Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 28:13
saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him [away] while we slept.
13. while we slept ] The penalty for which would be death.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 13. His disciples came by night] This was as absurd as it was false. On one hand, the terror of the disciples, the smallness of their number (only eleven;) and their almost total want of faith; on the other, the great danger of such a bold enterprise, the number of armed men who guarded the tomb, the authority of Pilate and of the Sanhedrin, must render such an imposture as this utterly devoid of credit.
Stole him away while we slept.] Here is a whole heap of absurdities.
1st. Is it likely that so many men would all fall asleep, in the open air, at once?
2dly. Is it at all probable that a Roman guard should be found off their watch, much less asleep, when it was instant death, according to the Roman military laws, to be found in this state?
3dly. Could they be so sound asleep as not to awake with all the noise which must be necessarily made by removing the great stone, and taking away the body?
4thly. Is it at all likely that these disciples could have had time sufficient to do all this, and to come and return, without being perceived by any person? And
5thly. If they were asleep, how could they possibly know that it was the disciples that stole him, or indeed that any person or persons stole him? – for, being asleep, they could see no person. From their own testimony, therefore, the resurrection may be as fully proved as the theft.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
13. Saying, Say ye, His disciplescame by night, and stole him away while we sleptwhich, as wehave observed, was a capital offense for soldiers on guard.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Saying, say ye his disciples came by night,…. They charged them to tell every one that should ask them about this affair; and even publish it every where, that the disciples of Christ came in the dead of the night,
and stole him away while we slept: which was a very unlikely thing, and a foolish scheme this, for such a body of men to form. There is no show of probability in it, that the disciples, who were intimidated by the taking and putting Christ to death, and were now shut up in a house, for fear of the Jews, that these should venture out in the night, to take away the body of Christ, which was decently and honourably interred in a garden of one of his disciples: and when they knew it was guarded by a company of Roman soldiers; and who besides had no notion of his resurrection from the dead, nor never thought of it till he was risen, and therefore would never attempt any thing of this kind, in order to give out such a report. Moreover, had they took it away by stealth, it is not reasonable to think that they would afterwards have reported such a lie every where, that he was risen from the dead, when they were sure to obtain nothing by it, but reproach, afflictions, persecutions, and death: add to this, that this was never objected to them by their worst enemies, when they most strongly asserted his resurrection: nor was it a feasible account, or well put together, with respect to the watch. It can hardly be thought that they should be all of them asleep at once; and if they were, it is much they were not awaked by the coming up of the disciples, and the rolling away of the stone, and the bustle there must be in taking up the body, and carrying it away; and besides, if they were asleep, and continued so, what is their evidence good for? for how could they know that his disciples came and took him away? if they awaked, though too late, and saw them at a distance, why did not they pursue them, who might easily have been overtaken with such a burden? at least, why did not they search their houses for the body? and take up both the women and the disciples, and prosecute them for it? and yet nothing of this was done. Besides, how came the linen clothes to be left behind? why did they take the napkin from his head, and give themselves all that trouble to unwrap the body, and carry it away naked? It is clear the chief priests themselves were convinced in their own minds, that he was truly risen, or they would have punished the soldiers severely for their sleep and negligence, and would never have given them money to spread such a story.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Stole him away while we slept ( ). Genitive absolute. An Irish bull on the face of it. If they were asleep they would not know anything about it.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
(13) His disciples came by night.The story was on the face of it self-contradictory. How could they tell, if they had been asleep, who had stolen the body? All that they could know was that they had fallen asleep, and that when they awoke the sepulchre was open and empty.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Disciples stole him away It has been strangely doubted, even by Olshausen, whether this narrative of the setting the watch and their bribery by the Jews is truly authentic, because he could not conceive that the Jewish Sanhedrim could be so lost to honour as thus plainly to propose a shameful falsehood. But it is not so clear that they deemed it to be a falsehood. It was a rationalistic solution of the strange phenomenon. Whether the soldiers admitted it or not, the Sanhedrim might claim to believe this as truth, and only bribe the men to assent to this version of the story. While we slept The testimony of sleeping men to the fact of the disciples’ participation in the matter was of course not very valid evidence. They earned their money in fathering so poor and so self-criminating a falsehood.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Saying, “Say you, ‘His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.’
