A.T. Robertson Commentary Matthew 27:63

"saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I rise again." — Matthew 27:63 (ASV)

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 Mt 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.