Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 27:57
When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:
57. Arimathea ] is generally identified with Ramathaim-zophim, on Mount Ephraim, the birth-place of Samuel (1Sa 1:1), the site of which is undetermined. Many authorities place it much nearer to Jerusalem than the position indicated in the map, p. 28.
Joseph ] From the other two Synoptic Gospels we learn that he was “an honourable (Mark) counsellor (Mark and Luke),” i. e. a member of the Sanhedrin. Like Nicodemus, he was a secret disciple of Jesus, and must undoubtedly have absented himself from the meetings of the Sanhedrin when Jesus was condemned. He “had not consented to the counsel and deed of them” (Luke).
An ancient but groundless legend has connected Joseph of Arimatha with Glastonbury, where, it is said, he built of osier-twigs the first Christian Church in England.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
57 66. The Entombment
Mar 15:42-47; Luk 23:50-56; Joh 19:38-42
Mat 27:62-66 are peculiar to St Matthew. St Mark notes the wonder of Pilate that Jesus was already dead, and the evidence of the centurion to the fact. St John mentions the co-operation of Nicodemus like Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin, who “consented not to the deed of them;” who brought “a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pound weight.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When the even was come – That is, some time after three oclock in the afternoon. Before this, the Jews had besought Pilate that the legs of those who were crucified might be broken and the bodies be taken down, that they might not remain on the cross during the Sabbath. The soldiers, coming to Jesus for that purpose, found that he was already dead, contrary to their expectation. A soldier, however, thrust a spear into his side, and there was furnished the fullest proof that he had expired. See the notes at Joh 19:31-37.
A rich man of Arimathea – It is uncertain where Arimathea was. There were several cities of that name in Judea. It is commonly supposed to be the same as Rama. See the notes at Mat 2:17. Luke says that this was a city of the Jews, and it is probable, therefore, that it was in the tribe of Benjamin, and but a short distance from Jerusalem. This man sustained a high character. He was an honorable counsellor, who also waited for the kingdom of God Mar 15:43; he was a good man and a just Luk 23:50; he had nobly set himself against the wicked purposes of the Sanhedrin Luk 23:51; he was a disciple of Jesus, though he was not openly his follower, because he feared the Jews, Joh 19:38.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 27:57-60
There came a rich man of Arimathaea.
Joseph of Arimathaea
I. The burial of Jesus by Joseph and his friend is an interesting illustration of faith. He accepted the evidence that Jesus was Christ. The popular fury had not affected his faith. Calm and dignified in his faith, he respectfully makes his request to Pilate. When we believe with all the heart we shall not be hindered by great difficulties from professing Christ.
II. In the conduct of Joseph we have an illustration of moral courage and decision of Christian character. It exposed any man to loss of reputation to favour one who was subject to crucifixion.
III. The conduct of Joseph is an illustration of the power which ardent love for Christ has on the life and conduct. Here was the secret of his courage, the hiding of its power. He loved Christ.
IV. The grace of God can prevail over hindrances to faith and Christian zeal in the characters and circumstances of men. It is remarkable that the two men who performed this courageous act were men once timid and cautious. God can place us in circumstances where our faith can suddenly acquire the force of years. We naturally like men at once to declare for Christ, like the morning star which glows in the sun-rising. Some are like St. John, constant from first to last.
V. The reward which Joseph had for his conduct. There in his tomb life and immortality were brought to light. The builder of the Pyramids is not to be compared for fame to the owner of that tomb. Every one of us has his own peculiar opportunity of showing his attachment to Christ. (T. Adams, D. D.)
The burial of Jesus
There has been no time to get a bier, or it is felt that the distance is so short that it is not needed. That body, however, has the best bier of all-the hands of true affection to lift it and carry it across to the new tomb which waits to receive it. The feet let us assign to Joseph, the body to Nicodemus, and that regal head with those closed eyes, over whom the shadows of the resurrection are already flitting, let us lay it on the breast of the beloved disciple John, who, possibly, was present standing with the Galilean women. The last service which Jesus ever needed at the hands of men it has been their privilege to render. For this service shall we not honour them, and forget that they were once secret disciples? Yea, verily; what they thus did for the Lords burial shall be told for a memorial of them, wherever this gospel of the kingdom is preached. (Dr. Hanna.)
A remarkable funeral
I. The corpse-It is the body of Jesus.
II. The undertaker-A rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph.
III. The preparations he made for the burial-He first begged the body, etc.
IV. The time of the funeral-Evening.
V. The mourners-No hired ones. (American Horn. Review.)
The burial of Jesus
I. This sepulchre.
1. Its situation-in a garden. Preaching of a new life arising from decay and death. In all human gardens of domestic and social joy, there is death.
2. It was a new tomb. The true consecration of the great world-sepulchre.
3. It was a rich mans tomb. Jesus has been in many rich mens homes and hearts since. Yet the aim of many rich seems to be, to bury Jesus-fashion, form, etc.
4. Hewn out of a rock. The strength of the tomb collateral proof of genuineness of resurrection.
II. The mourners.
1. Their characters suggestive.
2. Their number very small-a mere handful. More rejoicers than mourners. Very few of the disciples, but He is present at the death of every disciple.
3. Their grief intense. The Magdalene had lost her Saviour; the Virgin her Son; the rest a dear Friend.
III. The interment.
1. Hurried.
2. Costly. More was spent upon Jesus at His burial than at any time before.
3. Vigilance of His enemies; they cannot leave even His sepulchre alone. The seal and the guard. Their unintended testimony to the reality of the resurrection.
Learn:
1. Christ entered the grave to rob it of its gloom.
2. Rejoice in a living Saviour-not hide Him out of sight. (J. C. Gray.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 57. When the even] This must have been about three o’clock, or a little after; for our Lord having expired about three o’clock, Mt 27:46, and the Jewish passover beginning about four, it was necessary that Joseph, who would not fail to eat the passover at the usual time, should have obtained and buried the body of Christ some time before four o’clock. But such was the general consternation, occasioned by the prodigies that took place on this most awful occasion, that we may safely conjecture that nothing was done in order, and perhaps the passover itself was not eaten at the usual hour, if at all, that day. See at the end of the preceding chapter.
A rich man] He was a counsellor of the great Sanhedrin, Lu 23:50; and, from the accounts given of him by the evangelists we learn that he was a man of the greatest respectability. He now acted a more honourable part than all the disciples of our Lord. He was of Arimathea, or Rama, in the tribe of Benjamin, Mt 2:18, but lived ordinarily in Jerusalem, as being a member of the great council.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Mark hath it, Mar 15:42-47, And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.
Luke hath it, Luk 23:50-54, thus: And behold there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: (the same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them); he was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before laid. And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
John reports it with some additions, Joh 19:38-42; And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews preparation day: for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
All four evangelists (as we see) repeat this history, one supplying what is wanting in another towards the completeness of it. Nor must we think it is for nothing so punctually related; much depended upon the worlds satisfaction in the truth and certainty of his death, burial, and resurrection, they are three great articles of our faith. We have therefore here punctually described his burial, with all the circumstances of it. As it is with us, so it seems it was with them.
The bodies of those who died as malefactors were taken to be in the power of the magistrates, to dispose of as they pleased, though they were ordinarily granted upon petition to their friends and relations. The person who begged the body of our Saviour is described to us by his name, Joseph; by his city, Arimathea (there it seems he was born, or had his mansion house, though he resided in Jerusalem); by his quality, both his more exterior quality, and his more interior qualification. As for his outward quality, Matthew saith he was a rich man. Mark saith he was an honourable counsellor. Luke also calls him a counsellor, but had not consented to the counsel and deed of them, that is, of them who had examined and condemned Christ: whether he was a member of the Jewish sanhedrim, or of Pilates council, (though the last be not probable), or had been a counsellor formerly, but now was not so, is hard to determine; but his quality doubtless made his access more free to Pilate. He went in boldly to him, saith Mark; his quality in the city, and his love to Christ, both contributed to this boldness. For his more inward qualifications, Matthew and John both tell us he was a disciple, one that had learned of Christ, though John tells us, it was secretly for fear of the Jews. Among the chief rulers many believed on him, Joh 12:42.
As bad as that set of rulers was which now ruled the Jewish affairs, (and a worse could not be), Christ had some disciples amongst them, as well as afterward in Neros court: these, for fear of the Jews casting them out of the synagogues, durst not openly own Christ, but secretly loved him. Joseph and Nicodemus were two of them. And to let us know what the disciples of Christ are, and should be, this Joseph is described by Luke to be a good and a just man; by Mark, to be one who waited for the kingdom of God; a believer, one who, believing what Christ had said, both concerning his kingdom of grace and glory, lived in the expectation of it. This man begs of the governor the body of Christ. Pilate wondered that he should be so soon dead, but inquiring of the centurion, and hearing that he was dead, he commands that his body should be delivered unto Joseph.
The manner of the Jews was, neither to have gardens nor burying places within the city, but without the wall; it should appear that this Joseph had a garden place without the city, and near to the place where Christ was crucified, and in that garden he had cut out of some great stone a sepulchre for himself. Matthew calls it his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. The other evangelists do not call it his own new tomb, only Luke and John observe it was a sepulchre in which none ever before was laid. So as when they found him risen from the dead, they could not say it was some other body, for there was no other body in the tomb. But before they laid in the body, both Matthew and Mark observe, that Joseph wrapped it in fine linen, and John further addeth, that they embalmed the body; to which purpose it was that Nicodemus (that ruler who came to Jesus by night, of which we have the story, Joh 3:1-36, with whom our Saviour had a discourse about regeneration) brought the mixture of myrrh and aloes, of about an hundred pound weight; John adds, as the manner of the Jews is to bury, not ordinarily, but persons of greater note, whose estates were such as they could bear such an expense. This was the beginning of honour done unto Christ, after that he had passed through his lowest degree of humiliation.
Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, that is, the wife of Cleophas, of whom we heard before, stayed to see where he was laid, and took their seats over against the sepulchre. Luke saith, Luk 23:55,56, The women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day, according to the commandment. It seems they sat but a little while (as Matthew saith) right over against the sepulchre, but went home, and prepared spices and ointments to embalm him, but would not do it on the sabbath, which was now beginning, thinking that it would be time enough upon the first day of the week. Matthew saith, that Joseph rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
When the even was come,…. The second evening, when it was just at sunset; at which time the Jewish sabbath began, and when the bodies of those that were crucified, must be taken down; and if not dead, their bones must be broken, and they dispatched, in order to be interred in the common burying place of malefactors:
there came a rich man Arimathea: not from thence now, for he lived at Jerusalem; but this was the place of his nativity, or former abode, and from whence he originally came; and is the same with Ramathaim Zophim, and Ramah, and was the birthplace of Samuel the prophet, 1Sa 1:1, and is by the Septuagint called Armathaim, in 1Sa 1:1. His character, as a rich man, is particularly mentioned, not merely to show that such men may be, and sometimes are, instances of the grace of God; much less in a way of boasting, that such a man was attached to Jesus; but rather to point out the reason, how he came to have such easy access to Pilate, and to succeed in his business with him; as well as to observe the accomplishment of a prophecy, in Isa 53:9,
named Joseph; the same name with one of the patriarchs, the sons of Jacob; between whom there was a resemblance, not only as good men, but in their observance of funeral rites and obsequies; the one in those of his father, the other in those of his dear Lord and Master. Some think k he is the same with Joseph ben Gorion, the brother of Nicodemus ben Gorion, often spoken of as a priest, and one of the richest of them in Jerusalem:
who also himself was Jesus’ disciple; though he was only a secret one, as Nicodemus was: he had not as yet, or till now publicly professed him, for fear of the Jews, who had made a law, that whoever did, should be cast out of the synagogue; see Joh 19:38.
k Alting. Shilo, p. 309.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Burial of Christ. |
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57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimatha, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: 58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. 59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. 61 And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. 62 Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, 63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. 64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. 65 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. 66 So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
We have here an account of Christ’s burial, and the manner and circumstances of it, concerning which observe, 1. The kindness and good will of his friends that laid him in the grave. 2. The malice and ill will of his enemies that were very solicitous to keep him there.
I. His friends gave him a decent burial. Observe,
1. In general, that Jesus Christ was buried; when his precious soul was gone to paradise, his blessed body was deposited in the chambers of the grave, that he might answer the type of Jonas, and fulfil the prophecy of Isaias; he made his grave with the wicked. Thus in all things he must be made like unto his brethren, sin only excepted, and, like us, unto dust he must return. He was buried, to make his death the more certain, and his resurrection the more illustrious. Pilate would not deliver his body to be buried, till he was well assured that he was really dead; while the witnesses lay unburied, there were some hopes concerning them, Rev. xi. 8. But Christ, the great Witness, is as one free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave. He was buried, that he might take off the terror of the grave, and make it easy to us, might warm and perfume that cold noisome bed for us, and that we might be buried with him.
2. The particular circumstances of his burial here related.
(1.) The time when he was buried; when the evening was come; the same evening that he died, before sun-set, as is usual in burying malefactors. It was not deferred till the next day, because it was the sabbath; for burying the dead is not proper work either for a day of rest or for a day of rejoicing, as the sabbath is.
(2.) The person that took care of the funeral was Joseph of Arimathea. The apostles had all fled, and none of them appeared to show this respect to their Master, which the disciples of John showed to him after he was beheaded, who took up his body, and buried it, ch. xiv. 12. The women that followed him durst not move in it; then did God stir up this good man to do it; for what work God has to do, he will find out instruments to do it. Joseph was a fit man, for, [1.] He had wherewithal to do it, being a rich man. Most of Christ’s disciples were poor men, such were most fit to go about the country to preach the gospel; but here was one that was a rich man, ready to be employed in a piece of service which required a man of estate. Note, Worldly wealth, though it is to many an objection in religion’s way, yet, in some services to be done for Christ, it is an advantage and an opportunity, and it is well for those who have it, if withal they have a heart to use it for God’s glory. [2.] He was well affected to our Lord Jesus, for he was himself his disciple, believed in him, though he did not openly profess it. Note, Christ has more secret disciples than we are aware of; seven thousand in Israel, Rom. xi. 4.
(3.) The grant of the dead body procured from Pilate, v. 58. Joseph went to Pilate, the proper person to be applied to on this occasion, who had the disposal of the body; for in things wherein the power of the magistrate is concerned, due regard must be had to that power, and nothing done to break in upon it. What we do that is good, must be done peaceably, and not tumultuously. Pilate was willing to give the body to one that would inter it decently, that he might do something towards atoning for the guilt his conscience charged him with in condemning an innocent person. In Joseph’s petition, and Pilate’s ready grant of it, honour was done to Christ, and a testimony borne to his integrity.
(4.) The dressing of the body in its grave-clothes (v. 59); though he was an honourable counsellor, yet he himself took the body, as it should seem, into his own arms, from the infamous and accursed tree (Acts xiii. 29); for where there is true love to Christ, no service will be thought too mean to stoop to for him. Having taken it, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth; for burying in linen was then the common usage, which Joseph complied with. Note, Care is to be taken of the dead bodies of good men, for there is a glory intended for them at the resurrection, which we must hereby testify our belief of, and wind up the dead body as designed for a better place. This common act of humanity, if done after a godly sort, may be made an acceptable piece of Christianity.
(5.) The depositing of it in the sepulchre, v. 60. Here there was nothing of that pomp and solemnity with which the grandees of the world are brought to the grave, and laid in the tomb, Job xxi. 32. A private funeral did best befit him whose kingdom came not with observation.
[1.] He was laid in a borrowed tomb, in Joseph’s burying place; as he had not a house of his own, wherein to lay his head while he lived, so he had not a grave of his own, wherein to lay his body when he was dead, which was an instance of his poverty; yet in this there might be somewhat of a mystery. The grave is the peculiar heritage of a sinner, Job xxiv. 19. There is nothing we can truly call our own but our sins and our graves; he returneth to his earth, Psalm cxlvi. 4. When we go to the grave, we go to our own place; but our Lord Jesus, who had no sin of his own, had no grave of his own; dying under imputed sin, it was fit that he should be buried in a borrowed grave; the Jews designed that he should have made his grave with the wicked, should have been buried with the thieves with whom he was crucified, but God over-ruled it, so as that he should make it with the rich in his death, Isa. liii. 9.
[2.] He was laid in a new tomb, which Joseph, it is likely, designed for himself; it would, however, be never the worse for his lying in it, who was to rise so quickly, but a great deal the better for his lying in it, who has altered the property of the grave, and made it anew indeed, by turning it into a bed of rest, nay into a bed of spices, for all the saints.
[3.] In a tomb that was hewn out of a rock; the ground about Jerusalem was generally rocky. Shebna had his sepulchre hewn out thereabouts in a rock, Isa. xxii. 16. Providence ordered it that Christ’s sepulchre should be in a solid entire rock, that no room might be left to suspect his disciples had access to it by some underground passage, or broke through the back wall of it, to steal the body; for there was no access to it but by the door, which was watched.
[4.] A great stone was rolled to the door of his sepulchre; this also was according to the custom of the Jews in burying their dead, as appears by the description of the grave of Lazarus (John xi. 38), signifying that those who are dead, are separated and cut off from all the living; if the grave were his prison, now was the prison-door locked and bolted. The rolling of the stone to the grave’s mouth, was with them as filling up the grave is with us, it completed the funeral. Having thus in silence and sorrow deposited the previous body of our Lord Jesus in the grave, the house appointed for all living, they departed without any further ceremony. It is the most melancholy circumstance in the funerals of our Christian friends, when we have laid their bodies in the dark and silent grave, to go home, and leave them behind; but alas, it is not we that go home, and leave them behind, no, it is they that are gone to the better home, and have left us behind.
(6.) The company that attended the funeral; and that was very small and mean. Here were none of the relations in mourning, to follow the corpse, no formalities to grace the solemnity, but some good women that were true mourners–Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, v. 56. These, as they had attended him to the cross, so they followed him to the grave; as if they composed themselves to sorrow, they sat over against the sepulchre, not so much to fill their eyes with the sight of what was done, as to empty them in rivers of tears. Note, True love to Christ will carry us through, to the utmost, in following him. Death itself cannot quench that divine fire, Son 8:6; Son 8:7.
II. His enemies did what they could to prevent his resurrection; what they did herein was the next day that followed the day of the preparation, v. 62. That was the seventh day of the week, the Jewish sabbath, yet not expressly called so, but described by this periphrasis, because it was now shortly to give way to the Christian sabbath, which began the day after. Now, 1. All that day, Christ lay dead in the grave; having for six days laboured and done all his work, on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. 2. On that day, the chief priests and Pharisees, when they should have been at their devotions, asking pardon for the sins of the week past, were dealing with Pilate about securing the sepulchre, and so adding rebellion to their sin. They that had so often quarrelled with Christ for works of the greatest mercy on that day, were themselves busied in a work of the greatest malice. Observe here,
(1.) Their address to Pilate; they were vexed that the body was given to one that would bury it decently; but, since it must be so, they desire a guard may be set on the sepulchre.
[1.] Their petition sets forth, that that deceiver (so they call him who is truth itself) had said, After three days I will rise again. He had said so, and his disciples remembered those very words for the confirmation of their faith, but his persecutors remember them for the provocation of their rage and malice. Thus the same word of Christ to the one was a savour of life unto life, to the other of death unto death. See how they compliment Pilate with the title of Sir, while they reproach Christ with the title of Deceiver. Thus the most malicious slanderers of good men are commonly the most sordid flatterers of great men.
[2.] It further sets forth their jealousy; lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say, He is risen.
First, That which really they were afraid of, was, his resurrection; that which is most Christ’s honour and his people’s joy, is most the terror of his enemies. That which exasperated Joseph’s brethren against him, was the presage of his rise, and of his having dominion over them (Gen. xxxvii. 8); and all they aimed at, in what they did against him, was, to prevent that. Come, say they, let us slay him, and see what will become of his dreams. So the chief priests and Pharisees laboured to defeat the predictions of Christ’s resurrection, saying, as David’s enemies of him (Ps. xli. 8), Now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more; if he should rise, that would break all their measures. Note, Christ’s enemies, even when they have gained their point, are still in fear of losing it again. Perhaps the priests were surprised at the respect shown to Christ’s dead body by Joseph and Nicodemus, two honourable counsellors, and looked upon it as an ill presage; nor can they forget his raising Lazarus from the dead, which so confounded them.
Secondly, That which they took on them to be afraid of, was, lest his disciples should come by night, and steal him away, which was a very improbable thing; for, 1. They had not the courage to own him while he lived, when they might have done him and themselves real service; and it was not likely that his death should put courage into such cowards. 2. What could they promise themselves by stealing away his body, and making people believe he was risen; when, if he should not rise, and so prove himself a deceiver, his disciples, who had left all for him in this world, in dependence upon a recompence in the other world, would of all others suffer most by the imposture, and would have had reason to throw the first stone at his name? What good would it do them, to carry on a cheat upon themselves, to steal away his body, and say, He is risen; when, if he were not risen, their faith was vain, and they were of all men the most miserable? The chief priests apprehend that if the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection be once preached and believed, the last error will be worse than the first; a proverbial expression, intimating no more than this, that we shall all be routed, all undone. They think it was their error, that they had so long connived at his preaching and miracles, which error they thought they had rectified by putting him to death; but if people should be persuaded of his resurrection, that would spoil all again, his interest would revive with him, and theirs must needs sink, who had so barbarously murdered him. Note, Those that opposed Christ and his kingdom, will see not only their attempts baffled, but themselves miserably plunged and embarrassed, their errors each worse than other, and the last worst of all, Psa 2:4; Psa 2:5.
