vaguely acquainted with his apocalyptic ideas, thought they heard him call Elias, and said, “Let us see whether Elias will come to save him.”  It appears that the two crucified thieves at his side also insulted him.[2] The sky was dark;[3] and the earth, as in all the environs of Jerusalem, dry and gloomy.  For a moment, according to certain narratives, his heart failed him; a cloud hid from him the face of his Father; he endured an agony of despair a thousand times more acute than all his torture.  He saw only the ingratitude of men; he perhaps repented suffering for a vile race, and exclaimed:  “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” But his divine instinct still prevailed.  In the degree that the life of the body became extinguished, his soul became clear, and returned by degrees to its celestial origin.  He regained the idea of his mission; he saw in his death the salvation of the world; he lost sight of the hideous spectacle spread at his feet, and, profoundly united to his Father, he began upon the gibbet the divine life which he was to live in the heart of humanity through infinite ages.

[Footnote 1:  Matt. xxvii. 40, and following; Mark xv. 29, and following.]

[Footnote 2:  Matt. xxvii. 44; Mark xv. 32.  Luke has here modified the tradition, in accordance with his taste for the conversion of sinners.]

[Footnote 3:  Matt. xxvii. 45; Mark xv. 33; Luke xxiii. 44.]

The peculiar atrocity of crucifixion was that one might live three or four days in this horrible state upon the instrument of torture.[1] The haemorrhage from the hands quickly stopped, and was not mortal.  The true cause of death was the unnatural position of the body, which brought on a frightful disturbance of the circulation, terrible pains of the head and heart, and, at length, rigidity of the limbs.  Those who had a strong constitution only died of hunger.[2] The idea which suggested this cruel punishment was not directly to kill the condemned by positive injuries, but to expose the slave nailed by the hand of which he had not known how to make good use, and to let him rot on the wood.  The delicate organization of Jesus preserved him from this slow agony.  Everything leads to the belief that the instantaneous rupture of a vessel in the heart brought him, at the end of three hours, to a sudden death.  Some moments before yielding up his soul, his voice was still strong.[3] All at once, he uttered a terrible cry,[4] which some heard as:  “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” but which others, more preoccupied with the accomplishment of prophecies, rendered by the words, “It is finished!” His head fell upon his breast, and he expired.

[Footnote 1:  Petronius, Sat., cxi., and following; Origen, In Matt.  Comment. series, 140 Arab text published in Kosegarten, op. cit., p. 63, and following.]

[Footnote 2:  Eusebius, Hist.  Eccl., viii. 8.]

[Footnote 3:  Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 34.]