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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Matthew 27 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/matthew/27.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/matthew/27.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/matthew/27-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../matthew/">Matthew</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../matthew/26.htm" title="Matthew 26">◄</a> Matthew 27 <a href="../matthew/28.htm" title="Matthew 28">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-1.htm">Matthew 27:1</a></div><div class="verse">When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:</div>XXVII.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">Took counsel.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">held a council.</span> (Comp. the use of the word in <a href="/acts/25-12.htm" title="Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Have you appealed to Caesar? to Caesar shall you go.">Acts 25:12</a>.) Another formal meeting was held (according to the Jewish rule that the sentence of the judges was not to be given at the same sitting as the trial) to confirm the previous decision, and probably to determine on the next step to be taken. It ended, as the next verse shows, in sending our Lord to Pilate, and leaving to him the responsibility of punishing. They entered, as the sequel shows, on a kind of diplomatic struggle as to the limits of the ecclesiastical and imperial powers, the former seeking to make the latter its tool, the latter to avoid the responsibility of seeming to act in that character.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-2.htm">Matthew 27:2</a></div><div class="verse">And when they had bound him, they led <i>him</i> away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Pontius Pilate.</span>—It may be well to bring together the chief known facts as to the previous history of the Governor, or more accurately, the Procurator, of Judæa, whose name is conspicuous as occupying a solitary prominence in the creeds of Christendom. He must have belonged, by birth or adoption, to the <span class= "ital">gens</span> of the Pontii, one of whom, C. Pontius Telesinus, had been the leader of the Samnites in their second and third wars against Rome B.C. 321-292. The <span class= "ital">cognomen</span> Pilatus means “armed with the <span class= "ital">pilum</span> or javelin,” and may have had its origin in some early military achievement. As applied, however, to Mount Pilatus in Switzerland, it has been conjectured that it is a contracted form of <span class= "ital">Pileatus,</span> from <span class= "ital">pilea</span> a cap, and is applied to the mountain as having for the most part, a cloud-capped summit. When Judæa became formally subject to the empire, on the deposition of Archelaus, a <span class= "ital">procurator,</span> or collector of revenue, invested with judicial power, was appointed to govern it, subject to the Governor of Syria (<a href="/luke/2-2.htm" title="(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)">Luke 2:2</a>), and resided commonly at Cæsarea. Pontius Pilate, of whose previous career we know nothing, was appointed, A.D. 25-26, as the sixth holder of that office. His administration had already, prior to our Lord’s trial, been marked by a series of outrages on Jewish feelings. (1) He had removed the head-quarters of his army from Cæsarea to Jerusalem, and the troops brought their standards with the image of the emperor into the Holy City. The people were excited into frenzy, and rushed in crowds to Cæsarea to implore him to spare them this outrage on their religion. After five days of obstinacy and a partial attempt to suppress the tumult, Pilate at last yielded (Jos. <span class= "ital">Ant.</span> xvii. 3, §§ 1, 2; <span class= "ital">Wars,</span> ii. 9, §§ 2-4). (2) He had hung up in his palace at Jerusalem gilt shields inscribed with the names of heathen deities, and would not remove them till an express order came from Tiberius (Philo, <span class= "ital">Leg. ad Caium,</span> c. 38). (3) He had taken money from the Corban, or treasury of the Temple, for the construction of an aqueduct. This led to another tumult, which was suppressed by the slaughter not of the rioters only, but also of casual spectators (Jos. <span class= "ital">Wars, ii.</span> 9, § 4). (4) Lastly, on some unknown occasion, he had slain some Galileans while they were in the very act of sacrificing (<a href="/luke/13-1.htm" title="There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.">Luke 13:1</a>), and this had probably caused the ill-feeling between him and the tetrarch Antipas mentioned in <a href="/luke/23-12.htm" title="And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.">Luke 23:12</a>. It is well to bear in mind these antecedents of the man, as notes of character, as we follow him through the series of vacillations which we now have to trace.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-3.htm">Matthew 27:3</a></div><div class="verse">Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Then Judas, which had betrayed him.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the betrayer.</span> The Greek participle is in the present tense. The narrative which follows is found only in St. Matthew, but another version of the same facts is given in <a href="/acts/1-18.htm" title="Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out.">Acts 1:18</a>. Here, too, as in the case of Peter, we have to guess at motives. Had he looked for any other result than this? Was he hoping that his Lord, when forced to a decision, would assert His claim as the Christ, put forth His power, and triumph over His enemies, and that so he would gain at once the reward of treachery and the credit of having contributed to establish the Kingdom? This has been maintained by some eminent writers, and it is certainly possible, but the mere remorse of one who, after acting in the frenzy of criminal passion, sees the consequences of his deeds in all their horror, furnishes an adequate explanation of what follows.<p><span class= "bld">Repented himself.</span>—The Greek word is not that commonly used for “repentance,” as involving a change of mind and heart, but is rather <span class= "ital">“</span>regret,” a simple change of feeling. The coins which he had once gazed on and clutched at eagerly were now hateful in his sight, and their touch like that of molten metal from the furnace. He must get rid of them somehow. There is something terribly suggestive in the fact that here there were no tears as there had been in Peter’s repentance.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-4.htm">Matthew 27:4</a></div><div class="verse">Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What <i>is that</i> to us? see thou <i>to that</i>.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">I have sinned in that I have betrayed.</span>—More accurately, <span class= "ital">I sinned in betraying.</span><p><span class= "bld">What is that to us</span>?—We instinctively feel, as we read these words, that deep as was the guilt of Judas, that of those who thus mocked him was deeper still. Speaking after the manner of men, we may say that a word of sympathy and true counsel might have saved him even then. His confession was as the germ of repentance, but this repulse drove him back upon despair, and he had not the courage or the faith to turn to the great Absolver; and so his life closed as in a blackness of darkness; and if we ask the question, Is there any hope? We dare not answer. Possibly there mingled with his agony, as has been suggested by one at least of the great teachers of the Church (Origen, <span class= "ital">Horn. in Matt.</span> 35), some confused thought that in the world of the dead, behind the veil, he might meet his Lord and confess his guilt to Him.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-5.htm">Matthew 27:5</a></div><div class="verse">And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">He cast down the pieces of silver in the temple.</span>—The Greek word for “Temple” is that which specially denotes (as in <a href="/matthew/23-16.htm" title="Woe to you, you blind guides, which say, Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!">Matthew 23:16</a>; <a href="/matthew/26-61.htm" title="And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.">Matthew 26:61</a>; <a href="/john/2-19.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.">John 2:19</a>), not the whole building, but the “<span class= "ital">s</span>anctuary,” which only the priests could enter. They had stood, it would seem, talking with Judas before the veil or curtain which screened it from the outer court, and he hurled or flung it into the Holy Place.<p><span class= "bld">Hanged himself.</span>—The word is the same as that used of Ahithophel, in the Greek version of <a href="/2_samuel/17-23.htm" title="And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and got him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father.">2Samuel 17:23</a>, and is a perfectly accurate rendering. Some difficulties present themselves on comparing this brief record with <a href="/acts/1-18.htm" title="Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out.">Acts 1:18</a>, which will be best examined in the Notes on that passage. Briefly, it may be said here that the horrors there recorded may have been caused by the self-murderer’s want of skill, or the trembling agony that could not tie the noose firm enough.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-6.htm">Matthew 27:6</a></div><div class="verse">And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury.</span>—The Greek for the last word is the Corban, or sacred treasure-chest of the Temple, into which no foreign coins were admitted, and from which the Law (<a href="/deuteronomy/23-18.htm" title="You shall not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD your God for any vow: for even both these are abomination to the LORD your God.">Deuteronomy 23:18</a>) excluded the unclean offerings of the price of shame, which entered largely into the ritual of many heathen nations. By parity of reasoning, the priests seem to have thought that the blood-money which was thus returned was excluded also.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-7.htm">Matthew 27:7</a></div><div class="verse">And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">And they took counsel.</span>—As before, <span class= "ital">they held a council.</span><p><span class= "bld">The potter’s</span> <span class= "bld">field.</span>—In <a href="/jeremiah/18-2.htm" title="Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.">Jeremiah 18:2</a> we read of the “potter’s house” as being outside the city, probably, from <a href="/jeremiah/19-2.htm" title="And go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,">Jeremiah 19:2</a>, in the Valley of Hinnom (<span class= "ital">Gehenna</span>)<span class= "ital">,</span> on the south side of Jerusalem. It is probable that it had been worked out in course of time, and was now in the state of a disused quarry. It was necessary, now that Roman soldiers were often stationed in the city, and men of all nations came to it, to provide some burial-place for them; but no Jew would admit their bones into the sepulchre of his fathers. On the other hand, every devout Jew would shrink from the thought of burying his dead in the foul and hateful spot which had become the type of the unseen Gehenna. (See Notes on <a href="/matthew/5-22.htm" title="But I say to you, That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whoever shall say, You fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.">Matthew 5:22</a>.) There was, therefore, a subtle fitness of association in the policy which the priests adopted. The place was itself accursed; it was bought with accursed money; it was to be used for the burial of the accursed strangers.