Matthew 27:1-2
It had been a long night. The Chief Priest examined Yeshua and found no error in him. They decided to deliver him up to death on the charge of blasphemy. This was based upon His claim to be the Messiah. No credible witness was found against Him. The only charge that they found was the men who quoted Him saying that He would destroy the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days. The Jewish people did not have the authority under Roman law to convict a man by executing the death penalty (Jn 18:31). The Roman court did not convene at night, so they had to wait until the day in order to bring the case before the governor. There is a lot that will take place quickly on this day so that Jesus, the Lamb of God, could be sacrificed during the Passover.
Matthew 27:3-10
Luke records drama that took place at the Passover Seder that is easily missed in this study. I stated in the previous chapter that Judas was trying to force the hand of Jesus. By delivering Him over, Judas may have thought that the Kingdom would then be ushered in because Yeshua was certainly the Messiah. The other disciples were also positioning for rank during the Last Supper. We see them arguing over positioning in the kingdom (Lk 22:24-27).
I have always found Judas to be interesting since he was close to the Messiah, but chose to betray Him. We discussed briefly the jockeying of power for the coming kingdom that was taking place with the disciples. They realized that Jesus was certainly the promised Messiah. This became a huge topic at the Passover Seder (Lk 22:26-30). Jesus had to address this problem as a part of the evening meal. Yeshua rebuked the disciples strongly. He brought out two important illustrations from the Passover Seder, Youth and reclining. The disciples were to consider themselves as the youngest child. The greater one reclines, they were to be servants who did not recline. Sitting is no longer an option. He makes this clear with the statement that once the Kingdom is ushered in, they will “sit” on the throne. This indicates working as servants of the people. When you understand the Passover Seder, this becomes extremely interesting.
We went on a short rabbit trail. The importance of this trail was to help us understand the setting and why Judas betrayed Jesus. Returning to the study: Peter had repented and turned from his sin, but Judas did just the opposite.
There is a slightly different version of this story that was recorded in Acts 1:18-19. There are a couple of explanations for this. First, Acts has parenthesis around the verses. This indicates that these verses are not found in the oldest manuscripts. The thinking on this is that later at some time the verses were added by a well-meaning scribe, possibly to clear up an ambiguous statement. Second, it is possible that both stories are true. Judas hanged himself. The rope or limb that he hanged himself from broke and he fell to his death in a hideous manner.
Judas felt remorse and tried to return the money. It was more than simply returning the money though. If he wanted to return the money, he could have just dropped it in the offering box. Then the money would have been returned to the temple. Rather, Judas sought to make a point by returning the money. He wanted the Chief Priests and elders to be aware that he returned the money. Judas needed the approval of the chief priests and elders… Judas was trying to get the chief priests and elders to admit that Jesus was innocent. Their rejection of the return threw the blame back on Judas. At this point he threw the money into the temple and left to commit suicide by hanging.
The “potters field” is an interesting prophecy from Zechariah 11. The prophecy looks at false teachers who were false shepherds. Zechariah becomes frustrated with them and annihilates them completely. The wages for cleaning house was set by the people as thirty pieces of silver. God told him to throw the money to the potter. This money was thrown in the house of the Lord. At this point the brotherhood or union of Judah and Israel was figuratively broken. God said at that point that He was going to raise up worthless shepherds who were self-serving (Zech 11:16-17).
The parallel is interesting since Judas also threw the money into the “house of the Lord”. At this point the chief priests and elders purchased the potter’s field with that money. They took ownership of the money and used it to purchase land. On a deeper level, they laid claim to the prophecy regarding false shepherds. They unwittingly admitted that they were the false shepherds who were self-serving. The parallel between the incident of the money and the purchase of the potters field is accurate.
The chief priests and elders were faced with their own sin. They all but admitted this by refusing to put the money back into the temple treasury. Torah instructed that no money was allowed to be put into the treasury that was received from whores or male prostitutes (Deut 23:18). The idea was that no unrighteous money was allowed to be put into the treasury. They applied this instruction to mean that Judas received money that was used unrighteously. They admitted their sin of bribery in an unrighteous manner (Deut 27:25).
