And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.—St. Luke xxiii: 44-48.
NOTE BY THE ARTIST
Of the various points of evidence which may be adduced in favor of the identity of the spot referred to in picture No. 68 with the Golgotha of the Gospels one only need here be dwelt upon. “The place of the skull” is the interpretation of the Hebrew word as given in the Authorized Version, but according to the Revised Version “the place called the ‘Skull’” is the more accurate translation, and the singular suitability of this name to the hillock in question is obvious to anyone looking at it from the Mount of Olives; the caves and apertures in the face of the cliff beneath its rounded summit bearing a strange resemblance to the eye-sockets and nostrils of a human skull. The significance also of the words, “They that passed by railed on him,” is at once apparent; as the knoll is in full view of passers-by to east and north, standing as it does at the junction of the high roads from Jericho and Damascus.
70
But there is one other thing to notice in connection with this burial. The priests had heard Jesus speak of rising from the dead on the third day. They went to Pilate and told him of this. They said they were afraid that his disciples might come by night and steal away his body, and then declare that he had risen from the dead. They asked him, therefore, to allow them to seal the stone over the mouth of the grave with his seal, and to have a guard of Roman soldiers appointed to keep watch over the tomb till the third day was passed. Pilate gave them leave to do this. And we read, “so they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” St. Matt. xxvii: 66.
Such is the history of the burial of our Saviour. And as we stand in thought before the silent tomb in which the body of Jesus is lying, we may well say, in the words of one of our hymns for Easter even:
“All is o’er, the pain, the sorrow,
Human taunts, and Satan’s spite;
Death shall be despoiled to-morrow
Of the prey he grasps to-night,