The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew27:45–56

The Death of Jesus

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Matthew 27:45–56 — The Death of Jesus. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

45

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Apo hektēs hōras heōs enatēs hōras skotos egeneto epi pasan tēn gēn

Word by word13 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἈπὸApoFromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἕκτηςhektēs[the] sixthG1623
√ ἕκτος — sixthAdjectiveGenitive Feminine Singular
hektos: sixth Reckoned from sunrise on the ordinary Jewish count, so midday. Ellicott builds the whole timetable of the night from it, noting that John's "sixth hour" for the sentencing follows a different (Roman) reckoning, which is why the Gospels look contradictory and are not.
ὥραςhōrashourG5610
√ ὥρα — an "hour" (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἕωςheōsuntilG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
ἐνάτηςenatēs[the] ninthG1766
√ ἔννατος — ninthAdjectiveGenitive Feminine Singular
ennatos: ninth Three in the afternoon. Gill supplies the datum that gives the hour its weight: this is when the daily sacrifice was offered, "which was an eminent type of Christ," and near the slaying of the Passover lamb. The clock in this verse is a liturgical clock, not only an astronomical one.
ὥραςhōrashourG5610
√ ὥρα — an "hour" (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
σκότοςskotosdarknessG4655
√ σκότος — shadiness, iNounNominative Neuter Singular
skotos: shadiness, darkness The Verifier confirms the same lexeme in Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44 (σκότος, in 29 verses), so the three accounts are verbally joined here. The commentators unite in ruling out an eclipse (Paschal full moon) and divide sharply on whether the extra-biblical witnesses (Phlegon, Tertullian, Dionysius) hold: Gill, Benson and Barnes lean on them, Pulpit says "none of these will stand the test of criticism."
ἐγένετοegenetocameG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be, be generated Aorist middle. The darkness is narrated as an event that happened, with no agent supplied. This is the first of a long series in this unit where Matthew reports an act and names no hand behind it (compare the six agentless passives of v. 51 to v. 53).
ἐπὶepioverG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
πᾶσανpasanallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
γῆνgēnlandG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
gē: soil, land, earth The same noun returns in v. 51 ("the earth was shaken") and in the Verifier's link to Hebrews 12:26. Within the unit it ties the darkened ground of v. 45 to the quaking ground of v. 51: one word, two convulsions, one death.
46

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de peri tēn enatēn hōran ho Iēsous aneboēsen megalē phōnē legōn Ēli ēli lema sabachthani tout’ estin mou Thee mou thee hina ti enkatelipes me

Word by word25 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
περὶperiAboutG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐνάτηνenatēnninthG1766
√ ἔννατος — ninthAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ὥρανhōranhourG5610
√ ὥρα — an "hour" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀνεβόησενaneboēsencried outG310
√ ἀναβοάω — to hallooVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
anaboaō: to halloo, shout up The upward force of the ἀνα- prefix matters: this is a cry thrown toward heaven, and the next thing the text records is that the bystanders misheard the direction of it (v. 47). Pulpit reads the loudness as medical evidence, "that there was still an amount of vitality in that mangled form."
μεγάλῃmegalēvvvG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
φωνῇphōnēin a loud voiceG5456
√ φωνή — a tone (articulate, bestial or artificial)NounDative Feminine Singular
λέγωνlegōnG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἨλὶĒliEliG2241
√ ἠλί — my GodNounVocative Masculine Singular
ēli: my God Strong's gives G2241 the flat gloss "my God." Cambridge notes the form is Hebrew here where Mark 15:34 preserves the Aramaic Eloi, and that "the repetition, 'My God! My God!' gives a deeply pathetic force." Benson allows that Christ may have said it twice with variation, and Doddridge that Mark has it exactly and Matthew in contraction: a real uncertainty, honestly recorded by both.
ἠλὶēliEliG2241
√ ἠλί — my GodNounVocative Masculine Singular
λεμὰlemalemaG2982
√ λαμά — lama (iAdverb
σαβαχθάνιsabachthanisabachthaniG4518
√ σαβαχθάνι — thou hast left meVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
τοῦτ’tout’whichG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἔστινestinmeansG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ΘεέTheeGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounVocative Masculine Singular
theos: God Vocative, Θεέ, twice, each with μου. This is the grammar the commentators fasten on: whatever the abandonment is, it is addressed. Cambridge quotes Perowne against reading wrath into it; Geneva and Gill read wrath into it directly. The vocative is what makes both readings possible and neither certain.
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
θεέtheeGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounVocative Masculine Singular
ἵνα‿hinawhyG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
hina: in order that The ordinary conjunction of purpose, here fused with τί (G5101) into the single interrogative ἱνατί, so that the question asks to what end and not from what cause. The distinction carries weight: a sufferer who asks for a cause is asking what has gone wrong, while one who asks for an end is asking what this is accomplishing. Benson works through the rival renderings (to what degree, to what length of time) and settles here, because ἱνατί, unlike Mark's εἰς τί, "is not liable to such ambiguity." What the text records in answer is not a sentence but the acts of vv. 51 to 53.
τίti. . .G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐγκατέλιπεςenkatelipeshave You forsakenG1459
√ ἐγκαταλείπω — to leave behind in some place, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
enkataleipō: to leave behind in some place The heaviest word in the unit. It is the Septuagint's verb in Psalm 22:1, which is why Henry can say flatly "Jesus uttered a complaint from Ps 22:1" and why Ellicott can wonder whether the quotation was meant "to direct the thoughts of men to the great Messianic prophecy which the Psalm contained." Note what it does not mean: not to destroy, not to reject, but to leave behind in a place. Gill is careful that "the hypostatical union was dissolved" is exactly what it cannot mean.
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
egō: I, me Accusative με, the object of the leaving. The pronoun that in v. 49 the bystanders will replace with "him."
47

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He is calling Elijah.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Tines tōn hestēkotōn ekei akousantes elegon hoti houtos phōnei Ēlian

Word by word11 · parsed
δὲdeWhenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΤινὲςTinessomeG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Plural
τῶνtōnof thoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἑστηκότωνhestēkotōnstandingG2476
√ ἵστημι — to stand (transitively or intransitively), used in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbPerfect Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Plural
histēmi: to stand Perfect participle: an established standing. Pulpit argues from this that they were Jews near enough to catch the words, not the Roman guard, "for they would not have understood the Saviour's language, and could have known nothing about Elias."
ἐκεῖekeithereG1563
√ ἐκεῖ — thereAdverb
ἀκούσαντεςakousantesheard thisG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
akouō: to hear Aorist participle. What follows in this verse is not what Jesus said but what was heard, and Matthew reports the mishearing as such. The Gospel here preserves a false report accurately.
ἔλεγονelegonthey saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
οὗτοςhoutos[He]G3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
φωνεῖphōneiis callingG5455
√ φωνέω — to emit a sound (animal, human or instrumental)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phōneō: to emit a sound The cognate of φωνή in v. 46. The bystanders describe the cry with the noun's own verb and get the addressee wrong: the sound was right, the name was not.
ἨλίανĒlianElijahG2243
√ Ἡλίας — Helias (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
Hēlias: Elijah The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme G2243 Ἡλίας with Mark 15:36 (in 29 verses). Barnes supplies the expectation that made the mishearing plausible: "it was the universal belief of the Jews, as well as the doctrine of Christ, that 'Elias' would come before the Messiah." Whether the mishearing was honest or malicious is precisely what the commentators cannot agree on.
48