[3.] In consideration hereof, they humbly move to have a guard set upon the sepulchre till the third day; Command that the sepulchre be made sure. Pilate must still be their drudge, his civil and military power must both be engaged to serve their malice; one would think that death’s prisoners needed no other guard, and that the grave were security enough to itself; but what will not those fear, who are conscious to themselves both of guilt and impotency, in opposing the Lord and his anointed?
(2.) Pilate’s answer to this address (v. 65); He have a watch, make it sure, as sure as you can. He was ready to gratify Christ’s friends, in allowing them the body, and his enemies, in setting a guard upon it, being desirous to please all sides, while perhaps he laughed in his sleeve at both for making such ado, pro and con, about the dead body of a man, looking upon the hopes of one side and the fears of the other to be alike ridiculous. Ye have a watch; he means the constant guard that was kept in the tower of Antonia, out of which the allows them to detach as many as they pleased for that purpose, but, as if ashamed to be himself seen in such a thing, he leaves the management of it wholly to them. Methinks that word, Make it as sure as you can, looks like a banter, either, [1.] Of their fears; “Be sure to set a strong guard upon the dead man;” or rather, [2.] Of their hopes; “Do your worst, try your wit and strength to the utmost; but if he be of God, he will rise, in spite of you and all your guards.” I am apt to think, that by this time Pilate had had some talk with the centurion, his own officer, of whom he would be apt to enquire how that just man died, whom he had condemned with such reluctance; and that he gave him such an account of those things as made him conclude that truly he was the Son of God; and Pilate would give more credit to him than to a thousand of those spiteful priests that called him a Deceiver; and if so, no marvel that he tacitly derides their project, in thinking to secure the sepulchre upon him who had so lately rent the rocks, and made the earth to quake. Tertullion, speaking of Pilate, saith, Ipse jam pro su conscienti Christianus–In his conscience he was a Christian; and it is possible that he might be under such convictions at this time, upon the centurion’s report, and yet never be thoroughly persuaded, any more than Agrippa or Felix was, to be a Christian.
(3.) The wonderful care they took, hereupon, to secure the sepulchre (v. 66); They sealed the stone; probably with the great seal of their sanhedrim, whereby they interposed their authority, for who durst break the public seal? But not trusting too much to that, withal they set a watch, to keep his disciples from coming to steal him away, and, if possible, to hinder him from coming out of the grave. So they intended, but God brought this good out of it, that they who were set to oppose his resurrection, thereby had an opportunity to observe it, and did so, and told the chief priests what they observed, who were thereby rendered the more inexcusable. Here was all the power of earth and hell combined to keep Christ a prisoner, but all in vain, when his hour was come; death, and all those sons and heirs of death, could then no longer hold him, no longer have dominion over him. To guard the sepulchre against the poor weak disciples, was folly, because needless; but to think to guard it against the power of God was folly, because fruitless and to no purpose; and yet they thought they had dealt wisely.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
And when even was come ( ). It was the Preparation (), the day before the sabbath (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 31:42). is the name in modern Greek today for Friday. The Jews were anxious that these bodies should be taken down before the sabbath began at 6 P.M. The request of Joseph of Arimathea for the body of Jesus was a relief to Pilate and to the Jews also. We know little about this member of the Sanhedrin save his name Joseph, his town Arimathea, that he was rich, a secret disciple, and had not agreed to the death of Jesus. Probably he now wished that he had made an open profession. But he has courage now when others are cowardly and asked for the personal privilege (, middle voice, asked for himself) of placing the body of Jesus in his new tomb. Some today identify this tomb with one of the rock tombs now visible under Gordon’s Calvary. It was a mournful privilege and dignity that came to Joseph and Nicodemus (Joh 19:39-41) as they wrapped the body of Jesus in clean linen cloth and with proper spices placed it in this fresh () tomb in which no body had yet been placed. It was cut in the rock () for his own body, but now it was for Jesus. But now (verse 60) he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed. That was for safety. But two women had watched the sad and lonely ceremony, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (mother of James and Joseph). They were sitting opposite and looking in silence.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
When even was come. The Hebrews reckoned two evenings, an earlier and a later. The former began midway between noon and sunset, or at three o’clock in the afternoon. The latter began at sunset, six o’clock. The reference here is to the earlier evening, though the time may have been well on toward the beginning of the later. The preparations had to be hurried because the Sabbath would begin at sunset.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
Mat 27:57
. And when the evening was come. Let it be understood that Joseph did not come in the dusk of the evening, but before sunset, that he might perform this office of kindness to his Master, without violating the Sabbath; for the Sabbath commenced in the evening, and therefore it was necessary that Christ should be laid in the grave before night came on. Now from the time that Christ died until the Sabbath began to be observed, there were three free days. And though John does not mention Joseph only, but joins Nicodemus as his companion, (Joh 19:39😉 yet as he alone undertook the business at first, and as Nicodemus did no more than follow and join him, the three: Evangelists satisfied themselves with relating in a brief narrative what was done by Joseph alone.
Now though this affection of Joseph deserved uncommon praise, still we ought first to consider the providence of God, in subduing a man of high and honorable rank among his countrymen, to wipe away the reproach of the cross by the honor of burial. And, indeed, as he exposed himself to the dislike and hatred of the whole nation, and to great dangers, there can be no doubt that this singular courage arose from a secret movement of the Spirit; for though he had formerly been one of Christ’s disciples, yet he had never ventured to make a frank and open profession of his faith. When the death of Christ now presents to him a spectacle full of despair, and fitted to break the strongest minds, how comes he suddenly to acquire such noble courage that, amidst the greatest terrors, he feels no dread, and hesitates not to advance farther than he had ever done, when all was in peace? Let us know then that, when the Son of God was buried by the hand of Joseph, it was the work of God.
To the same purpose must also be referred the circumstances which are here detailed. Joseph’s piety and integrity of life are commended, that in the servant of God we may learn to recognize the work of God. The Evangelists relate that he was rich, in order to inform us that his amazing magnanimity of mind enabled him to rise superior to the obstruction which would otherwise have compelled him to retire. For rich men, being naturally proud, find nothing more difficult than to expose themselves voluntarily to the contempt of the people. Now we know how mean and disgraceful an act it was to receive from the hand of the executioner the body of a crucified man. Besides, as men devoted to riches are wont to avoid everything fitted to excite prejudice, the more eminent he was for wealth, the more cautious and timid he would have been, unless a holy boldness (295) had been imparted to him from heaven. The dignity of his rank is likewise mentioned, that he was a counselor, or senator, that in this respect also the power of God may be displayed; for it was not one of the lowest of the people that was employed to bury the body of Christ in haste and in concealment, but from a high rank of honor he was raised up to discharge this office. For the less credible it was that such an office of kindness should be performed towards Christ, the more clearly did it appear that the whole of this transaction was regulated by the purpose and hand of God.
We are taught by this example, that the rich are so far from being excusable, when they deprive Christ of the honor due to him: that they must be held to be doubly criminal, for turning into obstructions those circumstances which ought to have been excitements to activity. It is too frequent and customary, I acknowledge, for those who think themselves superior to others, to withdraw from the yoke, and to become soft and effeminate through excessive timidity and solicitude about their affairs. But we ought to view it in a totally different light; for if riches and honors do not aid us in the worship of God, we utterly abuse them. The present occurrence shows how easy it is for God to correct wicked fears by hindering us from doing our duty; since formerly Joseph did not venture to make an open profession of being a disciple of Christ, when matters were doubtful, but now, when the rage of enemies is at its height, and when their cruelty abounds, he gathers courage, and does not hesitate to incur manifest danger. We see then how the Lord in a moment forms the hearts to new feelings, and raises up by a spirit of fortitude those who had previously fainted. But if, through a holy desire to honor Christ, Joseph assumed such courage, while Christ was hanging on the cross, woe to our slothfulness, (296) if, now that he has risen from the dead, an equal zeal, at least, to glorify him do not burn in our hearts.
(295) “ Une saincte hardiesse.”
(296) “ Mandite soit nostre lascheté;” — “accursed be our sloth.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat. 27:57. Even.The first or early evening. See Deu. 21:23; Jos., B. J., IV. Mat. 27:2. Arimatha.Generally identified with Ramathaim-zophim, on Mount Ephraim, the birth-place of Samuel (1Sa. 1:1), the site of which is not certainly known. Joseph.A member of the Sanhedrin (Luk. 23:50). Disciple.He must undoubtedly have absented himself from the meetings of the Sanhedrin when Jesus was condemned. See Luk. 23:51 (Carr).
Mat. 27:58. Begged the body.It was the Roman custom to allow the bodies to hang upon the cross till they wasted away, or were consumed by the birds of prey. But should friends request the bodies to be taken for interment, the request could not be refused (Meyer). A concession was made in favour of the Jews, whose law did not suffer a man to hang all night upon a tree (Deu. 21:23) (Carr).
Mat. 27:61. The other Mary.The mother of James and Joses (Mat. 27:56).
Mat. 27:62. The next day.On the morrow (R.V.). After sunset on Nisan 14. Preparation.The preparation (Paraskeu) was a technical term, not, as is sometimes said, in reference to preparing for the Passover, but, as in Mar. 15:42, to a preparation for the Sabbath. Josephus, Ant., XVI. vi. 2, is decisive on this point (Plumptre). Several reasons have been assigned for this roundabout way of describing the Sabbath day. Bengel suggests, because St. Matthew did not choose to call the Jewish Sabbath any longer the Sabbath.
Mat. 27:64. Until the third day.The phrase is worth noting, as indicating the meaning which the priests attached to the words after three days. They were looking for the fraud which they anticipated as likely to be attempted at the beginning of the third day from the death (Plumptre.) By night.Omitted in R.V. Error.Better, deceit, to connect the word, in English as in the Greek, with the deceiver of Mat. 27:63 (Plumptre).
Mat. 27:65. Ye have a watch.A guard (R.V.). See also R.V. margin. The verb may be either indicative or imperative. The guards had already acted under orders of the Sanhedrin, with Pilates consent; but probably they were not clear about employing them as a night watch without Pilates express authority (Brown).
Mat. 27:66. Sealing.Probably effected by drawing one or more ropes across the stone and fastening either end to the rock with wax or cement of some kind (Plumptre). Setting a watch.The guard being with them (R.V.). What is meant is that the priests were not content to leave the work to the soldiers, but actually took part in it themselves (ibid.).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 27:57-66
Total eclipse.The mystery attaching to the death of the Saviour does not interfere with its truth. Difficult indeed to account for, it is a fact impossible to deny. This is shown us very convincingly in the words which come next. A like in the behaviour of His friends, on the one hand, and in the conduct of His enemies, on the other, ample evidence is given us here of the absolute certainty of His death.
I. The behaviour of His friends.The behaviour, in the first place, of one special friend at this time. A certain man of substance (Mat. 27:57) and standing (Mar. 15:43), known as Joseph of Arimatha, was in Jerusalem at this time. A sincere disciple of the now crucified Jesus (Mat. 27:57), he appears yet to have been in such a position (Mar. 15:43) as to have had ready access to the governors presence. He goes to him accordingly, and asks permission to take down the body of Jesus. After due investigation by the centurion (Mar. 15:44-45), Pilate consents, and gives the requisite orders for having the body committed to Josephs care. Convincing proof, therefore, that in the eyes of all three, it is now a body without life. Neither would the centurion have certified, nor Joseph asked, nor Pilate consented, had any one of them had any doubt on this point. The behaviour, next, of those who assisted this chief friend at this time. Under his supervision these (doubtless) willing assistants wrap a fair linen cloth with reverent care round the body of Jesus. With equal reverence and care they next lay it in a new sepulchre (Mat. 27:60), which Joseph had caused to be prepared for himself in the solid rock of that spot. After which they proceed, with at least as much care, to close that sepulchre up; a stone of such apparently unusual magnitude being used for that purpose, that it had to be rolled to its place notwithstanding the lateness of the hour (Mat. 27:57), and the consequent need of the most urgent despatch (Mat. 27:60; Luk. 23:54). In all these steps, therefore, they give us both indubitable and progressive evidence of two things of capital importance in connection with the reality of His death; the one being that these persons were all themselves convinced of the reality of that death, and the other that no appearance whatever in a contrary direction (had there been such in existence), could possibly have escaped their notice whilst taking such steps. To them, in a word, if He had not been dead, the fact must have come out. By them, notwithstanding, He is treated as dead in everything that they do. The behaviour, lastly, of certain other friends who, in all this, sat by (Mat. 27:61). If they have not personally assisted, they have fully acquiesced, in all they see done. They go away, indeed, to show this (see Luk. 23:56) in a way of their own. To them also, therefore, the proper place now for the body of Jesus is the place of the dead. Their breaking hearts, also, that would have hoped if they could, have no doubt of His death.
II. The conduct of His enemies.Their conduct, first, in waiting on the governor. After the burial of Jesus, on the next day, the chief priests and Pharisees (Mat. 27:62) came together to speak to Pilate about Jesus. But their manner of doing so is widely different from what it had been only a short time before. To their apprehension little is now left of Jesus but the memory of His words (see Mat. 27:63). And even this memory appears to them to be deserving of attention only in connection with other mens acts. Only if the disciples of Jesus were to adventure on stealing His body away, and on saying afterwards to the people that He had risen from the dead would there be cause for alarm. In that case, no doubt, the last erroras they spake of itwould be worse than the first. But, excepting that, they know of nothing now which has to be feared. As one so undeniably dead do they now speak of Jesus in the governors ears! Their conduct, next, in watching the sepulchre of Jesus proclaims just the same thing. Pilates almost contemptuous reply to their request for a guard is all they wish for in other respects. Take the guard you desire. Go to the sepulchre. Make everything safe (Mat. 27:65). They go accordingly, and endeavour to do so in every conceivable way. To the security of the huge stone already closing its mouth, they add that of a seal. To this security they add a third, securer than both. A company of Roman soldiers is stationed there as a guard. A guard to do what? To prevent that seal from being tampered with; that stone from being removed; that dead mans body being taken away. Could there well be a louder proclamation of the undoubted reality of Christs death? Verily, if these things do not mean this, they mean nothing at all!
In this remarkable succession of proofs we seem to see not a little:
1. Of the hand of God in the course of events.We know what the resurrection of Christ now is to the church. On that great reversal depends the reversal of all that we grieve over or fear. Without assurance of this there is neither faith nor hope for the believer in Christ. See such passages as Act. 1:22; Act. 25:19; 1Co. 15:14; 1Co. 15:17; 1Pe. 3:21, etc. But how can there be certainty of the reversal of an evil, without previous certainty concerning the evil itself? How recovery without previous loss? How restoration without previous destruction? How rising again, except out of the grave? And how could proof of this be better accomplished than by that singular accumulation and clearness and variety of evidence of which we have now taken note? Who could deny what Pilate, and the centurion, and Joseph and his companions, all knew to. be true? Or how could even the priests dispute what they had so loudly proclaimed? And is it not reasonable to think, therefore, yet further, that in such a condition of things, the hand of God may be traced? We certainly believe as much in regard to the superstructure of the resurrection? Why not, therefore, in these circumstances, of this its foundation as well?
2. Of the hand of God in the structure of Scripture.Not only did the things noted prevent denial for the time. The record we have of them was also such as to prevent it for the future. We ourselves now can see from this account of them the absolute certainty of Christs death, and so, as it were, the stability of that foundation on which our whole hope is erected. And this evidence we have, also, which is very much more, in the most natural possible way. If there is everything forcible from this point of view, there is nothing forced, in the story before us. No one can suspect the writer, any more than in the parallel cases of Mat. 9:24; Luk. 7:12; Joh. 11:17; Joh. 11:39, of having put this evidence in. All the more reason, therefore, is there for believing that it has come in through a greater Hand than his own.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat. 27:57. The rich disciple.He is rich:
I. In means.Some are rich in money only. How poor are they!
II. In silence.Had the courage to hold his tongue. How few regret that they kept silence!
III. In patience.Valuable the hostility and salutary the fear which leads a man in silence to spin the silken thread of patience, waiting for the kingdom of God.
IV. In courage.Mark says he went boldly and begged the body of Jesus. The result of silent patience is surprising might.
V. In service.Timely, distinguished, unique, essential, personal. Did he, unaided, draw the nails, wrap the body, carry it to rest? Nicodemus carrying his hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. Heroic burden-bearers. He is rich:
VI. In praise.Thy daring devotion in the darkest hour has brought thee imperishable renown.H. T. Miller.
Joseph of Arimatha.
I. Cared more about the sepulchre for the dead Christ than service to the living Saviour.Nothing heard of Him till now. Rich Christians often more careful about ceremonies than true work and the true spirit.
II. Cared more about the silent body than the speaking lips of Jesus.Hence did not confess and follow the living Redeemer.
III. Though late in the field as a public confessor, His influence was exerted most usefully for the church.A poor and influential suppliant would have been spurned by Pilate. The wealth of Joseph was his shield. The rich mans well-constructed tomb furnished opportunities to both foes and friends for testing the reality of the resurrection.
IV. Rich Christians have their uses.Their influence often protective, and their wealth sustaining to Christian institutions, etc.J. C. Gray.
Mat. 27:59-60. Christs deep humiliation.
I. The deep humiliation of the Lord Jesus, from the time of His death to His resurrection. He continued in the state of the dead for a time, which was the lowest step of His humiliation, and the deepest abasement of the Son of God.
II. Why our Lord continued in the state of the dead, and under the power of it, for a time.
1. That the types and prophecies relative thereto might have their accomplishment.
2. To ascertain the reality of His death and resurrection from the dead.
3. That He might fully satisfy the demands of the law and justice of God for our sins.
4. That He might conquer death and the grave in their own territories (Hos. 13:14).Anon.
Mat. 27:62-66. The guarded sepulchre.
I. The precautions used to secure the tomb.
II. The advantages derived thence to the cause of Christ.
III. Some general deductions from the subject.
1. How vain the counsels of the ungodly!
2. How happy are they who have God on their side!C. Simeon, M.A.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Jesus is Buried
TEXT: 27:5761
57 And when even was come, there came a rich man from Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus disciple: 58 this man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded it to be given up. 59 And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. 61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS
a.
Why did Joseph of Arimathea approach Pilate for permission to request the body for burial? What further interest would Pilate have in this question?
b.
Why did it take particular courage for Joseph to request the body of Jesus? What could it possibly have cost him?
c.
What do you suppose brought Joseph, a secret disciple, out into the open in this bold way?
d.
How many disciples of Josephs caliber do you think moved in the circles of Jewish high society?
e.
Why was everybody in such a great hurry to bury Jesus body?
f.
Do you think Josephs solution to bury Jesus in his own new tomb was a temporary or a permanent one in Josephs mind?
g.
Why did they roll a great stone to the door of the tomb? Why not just shut the door?
h.
Why do you think the women followed Nicodemus and Joseph to the tomb?
i.
Why were there only two women at the tomb? Were they helping in some way or just watching? If the latter, what good would this do? Of what special importance to us is their being there watching?
j.
Do you think you could have buried Jesus? Would you have done it?
PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY
The time was already after mid-afternoon. Since it was Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, a man of means named Joseph of Arimathea came forward. An honored member of the Sanhedrin, he was a good, upright man who had dissented from that councils plot and its execution. He lived in the expectation of personally seeing the beginning of Gods Kingdom. He too was Jesus disciple, however secretly, because he was intimidated by the unbelievers in Israel. He found the courage to go straight to Pilate and request that he might take away Jesus body.
Pilate was surprised to hear that He were dead so soon. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus were already dead. When he heard the centurions report that He was dead for some time, Pilate ordered that the body be consigned to Joseph.
So Joseph purchased a linen sheet and lowered the body from the cross. Nicodemus, the man who had called on Jesus by night, arrived too, bringing a 33 kg. (75 lb.) mixture of myrrh and aloes. They took His body and wrapped it along with the spices in the clean linen sheet, like the Jews usually prepare their dead for burial.
Now in the area where Jesus was crucified there was a garden in which Joseph had recently carved his own new tomb right into the rock. It was so new that no one had been buried in it yet. So, because it was the Jewish Friday and the Sabbath was beginning, and since the tomb was conveniently close, they laid Jesus body there. They rolled a heavy stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.
Two women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and Nicodemus. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of Joses, were there sitting across from the tomb, observing how and where His body was laid there. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments. Then they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
SUMMARY
Two secret disciples of Jesus came out into the open: Joseph of Arimathea, a godly Jewish senator, and a rabbi, Nicodemus. Joseph boldly requested Pilates permission to bury Jesus and received it. Nicodemus brought the necessary burial spices. Once the body was ready, they laid it in Josephs new tomb nearby. The two Marys watched the men work, then went home to prepare other burial spices, then rested on Saturday.
