Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated) (858 page)

Not only these last words, however, but also the earlier expressions of Jesus on the cross, will
not admit of being ranged in the succession in which they are generally supposed. The speeches of Jesus on the cross are commonly reckoned to be seven; but so many are not mentioned by any single Evangelist, for the two first have only one: the exclamation
my God, my God,
etc.
h
l
i
,
h
l
i
,
k
.
t
.
l
.
Luke has three; the prayer of Jesus for his enemies, the
promise to the thief, and the commending of his spirit into the hands of the Father; John has likewise three, but all different: the address to his mother and the disciple, with the exclamations,
d
i
y
w
and
it is finished
t
e
t
e
l
e
s
t
a
i
.
Now the intercessory prayer, the promise and the recommendation of Mary to the care of the disciple, might certainly be conceived as following each other: but the
d
i
y
w
and the
h
l
i
come into collision, since both exclamations are followed by the same incident, the offering of vinegar by means of a sponge on a reed. When to this we add the entanglement of the
t
e
t
e
l
e
s
t
a
i
with the
p
a
t
e
r
,
k
.
t
.
l
.
, it should surely be seen and admitted, that no one of the Evangelists, in attributing words to Jesus when on the cross, knew or took into consideration those lent to him by the others; that on the contrary each depicted this scene in his own manner, according as he, or the legend which stood at his command, had developed the conception of it to suit this or that prophecy or design.

A special difficulty is here caused by the computation of the hours. According to all the synoptists the darkness prevailed
from the sixth hour until the ninth hour,
a
p
o
e
k
t
h
V
w
r
a
V
e
w
V
w
t
a
V
e
n
n
a
t
h
V
(in our reckoning, from twelve at midday to three in the afternoon); according to Matthew and Mark, it was about the ninth hour that Jesus complained of being forsaken by God, and shortly after yielded up the ghost; according to Mark it was
the third hour
w
r
a
t
r
i
t
h
(nine in the morning) when Jesus was crucified (v. 25). On the other hand, John says (xix. 14.) that it was about the sixth hour (when according to Mark Jesus had already hung three hours on the cross) that Pilate first sat in judgment over him. Unless we are to suppose that the sun-dial went backward, as in the time of Hezekiah, this is a contradiction which is not to be removed by a violent alteration of the reading, nor by appealing to the
w
s
e
i
(about) in John, or to the inability of the disciples to take note of the hours under such afflictive circumstances; at the utmost it might perhaps

^*
Credner, Einleitung in das N. T. 1, s. 198.be cancelled if it were possible to prove that the fourth gospel throughout proceeds upon another mode of reckoning time than that used by the synoptists.
^*

^*
Thus Rettig, exegetische Analekten, in Ullmann’s und Umbreit’s Studien, 1830, 1, s. 106ff; Tholuck, Glaubwürdigkeit, s,
307 ff
.;
comp. on the various attempts at reconciliation Lücke and De Wette, in loc. Joh.

PART III

CHAPTER IV.

DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS.

§ 133. PRODIGIES ATTENDANT ON THE DEATH OF JESUS.

According to the evangelical accounts, the death of Jesus was accompanied by extraordinary phenomena. Three hours before, we are told, a darkness diffused itself and lasted until Jesus expired (Matt. xxvii. 45 parall.); in the moment of his death the veil of the temple was torn asunder from the top to the bottom, the earth quaked, the rocks were rent, the graves were opened, and many bodies of departed saints arose, entered into the city, and appeared to many (Mall v. 51 ff. parall.). These details are very unequally distributed among the Evangelists: the first alone has them all; the second and third merely the darkness and the rending of the veil: while the fourth knows nothing of all these marvels.