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-8.htm">Matthew 27:8</a></div><div class="verse">Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">The field of blood.</span>—St. Luke (<a href="/acts/1-19.htm" title="And it was known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem; so as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.">Acts 1:19</a>) gives the Aramaic form, <span class= "ital">Akeldama,</span> but assigns the death of Judas in a field which he had bought as the origin of the name. It is possible that two spots may have been known by the same name for distinct reasons, and the fact that two places have been shown as the Field of Blood from the time of Jerome downwards, is, as far as it goes, in favour of this view. It is equally possible, on the other hand, that Judas may have gone, before or after the purchase, to the ground which, bought with his money, was, in some sense his own, and there ended his despair, dying literally in Gehenna, and buried, not in the grave of his fathers at Kerioth, but as an outcast, with none to mourn over him, in the cemetery of the aliens.<p><span class= "bld">Unto this day.</span>—The phrase suggests here, as again in <a href="/matthew/28-15.htm" title="So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.">Matthew 28:15</a>, an interval, more or less considerable, between the events and the record. (Comp. the <span class= "ital">Introduction</span> as to the date of the Gospel.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-9.htm">Matthew 27:9</a></div><div class="verse">Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Then</span> <span class= "bld">was fulfilled.</span>—Three questions present themselves, more or less difficult:—(1) The words cited are found in our present Old Testament, not in Jeremiah, but in <a href="/zechariah/11-13.htm" title="And the LORD said to me, Cast it to the potter: a goodly price that I was priced at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.">Zechariah 11:13</a>, and there is no trace of their ever having occupied any other place in the Hebrew Canon. How is this discrepancy to be explained? (<span class= "ital">a</span>) Are we to assume an early error in transcription? Against this, there is the fact that MSS. and versions, with one or two exceptions, in which the correction is obviously of later date, give Jeremiah and not Zechariah. (<span class= "ital">b</span>) May we fall back upon the Jewish notion that the spirit of Jeremiah had passed into Zechariah; or that Jeremiah, having, at one time, stood first in the Jewish order of the Prophets, was taken as representing the whole volume, as David was of the whole Book of Psalms? This is possible, but it hardly falls within the limits of Probability that the writer of the Gospel would deliberately have thus given his quotation in a form sure to cause perplexity. (c) May we believe that the writer quoted from memory, and that recollecting the two conspicuous chapters (18 and 19) in which Jeremiah had spoken of the potter and his work, he was led to think that this also belonged to the same group of prophecies? I am free to confess that the last hypothesis seems to me the most natural and free from difficulty, unless it be the difficulty which is created by an arbitrary hypothesis as to the necessity of literal accuracy in an inspired writing. (2) There is the fact that the words given by St. Matthew neither represent the Greek version of <a href="/zechariah/11-13.htm" title="And the LORD said to me, Cast it to the potter: a goodly price that I was priced at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.">Zechariah 11:13</a>, nor the original Hebrew, but have the look of being a free quotation from memory adapted to the facts; and this, so far as it goes, is in favour of the last hypothesis. (3) It is hardly necessary to dwell on the fact that the words as they stand in Zechariah have an adequate historical meaning entirely independent of St. Matthew’s application of them. This, as we have seen again and again (<a href="/matthew/1-23.htm" title="Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.">Matthew 1:23</a>; <a href="/context/matthew/2-15.htm" title="And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.">Matthew 2:15-18</a>; <a href="/matthew/4-15.htm" title="The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;">Matthew 4:15</a>; <a href="/matthew/8-17.htm" title="That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.">Matthew 8:17</a>; <a href="/matthew/12-18.htm" title="Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit on him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles.">Matthew 12:18</a>), was entirely compatible with the Evangelist’s manner of dealing with prophecy. It was enough for him that the old words fitted into the facts, without asking, as we ask, whether they were originally meant to point to them. The combination in one verse, as he remembered it, of the thirty pieces of silver and the potter’s field, was a coincidence that he could not pass over.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-11.htm">Matthew 27:11</a></div><div class="verse">And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">And Jesus stood before the governor.</span>—We may infer from the greater fulness with which St. John relates what passed between our Lord and Pilate, that here, too, his acquaintance with the high priest gave him access to knowledge which others did not possess. We learn from him (1) that in his first conversation with the accusers, Pilate endeavoured to throw the <span class= "ital">onus</span> of judging upon them, and was met by the ostentatious disavowal of any power to execute judgment (<a href="/context/john/18-28.htm" title="Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas to the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.">John 18:28-32</a>); (2) that the single question which St. Matthew records was followed by a conversation in which our Lord declared that, though He was a King, it was not after the manner of the kingdoms of the world (<a href="/context/john/18-33.htm" title="Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said to him, Are you the King of the Jews?">John 18:33-38</a>). The impression thus made on the mind of the Governor explains the desire which he felt to effect, in some way or other, the release of the accused.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-12.htm">Matthew 27:12</a></div><div class="verse">And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">He answered nothing.</span>—Here, as before in <a href="/matthew/26-63.htm" title="But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said to him, I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you be the Christ, the Son of God.">Matthew 26:63</a>, we have to realise the contrast between the vehement clamour of the accusers, the calm, imperturbable, patient silence of the accused, and the wonder of the judge at what was so different from anything that had previously come within the range of his experience.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-15.htm">Matthew 27:15</a></div><div class="verse">Now at <i>that</i> feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">The governor was wont to release.</span>—It is not known when the practice began, nor whether it was primarily a Jewish or a Roman one. The fact that the release of criminals was a common incident of a Latin <span class= "ital">lectisternium,</span> or feast in honour of the gods, makes the latter the more probable. If introduced by Pilate (and this is the only recorded instance of the practice) it was, we may believe, a concession intended to conciliate those whom his previous severities had alienated. Before this stage of the proceedings we have to place (1) the second conference between Pilate and the priests after his dialogue with our Lord (<a href="/context/luke/23-4.htm" title="Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.">Luke 23:4-5</a>), and their definite charge of sedition, now urged for the first time; and (2) his attempt, catching at the word “Galilee” as the scene of our Lord’s work, to transfer the responsibility of judging to Herod (<a href="/context/luke/23-6.htm" title="When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilaean.">Luke 23:6-12</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-16.htm">Matthew 27:16</a></div><div class="verse">And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">A notable prisoner, called Barabbas.</span>—There is considerable, though not quite decisive, evidence in favour of the reading which gives “Jesus Barabbas” as the name of the prisoner. The name Bar-abbas (=son of Abbas, or of “a father”), like Bar-timseus and Bartholomew, was a patronymic, and it would be natural enough that the man who bore it should have another more personal name. We can easily understand (1) that the commonness of the name Jesus might lead to his being known to his comrades and to the multitude only or chiefly as Barabbas; and (2) that the reverence which men felt in after years for the Name which is above every name, would lead them to blot out, if it were possible, the traces that it had once been borne by the robber-chief. Of Barabbas St. John (<a href="/john/18-40.htm" title="Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.">John 18:40</a>) tells us that he was a robber; St. Luke (<a href="/luke/23-19.htm" title="(Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)">Luke 23:19</a>) and St. Mark (<a href="/mark/15-7.htm" title="And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.">Mark 15:7</a>) that he had taken a prominent part with some insurgents in the city, and that he, with them, had committed murder in the insurrection. The last recorded tumult of this kind was that mentioned above (Note on <a href="/matthew/27-2.htm" title="And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.">Matthew 27:2</a>), as connected with Pilate’s appropriation of the Corban. It is so far probable that this was the tumult in which Barabbas had taken part; and the supposition that he did so has at least the merit of explaining how it was that he came to be the favourite hero both of the priests and people. As the term Abba (=father) was a customary term of honour, as applied to a Rabbi (<a href="/matthew/23-9.htm" title="And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.">Matthew 23:9</a>), it is possible that the sobriquet by which he was popularly known commemorated a fact in his family history of which he might naturally be proud. “Jesus, the Rabbi’s son “was a cry that found more favour than “Jesus the Nazarene.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-17.htm">Matthew 27:17</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Whom will ye that I release unto you?</span>—This, we must remember, was all but the last attempt of Pilate to shift off from himself the dreaded burden of responsibility.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-18.htm">Matthew 27:18</a></div><div class="verse">For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">He knew that for envy.</span>—Pilate knew enough of the accusers to see through the hollowness of their pretended zeal for their own religion, or for the authority of the emperor. He found their real motive in “envy”—fear of the loss of influence and power, if the work of the new Teacher was to continue.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-19.htm">Matthew 27:19</a></div><div class="verse">When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">The judgment seat.</span>—The chair of judgment was placed upon a Mosaic pavement, and was indispensable to the official action of any provincial ruler. (Comp. Note on <a href="/john/19-13.htm" title="When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.">John 19:13</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">His wife sent unto him.