NOTES
. . . With the rich in his death . . . (Isa. 53:9)
What was to happen to Jesus body when His leaderless disciples were caught completely unprepared to deal with the problem? God provided an unexpected solution.
Mat. 27:57 And when even was come, there came a rich man from Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus disciple. Because these events occurred after three oclock on Friday afternoon (Mat. 27:46; Mar. 15:42), the dawning of the Sabbath at sundown was not far away. So, when even was come (opsias genomnes) would mean the first evening, according to the ancient Hebrew idiom for the middle of the afternoon, as opposed to the second evening at sundown. (See Exo. 12:6 in Hebrew: between the two evenings.) It is highly doubtful (1) that any orthodox Jew would begin to bury at sundown when Jesus death made this possible three hours earlier; or (2) that getting burial permission from Pilate, going to the cross, taking Jesus down, embalming and entombment could all have been accomplished in just a few minutes. It is more likely that Joseph and Nicodemus acted according to the usual custom of burying the dead shortly after death. Consequently, we may see them beginning sometime shortly after three oclock (Cf. Mat. 9:23 f.; Mat. 27:46; Mat. 27:50.)
Even if pagans commonly left victims of crucifixion hanging until they rotted or were eaten by scavengers, Jewish law demanded that they be removed the same day of the execution lest they desecrate the land (Deu. 21:22 f.; cf. Jos. 8:29; Jos. 10:26 f.; Wars IV, 5, 2). Traditional preparation for the Sabbath, too, would render it doubly important that the bodies not remain on the cross, desecrating also the Sabbath. So the Jews asked Pilate to order that death be accelerated for the crucified so they could be removed (Joh. 19:31 ff.).
Although burial preparations begun on Friday could proceed on the Sabbath (Edersheim, Life, II, 786; cf. Shabbath 23.4f. cited by Barrett, John, 465), Jesus friends would be actuated by the same logic as His enemies to terminate them whereinsofar possible before the Sabbath began. (See on Mat. 27:61.) To avoid the indignity of the common grave of criminals for Jesus, they must act rapidly. But who could care appropriately for this? From an unexpected quarter, there came a rich man . . . named Joseph, also . . . Jesus disciple (emathetethe t Ieso, discipled to Jesus. Cf. Mat. 13:52; Mat. 28:19; Act. 14:21). He hurried to Pilate, arriving shortly after the Jews obtained the governors permission to kill the condemned men. (See on Mat. 27:58.)
Arimathaea, if identified with Ramathaim, birthplace of Samuel (1Sa. 1:1), lay about 14.5 km. (9 mi.) northwest of Jerusalem. There is another Ramathaim about 73.5 km. (45 mi.) northwest of Jerusalem. Others place Arimathaea on the Jewish side of the border between Judea and Samaria about 35 km. (24 mi.) northwest of Jerusalem. (Cf. Luk. 23:50.) Although he was from Arimathea, he had since moved to the Jerusalem area, perhaps more easily to serve the Jewish Senate. The permanence of this move is suggested by his having built his tomb there. Thus, his name, Joseph of Arimathea, only serves to distinguish him from many other men of the same name in Jerusalem.
Josephs position as honored member of the Sanhedrin makes his intervention here remarkable, because he had dissented from that bodys majority decision to crucify Jesus. However, his charitable character makes his deed predictably plausible. (Cf. Mar. 15:43; Luk. 23:50 f.) Matthew omits every other distinctive except the fact that he was a rich man, perhaps to permit the sensitive reader to focus on this fulfillment of prophecy (Isa. 53:9). Most of Jesus disciples were poor, obscure people and such lavish entombment would have been inaccessible for them. Unknown to them, God had reserved a man who had both loving devotion and wealth equal to the task of burying Jesus with dignity.
Mat. 27:58 This man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded it to be given up. Crises produce different reactions in people: those who had no hesitancy about admitting their discipleship to Jesus do not even come forward to claim His body, while it is the secret disciples who boldly step in to do this.
Considerable courage was required for this godly Sanhedrinist to approach Pilate, requesting for himself the corpse of someone who was not kin to him and whom his own colleagues condemned and Pilate executed as a criminal. He risked having to explain his connections with the Crucified. Although Josephs loyalty had been hidden, it was genuine. Jesus death shocked him into action and gave him the boldness he had not possessed until now (Joh. 19:38; Mar. 15:43).
Whereas Jesus disciples had neither wealth nor connections, Josephs loving respect moved him to throw his prestige into the balance by exerting his influence as a member of the Sanhedrin to obtain the body and his wealth to secure an honorable burial. It was at the time of His severest humiliation that these aristocrats first confess Him. In this they join the believing centurion and the penitent robber. Despite His being lifted up, Jesus has already begun to draw men unto Himself (Joh. 12:32; cf. Joh. 8:28).
Joseph apparently arrived at the Praetorium so shortly after the Jewish delegation had obtained the order for the bone-smashing, that Pilate was surprised that Jesus were already dead (Mar. 15:44). Some consider Pilates surprise incomprehensible, since he himself had just ordered that the condemned mens death be accelerated. Therefore, because he could assume that the soldiers obedience to this order would assure the death of Jesus along with the others, his wonder, expressed after his own order, is thought impossible. However, because Pilates order assumed that all three men were yet alive and must be quickly dispatched, he does not expect anyone to arrive so soon requesting one of the corpses. Perhaps even the Jews who approached Pilate did not know Jesus was dead, hence could not inform him of this. (Alternatively: they knew it but would not inform him, so he would order Jesus legs broken too.) However, the governor had not yet received a final report on the execution of his order. Therefore, because he must not consign Jesus body to one of His friends until it be quite certain that He was no longer alive, the prefect rightly demanded the positive certification from the centurion in charge. Only upon receiving the centurions certification of Jesus death, did Pilate grant Joseph the right to remove the body (Mar. 15:44 f.). That men survive for several days on the cross has nothing to do with the governors surprise, because he had ordered the end of their survival!
That Jesus body had not yet been removed from the cross need not seem strange. Joseph may have gone directly to the centurion at the cross and informed him of his intention to approach Pilate. The centurion, knowing that Jesus was dead and His side pierced, may have ordered his men to leave the body for Joseph to remove. Their duty ended with making certain the men executed were actually dead. To crush the legs of a man already demonstrably dead would be an unnecessary barbarity. Certainty of His death was assured by the fatal stab of the lance (Joh. 19:31-37).
That these two secret disciples were so prepared for the burial of Jesus should not surprise, because anyone could foresee the political disaster to which Jesus collision course with the priesthood and the Pharisees must lead, making them pessimistic, hence, more ready for the crisis of His death than others. Further, Jesus crucifixion that morning made His death that evening a foregone conclusion because of the Jewish tradition of not leaving bodies hanging overnight. So, both Joseph and Nicodemus found their course charted for them, and began buying the necessary linen and spices that day. Charitable burial of the dead was all the contingency plan they needed to move decisively when the emergency arose. (Cf. Tobit 2:16ff.; Tobit 2:21:ff.)
That Joseph went straight to Pilate even into the Praetorium, thus defiling himself by traditional definitions is unimportant, because by touching a dead body, he would defile himself anyway.
Mat. 27:59 And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. We need not suppose that Joseph worked alone. Not excluding servants, he could work with the women, perhaps John and any soldiers yet stationed at the cross. Perhaps Nicodemus large quantity of spices were delivered by others who could help too. Taking the body down from the cross, it was perhaps first washed then taken to the tomb for final preparations, the linen and the spices.
Joseph had just bought this clean linen cloth (Mar. 15:46). That he could do so during that Passover is established. (See notes on Mat. 26:17.) This linen was clean, i.e., not defiled by previous contact with something defiling, as another dead body. Nicodemus too came forward with a large quantity of spices: myrrh and aloes for the embalming (Joh. 19:39-42; 100 ltras = 100 ROMAN pounds = 33 kg = 75 lb.; cf. Psa. 45:8; 2Ch. 16:14). This profuse evidence of his final devoted service is not unusual in its richness. (Cf. Marys generosity, Joh. 12:3; Ant. XVII, 8, 3: The burial of Herod I, required 500 servants to bear the spices!) The linen cloth (sindn) was apparently long enough not only to envelope the full body front and back, but also to be cut into strips (cf. pl. onthnia: Joh. 19:40; Joh. 20:5-7; cf. Joh. 11:44 keira). Then, spices in powder-form were sprinkled liberally into the various wrappings of the linen cloth as it was being wound around Jesus body before being bound (Mar. 15:46; Joh. 19:40; cf. Joh. 11:44). Then His head was covered by a large special cloth (Joh. 20:7). Such embalming is totally inconsistent with belief in an immediate resurrection. For these disciples Jesus death ended His ministry on earth and they express their last devotion in this way.
That these two men coordinated their efforts is suggested by their individual purchases: Nicodemus brought the spices without the linen and Joseph the linen without the spices. Neither item would be considered appropriate or complete without the other. Perhaps their kindred spirits had drawn them together much earlier, but only the death of Christ brought their secret discipleship out into the open.
The new focal point of history
Mat. 27:60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. Josephs own new tomb was located in a garden in the general vicinity of the crucifixion (Joh. 19:41; cf. notes on Mat. 27:33). Even though Joseph had lived at Arimathea, he owned this garden near Jerusalem and, not impossibly, planned to be buried there. Its very nearness to the place of crucifixion may have prompted his offer, because time was not materially available for a distant burial. Its nearness to Jerusalem providentially facilitated the investigation of Jesus resurrection. His new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock seems to have been a man-made cave carved horizontally into the stone face of a hill, rather than vertically down into the soil. (Cf. Isa. 22:16; Luk. 8:27; Mat. 8:28.) Although it was large enough for at least two people to enter (Mar. 16:5; Luk. 24:3; Joh. 20:5 ff., Joh. 20:12), its doorway appears to have been low, requiring anyone to stoop to look inside (Joh. 19:5; Joh. 19:11). That Luke and John describe the tomb as where no one had ever yet been laid, denotes the honor Joseph showed the Lord by not hesitating to place His body in a completely new tomb intended for his own use. (Cf. Luk. 23:53; Joh. 19:41.) Joseph could not have foreseen that his new tomb would have been utilized so quickly or for something so significant. Nor could he imagine that what he so unselfishly surrendered to the Lords use would be so amazingly and so soon restored to him for his own use! Is anything sacrificed for the Lords service ever really lost? (Cf. Mat. 19:29; Mat. 13:44; Heb. 10:34.)
Nicodemus 100 Roman pounds of embalming spices would not exclude the addition of more spices on the part of the women. Concerning these large quantities, McGarvey (Evidences of Christianity, 42) rightly noticed that the Jewish custom of burying was not like the Egyptian embalming. (Cf. Joh. 19:40.) This latter view of burial aimed at conserving the body by arresting decomposition, whereas the Jews apparently utilized spices only to mask the odor of decomposition without arresting it. Naturally, the greater the quantity of spices utilized, the more adequately this would function. This would account for the 33 kg. (75 lb.) of spices brought by Nicodemus as well as the preparation or purchase of additional spices by the women, one on Friday evening and the other on Saturday just after sunset when Sunday began (Luk. 23:56; Mar. 16:1).
Why was Jesus not buried in one of the two places set aside by the Sanhedrin for executed criminals? (See Flusser, Jesus, 161, who cites Mishna. Sanh. 6, 5.) Is the choice of burial site evidence that the glorious Sanhedrin of Israel was not responsible for the condemnation of Jesus or that He did not get a true trial before the highest council of Israel? If so, then Jesus was condemned by a kangaroo court, not by the true fathers of modern Judaism who must be defended at the expense of the Gospels. But that this thesis is unfounded is proven by the consideration that the decisively daring move made by Joseph of Arimathea pre-empted conciliar action to bury Jesus elsewhere. Further, the prestigious position of Joseph as a respected member of the council, was his highest credential to convince Pilate to release the body to him (Mar. 15:43). That Joseph acted without the knowledge and consent of the council may be assumed without proof, because, if the contrary were true, the Mishnaic citation of Flusser only proves, if anything, that the burial rule was of more flexible application in Jesus time than Flussers defense of the Sanhedrin would allow.
Mat. 27:61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. Mark identifies the other Mary as Joses mother. (See on Mat. 27:56.) These loyal-hearted women from Galilee desired to see both the tomb and how Jesus body was laid in it, so followed Nicodemus and Joseph (Luk. 23:55). Because He was not to have an entombment in the regular cemetery at Jerusalem and since they had not yet seen Josephs tomb, they needed to know where He was laid (Mar. 15:47). This information would be needed when they returned to complete the embalming after the Sabbath. Perhaps they originally intended to care for the body themselves, but found that others had come forward with care more adequate than they themselves could have given. They undoubtedly drew much comfort from knowing that their Lord was appropriately buried with respect by two of the nations leaders. Thus, while Joseph and Nicodemus proceed, the women sit over against the sepulchre, watching to see how His body was laid. However, they did not remain at the tomb for long, because before sunset they left the tomb to prepare more spices and ointments to complete the embalming as soon as the Sabbath ended (Luk. 23:56). That they could purchase whatever was needed that festal Friday is already illustrated at Mat. 26:17. However, despite the urgency of embalming a body before decay would render their work impossible, they respected Gods will and did no work on Saturday. The womens observing the tomb and the position of the body became a precious part of the evidence for Christs resurrection, since they knew precisely which tomb had contained the body of Jesus. On resurrection morning they did not return to the wrong tomb and mislead others into thinking He has arisen.
Without detracting one bit of the glory of these faithful women who followed the body to the tomb, where were all the men? Surely after Jesus death, they might hope that the pressure were over. No one came forward, because fear of the Jews haunted them until after the resurrection. (Cf. Joh. 20:19.) Even if Joseph and Nicodemus were present and personally committed, the women acted themselves with greater courage than most of the men.
Instead of frantic wailing of mourning, Jesus burial was quiet, serene, and majestic. Two statesmen, who until shortly before were afraid to admit their sympathy with Jesus movement, now openly, tenderly and magnificently cared for His body. This loving care was completely different from what His enemies could have anticipated. Perhaps they imagined that His body would have been abandoned or tossed into the grave of common criminals. Instead, what had taken place was but the prelude of His glorification.
FACT QUESTIONS
1.
What time of day did the burial occur?
2.
On what day was Jesus buried?
3.
What prophecy (or prophecies) were fulfilled in Jesus burial? Give the reference and a brief quotation to identify the text.
4.
Describe Joseph of Arimathea, telling what you know of his character, economic strength and position in the Jewish society.
5.
What was Josephs interest in Jesus?
6.
Describe the embalming and burial procedure followed by Joseph.
7.
List the people who probably helped Joseph with the burial procedure.
8.
Describe the tomb of Jesus, its location, its style, its closure, etc.
9.
What were the women doing at Jesus tomb?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(57) A rich man of Arimatha.The place so named was probably identical with the Ramah of 1Sa. 1:19, the birth-place of the prophet. In 1Sa. 1:1 the name is given in its uncontracted form as Ramathaim-zophim, and in the LXX. version it appears throughout as Armathaim, in Josephus as Armatha, in 1Ma. 11:34 as Ramathem. It was a city of the Jews, in the narrower sense in which that word meant the people of Juda (Luk. 23:51). The site is more or less conjectural, but if we identify the Ramah, or Ramathaim, of 1Sa. 1:1 with the modern Nebby Samuel, about four miles north-west of Jerusalem, we have a position which sufficiently fits in with the circumstances of the history. Of Joseph we are told by St. Mark (Mar. 15:43) that he was an honourable counsellor, i.e., a member of the Sanhedrin, and that he was looking for the kingdom of God; by St. Luke (Luk. 23:50-51), that he was a good man, and a just (see Note on Rom. 5:7 for the distinction between the two words); by St. John ( Joh. 19:38), that he was a disciple, but secretly for fear of the Jews. He was apparently a man of the same class and type of character as Nicodemus, respecting our Lord as a man, admiring Him as a teacher, half-believing in Him as the Christ, and yet, till now, shrinking from confessing Him before men. For us the name has the interest of being one of the few New Testament names connected with our own country. He was sent, it was said, by Philip (the Apostle) to Britain. There, in the legend which medival chroniclers delighted to tell, he founded the Church of Glastonbury; and the staff which he stuck into the ground took root and brought forth leaves and flowers, and became the parent of all the Glastonbury thorns from that day to this. We have to place the piercing of the side, narrated by St. John only (Joh. 19:31-37), before Josephs application.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
57. Even The old word for evening. Arimathea This was probably Rama-thaim Zophim, lying a few miles west of Jerusalem. Joseph was a believer, though a timid one, in Jesus; but at this crisis he dismisses all fear, and goes boldly forward to claim the holy body. As a “noble counsellor,” that is probably, a member of the Sanhedrim, his request would have weight with Pilate; and, as a “rich man,” he could afford an honourable tomb. Thus, according to prophecy, “they appointed him his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich man after his death.” Isa 53:9, Hengstenberg’s translation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And when even was come, there came a rich man from Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple,’
‘When evening was come.’ This is probably simply indicating that it was becoming dark. In Jewish eyes it was necessary for the bodies of the three to be taken down from their crosses before nightfall and disposed of in order to prevent bringing a curse on the land (Deu 21:23 was seen as applying to crucifixion). It was also necessary to do it before the Sabbath. This man knew this and sought to preempt the normal course of events.
‘A rich man.’ The most obvious reason for describing Joseph specifically as ‘a rich man’ would be in order to connect him with the prophecy in Isa 53:9, ‘with the rich in His death’, although it may also have been as a contrast to the ‘rich young man’ who refused discipleship. Alternatively it may simply have been in order to bring out that some rich men also followed Jesus, but if that be the case why not also bring out that he was a member of the Sanhedrin? In view of Matthew’s continual inferences as regards Scripture we must probably see this as another such reference. His Gospel is full of such inferences.
Matthew also tells us that he came from Arimathea, (another town unknown to us), that his name was Joseph, and that he was a disciple of Jesus, that is, he had listened to, and had positively responded to, Jesus’ teaching, and was a recognised ‘follower’, even though not actually accompanying Jesus around. Joh 19:38 calls him ‘a secret disciple, for fear of the Jews’ (of whom there are still many). Luke tells us that ‘he was looking for the Kingly Rule of God’ (Luk 23:51).
Matthew’s naming of all these people, in contrast with his usual reticence about names, may well suggest that they were well known to him. But it appears more likely that his main purpose may have been as a comparison with Mary and Joseph in chapter 1.
‘There came.’ This may well suggest that he had gone to the site of the crucifixion in order to determine what was happening about the bodies, with ‘there came’ signifying ‘there came to where the women were’. But it may simply indicate ‘there now came into the picture’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Testimony of Jesus’ Burial at the Tomb Mat 27:57-66 records the testimony of Jesus’ burial at the tomb. While the women verify the burial of Jesus (Mat 27:57-61), Pontius Pilate assigns a guard to ensure this burial (Mat 27:62-66).
Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Women Watch the Tomb Mat 27:57-61
2. Pilate’s Guards Watch the Tomb Mat 27:62-66
Mat 27:57-61 The Women Watch the Tomb ( Mar 15:42-47 , Luk 23:50-56 , Joh 19:38-42 ) Mat 27:57-61 records the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mat 27:59-60 Comments Jesus’ Birth and Death – Jesus was born of a virgin birth and laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. At His death, He was laid in a virgin tomb, and wrapped in clean, linen burial clothes. He was born from a virgin womb and laid in a virgin tomb.
Luk 23:53, “And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.”
Mat 27:61 And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.
Mat 27:61
Mar 15:47, “And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.”
Mar 16:1, “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.”
Mat 27:62-66 Pilate’s Guards Watch the Tomb Mat 27:62-66 is unique in recording the story of how Pilate ordered a guard to be set at the tomb of Jesus Christ.
Mat 27:62 Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
Mat 27:62
Mar 15:42, “And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,”
Mat 27:63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
Mat 27:62-63
Mat 27:64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.
Mat 27:64
Mat 16:21, “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”
Mat 27:66 Comments The act of sealing a stone was an ancient practice, being testified in Dan 6:17, “And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.”
Commentators tell us that the Romans sealed stones by pulling a string across the stone securing it to wax at each end that may have been pressed into the crack of the wall and stamped with an official seal. [718]
[718] John Peter Lange, The Gospel According to Matthew Together with a General Theological and Homiletical Introduction to the New Testament, in A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homilectical, with Special Reference to Ministers and Students, ed. John Peter Lange, trans. Philip Schaff (Edinburgh: T & T Clarke, 1872), 537; David L. Turner, The Gospel of Matthew, in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, vol. 11, ed. Philip W. Comfort (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2005), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Matthew 27:66.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Burial of Christ.
