby it is signified that the veil which kept us asunder from the holy things which are in heaven, is broken through, namely, enmity and sin. But crying with a loud voice He gives up the ghost, because He had in Himself the power of laying down His life and taking it up again.
< 1 min16/16
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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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