</span>—Under the old regime of the Republic provincial governors were not allowed to take their wives with them; but the rule had been relaxed under the Empire, and Tacitus records (<span class= "ital">Ann.</span> iii. 33, 34) a vain attempt to revive its strictness. Nothing more is known of the woman thus mentioned; but the Apocryphal <span class= "ital">Gospel of Nicodemus</span> (ii. 1) gives her name as Procula, and states that she was a proselyte to Judaism. The latter fact is probable enough. About this time, both at Rome and in other cities, such, <span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> as Thessalonica and Berœa (<a href="/acts/17-4.htm" title="And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.">Acts 17:4</a>; <a href="/acts/17-12.htm" title="Therefore many of them believed; also of honorable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.">Acts 17:12</a>), Jews had gained considerable influence over women of the higher classes, and carried on an active work of proselytism.<p><span class= "bld">With that just man.</span>—The word is striking, as showing the impression which had been made on Pilate’s wife by all she had seen or heard. As contrasted with priests and scribes, He was emphatically the “just,” the “righteous “One.<p><span class= "bld">In a dream because of him.</span>—Questions rise in our minds as to the nature of the dream. Was it, as some have thought, a divine warning intended to save her husband from the guilt into which he was on the point of plunging? Did it come from the Evil Spirit, as designed to hinder the completion of the atoning work? Was it simply the reflection of the day-thoughts of a sensitive and devout woman? We have no <span class= "ital">data</span> for answering such questions, but the very absence of <span class= "ital">data</span> makes it safer and more reverential to adopt the last view, as involving less of presumptuous conjecture in a region where we have not been called to enter. What the dream was like may be a subject for a poet’s or—as in a well-known picture by a living artist—for a painter’s imagination, but does not fall within the province of the interpreter.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-20.htm">Matthew 27:20</a></div><div class="verse">But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">The chief priests and elders.</span>—Brief as the statement is it implies much; the members of the Sanhedrin standing before Pilate’s palace, mingling with the crowd, whispering—now to this man, now to that—praises of the robber, scoffs and slander against the Christ. As the next verse shows, they did their work effectively.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-22.htm">Matthew 27:22</a></div><div class="verse">Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? <i>They</i> all say unto him, Let him be crucified.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Let him be crucified.</span>—It may be noted that this was the first direct intimation of the mode of death to which the priests destined their prisoner. It was implied, indeed, in their fixed resolve to make the Roman governor the executioner of their sentence, as shown in the dialogue recorded by St. John (<a href="/john/18-31.htm" title="Then said Pilate to them, Take you him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said to him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:">John 18:31</a>); but now the cry came from the multitude, as the result, we may believe, of the promptings described in <a href="/matthew/27-20.htm" title="But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.">Matthew 27:20</a>, “Crucify Him!”—punish Him as the robber and the rebel are punished.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-23.htm">Matthew 27:23</a></div><div class="verse">And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Why, what evil hath he done?</span>—The question attested the judge’s conviction of the innocence of the accused, but it attested also the cowardice of the judge. He was startled at the passionate malignity of the cry of the multitude and the priests, but had not the courage to resist it. We find from <a href="/luke/23-22.htm" title="And he said to them the third time, Why, what evil has he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go.">Luke 23:22</a>. that he had recourse to the desperate expedient of suggesting a milder punishment—“I will chastise,” <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> scourge, “Him, and let Him go;” but the suggestion itself showed his weakness, and therefore did but stimulate the crowd to persist in their demand for death.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-24.htm">Matthew 27:24</a></div><div class="verse">When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but <i>that</i> rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed <i>his</i> hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye <i>to it</i>.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">He took water, and washed his hands.</span>—The act belonged to an obvious and almost universal symbolism. So in <a href="/deuteronomy/21-6.htm" title="And all the elders of that city, that are next to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:">Deuteronomy 21:6</a> the elders of a city in which an undiscovered murder had been committed were to wash their hands over the sin-offering, and to say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.” (Comp. also <a href="/psalms/26-6.htm" title="I will wash my hands in innocence: so will I compass your altar, O LORD:">Psalm 26:6</a>.) Pilate probably chose it, partly as a relief to his own conscience, partly to appease his wife’s scruples, partly as a last appeal of the most vivid and dramatic kind to the feelings of the priests and people. One of the popular poets of his own time and country might have taught him the nullity of such a formal ablution—<p>“Ah nimium faciles, qui tristia crimina cædis<p>Flumineâ tolli posse putetis aquâ.”<p>“Too easy souls who dream the crystal flood<p>Can wash away the fearful guilt of blood.”<p>Ovid, <span class= "ital">Fast. ii.</span> 45.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-25.htm">Matthew 27:25</a></div><div class="verse">Then answered all the people, and said, His blood <i>be</i> on us, and on our children.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">His blood be on us, and on our children.</span>—The passionate hate of the people leads them, as if remembering the words of their own Law, to invert the prayer—which Pilate’s act had, it may be, brought to their remembrance—“Lay not innocent blood to Thy people of Israel’s charge” (<a href="/deuteronomy/21-8.htm" title="Be merciful, O LORD, to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to your people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.">Deuteronomy 21:8</a>), into a defiant imprecation. No more fearful prayer is recorded in the history of mankind; and a natural feeling has led men to see its fulfilment in the subsequent shame and misery that were for centuries the portion of the Jewish people. We have to remember, however, that but a fractional part of the people were present; that some at least of the rulers, such as Joseph of Arimathæa, Nicodemus, and probably Gamaliel, had not consented to the deed of blood (<a href="/luke/23-51.htm" title="(The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.">Luke 23:51</a>), and that even in such a case as this it is still true that “the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father” (<a href="/ezekiel/18-20.htm" title="The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.">Ezekiel 18:20</a>), except so far as he consents to it, and reproduces it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-26.htm">Matthew 27:26</a></div><div class="verse">Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered <i>him</i> to be crucified.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">When he had scourged Jesus.</span>—The word used by St. Matthew, derived from the Latin <span class= "ital">flagellum,</span> shows that it was the Roman punishment with knotted thongs of leather (like the Russian “knout” or the English “cat”), not the Jewish beating with rods (<a href="/context/2_corinthians/11-24.htm" title="Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.">2Corinthians 11:24-25</a>). The pictures of the Stations, so widely used throughout Latin Christendom, have made other nations more familiar with the nature of the punishment than most Englishmen are. The prisoner was stripped sometimes entirely, sometimes to the waist, and tied by the hands to a pillar, with his back bent, so as to receive the full force of the blows. The scourge was of stout leather weighted with lead or bones. Jewish law limited its penalty to forty stripes, reduced in practice to “forty stripes save one” (<a href="/2_corinthians/11-24.htm" title="Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.">2Corinthians 11:24</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/25-3.htm" title="Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you.">Deuteronomy 25:3</a>), but Roman practice knew no limit but that of the cruelty of the executioner or the physical endurance of the sufferer.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-27.htm">Matthew 27:27</a></div><div class="verse">Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band <i>of soldiers</i>.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">The common hall.</span>—Literally, the <span class= "ital">Prætorium,</span> a word which, applied originally to the tent of the prætor, or general, and so to the head-quarters of the camp. had come to be used, with a somewhat wide range of meaning, (1) for the residence of a prince or governor; or (2) for the barracks attached to such a residence (as in <a href="/philippians/1-13.htm" title="So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;">Philippians 1:13</a>); or (3) for any house as stately. Here (as in <a href="/acts/23-35.htm" title="I will hear you, said he, when your accusers are also come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's judgment hall.">Acts 23:35</a>) it appears to be used in the first sense. Pilate’s dialogue with the priests and people had probably been held from the portico of the Tower of Antony, which rose opposite the Temple Court, and served partly as a fortress, partly as an official residence. The soldiers now took the prisoner into their barrack-room within.<p><span class= "bld">The whole band of soldiers.</span>—The word used is the technical word for the cohort, or sub-division of a legion.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-28.htm">Matthew 27:28</a></div><div class="verse">And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">A scarlet robe.</span>—Here again we have a technical word, the <span class= "ital">chlamys</span> or <span class= "ital">paludamentum,</span> used for the military cloak worn by emperors in their character as generals, and by other officers of high rank (Pliny, xxii. 2, 3). St. Mark and St. John call it purple (<a href="/mark/15-17.htm" title="And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,">Mark 15:17</a>; <a href="/john/19-2.htm" title="And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,">John 19:2</a>); but the “purple “of the ancients was “crimson,” and the same colour might easily be called by either name. It was probably some cast-off cloak of Pilate’s own, or, possibly, that in which Herod had before arrayed Him (<a href="/luke/23-11.htm" title="And Herod with his men of war set him at nothing, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.">Luke 23:11</a>). Philo records a like mockery as practised upon an idiot at Alexandria, who was there made to represent Herod Agrippa II. (<span class= "ital">in Flacc.