The burial of Christ:
v. 57. When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple.
v. 58. He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
v. 59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
v. 60. and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and departed.
v. 61. And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulcher. In the time of trial and greatest danger, when the chosen apostles of the Lord failed in their loyalty, some of those that had secretly clung to Him were made manifest. It was now the first evening according to the reckoning of the Jews, the time just preceding sunset, toward six o’clock. The bodies of such as were hanged were not permitted to remain on the cross until the next day, which began with sunset, Deu 21:22-23. Therefore Joseph of Arimathea, or Ramathaim Zophim, 1Sa 1:1, a rich counselor of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin, who had not voted in favor of Christ’s death, made the necessary arrangements for the burial of his Master. He secured permission for obtaining the body of Jesus from the governor, after which he took down the body of the Lord from the cross with the aid of Nicodemus, Joh 19:39, wrapped it in a new linen burial-cloth, and finally deposited it in his own new tomb, a grave hewn into the rock in his own garden. Jesus, in His death, received all the honors which the prosperous Jews expected for themselves, far more than He had ever been accustomed to during His life, Isa 53:12. It was a fine token of veneration and affection, and teaches some lessons. “That is, then, the fruit of the death of Christ the Lord, that the weakest, most fearful hearts come forward without dread or fear, confess Christ, bury His body, which was hanging there in all dishonor, with all signs of respect, in order to testify to the Jews, the high priests, Pilate, and all enemies of Christ that they regard Him as the Son of God, and thus glory in Him, hope in His kingdom, and are full of comfort even now that He is dead and every one is of the opinion that His career is definitely ended. For that is what Mark and Luke mean when they say that Joseph waited for the kingdom of God, that is, he hoped God would by this man organize a new kingdom on earth, forgive sins, give the Holy Ghost and eternal salvation. For that is really what the kingdom of God means, as it is promised in the prophets to be organized by Christ or the Messiah. We should also note the example of Joseph, who had ordered his grave to be made while he was still living. From which it is evident that he did not forget his last hour, as people generally do. For every one makes all arrangements for this earthly life, as though we should stay here forever. But those that fear God rather consider their whole life here upon earth as a pilgrimage, where there is nothing continuing, but where we must always be looking forward to the true fatherland. Thus pious Joseph also did. He was rich and a respected citizen of Jerusalem, yet his thoughts were ever centered: Here there is nothing continuing, thou must finally be buried. And therefore he has a grave prepared in his garden, where he otherwise took his pleasure, where he intended to look forward to the joyful resurrection with all saints, through the Lord Jesus Christ. ” While these last rites were being performed for the beloved Master, and a heavy stone was then being rolled before the door of the tomb, two of the faithful women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sat opposite the sepulcher, mourning the loss of their Lord and their Friend, but taking careful note of everything that was done.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 27:57. A rich man of Arimathea A city of the Jews, anciently called Ramoth, which lay in the tribe of Ephraim, and was the city of the prophet Samuel. St. Mar 15:43 describes Joseph under these two characters; first, that he was an honourable counsellor; secondly, that he waited for the kingdom of God. And St. Luk 23:51 adds, that he had not consented to the condemnation of Jesus with the rest of the Sanhedrim. See Joh 19:38 and the note on Mat 27:1 of this chapter. Some critics would render the last clause, who himself also made disciples to Jesus; that is to say, after his ascension. The word has that sense in the 19th verse of the next.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 27:57 . .] the so-called first or early evening, just before the close of the Jewish day. Deu 21:22 f.; Joseph. Bell. iv. 5. 2. See also Lightfoot, p. 499.
.] belongs to . Comp. , Mat 2:1 . The other evangelists describe him as a member of the Sanhedrim; an additional reason for supposing him to have resided in Jerusalem.
] namely, to the place of execution , as the context shows, and not to the praetorium (de Wette, Bleek), to which latter Mat 27:58 represents him as going only after his return from the scene of the crucifixion. Arimathia , with the article, 1Sa 1:1 , the birthplace of Samuel (see Eusebius, Onom., and Jerome, Ep. 86, ad Eustoch. epitaph. Paul. p. 673), and consequently identical with Rama (see on Mat 2:18 ); LXX.: .
] et ipse, like those women and their sons, Mat 27:56 .
] to be a disciple of any one; see Kypke, II. p. 141 f. Comp. on Mat 13:52 . He was a secret follower of Jesus, Joh 19:38 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
ELEVENTH SECTION
THE BURIAL. THE SEPULCHRE SEALED
Mat 27:57-66
(Mar 15:42-47; Luk 23:50-56.)
57When the even [evening] was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus disciple [who had become a disciple of Jesus]:81 58He went to Pilate, and begged [asked for] the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commandedthe body82 to be delivered. 59And when Joseph had taken the body, he83 wrapped itin a clean linen cloth, 60And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre [tomb],84 and departed. 61And there was Mary magdalene,85 and the86 other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.
62Now the next day [But on the morrow, ], that followed the day of the preparation [, Friday],87 the chief priests and Pharisees came together untoPilate, 63Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, Afterthree days I will rise again. 64Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night,88 and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error [deceit] shall [will] be worse than65the first. Pilate said89 unto them, Ye have [Ye shall have] a watch: go your way, make it as sure [secure] as ye can [know how, ].90 66So they went, and made the sepulchre sure [secure], sealing the stone, and setting a watch [together with the watch, ].91
XEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Synopsis.John introduces this account by a statement of the motives that led to it. The Jews come, in the first place, to Pilate, requesting him to have the bodies removed, and thereupon Joseph of Arimathea entreats the governor to allow him to take the body of Jesus. Nicodemus is, according to John, associated with Joseph, and provides the spices for embalming. Mark and Luke characterize Joseph of Arimathea more exactly than Matthew. Special prominence is given by our Evangelist to the two Maries,Mary Magdelene, and the other (the mother of Joses, according to Mark): they are represented, here as seated opposite to the grave. The sealing of the sepulchre (Mat 27:62-66) is related by Matthew only.
Mat 27:57. When the evening was come.The first or early evening, the days decline; because the bodies must have been removed before the evening arrived, Deu 21:23; Josephus, De Bell. Judges 4, 5, 2.
There came a rich man.1. De Wette: He came into the prtorium. 2. Meyer: He came first to the place of execution to go thence to the prtorium. 3. He came to the little company of female disciples upon Golgotha, and advanced into their midst, proclaiming himself as a disciple. A disciple, but secretly for fear of the Jews, says John. Luke: A counsellor, a good man and a just. The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them; who also waited for the kingdom of God. Mark: An honorable counsellor, who also waited for the kingdom of God. Matthew gives the prominence to his wealth: A rich man, referring undoubtedly to Isa 53:9, according to the Septuagint translation, , . The following translation is indeed free, but is agreeable to the context: They had appointed Him a grave with the despised; and among the honored (, did He obtain it) in His death.The first occasion of this step of Joseph was probably his fear that the Jews might remove the body in some disgraceful manner; for the circumstances related Joh 19:31-37 had preceded. Faith, however, shot a ray of hope, in all probability, through Josephs mind, and operated along with this feeling of veneration, and his desire openly to confess the name of Christ.
Of Arimathea.Commentators are divided between Rama in Benjamin (Jos 18:25) and Rama (Ramathaim) in Ephraim (1Sa 1:19, Samuels birthplace). For the latter, indeed, the form speaks decisively; but the addition of Luke, , according to 1Ma 11:34, does not harmonize. De Wette. See Ramah in Winer [and other Bibl. Encyclop.].
Named Joseph.One Joseph is appointed to take care of Jesus in His infancy, another to provide for His burial. Quite analogous, there was an Old Testament Joseph, who had the task of providing for the Jewish people in its infancy in Egypt; and to him corresponds the Josephus who has prepared the historic resting-place for the expired Israelitish nation in his books (Antiq., De Bello Jud., etc.). The name Joseph () means, according to Gen 30:24 : he adds (Increaser); for another explanation, see Gesenius. He was , a member of the Sanhedrin, Luk 23:50; not (as Michaelis supposed) a councillor of the little country-town Ramathaim, nor (according to Grotius) a town councillor of Jerusalem. Lightfoot makes him to have been a priestly temple-councillor; but that is probably the same as a Sanhedrist. According to the ecclesiastical tradition, he is represented to have belonged to the seventy disciples, and to have been the first who preached the Gospel in England (the rich man, the guardian-saint of a rich people; just as the Magdalene, the repentant sinner, is the patron-saint of France). For other traditions, see Evangelium Nicodemi, p. 12, and Acta Sanct. Mart. 2:507. He was evidently, like Nicodemus, one of the secret disciples of Jesus, who came forth and publicly confessed their faith after the death of the Lord. , to be the disciple of some one. He was a follower of Jesus, and hence he had not consented to the murderous counsel of the Sanhedrin; and this holds good, of course, regarding Nicodemus.
Mat 27:58. He went to PilateHe ran the risk, says Mark.92 He was exposed to more danger from the Jews than from Pilate, because this act was a confession of his faith. It was the Roman custom to allow the bodies to hang upon the cross till they wasted away, or were consumed by the birds of prey. Plaut. Mil. glor. ii. 4, 9; Horat. Epist. i. 16, 18.93 But should friends request the bodies to be taken for interment, the request could not be refused, Ulpian 48, 24, 1; Hug, De cadav. punit. in the Freiburger Leitschrift 5, p. 174. Meyer.That the body be delivered (to him). Meyer is in favor of retaining the second , the repetition having a certain solemnity.
Mat 27:59. He wrapped it in a clean linen cloth.Bengel: Jam initia honoris. Not a shroud, nor a garment (Kuinoel); but winding sheets, linen clothes, Joh 19:40, in which the body was wrapped (Meyer). It was probably an entire piece at first, and was afterward divided for the purpose of rolling. This idea occurs to us from the object to be attained: the pieces of linen must be wrapped around the limbs in such a way as to enclose the spices, which had been powdered to be employed for embalming. The first, temporary anointing, and the intention of a second and more formal embalming, are both unnoticed by Matthew. But that the body was anointed, is self-evident; and the second formal anointing, which Mark and Luke declare to have been proposed by the women after the Sabbath, is not excluded by the merely temporary act. By the first anointing, they sought simply to preserve the body; by the second, they wished to fulfil the ceremonial requirements, for which no time remained upon Friday evening. Therefore, upon the first occasion, they made a profuse, but simple use of costly substances (myrrh and aloes); and the women would find no difficulty in buying before and after the Sabbath, upon the Friday evening before, and the Saturday evening after, from six oclock, such quantities of these spices as appeared necessary to their womanly desires for the great burial: see Luke and Mark.
Mat 27:60. In his own now tomb.It was a great disgrace among the Jews if any one had not a burying-place of his own; and so it came to be considered an act of charity to bury neglected dead bodies. Josephus mentions as among the abominable deeds of the Zelots and Idumeans, that they left their dead unburied. See Friedlieb, p. 169. The statement of John, that the tomb was in a garden near the place of the crucifixion, and was chosen on account of the necessary haste, is not contradictory of the statement that the grave was the property of Joseph.94 It must have been exactly the location of his newly-formed family-tomb that led him to propose his grave, and yield it up as an offering.
In the rock.With the article. In that particular rocky district of Golgotha. The Jews placed their graves outside their towns. It was only kings and prophets (and priests, indeed, no less) who might be interred inside the walls. Commonly, these graves were excavations, or grottoes in gardens, or in spots planted with trees; sometimes natural caves; often, as in this case, expressly hewn out (a costly method), and sometimes built up. These tombs were sometimes very roomy, and provided with passages. The sepulchres were either made with steps downward, or placed horizontally; while the particular graves inside were hollowed out, either lengthwise or crosswise, in the Walls of the tomb. For more particular accounts, consult Winer (art. GrberGraves), and Schultz, Jerusalem, p. 97.95. The new rock-tomb of Joseph, and the hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes (myrrh, a resin from the myrrh-tree of Arabia and Ethiopia; aloes, a precious, fragrant wood; the pound, the Attic litra, five and a half ounces less than our pound), which Nicodemus presented, are expressions of that sacrificing renunciation with which now these two disciples advanced into view, after that the death of Jesus had awakened them to life. Holy rivalry!
He rolled a great stone.A natural method of closing the mouth of the tomb. In the Talmud, such a piece of rock, employed to shut up a sepulchre, is called , roller.
Mat 27:61. The other Mary.She was mentioned in Mat 27:56, and is the mother of James and Joses, the wife of Alphus; and Mark (Mar 15:47) accordingly says, Mary [the mother] of Joses, as the best and most codd. read. Codex A. reads there Wieseler infers from this reading, without sufficient warrant, that she was the wife or daughter of Joseph of Arimathea.Were there sitting.It is only Matthew who states this glorious fact; according to Mark, they beheld where He was laid.
Mat 27:62. That followed the preparation.The is the day of preparation for the Sabbath, Friday, on this occasion the first day of the feast; and hence the day which followed was the Sabbath, or Saturday, the second day of the Passover. Wieseler holds the expression was chosen, because the first day might have been called also Meyer says: The name is explained by the fact, that was the solemn designation in use among the Christians to distinguish the Friday of the crucifixion. It is extremely noteworthy, that the Jews hold a council and hurry to Pilate upon the Sabbath morning, and that too the great Sabbath of the feast. Kuinoel: Lex mosaica inierdixerat operam manuariam, ut et judicii exercitium, non vero ire ad magisratum, ab eoque petere aliquid, prsertim cum periculum in mora esset.
Mat 27:63. After three days.De Wette: Jesus had never declared that openly and before strangers. Still He had told it to the disciples, and not as secret teaching, but to be published. [Joh 2:19; Mat 12:40.] Probably Judas had given them the more exact statements.
Mat 27:65. Ye have a watch!That is: Ye shall have a watch! Your petition is granted. Official, and perhaps discontented laconism. But it cannot moan, Ye have yourselves a watch (Grotius), of whom ye may make use, the temple-guards; for that view is opposed to Mat 28:14.
As ye understand.Not, as sure as you can; or, as appears to you best; or, if that is possible; but, as ye understand that, according to your meaning of securing. He places the guard at their disposal; the employment of the men, the guardianship or guarantee for Christs continuance in death, which they wished him also to undertake, that he will leave to themselves; and they are to employ this force to attain the end they had in view, especially the insuring of the tomb as long as it may be necessary. In this instance, again, Pilate kept not his conscience pure, and preserved not his civil power unimpaired,giving a guard because of a religious question.
Mat 27:66. Sealing the stone.A string was stretched across the stone, and sealed to the rock at both ends with wax [upon which was stamped the official seal of Pilate].
The assertion of Meyer, that this sealing of the grave, which Matthew records, belongs to the unhistorical traditions, does not need here a lengthened refutation.96 But the following points furnish materials for an answer:1. Jesus had certainly declared previously, that He would rise upon the third day. 2. The grave might be sealed, without the women coming to know it upon the Sabbath. 3. The Sanhedrists could not have taken the body of Jesus into custody, because Joseph had previously obtained it. Besides, it was their interest to affect carelessness regarding it. 4. The seduction of the guard to give a false testimony, and the silencing of the procurator, correspond in every point to the character of the world; besides, it is not said that the soldiers brought their false report to Pilate, rather the opposite. 5. It is quite natural that Matthew, according to the character of his Gospel, should be the writer to report this historic transaction, as he did the corresponding history of the resurrection, Mat 28:11-15.97 It is still less worth while to deal with the assumption of Stroth, that this is an interpolation. This statement simply proves, that the critic could not grasp the meaning of the passage. For the remainder, see Mat 28:11.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Regarding the early occurrence of death in our Lords case, consult the authors Leben Jesu, ii. 3, p. 1619. One of the reasons why death appeared at so early a date, was that the dying body hurried forward to its transformation. To this, the phenomenon, Joh 19:34, had already pointed; for the resurrection of Jesus was at once resurrection and glorification. In the death of Jesus, the great mystery of death is glorified.
[Different opinions on the death of Christ: 1. It was His own voluntary act, by which He separated in the full vigor of life His spirit from His body, and placed it, as a deposit, in His Fathers keeping. 2. It was the act of God the Father, in answer to the prayer of the Saviour. 3. It was the natural consequence of His physical sufferings, and occurred so early (after six hours, instead of the usual twelve or more of sufferings on the cross), either on account of the extraordinary intensity of His agony of body and mind during the trial in Gethsemane and on Calvary, or by a sudden rupture of the heart. These views may be combined, by supposing that the Saviour hastened His death by a voluntary self-surrender which the Father accepted. The passage, Joh 10:17-18 should be carefully considered in this connection. The resurrection, too, is represented on the one hand, as Christs own act, to whom the Father has given to have life in Himself (Joh 2:19; Joh 5:26; Joh 10:17-18; Act 1:3; Rom 1:4), and, on the other hand, as the act of His Father (Act 2:24; Act 2:32; Rom 4:24; Rom 6:4, etc.). Consult on this subject, W. Stroud: The Physical Cause of Christs Death, Lond. 1847; Samuel J. Andrews: The Life of our Lord upon the Earth, New York, 1863, p. 550 ff.; the various Commentators on the Gospels, and Langes profound suggestions in the Doctrinal and Ethical Thoughts to Chap, Mat 28:1-10, nos. 7 and 8.P. S.]
2. Along with the death of Jesus, the courage of the New Testament confessors begins to manifest itself. To this confessing band belong the sorrowing women who (according to Luke) follow the cross-laden Lord, the centurion beneath the cross, also the two hitherto-secret disciples, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Under this head, also, must we notice the fact, that the two Maries continue sitting alone over against the Lords tomb, in that awing and affrighting spot.
3. One of the striking ironies of Gods judgment may be observed in the circumstance, that the members of the Sanhedrin are forced to go upon the morning of the paschal Sabbath to the sepulchre of Jesus, for the purpose of sealing the stone, because the dead Christ allowed them no rest. In that anxiety we may see the effect of the words of Judas, and of the Lords prediction of His resurrection. Upon this morning of the feast, it was no formal meeting of council they held: the most decided enemies of Jesus consulted among themselves, and then dropped in singly, as if by accident, to make their request to Pilate: and thus there came to be a kind of priestly council in the governors palace, to which the Evangelist here alludes. It was alleged by these priests, that the disciples might come and steal away the corpse; and this lying assertion reveals to us, how well prepared they were for any emergency, even the worst But, beneath all this disguise, they were the prey of fear, and the real motive was terror. Influenced by a monstrous, superstitious belief in the power of the seal of Jewish authority, and of a Roman guard, they imagined themselves able to shut up in the grave the possibility of a resurrection by Jesus, the divine retribution, a result of that resurrection, and, above all, their own wicked fears. And so they desecrate the great Passover Sabbath by their restless occupation, seeking to secure the grave of Him whom they had accused and condemned for His miracles of love wrought on ordinary Sabbaths. The disembodied spirit of the Jewish law must wander around the grave of Jesus upon the most sacred Sabbath of the year. In that act we have the last expression of their abandonment to the Gentiles of salvation through a Messiah; and also the strongest expression of the folly they manifested in their unbelief. By means of a priestly seal, and a borrowed military guard, they desire to secure in a permanent tomb the spirit and life of Christ, the spirit of His past, present, and future, as if all were a mere deception.
4. But in the meantime98 the spirit of Christs life is laboring in the depths of the grave and the under world or Hades. The germ of humanity and salvation was bursting into new life in the earth, and also in the heart of the disciples; in the former, saved from death, in the latter, from apparent despair.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The quiet Sabbath; or, the death-rest of Jesus in its twofold efficacy: 1. It institutes the sabbath of redemption in the disciples hearts; 2. it institutes the godless labor of wicked fear in the enemies camp.How friends and foes are busied about the dead Christ: 1. The friends; 2. the foes.The revival of the disciples, a presage of His resurrection.How through Christs death His secret disciples obtain the power to confess Him openly: 1. Now they feel their full guilt; 2. now they see the worlds full condemnation; 3. the perfect vanity and wretchedness of the fear of man; 4. the perfect glory of the sacrificial death of Christ.Joseph of Arimathea or, the wonder how, in spite of all, the rich enter the kingdom of heaven.The sacrifice of Joseph.The offerings of the male and female disciples.The Church at the holy sepulchre.How Christs love changed the women into heroines, beside the grave.How the younger disciples meet the older always at Christs grave.The Lords convulsing death, by which lambs become lions like Himself, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.The import which that evening-seat over against Jesus grave has for us.The quiet Sabbath, and the quiet grave.The burial of believers a sermon.The grave of Christ amidst all the worlds graves: a transfiguration of the same.The Jewish method of burial in its difference from the heathen sepulchre, a prophecy which has been fulfilled in the grave of Jesus.The interment of mankind, a picture of their religion,1. Among the heathen; 2. the Jews; 3. the Christians.Christs grave has changed the impure Jewish grave into a consecrated Christian grave.The isolated graves of Judaism, and the Christian churchyard; or, the sleeping are gathered together by ChristGethsemane, and the holy sepulchre; or, the garden of struggle converted into the garden of restParadise and the accursed earth, Golgotha and the garden of the grave and the resurrection; or, the old and the new world.Priests and Pharisees in their ever-abiding dread of Christ, whom they imagined they have killed.The means by which the slaves of the letter think to imprison in the grave the spirit and life of Christ: 1. Cunning pretences; 2. antiquated seals of authority; 3. borrowed guards.The illusion which the foes of Jesus make of the truth of His life and efficacy: 1. The illusion: (a) they make Christ a lie; (b) a destructive lie; (c) a double deception. 2. The result of this illusion: (a) they become deceptive opponents of His life; (b) of His redemption; (c) of His resurrection.How the old Sabbath fanatics desecrate the second, the great Sabbath of God.They went and secured the grave with guards, and sealed the stone.The old yet ever-new history: legalism becomes the servant of the kingdom of darkness.The self-annihilation of the authority of the old world, making itself the minister of the Wicked One: 1. The self-annihilation of the power of the church-seal (the bull); 2. the self-annihilation of the power of the soldiery (in conflict with the Spirit of Christ).The sacred corn-field upon Golgotha, between Good Friday and Easter.Christ is dead to live for ever,1. In the heart of God; 2. in the depths of His life; 3. in the bosom of humanity; 4. in the centre of our hearts.
