Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 28:15
So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
15. this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day ] Hence St Matthew found it especially needful to narrate the true facts.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This saying is commonly reported – This account of the disappearance of the body of Jesus from the sepulchre is commonly given.
Until this day – The time when Matthew wrote this gospel that is, about 30 years after the resurrection.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus, of which an account is given in this chapter, is one of the most important doctrines of the Christian religion, and is attested by the strongest evidence that can be adduced in favor of any ancient fact. Let it be considered:
1. That he had often foretold his own death and resurrection. See Mat 12:40; Mat 16:21; Mat 20:19.
2. There was no doubt that he was really dead. Of this the Jews. the Romans, and the disciples were all equally well satisfied.
3. Every proper precaution was taken to prevent his removal by stealth. A guard, usually consisting of sixty men, was placed there for the express purpose of keeping him, and the sepulchre was secured by a large stone and by a seal.
4. On the third day the body was missing. In this all were agreed. The high priests did not dare to call that in question. They labored, therefore, to account for it. The disciples affirmed that he was alive. The Jews hired the Roman soldiers to affirm that he was stolen while they slept, and succeeded in making many of the people believe it.
This account of the Jews is attended with the following difficulties and absurdities:
- The Roman guard was composed usually of 60 men, and they were stationed there for the express purpose of guarding the body of Jesus.
- The punishment of sleeping while on guard in the Roman army was death, and it is perfectly incredible that those soldiers should expose themselves in this manner to death.
- The disciples were few in number, unarmed, weak, and timid. They had just fled before those who took Jesus in the garden, and how can it be believed that in so short a time they would dare to attempt to take away from a Roman guard of armed men what they were expressly set to defend?
- How could the disciples presume that they would find the Roman soldiers asleep? or, if they should, how was it possible to remove the stone and the body without awaking even one of their number?
- The regularity and order of the grave-clothes Joh 20:6-7 show that the body had not been stolen. When men rob graves of the bodies of the dead, they do not wait coolly to fold up the grave-clothes and lay them carefully by themselves.
- If the soldiers were asleep, how did they, or how could they know that the disciples stole the body away? If they were awake, why did they suffer it?
The whole account, therefore, was intrinsically absurd. On the other hand, the account given by the disciples is perfectly natural and credible.
1. They account for the reason why the soldiers did not see the Saviour when he rose. Terrified at the vision of an angel, they became as dead men.
2. They affirmed that they saw him. All the apostles affirmed this, and many others.
3. They affirmed it in Jerusalem, in the presence of the Jews, before the high priests and the people. See the Acts of the Apostles. If the Jews really believed the account which they themselves had given, why did they not apprehend the apostles, and prove them guilty of the theft and of falsehood? – things which they never attempted, and which show, therefore, that they did not credit their own report.
4. In regard to the Saviour they could not be deceived. They had been with him three years. They knew him as a friend. They again ate and drank with him; they put their fingers into his hands and side; they conversed with him; they were with him 40 days. There were enough of them to bear witness. Law commonly requires not more than one or two competent witnesses, but here were eleven plain, honest men, who affirmed in all places and at all times that they had seen him. Can it be possible that they could be deceived Then all faith in testimony must be given up.
5. They gave every possible evidence of their sincerity. They were persecuted, ridiculed, scourged, and put to death for affirming this. Yet not one of them ever expressed the least doubt of its truth. They bore everything rather than to deny that they had seen him. They had no motive in doing this but the love of truth. They obtained no wealth by it, no honor, no pleasure. They gave themselves up to great and unparalleled sufferings – going from land to land; crossing almost every sea; enduring the dangers, toils, and privations of almost every clime – for the simple object of affirming everywhere that a Saviour died and rose. If they knew this was an imposition – and if it had been they would have known it – in what way is this remarkable conduct to be accounted for? Do men conduct in this way for nothing? and especially in a plain case, where all that can be required is the testimony of the senses?
6. The world believed them. Three thousand of the Jews themselves believed in the risen Saviour on the day of Pentecost, but 50 days after his resurrection, Act 2:41. Multitudes of other Jews believed during the lives of the apostles. Thousands of Gentiles believed also, and in 300 years the belief that Jesus rose had spread over and changed the whole Roman empire. If the apostles had been deceivers, that was the age in which they could most easily have been detected. Yet that was the age when converts were most rapidly multiplied, and God affixed His seal to their testimony that it was true.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. Until this day.] That is to say, the time in which Matthew wrote his Gospel; which is supposed by some to have been eight, by others eighteen, and by others thirty years after our Lord’s resurrection.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
15. So they took the money, and didas they were taughtthus consenting to brand themselves withinfamy.
and this saying is commonlyreported among the Jews until this dayto the date of thepublication of this Gospel. The wonder is that so clumsy andincredible a story lasted so long. But those who are resolved notto come to the light will catch at straws. JUSTINMARTYR, who flourishedabout A.D. 170, says, inhis Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, that the Jews dispersed thestory by means of special messengers sent to every country.