We will examine them singly according to their order. The
dærkness
s
k
o
t
o
V
which is said to have arisen while Jesus hung on the cross,, cannot have been an ordinary eclipse of the sun, caused by the interposition of the moon between his disc and the earth,
^*
since it happened during the Passover, and consequently about the time of the full moon. The gospels however do not directly use the terms
e
k
l
e
i
y
i
V
t
o
u
h
l
i
o
u
(eclipse of the sun),
the two first speaking only of
darkness
s
k
o
t
o
V
in general; and though the third adds with somewhat more particularity:
k
a
i
e
s
k
o
t
i
s
q
h
o
h
l
i
o
V
, and the sun was darkened,
still this might be said of any species of widely extended obscuration. Hence it was an explanation which lay near at hand to refer this darkness to an atmospheric, instead of an astronomical cause, and to suppose that it proceeded from obscuring vapours in the air, such as are especially wont to precede earthquakes.
^†
That such obscurations of the atmospheaæ may be diffused over whole, countries, is true; but not only is the statement that the one

* The Evang. Nicodemi makes the Jews very absurdly maintain:
there happened an eclipse of the sun in the ordinary course
e
k
l
e
i
y
i
V
h
l
i
o
u
g
e
g
o
n
e
k
a
t
a
t
o
e
i
w
q
o
V
,
c. xi. p. 592, ap. Thilo.

† Thus Paulus and Kuinöl, in loc.; Hase, L. J. § 143; Neander, L. J. Chr s. 639 f.in question extended
e
p
i
p
a
s
a
n
or
o
l
h
n
t
h
n
g
h
n
,
i.e., according to the most natural explanation, over the entire globe, to be subtracted as an exaggeration of the narrator :
^*
but also the presupposition, evident in the whole tenor of their representation, that the darkness had a supernatural cause, appears destitute of foundation from the want of any adequate object for such a miracle. Since then, with these accessory features the event does not in itself at once carry the conviction of its credibility, it is natural to inquire if it have any extrinsic confirmation. The fathers of the church appeal in its support to the testimony of heathen writers, among whom Phlegon especially in his
c
r
o
n
i
k
o
i
V
is alleged to have noticed the above darkness:
^†
but on comparing the passage preserved by Eusebius, which is apparently the one of Phiegon alluded to, we find that it determines merely the Olympiad, scarcely the year, and in no case the season and day of this darkness.
^‡
More modern apologists appeal to similar cases in ancient history, of which Wetstein in particular has made a copious collection. He adduces from Greek and Roman writers the notices of the eclipses of the sun which occurred at the disappearance of Romulus, the death of Cæsar,
^§
and similar events; he cites declarations which contain the idea that eclipses of the sun betoken the fall of kingdoms and the death of kings; lastly he points to Old Testament passages (Isa. l. 3; Joel iii. 20; Amos viii. 9; comp. Jer. xv. 9) and rabbinical dicta, in which either the obscuring of the light of day is described as the mourning garb of God,
^||
or the death of great teachers compared with the sinking of the sun at mid-day,
^¶
or the opinion advanced that at the death of exalted hierarchical personages, if the last honours are not paid to them, the sun is wont to be darkened.
^*
But these parallels, instead of being supports to the credibility of the evangelical narrative, are so many premises to the conclusion, that we have here also nothing more than the mythical offspring of universally prevalent ideas, — a Christian legend, which would make all nature put on the weeds of mourning to solemnize the tragic death of the Messiah.
^†

The second prodigy is the rending of the veil of the temple, doubtless the inner veil before the Holy of Holies, since the word
[
Heb. letters
]
paroketh
, used to designate this, is generally rendered in the LXX. by
k
a
t
a
p
e
t
a
s
m
a
.
It was thought possible to interpret this rending of the veil also as a natural event, by regarding it as an effect of the earthquake. But, as Lightfoot has already justly observed, it is more conceivable that an earthquake should rend stationary fixed bodies such as the rocks subsequently mentioned, than that it should

3 Comp. Fritzsche and De Wette, in loc. Matth.

4 Tertull. Apologet. c. xxi. ; Orig. c. Cels. ii. 33, 59.

5 Euseb. can, chron. ad. Ol. 202, Anm. 4; comp. Paulus, s.
765
ff.

6 Serv. ad Virgil. Georg. i. 465 ff.:
Constat, occiso Cæsare in Senatu pridie Idus Martias,solis fuisse defectum ab hora sexta usque ad noctem.