Starke:As God watched over His Son, and revealed His care visibly, so will He guard and take care of Christs members (in death).Canstein: Riches and a high position are undoubtedly accompanied with dangers; 1Co 1:26; yet God has his own among the noble and wealthy, 1Ki 18:12-13.He who employs his wealth to Gods glory (upon Christs body, His Church, servants, members), has made a good investmentBibl. Wirt.: In the most bitter persecutions, and greatest apostasy, there are many steadfast disciples who confess Christ and serve Him Nova Bibl Tub.: Faith grows in trial; and he who acknowledged Christ but secretly daring His life, dared to solicit Him boldly after His death.Osiander: Those often become cowardly and despairing, who were at first bold and fearless; and vice versa,Cramer: Gods Spirit is mighty and wonderful, and can quickly make a heart where there is none.God often draws out the hearts of the high to glorify Himself, and rejoice his people.Osiander: We should bury our dead honorably, and testify in this way openly, that we believe in the resurrection of the dead.Zeisius: The burial of Christ, the rest of our bodies.The guard, and the sealing of the grave, must become testimonies to the resurrection.Wilt thou do good to Christ, do it to His people.We may still show love to Christ in the persons of His poor members.True love loves still, after death.True faith never lets Christ escape; if faith sees Him not with the eyes, still she keeps him, His cross and death, in her heartQuesnel: Death cannot extinguish a friendship which Gods Spirit has instituted, and Christs blood has cemented.The wills extreme wickedness has united to itself extreme blindness of perception (in so far as they sought by a foolish proposal to remove the truth of the resurrection, while they only served to confirm it).The wicked are like the restless sea, their evil conscience gives them no rest, Isa 57:20-21.Zeisius: No human power prudence, or cunning, can hinder Gods work, Psa 25:3.The issue was a condemnation of themselves, and a glorification of Christ.
Heubner:By Josephs example we are taught to honor the dead, especially when we had known them.The body, too, is to be honored: it is the garment of the soul.Many hands were employed in burying Christ, and with what tenderness and love!Christs rest in the grave, the type of the souls spiritual sabbath.Tarry lovingly by the graves of your loved ones.Whosoever loves Jesus, is lost in the contemplation of His death.Teach thyself to bury thy life Jesus.They wish to prevent His resurrection, and they must establish unwillingly its certainty; at the outset they proclaim the secret of the resurrection, and, permitting their knowledge of the true meaning of the destruction of the temple to appear, they punish themselves thus for a false accusation.As often as a man strives against God, against the truth, he strives against himself, and prepares shame and difficulties for himself.The more men seek to bury the memory of the truth, the more it appears.In their slanders, men give the key to their discovery and detection.
Braune:Who had believed that any one would have come now to the cross? But, behold, two rich men come, members of that Sanhedrin which had rejected Christ!Their hearts forced them; they acted under the impulse of a new spirit.The fear of man is overcome.The new grave, in which no man had been laid; as He rode into Jerusalem upon an unused colt. And shall His Spirit make His abode in an old heart?The friends who acknowledged the Lord when covered with shame, are the Christian types of those who believe in virtue when all the world ridicules it.The guards have one object in common with the friends of Jesus, that the bodies be not changed, and that so the resurrection be all the more certain.The disciples forget the words of Jesus regarding the resurrection, His enemies remember them (Reason: the sorrow of the one, the fear of the others).They would prevent a deception, and they themselves practise a deception.These liars and murderers fear the disciples are liars.What is done in Gods strength and spoken in His Spirit, appears to view and stands fast.
Gerok:The sacred eveningstillness upon Golgotha: 1. The quiet rest of the perfected Endurer. 2. The quiet repentance of the convulsed world. 3. The quiet labor of the loving friends. 4. The quiet peace of the holy grave.Kuntze:The burial of Jesus manifests to us,1. The believers courage; 2. loves power; 3. truths seal; 4. the mourners consolation.Wolf:Looks of comfort toward the grave of Christ.Brandt:The burial of Jesus Christ,a work of, 1. Grateful acknowledgment; 2. holy love; 3. praiseworthy courage; 4. a work causing the deepest shame to many.
Footnotes:
[81]Mat 27:57.[Dr. Lange reads with Lachmann the passive form , which is sustained by Codd. C., D., and Cod. Sinait., instead of the lect. rec.: (to be ones disciple), which has the majority of uncial MSS., including the Alexandrian and the Vatican, in its favor. Lange regards the former as more significant and emphatic: Joseph was overpowered. Tischendorf and Alford adhere to the received text. As to the use, Tischendorf remarks in his large edition: Utriusque usus exempla in promptu sunt, nisi quod prius (the active form) apud antiquos ut Plutarchum invenitur, posterius (the passive) apud recentiores tantum. See Stephan. Thesaur. Meyer and Alford regard as a correction after Mat 13:52.P. S.]
[82]Mat 27:58.Codd. B., L., and Fritzsche omit . [So also Cod. Sinait., but the great body of authorities are in favor of it. Do Wette and Alford explain the omission from regard to elegance, since occurs thrice in Mat 27:58-59. Conant renders: that the body should be given up. Lange inserts in parenthesis ihm, to him: dass der Leichnam (ihm) ausgeliefert wrde.P. S.]
[83]Mat 27:59.[Or in the precise order of the Greek: And taking the body, Joseph wrapped it, etc., . , ..P. S.]
[84]Mat 27:60.[The same word should be used in this verse, either sepulchre or tomb, for the Greek , especially as the second with the article refers to the first.P. S.]
[85]Mat 27:61.[Better with Conant and others: And Mary M. was there, to bring out more plainly the demonstrative .P. S.].
[86]Mat 27:61.The article is omitted in Codd. A. and D., but sustained by most witnesses.
[87]Mat 27:62.[, in the Jewish sense, is the day of making ready for the sabbath, or sabbath eve, i. e., Friday, Matthew 10; Mar 15:42; Luk 23:54; Joh 19:14; Joh 19:31; Joh 19:42; Joseph. Antiq. xvi. 6, 2 ( ), also called , Mar 15:42. Compare the German Sonnabend for Saturday. The day of the English Version should be put in italics, as in Joh 19:42, or omitted altogether. Here Tyndale and Cheke render the word: Good Friday, which is true enough, but goes beyond the term which is general. The Genevan Version adds: Preparation of the sabbath. The Rhemish N. T. retains the Greek after the Vulgate: Parasceve, which is unintelligible to the English reader. The best is to put Friday on the margin.P. S.]
[88]Mat 27:64.The addition is poorly sustained. [It is cancelled by the critical editors, and may have been inserted from Mat 28:13, where it is genuine. Lange puts it in small type in parenthesis.P. S.]
[89]Mat 27:65.Codd. A., C., D. read after ; it is probably an addition, and weakens the significant decision of Pilate.
[90]Mat 27:65.[So Syriac, Vulgate, Beza, Castalio, Scrivener, Conant, etc. Alford: As ye know how, in the best manner ye call. is not quite equivalent to , as ye can, or are able. The English Version in Mat 7:11 literally renders , know how. Lange renders: wie ihrs versteht. See his Exeg. Note in loc.P. S.]
[91]Mat 27:66.[The watch procured from Pilate aided them in securing the tomb and setting the stone. So Wetstein, Meyer, Scrivener, Conant, Lange. The preposition signifies the means whereby they secured the tomb, as in Luk 17:15; Act 5:26; Act 13:17, and in Thucydides 8:73P. S.]
[92][Not: Luke, as the Edinb. edition falsely reads. The English Version renders Mar 15:43 : Joseph of Arimathes went in boldly unto Pilate (Vulgate: audacter introcivil); but the Greek is more expressive: Luther and Lange: er wagte es, etc.P. S.]
[93][Non pasces in cruce corvos. The Jewish custom, as the contrary, was to take down the bodies of the crucified before sunset and to bury them, Joseph. De Bello Jdg 4:5; Jdg 4:2. This shows the superior humanity of the Jewish compared with the boasted Grco-Roman civiliazation.P. S.]
[94][It is not likely that the body of a crucified person could be laid in a new tomb, without the previous consent of the owner. Matthew alone relates that it was Josephs property, but all the Evangelists mention that it was a new tomb. Jerome in loc. says that the tomb was new to prevent the enemies from saying that some other person had arisen: In novo ponitur monumento, ne post resurrectionem, cteris corporibus remanentibus, resurrexisse alius fingeretur, But not satisfied with this, he adds: Potest autem et novum sepulchrum Mari virginalem uterum demonstrate. Other fathers likewise draw a parallel between the new tomb from which Christ arose to everlasting life, and the Virgins womb from which He was born to earthly life. Similarily Wordsworth, following the doubtful patristic and scholastic notions of the miraculous birth through the closed womb: Christ rose from the new tomb, without moving away the stone. He, who, as a man entered life through the closed gate of the Virgins womb, rose to immortality from the sealed sepulchre.P. S.]
[95][From the Gospel narratives concerning the sepulchre of Christ, we may infer with Alford a d others: (is that it was entirely new; (2) that it was near the spot of the crucifixion; (3) that it was not a natural cave, but an artificial excavation in the rock; (4) that it was not cut downward, after the manner of our graves, but horizontally, or nearly so, into the face of the rock. The last seems to be implied, though not necessarily, in P. S.]
[96][I regret to see that Meyer adheres to this view in the fifth edition of his Commentary on Matthew which has just appeared and reached me (Aug. 29, 1864). Otherwise the valuable commentaries of this accurate, honest, and conscientious scholar, which occupy now the first rank among philological or strictly grammatico-historical commentaries, present a steady progress of improvement in every successive edition since they were first begun thirty years age. The first volume, which appeared in 1832, contained the first three Gospels in one moderate volume and was considered almost rationalistic, the fifth edition of Matthew alone, published in 1864, forms a respectable volume of 623 pages, and is not only much more thorough in a scientific point of view, but also far more decidedly Christian in tone and spirit (compare the touching preface), and much nearer the standpoint of evangelical orthodoxy.P. S.]
[97]Against the opponents of this history, see particularly the work of the late, little-known Counsellor Brauer in Karlsruhe: Pauleidolon Chroneicon, oder Gedanken eines Sdlnders ber europische Religionschriften Aufklrungsschriften, etc., Christianstadt (i. e., Frankfurt a[illegible] Main, 1797); Heubner.
[98][Not; in spite of all, as the Edinb. edition mistranstes unterdessen,P. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
XXX
OUR LORD’S RESURRECTION; ITS RELATION TO HIS CLAIMS; ITS CERTAINTY AND HISTORIC PROOFS
Harmony, pages 215-217 and Mat 27:57-66
We have How come to the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. The theme of this discussion is “The Resurrection of Jesus.” This doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is fundamental and vital in the Christian system, and absolutely essential to its integrity so much so, that if a man denies the resurrection of the body, he denies the whole Bible; for, if the foundation be removed the whole superstructure falls.
The New Testament teaches both a spiritual and a bodily resurrection (Joh 5:25-29 ): “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself.” That refers to the resurrection of the soul, or spirit. Then he adds: “Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.”
That shows two resurrections the resurrection of the spirit, and that of the body. The body resurrection is literal; the spirit resurrection is figurative. The spirit resurrection is accomplished by the Holy Spirit in regeneration, that is, the soul, dead in trespasses and in sins, is made alive. That is soul resurrection. Whenever one is regenerated, he is made alive, as Paul says in Ephesians: “You hath he quickened [or made alive, that is, the soul is made alive], who were dead in trespasses and in sins.” The same matter is fully discussed in Eze 36:24-27 ; Eze 37:1-15 ; and Eph 2:1-6 . There, under the image of the body resurrection, the spirit resurrection of Israel is signified. It refers to the coming kingdom, the future salvation of the dispersed Jews; but it is presented under the image of the body resurrection. Both the literal and the figurative resurrection call for the exercise of supernatural, omnipotent energy, that is, it takes the Spirit of God to quicken a soul dead in trespasses and in sins; it takes the Spirit of God to quicken a dead body to make it alive.
But this discussion is limited to the resurrection of the body. By resurrection of the body is meant more than a resuscitation of the corpse to resume its mortal existence, as in the case of the daughter of Jairus, the widow’s son at Nain, and Lazarus. These all died again. It means to make alive, the body to die no more; in the case of the Christian, mortality puts on immortality; corruption puts on incorruption; weakness puts on strength; dishonor puts on honor; the natural body becomes a spiritual body; the image of the first Adam, who was the natural man, becomes the image of the Second Adam, who is the spiritual man, and Lord of glory 1Co 15:42-49 . Now we see the difference between the raising of the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus, and the resurrection of Christ’s body and our bodies.
But, while all these marvelous changes take place, the identity of the body raised is never lost. The body that dies and lies buried is the body that is raised, but it is changed to suit its new life. Yet, whatever the change, it is recognizable as the very body that died.
Even in the creation of man, God purposed the immortality of the body and provided the means in the fruit of life, but his access to that tree was forfeited by the sin of the first Adam; and so death reigned over the body. So access to immortality of the body was restored through Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, as Paul puts it: “Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”; life to the soul; immortality to the body. But this, Jesus did not, and could not do, unless he himself rose from the dead.
All Christianity is an imposture, a fraud, unless Jesus himself rose from the dead.
The relation of the Lord’s resurrection to ourselves, and its relation to all his claims and to all of our hopes, is thus expressed by Paul: “Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you except ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve; then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to the child untimely born, he appeared tome also” (1Co 15:1-8 ). “Now, if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up if so be that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised; and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable. But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep” (1Co 15:12-20 ).
It is evident from that statement of Paul that everything in the whole Bible is dependent upon one single fact: the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
Let us now carefully consider in order the following facts:
1. Jesus repeatedly in his lifetime predicted that he must suffer death and that he would rise again on the third day: “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he spake this; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said” (Joh 2:18-22 ). “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered up into the hand of men, and they shall kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he shall rise again. But they understood not the saying, and were afraid to ask him” (Mar 9:31-32 ).
I say that he did that repeatedly. In his early ministry in Judea, we read (Harmony page 20, Joh 2:18-22 , quoted above), this one: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” That is the sign. “When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he spake this; and they believed the scripture.” It is in his early ministry that he makes that statement.
Notice on page 91 of the Harmony (this is immediately after the great confession at Caesarea Philippi): “From that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples, that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up” (Mat 16:21 ). Take a still later occasion (page 110 of the Harmony) where he is discussing the Good Shepherd, Joh 10:17-18 : “Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” But we come to a still later instance (Harmony page 135, Mat 20:17-19 : “And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples apart, and on the way he said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify: and the third day he shall be raised up.” Notice another (Harmony, page 145) the time when the Greeks wanted to see him: “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it dies, it beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will the Father honor. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour! But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name” (Joh 12:23-28 ). The statement of the fact just cited is, that this first fact Jesus repeatedly predicted in his lifetime that he must suffer death and would rise again the third day. I have given some proof of it, spoken at different times in his earthly ministry.
2. Let us take up the next fact. He made his resurrection the sign and proof of all his claims. See page 59 of Harmony, Mat 12:38-40 : “Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee [You come claiming to be the Son of God; now give us a sign]. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet: for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
3. And thus we come to the third fact. Jesus instituted two perpetual ordinances, one to commemorate his death, and the other to commemorate his burial and resurrection. On this I cite just two passages of Scripture. I could cite a great many, but two will be enough: “For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after Supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come” (1Co 11:23-26 ). The other passage is from Rom 6:3-5 : “Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” We thus see what his ordinance commemorates; and it is the third fact in the order.
4. The fourth fact is that while only Mary, the sister of Lazarus, of all his disciples, understood the teachings concerning his death and resurrection at this time (Mat 26:12 ), yet his enemies distinctly understood what he meant. Let us see the proof. While he was hanging on the cross, Mat 27:39-42 : “They that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildeth it in three days, save thyself: if thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross,” that is, “Try to prove you are alive after we kill you.” “In like manner also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, he saved others; himself he cannot save.”
5. The next fact is, they so understood his teaching that they took all necessary precautions to guard against the theft of his body, until after the third day, and thereby hedged against any false claim of his resurrection. I give the proof (Harmony page 217) Mat 27:62-66 : “Now on the morrow, which is the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest haply his disciples come and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: and the last error will be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a guard: go, make it sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them.” That shows they understood his teaching better than the disciples did.
I have thus given five facts in their order:
1. Jesus repeatedly predicted in his lifetime that he must suffer death, and rise again the third day, though his disciples did not understand it.
2. He made his resurrection the sign and proof of all his claims.
3. He instituted two perpetual ordinances, one to commemorate his death, the other his burial and resurrection.
4. While only Mary of Bethany, of all of his own disciples, understood his teachings, yet his enemies distinctly understood them.
5. They so understood that they took all necessary precautions to guard against the theft of his body until after the third day, and so to hedge against a false claim of his resurrection.
Never was an issue more openly joined and understood. He risked all his claims and all Christianity on one fact his resurrection on the third day. His enemies accepted the challenge openly, and safeguarded against any fraud or delusion.
Let us now consider in order another relation of facts, answering this question: Did Jesus actually die, or was it only a case of swoon, trance, or other kind of suspended animation from which he subsequently revived?
The first fact is, as the record says, “He died,” that is, the body and soul were separated. All the historians say, “He yielded up his spirit.”
The second fact: To make sure that he was actually dead, one of the executioners pierced his heart with a spear, from which flowed water and blood, an unmistakable evidence of death Joh 19:33-37 .
The third fact: The centurion in charge, officially certified his death to Pilate (Mar 15:44-45 ). If a sheriff hangs a man now, the law requires that he make due report of the fact, and that is recorded as the act of the court executed; then the appointed officer signs it, then he goes and makes his first report that he has executed the man, and he is certified to be dead. So the record says, “And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a councillor, a good man and a righteous (he had not consented to their counsel and deed), a man of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who was looking for the kingdom of God: this man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus” (Luk 23:50-52 ). “And Pilate marveled if he were already dead; and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he learned it of the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph” (Mar 15:44-45 ).
The fourth fact: He was actually embalmed and buried, and the mouth of the tomb was barred with a great stone (Joh 19:38-42 ): “Joseph of Arimathaea, . . . came therefore, and took away his body. And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. So they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now, in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb wherein was never man yet laid. There then because of the Jews’ preparation (for the tomb was nigh at hand) they laid Jesus.” Now you see that the dead body was taken down and that a hundred pounds of embalming spices, a long linen cloth was brought, and myrrh was spread on that cloth, which they wrapped around, and rolled and swathed about the body. If you find a mummy of the Egyptian days now, it has still that linen robe, buried over one thousand years ago, and shows that these spices preserve the body. There was Jesus, proved to be dead, embalmed as they would have him, in many folds of linen, and buried.
The fifth fact is that a very great stone was placed at the door of the tomb to bar it a stone so great that when the women came they did not know how they could get that stone rolled away. It was so big that a man on the inside could not have pushed it away.
The sixth fact: This stone entrance was sealed with the Roman seal, and to break that seal was death.
The seventh fact is that a guard was stationed to watch the sepulcher and protect it day and night from interference, until the third day had passed (Mat 27:62-66 ). The eighth fact: On the third day came an angel of the Lord and with a great earthquake rolled away that stone, while the guard fell as dead men (Mat 28:2-4 ). As we want the facts all in order, let us see the proof of this (Mat 28:1 ff, Harmony page 218): “Now late on the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was as lightning, and his raiment white as snow: and for fear of him the watchers did quake, and became as dead men.”
The ninth fact is that the guard faithfully reported the facts to the Sanhedrin, and with a large sum of money were bribed to say that his body was stolen by his disciples while they (the guards) slept. A protection from Pilate was promised, if the matter came to his ears. Let us see the proof on this point (Mat 28:11-15 ): “Some of the guard came into the city, and told unto the chief priests all the things that were come to pass. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and rid you of care. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continueth until this day.”
The tenth fact is that the angel told his disciples that he was risen, according to his promise, and reminded them to meet him at the previously appointed place in Galilee (Mat 28:5-7 ). Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell that. And the eleventh fact is that the disciples themselves saw that the tomb was empty.