Here is the result of their decision. They admitted to being unrighteous shepherds who held firmly to a form of Torah. They established this fact by receiving the money and spending it immediately. Even though the money was not registered in the log of the temple treasury, it was spent by the temple. This took place during the Feast of Unleavened Bread… A time when sin was supposed to be eradicated from one’s life. The field was named in accordance with their sin, “the field of blood”.
These false shepherds would bring the Jewish people to a time of spiritual blindness by crucifying the Messiah. Zechariah’s prophecy of false shepherds came to full effect as the leaders chose to deny the Messiah. Their sword was effective only for cutting themselves, and their righteous arm of defense was useless, working with blind eyes.
At the same time, the followers of Jesus were about to change the world. The main focus of their evangelistic ministry was on the Jewish people. Many Jewish people would soon come to know Jesus as the Messiah. This would quickly turn the table and usher in new shepherds who were interested in leading the sheep of God to righteousness. We as Gentiles have been given an opportunity to be shepherded by the Messiah (John 10:14-18). Yet, in many ways we have duplicated the errors of the Jewish leaders and created self-serving leaders.
There is one puzzle that is in this passage. Matthew attributes the prophecy to Jeremiah when it is really Zechariah. Perhaps this was not a total error. Jeremiah also spoke of the potter (Jer 19). This prophecy looks at the destruction of Jerusalem. The earthenware vessel is purchased and then shattered. Jerusalem is soon to be shattered and soon to face the full effect of this prophecy. The error may have been Matthew thinking of two passages at once. One looking at the failure of the shepherds and one looking at the future of Jerusalem.
In our day, this lesson is very important to each one of us. We look at Judas and scratch our heads wondering why he would abandon His Messiah, yet we pity him when he returned to the temple. First we want to judge him, pointing fingers at him and saying that he was worse than Satan. In reality, he was just like we are now. He is a picture for all of us of what it means to be a sinner. Judas walked away from God, turned his back on Him, and never returned to repentance. It is a danger that all Christians are faced with. The Pharisees demonstrated for us the corruption of religion and how that it will cause us to go against God for the greater good of our beliefs. When religion takes precedence over relationship, our religion becomes worthless.
Matthew 27:11-25
Jesus is sent to Pilate for sentencing. The Jewish people were not allowed to convict a person to death. This is important prophetically since messianic prophecies pointed toward a specific type of death of the Messiah. He had to die by crucifixion. As a side note, we do not see Herod mentioned in Matthew. Yet his role was extremely important.
With Pilate and Herod we have two groups of people represented. We have the Gentile group of people which are represented by Pilate. Then there is the proselytes, or half breeds that is represented by Herod. He was of mixed blood being both Jew and Gentile. In this section, we will see the Pilate, representing the Gentiles examine the Passover Lamb: Jesus. The purpose of Herod was to determine guilt. Jesus was found to be innocent. The purpose of the people was to have Jesus crucified. This purpose was having the Passover Lamb slain for their sin. The blood of the Lamb could not be shed if the Lamb was not slain.
Pilate examines Jesus and finds no guilt in him. The scene is quite interesting. Jesus is standing before Pilate for questioning. Pilate asked him one question “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered simply “you declare” or “you say”. The meaning is simply “you have spoken”. The Greek language marks this as an emphatic statement. Emphatic means expressing something boldly or clearly. Biblical translators feel that embellishment is needed and insert three words which change this meaning “it is as you say” which changes it from emphatic to passive voice. This happens in Matthew, Mark and Luke (Mk 15:2-5; Luke 23:2-3). This changes the meaning of the sentence. Look at the response in John for clarification of the meaning of the emphatic statement:
John 18:33–38 (NET)
“33 So Pilate went back into the governor’s residence, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”34 Jesus replied, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or have others told you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own people and your chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 Then Pilate said, “So you are a king!” Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world—to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate asked, “What is truth?” When he had said this he went back outside to the Jewish leaders and announced, “I find no basis for an accusation against him.”
I used bold font to emphasize the response. Jesus did not testify to justify Himself. He was a Lamb brought to examination before slaughter. The purpose was not to avoid death. His purpose was to pass the test of examination. He purpose was to be declared innocent, spotless, and without blemish. It was not to get out of the crucifixion. To do this, His testimony would have quickly brought His release.
