Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 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 sepulcher, and departed.
60. laid it in his own new tomb ] “His own” peculiar to St Matthew. St John mentions that the tomb was “in a garden in the place where he was crucified” (Joh 19:41). It was probably hewn out of the face of the rock near the ground (Joh 20:11), and the body of Jesus would lie horizontally in it.
rolled a great stone ] assisted by Nicodemus. This stone was technically called golal.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In his own new tomb – John says Joh 19:41 that this was in a garden that was in or near the place where he was crucified. This tomb Joseph had prepared for himself, as was not uncommon among the Jews. Compare the notes at Isa 22:16. In this tomb Luke and John inform us that no man had been laid. This was so ordered, in the providence of God, doubtless, that there might be no suspicion about his identity when he rose; that it might not be alleged that another person had risen, or that he was raised by touching the bones of some prophet, as happened to the corpse that touched the bones of Elisha, 2Ki 13:21. Farther, by being buried here an important prophecy was remarkably fulfilled Isa 53:9; He made his grave – with the rich in his death. The fulfillment of this is the more remarkable, because during his life he associated with the poor and was himself poor. See the notes at Isa 53:9. Which he had hewn out in the rock. This was a common way of constructing tombs in Judea. See the notes at Mat 8:28. Being cut out of a rock, there was no way by which the disciples could have access to it but by the entrance, at which the guard was placed, and consequently it was impossible for them to steal him away. The sepulchre, thus secure, was rendered more so by rolling a great stone at its entrance; all possible precautions thus being used, in the providence of God, against imposition and deceit.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 60. Laid it in his own new tomb] To all human appearance the body of Christ must have had the same burial-place with those of the two robbers, as he was numbered with the transgressors, and suffered with them; for then he was a sacrifice, bearing the sin of the world in his own body on the tree; but now the sacrifice is offered, the atonement made and accepted, he is no longer to be enrolled with the transgressors, and, according to a prophecy delivered nearly seven hundred years before that time, he is to have the burying-place of a rich man. See Isa 53:9-10. Had our Lord been buried in the common burial-ground of the malefactors, his resurrection could not have been so distinctly remarked, as the chief priests would never have thought of sealing the stone there, or setting a watch; but now that the body is got into the hands of a friend, they judge it necessary to make use of these precautions, in order, as they said, to prevent imposture; and from this very circumstance the resurrection of Christ had its fullest evidence, and was put beyond the power of successful contradiction. What a number of objections would not human prudence have made to Joseph’s conduct, had he consulted it on this occasion! It would have represented to him that, “this was to expose himself, to bring himself into trouble, to render himself suspected, to put himself out of all capacity of doing good, to ruin himself irrecoverably; and now it could do no good to his teacher – he is now dead, and needs no longer any office of kindness from men.” There is, sometimes in our whole life, but one opportunity in which God designs signally to employ us; and, through our general backwardness to every good work, we are for reserving ourselves to other opportunities, in which God neither requires nor will accept our services.
Rolled a great stone to the door] Some are of opinion that this tomb was cut down into the rock, perpendicularly from the surface; and that the great stone spoken of here covered over the entrance to it. The stone, no doubt, was intended to secure the place as much as possible.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And laid it in his own new tomb,…. Christ was laid not in his own, but in another’s tomb; for as in his lifetime he had not where to lay his head; so when he was dead, he had no sepulchre of his own to put his body in: and moreover, this shows that as he was born for others, and suffered and died not for himself, but them; so he was buried for them, as well as rose again for their justification: and it was a “new” tomb in which he was laid, in which none had been laid before; and was so ordered by providence, for the confirmation of the truth of his resurrection; for had another body been laid there, it might have been said that it was that, and not his that was raised. The Jews distinguish between a new grave, and an old grave n:
“a new grave may be measured, and sold, and divided; an old one may not be measured, nor sold, nor divided: there is a new grave, which is as an old one; and an old one, which is as a new one; an old grave, in which are ten dead bodies, which is not in the power of the owners, lo! this is as a new grave.”
Which he had hewn out in the rock; it was usual with the Jews to make their sepulchres in rocks:
“in the midst (of the court of the sepulchre, they say o) two caves are opened, one on one side, and the other on the other; R. Simeon says, four on the four sides; Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel says, all are , “according to the rock”;”
i.e. according to the nature of the rock, out of which the sepulchre is hewn; see Isa 22:16.