One of them quickly ran and brought a sponge. He filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed, and held it up for Jesus to drink.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai heis ex autōn eutheōs dramōn kai labōn spongon te plēsas oxous kai peritheis kalamō epotizen auton

Word by word17 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἷςheisOneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐξexofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
αὐτῶνautōnthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
εὐθέωςeutheōsquicklyG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
eutheōs: directly, at once Light adverb, but it is doing work: whatever the motive, the response to the cry was immediate.
δραμὼνdramōnranG5143
√ τρέχω — compare G2359 (θρίξ))VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λαβὼνlabōnbroughtG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
σπόγγονspongona spongeG4699
√ σπόγγος — a "sponge"NounAccusative Masculine Singular
spongos: a sponge The rarest word in the unit: the Verifier records G4699 in only 3 verses of the Greek canon and confirms one of them as John 19:29. Ellicott offers the homely explanation that "the sponge had probably served instead of a cork to the jar in which the soldiers had brought the drink."
τεteG5037
√ τέ — both or also (properly, as correlation of G2532 (καί))Conjunction
πλήσαςplēsasHe filled [it]G4130
√ πλήθω — to "fill" (literally or figuratively (imbue, influence, supply))VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὄξουςoxouswith sour wineG3690
√ ὄξος — vinegar, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
oxos: vinegar, sour wine The soldiers' posca (so Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit alike), acid wine and water. Pulpit names the Old Testament resonance outright: "Thus was fulfilled the psalmist's word, 'In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink' (Psalm 69:21)." Note that Matthew, unlike his usual practice, files no fulfilment formula here; the link is the commentators' and ours, not the evangelist's stated one.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
περιθεὶςperitheisput [it] onG4060
√ περιτίθημι — to place aroundVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
καλάμῳkalamōa reedG2563
√ κάλαμος — a reed (the plant or its stem, or that of a similar plant)NounDative Masculine Singular
kalamos: a reed, or the stalk of a plant Barnes reconciles Matthew's "reed" with John's "hyssop" by noting hyssop could grow to a shrub or tree (1 Kings 4:33), so that "the stalk of this was what Matthew calls a 'reed'." The lexicon supports him: G2563 covers the stem of a similar plant, not only the cane.
ἐπότιζενepotizenand held it up for [Jesus] to drinkG4222
√ ποτίζω — to furnish drink, irrigateVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
potizō: to furnish drink, to irrigate Imperfect. Whether the act was pity or cruelty is the one point on which this file's voices split hardest: Ellicott says "prompted by a rough pity," Gill says "in contempt of him, and to mock him." The verb decides nothing; it only reports a man holding a sponge up to a mouth.
αὐτόνauton. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
49

But the others said, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to save Him.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hoi loipoi elegon Aphes idōmen ei Ēlias erchetai sōsōn auton

Word by word11 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
λοιποὶloipoiothersG3062
√ λοιποί — remaining onesAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἔλεγονelegonsaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
epō: to speak, to say Imperfect ἔλεγον again, matching v. 47: the crowd's speech in this unit is always in progress, never finished.
ἌφεςAphesLeave [Him] aloneG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
aphiēmi: to send away, let go, release The pivot word of the unit. It appears here on the lips of mockers as a command to withhold, and in v. 50 as the act by which Jesus dismisses His spirit. Benson's reading of v. 50 ("dismissed his spirit") and this imperative are the same lexeme, G863, one verse apart. Nothing in the commentaries notices the pairing; the shared Strong's number is the sourced fact, the irony is ours.
ἴδωμενidōmenLet us seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
εἰeiifG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
ἨλίαςĒliasElijahG2243
√ Ἡλίας — Helias (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἔρχεταιerchetaicomesG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
erchomai: to come or go Present indicative, "is coming," which Pulpit renders exactly: "ἔρχεται, cometh, is coming." The present makes it a live question, not a hypothesis.
σώσωνsōsōnto saveG4982
√ σώζω — to save, iVerbFuture Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
sōzō: to save, to rescue Future participle. The verb of the taunt at Matthew 27:42, now transferred from Jesus to Elijah: if He will not save Himself, let another do it. That no one comes is the answer the text gives, and the centurion in v. 54 will draw the opposite conclusion from the same silence.
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
50

When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Iēsous kraxas palin megalē phōnē aphēken to pneuma

Word by word10 · parsed
δὲdeWhenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
κράξαςkraxashad cried outG2896
√ κράζω — properly, to "croak" (as a raven) or scream, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
krazō: to croak, to scream Aorist participle. Gill draws a physiological argument from it: after the scourging, the thorns, the nails and the hours, "to speak with so loud a voice was more than human," and he notes Mark 15:39 makes this very cry the thing that convinced the centurion. Pulpit draws the opposite kind of inference, that "perhaps the exertion of uttering this great cry ruptured some organ of the body."
πάλινpalinagainG3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
palin: anew, again Links to the cry of v. 46 and marks this as the second.
μεγάλῃmegalēvvvG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
φωνῇphōnēin a loud voiceG5456
√ φωνή — a tone (articulate, bestial or artificial)NounDative Feminine Singular
ἀφῆκενaphēkenHe yielded upG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aphiēmi: to send away, let go, release Active voice, with Jesus as subject: no one takes the spirit from Him, He lets it go. This is the grammatical ground of the whole classical reading of the verse, stated most strongly by Benson from John 10:18 and by Henry ("his life was not forced from him, but was freely delivered into his Father's hands"). Pulpit dissents from pressing it that far. The one thing the Greek settles is the voice of the verb: active, not passive.
τὸto[His]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πνεῦμαpneumaspiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
pneuma: breath, wind, spirit Accusative object of ἀφῆκεν. Barnes notes the Septuagint uses the same kind of phrase for the death of Rachel (Genesis 35:18), which is a useful check against reading a unique idiom here: the phrase is human dying language, applied to the Son of God.
51

At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, and the rocks were split.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai idou to katapetasma tou naou eschisthē eis dyo ap’ anōthen heōs katō kai hē gē eseisthē kai hai petrai eschisthēsan

