Bibelkommentare

The tombs were opened (τα μνημεια ανεωιχθησαν). First aorist passive indicative (double augment). The splitting of the rocks by the earthquake and the opening of tombs can be due to the earthquake. But the raising of the bodies of the dead after the resurrection of Jesus which appeared to many in the holy city puzzles many today who admit the actual bodily resurrection of Jesus. Some would brand all these portents as legends since they appear in Matthew alone. Others would say that "after his resurrection" should read "after their resurrection," but that would make it conflict with Paul's description of Christ as the first fruits of them that sleep (1 Corinthians 15:20). Some say that Jesus released these spirits after his descent into Hades. So it goes. We come back to miracles connected with the birth of Jesus, God's Son coming into the world. If we grant the possibility of such manifestations of God's power, there is little to disturb one here in the story of the death of God's Son.

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Truly this was the Son of God (αληθως θεου υιος ην ουτος). There is no article with God or Son in the Greek so that it means "God's Son," either "the Son of God" or "a Son of God." There is no way to tell. Evidently the centurion (εκατονταρχος here, ruler of a hundred, Latin word kenturion in Mark 15:39) was deeply moved by the portents which he had witnessed. He had heard the several flings at Jesus for claiming to be the Son of God and may even have heard of his claim before the Sanhedrin and Pilate. How much he meant by his words we do not know, but probably he meant more than merely "a righteous man" (Luke 23:47). Petronius is the name given this centurion by tradition. If he was won now to trust in Christ, he came as a pagan and, like the robber who believed, was saved as Jesus hung upon the Cross. All who are ever saved in truth are saved because of the death of Jesus on the Cross. So the Cross began to do its work at once.

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Many women (γυναικες πολλα). We have come to expect the women from Galilee to be faithful, last at the Cross and first at the tomb. Luke (Luke 23:49) says that "all his acquaintance" (παντες ο γνωστο αυτω) stood at a distance and saw the end. One may hope that the apostles were in that sad group. But certainly many women were there. The Mother of Jesus had been taken away from the side of the Cross by the Beloved Disciple to his own home (John 19:27). Matthew names three of the group by name. Mary Magdalene is mentioned as a well-known person though not previously named in Matthew's Gospel. Certainly she is not the sinful woman of Matthew 27:7 nor Mary of Bethany. There is another Mary, the mother of James and Joseph (Joses) not otherwise known to us. And then there is the mother of the sons of Zebedee (James and John), usually identified with Salome (Mark 15:40). These noble and faithful women were "beholding from afar" (απο μακροθεν θεωρουσα). These three women may have drawn nearer to the Cross for Mary the Mother of Jesus stood beside the Cross (παρα τω σταυρω) with Mary of Clopas and Mary Magdalene (John 19:25) before she left. They had once ministered unto Jesus (διακονουσα αυτω) and now he is dead. Matthew does not try to picture the anguish of heart of these noble women nor does he say as Luke (Luke 23:48) does that "they returned smiting their breasts." He drops the curtain on that saddest of all tragedies as the loyal band stood and looked at the dead Christ on Golgotha. What hope did life now hold for them?

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And when even was come (οψιας δε γενομενης). It was the Preparation (παρασκευη), the day before the sabbath (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 31:42). Παρασκευη is the name in modern Greek today for Friday. The Jews were anxious that these bodies should be taken down before the sabbath began at 6 P.M. The request of Joseph of Arimathea for the body of Jesus was a relief to Pilate and to the Jews also. We know little about this member of the Sanhedrin save his name Joseph, his town Arimathea, that he was rich, a secret disciple, and had not agreed to the death of Jesus. Probably he now wished that he had made an open profession. But he has courage now when others are cowardly and asked for the personal privilege (ηιτησατο, middle voice, asked for himself) of placing the body of Jesus in his new tomb. Some today identify this tomb with one of the rock tombs now visible under Gordon's Calvary. It was a mournful privilege and dignity that came to Joseph and Nicodemus (John 19:39-41) as they wrapped the body of Jesus in clean linen cloth and with proper spices placed it in this fresh (καινω) tomb in which no body had yet been placed. It was cut in the rock (ελατομησεν) for his own body, but now it was for Jesus. But now (verse Matthew 27:60) he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed. That was for safety. But two women had watched the sad and lonely ceremony, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (mother of James and Joseph). They were sitting opposite and looking in silence.

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Sir, we remember (κυριε, εμνεσθημεν). This was the next day, on our Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, the day after the Preparation (Matthew 27:62). Ingressive aorist indicative, we have just recalled. It is objected that the Jewish rulers would know nothing of such a prediction, but in Matthew 12:40 he expressly made it to them. Meyer scouts as unhistorical legend the whole story that Christ definitely foretold his resurrection on the third day. But that is to make legendary much of the Gospels and to limit Jesus to a mere man. The problem remains why the disciples forgot and the Jewish leaders remembered. But that is probably due on the one hand to the overwhelming grief of the disciples coupled with the blighting of all their hopes of a political Messiah in Jesus, and on the other hand to the keen nervous fear of the leaders who dreaded the power of Jesus though dead. They wanted to make sure of their victory and prevent any possible revival of this pernicious heresy. That deceiver (εκεινος ο πλανος) they call him, a vagabond wanderer (πλανος) with a slur in the use of that (εκεινος), a picturesque sidelight on their intense hatred of and fear of Jesus.

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The last error (η εσχατη πλανη). The last delusion, imposture (Weymouth), fraud (Moffatt). Latin error is used in both senses, from errare, to go astray. The first fraud was belief in the Messiahship of Jesus, the second belief in his resurrection.

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Make it as sure as you can (ασφαλισασθε ως οιδατε). "Make it secure for yourselves (ingressive aorist middle) as you know how." Have a guard (εχετε κουστωδιαν), present imperative, a guard of Roman soldiers, not mere temple police. The Latin term koustodia occurs in an Oxyrhynchus papyrus of A.D. 22. "The curt permission to the Jews whom he despised is suitable in the mouth of the Roman official" (McNeile).

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Now late on the sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week (οψε δε σαββατων, τη επιφωσκουση εις μιαν σαββατων). This careful chronological statement according to Jewish days clearly means that before the sabbath was over, that is before six P.M., this visit by the women was made "to see the sepulchre" (θεορησα τον ταφον). They had seen the place of burial on Friday afternoon (Mark 15:47; Matthew 27:61; Luke 23:55). They had rested on the sabbath after preparing spices and ointments for the body of Jesus (Luke 23:56), a sabbath of unutterable sorrow and woe. They will buy other spices after sundown when the new day has dawned and the sabbath is over (Mark 16:1). Both Matthew here and Luke (Luke 23:54) use dawn (επιφωσκω) for the dawning of the twenty-four hour-day at sunset, not of the dawning of the twelve-hour day at sunrise. The Aramaic used the verb for dawn in both senses. The so-called Gospel of Peter has επιφωσκω in the same sense as Matthew and Luke as does a late papyrus. Apparently the Jewish sense of "dawn" is here expressed by this Greek verb. Allen thinks that Matthew misunderstands Mark at this point, but clearly Mark is speaking of sunrise and Matthew of sunset. Why allow only one visit for the anxious women?

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