And he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre; for the sepulchres were made with doors to go in and out at: hence we often read p of , “the door of the sepulchre”; and this was not only the custom of the Jews, but of other nations also q: the stone rolled to the door, was what the Jews call, , from its being rolled to, and from the door of the sepulchre; and which, they say r, was a large and broad stone, with which the mouth of the sepulchre was stopped above: and it was at the shutting up of the sepulchre with this stone, that mourning began s; and after it was shut with this sepulchral stone, it was not lawful to open it t: now this was done by Joseph, to preserve the body from any injury, either from beasts, or from the Jews:
and when he had so done, he departed to his own house; for the sabbath drew on, and there was no more time to do any thing more in this affair. The Syriac version reads these last clauses in the plural number; “they rolled a great stone, and they put it”, c. and they went away intimating, that Joseph did not do this himself; the stone was too great; but by others, or with their assistance. It may be observed, that all this was done on a feast day; on one of the days of the feast of the passover, when no servile work was to be done; and yet this was agreeably to the Jewish canons, which say u,
“they do all things needful for the dead on a feast day; they shave his head, and wash his clothes, and make him a coffin; and if they have no boards, they bring timber and saw boards of it, silently within doors; and if the person is a man of note, they do it even in the street; but they do not cut wood out of the forest, to saw planks of it for the coffin; nor do they hew stones, to build a tomb with them.”
In this case, there was no need for the latter, because the sepulchre in which the body of Christ was laid, had been hewn out of a rock before; but the body was wrapped in a clean linen cloth, and wound up in it with myrrh and aloes to preserve it, and was interred; and so the women on this day, prepared spices and ointments, to anoint it with; though they rested on the sabbath day according to the commandment; but then as soon as that was over, though it was a feast day, they came to the sepulchre with their spices and ointments, Lu 23:56.
n Massech. Semachto, c. 14. fol. 16. 2. o Misn. Bava Bathra, c. 6. sect. 8. p Misn. ib. & Bartenora in Misn. Ohalot, c. 15. sect. 8. q Vid. Kirchman de Funer. Roman. l. 3. c. 15. p. 438. r Bartenora & Yom. Tob. in Misn. Ohalot, c. 2. sect. 4. s T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 47. 2. Maimon. Hilchot Ebel, c. 1. sect. 2. & c. 2. sect. 8. t Vid. Buxtorf. Lex. Rab. p. 437. u Maimon. Hilchot Yom. Tob. c. 7. sect. 15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
New tomb [] . See on Mt 26:29. Not newly hewn, but fresh, undefiled by anybody.
A great stone. Though in the Jews ‘ sepulchres in general there were doors hung on hinges, the grooves and perforations for which may still be seen. Joseph ‘s tomb may have been differently constructed, or else was in an unfinished state.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
(60) Laid it in his own new tomb.The garden, or orchard, was therefore the property of Joseph (see Note on Mat. 27:33). All the first three Gospels dwell on the fact of its not being, as so many graves were, a natural cavern, but cut, and, as St. Lukes word implies. to some extent, smoothed and polished. Like almost all Eastern graves, it was an opening made in the vertical face of the rock. Neither of the two localities which have been identified with the sepulchre (see Note as above) presents this feature, and, so far as this is not an argument against the identity of either with the actual tombs, we must assume that the rock has been so cut and shaped in the course of centuries as to lose its original form. St. John (Joh. 19:39) notes the singularly interesting fact that Nicodemus shared with him in these reverential offices. The hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes which he brought must have been bought beforehand, and may have been stored up from the time when he knew that the leading members of the Council had resolved upon the death of Jesus. St. Luke and St. John give the reason for the speed with which the entombment was hurried on. It was now near sunset. The Sabbath was on the point of beginning, and there was no alternative but that of leaving the body on the cross for another twenty-four hours, and this, though common enough as a Roman practice (which commonly, indeed, left the corpse for birds of prey to feed on), would have shocked Jewish feeling, especially at the Paschal season, as a violation of their law (Deu. 21:23).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
60. Own new tomb Probably the new-made vault for his own family. Its first service is consecrated to the Lord. The sepulchre, John tells us, was in a garden, which probably belonged to Joseph. The interment of our Saviour here was probably a temporary arrangement, provided hastily on account of the approaching Sabbath. But Joseph’s love was never called upon for further provision. He had the honour of providing the sleeping abode of his Master. Such an interment, and such a hospitality in this, the rocky bed of his own future repose, Joseph could well afford; for his blessed guest would there repose but two brief nights, and would then awake and fly. And in return, when this world’s millennial Sabbath is past, the guest will awake that host from his own repose, that he too may take his undying flight. Hewn out in the rock We must figure to ourselves a large room cut horizontally into the solid rock for a vault. In this room we enter, from the open air, by a large door. On entering you would see small, long cells, or niches, cut into the solid adamantine sides, as depositories of the corpses: or from this first main room you may enter one or several smaller apartments, in whose walls the niches for corpses are cut. A person could enter into the first main vault, and then into either of the small apartments. See note on Mat 28:6. Rolled a great stone The stone probably was flat, and rolled by successive overthrows. And departed Either to Arimathea or to his dwelling-place in Jerusalem.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Mat 27:60. In his own new tomb See Joh 19:41. The sepulchre in which they laid our Lord, being but lately made, was unfinished, and had not yet a lock on its door; therefore they fastened the door by rolling a great stone to it. The word roll implies, that the stone was both ponderous and large, too large to be carried, and therefore it was rolled upon the ground; according to Beza’s copy, it was so weighty, that twenty men could not roll it; which was the reason why the women asked that question recorded by another Evangelist,Who shall roll away the stone for us? Which implied, that they were both too few and too weak to do it for themselves. This sepulchre it seems, differed from that of Lazarus, in being partly above ground; whereas the other, being wholly under ground, had a stone laid on the mouth of it, covering the entry of the stairs by which they went down to it. See Beza and Macknight.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 27:60 ] Aorist, as in Mat 27:55 .
