Truly This Man Was the Son of God
“When Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he yielded up the spirit.” This refers to what he had earlier said: “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again,” and “I lay it down of myself.”47 So for this cause he cried with the voice, that it might be shown that the act is done by his own power.
TRULY THE SON OF GOD. JEROME: Another Gospel68 demonstrates more clearly the cause of the centurion’s astonishment after the shaking of the earth. It wasn’t until after he had seen Christ give up the spirit that he said, “Truly this was the Son of God,” for no one has the power to give up the spirit except he who is the Creator of souls. Here we can understand “soul” for “spirit” because the soul animates the body and makes it spiritual and because the spirit is the substance of the soul itself, as it is written: “You take away their spirits and they cease to be.”