</span> p. 980). It was but too common a practice to subject condemned prisoners before execution to this kind of outrage. Here the point of the mockery lay, of course, in the fact that their Victim had been condemned as claiming the title of a King. They had probably seen or heard of the insults of like kind offered by Herod and his soldiers (<a href="/luke/23-21.htm" title="But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him.">Luke 23:21</a>), and now reproduced them with aggravated cruelty.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-29.htm">Matthew 27:29</a></div><div class="verse">And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put <i>it</i> upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!</div>(29) <span class= "bld">A crown of thorns.</span>—The word is too vague to enable us to identify the plant with certainty, but most writers have fixed on the <span class= "ital">Zizyphus Spina Christi,</span> known locally as the <span class= "ital">Nebk,</span> a shrub growing plentifully in the valley of the Jordan, with branches pliant and flexible, and leaves of a dark glossy green, like ivy, and sharp prickly thorns. The likeness of the crown or garland thus made to that worn by conquering kings and emperors, fitted it admirably for the purpose. The shrub was likely enough to be found in the garden attached to the Prætorium.<p><span class= "bld">A reed in his right hand.</span>—Here also the word is vague, and it may have been the stalk either of a sugar-cane, a <span class= "ital">Papyrus,</span> or an <span class= "ital">Arundo.</span> It represented, of course, the sceptre which, even under the Republic, had been wielded by generals in their triumphs, and which under the Empire, as with Greek and Eastern kings, had become the received symbol of sovereignty.<p><span class= "bld">They bowed the knee before him.</span>—We have to represent to ourselves the whole cohort as joining in the derisive homage. The term in <a href="/mark/15-19.htm" title="And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit on him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.">Mark 15:19</a> implies a continued, not a momentary act—the band filing before the mock-king, and kneeling as they passed.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-30.htm">Matthew 27:30</a></div><div class="verse">And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">They spit upon him.</span>—See Note on <a href="/matthew/26-67.htm" title="Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands,">Matthew 26:67</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-31.htm">Matthew 27:31</a></div><div class="verse">And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify <i>him</i>.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">They took the robe</span> <span class= "ital"><span class= "bld">off</span></span> <span class= "bld">from him.</span>—At this point we have to insert the account which St. John gives (<a href="/context/john/19-4.htm" title="Pilate therefore went forth again, and said to them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that you may know that I find no fault in him.">John 19:4-5</a>) of Pilate’s last attempt to rescue the “just Man” whom he had unjustly condemned. He showed the silent Sufferer in the mock insignia of royalty, as if asking them, Is not this enough? The cries of “Crucify Him!” were but redoubled, and once again the cowardly judge took his place in the official chair, and passed the final sentence. The “raiment” which they put on Him again included both the tunic and the cloak, or over-garment. In this case, the former was made without seam or opening (<a href="/john/19-23.htm" title="Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.">John 19:23</a>), and the mere act of drawing it roughly over the lacerated flesh must have inflicted acute agony.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-32.htm">Matthew 27:32</a></div><div class="verse">And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name.</span>—There seems at that time to have been a flourishing settlement of Jews in Cyrene, and members of that community appear as prominent in the crowd of the day of Pentecost (<a href="/acts/2-10.htm" title="Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,">Acts 2:10</a>), among the disputants who opposed Stephen (<a href="/acts/6-9.htm" title="Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.">Acts 6:9</a>), and among the active preachers of the Word (<a href="/acts/11-20.htm" title="And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spoke to the Grecians, preaching the LORD Jesus.">Acts 11:20</a>). Why, we ask, out of the whole crowd that was streaming to and fro, on the way to the place of execution, did the multitude seize on him? St. Mark’s mention of him as the father of Alexander and Rufus (see Note on <a href="/mark/15-21.htm" title="And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.">Mark 15:21</a>), suggests the thought that his sons were afterwards prominent as members of the Christian community. May we not infer that he was suspected even then of being a secret disciple, and that this led the people to seize on him, and make him a sharer in the humiliation of his Master? He was coming, St. Mark adds, “out of the country.”<p><span class= "bld">Him they compelled.</span>—The word is the technical term for forced service (see Note on <a href="/matthew/5-41.htm" title="And whoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two.">Matthew 5:41</a>). The act implied that our Lord was sinking beneath the burden, and that the soldiers began to fear that He might die before they reached the place of execution.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-33.htm">Matthew 27:33</a></div><div class="verse">And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,</div>(33) <span class= "bld">A place called Golgotha.</span>—The other Gospels give the name with the definite article, as though it were a well-known locality. It is not mentioned, however, by any Jewish writer, and its position is matter of conjecture. It was “nigh unto the city” (<a href="/john/19-20.htm" title="This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.">John 19:20</a>), and therefore outside the walls (comp. <a href="/hebrews/13-12.htm" title="Why Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.">Hebrews 13:12</a>). There was a garden in it (<a href="/john/19-41.htm" title="Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid.">John 19:41</a>), and in the garden a tomb, which was the property of Joseph of Arimathæa (<a href="/matthew/27-60.htm" title="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.">Matthew 27:60</a>). A tradition, traceable to the fourth century, has identified the spot with the building known as the Church of the Sepulchre. One eminent archaeologist of our own time (Mr. James Fergusson) identifies it with the Dome of the Rock in the Mosque of El Aksa. Both sites were then outside the city, but were afterwards enclosed by the third wall, built by Agrippa II. The name has been supposed by some to point to its being a common place of execution; but it is not probable that the skulls of criminals would have been left unburied, nor that a wealthy Jew should have chosen such a spot for a garden and a burial-place. The facts lead rather to the conclusion (1) that the name indicated the round, bare, skull-like character of the eminence which was so called; and (2) that it may have been chosen by the priests as a deliberate insult to the member of their own body who had refused to share their policy, and was at least suspected of discipleship, and whose garden, or orchard, with its rock-hewn sepulchre, lay hard by (<a href="/mark/15-43.htm" title="Joseph of Arimathaea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly to Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.">Mark 15:43</a>; <a href="/luke/23-51.htm" title="(The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.">Luke 23:51</a>; <a href="/john/19-38.htm" title="And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, sought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.">John 19:38</a>). A later legend saw in the name a token that the bones of Adam were buried there, and that as the blood flowed from the sacred wounds on his skull his soul was translated to Paradise. The more familiar name of Calvary (<a href="/luke/23-35.htm" title="And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.">Luke 23:35</a>) has its origin in the Vulgate rendering (<span class= "ital">Calvarium=&</span> skull) of the Greek word <span class= "ital">Kranion,</span> or <span class= "ital">Cranium,</span> which the Evangelist actually uses.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-34.htm">Matthew 27:34</a></div><div class="verse">They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted <i>thereof</i>, he would not drink.</div>(34) <span class= "bld">Vinegar to drink mingled with gall.</span>—In <a href="/mark/15-23.htm" title="And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.">Mark 15:23</a>, “wine mingled with myrrh.” The animal secretion known as “gall” is clearly out of the question, and the meaning of the word is determined by its use in the Greek version of the Old Testament, where it stands for the “wormwood” of <a href="/proverbs/5-4.htm" title="But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.">Proverbs 5:4</a>, for the poisonous herb joined with “wormwood” in <a href="/deuteronomy/29-18.htm" title="Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;">Deuteronomy 29:18</a>. It was clearly something at once nauseous and narcotic, given by the merciful to dull the pain of execution, and mixed with the sour wine of the country and with myrrh to make it drinkable. It may have been hemlock, or even poppy-juice, but there are no materials for deciding. It is probable that the offer came from the more pitiful of the women mentioned by St. Luke (<a href="/luke/23-27.htm" title="And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.">Luke 23:27</a>) as following our Lord and lamenting. Such acts were among the received “works of mercy” of the time and place. The “tasting” implied a recognition of the kindly purpose of the act, but a recognition only. In the refusal to do more than taste we trace the resolute purpose to drink the cup which His Father had given Him to the last drop, and not to dull either the sense of suffering nor the clearness of His communion with His Father with the slumberous potion. The same draught was, we may believe, offered to the two criminals who were crucified with Him.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-35.htm">Matthew 27:35</a></div><div class="verse">And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.</div>(35) <span class= "bld">They crucified him.</span>—The cross employed in capital punishment varied in its form, being sometimes simply a stake on which the sufferer was impaled, sometimes consisting of two pieces of timber put together in the form of a T or an X (as in what we know as the St. Andrew’s cross); sometimes in that familiar to us in Christian art as the Latin cross. In this instance, the fact that the title or superscription was placed over our Lord’s head, implies that the last was the kind of cross employed. In carrying the sentence of crucifixion into effect, the cross was laid on the ground, the condemned man stripped and laid upon it. Sometimes he was simply tied; sometimes, as here, nails driven through the hands and feet; sometimes a projecting ledge was put for the feet to rest on; sometimes the whole weight of the body hung upon the limbs that were thus secured. The clothes of the criminal were the usual perquisites of the executioners, and in this case included (as we find from <a href="/john/19-23.htm" title="Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.">John 19:23</a>) the tunic worn next the body as well as the outer garment. It was as the soldiers were thus nailing Him to the cross that He prayed, “Father, forgive them” (<a href="/luke/23-34.htm" title="Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.">Luke 23:34</a>).