7 Echa R. iii. 28.

8 R. Bechai Cod. Hakkema:
Cum insignis Rabbinus fato concederet, dixit quidam: iste dies gravis est Israeli, ut cum sol occidit ipso meridie.

9 Succa, f. xxix. 1
: Dixeruni doctores: quatuor de causis sol deficit: prima, ob patrem domus judicii mortuum, cum exequiæ non fiunt ut decet,
etc.

10 Vid. Fritzsche, in loc. ; comp. also De Wette, exeg. Handb. 1, 1, s.
238; Theile, zur Biogr. Jesu, § 36.tear a pliant, loosely hung curtain. Hence Paulus supposes that the veil of the temple was stretched and fastened not only above but also below and at the sides. But first, this is a mere conjecture: and secondly, if the earthquake shook the walls of the temple so violently, as to tear a veil which even though stretched, was still pliant: such a convulsion would rather have caused a part of the building to fall, as is said to have been the case in the Gospel of the Hebrews :
^*
unless it be chosen to add, with Kuinöl, the conjecture that the veil was tender from age, and might therefore be torn by a slight concussion. That our narrators had no such causes in their minds is proved by the fact that the second and third Evangelists are silent concerning the earthquake, and that the first does not mention it until after the rending of the veil. Thus if this event really happened we must regard it as a miracle. Now the object of the divine Providence in effecting such a miracle could only have been this: to produce in the Jewish cotemporaries of Jesus a deep impression of the importance of his death, and to furnish the first promulgators of the gospel with a fact to which they might appeal in support of their cause. But, as Schleiermacher has shown, nowhere else in the New Testament, either in the apostolic epistles or in the Acts, or even in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in connexion with the subject of which it could scarcely fail to be suggested, is this event mentioned: on the contrary, with the exception of this bare synoptical notice, every trace of it is lost ; which could scarcely have been the case if it had really formed a ground of apostolical argument. Thus the divine purpose in ordaining this miracle must have totally failed; or, since this is inconceivable, it cannot have been ordained for this object — in other words, since neither any other object of the miracle, nor yet a mode in which the event might happen naturally can be discovered, it cannot have happened at all. In another way, certainly, a peculiar relation of Jesus to the veil of the temple is treated of in the Epistle to the Hebrews. While before Christ, only the priests had access into the holy place, and into the Holy of Holies only the high priest might enter once in the year with the blood of atonement; Christ, as the eternal high priest, entered by his own blood
into the holy place within the veil,
into the Holy of Holies in heaven, whereby he became the
forerunner,
p
r
o
d
r
o
m
o
V
,
of Christians, and opened access to them also, founding an
eternal redemption
a
i
w
n
i
o
n
l
u
t
r
w
s
i
n
(vi. 19 f., ix. 6, 12, x. 19 f.). Even Paulus finds in these metaphors so close an affinity to our narrative, that he thinks it possible to number the latter among those fables which according to Henke’s definitions are to be derived
e figurato genere dicendi;
^†
at least the event, even if it

* Hieron. ad Hedib. ep. cxlix. 8 (comp. his Comm. in loc.):
In evangelio autem, quod hebraicis literis scriptum est, legimus, non velum templi scissum, sed superliminare templi mirae magnitudinis corruisse.

† The possibility of this is admitted by Neander also, but with the presupposition of some fact as a groundwork (s. 640 f.).really happened, must have been especially important to the Christians on account of its symbolical significance, as interpreted by the images in the Epistle to the Hebrews: namely, that by Christ’s death the veil of the Jewish worship was rent asunder, and access to God opened to all by means of
worship in the Spirit.
But if, as has been shown, the historical probability of the event in question is extremely weak, and on the other hand, the causes which might lead to the formation of such a narrative without historical foundation very powerful; it is more consistent, with Schleiermacher, entirely to renounce the incident as historical, on the ground that so soon as it began to be the practice to represent the office of Christ under the images which reign throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews, nay, in the very earliest dawn of this kind of doctrine, on the first reception of the Gentiles, who were left free from the burthen of Jewish observances, and who thus remained without participation in the Jewish sacrifices, such representations must have entered into the Christian hymns (and the evangelical narratives).
^*