Word by word21 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAt that momentG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidou. . .G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: lo! behold! An imperative in form. Matthew uses it to hand the reader over to the witnesses, which matters because Ellicott notes the torn veil "in the nature of the case could not have been seen by any but the sons of Aaron," and suggests the report came through the priests who later "became obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7). Cambridge says the same.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
καταπέτασμαkatapetasmaveilG2665
√ καταπέτασμα — something spread thoroughly, iNounNominative Neuter Singular
katapetasma: something spread thoroughly, a curtain A rare noun: the Verifier records G2665 in only 6 verses of the Greek canon, and confirms it shared with Luke 23:45. Gill gathers the rabbinic data on its thickness (a handbreadth, seventy two threads, forty cubits long) precisely to make the tearing impossible by human means. Whether his figures describe the second temple's veil is his inference from the first temple's specification.
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ναοῦnaoutempleG3485
√ ναός — a fane, shrine, templeNounGenitive Masculine Singular
naos: shrine, sanctuary The room, not the complex. Maclaren's exposition turns on the three-fold division (court, holy place, holy of holies) and on the fact that this curtain "only one man was permitted to lift or to pass."
ἐσχίσθηeschisthēwas tornG4977
√ σχίζω — to split or sever (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
schizō: to split or sever Aorist passive, no agent named. This is the theological centre of the verse for every commentator in the file, and they divide on what it signifies: JFB and Cambridge read open access through Hebrews 10:19-20; Poole reads both that and divine wrath against the temple; Maclaren reads it as "de-consecration," making way for "a departing God." Ellicott adds the striking observation that Matthew records the fact without appearing to grasp its import.
εἰςeisinG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
δύοdyotwoG1417
√ δύο — "two"AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἀπ’ap’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἄνωθενanōthentopG509
√ ἄνωθεν — from aboveAdverb
ἕωςheōstoG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
κάτωkatōbottomG2736
√ κάτω — downwardsAdverb
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhēTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
γῆgēearthG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἐσείσθηeseisthēquakedG4579
√ σείω — to rock (vibrate, properly, sideways or to and fro), iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
seiō: to rock, to shake Aorist passive. Ellicott sets it in its geography (Jerusalem lies "in the zone of earthquakes") and its limits ("there was no widespread ruin such as would lead to its being chronicled by contemporary historians"). JFB infers it was local and purposive, "having for its object the rending of the rocks and the opening of the graves." Barnes claims it "is mentioned by Roman writers" without naming one, which is worth flagging.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αἱhaitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
πέτραιpetrairocksG4073
√ πέτρα — a (mass of) rock (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Feminine Plural
petra: a mass of rock Benson and Barnes both appeal to visible fissures at Jerusalem as physical evidence, Benson at second hand through Fleming's converted deist. That is travellers' testimony, not exegesis, and should be weighed as such.
ἐσχίσθησανeschisthēsanwere splitG4977
√ σχίζω — to split or sever (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
52

The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai ta mnēmeia aneōchthēsan kai sōmata polla tōn hagiōn kekoimēmenōn ēgerthēsan

Word by word11 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὰtaTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
μνημεῖαmnēmeiatombsG3419
√ μνημεῖον — a remembrance, iNounNominative Neuter Plural
mnēmeion: a remembrance, a monument, a tomb The noun is literally a memorial: what the Greek calls a remembrance is opened by the death of the one who is remembered. Barnes notes these were rock tombs or caves, so "the rending of the rocks, therefore, would lay them open."
ἀνεῴχθησανaneōchthēsanbroke openG455
√ ἀνοίγω — to open up (literally or figuratively, in various applications)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
anoigō: to open up Aorist passive. The whole interpretive crux of the verse is whether this passive and the following one happen at the same moment. JFB argues at length that only the graves were opened at the death, the raising waiting on the Lord's own resurrection; Gill and Pulpit say the same; Ellicott and Benson agree. The word order in Greek gives no timing, which is why v. 53 has to.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
σώματαsōmata[the] bodiesG4983
√ σῶμα — the body (as a sound whole), used in a very wide application, literally or figurativelyNounNominative Neuter Plural
πολλὰpollaof manyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἁγίωνhagiōnsaintsG40
√ ἅγιος — sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
hagios: sacred, consecrated, holy Who these holy ones were is the most openly disputed question in the unit. Ellicott argues for recently dead believers, on the ground that the term is used in Acts for the whole body of disciples, and that only Jerusalem tombs were opened; Benson canvasses both views and refuses to decide; Gill lists Old Testament patriarchs, then later candidates, and admits "who they were is not to be known." Henry's refusal is the honest floor: "we must not desire to be wise above what is written."
κεκοιμημένωνkekoimēmenōnwho had fallen asleepG2837
√ κοιμάω — to put to sleep, iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Plural
koimaō: to put to sleep Perfect participle. The metaphor is deliberate and canonical, and it is what makes the tombs a dormitory rather than a ruin.
ἠγέρθησανēgerthēsanwere raisedG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
egeirō: to waken, to rouse Aorist passive, the standard resurrection verb of the New Testament. Note carefully: Matthew does not say they were raised immortal, nor that they died again. JFB asserts the former ("a resurrection once for all, to life everlasting") and Barnes refuses both ("conjecture is vain"). The verb bears neither claim.
53

After Jesus’ resurrection, when they had come out of the tombs, they entered the holy city and appeared to many people.

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Greek — tap a word ↓

kai meta autou tēn egersin exelthontes ek tōn mnēmeiōn eisēlthon eis tēn hagian polin kai enephanisthēsan pollois

Word by word17 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μετὰmetaAfterG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus’]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἔγερσινegersinresurrectionG1454
√ ἔγερσις — a resurgence (from death)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
egersis: a resurgence from death A distinctly uncommon noun, and its position is decisive: whatever happened in v. 52, its public consequence is dated after His raising. This is the clause on which JFB, Poole, Gill, Benson and Pulpit all rest the claim that Christ is the firstfruits and nothing precedes Him out of the grave.
ἐξελθόντεςexelthonteswhen they had comeG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
exerchomai: to issue, to come out Masculine plural against a neuter antecedent. Pulpit's grammatical observation is the strongest exegetical datum in the verse and is invisible in translation.
ἐκekout ofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
μνημείωνmnēmeiōntombsG3419
√ μνημεῖον — a remembrance, iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
εἰσῆλθονeisēlthonthey enteredG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἁγίανhagianholyG40
√ ἅγιος — sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
πόλινpolincityG4172
√ πόλις — a town (properly, with walls, of greater or less size)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
polis: a town with walls Jerusalem, named holy on the very day it crucified its Lord. Pulpit resists the alternative reading (the heavenly Jerusalem) as "wholly against" the context, and he is right: bodies coming out of local tombs walk into a local city.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνεφανίσθησανenephanisthēsanappearedG1718
√ ἐμφανίζω — to exhibit (in person) or disclose (by words)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
emphanizō: to exhibit in person, to disclose Aorist passive. JFB draws the evidential point: they appeared "that there might be undeniable evidence of their own resurrection first, and through it of their Lord's." What no voice in this file can supply is any second witness in the New Testament to the event, which Ellicott concedes at v. 52 and our apparatus records.
πολλοῖςpolloisto many [people]G4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveDative Masculine Plural
54

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

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Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho hekatontarchos kai hoi met’ autou tērountes ton Iēsoun idontes ton seismon kai ta genomena ephobēthēsan sphodra legontes Alēthōs houtos ēn Huios Theou

Word by word24 · parsed
δὲdeWhenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἑκατόνταρχοςhekatontarchoscenturionG1543
√ ἑκατοντάρχης — the captain of one hundred menNounNominative Masculine Singular
hekatontarchēs: the captain of one hundred men Cambridge and Pulpit both reduce the practical command here to the small execution detail rather than a full century. Pulpit records the tradition that his name was Longinus and that he died a martyr, and it is worth saying plainly that this is tradition and nothing in Scripture supports it.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoithoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μετ’met’withG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
αὐτοῦautouhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τηροῦντεςtērounteswho were guardingG5083
√ τηρέω — perhaps akin to G2334 (θεωρέω))VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
tēreō: to keep watch over, to guard Present participle: the watching is still going on when the confession is made. The Verifier confirms this lexeme shared with Matthew 28:4, where guards set at another sealed place are shaken by the same rare verb σείω.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦνIēsounJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἰδόντεςidontessawG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
σεισμὸνseismonearthquakeG4578
√ σεισμός — a commotion, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
seismos: a commotion, a shaking Cognate with v. 51. Gill lists what the guard had actually witnessed: the darkening of the sun, the rending of the rocks, and above all "with what a loud voice Christ spoke, and then at once expired." Mark 15:39 makes the cry itself the trigger.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὰtaall thatG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
γενόμεναgenomenahad happenedG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐφοβήθησανephobēthēsanthey were terrifiedG5399
√ φοβέω — to frighten, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
phobeō: to frighten Aorist passive with σφόδρα. Gill reads it as terror of punishment, "not with a true godly fear"; Luke's parallel has the centurion glorifying God. Both are reports about the same men, and the aorist passive supports neither reading over the other.
σφόδραsphodra. . .G4970
√ σφόδρα — of uncertain derivation) as adverbAdverb
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἈληθῶςAlēthōsTrulyG230
√ ἀληθῶς — trulyAdverb
alēthōs: truly The adverb that makes the sentence a verdict rather than a guess. Ellicott's caution is the necessary one: Luke reports the same confession as "Truly this Man was righteous," so the words as Matthew gives them must be weighed "from the stand-point of the centurion's knowledge, not from that of Christian faith."
οὗτοςhoutosthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΥἱὸςHuios[the] SonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: son Anarthrous, and placed before the verb for emphasis. Read against v. 43 (where the mockers quoted His claim "I am the Son of God") and against v. 40 ("if you are the Son of God, come down"), the guard answers the taunt the crowd made: He did not come down, and therefore He is.
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
55