<p><span class= "bld">They parted my garments among them.</span>—St. John (<a href="/john/19-24.htm" title="They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which said, They parted my raiment among them, and for my clothing they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.">John 19:24</a>) emphatically records a yet more literal fulfilment of the words than that noted by St. Matthew. The thoughts of both disciples, we may believe, were turned to <a href="/psalms/22-18.htm" title="They part my garments among them, and cast lots on my clothing.">Psalm 22:18</a> by our Lord’s utterance of its opening words (<a href="/matthew/27-46.htm" title="And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?">Matthew 27:46</a>), and thus led to dwell on the manifold coincidences of its language with the facts of the Passion.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-37.htm">Matthew 27:37</a></div><div class="verse">And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.</div>(37) <span class= "bld">THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.</span>—This was what was technically known as the <span class= "ital">titulus</span>—the bill, or placard, showing who the condemned person was, and why he was punished. Each Gospel gives it in a slightly different form—Mark (<a href="/mark/15-26.htm" title="And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.">Mark 15:26</a>), “The King of the Jews;” Luke (<a href="/luke/23-38.htm" title="And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.">Luke 23:38</a>), “This is the King of the Jews;” John (<a href="/john/19-19.htm" title="And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.">John 19:19</a>), “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” The variations are, perhaps, in part, explicable on the assumption of corresponding differences in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin forms of the inscription, which reproduced themselves in the reports upon which the Gospel narratives were based. But in part also they may reasonably be ascribed to the natural variations sure to arise even among eye-witnesses, and <span class= "ital">à fortiori</span> among those who were not eye witnesses, as to the circumstantial details of events which they record in common. On grounds of ordinary likelihood St. John’s record, as that of the only disciple whom we know to have been present at the crucifixion (<a href="/john/19-25.htm" title="Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.">John 19:25</a>), may claim to be the most accurate.<p>There was, apparently, a kind of rough tenderness towards the Man whom he had condemned in the form which Pilate had ordered. He would at least recognise His claims to be in some sense a King. The priests obviously felt it to imply such a recognition, a declaration, as it were, to them and to the people that One who had a right to be their King, who was the only kind of King they were ever likely to have, had died the death of a malefactor, and therefore they clamoured for a change, which Pilate refused to make (<a href="/john/19-20.htm" title="This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.">John 19:20</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-38.htm">Matthew 27:38</a></div><div class="verse">Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">Then were there two thieves crucified with him.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">robbers,</span> the word being the same as that used of Barabbas (<a href="/john/18-40.htm" title="Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.">John 18:40</a>). It would seem, as there is no record of their trial, as if they were already under sentence of death; and it is probable enough that they were members of the same band, and had been sharers in the same insurrection. The legends of the Apocryphal <span class= "ital">Gospel of Nicodemns</span> (i. 10), give their names as Dysmas and Gysmas, and these names appear still in the Calvaries and Stations of Roman Catholic countries.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-39.htm">Matthew 27:39</a></div><div class="verse">And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,</div>(39) <span class= "bld">They that passed by.</span>—The words bring before us the picture of a lounging crowd, strolling from one cross to the other, and mocking the central sufferer of the three. Rulers and chief priests were not ashamed to take part in the brutal mockery of a dying man. The spoken taunts were doubtless often repeated, and not always in the same form, but their burden is always the same.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-40.htm">Matthew 27:40</a></div><div class="verse">And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest <i>it</i> in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.</div>(40) <span class= "bld">Thou that destroyest the temple.</span>—Our Lord had not been formally condemned on this charge, the evidence being insufficient, but it had clearly impressed itself on the minds of the people, and was probably that which most worked upon them to demand His death. The other words, “If thou be the Son of God,” referred to the actual condemnation on the ground of blasphemy (<a href="/context/matthew/26-64.htm" title="Jesus said to him, You have said: nevertheless I say to you, Hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.">Matthew 26:64-65</a>). We may reverently think of the form of the taunt as having recalled that of the Temptation in the Wilderness. Then, as now, the words “If thou be the Son of God” were as a challenge from the Power of Evil. Now, as then, they were met by the strength of Faith. To accept the challenge would have been to show that He did not trust the Father, just as it would have been not faith, but want of faith, to have cast Himself from the pinnacle of the Temple, and therefore to disown His Sonship in the very act of claiming it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-41.htm">Matthew 27:41</a></div><div class="verse">Likewise also the chief priests mocking <i>him</i>, with the scribes and elders, said,</div>(41) <span class= "bld">The chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders.</span>—It would seem as if all, or nearly all, the members of the Sanhedrin—those, at least, who had taken part in the condemnation—had come to feast their eyes with the sight of their Victim’s sufferings.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-42.htm">Matthew 27:42</a></div><div class="verse">He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.</div>(42) <span class= "bld">He saved others.</span>—The mockers, as before (comp. <a href="/context/john/11-50.htm" title="Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.">John 11:50-51</a>), bear unconscious witness to the truth. They referred, it may be, to the works of healing and the raising of the dead which had been wrought in Galilee and Jerusalem, but their words were true in a yet higher sense. He had come into the world to save others, regardless of Himself.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-43.htm">Matthew 27:43</a></div><div class="verse">He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.</div>(43) <span class= "bld">Let him deliver him now.</span>—It seems at first hardly conceivable that priests and scribes could thus have quoted the very words of <a href="/psalms/22-8.htm" title="He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.">Psalm 22:8</a>, and so have fulfilled one of the great Messianic prophecies. But (1) we must remember that they, ignoring the idea of a suffering Christ, would not look on the Psalm as Messianic at all, and (2) that their very familiarity with the words of the Psalm would naturally bring its phraseology to their lips when occasion called for it. Only they would persuade themselves that they were right in using it, while David’s enemies were wrong.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-44.htm">Matthew 27:44</a></div><div class="verse">The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.</div>(44) <span class= "bld">The thieves also . . . cast the same in his teeth.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">reviled Him.</span> On the change which afterwards came over one of them, see Note on <a href="/luke/23-40.htm" title="But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Do not you fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation?">Luke 23:40</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-45.htm">Matthew 27:45</a></div><div class="verse">Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.</div>(45) <span class= "bld">From the sixth hour.</span>—The first three Gospels agree as to time and fact. Assuming them to follow the usual Jewish reckoning (as in <a href="/acts/2-15.htm" title="For these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.">Acts 2:15</a>; <a href="/acts/3-1.htm" title="Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.">Acts 3:1</a>; <a href="/acts/10-3.htm" title="He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying to him, Cornelius.">Acts 10:3</a>; <a href="/acts/10-9.htm" title="On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew near to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:">Acts 10:9</a>) this would be noon, the fixing to the cross having been at the third hour, 9 A.M. (<a href="/mark/15-25.htm" title="And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.">Mark 15:25</a>), and the darkness lasting till 3 P.M. St. John names the “sixth hour” as the time of our Lord’s final condemnation by Pilate, following apparently (see Note there and on <a href="/john/4-6.htm" title="Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.">John 4:6</a>) the Roman or modern mode of reckoning from midnight to noon. Looking to the facts of the case, it is probable that our Lord was taken to the high priest’s palace about 3 A.M. (the “cock-crow” of <a href="/mark/13-35.htm" title="Watch you therefore: for you know not when the master of the house comes, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning:">Mark 13:35</a>). Then came the first hearing before Annas (<a href="/john/18-13.htm" title="And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year.">John 18:13</a>), then the trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, then the formal meeting that passed the sentence. This would fill up the time probably till 6 A.M., and three hours may be allowed for the trials before Pilate and Herod. After the trial was over there would naturally be an interval for the soldiers to take their early meal, and then the slow procession to Golgotha, delayed, we may well believe, by our Lord’s falling, once or oftener, beneath the burden of the cross, and so we come to 9 A.M. for His arrival at the place of crucifixion.<p><span class= "bld">Darkness over all the land.</span>—Better so than the “earth” of the Authorised version of <a href="/luke/23-44.htm" title="And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.">Luke 23:44</a>. The degree and nature of the darkness are not defined. The moon was at its full, and therefore there could be no eclipse. St. John does not name it, nor is it recorded by Josephus, Tacitus, or any contemporary writer. On the other hand, its appearance in records in many respects so independent of each other as those of the three Gospels places it, even as the common grounds of historical probability, on a sufficiently firm basis, and early Christian writers, such as Tertullian (<span class= "ital">Apol.