The other evangelists say nothing about the grave having belonged to Joseph ; Joh 19:42 rather gives us to understand that, owing to the necessary despatch, it was made choice of from its being close at hand. We thus see that Matthew’s account is unsupported by the earlier testimony of Mark on the one hand, and the later testimony of Luke and John on the other. This, however, only goes to confirm the view that in Matthew we have a later amplification of the tradition which was expunged again by Luke and John, for this latter at least would scarcely have left unnoticed the devotion evinced by Joseph in thus giving up his own tomb, and yet it is John who distinctly alleges a different reason altogether for the choice of the grave. The ordinary supposition, that Matthew’s account is intended to supplement those of the other evangelists, fails to meet the exigencies of the case, especially in regard to John, on whom so tender a feature in connection with the burial would doubtless have made too deep an impression to admit of his passing it over in silence.
As a new grave was calculated to do honour to Jesus (comp. on John as above), the circumstance that this one had not been previously used may have gone far to determine the choice, so that there is no ground for supposing that what is said with reference to this has been added without historical warrant (Strauss, Scholten).
] The article is to be understood as indicating a rocky place just at hand .
] Comp. Hom. Od . ix. 243: . In Rabbinical phraseology the stone used for this purpose is called , a roller. See Paulus, exeget. Handb. III. p. 819. Such a mode of stopping up graves is met with even in the present day (Strauss, Sinai u. Golgatha, p. 205).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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.
Ver. 60. And laid it in his own new tomb ] His own, which was now well warmed, sweetened, and sanctified by our Saviour’s body, against himself should be laid there; as afterwards he might and probably was, too. A new tomb it was, and fit it should be for that virgin body, or maiden corpse, as one calls it, untouched and untainted. Besides, else it might have been suspected, that not Christ but another arose; or if he, yet not by his own, but by another’s virtue: like him who revived at the touching of the bones of dead Elisha, 2Ki 13:21 . Buried our Saviour was: 1. That none might doubt his death. 2. That our sins might be buried with him. 3. That our graves might be prepared and perfumed for us, as so many beds of roses, or delicious dormitories, Isa 57:2 . He was buried in Calvary, to note that he died for the condemned; and in a garden, to expiate that first sin committed in the garden; and in another man’s sepulchre, to note that he died for other men’s sins, as some will have it. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, bestowed great cost in repairing this sepulchre of our Saviour, which the heathens out of hatred to Christ had thrown down, and built a temple of Venus on the same ground. And Jerusalem, that poor ruinous city, being governed by one of the Turks, Sanzacks, is for nothing now more famous than for the sepulchre of our Saviour, again repaired, and much visited by the superstitious sort of Christians, and not unreverenced by the Turks themselves.
Which he had hewn out in the rock ] For his own use. See the like, 1Ki 13:30 . The Thebans had a law, that no man should make a house for himself to dwell in, but he should make first his grave. Charles V, emperor, five years before he died, even when he was employed in his greatest affairs, caused a sepulchre to be made, with all things appertaining to it, necessary for his burial, and that secretly, lest it might be taken for ostentation or hypocrisy: which things he had closely carried with him whithersoever he went five years together; some thinking there had been some great treasure in it; some other that there had been books of old stories: some thought one thing, some another. But the emperor smiling, said, that he carried it about him to remind him of his death.
And he rolled a great stone ] Either for an inscription to the sepulchre, or for more safety to the body, or that the glory of the resurrection might be the greater, or all these together.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
60. ] Matt. alone relates that it was Joseph’s own tomb. John, that it was in a garden , and in the place where He was crucified . All, except Mark, notice the newness of the tomb. John does not mention that it belonged to Joseph but the expression looks as if he knew more than he has thought it necessary to state. His reason for the Body being laid there is, that it was near , and the Preparation rendered haste necessary. But then we may well ask, How should the body of an executed person be laid in a new tomb, without the consent of the owner being first obtained? And who so likely to provide a tomb, as he whose pious care for the Body was so eminent?