And many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to minister to Him.

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Greek — tap a word ↓

de pollai gynaikes Ēsan ekei theōrousai apo makrothen haitines ēkolouthēsan tō Iēsou apo tēs Galilaias diakonousai autō

Word by word17 · parsed
δὲdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
πολλαὶpollaimanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Feminine Plural
γυναῖκεςgynaikeswomenG1135
√ γυνή — a womanNounNominative Feminine Plural
ἮσανĒsanwereG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἐκεῖekeithereG1563
√ ἐκεῖ — thereAdverb
θεωροῦσαιtheōrousaiwatchingG2334
√ θεωρέω — to be a spectator of, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Plural
theōreō: to be a spectator of, to behold Present participle, and the Verifier confirms the lexeme shared with Mark 15:40 (in 56 verses), along with μακρόθεν (G3113, in 14 verses). Gill turns the beholding into an act of faith: "they beheld with an eye of faith, their bleeding, dying Lord." That is his reading, not the verb's meaning.
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
μακρόθενmakrothena distanceG3113
√ μακρόθεν — from a distance or afarAdverb
makrothen: from a distance, afar Benson reconciles this with John 19:25, where women stand by the cross: kept back at first, they "gathered courage, and came so near that Jesus had an opportunity to speak to them," then withdrew again. Poole makes the same harmonisation. It is a reasonable reconstruction and not stated by any Gospel.
αἵτινεςhaitines[They]G3748
√ ὅστις — which some, iPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Feminine Plural
ἠκολούθησανēkolouthēsanhad followedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
akoloutheō: to follow, to be in the same way with Strong's root sense is literally to be in the same way with someone. Gill measures the distance at "an hundred miles or more."
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦIēsouJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounDative Masculine Singular
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίαςGalilaiasGalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
διακονοῦσαιdiakonousaito ministerG1247
√ διακονέω — to be an attendant, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Plural
diakoneō: to be an attendant, to serve The verb of practical service, and the commentators are unanimous on what it meant materially: Benson, "liberally assisting him and his disciples with their property"; Gill, "they ministered to him of their worldly substance" (Luke 8:3). Set against the apostles' absence, which Gill and Benson both press, the participle is the unit's last word on discipleship before the names are read out.
αὐτῷautōto HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
56

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

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Greek — tap a word ↓

en hais ēn Maria hē Magdalēnē kai Maria hē mētēr tou Iakōbou kai Iōsēph kai hē mētēr tōn Zebedaiou huiōn

Word by word20 · parsed
ἐνenAmongG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αἷςhais[them]G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounDative Feminine Plural
ἦνēnwereG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eimi: to be, to exist Singular against a plural list. A light function word, noted only because translations must change it.
ΜαρίαMariaMaryG3137
√ Μαρία — Maria or Mariam (iNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ΜαγδαληνήMagdalēnēMagdaleneG3094
√ Μαγδαληνή — a female Magdalene, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
Magdalēnē: a female of Magdala Almost everything popularly attached to this name is denied by the voices in this file. Ellicott: "there is not the shadow of any evidence for either identification" with Mary of Bethany or the sinner of Luke 7. Cambridge blames the Italian painters. Pulpit concedes the error "is so rooted in men's minds and language that it is impossible to eradicate it." What the Gospels do say is that seven demons went out of her (Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2).
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΜαρίαMariaMaryG3137
√ Μαρία — Maria or Mariam (iNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
μήτηρmētērmotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounNominative Feminine Singular
mētēr: a mother Used twice in the verse, and both times as the only identification given: these women are named by their sons. The one exception is the Magdalene, named by her town. Ellicott and Cambridge both weigh, and neither settles, whether this Mary is the wife of Clopas and sister of the Lord's mother (John 19:25).
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸακώβουIakōbouof JamesG2385
√ Ἰάκωβος — Jacobus, the name of three IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἸωσὴφIōsēphJosephG2501
√ Ἰωσήφ — Joseph, the name of seven IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
μήτηρmētērmotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounNominative Feminine Singular
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ΖεβεδαίουZebedaiouZebedee’sG2199
√ Ζεβεδαῖος — Zebedæus, an IsraeliteNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Zebedaios: Zebedee, an Israelite The mother is Salome (Mark 15:40). Pulpit's remark is the sharpest thing said about her: "The rejection of her ambitious petition had not lessened her love and devotion to Christ" (Matthew 20:20). She asked for thrones at His right and left; she is standing here while two criminals occupy those places.
υἱῶνhuiōnsonsG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounGenitive Masculine Plural

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Three hours in which the sun kept silence — 27:45

The unit opens on a clock, and the clock is liturgical. Cambridge fixes the hours ("From 12 to 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the hours of the Paschal sacrifice") and Gill supplies from the Jerusalem sources that the ninth hour is when the daily sacrifice was offered, "which was an eminent type of Christ." Between those two hours, σκότος ἐγένετο: darkness came to be, an aorist of γίνομαι with no cause named. Every voice in this file rules out an eclipse on the same ground, that Passover falls at the full moon; Barnes, Poole, Benson and Gill then reach for the pagan witnesses (Phlegon, Tertullian's appeal to the Roman archives, Dionysius in Egypt), and Pulpit demolishes them one by one: "but none of these will stand the test of criticism." Ellicott is the most careful, granting that John, Josephus and Tacitus are silent and resting the case on the independence of the three synoptic reports. ⚙ What the Greek contributes that the arguments do not is restraint: the verse says an event occurred and declines to say who caused it, and that reticence is the pattern of the entire unit. Ellicott catches its effect on the hill: "The gibes and taunts cease, and the life of the Crucified One ends in a silence broken only by His own bitter cry."

