Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 28:15

"So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying was spread abroad among the Jews, [and continueth] until this day." — Matthew 28:15 (ASV)

This saying is—reported. This account of the disappearance of the body of Jesus from the sepulchre is commonly given.

Until this day. The time when Matthew wrote this gospel, that is, about thirty years after the resurrection.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus, an account of which is given in this chapter, is one of the most important doctrines of the Christian religion. It is attested by the strongest evidence that can be presented in support of any ancient fact.

Let this be considered:

1. That He had often foretold His own death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21; Matthew 20:19).
2. There was no doubt that He was really dead. The Jews, the Romans, and the disciples were all equally well satisfied of this.
3. Every proper precaution was taken to prevent His removal by stealth. A guard, usually consisting of sixty men, was placed there for the express purpose of guarding Him, and the sepulchre was secured by a large stone and by a seal.

4. On the third day, the body was missing. All were agreed on this; the high priest did not dare to call it into question. They therefore endeavored to account for it. The disciples affirmed that He was alive. The Jews hired the Roman soldiers to affirm that He was stolen while they slept and succeeded in making many of the people believe it. This account by the Jews is attended with the following difficulties and absurdities:

   1. The Roman guard was usually composed of sixty men, and they were stationed there for the express purpose of guarding the body of Jesus.
   2. The punishment for sleeping while on guard in the Roman army was death, and it is perfectly incredible that they would expose themselves to death in this manner.
   3. The disciples were few in number, unarmed, weak, and timid. They had just fled before those who took Jesus in the garden. How can it be believed that in so short a time they would dare to attempt to take away from a Roman guard of armed men what they were expressly set to defend?
   4. How could the disciples presume that they would find the guards asleep? Or, if they did, how was it possible to remove the stone and the body without awaking one of them?
   5. The regularity and order of the grave-clothes (John 20:6–7) show that the body had not been stolen. When men rob graves of the bodies of the dead, they do not wait coolly to fold up the grave-clothes and lay them carefully by themselves.
   6. If the soldiers were asleep, how did they, or how could they, know that the disciples stole the body away? If they were awake, why did they allow it? The whole account, therefore, was intrinsically absurd.

   On the other hand, the account given by the disciples was perfectly natural.

1. They account for the reason why the soldiers did not see the Saviour when He rose: terrified at the vision of an angel, they became as dead men.
2. They affirmed that they saw Him. All the apostles affirmed this, and many others.
3. They affirmed it in Jerusalem, in the presence of the Jews, before the high priest and the people (see the Acts of the Apostles). If the Jews really believed the account which they themselves had given, why did they not apprehend the apostles and prove them guilty of the theft and of falsehood—things which they never attempted, and which show, therefore, that they did not credit their own report.

4. In regard to the Saviour, they could not be deceived. They had been with Him for three years and knew Him as a friend.

   They again ate and drank with Him; they put their fingers into His hands and side; they conversed with Him; they were with Him for forty days.

   There were enough of them to bear witness. Law commonly requires not more than one or two competent witnesses, but here were twelve plain, honest men who affirmed in all places and at all times that they had seen Him.

   Can it be possible that they could be deceived? Then all faith in testimony must be given up.

5. They gave every possible evidence of their sincerity. They were persecuted, ridiculed, scourged, and put to death for affirming this, yet not one of them ever expressed the least doubt of its truth.

   They bore everything rather than deny that they had seen Him. Their only motive in doing this was the love of truth; they obtained no wealth, honour, or pleasure by it.

   They gave themselves up to great and unparalleled sufferings—going from land to land, crossing almost every sea, and enduring the dangers, toils, and privations of almost every region—for the simple purpose of affirming everywhere that a Saviour died and rose.

   If they knew this was an imposition—and if it had been, they would have known it—how is this remarkable conduct to be accounted for? Do men act in this way for nothing, especially in a plain case where all that is required is the testimony of the senses?

6. The world believed them. Three thousand of the Jews themselves believed in the risen Saviour on the day of Pentecost, only fifty days after His resurrection (Acts 2:41).

   Multitudes of other Jews believed during the lives of the apostles. Thousands of Gentiles also believed, and in three hundred years, the belief that Jesus rose had spread over and changed the whole Roman Empire.

   Had the apostles been deceivers, that was the age in which they could have been most easily detected. Yet that was the age when converts were most rapidly multiplied, and God affixed His seal to their testimony that it was true.