</span> c. 21) and Origen (100 <span class= "ital">Cels.</span> ii. 33), appeal to it as attested by heathen writers. The narrative does not necessarily involve more than the indescribable yet most oppressive gloom which seems to shroud the whole sky as in mourning (comp. <a href="/context/amos/8-9.htm" title="And it shall come to pass in that day, said the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:">Amos 8:9-10</a>), and which being a not uncommon phenomenon of earthquakes, may have been connected with that described in <a href="/matthew/27-51.htm" title="And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;">Matthew 27:51</a>. It is an indirect confirmation of the statement that about this time there is an obvious change in the conduct of the crowd. There is a pause and lull. The gibes and taunts cease, and the life of the Crucified One ends in a silence broken only by His own bitter cry.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-46.htm">Matthew 27:46</a></div><div class="verse">And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?</div>(46) <span class= "bld">Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.</span>—The cry is recorded only by St. Matthew and St. Mark. The very syllables or tones dwelt in the memory of those who heard and understood it, and its absence from St. John’s narrative was probably due to the fact that he had before this taken the Virgin-Mother from the scene of the crucifixion as from that which was more than she could bear (<a href="/john/19-27.htm" title="Then said he to the disciple, Behold your mother! And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.">John 19:27</a>). To the Roman soldiers, to many of the by standers, Greeks or Hellenistic Jews, the words would be, as the sequel shows, unintelligible. We shrink instinctively from any over-curious analysis of the inner feelings in our Lord’s humanity that answered to this utterance. Was it the natural fear of death? or the vicarious endurance of the wrath which was the penalty of the sins of the human race, for whom, and instead of whom, He suffered? Was there a momentary interruption of the conscious union between His human soul and the light of His Father’s countenance? or, as seems implied in <a href="/john/19-28.htm" title="After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst.">John 19:28</a>, did He quote the words in order to direct the thoughts of men to the great Messianic prophecy which the Psalm contained? None of these answers is altogether satisfactory, and we may well be content to leave the mystery unfathomed, and to let our words, be wary and few. We may remember (1) that both the spoken words of His enemies (<a href="/matthew/27-43.htm" title="He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.">Matthew 27:43</a>) and the acts of the soldiers (<a href="/matthew/27-35.htm" title="And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and on my clothing did they cast lots.">Matthew 27:35</a>) must have recalled the words of that Psalm; (2) that memory thus roused would pass on to the cry of misery with which the Psalm opened; (3) that our Lord as man was to taste death in all its bitterness for every man (<a href="/hebrews/2-9.htm" title="But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.">Hebrews 2:9</a>), and that He could not so have tasted it had His soul been throughout in full undisturbed enjoyment of the presence of the Father; (4) that the lives of the saints of God, in proportion to their likeness to the mind of Christ, have exhibited this strange union, or rather instantaneous succession, of the sense of abandonment and of intensest faith. The Psalmist himself, in this very Psalm, is one instance; Job (<a href="/context/job/19-6.htm" title="Know now that God has overthrown me, and has compassed me with his net.">Job 19:6-9</a>, <a href="/context/job/19-23.htm" title="Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!">Job 19:23-26</a>) and Jeremiah (<a href="/context/jeremiah/20-7.htm" title="O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me.">Jeremiah 20:7-9</a>; <a href="/context/jeremiah/20-12.htm" title="But, O LORD of hosts, that try the righteous, and see the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I opened my cause.">Jeremiah 20:12-13</a>) may be named as others. Conceive this conflict—and the possibility of such a conflict is postulated in <a href="/john/12-27.htm" title="Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I to this hour.">John 12:27</a> and in the struggle of Gethsemane—and then, though we cannot understand, we may in part at least conceive, how it was possible for the Son of Man to feel for one moment that sense of abandonment, which is the last weapon of the Enemy. He tasted of despair as others had tasted, but in the very act of tasting, the words “My God” were as a protest against it, and by them He was delivered from it. It is remarkable, whatever explanation may be given of it, that as these words are recorded by the first two Gospels only, so they are the only words spoken on the cross which we find in their report of the Crucifixion.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-47.htm">Matthew 27:47</a></div><div class="verse">Some of them that stood there, when they heard <i>that</i>, said, This <i>man</i> calleth for Elias.</div>(47) <span class= "bld">This man calleth for Elias.</span>—There is no ground for looking on this as a wilful, derisive misinterpretation. The words may have been imperfectly understood, or some of those who listened may have been Hellenistic Jews. The dominant expectation of the coming of Elijah (see Notes on <a href="/matthew/16-14.htm" title="And they said, Some say that you are John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.">Matthew 16:14</a>; <a href="/matthew/17-10.htm" title="And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?">Matthew 17:10</a>) would predispose men to fasten on the similarity of sound, and the strange unearthly darkness would intensify the feeling that looked for a supernatural manifestation of His presence.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-48.htm">Matthew 27:48</a></div><div class="verse">And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled <i>it</i> with vinegar, and put <i>it</i> on a reed, and gave him to drink.</div>(48) <span class= "bld">Took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar.</span>—The “vinegar” was the sour wine, or wine and water, which was the common drink of the Roman soldiers. and which they at an earlier stage, and as in derision (<a href="/luke/23-36.htm" title="And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,">Luke 23:36</a>), had offered to the Sufferer. The sponge had probably served instead of a cork to the jar in which the soldiers had brought the drink that was to sustain them in their long day’s work. Some one, whether soldier or Jew we know not, heard, not only the cry, “Eli, Eli, . . .” but the faint “I thirst,” which St. John records as coming from the fevered lips (<a href="/john/19-28.htm" title="After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst.">John 19:28</a>), and prompted by a rough pity, stretched out a cane, or stalk of hyssop (<a href="/john/19-29.htm" title="Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it on hyssop, and put it to his mouth.">John 19:29</a>), with the sponge that had been dipped in the wine upon it, and bore it to the parched lips of the Sufferer. It was not now refused (<a href="/john/19-30.htm" title="When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.">John 19:30</a>).<p><span class= "bld">And gave him to drink.</span>—The Greek verb is in the imperfect tense, as implying that while he was doing this, the others tried to interrupt him.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-49.htm">Matthew 27:49</a></div><div class="verse">The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.</div>(49) <span class= "bld">Let us see whether Elias will come.</span>—Here again we have eager expectation rather than derision. Was the “great and dreadful day” (<a href="/malachi/4-5.htm" title="Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:">Malachi 4:5</a>) about to burst on them? Would the long-expected prophet at last appear? The sponge and vinegar would seem to minds thus on the stretch an unworthy interruption of the catastrophe of the great drama of which they were spectators.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-50.htm">Matthew 27:50</a></div><div class="verse">Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.</div>(50) <span class= "bld">When he had cried again with a loud voice.</span>—It is well that we should remember what the words were which immediately preceded the last death cry; the “It is finished” of <a href="/john/19-30.htm" title="When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.">John 19:30</a>, the “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit” of <a href="/luke/23-46.htm" title="And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.">Luke 23:46</a>, expressing as they did, the fulness of peace and trust, the sense of a completed work.<p>It was seldom that crucifixion, as a punishment, ended so rapidly as it did here, and those who have discussed, what is hardly perhaps a fit subject for discussion, the physical causes of our Lord’s death, have ascribed it accordingly, especially in connection with the fact recorded in <a href="/john/19-34.htm" title="But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and immediately came there out blood and water.">John 19:34</a>, and with the “loud cry,” indicating the pangs of an intolerable anguish, to a rupture of the vessels of the heart. Simple exhaustion as the consequence of the long vigil, the agony in the garden, the mocking and the scourging, would be, perhaps, almost as natural an explanation.<p><span class= "bld">Yielded up the ghost.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">yielded up His spirit.</span> All four Evangelists agree in using this or some like expression, instead of the simpler form, “He died.” It is as though they dwelt on the act as, in some sense, voluntary, and connected it with the words in which He had commended His spirit to the Father (<a href="/luke/23-46.htm" title="And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.">Luke 23:46</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-51.htm">Matthew 27:51</a></div><div class="verse">And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;</div>(51) <span class= "bld">The veil of the temple was rent in twain.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the veil of the sanctuary,</span> or, if we do not alter the word, we must remember that it is the veil that divided the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies that is here meant. The fact, which the high priests would naturally have wished to conceal, and which in the nature of the case could not have been seen by any but the sons of Aaron, may have been reported by the “great multitude of the priests” who “became obedient to the faith” (<a href="/acts/6-7.htm" title="And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.">Acts 6:7</a>). The Evangelist’s record of it is all the more significant, as he does not notice, and apparently, therefore, did not apprehend, the symbolic import of the fact. That import we learn indirectly from the Epistle to the Hebrews. The priests had, as far as they had power, destroyed the true Temple (comp. <a href="/john/2-19.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.">John 2:19</a>); but in doing so they had robbed their own sanctuary of all that made it holy. The true veil, as that which shrouded the Divine Glory from the eyes of men, was His own flesh, and through that He had passed, as the Forerunner of all who trusted in Him, into the sanctuary not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (<a href="/context/hebrews/10-20.htm" title="By a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;">Hebrews 10:20-21</a>). All who fulfilled that condition might enter into that holiest place, but the visible sanctuary was now made common and unclean, and there too all might enter without profanation.