ii. The cry that was Scripture, and the name that was misheard — 27:46 to 27:47

Henry states the sourced fact in one line: "Jesus uttered a complaint from Ps 22:1," and adds that thereby "he teaches of what use the word of God is to direct us in prayer." The cry is ἀνεβόησεν, a shout thrown upward, and its verb of abandonment is ἐγκατέλιπες (G1459, "to leave behind in some place"), aorist. Pulpit builds an argument out of the tense: not the perfect of the older English versions "but in the aorist; and it implies that during the three hours of darkness Christ had been in silence enduring this utter desolation, which had now come to its climax." On what the desolation is, the file splits, and we will not pretend otherwise. Geneva reads the wrath of God directly: the cry "is a natural part of his humanity, which, even though it was void of sin, still felt the wrath of God." Cambridge, quoting Canon Perowne, refuses it: "It is going beyond Scripture to say that a sense of God's wrath extorted that cry." Gill holds a third position, that Christ was "without a sense of the gracious presence of God" while the union of natures was untouched. Ellicott, having canvassed four explanations, concludes that "none of these answers is altogether satisfactory," and that is where an honest synthesis has to stand. ⚙ Note the one thing the grammar does settle: the abandonment is spoken in the vocative, Θεέ μου, twice. Then comes the mishearing, and Matthew records it as such. Ellicott and Barnes both explain how Ἠλὶ could be heard as Ἠλίαν, and the commentators divide again on motive: Cambridge says "pure mockery," Pulpit says the mockery was over ("there is no spirit of mockery left in the awed bystanders"), Geneva says "a profane impudence." The Greek gives only the cognate irony: He cried with a great φωνή, and they said He φωνεῖ for Elijah.

iii. Sour wine on a reed, and the wager on Elijah — 27:48 to 27:49

Three of the rarest words in the Greek New Testament crowd into one verse: σπόγγος (G4699, in 3 verses), ὄξος (G3690, in 5), περιτίθημι (G4060, in 8). The Verifier confirms all three shared with John 19:29. Ellicott reconstructs the object domestically, the sponge "probably served instead of a cork to the jar," and reads the act as "a rough pity"; Gill reads exactly the opposite, "not to revive his spirits, or hasten his death ... but in contempt of him." The tense adjudicates the scene if not the heart: ἐπότιζεν is imperfect, and Ellicott draws the consequence, "as implying that while he was doing this, the others tried to interrupt him." Benson supplies the Old Testament ground, that the drink completed what "was predicted Psalm 69:21, In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," and Pulpit says outright, "Thus was fulfilled the psalmist's word." ⚙ Worth saying plainly: Matthew, who elsewhere files fulfilment formulas, files none here. The link to Psalm 69 is the commentators' and ours. Then the crowd's command, Ἄφες, aorist imperative of ἀφίημι, with no object in the Greek at all, which is why Cambridge lays out three possible senses. One verse later the same lexeme G863 will describe what Jesus does with His spirit. Ellicott hears "eager expectation rather than derision" in the wager on Elijah; Barnes hears men "still deriding his sufferings." No one came.

iv. The loud voice and the released spirit — 27:50

Nine words in Greek. The verb of the cry changes: not ἀναβοάω now but κράξας (G2896, which Strong's glosses "properly, to croak (as a raven) or scream"), and BSB levels both to "cried out." Then ἀφῆκεν τὸ πνεῦμα, active voice, Jesus the subject. Benson translates it "dismissed his spirit, as the original words, αφηκε το πνευμα, properly signify: an expression admirably suited to our Lord's own words, John 10:18"; Barnes calls the traditional "yielded up the ghost" "unhappy"; Henry reads the loudness as evidence "that his life was not forced from him, but was freely delivered into his Father's hands"; Gill argues the cry was itself "more than human" after such exhaustion. Pulpit alone pulls back: "The phrase has been interpreted to signify that Christ exerted his power to anticipate the actual moment of dissolution; but there is no necessity of importing this idea into the expression," and notes that the same idiom serves for ordinary dying. ⚙ We keep the fact and mark the inference: the voice of the verb is active, and the weight the tradition puts on that voice is a judgment. Pulpit's other observation is chronology, not theology, and no one disputes it: the death falls at the hour "when the Paschal lambs began to be slain in the temple courts."

v. Torn, shaken, split, opened, raised: six passives and no agent — 27:51 to 27:53

Read the verbs of these three verses in a column: ἐσχίσθη, ἐσείσθη, ἐσχίσθησαν, ἀνεῴχθησαν, ἠγέρθησαν, ἐνεφανίσθησαν. All aorist passive; not one names a hand. English translations, BSB included, reach for actives ("the tombs broke open," "the earth quaked") and dissolve the pattern. The veil is τοῦ ναοῦ, the inner shrine, and Ellicott corrects the versions: "Better, the veil of the sanctuary." On its meaning JFB is unrestrained: "How emphatic the statement, from top to bottom ... Before, it was death to go in, now it is death to stay out." Maclaren works the other face of the same symbol, that the rending "declared that the sacred soil within it was now common as any foot of earth in Galilee; and its rending, so to speak, made way for a departing God." Both readings depend on Hebrews, which Cambridge, Pulpit, Poole and JFB all quote, and on the priestly eyewitnesses whom Ellicott and Cambridge locate in Acts 6:7. Ellicott then makes the observation we find hardest to improve on: Matthew "does not notice, and apparently, therefore, did not apprehend, the symbolic import of the fact." On the tombs, the file is at its most careful and its least certain. JFB argues the graves opened at the death but the sleepers came out only with the risen Lord, which the Greek of v. 53 (μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν αὐτοῦ) requires; Ellicott, admitting the account stands "without any collateral testimony in any other part of the New Testament," argues for recently dead believers; Gill lists candidates and concedes "who they were is not to be known"; Pulpit finds the decisive grammar, that the masculine participle ἐξελθόντες refuses to agree with neuter σώματα. Gill and Benson go on to have the risen saints ascend with Christ; Barnes refuses: "is not revealed, and conjecture is vain." Henry sets the floor for the whole movement: "we must not desire to be wise above what is written."

vi. The guard that confessed and the women who kept watching — 27:54 to 27:56

The unit closes on two sets of witnesses, joined by cognate verbs. The soldiers were τηροῦντες (G5083), keeping watch under orders; the women were θεωροῦσαι (G2334), beholding from afar, and Strong's records the two roots as akin. The guard's verdict is anarthrous, Ἀληθῶς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς ἦν οὗτος, and the file divides three ways over it. Barnes hears a polytheist saying "a son of a god"; Benson answers from usage that the article "is often wanting when the true God is evidently meant"; JFB will hear nothing less than the full Jewish sense, since the claim "on which His condemnation expressly turned" is the very phrase now returned to Jesus. Ellicott imposes the right discipline on all three: "We must interpret them from the stand-point of the centurion's knowledge, not from that of Christian faith," and notes that Luke reports the same confession as "Truly this Man was righteous." Gill suspects the fear was mere dread of punishment, "not with a true godly fear." ⚙ Set the pronoun beside v. 47: οὗτος, this one, is the word the mockers pointed with, and it is the word the soldier confesses with. Then the women: Benson notes they "manifested more courage and attachment to their Lord and Master, than even the apostles themselves," Gill asks bluntly where Peter was, Barnes writes that "never did female constancy shine more brightly," and JFB corrects the tense to a pluperfect, they "had followed." Their service is διακονοῦσαι, a present participle, not a purpose clause: continuous, material, from Galilee to this hill. Three are named, and two of them only by their sons.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested and corrected by the text. What strikes us hardest in Matthew 27:45 to 56 is not any single portent but a grammatical fact that no translation can carry: from the coming to be of the darkness to the manifesting of the risen sleepers, this passage is written almost entirely in verbs with no agent. Darkness came to be. The veil was split. The earth was shaken. The rocks were split. The tombs were opened. The bodies were raised. They were made manifest. The guard were made afraid. Around that column of passives, exactly two people act in the active voice: a nameless man runs with a sponge, and Jesus releases His spirit.

