Matthew 27:45 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Now from the sixth hour, &c.— During the last three hours that our Lord hung on the cross, a darkness covered the face of the earth, to the great terror and amazement of the people present at his execution. This extraordinary alteration in the face of nature was peculiarly proper, while the Sun of Righteousness was in some sense withdrawing his beams from the land of Israel, and from the world; not only because it was a miraculous testimony borne by God himself to his innocence, but also because it was a fit emblem of his departure and its effects, at least till his light shone out anew with additional splendour, in the ministry of his Apostles. The Jews had been accustomed to the figurative language of the eclipse of the luminaries, as significative of some extraordinary revolution or calamity, and could hardly avoid recollecting the words of Amos 8:9-10 on this occasion. The heathens likewise had been taught to look on these circumstances as indications of the perpetration of some heinous and enormous crime; and how enormous was that now committed by the Jews! The darkness which now covered Judea, together with the neighbouring countries, beginning about noon, and continuing till Jesus expired, was not an ordinary eclipse of the sun, for that can never happen, except when the moon is about the change; whereas now it was full moon; not to mention that total darknesses, occasioned by eclipses of the sun, never continue above twelve or fifteen minutes. Wherefore it must have been produced by the divine power, in a manner that we are not able to explain. Accordingly, Luke, after relating that there was a darkness over all the earth, adds, and the sun was darkened, Luke 23:44-45. Farther, the Christian writers, in their most ancient apologies tothe heathens, affirm, that as it was full moon at the passover, when Christ was crucified, no such eclipse could happen by the course of nature. They observe also, that it was taken notice of as a prodigy by the heathens themselves. To this purpose we have still remaining the words of Phlegon the astronomer, and freed-man of Adrian, cited by Origen from his book, at the time when it was in the hands of the public;—that heathen author, in treating of the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad, which was the 19th of Tiberius, and supposed to be the year in which our Lord was crucified, tells us, "That the greatest eclipse of the sun that ever was known, happened then; for the day was so turned into night, that the stars in the heavens were seen." See Orig. contr. Cels. p. 83. If Phlegon, as Christians generally suppose, is speaking of the darkness which accompanied our Lord's crucifixion, it was not circumscribed within the land of Judea, but must have been universal. This many learned men have believed, particularlyHuet, Grotius, Gusset, Reland, and Alphen. Another ancient writer asserts, "that walking in Heliopolis, a town of Egypt, with a studious friend, he observed this wonderful darkness, and said, that it certainly portended something extraordinary: that either the God of nature was suffering, or nature itself was about to be dissolved." Josephus, it is true, takes no notice of this wonderful phoenomenon; but the reason may be, that he was unwilling to mention any circumstance favourable to Christianity, of which he was no friend; and the Jews would, no doubt, disguise this event as much as they could, and perhaps might persuade him and others who heard the report of it at some distance of time or place, that it was only a dark cloud, or a thick mist, which the followers of Jesus had exaggerated, because it happened when their Master died. Such representations are exceedingly natural to hearts corrupted by infidelity. See Macknight, Doddridge, and Calmet's Dissertation on the subject.