On the flip side, He did not deny being King of the Jews. Looking back to Mathew 2:2, Jesus was born King of the Jews, and would forever be King. This was the problem that Herod faced. Jesus bore the title “King of the Jews”. Herod also bore the title “King of the Jews”. This was the reason that Herod’s father attempted to kill all the babies in order to slaughter the one prophesied to be “King of the Jews”.
He answered this question, yet refused to answer all the other questions that were presented to Him (Isa 53:7; Ecc 3:7). It is interesting though, the answer that Jesus gave was not a straight forward answer as we have it in the English, it is much more ambiguous, non-committal suggesting a question as to whether Pilate believes the charge and is seeking verification. In the Greek it is an emphatic statement, “You say”.
Pilate was quite amazed at this point that Jesus was not offering any defense against the accusations that were being spoken against Him (1 Tim. 6:12-13). His amazement was added to a dire warning from his wife. She warned that Jesus was innocent of all charges. This brought Pilate to try a different approach to releasing Jesus.
The custom that had taken place at the festival is quite interesting. The custom started with blackmail. The high priest’s son was taken prisoner and offered as a ransom if the high priest could solicit the release of certain prisoners. The high priest went to the Romans and negotiated the release of some robbers, which started the custom. It was better to negotiate the release rather than have his son kidnapped again. In a way the crime element of the city of Jerusalem had tremendous power, enough to sway the high priest, and in turn enough to sway the Roman government. (I once found a reference to this in Josephus but am not able to locate it now. If you are able to find the reference, please let me know.)
Pilate knew of this custom and hoped to use it to solicit the release of Jesus. Barabbas was a notorious prisoner, one who was a murderer and an insurrectionist, Mark 15:7. It was desirable that he stayed in prison for both the safety of the citizens as well as the well being of the Roman government. His name has an interesting meaning, it means “father, son of father”. This was a man who was guilty as charged. Not a man who should be released into society. The rules of the game were changed slightly though. Jesus was not a Roman prisoner! Remember, He was not condemned of any crime.
This is where Pilate may have been soothing his conscience for delivering Jesus up for crucifixion. The Romans had a custom. If an innocent man, not guilty of any crime, wanted to assume the charge of a guilty man, he could stand in his place. This was the process of cancelling out a certificate of debt (Col 2:13-15). Jesus was not a Roman prisoner. He was made a Roman prisoner by changing places with Barabbas. In this way Pilate declared that Jesus was not guilty of any crime. Pilate also created a situation where he could justify allowing an innocent man to be crucified.
Yet, Pilate was not willing to surrender easily. He kept appealing to the people that Jesus was innocent. He wanted them to understand that he found absolutely no guilt in Jesus. He determined that Jesus was the spotless lamb of God who did not have any blemish. He emphasized his stand by naming Jesus as “Christ” which literally means in the Greek “Messiah”.
Remember, this was during the Passover. The people declared by order of and fulfillment of the festival: His blood would be “upon” us and our children (from the Greek preposition). The Lamb that was slain would have his blood shed so that that blood would offer deliverance from sin. This blood brought salvation (1 Pet 2:18-23).
Mikvah (Baptism): Pilate used a Jewish custom to represent cleansing himself. The washing of his hands was a symbol of a high priest going through the mikvah which cleansed him from uncleanness. This was the purpose of the laver in the temple (Ex 30:18-21; also see Deut 21:6-9; Ps 73:10-14). Washing was done prior to offering sacrifice on the altar. Pilate offered Jesus up to be slain and washed his hands in the same manner to remove the curse of death from himself. Look up the verses.
Scourging: Matthew 27:26
This is a puzzle unless you consider what Pilate had just done. Jesus was placed in the Roman system in the place of Barabbas. He assumed the punishment that Barabbas stood for under Roman law. Pilate used this loophole to deliver an innocent man for punishment. Jesus was scourged in a hideous way that would drain almost all the blood from his body. After scourging with the cat of nine tails, the back was reduced to hamburger meat. Often after scourging, the lash would wrap around the torso and even expose the intestines. Prophecy stated that He would be more marred than any man (Isa 52:13-15; 53:5). His blood was to be sprinkled on all nations because of this marring.