<p><span class= "bld">The earth did quake, and the rocks rent.</span>—Jerusalem was, it will be remembered, situated in the zone of earthquakes, and one very memorable convulsion is recorded or alluded to in the Old Testament (<a href="/isaiah/24-19.htm" title="The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.">Isaiah 24:19</a>; <a href="/amos/1-1.htm" title="The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.">Amos 1:1</a>; <a href="/zechariah/14-5.htm" title="And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal: yes, you shall flee, like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with you.">Zechariah 14:5</a>). Here, though the shock startled men at the time, there was no widespread ruin such as would lead to its being chronicled by contemporary historians.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-52.htm">Matthew 27:52</a></div><div class="verse">And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,</div>(52) <span class= "bld">Many bodies of the saints which slept arose.</span>—It is scarcely, perhaps, surprising that a narrative so exceptional in its marvellousness, and standing, as it does, without any collateral testimony in any other part of the New Testament, should have presented to many minds difficulties which have seemed almost insuperable. They have accordingly either viewed it as a mythical addition, or, where they shrank from that extreme conclusion, have explained it as meaning simply that the bodies of the dead were exposed to view by the earthquake mentioned in the preceding verse, or have seen in it only the honest report of an over-excited imagination. On the other hand, the brevity, and in some sense simplicity, of the statement differences it very widely from such legends, more or less analogous in character, as we find, <span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> in the Apocryphal <span class= "ital">Gospel of Nicodemus,</span> and so far excludes the mythical element which, as a rule, delights to show itself in luxuriant expansion. And this being excluded, we can hardly imagine the Evangelist as writing without having received his information from witnesses whom he thought trustworthy; and then the question rises, whether the narrative is of such a character as to be in itself incredible. On that point men, according to the point of view from which they look on the Gospel records, may naturally differ; but those who believe that when our Lord passed into Hades, the unseen world, it was to complete there what had been begun on earth, to proclaim there His victory over death and sin, will hardly think it impossible that there should have been outward tokens and witnesses of such a work. And the fact which St. Matthew records supplies, it is believed, the most natural explanation of language hardly less startling, which meets us in the Epistle, which even the most adverse critics admit to be from the hands of St. Peter. If he, or those whom he knew, had seen the saints that slept and had risen from their sleep, we can understand how deeply it would have impressed on his mind the fact that his Lord when “put to death in the flesh” had been “quickened in the spirit,” and had “preached to the spirits in prison” (<a href="/1_peter/3-19.htm" title="By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison;">1Peter 3:19</a>), so that glad tidings were proclaimed even to the dead (<a href="/1_peter/4-6.htm" title="For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.">1Peter 4:6</a>). Who they were that thus appeared, we are not told. Most commentators have followed—somewhat unhappily, I venture to believe—the lead of the Apocryphal Gospel just named, and <span class= "greekheb">ι</span> have identified them with the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament. It is clear, however, that St. Matthew’s statement implies that they were those who came out of the opened graves, who had been buried, that is, in the sepulchres of Jerusalem; and, remembering that the term “saints” was applied almost from the very first to the collective body of disciples (<a href="/acts/9-13.htm" title="Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem:">Acts 9:13</a>; <a href="/acts/9-32.htm" title="And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelled at Lydda.">Acts 9:32</a>; <a href="/acts/9-41.htm" title="And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive.">Acts 9:41</a>), it seems more natural to see in them those who, believing in Jesus, had passed to their rest before His crucifixion. On this supposition, their appearance met the feeling, sure to arise among those who were looking for an immediate manifestation of the kingdom—as it arose afterwards at Thessalonica (<a href="/1_thessalonians/4-13.htm" title="But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.">1Thessalonians 4:13</a>)—that such as had so died were shut out from their share in that kingdom; and we have thus an adequate reason for their appearance, so that friends and kindred might not sorrow for them as others who had no hope. The statement that they did not appear till after our Lord’s resurrection, is from this point of view significant. The disciples were thus taught to look on that resurrection, not as an isolated phenomenon, but as the “firstfruits” of the victory over death (<a href="/1_corinthians/15-20.htm" title="But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.">1Corinthians 15:20</a>), in which not they themselves only, but those also whom they had loved and lost were to be sharers.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-54.htm">Matthew 27:54</a></div><div class="verse">Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.</div>(54) <span class= "bld">Truly this was the Son of God.</span>—St. Luke’s report softens down the witness thus borne into “Truly this Man was righteous.” As reported by St. Matthew and St. Mark (<a href="/mark/15-39.htm" title="And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.">Mark 15:39</a>), the words probably meant little more than that. We must interpret them from the stand-point of the centurion’s knowledge, not from that of Christian faith, and to him the words “Son of God” would convey the idea of one who was God-like in those elements of character which are most divine—righteousness, and holiness, and love. The form of expression was naturally determined by the words which he had heard bandied to and fro as a taunt (<a href="/matthew/27-43.htm" title="He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.">Matthew 27:43</a>); and the centurion felt that the words, as he understood them, were true, and not false, of the Sufferer whose death he had witnessed. That the words might have such a sense in the lips even of a devout Jew, we find in the language of a book probably contemporary, and possibly written with some remote reference to our Lord’s death—the so-called <span class= "ital">Wisdom of Solomon</span> (Wisd. ii. 13, 16-18). In the last of these verses, it will be noted, the terms “just man” and “son of God” appear as interchangeable.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-55.htm">Matthew 27:55</a></div><div class="verse">And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:</div>(55) <span class= "bld">Many women were there beholding.</span>—The group was obviously distinct from that of “the daughters of Jerusalem,” of <a href="/luke/23-28.htm" title="But Jesus turning to them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.">Luke 23:28</a>, but was probably identical with that mentioned in <a href="/context/luke/8-2.htm" title="And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,">Luke 8:2-3</a>, as accompanying our Lord in many of His journeyings.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-56.htm">Matthew 27:56</a></div><div class="verse">Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.</div>(56) <span class= "bld">Mary Magdalene.</span>—This is the first mention of the name in St. Matthew. The most natural explanation of it is that she came from the town of Magdala, or Magadan (the reading of the chief MSS.), not far from Tiberias, on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. The two prominent facts in her history prior to her connection with the Resurrection are, (1) that our Lord had cast “seven devils out of her” (<a href="/mark/16-9.htm" title="Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.">Mark 16:9</a>, <a href="/luke/8-2.htm" title="And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,">Luke 8:2</a>)—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> had freed her from some specially aggravated form of demoniacal possession—and that she followed Him and ministered to Him of her substance. The question whether she was identical (1) with Mary the sister of Lazarus, or (2) with the “woman which was a sinner” of <a href="/luke/7-37.htm" title="And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,">Luke 7:37</a>, will be better discussed in the Notes on the latter passage. It may be enough to intimate here my conviction that there is not the shadow of any evidence for either identification.<p><span class= "bld">Mary the mother of James and Joses.</span>—In St. Mark (<a href="/mark/15-40.htm" title="There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;">Mark 15:40</a>) she is described as the mother of “James the Less” (or, better, <span class= "ital">the Little</span>) “and Joses,” the epithet distinguishing the former from James the son of Zebedee, and possibly also from James the son of Alphæus. She may, however, have been identical with the wife of Clopas (possibly another form of Alphæus) mentioned in <a href="/john/19-25.htm" title="Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.">John 19:25</a> as standing near the cross with the mother of the Lord, and, according to a natural construction of the words, described as her sister. In this case, the word “Little” would attach to the son of that sister. Whether the two names, which occur also in the list of the “brethren of the Lord” (<a href="/mark/6-3.htm" title="Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.">Mark 6:3</a>), indicate that she was the mother of those brethren, is a point which we have no evidence to settle. The presumption seems to me against it, as on this supposition the “brethren” would be identical with the three sons of Alphæus in the list of the Twelve, a view which we have seen reason to reject (see Note on <a href="/matthew/12-46.htm" title="While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood without, desiring to speak with him.">Matthew 12:46</a>).<p><span class= "bld">The mother of Zebedee’s children.</span>—St. Mark (<a href="/mark/15-40.htm" title="There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;">Mark 15:40</a>) gives her name as Salome, and she, and not the wife of Clopas, may, on a perfectly tenable construction of <a href="/john/19-25.htm" title="Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.">John 19:25</a>, have been identical with the sister of our Lord’s mother there mentioned. St. Luke notes the fact that with the women were those whom he describes as “all His acquaintance,” <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> friends and disciples of, or at that time in, Jerusalem (<a href="/luke/23-49.htm" title="And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.">Luke 23:49</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-57.htm">Matthew 27:57</a></div><div class="verse">When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:</div>(57) <span class= "bld">A rich man of Arimathæa.