We are now ready to discuss his resurrection. I have led up to it in an orderly way, proving that he said he would suffer death; that he would rise on the third day; that while his disciples did not understand that, his enemies did; that he made that the sign of all his claims; that he did die; that he was embalmed and buried; that his tomb was guarded; that at the appointed time an angel came and rolled away the stone, and the guard fell as dead; that the guard faithfully reported the facts; that they were then bribed to say that his disciples stole him while they slept; that the angel told his disciples that Jesus was risen, and reminded them of the appointment that he had made with them, both the women and the men, and we will see about that appointment a little later.
Now we have come to the place where the tomb is found empty, and there are just two reports about that empty tomb. Nobody disputes any fact thus far, not even an infidel or Jew. The report prevails that his disciples stole his body, and reported that he was raised from the dead, and the other fact is that Jesus rose from the dead.
How do we account for the tomb being empty in which Jesus was buried? Some of the guard testified that the body was stolen by the disciples while they (the guard) slept. The objections to this testimony are manifold: (1) It contradicts their original testimony. They told the facts to the chief priests and elders. That was their testimony. (2) Their second testimony was the result of bribery, and therefore should have been thrown out of court. (3) It was false on its face, since they could not know that it was stolen, or who had stolen it, as on their own story it had disappeared while they slept; and since it was contradictory to all history that a whole Roman guard slept while on the post of duty, and equally contradictory that such a capital offense against military law should be passed over without even a reprimand. (4) It was contradictory to the state of the minds of the disciples, who counted all lost by his death and were in terror for their lives; who did not believe at this time in his resurrection, and who had not the faith and courage to preach what they knew was false; and it is contradictory to the simplicity of their character, and their own natural, unbounded surprise when apprised that the tomb was empty and to their slowness to believe in the resurrection. In a word, they had no use for a dead body. And it is contradictory to their subsequent lives and sacrifices. (5) It leaves unexplained the resurrection and appearances of the saints who were recognized by many in Jerusalem. No court in the world would accept that testimony, and no jury in the world would believe it.
Now, on the other hand, the angel testified that Jesus was risen according to his promise and prediction. But the disciples were unable to accept the angel’s testimony. They must see him for themselves; or, as John puts it, they must see him with their eyes, hear him with their ears, and handle him with their hands. As Luke has it, they must recognize him with the inner spiritual sense as he talked with them, so that their hearts would burn within them, and they must note his old-time mannerism as in “the breaking of bread.” The proof of identity must be repeated often, and for many days, and under varied circumstances, and at different places, and to different groups, so as to be absolutely infallible and all-convincing. His mother must recognize him; his unbelieving brothers must recognize him; his friends and companions for years must recognize him. In other words, just what Act 1:3 declares: “To whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them by the space of forty days, etc.”
QUESTIONS 1. What is the importance of the doctrine of the resurrection?
2. What two kinds of resurrection taught in the Bible?
3. Cite one Old Testament and one New Testament proof that the restoration of a people may be called a resurrection.
4. Cite one New Testament proof that regeneration may be so called.
5. Cite a New Testament proof that a revival of the martyr spirit may be so called.
6. In the resurrection of the body, what four things are involved?
7. What is the glorification of the body?
8. What are the five characteristics of a natural body?
9. What are the five characteristics of a spiritual body?
10. Does the change from a natural to a spiritual body destroy its identity?
11. How was provision first made for the immortality of the body, how did man forfeit that right, and how was it regained?
12. Show the relation of Christ’s resurrection to ourselves, and how Paul makes it fundamental in Christianity.
13. Cite orderly and connected proof from the Gospels that Jesus, from the beginning and repeatedly, foretold his death and resurrection.
14. Prove that he made his resurrection on the third day the supreme sign and test of his divinity and messiahship.
15. What perpetual ordinance did Christ institute to commemorate his death?
16. What other to commemorate his burial and resurrection?
17. Cite the proof that the enemies of Christ understood the test he submitted of his claims.
18. What precaution did his enemies take to guard against any false claim of his resurrection?
19. Restate the five facts concerning his resurrection in order.
20. What seven facts prove that Jesus was dead?
21. What three facts bear on his resurrection?
22. Give a summary of the discussion leading up to the resurrection.
23. What two reports concerning the empty tomb?
24. What were the objections to the report that the disciples came and stole him while the guard slept?
25. What four earth senses were employed in recognizing the identity?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:
Ver. 57. A rich man of Arimathea ] Not many such; ‘tis well there are any. Joseph was a counsellor, a senator, one of the Sanhedrim or Seventy Seniors. Christ finds friends in the most tempestuous times and unlikely places; as in Ahab’s and Nero’s court. Some good Obadiah, or Onesiphorus, to seek out Paul the prisoner, and refresh his heart. Serena the Empress, wife to Dioclesian, that bloody persecutor, was a Christian, and a great friend to the true religion. So was the Lady Anne (wife to our King Richard II), a disciple of Wycliffe; whose books also she conveyed over into Bohemia her country, whereby a good foundation was laid for the ensuing Reformation. John of Gaunt showed himself a great favourer of Wycliffe. The like did the Elector of Saxony for Luther. George Marquis of Brandenburg, in a meeting of the Emperor and States at Augsburg, zealously professed that he would rather kneel down presently in the presence of them all, and yield his head to be struck off by the executioner, than deny Christ and his gospel. Scultet. Annul.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
57 61. ] JOSEPH OF ARIMATHA BEGS, AND BURIES THE BODY OF JESUS. Mar 15:42-47 . Luk 23:50-56 . Joh 19:38-42 . The four accounts, agreeing in substance, are remarkably distinct and independent, as will appear by a close comparison of them.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
57. ] Before sunset , at which time the Sabbath, and that an high day, began: see Deu 21:23 . The Roman custom was for the bodies to remain on the crosses till devoured by birds of prey: ‘non pasces in cruce corvos.’ Hor. Epist. 1:16. 48. On the other hand, Josephus, B. J. iv. 5. 2, says, . .
] probably to the Prtorium . Meyer supposes, to the place of execution ; which is also possible, and seems supported by the Joh 19:38 , and . ib. Joh 19:39 , which certainly was to Golgotha .
] He was also a counsellor , i.e. one of the Sanhedrim: see Mar 15:43 ; Luk 23 ;51.
] Opinions are divided as to whether this was Rama in Benjamin (see ch. Mat 2:18 .), or Rama (Ramathaim) in Ephraim, the birth-place of Samuel. The form of the name is more like the latter .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 27:57-66 . Burial (Mar 15:42-47 , Luk 23:50-56 ). , etc., there came (to the place of crucifixion, the centre of interest in the preceding narrative) a man (unknown to readers), rich (this fact put in the forefront by Mt. in Mk. On Phrynichus remarks that the vulgar take it as = rich, or in good social position, while the ancients took it as applying to the noble or symmetrical. Mt. may be following vulgar usage, but also with an eye to Isa 53:9 : “with the rich in His death”); from Arimathaea (Ramathaim Zophim, 1Sa 1:1 ); the name Joseph , and the relation to Jesus that of a disciple ( , which, if the correct reading, is an instance of the use of this verb in a neuter sense. Cf. Mat 13:52 , Mat 28:19 , Act 14:21 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 27:57-61
57When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.
Mat 27:57 “When it was evening” This phrase means it was close to the beginning of the Passover which began at 6:00 p.m. or twilight. The Jews had two evenings. The first at 3 p.m. and the second at 6 p.m., which started a new day.
“a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph” Several passages describe this man.
1. he was rich and a disciple of Jesus (cf. Mat 27:57)
2. he was a highly honored member of the Sanhedrin (cf. Mar 15:43)
3. he was a good and upright man (cf. Luk 23:50)
4. he was a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews (cf. Joh 19:38)
Mat 27:57-58 This was a brave act on the part of Joseph for the following reasons.
1. he was publicly identifying himself with a man convicted of treason
2. he was willing to be ceremonially unclean for the Passover
3. this would surely ostracize him from the Sanhedrin
Mat 27:59 Joseph hurried to prepare Jesus’ body before 6 p.m., which started Passover. The exact time when the stone was rolled into place is uncertain. It was before 6 p.m. However brief the time, it was counted as one day in the three days Jesus was in the grace.
Mat 27:60 “his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock” This is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isa 53:9.
Mat 27:61 “Mary Magdalene” See Mat 27:55-56 for a listing of the three women.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
also himself = himself also.
was, &c. = had been discipled to Jesus.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
57-61.] JOSEPH OF ARIMATHA BEGS, AND BURIES THE BODY OF JESUS. Mar 15:42-47. Luk 23:50-56. Joh 19:38-42. The four accounts, agreeing in substance, are remarkably distinct and independent, as will appear by a close comparison of them.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 27:57. , …, who also himself, etc.) As well as those pious women.-, was a disciple) and was anxious to make disciples.[1215]
[1215] Beng. takes here not only in the intransitive sense, He was a disciple, but in the transitive sense, He made, or wished to make disciples, as in ch. Mat 28:19; Act 14:21.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the Closed and Guarded Tomb
Mat 27:57-66
Fear not to entrust yourself to God in death. If you yield up your spirit and commend it to the Fathers hands, He will provide for it and for your body also. He has His Josephs everywhere. He will provide loving hands for the body, which was the shrine and casket of the precious jewel that He bought at so great a cost. Precious in His sight is the death of His saints, Psa 116:15.
The kings and princes of this world set themselves to guard the sepulcher of the Son of God by sealing-wax and sentries. They might as well have endeavored to restrain the bursting life of spring. Said the King of Terrors to Captain Corruption, Take care to keep this Mans body fast. But what did this avail, when it had been ordained that he should not stay in Hades, nor even see corruption? Whatever your foes may do against you will not avail, if only you wait patiently for God. See Psa 40:1-17.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 90
Our Saviors Burial
When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
(Mat 27:57-66)
In our study of Matthews Gospel we have seen, from this inspired narrative, Matthews declaration of the gospel How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus Christ died as a voluntary Substitute, a vicarious Sacrifice, and a victorious Savior.
Whenever we think about the death of Christ upon the cross, we should always think of four words in our minds association with it: sovereignty, substitution, satisfaction, and success. Our Savior died by an act of and in accordance with Gods sovereign will. He died as a Substitute in the place of Gods elect, his people, his sheep, those who are actually justified and saved by his blood. The Son of God did not shed his blood for nothing. He did not die in vain for the multitudes who perish under the wrath of God. To suggest that he did is to make his blood meaningless and of non-effect. By his death upon the cross our Lord Jesus Christ made atonement particularly and distinctly for his elect and effectually accomplished and obtained our eternal redemption. That means that his sacrifice and death were a success. He shall have all that and all those for whom he suffered and died. That is the message of the gospel. That is How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
In this portion of Matthews gospel narrative we are given an inspired account of the fact that he was buried. Our Lords burial is usually passed over quickly in commentaries, sermons, Bible studies, and theological material. It is commonly looked at as being only a necessary event between his death and his resurrection. There is a strong tendency to ignore the burial of our Redeemer. We look upon his death as an amazing thing; and it truly is. And we very properly look upon his resurrection as an amazing thing. We should look upon our Saviors burial as equally amazing.
Every detail recorded about our Lords burial, including the scheming of his enemies, is a divinely ordered testimony to the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is exactly who he claims to be: the Messiah, the Christ, the King, the Son of the living God. Matthews account of the burial of our Lord contains two very important lessons that I want to set before you in this study. The first is a lesson about the people of God. The second is a lesson about the providence of God.
The People of God
First, the Holy Spirit gives us a lesson in this passage about the people of God. Here we are introduced to a man called Joseph of Arimathea. We know very little about him. In fact, he is not mentioned before this incident, and he is not mentioned after it. The Gospel writers tell us only six things about him. (1.) His name was Joseph, a very common Jewish name. (2.) His home was in Arimathea, probably the city of Ramah. (3.) He was a man of considerable wealth. (4.) He was a member of the Sanhedrin (Mar 15:43). (5.) He took the Saviors dead body down from the cross, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and buried it in his own new tomb. And (6.) he also himself was Jesus disciple.
Joseph had been until this time a secret disciple. We have no way of knowing how long he had been a believer, how he heard the gospel, or why he had kept his faith a secret from others. Much speculation has been made regarding these things I will not add to the confusion. If the Holy Spirit had intended for us to know them, he could have informed us as easily as he gave us the mans name. But there are some things to be learned from this man.
We should never presume that we know the spiritual condition of others. We do not. Our Lord has disciples and friends in this world who are altogether unknown to us. There may be some true disciples living very near, perhaps even among our own families, who are unknown to us.
I realize that believers confess Christ before men, that they confess him and identify with him and his people in believers baptism, and that they are known by their fruits. I am aware of all those things. But that which is normally the case is not always the case. And we must take great care not to look upon someone as an unbeliever because he or she does not appear to us to be a believer. We simply do not have the ability to look upon the hearts of other people. We do not have the ability to separate sheep from goats, or wheat from tares. That is why the Lord tells us to leave them alone.
No one would have named Joseph among the Lords disciples; but he was a man whose love for Christ was demonstrated when none of the strong disciples dared to do what he did. At just the time he was needed, Joseph came forward to do honor to his Savior. At a time when the apostles had forsaken him, at a time when it was most dangerous to confess him, at a time when there seemed to be absolutely no earthly advantage to professing allegiance to him, Joseph came forward with boldness, begging Pilate to let him have the body of the Son of God, that he might save it from further desecration. He wrapped the Saviors body in clean linens, carried it in his own arms to his own tomb, and buried it in honor.
Not all believers are alike. Some are bold. Others are timid. Some are strong, others weak. Some are known around the world, others are hardly known at all. Some are very passive. Others are very active. Some build up the church and kingdom of God as zealous witnesses, preachers, missionaries, and evangelists. Others come forward only in times of specific need, like Joseph. Yet, all are led by God the Holy Spirit and glorify their Master in the specific way, time, and place he has ordained.
The fact that we are here told of a disciple like Joseph, unknown to the other disciples, ought to make us both charitable and hopeful. We should be charitable in our opinions of those who profess faith in Christ. I am not suggesting that religious infidels, people who deny the gospel of Gods free and sovereign grace in Christ, should be embraced as our brothers and sisters in Christ. But I am saying that those who profess faith in Christ, who profess to believe the gospel of Gods grace, should be received and embraced as true believers, as Paul put it, not to doubtful disputations (Rom 14:1), though they may behave in ways that we find inconsistent with faith, or who form associations we simply cannot fathom.
Josephs example ought to make us hopeful, too. We are far too often like Elijah, thinking that we alone are left in this world to serve our God. That is never the case. Many shall (yet) come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Mat 8:11).
John tells us that Nicodemus, another prominent Pharisee, and another secret disciple, joined Joseph at the tomb. I find that interesting and instructive. Dont you? Those disciples, who had openly followed the Lord during his lifetime, fled from him in the end. But these two men, who had kept their faith in Christ secret while he was alive, came forward publicly to bury him honorably.
Gods Providence
The second lesson in these verses is also a very important one to learn. It is a lesson about Gods providence. In infinite wisdom our God foresaw the objections that unbelievers, infidels, and atheists would raise against the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. Did the Son of God really die? Did he literally rise from the dead on the third day after his death? Might there not have been some delusion as to the reality of his death? Might there not have been some distortion of truth in reporting his resurrection? These and many other questions have been raised by men; but they are raised without a fabric of a basis in fact.
Our God, who knows the end from the beginning, prevented the possibility of such cavils having a basis in fact. By his over-ruling providence, he fixed it so that the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord were established as irrefutable facts. And he did so by overruling the actions of those very men who most desired to stop the influence of Christ in this world his murderers! The facts recorded in these last verses of Matthew twenty-seven are recorded by Matthew alone. They make it evident for all to see that the Son of God literally died as our penal Substitute, that he was buried as a dead man in the earth for three days, and that he arose from the dead on the third day after his death.[7]
[7] Robert Hawkers comments on Matthew 62-66 are excellent. I give them here without comment. Here is a precious testimony, and from the mouth of Christs enemies also, in confirmation of the resurrection which followed. And with respect to the story of the disciples taking away the body, it is in itself too childish and ridiculous to deserve even the relation of it. That a few poor timid disciples, who during their Lords trial, and before any danger to themselves had even appeared, had all forsook Jesus and fled, should project such a scheme, as to come by surprise on a guard of Roman soldiers, who were placed at the sepulchre for no purpose but to watch the body of Jesus; and whose military discipline was the strictest in the world; and should actually take away the body, is one of the most extravagant suppositions, which ever entered the human mind.
And to heighten the representation still more, it is added, that this was done while the soldiers were asleep. Soldiers and centinels asleep! And so it seems, that the evidence these soldiers gave of this transaction, of what had happened, was while they were asleep. A new way of giving testimony!
Moreover, it is time to enquire, what possible motive these poor fishermen of Galilee could have to take away a dead body? Nothing can be more plain and evident than that the disciples of Jesus, at the time this transaction of Christs death took place, knew not any more than their enemies, what the resurrection from the dead should mean. They had no other notions of Christ, notwithstanding all that Jesus had said to them, than that of a temporal prince; and when by his death, the hopes they had conceived of this kingdom were over, they would in a few days have returned to their former occupation again. In fact they did so.
Besides, where could they have put the body? Was it stolen, and yet intended to be concealed? And if so what could be then accomplished by it? And can it be supposed for a moment, that when the soldiers all of them awaked from their sleep and found the body gone, and taken away by disciples; would the Roman soldiers, aided by the whole Jewish Sanhedrim, have suffered this handful of poor fishermen of Galilee to have remained a single hour, without giving up their plunder, and bringing them to immediate punishment.
I have not dwelt so circumstantially on this subject from any apprehension of its necessity, for my Readers confirmation of the faith once delivered to the saints; but for the preciousness of any thing, and every thing connected with the resurrection of Jesus. Oh! the blessedness of knowing, and from divine teaching too; the certainty of that glorious truth, Christ is risen from the dead. And oh! when the conviction of that glorious truth is secured in the soul, by a testimony founded in the faithfulness of Jehovah; then in Christs resurrection, the sure resurrection of his redeemed is included. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power. (Rev 20:6).
The Lord our god is so gloriously sovereign that he makes even the actions of his enemies, even the most wicked acts of men to serve his purpose for the salvation of his elect and the glory of his own great name.
Sometimes God performs notable miracles, by which he alters the course of nature to accomplish his purpose for the good of his elect and the glory of his name. (The Flood The Plagues in Egypt The Slaying of the Firstborn The Crossing of the Red Sea and Drowning of Pharaoh The Manna that Fell in the Wilderness Water Flowing out of the Smitten Rock The Day the sun Stood Still The Fallen Walls of Jericho The Axe that Swam The Ass that Spoke The Opening of the Ground to Swallow Korah The Fish to Swallow Jonah The Burning Bush The Fire that Could not Burn Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego The Lions that Would not Harm Daniel).
But the supernatural miracles performed by God seem almost insignificant, when compared to his sovereign disposition of all things in providence. Consider for a moment the magnitude of Gods providence.
The Scriptures universally declare that our God rules all things, everywhere, at all times, absolutely (1Ch 29:11-12; 2Ch 20:6; Job 23:13; Psa 76:10; Psa 115:3; Psa 135:6; Pro 16:4; Pro 16:9; Pro 16:33; Pro 21:30; Isa 46:9-10; Dan 4:34-35; Rom 11:36; Eph 1:11).
The Word of God is filled with examples of Gods sovereign providence ruling and overruling even the most vile actions of men for the accomplishment of his purpose: Joseph and His Brethren Elimelech, Naomi, and Ruth Esther, Haman, and Mordecai David and Bathsheba (Psa 76:10; Pro 16:9; Jer 10:23).
Yet nowhere in Scripture is Gods incredible and amazing providence more evident than in the burial of our Lord. Every detail, from Josephs begging for his body, to Pilates agreement, to the scheming of the Jews to have his tomb sealed under the protection of Roman guards, all are a testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is indeed the Christ of God, our Savior, and our Lord, crucified, buried, and raised again for our justification. There is no human explanation of these events.
Let all who truly are the Lords disciples come forth in this hour when his name is maligned to confess him in believers baptism. As he was buried for us, we must take our place with him in the watery grave. May God give us grace both to boldly confess our Saviors name in the midst of his enemies and to calmly trust his wise and adorable providence (Rom 8:28-31).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
there: Mar 15:42, Mar 15:43, Luk 23:50, Luk 23:51, Joh 19:38-42
Arimathaea: 1Sa 1:1, 1Sa 7:17
Reciprocal: Jos 18:25 – Ramah Isa 53:9 – made Mar 6:29 – they came Joh 12:7 – against Act 13:29 – they took 1Co 15:4 – that 1Ti 6:17 – rich
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:57
Luk 23:50-51 says that Joseph was a counsellor which means that he was a member of the Sanhedrin. That passage states also that he “had not consented to the counsel and deed of them,” meaning the Sanhedrin. Decisions of that body were made by the voice of the members (Mat 26:65-66), and when the case of Jesus was presented, Joseph did not vote with those who condemned him. It should be noted that Joseph was a rich man, also that he was “a good man and a just,” and that he was a disciple of Jesus. All of this disproves the teaching of some that a man cannot be a true disciple of Jesus and still be a rich man. It is the trusting in riches that will condemn a man (Mar 10:24; 1Ti 6:17-18). But if he will “do good” with his riches he will thereby lay up for himself a good foundation against the time to come, and lay hold upon eternal life. Had Joseph not been a rich man he might not -have been able to purchase the burial place that was used to give the body of Jesus the respect that even any human body deserves, much more that of the Son of God. Another thing, by the fact of this man’s being rich it fulfilled the prediction that Christ “made his grave with the rich” (Isa 53:9). That same prophecy includes a grave with the wicked which means the people of the world from whom Joseph purchased the place.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THESE verses contain the history of our Lord Jesus Christ’s burial. There was yet one thing needful, in order to make it certain that our Redeemer accomplished that great work of redemption which He undertook. That holy body, in which He bore our sins on the cross, must actually be laid in the grave, and rise again. His resurrection was to be the seal and head-stone of all the work.