Matthew 27:27-31
Jesus was beaten and assaulted a third time. The Roman soldiers made a cruel game of harassing Jesus for being the King of the Jews. They created for Him a crown of thorns, then handed Him a staff to symbolize a scepter. Upon their creation of this image they took the staff from Him and drove the crown of thorns deeper into His head. As noted earlier a Roman cohort consisted of 600 soldiers. The scriptures indicate that the “whole cohort” was involved in this incident.
Jesus was beaten with fists and rods by the religious people, whipped by the Romans, and now beaten and mocked by a large group of soldiers. It is as if the devil was determined to destroy Jesus before He made it to the cross. It seemed that all the evil intentions of the universe were focused upon destroying Jesus both physically and mentally. The bloodlust was short lived. The soldiers had their fun with harassing the new prisoner and now led Yeshua away to be crucified.
This was one of the darker aspects of the crucifixion. Imagine though, an entire group of six hundred men were involved in mocking Jesus. Pilate had declared him to be clean and innocent of no wrongdoing. They were abusing Yeshua against the wishes of their commanding officer. Why did they do it? A large part was demonic. Yet, there is another possibility. These men were Gentiles. The Jewish people laid hands on Yeshua at the trial earlier that evening. Now the Gentile people were laying hands on Yeshua. Let’s look at the practice of the scapegoat from Torah. The process of transference of sin to the scapegoat was made by laying on of hands:
Leviticus 16:21–22 (NET)
21 Aaron is to lay his two hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and thus he is to put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man standing ready.22 The goat is to bear on itself all their iniquities into an inaccessible land, so he is to send the goat away in the wilderness.
There is a difference though. The scapegoat was led away and released into the wilderness. Jesus was led away to be crucified (Matt 27:31). The bloodlust of the soldiers was a part of the transference of sin from the Gentile nation to the head of the Messiah. The symbolism of transferring sin for atonement takes place with both the Jew and the Gentile at this point. The Jewish people did this at the beating after the night trial. The Gentile people placed their hands on the head of Jesus after Pilate allowed him to take the place of Barabbas.
Matthew 27:32
Jesus was so weak at this point that it was a major undertaking to try to carry the cross Himself. A Gentile was forced into service to aid Jesus in carrying the cross. Think about that for a moment, a Jew wasn’t forced into service or a Roman, it was a Gentile from a foreign nation.
It is incredible that Jesus is still walking at this point, after all the beatings and whippings that had been done, Jesus was beaten to within an inch of His life. Matthew lists three sets of beatings to this point. A normal man would have given up the will to live and died, but Jesus knew that the cross was where redemption would take place. Remember, all the beatings, judgments and actions took place between sundown on Friday and sometime in the late morning on Saturday.
Matthew 27:33
The place of the skull, or Golgotha was a hill that resembled the shape of a skull. There are many images readily available for this site with a quick internet search.
Matthew 27:34
A Bible word study does not reveal much regarding the “gall” that was mixed with the wine. If you look at the literal translation, it would be likened to drinking poison. There is a better concept of this found in Rabbinical tradition. In order to relieve the pain of execution, it was a custom of the day to produce a sedative which consisted of wine mixed with myrrh. Prophecy indicated that the Messiah would be given vinegar to drink laced with gall (Ps 69:21). Psalm 69 is a Messianic Psalm that looks forward to the crucifixion. It is good to read through the entire Psalm for context. Take particular note of verse 39 where it refers to “May your salvation…” The word for salvation in the Hebrew is the word “Yeshua” which is the literal name of Jesus.
Yeshua lived a sinless life. He refused to allow His system to be compromised with a drug which would dull the effects of the crucifixion. We are not looking at a situation where Jesus is wanting to “feel” the torture that is to come. It is deeper than that. What we are seeing is Yeshua demanding holiness in His life. He lived a sinless life. At the point where He was going to be crucified as a Passover Lamb, He remained sinless to death. Yeshua refused to have his body drugged. That is the point of the refusal. It was not “so that he could experience the full pain”. His blood was shed either way. If He had compromised one time, He would no longer be a spotless lamb worthy to take on the sin of the world.
Matthew 27:35
Matthew gets right to the crucifixion, leaving off a lot of the details that the other gospel writers included in their accounts. In this verse, he talks about how that they had divided His garments among them by casting lots, this is also a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies:
Psalm 22:16–18 (NET)
16 Yes, wild dogs surround me— a gang of evil men crowd around me; like a lion they pin my hands and feet. 17 I can count all my bones; my enemies are gloating over me in triumph. 18 They are dividing up my clothes among themselves; they are rolling dice for my garments.