⚙ That shape answers the question the cry of v. 46 asks, and answers it without a word. ἵνα τί is a purpose question, to what end, and heaven returns no sentence. Pulpit says it exactly: "No answer came from the darkened heaven; but the cry was heard." What comes instead is a series of acts whose agent Matthew never names, and every one of them opens something that was shut: a curtain, the bedrock, the graves. ⚙ We read the torn veil accordingly, with Hebrews and with JFB, Cambridge, Poole, Pulpit and Maclaren, as an answer given in deeds. And we read the direction, from above unto below, as the signature on it.

⚙ Two restraints we impose on ourselves. First, on the abandonment: the file's voices contradict each other (Geneva and Gill say wrath, Perowne through Cambridge says the repeated vocative forbids that conclusion), and the aorist ἐγκατέλιπες does not adjudicate. We therefore hold the fact (He prayed Psalm 22:1 as His own) and decline the mechanism. Second, on vv. 52 to 53: Ellicott concedes there is no other New Testament witness to it, and Henry says we must not be wise above what is written. So we report what Matthew reports, note that he alone reports it, and leave Gill's ascending saints where Gill left them, as what he apprehends.

⚙ The line printed as this unit's pull quote is our own sentence and not a verse of Scripture: "God gave no answer in words to the cry from the cross; He answered by tearing His own curtain, from the top down."

God gave no answer in words to the cry from the cross; He answered by tearing His own curtain, from the top down.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The synoptic hour: the same clock, the same darkness, the same cry verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark and Luke carry this scene in largely the same Greek words. The Verifier confirms Matthew 27:45 shares ἔννατος (G1766), σκότος (G4655) and γῆ (G1093) with both Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44, and that Matthew 27:46 shares ἔννατος, ὥρα (G5610) and μέγας (G3173) with Mark 15:34. Since the ordinal ἔννατος occurs in only ten verses of the Greek canon, its presence in all four places is a real verbal join and not a coincidence of common vocabulary. Ellicott treats the agreement of the first three Gospels as the evidential basis for the darkness itself, "records in many respects so independent of each other." Cambridge notes that Mark 15:34 preserves the Aramaic of the cry more exactly than Matthew does.

Mark 15:33 · Mark 15:34 · Luke 23:44

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1766 ἔννατος (rare, in 10 vv) with all three refs, plus G4655 σκότος (29 vv) and G1093 γῆ (223 vv) with Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44, and G5610 ὥρα (99 vv) with G3173 μέγας (231 vv) with Mark 15:34. All refs are Greek New Testament, so shared Strong's numbers are a legitimate verbal basis.

Psalm 22:1 on the lips of the Crucified structural / thematic: confirmed

This is the plainest Old Testament quotation in the unit and the one our badge system is least able to certify. Matthew prints the Aramaic (Ἠλὶ ἠλὶ λεμὰ σαβαχθάνι) and then translates it, which is a formal mark of citation, and the words are Psalm 22:1. Henry states it flatly, "Jesus uttered a complaint from Ps 22:1"; Barnes, "The words are taken from Psalm 22:1"; Gill adds the philological detail that σαβαχθάνι stands "in the room of Azabthani, as it was, and still is, in the Chaldee paraphrase of the text in Psalm 22:1"; Poole notes "David was a type of Christ. He that was the Son of David useth David's words." Ellicott raises the further possibility that the quotation was meant "to direct the thoughts of men to the great Messianic prophecy which the Psalm contained," and notes that the soldiers' acts in v. 35 and the mockers' words in v. 43 had already been drawn from the same psalm.

Psalm 22:1

basis: Near verbatim and formally marked (Matthew transliterates, then translates), and named as the source by Henry, Barnes, Gill, Benson, Poole, Cambridge and Pulpit. It cannot be tiered verbal here for two reasons: the refs cross the Testaments, which qa.py check B rejects, and a Greek to Hebrew pair can carry no shared Strong's lexeme, so the Verifier can compute no verbal basis. Downgraded to structural with the reason recorded rather than claimed as confirmed verbal.

The sponge, the sour wine, the reed: three rare words held in common verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Verifier's strongest verbal result in this unit. σπόγγος (G4699) occurs in only three verses of the Greek canon, ὄξος (G3690) in five, περιτίθημι (G4060) in eight, and Matthew 27:48 shares all three with John 19:29, and shares περιτίθημι with Mark 15:36 alongside Ἡλίας (G2243) and τρέχω (G5143). Three independently rare lexemes in one short clause is as close to a fingerprint as verbal evidence gets. The commentators use the parallels to fill out what Matthew leaves out: Barnes and Ellicott supply from John 19:28 that the act followed the words "I thirst," and from John 19:29 that the vessel of vinegar was already standing there; Barnes and Benson reconcile Matthew's reed with John's hyssop from 1 Kings 4:33.

John 19:29 · Mark 15:36

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4699 σπόγγος (rare, in 3 vv), G3690 ὄξος (rare, in 5 vv) and G4060 περιτίθημι (rare, in 8 vv) with John 19:29; G4060 περιτίθημι, G2243 Ἡλίας (29 vv) and G5143 τρέχω (17 vv) with Mark 15:36. All refs Greek New Testament, so the shared numbers are a real verbal basis.

"In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" typological

Pulpit states the link without hedging: "Thus was fulfilled the psalmist's word, 'In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink' (Psalm 69:21)." Benson makes it the motive of the whole action, that Jesus, having accomplished everything foretold "excepting that circumstance of his sufferings, which was predicted Psalm 69:21," said "I thirst" so that this too should be accomplished. ⚙ We record one caution the voices do not: Matthew himself attaches no fulfilment formula here, though he attaches them freely elsewhere in this chapter. The correspondence of sour wine offered to a thirsting sufferer is real and was read this way early and widely; the claim that Matthew is citing is an inference.

Psalm 69:21

basis: Figural reading of a Hebrew text against a Greek one: no shared Strong's lexeme is possible across the Testaments, so no verbal basis exists to compute, and qa.py check B would in any case reject a verbal tier on mixed refs. Attestation ancient and widely held (Pulpit and Benson state it; Ellicott and Barnes supply the John 19:28 thirst it answers). Marked typological rather than structural because it is read as a foreshadowing fulfilled, not merely a shared motif, and Matthew supplies no fulfilment formula of his own.

The veil in the other Gospels verbal / quotation: confirmed

All three synoptics report the rending, and the shared vocabulary is uncommon. The Verifier confirms Matthew 27:51 shares καταπέτασμα (G2665, in only six verses), ναός (G3485) and σχίζω (G4977, in nine verses) with Luke 23:45, and ναός, ἄνωθεν (G509) and ἕως (G2193) with Mark 15:38. Cambridge notes the one substantive difference: "St Luke has 'rent in the midst'" where Matthew and Mark have from above to below, and JFB builds his whole exposition on Matthew's direction. Poole observes that Mark and Luke mention only the veil, not the earthquake or the tombs, and that John mentions none of them.

Mark 15:38 · Luke 23:45

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2665 καταπέτασμα (rare, in 6 vv) and G4977 σχίζω (rare, in 9 vv) with Luke 23:45; G3485 ναός (39 vv), G509 ἄνωθεν (13 vv) and G2193 ἕως (138 vv) with Mark 15:38. Both refs Greek New Testament.

