334
τότε ὁ Πιλάτος ἐκέλευσεν ἀποδοθῆναι τὸ copa.)
59. καὶ λαβὼν τὸ
a > S > , ey } a 5 g here and σῶμα ὅ ἸἸωσὴφ " ἐνετύλιξεν αὐτὸ σινδόνι καθαρᾷ, 6ο. καὶ έθηκεν
XXiii. 53. John xx.7.
> Yeh [ol ~ > ~ , é : ~ αὐτὸ ἐν τῷ καινῷ αὐτοῦ µνηµείῳ, ὃ " ἐλατόμησεν ἐν τῇ πέτρᾳ" καὶ
HMM x¥. 46 προσκυλίσας λίθον µέγαν τῇ θύρᾳ τοῦ μνημείου, ἀπῆλθεν. O61. ἦν
(Ex, xxi. 33).
i Mk. xi. 12. 2 on John i. 29. TOU τάφου. Acts x. 9 al.
j 2 Cor. vi.
δὲ ἐκεῖ Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνή, καὶ ἡ ἄλλη Μαρία, καθήµεναι ἀπέναντι
62. THe δὲ !' ἐπαύριον, ῆτις ἐστὶ μετὰ τὴν παρασκευήν, συνήχθησαν
8, 1 Tim, οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ Φαρισαῖοι πρὸς Πιλάτον, 63. λέγοντες, “ Κύριε,
iv. I (adj.). 2 John 7.
1SQBL omit το cope (Tisch., W.H.).
ἐμνήσθημεν ὅτι exetvos’s 4 πλάνος εἶπεν ἔτι Lov, Μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας
3 BD have εν before σινδονι (W.H. in brackets).
His death”) ; from Arimathaea (Ramath- aim Zophim, 1 Sam. i. 1); the name ¥oseph, and the relation to Jesus that of a disciple (ἐμαθήτευσε, which, if the correct reading, is an instance of the use of this verb‘in a neuter sense. C/. xiii. 52, xxviii. 19, Acts xiv. 21).—Ver. 58. προσελθὼν: from the cross Joseph re- turns, and approaches Pilate to beg the body of Jesus for burial. In the case of the crucified such a request was neces- sary, but was generally granted (“‘ Eorum in quos animadvertitur corpora non aliter sepeliuntur quam si fuerit petitum et permissum”’. Ulpian. de Cadav. punit. in Justinian, Corpus Fur. Civ. xlviii. 24,1). The general practice was to leave the bodies to waste. The privilege of burial was sometimes granted for money. There is nothing to show that Pilate con- descended to such meanness, at least in the present instance, though Theophy. sug- gests that he ἀῑά.---ἐκέλευσεν ἀποδοθῆναι, he ordered it to be delivered.—Ver. 59. ἐνετύλιξεν (little used, found in Aristo- phanes), wrapped.—owSéve καθαρῷ, in clean, i.e., never before used linen.— σινδών is of uncertain derivation and varying sense, being applied to cloths of diverse material, but here generally understood as meaning linen cloth, wrapped in strips round the body as in the case of mummies in Egypt, the body being first washed (Acts ix. 37). As to this way of preparing dead bodies for burial we have no details in O. T. (Benzinger, p. 163).—Ver. 60. ἐν τῷ καινῷ αὐτοῦ µνηµείῳ, in his own new tomb, recently prepared for himself. This not brought out ἵπ parallels.— ἐλατόμησεν (λᾶς τέµνω): the aorist for the pluperfect, as in ver. 55; he had hewn out of the rock = ἐν τῇ πέτρᾳ, the article pointing to the custom of making
+
sepulchres in τοε]ς.---λίθον µέγαν: the usual mode of shutting the door of the tomb; the Jews called the stone golal, the το]]ετ.---ἀπῆλθεν: the entombment over, Joseph went away; but the Dead One was not left alone.—Ver. 61. jv δὲ éxet, etc., but, in contrast to Joseph, there was there Mary, the woman of Magdala, also the other Mary, sitting in front of the tomb.—ragov here, as in xxiii. 27, 29, used of a place of burial, not of the act of burial. The word is peculiar to Mt. in the N. T.
Vv. 62-66. Precautions against theft of the body ; peculiar to Mt., and among the less. certain elements of the Passion history, owing its origin and presence in this Gospel apparently to the exigen- cies of the primitive Christian apologetic against Jewish unbelief, which, as we gather from ver. 64, must have sought to invalidate the faith in the resurrection of Jesus by the hypothesis of theft accounting for an empty grave. The transactions here recorded effectually dispose of that hypothesis by making theft impossible. Is the story true, or must we, with Meyer, relegate it to the category of unhistorical legend? Meyer founds largely on the impossibility of Christ predicting so distinctly as is here implied, even to His own disciples, His resurrection. That means that the priests and Pharisees could have had no such solicitude as is ascribed to them. All turns on that. If they had such fears, so originating, it would be quite natural to take precautions against a trick. 1 think it quite possible that even inde- pendently of the saying in chap. xii. 40, given as spoken ¢o Pharisees, it had some- how reached their ears that Jesus had predicted His Passion, and in speaking of it was wont to connect with it the idea