Matthew 27:36-37
The Romans stood guard over the prisoners while they waited for them to die. The delivery of punishment in the sentence of crucifixion was placed upon the Roman soldiers. This was also prophesied in Psalm 22 as mentioned above.
Pilate wrote an interesting sign that was hung over the head of Jesus. It was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek (John 19:19-22). This sign brought grief to the chief priests because of an immediate acronym that the words made in Hebrew.
Pilate may have been a weak leader, but he was not a fool. He demanded that the sign be placed over Jesus’ head identifying Him as King of the Jews. If it were transliterated literally into English, the Hebrew states “HaYhudim vMelech HaNazarei Yeshua”. Now take the letters right to left in the order of reading Hebrew. You have the acronym “YHVH”. This is the acronym that spells out the unpronounceable name of the God of the Old Testament. The chief priests saw this immediately and wanted the wording changed. Pilate refused.
Matthew 27:38-44
Matthew states that the robbers on both sides of Yeshua were joining the crowds in making fun of Him. The thieves picked up on the accusations that were made against Jesus. The focus of the statement is on destroying the sanctuary or dwelling of God. Jesus implied that the sanctuary that He was talking about was His body. Look at the focus of these verses and you will see a mockery of the statement. The natural man made fun of Jesus because it was obvious that His prophecy concerning His body was not going to take place.
Yeshua was fulfilling prophecy at this point by being crucified among those who were criminals (Isa 53:12). The prophecy went deeper than that. It spoke of the torment of the crowds and the end result of the ordeal, Yeshua was sacrificed for the sin of many (Isa 53:10-12). In that same way, the mockery over His prophecy concerning his body gave the religious leaders the opportunity to quote Messianic scriptures against Jesus (Ps 22:6-8). Little did they realize that recognition of these scriptures was directly on the mark. Yeshua was the Messiah and had to fulfill these painful prophecies. Quoting Psalm 22 was not an accident. The chief priests and leaders of the people were experts in Torah study. They knew the scriptures and accurately applied them to the situation.
Matthew 27:45-49
The Greek indicates that night like darkness covered the land for three hours. This went from noon till three PM. This is a significant time period. It was during this time that the Passover lambs were slain. The task was to be completed at 3 PM. Remember context! We are dealing with the Passover sacrifices during this time.
Yeshua cried out in a loud voice… He quoted directly from Psalm 22:1. With Jewish tradition, if you quote a single verse in a passage, the entire passage is to be taken into account. This is considered to be the first level of Jewish interpretation. The first and most important level of Jewish interpretation is the “Pashat” level of interpretation. This level takes a passage in context. Through all the levels, context never leaves the meaning. So when Yeshua cried out with a direct quote from Psalm 22, the entire Psalm applies. This is a good time to review Psalm 22. It is a thumbnail sketch of the crucifixion.
You can be certain that the crowds were shocked at the darkness that was covering the land. Yeshua was a big attraction. He claimed to be God. Everyone was in a state of watchfulness waiting to see what would happen.
Many well-meaning teachers have the idea that the Hebrew language was no longer used at this point. They support this premise by pointing to this passage. But then forget that Paul addressed the crowds in Hebrew when he made his defense (Acts 21:40-22:24). Hebrew was spoken in the Jewish community. It was not understood by the Gentile community.
When Yeshua cried out “Eli, Eli…” They misinterpreted this to refer to Elijah. Most of the people living in the community were probably aware of the Passover Seder. They were also aware that there was a built in expectation that Elijah would come. This is a situation where people were expectant, they knew something was happening since they were present when the sky went dark. You can almost see the excitement in the people as they hurry to soak a sponge with wine in order to give Yeshua added strength.
The unexpected does happen. The veil in the temple is torn in two from top to bottom. This veil separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. Here is an interesting note from Stern on this:
“The parokhet in the Temple. Exodus 26:31–35 describes this curtain as it existed in the desert Tabernacle. It separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. Only the cohen hagadol was allowed to pass through it into the Holy of Holies; and that he could do only once a year, on Yom–Kippur, to make an atonement sacrifice for his sins and for the sins of the Jewish people. When it was ripped in two from top to bottom it symbolized the fact that God was giving everyone access to the most holy place of all in heaven, as taught explicitly at MJ 9:3–9, 10:19–22.
