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She is described as the mother of the sons of Zebe`dee, rather than as the wife of Zebedee, because the sons of Zebedee, James and John, being two of the apostles, were better known among Christians than their father. It appears, from the gospel of John, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was here upon this occasion, and that this evangelist himself was among them, John xix. 25, 26.

57. When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple;

58. He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus: then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.

We are told by Luke, xxiii. 50, 51, that this person was a counsellor, but did not consent to the counsel and deed of them; i. e. he was a member of the privy council, appointed to assist the Roman governor with its advice in the administration of affairs; and when this council advised Pilate to yield to the clamour of the Jews, by ordering Jesus to be crucified, he had expressed a contrary opinion, or at least had not concurred in their proceedings; on the present occasion, he gave a fresh proof of his fortitude and resolution, by asking for the body of Jesus; and the greater his wealth, and the higher his rank, the more virtuous was his conduct: for although in making this request he had nothing to dread from the displeasure of Pilate, who had already shown himself favourably disposed towards Jesus, yet such a mark of attachment could not fail to make him extremely obnoxious to the chief priests and elders, to the Scribes and Pharisees, and other chief men among his countrymen. If Joseph, or some other friend, had not made this request, the body of Jesus would have been cast into the common grave, with the malefactors. The Romans had used to suffer the bodies of criminals executed upon the cross, to re

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main there until they perished by the influence of the sun and the rain: but out of respect to the Jews, whose law prohibited their suffering a person that was hanged on a tree, to remain there all night, Deut. xxi. 23, they permitted them to be buried. Joseph's request was a proof that he considered Jesus as dead; and Pilate's compliance with it, shows that he had obtained satisfactory evidence of the same fact.

59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapt it in a clean linen cloth,

The most apparently trivial circumstance relating to so distinguished a person as Jesus, is interesting, not only while he is living, but also after he is dead: yet this is not the reason why the manner in which his dead body was treated is here recorded; but to satisfy us that he was really dead, in order to afford better evidence of his resurrection. If Joseph, as appears hence, proceeded to treat Jesus in the same manner as other dead bodies were treated among the Jews, this is a plain proof that he considered him as reduced to that state. As the bo dy was only wrapped in linen, and not laid in a coffin, there was the less room for any kind of fraud. The custom of burying in linen, continues among the Jews to the present day.

60. And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock;

Some of the graves of the Jews were caves, or holes in the ground. Others were cavities cut in the sides of rocks: of this kind was that in which Jesus was laid; and it was the best that could be used for the purpose, to prevent all suspicion of mistake or fraud. It was a new tomb, which Joseph had provided for himself or his family, but in which no one had yet been laid; so that we are sure that it must be Jesus who rose, since one body could not be mistaken for another; and there was no room for such an event as once took place, when the body of a man was raised to life, by touching the bones of a prophet. (See 2 Kings, xiii. 21.) It was also

hewn out of a rock; so that there was no access to itbut by one entrance, which was afterwards guarded by soldiers; and therefore his disciples could not secretly convey him away.

And he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

The design of placing the stone here was to cover the mouth of the sepulchre, to prevent the dead body from being carried away; and therefore it was provided of such magnitude that it could not be easily removed, at least, not without making a noise, and creating an alarm.

61. And there was Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

The putting of Jesus into the tomb was not a private transaction, so as to afford Joseph an opportunity of practising any fraud, but was performed in the presence of witnesses, who saw the body lodged in the sepulchre. The women here mentioned were the friends of Jesus: we may be sure also that his enemies would be careful to observe what was done with the body.

62. Now the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together unto Pilate,

That is, on the sabbath day, and probably soon after the sabbath began, on the evening of our Saturday; at least before the night: for if they had not applied to Pilate till the next day, the design, about which they were alarmed, might have been accomplished during the night, and all future precautions rendered useless. The preceding day was called the day of preparation, because it was the day in which they prepared for the sabbath, by laying in a stock of provisions, and doing other things which were necessary before a day of en

tire cessation from business. It might likewise be distinguished by this name, because in it they prepared for the seven days of unleavened bread, which were to follow the passover: the following transaction seems to have been the work not of the whole Sanhedrim, but of a considerable number only of the members.

63. Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again.

Jesus had said this to his disciples in private: but he had never declared plainly in public that he should rise again after three days. Indeed when the Jews asked for a sign, he told them that no sign should be given them, except the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; and when, at the first passover, they required a miracle from him to prove his divine mission, he replied, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it again: both which declarations were obscure predictions of his resurrection in three days; yet they seem to have been sufficiently understood by his enemies to create a fear of that event; or perhaps they might gather it from something which Judas told them. In whatever manner the prophecy was delivered, it is a plain proof that Christ intended no imposture: for, had that been the case, he would never have published his intentions, which would only afford his enemies an opportunity of defeating his designs. That by the expression, after three days, is meant the third day, is evident from 2 Chron. x. 5.

64. 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, or rather the last impos

ture, shall be worse than the first; meaning that imposing upon the people a belief that Jesus was risen from the dead, would be of more dangerous consequence than his false pretensions to be the Messiah.

65. Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch go your way; make it as sure

as you can.

In their application to Pilate they had intimated the propriety of having a guard set over the sepulchre, to prevent the disciples from stealing away their master; and Pilate thinks their proposal reasonable, and tells them to use for this purpose the Roman cohort, which, at every festival, was stationed at the temple to prevent tumults. Use it, in whatever way you think proper, to obtain the security you wish for.

66. So they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch.

As Pilate had allowed them to adopt what measures they thought proper for the security of the sepulchre, by means of the temple-guard, we could not have doubted that every method which prudence could suggest would be used to prevent any fraud from being practised by his disciples; and we find in fact that this was the case for they set a guard of soldiers over the sepulchre, whose business it should be to watch the tomb, and to resist by force any attempt that might be made to rescue the body; and, lest these guards, although Roman soldiers, and therefore not likely to form any conspiracy among themselves, should be corrupted by others to join in or to connive at any fraud, a seal was set upon the stone, which, if it were broken, would show that some human power had been employed in opening the tomb, and hereby defeat the purpose of the conspirators*.

* See Dan. vi. 17.

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