Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole earth unto the ninth hour. From mid-day, i.e, till3 P.M, which is usually the brightest part of the day. This darkness was supernatural; as though the sun and the whole heavens were veiled in black, as bewailing the ignominious death of Christ their Lord. So S. Jerome and S. Cyprian (de Bono Patient.); and S. Chrysostom (in Catena), "The creature could not bear the wrong done to its Creator, and the sun withdrew his rays, that he might not see the evil doing of the wicked."
Again, it took place at full moon. It lasted much longer than an ordinary eclipse; it was total, the light of the moon as well as of the sun being withdrawn, the stars being seen, and so on.
Over the whole earth. Of Juda, say Origen and Maldonatus. Others, more correctly (as S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others), over the whole world. Dionysius, the Areopagite, is said to have exclaimed at the time, "Either the God of Nature (or, as otherwise quoted, "an ...
From the sixth hour. St. Mark says, it was the third hour, and they crucified him. St. John says, it was about the sixth hour, when Jesus was condemned. To reconcile these expressions, we may take notice, that the third greater hour lasted till the sixth hour; and so St. Mark calls it the third hour, because the third great hour (which contained three lesser hours) did not end till mid-day, when the sixth hour was beginning; so that the end of the third, and the beginning of the sixth, happened together.
Darkness, at mid-day, and at full moon. Some call it an eclipse of the sun. It was rather by an interposition of clouds, or by the substraction of the rays of the sun.
Over all the earth, until the ninth hour. It could be no miracle to be night in the opposite hemisphere; but whether it was in all those parts of the world where, of course, it should have been light, is doubted. Origen thinks this darkness was only in Palestine, and the neighbouring countries: for as to the words, ove...
Those who write against the Gospels suppose that it is out of ignorance that the disciples of Christ have interpreted the eclipse of the sun (a phenomenon which usually happens at certain, established times) in accordance with the resurrection of the Lord, whereas an eclipse of the sun normally occurs only at the rising of a new moon. Now there is no doubt that at the time of the Passover the moon was full. Lest we believe that the shadow of the earth or the movement of the moon’s orb across the sun had produced a brief twilight, a duration of three hours is specified in order to preclude all other explanations. I am persuaded that this happened in fulfillment of the prophecies: “The sun will set at noon, and the light in the day will become dark over the earth,” and in another place, “The sun set when it was still the middle of the day.” And it seems quite clear to me that the light of the world (this is a greater heavenly body) had held back its beams so that neither would the Lord b...
This is the sign which before He had promised to give them when they asked it, saying, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; Matthew 12:39 meaning His cross, and His death, His burial, and His resurrection. And again, declaring in another way the virtue of the cross, He said, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am He. John 8:28 And what He says is to this purport: When you have crucified me, and think you have overcome me, then, above all, shall you know my might.
For after the crucifixion, the city was destroyed, and the Jewish state came to an end, they fell away from their polity and their freedom, the gospel flourished, the word was spread abroad to the ends of the world; both sea and land, both the inhabited earth and the desert perpetually proclaim its power. These things then He means, and those which took place at the very time of the crucifixion. For ind...