“The Talmud bears an amazing witness to the work of Yeshua in altering the system of atonement. The background is that on Yom-Kippur, when the cohen hagadol sacrificed a bull (Leviticus 16), a piece of scarlet cloth was tied between its horns. If it later turned white, it meant that God had forgiven Israel’s sin in accordance with Isaiah 1:18, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow.”[1]
Stern quoted from the Talmud, I took the liberty of looking up the passage for a direct quote:
II.3. A. Our rabbis have taught on Tannaite authority:
- Throughout the forty years that Simeon the Righteous serves as high priest, the lot would always come up in the right hand. From that time onward, sometimes it would come up in the right hand, sometimes it would come up in the left hand.
- And during that same span of time the crimson thread would turn white. From that time, sometimes it would turn white, sometimes it would not turn white.[2]
II.5 A. Our rabbis have taught on Tannaite authority:
- Forty years before the destruction of the sanctuary, the lot did not come up in the right hand, and the thread of crimson never turned white, and the westernmost light never shone, and the doors of the courtyard would open by themselves,
- until Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai rebuked them. He said, “Temple, Temple, why will you yourself give the alarm [that you are going to be destroyed? You don’t have to, because] I know that in the end you are destined to be destroyed. For Zechariah b. EIdo has already prophesied concerning you: ‘Open your doors, Lebanon, that fire may devour your cedars’ (Zech. 11:1).”[3]
There was a marked historical incident that took place. The Temple changed after the veil was ripped from top to bottom. The sacrificial bull that was offered for sin offerings no longer had any effect. Sin was not forgiven/covered by the blood of the bull. Yeshua offered the final sacrifice for Yom Kippur. He was the final Passover Lamb that was slain for the sins of men. There was a permanent change that took place in the sacrificial system. Yeshua offered the final sacrifice (Ro 5:8; 8:22; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:24; 3:18). We are now able to enter directly into the Holy of Holies in order to speak with our God (Heb 9:2-3; 10:19-22).
To bear testimony to this change, there was a resurrection of saints that took place. These saints appeared to many people. There was enough of a disturbance that a Roman centurion declared that this was certainly the Son of God. At the death of Jesus, resurrection power surged through the area. A great earthquake took place that was severe enough to split rocks. Those of us in Southern California understand earthquakes. It takes a big one to split rocks. When earthquakes of this magnitude happen today, it is declared a disaster zone. Yeshua died on the cross. The earth gave testimony that it did not like it. The centurion saw the results and was extremely frightened. Can you imagine the devastation that must have followed? The epicenter was Calvary.
Matthew fades from the scene of wonder and spectacular back to the cross. There was a group of women gathered around who followed Yeshua. The women were faithful till the end.
The other gospel writers covered different events that occurred during the crucifixion. These are important to look at. In the future we will look at each of these cases and discuss their meaning. For now, we can see the fantastic story that Matthew told and the incredible impact that it had upon those standing around.
Matthew 27:57-61
Joseph ask for the body of Jesus, obtained permission and placed it in his own tomb. Joseph made a personal request for this burial. He was a council member but in disagreement with the religious leaders (Luke 23:51). Joseph gave a tremendous gift on several levels. First, he was in opposition to his peers. Second, a personal tomb hewn out of solid rock was very valuable. Third, He gave Yeshua a gift that spoke of royalty, many of the Old Testament kings had their tombs hewn out of rock.
Preparation day: Let’s talk Jewish thinking for a moment. The evening of the day before the Sabbath (Mark 15:42. Church tradition says that Jesus was crucified on “Good Friday”. This sounds good until you closely examine the scriptures. Let’s look at context one more time. Jesus spent the evening with the disciples at a Passover Seder. That evening and next morning were spent in trial. Then the Passover sacrifices were done from 9am till 3pm. Jesus died at 3pm. The bodies were taken off of the crosses since the following day was a preparation day for a high holy Sabbath (Jn 19:31). Jesus was placed in Joseph’s tomb before sundown. Legs were broken because the Roman guards wanted to make sure executions were completed before the preparation day (Jn 19:31).