All that we can determine respecting the sepulchre from the data here furnished is, (1) That it was not a natural cave, but an artificial excavation in the rock. (2) That it was not cut downwards , after the manner of a grave with us, but horizontally, or nearly so , into the face of the rock this I conceive to be implied in . . ., as also by the use of Joh 20:5 ; Joh 20:11 , and , ib. Joh 20:5-6 . (3) That it was in the spot where the crucifixion took place. Cyr-jer. speaks of , , . , . Cateches. xiii. 39, p. 202. On , the aor. in a relative clause, see above, Mat 27:55 note.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 27:60 . , in his own new tomb, recently prepared for himself. This not brought out in parallels. ( ): the aorist for the pluperfect, as in Mat 27:55 ; he had hewn out of the rock = , the article pointing to the custom of making sepulchres in rock. : the usual mode of shutting the door of the tomb; the Jews called the stone golal , the roller. : the entombment over, Joseph went away; but the Dead One was not left alone.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
laid it. See note on Isa 53:9.
new = Greek. kainos. See note on Mat 9:17; Mat 26:28, Mat 26:29. Here = not newly hewn, but fresh; i.e. unused and as yet undefiled by any dead body.
tomb = monument. Greek. mnemeion.
sepulchre = tomb, as above. Not the same word as in Mat 27:61.
departed. When Joseph rolled the stone against the door he departed; when the angel rolled it away, he “sat upon it” (Mat 28:2).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
60.] Matt. alone relates that it was Josephs own tomb. John, that it was in a garden, and in the place where He was crucified. All, except Mark, notice the newness of the tomb. John does not mention that it belonged to Joseph-but the expression looks as if he knew more than he has thought it necessary to state. His reason for the Body being laid there is, that it was near, and the Preparation rendered haste necessary. But then we may well ask, How should the body of an executed person be laid in a new tomb, without the consent of the owner being first obtained? And who so likely to provide a tomb, as he whose pious care for the Body was so eminent?
All that we can determine respecting the sepulchre from the data here furnished is, (1) That it was not a natural cave, but an artificial excavation in the rock. (2) That it was not cut downwards, after the manner of a grave with us, but horizontally, or nearly so, into the face of the rock-this I conceive to be implied in . . ., as also by the use of Joh 20:5; Joh 20:11, and , ib. Joh 20:5-6. (3) That it was in the spot where the crucifixion took place. Cyr-jer. speaks of , , . , . Cateches. xiii. 39, p. 202. On , the aor. in a relative clause, see above, Mat 27:55 note.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 27:60. , new) Which had not been polluted by any corruption; and also lest any of the ancient saints should be said to have risen instead of Him, or to have given Him the power of rising.-, his own) Jesus Christ, the leader and guide of life, was placed in the tomb of another.[1218]- , the door) The sepulchre was not a narrow trench, but a crypt.-, he departed) Not hoping those things which soon were to come to pass.
[1218] Implying that the tomb was something alien and strange for Him, the Lord of Life, to be associated with. Therefore He had no tomb of His own.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
in his: Isa 53:9
a great: Mat 27:66, Mat 28:2, Mar 16:3, Mar 16:4, Luk 24:2, Joh 20:1
Reciprocal: Gen 50:5 – I have Isa 22:16 – hewed Lam 3:53 – and Dan 6:17 – a stone Mar 15:46 – and took Luk 23:53 – General Joh 11:38 – It was Joh 19:41 – and in
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:60
Joh 19:38-40 says that Joseph had a helper in this loving service, the man who came to Jesus by night (Joh 3:1-2). This gives us the information that Nicodemus became friendly with Jesus at least, and was willing not only to assist in the work of burying the Lord, but contributed a substantial amount of valuable products to be used in the burying according to the Jewish manner of such a ceremony. The tomb was hewn out of the rock and might well be compared to the burial chambers that are made in the walls of modern mausolems in the public cemeteries. The body was borne by these two men and laid in this cavity as it would be deposited on a couch. To close it a great stone was rolled up against the opening.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 27:60. In his own new tomb. Peculiar to Matthew, but implied in the other accounts. The fact that it was new (comp. Luk 23:53; Joh 19:41), seems designed to overcome any suspicion as to the identity of Him who rose. The location was in a garden (Joh 19:41), near the spot of the crucifixion and hence well adapted for the hurried burial.
In the rock, an artificial excavation, probably prepared at great cost. It seems to have been cut horizon-tally and not downward.
He rolled a great stone. The common method of closing sepulchres.
To the door. There was but one entrance.