The curtain that only one man could pass, and the flesh that replaced it typological

The veil of Matthew 27:51 is the one prescribed in Exodus 26:31-33 to divide the Holy Place from the Most Holy, behind which Leviticus 16:2 forbids Aaron to come except as commanded. Maclaren sets the scene for the reader who has forgotten it: "only the High Priest was permitted to go, and that but once a year ... To all others it was death to peer into the mysteries." JFB supplies the argument from Hebrews 9:8 and Hebrews 10:19-22, that the way in "was not yet made manifest" while the blood of bulls and goats was all there was, and that the tearing announced it now was. Cambridge and Pulpit both quote Hebrews 10:19-20 on entering "through the veil, that is to say, his flesh," Poole notes "the antitype being rent, it was reasonable that the type should also be so," Benson reads the opening "a way, through the veil of Christ's flesh, for all believers," and Ellicott adds that the true veil "was His own flesh." This is as unanimous as this file ever gets.

Exodus 26:31-33 · Leviticus 16:2 · Hebrews 9:8 · Hebrews 10:19-20

basis: A figural reading joining Hebrew and Greek texts, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and a verbal tier is impossible (and would be rejected by qa.py check B on mixed refs). Recorded attestation: Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge, Pulpit, Poole, Benson and Maclaren all read Matthew 27:51 through Hebrews 9 and 10, which makes this ancient and widely held rather than novel. Note the honest limit Ellicott himself states: Matthew records the fact without appearing to draw the symbolism.

Noon turned to night: Amos and the plague of darkness structural / thematic: confirmed

Two Old Testament darknesses stand behind v. 45, and the voices name one of them. Ellicott points to Amos 8:9-10 for "the indescribable yet most oppressive gloom which seems to shroud the whole sky as in mourning," and Gill cites Amos 8:9 as well, against the brevity of a natural eclipse. ⚙ We add the plague of Exodus 10:21-23, a darkness over the land of Egypt that could be felt, lasting three days, with light in the dwellings of Israel, and we add it as our own suggestion rather than a sourced one: the shape (a set span of supernatural dark over one land, at the hour of a Passover) is common to both scenes, but no voice in this file draws the line, and we do not claim Matthew drew it.

Amos 8:9 · Exodus 10:21-23

basis: A shared pattern (supernatural darkness over one land as a sign of judgment and mourning) with no quotation claimed. Cross Testament, so shared Strong's lexemes cannot exist and no verbal tier is available. The Amos 8:9 leg is sourced: named by Ellicott and by Gill. The Exodus 10:21-23 leg is our own machine suggestion and is flagged as such in the body; if it does not persuade, drop that ref and the thread still stands on Amos.

The same rare shaking, and the same watch, at the empty tomb verbal / quotation: confirmed

The verb of v. 51 returns one chapter later. The Verifier confirms Matthew 27:51 and Matthew 28:4 share σείω (G4579), which occurs in only five verses of the Greek canon, and Matthew 27:54 and 28:4 share τηρέω (G5083). ⚙ The pattern this exposes is Matthew's own and, so far as this file shows, is drawn by none of the commentators: a shaking at the death and a shaking at the rising; soldiers set to keep watch in both places; and in both places their fear (v. 54 ἐφοβήθησαν, 28:4 the guards become as dead men). At the cross the watchmen confess; at the tomb they are paid to deny. The verbal link is confirmed; the reading of it is ours.

Matthew 28:4

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4579 σείω (rare, in 5 vv) and G5083 τηρέω (65 vv). Both refs are in Matthew, so this is an intra-Gospel verbal repetition, not a quotation of another book: the tier certifies the shared rare vocabulary, and the thematic reading built on it in the body is marked as ours.

The ninth hour, in Acts and in the temple courts verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἔννατος (G1766) is rare, in only ten verses, and the Verifier finds it at Acts 3:1, Acts 10:3 and Acts 10:30, each time paired with ὥρα. In Acts that hour is the hour of prayer and of Cornelius's vision. Ellicott appeals to exactly these passages ("as in Acts 2:15; Acts 3:1; Acts 10:3; Acts 10:9") to establish the Jewish reckoning of hours, which is what lets him place the crucifixion at nine in the morning and the darkness from noon to three. Gill and Pulpit add why the hour matters liturgically: it is the hour of the evening sacrifice, and Pulpit notes the death falls "at the very time when the Paschal lambs began to be slain in the temple courts." ⚙ The consequence is worth stating: the hour at which the Son cries out and dies is, in the same canon, the fixed hour at which Israel prayed and the first Gentile was told his prayers had been heard.

Acts 3:1 · Acts 10:3 · Acts 10:30

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1766 ἔννατος (rare, in 10 vv) and G5610 ὥρα (99 vv) with all three refs. All refs Greek New Testament, so shared Strong's numbers are a valid verbal basis. The verbal claim is the shared rare time word only; the theological reading of the hour rests on Ellicott, Gill and Pulpit and is marked as such.

Opened graves and sleepers awakened typological

Matthew's vocabulary in vv. 52-53 is the vocabulary of the prophets of resurrection. Ezekiel 37:12-13 is the promise that God will open the graves and bring His people up out of them; Daniel 12:2 is the sleepers in the dust who awake. Barnes names Daniel 12:2 as the canonical warrant for calling the death of saints sleep, and Gill names Isaiah 26:19 as a prophecy accomplished in this event. ⚙ Note the correspondence the Greek preserves even where the languages cannot be compared: the graves are opened (ἀνεῴχθησαν, passive), the sleepers are raised (ἠγέρθησαν, passive), in the same order and the same voice as the prophetic promise, which is God's act on both counts. What no source in this file can supply is a second New Testament witness to the event itself, and that gap belongs in the reader's hands.

Ezekiel 37:12-13 · Daniel 12:2 · Isaiah 26:19

basis: Cross Testament figural reading: Hebrew against Greek, so no shared Strong's lexeme exists and a verbal tier is impossible (qa.py check B would also reject mixed refs). Partly sourced: Barnes cites Daniel 12:2 for the sleep idiom and Gill cites Isaiah 26:19 as accomplished here. The Ezekiel 37:12-13 leg is our own addition. Attestation mixed, so tiered typological rather than confirmed, and the absence of any second New Testament witness to vv. 52-53 (conceded by Ellicott) is recorded in the apparatus.

The spear in some manuscripts of v. 49 flagged: verify source

After "let us see if Elijah comes to save him," some of the oldest manuscripts add a sentence: "and another took a spear and pierced his side, and there came out water and blood." Cambridge reports it neutrally, "Here the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS. add"; Gill notes that Beza found it in two ancient copies and that the Ethiopic version carries it; Pulpit rejects it outright as "an evident interpolation ... borrowed from John 19:34," on both critical and theological grounds, since placing the spear before the death would make the wound the cause of death. The clause is not in the BSB text of this unit. ⚙ We flag rather than adjudicate: the provenance of the reading is genuinely contested, the witnesses for it are among the weightiest known, and the argument against it is partly doctrinal, which is a reason for readers to weigh it themselves.