Mt28:16-20. JESUS MEETSWITH THE DISCIPLES ON AMOUNTAIN IN GALILEEAND GIVES FORTHTHE GREATCOMMISSION.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So they took the money, and did as they were taught,…. Though they had been just now in the greatest fright and consternation imaginable, at the sight of the angel, and knew what was done; yet being men of no religion or conscience, were tempted with the money, and took it, and reported every where what had been put into their mouths by the chief priests and elders.
And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews unto this day; to the time that Matthew wrote this Gospel; which according to the subscriptions to a most ancient copy of Beza’s, and the Syriac and Arabic versions of De Dieu, was in the “eighth” year after our Lord’s ascension; though others make it to be the “ninth”; and others the “fifteenth”. The sense is, not that this narrative the evangelist gives, that the sanhedrim bribed the soldiers to give out such a lying story, was known to the Jews, and commonly reported by them; though some take this to be the sense; but that it was reported and believed among the Jews in common, to that time, that the disciples of Christ did really come in the night, and steal away the body of Christ, while the watch slept: to such judicial blindness, and hardness of heart, were they given up, as to believe a lie, and which had no appearance of truth in it. They have since contrived a more monstrous and ridiculous story than this. They say e, that Judas, seeing where the body was laid, and the disciples sitting upon the tomb, and mourning over it, in the middle of the night, took his opportunity to take away the body, and buried it in his own garden, under a current of water; having first turned the water another way, and then put it in the same course as before; and which he afterwards discovered to the Jews; and the body was taken up and exposed, and insulted in the most ignominious manner: but alas! Judas had hanged himself some days before; and had he been living, would not have been capable of doing what they ascribe unto him.
e Toldos Jesu, p. 18, 19, 21.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. And this statement is currently reported. It was the finishing stroke of the vengeance of God to blind the Jews, that the resurrection of Christ was buried by the perjury of the soldiers, and that so gross a falsehood was believed. And hence it is evident that those who did not believe that Christ was risen were deceived by a voluntary error, as the world voluntarily gives itself up to be deceived by the snares of Satan. For if a man had but opened his eyes, it was unnecessary that he should make a long inquiry. Armed soldiers say that the body of Christ was stolen from them by a feeble, timid, small, and unarmed body of men. What plausible grounds have they for saying so? They add that this was done while they were asleep. How then do they come to know that it was stolen? And if they had any suspicion of the disciples, why did they not track their footsteps? Why did they not, at least, make a noise? It was therefore a childish subterfuge, which would not have screened them from punishment, if they had had to deal with an honest and upright governor; but through the connivance of Pilate, that enormous wickedness was allowed to pass unnoticed, In like manner, we see it happen every day, that irreligious judges give themselves little trouble, when truth is oppressed by fraud and malice; but, on the contrary, if they are not afraid of suffering damage, they appear to enter into collusion with base and infamous men.
Though it may appear strange that God should permit this false report to gain currency to extinguish the glory of his Son, we ought to render the honor which is due to his just vengeance. For we perceive that this nation deserved to have its light taken away by clouds, because it so eagerly seizes hold on an idle and childish falsehood; next, because almost all have struck on the stone of stumbling, it was proper that their eyes should be darkened, that they might not see that the cup of giddiness was presented to them; and, in short, that they were abandoned to every kind of madness, as Isaiah had foretold, (Isa 6:9.) For God would never have permitted them to be deceived by such a foolish credulity, but in order that those who had despised the Redeemer might be shut out from the hope of salvation; as he now inflicts a similar punishment on the ingratitude of the world, by giving loose reins to the reprobate, that they may go from bad to worse. But though this falsehood obtained currency among the Jews, this did not prevent the truth of the Gospel from flying at liberty to the very ends of the earth, as it always rises victorious over all the obstacles in the world.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) This saying is commonly reported.The passage is interesting as the earliest indication of a counter-statement to the witness borne by the disciples, and as in part explaining the partial non-acceptance of their testimony. The phrase until this day suggests some considerable intervalsay, at least, fifteen or twenty yearsbetween the facts recorded and the composition of the narrative. (See Note on Mat. 27:8.) Justin Martyr mentions the report as current among the Jews of his time, the Jews having sent chosen men into all parts of the world to propagate it (Dial. 100 Tryph. c. 108).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. This saying This solution of the disappearance of the body. Commonly reported Diffused among the Jewish nation. It is still held by many modern so-called rationalists. Until this day Until the time that Matthew wrote, which was probably some eight years after the fact. Meanwhile the apostles had been constantly preaching the fact at Jerusalem from the day of its occurrence, and they had no doubt encountered this solution at every turn.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘So they took the money, and did as they were taught.’