</span>—The place so named was probably identical with the Ramah of <a href="/1_samuel/1-19.htm" title="And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her.">1Samuel 1:19</a>, the birth-place of the prophet. In <a href="/1_samuel/1-1.htm" title="Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:">1Samuel 1:1</a> 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 <a href="//apocrypha.org/1_maccabees/11-34.htm" title="Wherefore we have ratified unto them the borders of Judea, with the three governments of Apherema and Lydda and Ramathem, that are added unto Judea from the country of Samaria, and all things appertaining unto them, for all such as do sacrifice in Jerusalem, instead of the payments which the king received of them yearly aforetime out of the fruits of the earth and of trees.">1 Maccabees 11:34</a> as Ramathem. It was a city of the Jews, in the narrower sense in which that word meant the people of Judæa (<a href="/luke/23-51.htm" title="(The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.">Luke 23:51</a>). The site is more or less conjectural, but if we identify the Ramah, or Ramathaim, of <a href="/1_samuel/1-1.htm" title="Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:">1Samuel 1:1</a> with the modern <span class= "ital">Nebby Samuel,</span> 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 (<a href="/mark/15-43.htm" title="Joseph of Arimathaea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly to Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.">Mark 15:43</a>) that he was “an honourable counsellor,” <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> a member of the Sanhedrin, and that he was looking for the kingdom of God; by St. Luke (<a href="/context/luke/23-50.htm" title="And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor; and he was a good man, and a just:">Luke 23:50-51</a>), that he was “a good man, and a just” (see Note on <a href="/romans/5-7.htm" title="For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.">Romans 5:7</a> for the distinction between the two words); by St. John ( <a href="/john/19-38.htm" title="And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, sought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.">John 19:38</a>), 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 mediæval 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 (<a href="/context/john/19-31.htm" title="The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) sought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.">John 19:31-37</a>), before Joseph’s application.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-58.htm">Matthew 27:58</a></div><div class="verse">He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.</div>(58) <span class= "bld">He went to Pilate.</span>—Assuming the death of our Lord to have been soon after the ninth hour (3 P.M.), Joseph would seem to have hastened at once to the Prætorium, and asked Pilate’s permission to inter the body. St. Mark records Pilate’s wonder that death should have come so soon (<a href="/mark/15-44.htm" title="And Pilate marveled if he were already dead: and calling to him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.">Mark 15:44</a>). In his compliance with the petition we trace, as before, a lingering reverence and admiration. As far as he can, he will help the friends and not the foes of the righteous Sufferer.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-59.htm">Matthew 27:59</a></div><div class="verse">And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,</div>(59) <span class= "bld">A clean linen cloth.</span>—The word for “linen cloth,” <span class= "ital">Sindôn,</span> points, according to different derivations, to a Sidonian or an Indian fabric. It was probably of the nature of muslin rather than linen, and seems to have been specially used by the Egyptians for folding round their mummies, but sometimes also for the sheet in which a man slept (Herod. ii. 82, 95). In the New Testament it appears only in the account of our Lord’s burial and in the strange narrative of <a href="/mark/14-51.htm" title="And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him:">Mark 14:51</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-60.htm">Matthew 27:60</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(60) <span class= "bld">Laid it in his own new tomb.</span>—The garden, or orchard, was therefore the property of Joseph (see Note on <a href="/matthew/27-33.htm" title="And when they were come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,">Matthew 27:33</a>). 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. Luke’s 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 (<a href="/john/19-39.htm" title="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.">John 19:39</a>) 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 (<a href="/deuteronomy/21-23.htm" title="His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that your land be not defiled, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.">Deuteronomy 21:23</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-61.htm">Matthew 27:61</a></div><div class="verse">And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.</div>(61) <span class= "bld">And there was Mary Magdalene.</span>—The words imply that they remained by the cross while the body was taken down, and watched its entombment: then returning to the house where they lodged, they prepared their spices and ointment before the Sabbath began, for a more complete embalmment, so that they might be ready by the earliest hour of dawn on the first day of the week (<a href="/luke/23-56.htm" title="And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.">Luke 23:56</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-62.htm">Matthew 27:62</a></div><div class="verse">Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,</div>(62) <span class= "bld">The next day, that followed the day of the preparation.</span>—The narrative that follows is peculiar to St. Matthew, and, like the report of the rending of the veil of the Temple, may, perhaps, be traced to the converted priests of <a href="/acts/6-7.htm" title="And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.">Acts 6:7</a>. This was, as we find from what follows, the Sabbath. The “preparation” (<span class= "ital">Paraskeuè</span>) was a technical term, not, as is sometimes said, in reference to preparing for the Passover, but, as in <a href="/mark/15-42.htm" title="And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,">Mark 15:42</a>, to a preparation for the Sabbath (Jos. <span class= "ital">Ant. xvi.</span> 6, § 2, is decisive on this point), and the use of the term here leaves the question whether the Last Supper or the Crucifixion coincided with the Passover, still an open one. It may be noted that the Jewish use of the term passed into the Christian Church, and that at least as early as Clement of Alexandria (<span class= "ital">Strom. vii.</span> § 76) it was the received name for the <span class= "ital">Dies Veneris,</span> or Friday, the anniversary of the Crucifixion being the “great” or “holy” <span class= "ital">Paraskeue.</span> On either view, however, there is something strange in the way in which St. Matthew describes the day as coming, “after the preparation,” instead of saying simply, “the Sabbath.” It is a possible solution of the difficulty thus presented, on the assumption that the Last Supper was a true Passover, that the day of the Crucifixion as being on the Passover, was itself technically a Sabbath (<a href="/leviticus/23-7.htm" title="In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:7</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-24.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.">Leviticus 23:24</a>). Two Sabbaths therefore came together, and this may have led the Evangelist to avoid the commoner phrase, and to describe the second as being “the day that followed the preparation,” <span class= "ital">i.e.</span> the ordinary weekly Sabbath. The precise time at which the priests went to Pilate is not stated; probably it was early on the morning of the Sabbath when they had heard from the Roman soldiers of the burial by Joseph of Arimathæa. The fact that the body was under the care of one who was secretly a disciple aroused their suspicions, and they would naturally take the first opportunity, even at the risk of infringing on the Sabbath rest, of guarding against the fraud which they suspected.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-63.htm">Matthew 27:63</a></div><div class="verse">Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.</div>(63) <span class= "bld">We remember that that deceiver said . . .</span>—It appears, then, that though they had deliberately stirred up the passions of the people by representing the mysterious words of <a href="/john/2-14.htm" title="And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:">John 2:14</a> as threatening a literal destruction of the Temple (<a href="/matthew/26-61.htm" title="And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.">Matthew 26:61</a>; <a href="/matthew/27-40.htm" title="And saying, You that destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself. If you be the Son of God, come down from the cross.">Matthew 27:40</a>), they themselves had understood, wholly or in part, their true meaning. We are, perhaps, surprised that they should in this respect have been more clear-sighted than the disciples, but in such a matter sorrow and disappointment confuse, and suspicion sharpens the intellect.<p><span class= "bld">That deceiver.</span>—They had used the cognate verb of Him before (<a href="/john/7-12.htm" title="And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, No; but he deceives the people.">John 7:12</a>), and this was, perhaps, their usual way of speaking of Him.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-64.htm">Matthew 27:64</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(64) <span class= "bld">Until the third day.</span>—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.<p><span class= "bld">The last error.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">deceit,</span> to connect the word, in English as in the Greek, with the “deceiver” of <a href="/matthew/27-63.htm" title="Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.">Matthew 27:63</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-65.htm">Matthew 27:65</a></div><div class="verse">Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make <i>it</i> as sure as ye can.</div>(65) <span class= "bld">Ye have a watch.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Take ye a guard.</span> The Greek verb may be either imperative or indicative. The former gives the better meaning. The “watch,” or “guard,” was a body of Roman soldiers (St. Matthew uses the Latin term <span class= "ital">custodia</span>)<span class= "ital">,</span> who could not be set to such a task without Pilate’s permission. If the priests had had such a “guard” at their disposal before, there would have been no need for them to apply to Pilate.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/matthew/27-66.htm">Matthew 27:66</a></div><div class="verse">So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.</div>(66) <span class= "bld">Sealing the stone.</span>—The opening of the tomb had been already closed by the stone which had been rolled so as to fill, or nearly fill, it. The sealing was 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.<p><span class= "bld">And setting a watch.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">with the guard.</span> What is meant is that the priests were not content to leave the work to the soldiers, but actually took part in it themselves.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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