Now let’s attach days to the events. Wednesday evening: Passover Seder (Last Supper), beginning of the 5th day of the Jewish week. Trials went all night. Thursday day, sacrifices and crucifixion (5th day of Jewish week). Jesus is buried before sundown. Sundown Thursday, Jesus is in the tomb. This is the sixth day of the Jewish calendar. This is also the preparation day for the High Holy Sabbath. Preparation day runs from sundown on Thursday till sundown on Friday. The Sabbath, (seventh day) begins at sundown Friday till sundown Saturday. No work is done on this day. There are three days that Jesus laid in the tomb, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Three nights He was in the tomb, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night. It is impossible for Good Friday to have taken place since it would throw off the timing. Counting the “days” includes any part of the day; such as in the case of Thursday, Jesus was buried sometime between 3pm and dark. Counting nights: Any portion of the night was considered to be night. For Jesus to rise on the first day of the week, this would have taken place between dark Saturday night and prior to sunrise on Sunday when the women went to prepare the body. If He had risen at sunrise, there would have been four “days” to count.
Perhaps you may be asking at this time, “Why do we celebrate Good Friday then?” The answer falls in an unquestioned church tradition. This tradition dates back to the early days of the church. Documents found in the early church date Good Friday back to 400 CE. This was shortly after Constantine blended the early church with paganism. His regime blended many holidays of Sun worship with Christianity so he could unite his empire. Those following Jewish festivals, feast days and the Sabbath were punished by pain of death. The idea that Yeshua was crucified on Good Friday may be drawn from this blending. There was a day called “black Friday” or “the day of blood” that was associated with the Greek god Attis. Although Good Friday is not worshipping Attis, the date may have been changed to coincide with this day of worship for the Greeks. If you want more information on this, search the internet.
Preparations had to be made before the Sabbath, and there wasn’t time to properly prepare the body of Jesus for burial, so they wrapped Him in a clean cloth and placed him in the tomb. Could this have been the “Shroud of Turin”? Then the tomb was secured with a huge stone.
Matthew 27:62-66 Verifiable witnesses: The chief priests and Pharisees did a great service at this point. They asked for a military guard to be put over the tomb. Jesus prophesied that He would rise on the third day from the grave. Even though the religious leaders did not believe His prophecy, they wanted to make certain that foul play did not take place.
Roman guards had a huge incentive to make sure that their prisoner did not escape. If they lost a prisoner, they had to take the sentence of the prisoner. Losing a prisoner in this case meant that the entire guard would be executed by crucifixion. If they lost the prisoner to the disciples, they would suffer death as a consequence. There is an example of this in Acts. Peter was captured and sentenced to death. The guard was placed to watch over him. During the night he was delivered by an angel from prison. That guard was questioned and then executed (Acts 12:1-19).
Place yourself in the shoes of the Roman guards for a moment. They may not have believed that Jesus was the Messiah. However, they did believe in gods. Their gods were considered to be very real. They had just watched the sky turn black as midnight, experienced an earthquake that was like no other, and saw evidence of the dead rising from their graves. They probably knew that the guard that they were assigned to was extraordinary. When they were told that people may steal the body and claim that Jesus rose from the dead, you can be very certain that they would not lose their prisoner without a fight.
This is the same guard that had beaten Him, crowned Him with thorns, and had driven the nails into His hands. They were given the dispatch to watch over the body of the dead man they had so viciously mistreated. I’ll bet that that weighed heavily upon their minds as they watched the tomb. The Romans were very superstitious, and you can be very sure that they were a little squeamish, especially after experiencing the events during and after the crucifixion that were clearly beyond human understanding. They didn’t sleep, you can be sure that they were wide awake. These guards did not show any indication of sleeping, they were scared to death when He rose from the dead in the next chapter (Matt 28:4).
In this study we torpedoed several fables that surrounded the death and burial of Jesus. This was done through simple Bible study. Read the scriptures and take them literally. One of the pet peeves of this study is the constant emphasis on context. Context will eliminate almost all errors from Bible study. With that said, read, study, and show yourself good at understanding the scriptures.
Thanks,
Joe Turner.
[1] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary : A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament, electronic ed. (Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1996), Mt 27:51.
[2] Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, vol. 5a (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011), 140–141.
[3] Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, vol. 5a (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011), 142.