The infinite wisdom of God foresaw the objections of unbelievers and infidels, and provided against them.-Did the Son of God really die? Did he really rise again? Might there not have been some delusion as to the reality of His death? Might there not have been imposition or deception, as to the reality of His resurrection?-All these, and many more objections, would doubtless have been raised, if opportunity had been given. But He who knows the end from the beginning, prevented the possibility of such objections being made. By His over-ruling providence, He ordered things so that the death and burial of Jesus were placed beyond a doubt.-Pilate gives consent to His burial. A loving disciple wraps the body in linen, and lays it in a new tomb hewn out of a rock, “wherein was never man yet laid.” The chief priests themselves set a guard over the place where His body was deposited. Jews and Gentiles, friends and enemies, all alike testify to the great fact, that Christ did really and actually die, and was laid in a grave. It is a fact that can never be questioned.-He was really “bruised.” He really “suffered.” He really “died.” He was really “buried.” Let us mark this well. It deserves recollection.
Let us learn, for one thing, from these verses, that our Lord Jesus Christ has friends of whom little is known.
We cannot have a more striking example of this truth, than we see in the passage now before us. A man named Joseph of Arimatha comes forward, when our Lord was dead, and asks permission to bury Him. We have never heard of this man at any former period of our Lord’s earthly ministry. We never hear of him again. We know nothing, but that he was a disciple who loved Christ, and did Him honor. At the time when the apostles had forsaken our Lord,-at a time when it was a dangerous thing to confess regard for Him,-at a time when there seemed to be no earthly advantage to be gained by confessing His discipleship,-at such a time as this Joseph comes boldly forward, and begs the body of Jesus, and lays it in his own new tomb.
This fact is full of comfort and encouragement. It shows us that there are some quiet, retiring souls on earth, who know the Lord, and the Lord knows them, and yet they are little known by the church. It shows us that there are diversities of gifts among Christ’s people. There are some who glorify Christ passively, and some who glorify Him actively. There are some whose vocation it is to build the Church, and fill a public place, and there are some who only come forward, like Joseph, in times of special need. But each and all are led by one Spirit, and each and all glorify God in their several ways.
Let these things teach us to be more hopeful. Let us believe that many shall yet come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. There may be in some dark corners of Christendom many, who, like Simeon, and Anna, and Joseph of Arimatha, are at present little known, who shall shine brightly among the Lord’s jewels in the day of His appearing.
Let us learn, for another thing, from these verses, that God can make the devices of wicked men work round to His own glory.
We are taught that lesson in a striking manner, by the conduct of the priests and Pharisees, after our Lord was buried. The restless enmity of these unhappy men could not sleep, even when the body of Jesus was in the grave. They called to mind the words, which they remembered he had said, about “rising again.” They resolved, as they thought, to make His rising again impossible. They went to Pilate. They obtained from him a guard of Roman soldiers. They set a watch over the tomb of our Lord. They placed a seal upon the stone. In short, they did all they could to “make the sepulchre sure.”
They little thought what they were doing. They little thought that unwittingly they were providing the most complete evidence of the truth of Christ’s coming resurrection. They were actually making it impossible to prove that there was any deception or imposition. Their seal, their guard, their precautions, were all to become witnesses, in a few hours, that Christ had risen. They might as well have tried to stop the tides of the sea, or to prevent the sun rising, as to prevent Jesus coming forth from the tomb. They were taken in their own craftiness. (1Co 3:19.) Their own devices became instruments to show forth God’s glory.
The history of the Church of Christ is full of examples of a similar kind. The very things that have seemed most unfavorable to God’s people, have often turned out to be for their good. What harm did the “persecution which arose about Stephen” do to the Church of Christ? They that were scattered went every where, preaching the word.-(Act 8:4.) What harm did imprisonment do Paul? It gave him time to write many of those Epistles, which are now read all over the world.-What real harm did the persecution of bloody Mary do to the cause of the English Reformation? The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church.-What harm does persecution do the people of God at this very day? It only drives them nearer to Christ. It only makes them cling more closely to the throne of grace, the Bible, and prayer.
Let all true Christians lay these things to heart, and take courage. We live in a world where all things are ordered by a hand of perfect wisdom, and where all things are working together continually for the good of the body of Christ. The powers of this world are only tools in the hand of God. He is ever using them for His own purposes, however little they may be aware of it.-They are the instruments by which He is ever squaring and polishing the living stones of His spiritual temple, and all their schemes and plans will only turn to His praise. Let us be patient in days of trouble and darkness, and look forward. The very things which now seem against us, are all working together for God’s glory. We see but half now.-Yet a little, we shall see all. And we shall then discover that all the persecution we now endure was, like the seal and the guard, tending to God’s glory. God can make the “wrath of man praise him.” (Psa 76:10.)
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Mat 27:57. When evening was come. The first evening before sundown, at which time the bodies must be removed (Deu 21:23). Our Lords death took place at three in the afternoon.
There came a rich man. Probably, to the company of women standing on Golgotha (Mat 27:56). His going to Pilate is mentioned afterwards. The fact of his being a rich man is mentioned here, in allusion to Isa 53:9 : With the rich in His death.
Of Arimathea. Either Ramah in Benjamin (Jos 18:25; comp. Mat 2:18) or Ramah (Ramathaim) in Ephraim, the birth-place of Samuel (1Sa 1:19). The form favors the latter view; the addition of Luke: a city of the Jews the former.
Named Joseph. One Joseph takes care of Jesus in His infancy, another provides for His burial.Jesus disciple. Secretly for fear of the Jews (Joh 19:38). He was a member of the Sanhedrin, of high character, who had not consented to the murder (Luk 23:50-51). He seems to have feared that the body might be removed in a disgraceful manner, and his secret faith having been quickened, he took a decisive step. Ecclesiastical tradition makes him one of the seventy and the first who preached the gospel in England.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here we have an account given of our Lord’s funeral and interment in the grave; such a funeral as never was since grave were first digged. Concerning which, we have these particulars observable:
Observe, 1. The preparatives that were made for our Lord’s funeral; namely, the begging and perfuming of his dead body; his body could not be buried, till by begging it was obtained of Pilate; the dead bodies of malefactors being in the power and disposal of the judge. Pilate grants it; and to manifest their dear affection to their dead Lord, they wrap the body in fine linen, with spices to perfume it. But what need of odours for that body did not want them, yet the affections of his friends could not with-hold them.
Observe, 2. The bearers that carried his body to the grave, or the persons concerned in solemnizing his funeral, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, two rich men, and two secret disciples.
1. They were rich men, senators, honourable counsellors; and so that prophecy was fulfilled. He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. Isa 53:9.
2. They were good men as well as rich men, disciples though secretly, for fear of the Jews. Grace doth no always make a public and open show where it is. As there is much secret riches in the bowels of the earth, which no eye ever saw, so there may be grace in the heart of a Christian, which the world takes no notice of. We never hear any news of Joseph of Arimathea till now; yet was he eminently rich, wise, and good; a worthy though a close disciple. Much grace may be where little is seen. Some gracious persons cannot put forward, and discover themselves, like others; and yet such weak Christians, perhaps, when a trial comes, shall stand their ground, when stronger run away. We read of none of the apostles at Christ’s funeral; fear had chased them away, though they professed a readiness to die with Christ: But Joseph and Nicodemus appear boldly for him.
Let it be a caution to strong Christians, neither to glory in themselves nor to glory over the weak. If God desert the strong, and assist the weak, the feeble shall be as David, and the strong as tow.
Observe, 3. The mourners that followed the hearse; namely, the women that followed him out of Galilee, and particularly the two Maries: A very poor train of mourners, a few sorrowful women. Others are attended to their graves by their relations and friends; but Christ’s disciples were all scattered, and afraid to own him either dying or dead. Our blessed Lord affected no pomp or gallantry in his life, and it was no way suitable either to the end or manner of his death. Humiliation was designed in his death, and his burial was the lowest degree of his humiliation.
Observe, 4. The grave or sepulchre in which they buried him; it was in a garden. As by the sin of the first Adam we were driven out of the garden of pleasure, the earthly paradise; so by the sufferings of the second Adam, who lay buried in a garden, we may hope for an entrance into the heavenly paradise. It was in a sepulchre hewn out of a rock; that so his enemies might have no occasion to cavil, and say, that his disciples stole him away by secret holes, or unseen passages under ground. And it was in a new sepulchre, in which never any man was laid, lest his adversaries should say, it was some other that was risen, or that he rose from the dead by touching some other corpse.
Observe, 5. The manner of our Lord’s funeral, hastily, openly, decently celebrated. It was done in haste, by reason of the straits of time, the preparation for the passover caused them to be very expeditious; the sabbath was approaching, and they lay all business aside to prepare for that.
Learn hence, How much it is our duty to dispatch our wordly business as early as we can towards the end of the week, that we may be the better prepared to sanctify the Lord’s day, if we live to enjoy it. We ought to remember that day before it comes, and to sanctify it when it is come.
Again, Our Lord was buried openly, as well as hastily; all persons had liberty to be spectators, that none might object there was any fraud or deceit used in or about his burial. He was also interred decently, his body wrapt in fine linen, and perfumed with odours, according to the Jewish custom, which used not to unbowel, but embalm, their dead.
Observe, 6. The reason why our Lord was buried, seeing he was to rise again in as short a time as other men lie by the walls; and had his dead body remained a thousand years unburied, it could have seen no corruption, having never been tainted with sin. Sin is the cause of the body’s corruption; it is sin that makes our bodies stink worse than carrion when they are dead. A funeral then was not necessary for Christ’s body, upon the same accounts that it is necessary for ours.
But, 1. He was buried to declare the certainty of his death, and the reality of his resurrection; and for his reason did God’s providence order it, that he should be embalmed to cut off all pretensions. For in this kind of embalming, his mouth, his ears and his nostrils, were all filled with spices and odours, so that there could be no latent principle of life in him; being thus buried, then, declares him to be certainly dead.
2. He was buried to fulfil the types and prophecies that went before concerning him. Jonas’s being three days and three nights in the belly of a whale was a type of Christ’s being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; and the prophet Isaiah said, He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. Isa 53:9. Pointing, by that expression, at this tomb of Joseph’s, who was a rich man; and the scripture cannot be broken.
3. He was buried to complete his humiliation; They have brought me to the dust of death, says David, a type of Christ. This was the lowest step he could possibly descend in his abased state; lower he could not have been laid, and so low his blessed head must be laid, else he had not been humbled to the lowest.
4. He went into the grave, that he might conquer death in its own territories and dominions. Christ’s victory over the grave causes his saints to triumph and sing; O grave, where is thy destruction? Our blessed Lord has perfumed the bed of the grave by his own lying in it: So that the pillow of down is not so soft to a believer’s head, as a pillow of dust.
Observe, lastly, Of what use the doctrine of Our Lord’s burial may be unto us.
1. For instruction; here we see the amazing depths of Our Lord’s humiliation. From what, to what his love brought him; even from the bosom of his Father, to the bosom of a grave. Now the depth of his humiliation shows us the fulness and sufficiency of his satisfaction as well as the heinousness of our transgression.
2. For consolation against the fears of death and the grave. The grave received Christ, but could not retain him. Death swallowed him up, as the fish did Jonas, but quickly vomited him up again; so shall it fare with Christ mystical as it did with Christ personal; the grave could not long keep him, it shall not forever keep us; as his body rested in hope, so shall ours also; and though they see corruption, which they did not, yet shall they not always lie under the power of corruption. In a word, Christ’s lying in the grave, has changed and altered the nature of the grave; it was a prison before, a bed of rest now; a loathsome grave before, a perfumed bed now. He whose head is in heaven, and need not fear to put his foot into the grave.-Awake and sing, thou that dwelleth in dust, for the enmity of the grave is slain by Christ.
3. For imitation; let us study and endeavour to be buried with Christ, in respect of our sins: I mean, Buried with him into death. Rom 6:4. Our sins should be as a dead body, in several respects.
Are dead bodies removed far from the society of men? So should our sins be removed far from us. Dead bodies in the grave spend and consume away by little and little; So should our sins daily.
Will dead bodies grow every day more and more loathsome to others? So should our sins be to ourselves.
Do dead boodies wax out of memory, and are quite forgotten? So should our sins, in respect of any delight that we take in remembering of them. We should always remember our sins to our humiliation; but never think or speak of them with the least delight or satisfaction; for this, in God’s account, is a new comission of them, and lays us under an additional guilt.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
CXXXIII.
THE CRUCIFIXION.
Subdivision D.
JESUS FOUND TO BE DEAD. HIS BODY
BURIED AND GUARDED IN THE TOMB.
aMATT. XXVII. 57-66; bMARK XV. 42-47; cLUKE XXIII. 50-56; dJOHN XIX. 31-42.
d31 The Jews therefore, because it was the Preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross upon the sabbath (for the day of that sabbath was a high day), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. [According to rabbinical writing a few hours before the Sabbath were called the Preparation; but afterwards the term was applied to the entire day preceding the Sabbath. The Romans left the bodies of criminals hanging upon the cross until beasts and birds of prey, or putrefaction, removed them. But the Jewish [733] law forbade that a body should hang over night; for a dead body was accursed, and so the day following might be polluted by the curse which attached to it ( Deu 21:23, Jos 8:29, Jos 10:26; Jos. Wars iv. 5. 2). The context suggests that the Jews had grown lax with regard to this law on account of the trouble of obtaining the consent from the Romans required to carry it out. But as the Sabbath in this instance was that of the passover week, and as they were ready enough to do anything to show that Jesus was an extraordinary criminal, they asked Pilate that their law might be observed. Instead of killing the criminals, they broke their legs, which rendered recovery impossible, since putrefaction almost immediately set it.] 32 The soldiers therefore came, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him: 33 but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 34 howbeit one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side [to insure death in case they might be mistaken], and straightway there came out blood and water. 35 And he that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also may believe. [Many able men have argued learnedly that this flow of blood and water was evidence that Jesus died of a ruptured, or literally broken, heart; but they confess themselves involved in difficulties, for it is hard to reconcile the idea that Jesus died a voluntary death with the idea that he died of any natural cause whatever. Can anything be at once natural and supernatural? However, John’s asservation that he was an eye-witness of this shows that he attached importance to it. To him the body of Jesus gave evidence that it differed from other dead bodies. We enter with hesitancy the realm of symbolism, knowing how flagrantly it is abused, but we offer this as a suggestion. Jesus died for our sins, and his death was therefore to provide a means for the cleansing of sin. But, under the terms of his gospel, sins are visibly and physically washed away by water, and invisibly and spiritually by blood ( Heb 10:22). Now, since both these means were seen [734] by a faithful witness to issue from the side of our crucified Lord, contrary to the ordinary law and course of nature, we have additional reason to believe that things out of the course of nature, namely, the cleansing of sin, etc., were accomplished by his crucifixion.] 36 For these things came to pass, that the scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. [ Psa 34:20.] 37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. [ Zec 12:10. Even after his death divine power went on fulfilling the prophecies concerning Jesus. He hangs upon the cross as one of a group of three, yet, in the twinkling of an eye, he is separated from the other two by the fulfillment of a brace of prophecies which point him out as the chosen of God.] 38 And after these things bwhen even was now come, because it was the Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, cbehold, athere came a rich man from Arimathaea, ca city of the Jews, anamed Joseph, bof Arimathaea, cwho was a councillor, bof honorable estate, ca good and righteous man 51 (he had not consented to their counsel and deed), bwho also himself was looking for the kingdom of God; awho also himself was Jesus’ disciple: {dbeing a disciple of Jesus,} but secretly for fear of the Jews [ Joh 12:42, Joh 12:43], a58 this man bboldly went in unto Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. dasked of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus [Joseph’s town has been variously identified with Ramleh in Dan, Ramathaim in Ephraim ( 1Sa 1:1), and Ramah in Benjamin ( Mat 2:18). It was a fulfillment of prophecy that the one who buried Jesus should be rich ( Isa 53:9). It is strange that those who were not afraid to be disciples were afraid to ask for our Lord’s body, yet he who was afraid to be a disciple feared not to do this thing]: b44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead [instances are cited where men lived one whole week upon the cross, and men rarely died the first day]: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while [735] dead. 45 And when he learned it of the centurion, aThen Pilate bgranted the corpse to Joseph. acommanded it to be given up. dand Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took away his body. 39 And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night [ Joh 3:2], bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. [Myrrh was a resin and the aloe was pulverized wood. Both were aromatic– Psa 45:8.] a59 And Joseph bbought a linen cloth [a sindon–see Act 5:6. The spices were wrapped between the folds of the linen in order to partially embalm the body. Thus two members of the Sanhedrin unite to bury Jesus, each showing his reverence in his own way: Joseph by buying a sindon instead of cheaper cloth, and Nicodemus by a wonderful wealth of spices–twelve hundred ounces. Possibly the heart of Nicodemus smote him for his tardiness in honoring Christ, and he desired to appease his conscience by giving the Lord a royal burial– 2Ch 16:14.] 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden [belonging to Joseph]; and in the garden a {ahis own} new tomb which he had {cthat was bwhich had been} chewn in stone, bout of a {athe} rock: dwherein was never man yet laid. {cwhere never man had yet lain.} [To the sindon Joseph adds the honor of a burial in his own tomb. The unused state of the tomb is mentioned to show that there is no shadow of doubt as to whose resurrection opened it.] 54 And it was the day of the Preparation, and the sabbath drew on. d42 There then because of the Jews’ Preparation (for the tomb was nigh at hand) they laid Jesus. aand he rolled a great stone to {bagainst} the door of the tomb. aand departed. c55 And the [736] women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and beheld the tomb, and how his body was laid. a61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, bthe mother of Joses asitting over against the sepulchre. cand beheld the tomb, bwhere cand how his body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. And on the sabbath they rested according to the commandment. [As Jesus died about three o’clock in the afternoon, and as all work had to stop at sunset, which was the beginning of the Sabbath, Joseph was much hurried in his efforts to bury Jesus. The context, therefore, shows that our Lord was not completely embalmed by him. The body of Jesus might have been kept elsewhere until after the Sabbath; but because the tomb was near it appears to have been used temporarily, and the preparation of spices by the women shows that even that part of the burial was not, in their estimation, completed. This unfinished burial led the women back to the tomb early on the first day of the week, and thus brought to the disciples the glad news of the resurrection without any needless delay.] a62 Now on the morrow, which is the day after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together unto Pilate [This was not the whole Sanhedrin, but members of it. When did they come to Pilate? Meyer, Cook, etc., say that the Greek word translated “morrow” precludes any other idea than it was after daylight Saturday morning, but Michaelis, Paulus, Kuinoel, etc., say that they came Friday night, and we think their view is correct. The word translated “morrow” also means “the next day.” As the Jewish day began at sunset, we know of no other Greek adverb by which Matthew could have expressed the beginning of a day. Had it been the Sabbath morning there is no reason why Matthew should not have said so. By mentioning, instead, the Preparation, he draws the mind back to what we would call Friday night. It is highly improbable that the Jews would leave the tomb of Jesus unguarded for one whole night. Their gathering thus to Pilate in the shades of evening presents a gruesome picture], 63 saying, Sir, we remember [737] that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I rise again. [For this saying, see Luk 23:48), and judging the disciples of Jesus by themselves–full of all subtlety and cunning–they grasped at once the idea that the disciples could make a great stir among the people by stealing the body and proclaiming the predicted resurrection. The apostles, on the other hand, when the actual resurrection had taken place, did not learn for fifty days what use to make of it, thus showing they could not have planned a pretended resurrection.] 65 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a guard [The Greek here may be the indicative or the imperative; it is clearly the latter. If the Jews had possessed a guard, they would not have asked for one. Pilate consents to their request by saying, “Have ye a guard:” thereby fully sanctioning their idea]: go, make it as sure as ye can. 66 So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them. [They sealed the stone by drawing a string or tape across it and fastening the ends with wax or clay to the surface of the rock on either side. If either seals were broken, that fact would show that the tomb was entered from without.] [738]
[FFG 733-738]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
THE INTERMENT
Mat 27:57-61; Mar 15:42-47; Luk 23:50-56; Joh 19:31-42. Then the Jews, in order that the bodies may not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, since it was the preparation (for the day of that Sabbath was great), asked Pilate that they may break their legs, and take them down. Then the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and the other one who had been crucified along with him. It seems that the soldiers had a veneration for Jesus, as they passed Him by after breaking the legs of the one, going on to the third, and returning to Him, as He was in the middle. And having come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers pierced His side with his spear, and blood and water immediately came out. Roman law was terribly rigid, taking the life of a soldier for apparently trivial delinquency in duty. Hence the soldier felt it important to be sure that He was dead before he consented to intermit the verification of the order given to break their legs. Consequently he plunged the spear into His heart, thus making sure that He was dead. The Bible is a wonderful book, never relaxing its ipse dixit. If you are going up to heaven to live with Jesus, you must walk in His footprints by way of Gethsemane, the judgment-hall, and Calvary. This wicked world will plunge the spear of ridicule, contempt, and persecution into your side. Jesus died so dead that He did not feel this awful cruelty. Lord, help us to do likewise! Let me die so dead
That no desire shall rise To pass for good or great or wise, In any but my Saviors eyes.