John 19:34

basis: Contested textual provenance, not a lexical link. The addition after Matthew 27:49 is attested in the Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts (reported by Cambridge and Pulpit) and by Beza's copies and the Ethiopic (reported by Gill), and is rejected by Pulpit on grounds that are partly theological. No Verifier basis is claimed and none applies; the thread exists to record the dispute, not to settle it.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Righteous Sufferer who prays the psalm He is fulfilling ancient/widely-held

⚙ The cry of v. 46 is not a new composition. It is the opening line of a psalm whose later verses had already been acted out around the cross: the parting of garments and casting of lots in v. 35, the specific taunt of v. 43 that He trusted in God and let God deliver Him. Ellicott makes the point that "both the spoken words of His enemies and the acts of the soldiers must have recalled the words of that Psalm," and that the memory so roused "would pass on to the cry of misery with which the Psalm opened." Henry reads the quotation as instruction as well as lament: "Hereby he teaches of what use the word of God is to direct us in prayer, and recommends the use of Scripture expressions in prayer." Poole: "David was a type of Christ. He that was the Son of David useth David's words, possibly spoken by David in the person of Christ." ⚙ The doctrinal restraint we keep is Ellicott's and Cambridge's: the psalm that begins in abandonment does not end there, and the repeated vocative My God is itself, as Perowne says through Cambridge, "a witness even then to His confidence in His Father's Love." How much the abandonment cost, and of what it consisted, the text does not define and we will not.

Psalm 22:1 · Matthew 27:35 · Matthew 27:43

The veil was His flesh ancient/widely-held

⚙ Of all the readings in this file this is the one the apostolic writings themselves supply, which is why it is not a conjecture. Hebrews 10:19-20 names the new and living way as one consecrated "through the veil, that is to say, his flesh," and Hebrews 9:8 says the way into the holiest was not manifest while the first tabernacle stood. Matthew reports that at the instant the flesh was torn from the spirit, the curtain was torn from above. JFB draws the conclusion without qualification: "the moment the Victim expired on the altar, that thick veil which for so many ages had been the dread symbol of separation between God and guilty men was, without a hand touching it, mysteriously rent in twain from top to bottom." Ellicott names Christ the Forerunner passing through into the sanctuary not made with hands; Cambridge, "henceforth there is free access for man to God the Father through Jesus Christ"; Benson, the opening of "a way, through the veil of Christ's flesh, for all believers into the most holy place"; Maclaren, holding the darker side of the same symbol, that the shrine was now "common as any foot of earth in Galilee." ⚙ The passive voice of ἐσχίσθη and the direction ἀπ' ἄνωθεν are the two details the Greek adds to their case: no agent, and no reach from below.

Hebrews 9:8 · Hebrews 10:19-20 · Exodus 26:31-33

Dying at the hour of the sacrifice ancient/widely-held

⚙ The hour is not incidental detail, and two of the most sober voices in this file say so independently. Gill, from the Jewish sources: the ninth hour is when the daily sacrifice was slain and offered, "which was an eminent type of Christ," and near it the Passover was killed. Pulpit: "It is to be noted that the death of Christ occurred at 3 p.m., the very time when the Paschal lambs began to be slain in the temple courts. Thus the long prepared type was at last fulfilled, when 'Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.'" Cambridge names the same span as "the hours of the Paschal sacrifice." Henry adds the priestly side of it: "by the eternal Spirit he offered himself, being the Priest as well as the Sacrifice." ⚙ Hold that against the sanctuary: at the hour of the offering, in the room where the offering's blood was brought, the curtain came down. The altar and the veil answer each other within a single sentence of Matthew's text.

1 Corinthians 5:7 · Exodus 12:6

The first man to get the verdict right was on the execution detail novel

⚙ Track the phrase Son of God through this chapter as the brief's own voices track it. In v. 40 the passers by say "if You are the Son of God, come down from the cross." In v. 43 the chief priests quote His claim back at Him, "for He said, I am the Son of God," which Ellicott, Benson and Pulpit all identify as the words that shaped what the centurion later said. He did not come down. And the officer commanding the detail that nailed Him there says Ἀληθῶς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς ἦν οὗτος. ⚙ Our reading, offered as a reading: Matthew has arranged the chapter so that the taunt supplies the vocabulary of the confession, and the demand that He save Himself is answered by His refusal to. How much the centurion understood is disputed in this very file (Ellicott and Barnes minimal, JFB and Poole maximal, Luke's parallel softer still, "Certainly this was a righteous man"), and Gill doubts the fear was godly at all. We do not need to settle his theology to notice the structure: the first human verdict in Matthew's passion that agrees with the voice at the baptism comes from a Gentile soldier standing in the dark.

Matthew 27:40 · Matthew 27:43 · Mark 15:39 · Luke 23:47

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The Greek behind this unit is the Berean interlinear with Strong's numbering; the English quoted as BSB is the Berean Standard Bible (CC0). Two textual points affect the unit directly. First, between v. 49 and v. 50 the Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts add "and another took a spear and pierced his side, and there came out water and blood" (reported by Cambridge, Pulpit and Gill, who adds Beza's copies and the Ethiopic version); the clause is absent from the text used here, and Pulpit's grounds for rejecting it are partly theological. It is carried as a flagged thread rather than silently dropped. Second, at v. 56 the interlinear reads Ἰωσὴφ (Joseph) where the Received Text and Mark 15:40 have Joses; Pulpit states "Some manuscripts read Joseph; but the Received Text is correct," so the printed text here follows the reading Pulpit rejects.

Source artefacts. The lexicon entries supplied to this unit are truncated mid sentence by the source (for example G1096 γίνομαι ends at "to cause to be ("gen"-erate), i", and G5083 τηρέω is given only as "perhaps akin to G2334 (θεωρέω)"). Where a note leans on a root sense, it leans on what the entry actually says and no further; the θεωρέω / τηρέω connection in vv. 54-55 is drawn from that surviving Strong's cross reference and is a lexicographer's guess, not an established etymology. The interlinear gloss field for μεγάλῃ at 27:46 and 27:50 reads "vvv", a placeholder, with the sense carried on the following word; the literal renderings supply "great" from the lexicon (G3173) rather than from the gloss. Several commentary entries in the brief are capped (Benson and Gill at v. 46, Poole at v. 50, Gill at v. 51, Pulpit at vv. 45 and 52, Benson at vv. 54 and 55, Maclaren at v. 51 with over twelve thousand characters withheld); quotations were taken only from the visible text, and Maclaren in particular is represented by one sentence of a long sermon with two further movements.

What is uncertain. The darkness of v. 45: no voice here doubts the event, all deny an eclipse on the Passover full moon, and the pagan corroborations they cite (Phlegon, Tertullian's Roman archives, Dionysius the Areopagite in Egypt) are accepted by Benson, Barnes, Gill and Poole and dismissed by Pulpit as unable to stand "the test of criticism"; Ellicott records that John, Josephus and Tacitus are silent. The meaning of the abandonment in v. 46 is disputed inside this file and is left disputed. The raising of vv. 52-53 has, as Ellicott concedes, "no collateral testimony in any other part of the New Testament"; the identity of the saints, the manner of their bodies, and what became of them afterwards are all unanswered, Gill and Benson speculate, Barnes and Henry refuse, and we side with the refusal. The centurion's meaning in v. 54 is grammatically undecidable, since Υἱὸς Θεοῦ is anarthrous. The tradition that his name was Longinus (Pulpit) has no scriptural support and is reported here as tradition only.

What is ours. Everything marked ⚙ is machine synthesis and fallible: in particular the observation that vv. 51-53 run on six agentless passives, the pairing of Ἄφες (v. 49) with ἀφῆκεν (v. 50) as one lexeme G863, the reading of Matthew 27:51 and 54 against 28:4, the Exodus 10 and Ezekiel 37 legs of two threads, and the reading of the centurion's confession against vv. 40 and 43. The verbal bases of every thread come from the Verifier and are quoted with their frequencies; no cross Testament thread is tiered verbal, because a Greek to Hebrew pair can carry no shared Strong's number, and that constraint is stated in each such badge rather than worked around.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)