The guards accordingly took the money and spread the word that was ‘taught’ to them. Note the emphasis on ‘taught’. This lie is in strong contrast with the word that the disciples will be called on to teach (Mat 28:19). The inference is that the Chief Priests and Pharisees taught lies, while the disciples taught the truth.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
‘And this saying was spread abroad among Jews, and continues until this day.’
The result was that this story became popular among Jews as an explanation of the empty tomb and continued to be so until the time of writing. The impression that this verse gives is that Matthew’s main purpose in giving the explanation is in order to explain where such a story came from, rather to be seen as an attempt to provide specific evidence of why people could believe that a guarded tomb was definitely empty. It would appear that this latter was something that every Jew knew. It is clear that Jews were seen as the only ones interested in the matter. Gentiles probably did not believe Jews anyway, and certainly did not believe this mad story.
‘Continues until this day.’ This tells us only that the rumours continued for a certain period. It tells us nothing about when ‘this day’ is, only that it was some years after the events described. This was an expression common in the Old Testament. In Jer 25:3 it indicates either a period of ten years, or one of twenty three years. See also Jer 36:2; and especially Num 22:30 where the period is quite short (an asses lifetime).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
Ver. 15. So they took the money ] So sequacious are such men to sin, where anything is to be gotten by it. Balaam will venture hard for the wages of wickedness. Set but a wedge of gold in sight, and Joshua, that could stop the sun in his course, cannot stay Achan from fingering it.
And this saying is commonly reported ] They were given up to believe this lie, “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” 2Th 2:10 . There are those who sense it otherwise. This saying is commonly reported; that is, this vile imposture of the priests and soldiers, wretchedly conspiring to cozen (deceive) the world with such a base lie, is sufficiently known for a piece of knavery, and is so resented to this day. Think the same of the Trent conventicle carried by the pope and his agents with so much finesse, &c., but so as now all is come out, to their eternal infamy.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15. ] Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph. 108, p. 202, says, , , (see ch. Mat 27:63 ) . . .
this account of the matter. Eisenmenger (Entdecktes Judenthum, cited by Meyer and De Wette) gives an expansion of this lie of the Jews from the book called Toldoth Jeschu.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 28:15 . his verse states that the soldiers did as instructed, so originating a theft theory, which, according to our evangelist, was current in his day in Jewish circles at the time he wrote.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
saying = story. Greek. logos. See note on Mar 9:32.
is = has been.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15.] Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph. 108, p. 202, says, , , (see ch. Mat 27:63) …
-this account of the matter. Eisenmenger (Entdecktes Judenthum, cited by Meyer and De Wette) gives an expansion of this lie of the Jews from the book called Toldoth Jeschu.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 28:15. , has been commonly reported) There are many things of this kind by which the wretched Jews keep themselves in error.[1230]
[1230] And how signal are the injuries which are subsequently given birth to by even a single false representation!-V. g.
Mat 28:16. , into Galilee) This very appearance was the most solemn of all, being the one which the Lord had promised before His passion. And it is not without good reason that it is held to be the same one as that at which more than 500 brethren were present at once, 1Co 15:6. For the Lord appeared to Paul after His ascension: but the rest of the Apostles (1Co 15:7) had not at that time need any more, as Paul had, of such a vision. No doubt at Jerusalem, after the ascension, only 120 disciples are reckoned (Act 1:15). But Galilee contained far more disciples than that number.-Harm., p. 611.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
they took: Mat 26:15, 1Ti 6:10
until: Mat 27:8
Reciprocal: Exo 23:1 – shalt not Jos 4:9 – and they are there 1Ki 8:8 – unto this day 1Ch 4:43 – unto this day Act 1:19 – it
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8:15
This foolish report was circulated among the Jews which is very significant. They were the ones who wanted to believe it and pretended to do so. There is no account of any knowledge of it among the people in general.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 28:15. This saying. This report of the soldiers; not the entire account here given.
Was spread abroad. This points to the time when the falsehood gained currency.
Until this day, i.e., when the Gospel was written, possibly thirty or forty years after the resurrection. It was current among the Jews in the second and third centuries, and has been believed in later times. In view of this currency of the story, it follows that either the Sanhedrin or the early Christians invented a lie. There is no middle ground. The testimony we possess, the proper inquiry after motives on either side, as well as the history of both for eighteen centuries, show conclusively that it was the early Christians who invented the falsehood.