The entire constituency of salvation came out of the Saviors side in the blood and the water. The blood redeems and sanctifies; the water regenerates, nourishes, and purifies. Hence you have the true works of grace represented by the water and the blood.
Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure:
Save from wrath, and make me pure.
O what a pity the millions run after the priests, who at best are nothing but saved sinners, forgetting that they need nothing but the blood and water flowing out of the Saviors side! Then fly for a sale retreat in His clefted side.
And the one having seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he speaks the truth, in order that you may believe. You see from this that John was an eye-witness of all he wrote in his Gospel. The same is true of Matthew; while Mark is believed to have served Peter as an amanuensis, receiving his narrative from the senior apostle; Luke being the amanuensis of Paul. Hence the literary culture manifested in the latter, and the straight, solid, flinty truth in the former.
Luk 23:54. And it was the preparation day, and the Sabbath drawing nigh. Vv. 50-52: Behold, a man by name Joseph, being a senator, a good and righteous man, who was not consenting unto their counsel and deed, from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; he, having come to Pilate, begged the body of Jesus.
Mar 15:44-46 : And Pilate was astonished if He was already dead, and calling a centurion, asked him if He were dead a long time. And learning from the centurion, he delivered the body to Joseph. And purchasing linen, and taking Him down, he wrapped Him in the linen, and placed Him in a sepulcher which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone to the door of the sepulcher. Mat 27:59-60 : And Joseph taking the body, wrapped it in clean linen, and placed it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. and rolling a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, departed. Luk 23:53 : And taking it [the body] down , he wrapped it in linen, and placed it in a hewn sepulcher, where no one had ever been laid. Joh 19:38-42 : After these things, Joseph from Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, and having been concealed on account of the fear of the Jews, requested Pilate that he may take the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted him. Then he came, and took the body of Jesus. And Nieodemus also, the one having in the first place come to Jesus by night [John 3], came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about one hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and wrapped it in the linen, along with the aromatics, as it is customary to the Jews to embalm. And in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulcher in which no one was yet deposited. Then they placed Jesus there on account of the preparation of the Jews, because the sepulcher was nigh. Luk 23:55-56 : And the women following along, who had come with Him from Galilee, saw the sepulcher, and where His body, was placed; and turning away, they prepared aromatics and myrrh; and they kept the Sabbath according to the commandment.
a. Such was the punctilious rigor with which the Jews kept the Sabbath that they postponed the completion of His embalmment till the day of sacred rest had passed away; however, in order to expedite the embalmment as much as possible, they procured the materials on Friday evening, so that, all things being ready, they may proceed at the early dawn of the incoming week, and perfect the work begun on the preceding Friday by Nicodemus and Joseph.
b. I passed through the city of Ramlah, in the Plain of Sharon, on the road from Jerusalem to Joppa. Though, like other cities in that land, it went into utter desolation, in the last few years it has been colonized by Jews, who have made it very prosperous, like all of their colonies in that land. It now contains eleven thousand inhabitants, and is growing rapidly. This is said to be the ancient home of Nicodemus and Joseph, by whose kindness our Savior received a royal interment. John says they were secret disciples of Jesus on account of the fear of the Jews. This is an instance in which we see the power of death signally revealed, as these two great and good men never publicly confessed Him during His life, but when they saw Him die, covered with shame and popular contempt, calumniated as a malefactor (and not only executed in the most disgraceful method, such as hanging in this country, but, in order to augment His ignominy, actually crucifying Him between two robbers, thus proclaiming to the world His identity with the worst criminals), they became more courageous than ever before, coming out boldly, and Joseph furnished a valuable new sepulcher, hewn out of the great, precipitous rock at the base of Mount Calvary, and Nicodemus brought one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, both very costly, and especially the former, which was not native in Palestine, but transported from Arabia Felix; and the latter, though indigenous, was rare and costly. Thus these two wealthy theologians actually favored Him with a royal interment. This courageous public intervention on the part of these men, who were so prominent in the Theocracy, really warrants the conclusion that their faith had received a wonderful impetus during those memorable hours when the powers of darkness dominated earth and hell, and heaven veiled her face in sable night rather than behold the awful tragedy. If the trend of things at that time had continued, both of these men would have been executed as accomplices in the treason, heresy, and imposture with which Jesus was charged.
c. Down at the base of the skull-shaped summit on which our Lord was crucified, as here specified, there is a garden, and in it there is a sepulcher hewn out in the perpendicular rock, really constituting a part of Mount Calvary; and in that sepulcher there are three tombs, cut out in the solid stone. As it is said that the tomb in which they deposited the body of Jesus was new, no one ever having been laid in it, therefore we conclude that the one of these three which looks newest was the identical tomb in which the body of our Lord was laid. As this is the only sepulcher in that garden, we conclude that it is the identical one honored by containing the crucified body of our Lord.
d. The fine linen with which He was wrapped was made in Egypt, and used by kings for underwear, the Tyrian purple constituting their external robes. Thus we see our Lord received a royal burial in every respect. O how contrastive with His humble and lowly life, having no temporal estate, no money, no living, no home, not as much as a place to lay His head, thus vividly symbolizing the glorious victory won by His expiatory death, and at the same time adumbrating His brilliant royalty in His second coming!
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 27:57-61. The Burial of Jesus (Mar 15:42-47*, Luk 23:50-56).Mt. is the briefest of the three; he omits Pilates inquiry of the centurion (which Mk. gives) and the description of Joseph (Mk., Lk.). He simply calls him a rich man, Jesus disciple. Perhaps he thought that by calling him a councilor he might be grouping him with those who condemned Jesus; a rich man may be a reminiscence of Isa 53:9.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 57
Joseph. He was a member of the council by which Jesus had been condemned; although he had himself opposed his condemnation. (Luke 23:50,51.)
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
27:57 {15} When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:
(15) Christ is buried, not privately or by stealth, but with the governor’s consent, by a famous man, in a place not far distant, in a new tomb, so that his death cannot be doubted.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
5. The burial of Jesus 27:57-66
Matthew emphasized two things about Jesus’ burial: the fulfillment of prophecy, and the impossibility of the theory that someone stole Jesus’ body.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The placing of Jesus in the tomb 27:57-61 (cf. Mar 15:42-47; Luk 23:50-56; Joh 19:31-42)
Normally the Romans let the bodies of crucified criminals rot on their crosses without burial. If family members wanted to bury a crucified loved one, they had to apply for permission to do so. The Romans usually granted these requests with the exception of criminals who had committed high treason. The Jews, however, did not want dead corpses to remain unburied overnight (Deu 21:22-23).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Evening would have been late afternoon. The next day, a Sabbath, began at sundown, which would have occurred about 6:00 p.m. at this time of year in Palestine. Hoehner calculated that this was the evening of Friday, April 3, A.D. 33. [Note: Hoehner, Chronological Aspects . . ., p. 143.]
The location of Joseph’s home is uncertain. It may have been Ramathaim-zophim that stood about 20 miles northwest of Jerusalem. [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 1089.] Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin who had not consented to Jesus’ death (Luk 23:51). Matthew only mentioned that he was a rich disciple of Jesus (cf. Isa 53:9-12). In the Greek text the word translated "rich" is in the emphatic position in the sentence. Matthew apparently wanted to stress the fulfillment of Isa 53:9: "His grave was assigned to be with wicked men, yet with a rich man in His death." Evidently Joseph was a follower from a distance since John wrote that he was a secret disciple for fear of the Jews (Joh 19:38). Matthew noted that even a member of the body that condemned Jesus believed on Him, another testimony that He was indeed the Messiah.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 20
The Third Day- Mat 27:57-66 – Mat 28:1-15
Now that the atoning work of Christ is finished, the story proceeds with rapidity to its close. It was the work of the Evangelist to give the history of the incarnate Son of God; and now that the flesh is laid aside, it is necessary only to give such notes of subsequent events as shall preserve the continuity between the prophetic and priestly work of Christ on earth which it had been His. vocation to describe, and the royal work which, as exalted Prince and Saviour, it still remained for Him to do. We need not wonder, then, that the record of the three days should be quite brief, and of the forty days briefer still.
This brevity is a note of truthfulness. The old idea of deliberate falsehood having been quite given up, reliance is placed, by those who wish to discredit the gospel witnesses, on the suggestion that the records of the resurrection are the result of fancy crystallising into so-called fact. But not only was there no time, between the death of Christ and the latest date which can be assigned for the writing of the first Gospel, for the process of crystallisation, but had there been such a process, the result would have been very different. Had fancy, and not observation, been the source, how comes it that nothing is told but what came within the range of actual vision? Why is there not a word about Christs. entry into Paradise, or descent into Hades? What a fruitful field for fancy here!-yet there is not even a hint; for it is not from anything in the Gospels, but solely from a passage in one of the Epistles, that the doctrine of the descent into Hades has been derived. There is not a word or a hint of anything that passed in the unseen; a plain statement of what was done with the body of Jesus is absolutely all. Clearly it is not myth, but history, with which here we have to do.
THE EVENING OF THE FIRST DAY Mat 27:57-61
Day was passing into evening when Jesus “yielded up His spirit”; for the early evening, according to the Jewish reckoning, began at the ninth hour. It was probably some time after this-perhaps towards the later evening, which began about the twelfth hour (six oclock)-that Joseph of Arimathea thought of claiming the body to give it honourable burial. Why should such a duty have fallen to a stranger? Where were the eleven? Had none of them so far recovered from their fear? Where was Peter? might not his penitence for the past have impelled him to come forward now? Where was John? He had taken the mother of Jesus to his own home; but why did he not come back to see what he could do for the sacred body? How can they all leave this tender office to a stranger?
It may be thought by some sufficient answer simply to say, So the Lord willed it, and so the Scripture was fulfilled which intimated that He Who had died with the wicked should be “with the rich in His death”; but is there not more than this to be said? Is not the disappearance of the eleven and the coming forward of the two secret disciples (for as we learn from the fourth Gospel, Nicodemus-another secret disciple-appears a little later on the scene) true to human nature? Let us remember that the faith of the eleven, while much superior to that of the two, was from the nature of the case exposed to a counter-current of feeling, of which neither Joseph nor Nicodemus could know anything. They had committed themselves and their all to Jesus, as Joseph and Nicodemus had never done. The consequence was that when the terrible tempest broke on Him, it came with all its force on them too. But Joseph and Nicodemus had not as yet ventured their all-had not, it would appear, as yet ventured anything for Christ. They were looking on at the storm, as it were, from the shore; so they could stand it, as those who were in the very midst of it could not. They could stand beholding. Not having made themselves known, they were not exposed to personal danger, hence were in a position calmly and thoughtfully to watch the progress of events. We can imagine them first looking towards Calvary from afar, and then, as the darkness favoured a timid approach, drawing nearer and nearer, and at last coming within the spell of the Divine Sufferer. As they witnessed His patient endurance, they would become more and more ashamed of their half-hearted sympathy, ashamed to think that though they had not consented to the counsel and deed of the rest, {Luk 23:51, Joh 7:50-51} they had not had courage to offer any serious opposition. They would feel, as they thought of this, as if they shared the responsibility of what must now appear to them an awful crime; and so, looking to Him whom they had pierced, they would mourn; and, brought at last to decision by His death, {Joh 12:32} first Joseph, and after him Nicodemus, came out boldly, the one asking for the body of Jesus, the other joining him in those tender and reverent ministrations which all that was best in them now constrained them to render.
The sad duty hastily, but tenderly and fitly, done, a great stone is rolled to the door of the sepulchre, and they depart. But the sepulchre is not deserted yet. What are these figures in the dusk, these women that advance as the others retire? While the two men were busy they have been keeping at a discreet and respectful distance; but now that all is silent at the tomb, they draw nearer, and though night is coming on apace, they cannot leave it, and the story of the long day ends with this pathetic touch: “And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.”
THE SECOND DAY. {Mat 27:62-66}
It was the Jewish Sabbath. The Evangelist for some reason avoids the common designation, preferring to speak of it as “the day after the preparation”-whether it was that he shrank from mentioning the Sabbath in such a connection, or whether it was that the great event of the preparation day had such complete possession of his mind that he must date from it, we shall not attempt to decide.
This is the only record we have of that Sabbath day except that St. Luke tells us that on it the women “rested according to the commandment.” But the enemies of Jesus could not rest. They were uneasy and troubled now that the deed was done. They could not but have been impressed with the bearing of their Victim, and with all the portents which accompanied His end. It was natural, therefore, that words of His, which when reported to them before had not seemed worth noticing, should come back to them. now with fateful force. “After three days I will rise again” was what He had often said. “What if He should rise? we must see that He does not.” It would never do, however, to confess to such a fear; but they may get all needful precautions taken by suggesting that there was danger of the disciples stealing the body, and then saying that He had risen. On this pretext they get a guard from Pilate, and authority to seal the sepulchre. Having thus made all secure, they can sleep in peace.
THE MORNING OF THE THIRD DAY Mat 28:1-15
The women, having rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment, knew nothing of what had been done at the tomb that day, so, as they set out before daybreak on the third morning, they only thought of the great stone, and wondered how it could be rolled away; but when they came, the sun just rising as they reached the spot, they found the stone already rolled away, and an angel of the Lord at the tomb, so lustrous in the livery of heaven that the keepers had quailed in his presence and were powerless to interfere. The awe with which the sight would naturally inspire the women also was mingled with joy as they heard his kindly greeting and sympathetic words. Altogether worthy of an angel from heaven are the words he is reported to have spoken. There is first the tender response to their looks of dread-“Fear not ye,” as if to say, These others well may fear, for there is nothing in common between them and me; but with you it is different; “I know that ye seek Jesus, Which was crucified.” Then there is the joyful news: “He is not here; for He is risen, as He said”: and as he observes their look of half-incredulous wonder he kindly adds, to let their sight be helper to their faith, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Then he gives them the honour of carrying the glad tidings to the other disciples, and assuring them that the Divine Shepherd will meet them all in Galilee, according to His word,
At this point we encounter one of the chief difficulties to be found in St. Matthews record of the resurrection. There are indeed several particulars in this Gospel, as well as in the others, which it is difficult to fit into a connected account embracing all the facts; but as every person of even moderate intelligence knows that the same difficulty is met in comparing various truthful accounts of any great event in which details are many and complex, it is only the most unreasoning prejudice that can find in this an excuse for doubting the credibility of the writers. Rather is this feature of the records a distinct note of truthfulness; for, had it been easy to fit each fact into its exact place in all the other accounts, we should have heard from the very same doubters, and with far better reason, that there was every sign of its being a made-up story. All the four accounts are brief and fragmentary; there is evidently no attempt whatever to relate all that took place, and we should need to know all in order to form a complete picture of the entire series of events which glorified the first Easter Day. We must therefore be content with the four vivid pictures given us, without insisting on what with our imperfect knowledge is perhaps the impossible task of so combining them as to have one great canvas embracing all the details in each of the four.
The account before us is the briefest of all, and therefore it would be especially out of place in dealing with this Gospel to attempt to fill up the blanks and construct a consecutive history of all that took place on that eventful day. But there is one point with which it is especially necessary to deal in considering St. Matthews account of the resurrection-viz., the prominence given to the appearance of the Lord to His disciples in Galilee-whereas in the fuller records of the third and fourth Gospels, not Galilee, but Jerusalem and its vicinity, is the region where He makes Himself known.
Those who are anxious to make the most of this difficulty are much disappointed to find the ninth verse {Mat 28:9} in their way. Wishing to prove a sharp contradiction, as if the one said the Lord appeared only in Galilee, and the other that He appeared only in Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, they are naturally vexed to find one of the Jerusalem appearances actually mentioned here. The attempt has accordingly been made to discredit it; but in vain. It stands there an unquestionable part of the original text. So we must bear in mind that St. Matthew not only does not assert that it was only in Galilee that our Lord appeared, but he expressly mentions one appearance in Jerusalem. On the other hand, while St. Mark mentions no appearance in Galilee, he does mention the Lords promise to meet His disciples there, and leaves it distinctly to be inferred that it was fulfilled. St. Luke, indeed, makes no mention of Galilee at all; but there is abundance of room for it: for while he occupies almost all his space with the record of one day, he tells us in the beginning of his second volume {Act 1:3} that Christ “showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” St. John also confines himself to what took place at Jerusalem; but in the interesting appendix to that Gospel there is a striking account of a meeting with the eleven in Galilee-evidently not the same one which is recorded here, but another of the same, affording one more specimen of meetings which were no doubt frequently repeated during the forty days. It is abundantly evident, therefore, that there is no contradiction whatever.
Still the question remains, Why does St. Matthew make so little of what the others make so much of, and so much of what the others make so little of? In answer we might first ask whether this was not in every way to be expected and desired. If, as evidently was the case, there were manifestations of the risen Lord both in the south and in the north, and if we were to have several accounts, was it not desirable that one at least should make it his specialty to bring into prominence the appearances in the north? And if so, who could do it more appropriately than Matthew the publican of Galilee? The favour shown his own northern land had most deeply impressed his mind. It will be remembered that he passed over entirely the early Judean ministry recorded by St. John, and rejoiced in the Galilean ministry as the dawning of the new Day according to the words of ancient prophecy. {Mat 4:14-16}
Furthermore, there is every reason to suppose that it was not till they met in Galilee that the scattered flock of the disciples was gathered all together. The appearances in Jerusalem were to individuals and to little companies; whereas in Galilee it would seem that He appeared to as many as five hundred at once; {1Co 15:6} and though the Lord appeared to the ten (Thomas being absent), and again to the eleven, before they left Jerusalem, it is not to these occasions, but rather to the meeting on the shore of the lake, that we look for their fresh commission to address themselves again to their work as fishers of men. This will appear more clearly if we bear in mind our Lords sad reference, as the crisis approached, to the scattering of the flock, and His promise that after He had risen again He would go before them into Galilee. {Mat 26:31-32} We have here, then, {Mat 28:7} a repetition of the same promise, “He goeth before you” (as the shepherd goes before his flock) “into Galilee,” where all the scattered ones shall be gathered round the Shepherd once again, and thence sent out as under-shepherds, {see Joh 21:15-17} to gather in the rest of the flock that are scattered abroad.
The conduct of the chief priests and scribes (Mat 28:11-15) is the natural sequel of their futile attempt to seal the sepulchre. It is in vain to raise the objection, as some do, that it was too clumsy a device for men so astute; for what else could they do? It was indeed a poor evasion; but, baffled as they were, no better was possible for them. Let the critic say what better expedient they could have thought of, before he assigns its poverty as a reason for discrediting the story. That St. Matthew, and he alone, records it, is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that, his being the first written Gospel, and moreover the Gospel for the Jew, it behoved him to deal with a saying “commonly reported among the Jews until this day”; while its being recorded by him was a sufficient reason why no further notice should be taken of it, when there was so much of greater importance to tell.
Looking back on this very brief record of the great events of Easter Day, nothing is more striking than the prominence of the women throughout. It is a note of the new dispensation. It must have been very strange to all the disciples, and not least to the author of this Gospel, that woman, who had been kept so far in the background, treated almost as if her presence would pollute the sacred places, should, now that the veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, not only enter into the sacred presence of the risen Lord as the equal of her brother man, but should be there before him, -that a womans eyes should be the first to see Him, a group of women the first to receive His loving welcome and to fall in adoration at His sacred feet. Yet so it was. Not that there was any partiality. “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.” It is not a question of sex; it is a question of love and faith; and it was because the love of these women was deeper, and their fidelity greater, than that of any of the men, that they had this honour. Had the love of John been as all-engrossing as that of Mary of Magdala, he would not have had to wait for the Easter tidings till she had come to tell him. It is not a question of faith alone, but of faith and love. The womens faith had failed them too. It was with no hope of seeing a risen Lord that they had gone to the tomb-it was with spices to finish the embalming of His dead body; but their love, love stronger than death, even in the wreck of faith, kept them near, and so it was that, when light first broke from out the darkness, they were there to see.