The story that the soldiers had to spread around was that ‘His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.’ Compare Mat 27:64 where this was actually what the High Priests had feared. This rumour was to be spread in order to convince the people that He had not risen. And no doubt they themselves believed that it must be so. What other explanation could there be? Paradoxically, for some who heard the rumour it might well have had the opposite effect. Knowing the Chief Priests they might have said to themselves, ‘It is clear that the tomb must be empty otherwise they would not talk like this. Perhaps then He did rise from the dead’. However, it would give a good excuse to those who were determined not to believe.
‘While we were asleep.’ This would be in order to avoid questions. Too much might be revealed if they once admitted that they were awake and were then as a result questioned further. Of course the question that should then arise is, ‘If they were asleep how did they know what had happened to the body? And if they woke up and saw it, why did they do nothing about it?’ Either way their story does not hold water. It is clearly grasping at straws.
But to be asleep on duty would make them look foolish (which was why they had to be heavily bribed). Why did they not then rather claim that they were overpowered by a large band of armed men? The answer is clearly because they knew that no one would believe it. They knew that the facts could be looked into, and probably would be if they told that story. And none of Jesus’ opponents wanted the facts looking into. Their only hope lay in admitting that no one knew anything about what had happened, but that it had happened anyway (a truly solid basis for being a reliable witness! No wonder only the Jews who wanted to believe it did so).
Besides, the story of a tomb robbing by a bunch of amateurs, while the guards lay asleep without being disturbed, is hardly credible. Imagine the ribaldry the guards would have had to face. Consider the scene. A dark tomb, a large rock to be moved requiring two or three men to do it, and a number of guards lying round the tomb. Then a band of intrepid disciples arrive, admittedly by the light of a nearly full moon, and without making a sound, they avoid the guards without disturbing them, move the large stone without making any noise at all, locate the body in the dark tomb with no difficulty, carry it out, again avoiding the soldiers, and then disappear, and meanwhile no one wakes up or spots them in the process. It would hardly have sounded credible to any who heard it. It was not credible.
It should also be noted that in the Roman Empire the molesting of graves was a serious offence. Among other things the well known Nazarene inscription makes this fact abundantly clear. Had it genuinely been believed that the disciples had stolen a body which was government property and had hidden it away, they would undoubtedly have been sought out and probably executed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
Ver. 13. Stole him away while we slept ] If it were Son 1:1-17 . Ye keep a good watch the while; and wanted some Epaminondas to slay you for sleeping. 2. If all asleep, who told you his disciples stole him? Did you sleep waking, as lions do? or did they make so little noise that you never heard them about it? as Sir Francis Drake, at Trurapasa in the West Indies, found a Spaniard sleeping securely upon the shore, and by him 13 wedges of silver, which he commanded to be carried away, not so much as once waking the man. Surely here it was neither so, nor so; but the devil, who began at first his kingdom by lying, and by lying still upholds it, set these fellows to work, to say, as they were taught, anything for money, though never so absurd and false. But money got on this manner will prove aurum Tolosanum, burn in thy purse, and bring God’s curse upon all thy substance.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 28:13 . , introducing the lie they put into the mouths of the soldiers. The report to be set abroad assumes that there is a fact to be explained, the disappearance of the body. And it is implied that the statement to be given out as to that was known by the soldiers to be false: i.e. , they were perfectly aware that they had not fallen asleep at their post and that no theft had taken place. The lie for which the priests paid so much money is suicidal; one half destroys the other. Sleeping sentinels could not know what happened.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Saying, Say ye = Telling them to say.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 28:13. , …, say, etc.) The priests were a great stumbling-block to the soldiers, and sinned most heinously against God.-, …, that, etc.) A specimen of Jewish perfidy and calumny.-, by night) They instruct them how to lie speciously.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
stole: Mat 26:64
Reciprocal: Gen 34:13 – deceitfully Mat 27:64 – and steal
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8:13
The absence of the body of Jesus from the tomb could not be denied, hence the story of stealing it was made up to account for the empty tomb. There are at least two weak points in this story. If they were asleep they could not know what was going on; also, such a lack of faithfulness as watchers was punishable by death and they would not likely have risked it. But money will do wonders and it seems to have had its effect on these soldiers.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 28:13. Stole him away while we slept. The story carries its refutation on its face. If all the soldiers were asleep, they could not discover the thieves, nor would they have proclaimed their negligence, the punishment for which was death; if even a few of them were awake, they might and would have prevented the theft. A few timid disciples would not have made such an attempt. But men in the infatuation of unbelief, will believe any story however improbable.