THE RISEN LORD IN GALILEE.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 28:15. So they took the money They did not, either on the score of conscience, or on account of the palpable falsehood of the story they were to propagate, refuse the bribe that was offered them by the chief priests. Their love of money, as is common with wicked men, pushed them on headlong, so that they did not mind the many improbabilities implied in the lie, nor the horrid iniquity of it. And, though they had been greatly confounded with the vision of the angels, and the earthquake, the panic was by this time worn off. Besides, they did not consider the vision as connected with morality; or, if they did, the priests would endeavour to persuade them that it was nothing real, but the mere effect of their own imagination, terrified by seeing one rise from the dead. The only objection, therefore, made by the soldiers, to their complying with the desire of the priests, was, that by publishing such a story, they would acknowledge such a gross neglect of duty as would expose them to severe punishment, if the governor should hear of it. But to make them easy on this head, the priests promised to give such a representation of the matter to Pilate, that no harm should befall them. This only obstacle, therefore, being removed, the soldiers did as they were desired. They told everywhere the lie which the priests had put into their mouths: a lie the most impudent and barefaced that could be contrived, but which the priests and other members of the council were anxious to have propagated, because they hoped it would be swallowed by many without examination. Nor were they deceived in their expectation; for, improbable as the story was, it gained general credit among the enemies of Jesus, and was currently reported, as Matthew here tells us, at the time he wrote his gospel. Unluckily, however, for the cause of infidelity, it was only some of the watch who came to the chief priests; the rest had gone to their garrison, where no doubt they told their comrades what had happened. And even those who came to the chief priests would not be backward to speak of the extraordinary event as they passed along the streets, if they chanced to meet with any of their acquaintance. Far less would they conceal the matter in the high-priests palace, while they waited to be called in. None can doubt this who attend to the nature and operation of human passions, and the eagerness which all men naturally have to tell a wonderful story, not to mention the desire which these soldiers must have felt to justify themselves for quitting their posts. The truth, therefore, that Jesus was actually risen, in spite of all the endeavours of the chief priests to suppress it, came abroad, and doubtless became a subject of consideration and inquiry with many, who had not been Christs disciples; and the more they considered the evidences of it, and compared it with the false story which the priests had prevailed on some of the guard to propagate, the more such as were unprejudiced must be inclined to believe the former and reject the latter, which latter it was evident the priests themselves did not believe. For if they had believed it, doubtless, with a view to prove it, and justify themselves in their hostility to Christ and his cause, they would have narrowly examined where the apostles had been all that night, and would have made search for Christs body, which, if found, would at once have confuted the testimony of the apostles respecting his resurrection, and have proved their great guilt in endeavouring, by its removal, to palm a lie upon mankind, and establish an imposture of a most heinous nature and pernicious tendency. It is probable, therefore, that an impression in favour of the truth was made on the minds of many persons, and gained ground daily, and that this had considerable influence in preparing them for the reception of the gospel: which circumstance may, partly at least, account for the wonderful success of the ministry of Peter and the other apostles at and after the day of pentecost. To counteract, however, every impression of this kind, and confirm the Jews, whether in Jerusalem or elsewhere, in their prejudices against Christianity, the chief priests and elders were unwearied in their endeavours. They even (says Justin Martyr, Dialog. cum Tryph., p. 368) sent chosen men of considerable rank over all the world, not only in the general to represent the Christians as an impious sect, but to assert that the body of Jesus was torn out of his tomb by night, and the persons who thus fraudulently conveyed it away, took occasion from thence to report that he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Which message is spoken of as having been sent before the destruction of Jerusalem.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Matthew explained that this was the origin of the Jewish explanation of the empty tomb that persisted to the time of his writing, whenever that may have been.
"Justin, Dial[logus]. 108, tells us that this charge was still being actively propagated in the middle of the second century; it was an obvious countermove to Christian claims of Jesus’ resurrection." [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 1093.]
Justin was an early Christian writer.
"The reason for Matthew’s diligence in approaching the resurrection in such an apologetic manner is evident since so much is dependent upon the resurrection of the Messiah. It authenticated His person. To the nation of Israel, His resurrection was the sign of the prophet Jonah (Mat 12:38-39) attesting the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. The reason Matthew says nothing about the ascension is bound up in this point. If Jesus is the Messiah, then an account of the ascension is both unnecessary and self-evident to the Israelite. He would yet come in clouds of glory. What mattered to Matthew was that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah and the resurrection proved that fact; therefore he goes no further. Second, the resurrection validated Christ’s prophecies concerning His rising from the dead (Mat 16:21; Mat 17:22-23; Mat 20:17-19). Finally, the message of the King involving the character of the kingdom, the offer of the kingdom, and the offer’s withdrawal are all involved in the resurrection, for the resurrection verifies the truthfulness of all that Christ ever spoke." [Note: Toussaint, Behold the . . ., pp. 316-17.]