But perhaps the strongest consideration in favor of the historicity of the guard is the history of polemic presupposed in this story. The Jewish slander that the disciples stole the body was probably the reaction to the Christian proclamation that Jesus was risen.
To counter this charge the Christians would need only point out that the guard at the tomb would have prevented such a theft and that they were immobilized with fear when the angel appeared. At this stage of the controversy there is no need to mention the bribing of the guard. This arises only when the Jewish polemic answers that the guard had fallen asleep, thus allowing the disciples to steal the body. The sleeping of the guard could only have been a Jewish development, as it would serve no purpose to the Christian polemic.
The Christian answer was that the Jews bribed the guard to say this, and this is where the controversy stood at Matthew's time of writing. But if this is a probable reconstruction of the history of the polemic, then it is very difficult to believe the guard is unhistorical. Lies are the most feeble sort of apologetic there could be.
But secondly, it is even more improbable that confronted with this palpable lie, the Jews would, instead of exposing and denouncing it as such, proceed to create another lie, even stupider, that the guard had fallen asleep while the disciples broke into the tomb and absconded with the body.
If the existence of the guard were false, then the Jewish polemic would never have taken the course that it did. Rather the controversy would have stopped right there with the renunciation that any such guard had ever been set by the Jews. It would never have come to the point that the Christians had to invent a third lie, that the Jews had bribed the fictional guard.
So although there are reasons to doubt the existence of the guard at the tomb, there are also weighty considerations in its favor. It seems best to leave it an open question. Ironically, the value of Matthew's story for the evidence for the resurrection has nothing to do with the guard at all or with his intention of refuting the allegation that the disciples had stolen the body.
The conspiracy theory has been universally rejected on moral and psychological grounds, so that the guard story as such is really quite superfluous. Guard or no guard, no critic today believes that the disciples could have robbed the tomb and faked the resurrection. Rather the real value of Matthew's story is the incidental -- and for that reason all the more reliable -- information that Jewish polemic never denied that the tomb was empty, but instead tried to explain it away. Thus the early opponents of the Christians themselves bear witness to the fact of the empty tomb.
This does not commit one to Johnson's view that this was an appearance tradition. Putnam's Sons, , p. For discussion see I. On the independence of Matthew from Mark see E. Ruckstuhl and J. The stone which had been laid against the entrance to the sepulcher started of itself to roll and gave way to the side, and the sepulcher was opened, and both the young men entered in. When now those soldiers saw this, they awakened the centurion and the elders - for they also were there to assist at the watch.
And whilst they were relating what they had seen, they saw again three men come out from the sepulcher, and two of them sustaining the other, and a cross following them, and the heads of the two reaching to heaven, but that of him who was led of them by the hand overpassing the heavens. And they heard a voice out of the heavens crying "Thou hast preached to them that sleep?
Thus, Grass says that besides the particularities, the guard story is unbelievable because heathen guards would see the resurrection. Hans Grass, Ostergeschehen und Osterberichte, 4th ed. Von Campenhausen also states the story implies pagan guards would be witnesses of the resurrection and we cannot agree that this should be.
Similarly O'Collins makes the astounding assertion that had Annas and Caiaphas been with the disciples when Jesus appeared, they would not have seen anything. This, despite what Grass repeatedly describes as the 'massive realism' of the gospels!
Koch, Auferstehung, pp. But the fact that neither the Jews nor anyone could ever produce the body of Jesus is hugely important — the empty tomb is a historical fact which points to the truth of the resurrection. What is happening with the guards in Matthew ? The Bible. Click to get the app. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day Matthew Under other circumstances, the soldiers would have been afraid to say they all four had been sleeping on duty.
But they were also greedy, and the "hush-money" convinced them. They were in mortal danger anyway, and they realized that Pilate might be amenable to bribery too, and they really had no other choice. Roman officials were indeed known to take bribes to render desired decisions note the reputation of the governor Felix as implied in Acts The idea that the disciples had stolen the body while the soldiers slept circulated for a while, but it was so unreasonable that it could not survive very long.
In the first place, if the soldiers really were all asleep which is practically inconceivable , they could not have known what happened. Secondly, the work of moving the stone, stripping the grave clothes off the body, and carrying the body away, would surely have awakened at least some of the soldiers. Finally, the disciples could never have persisted in preaching a lie about resurrection when it began to cost them all their possessions and finally their lives to do so.
Thus the story circulated by the soldiers was basically unbelievable and could not convince people very long. But it served the immediate purpose, presumably, of sparing the soldiers' lives for the time being. They did know that the tomb was empty, however, and we can at least wonder whether some of them also might have eventually come to believe that Jesus was really the Son of God, and to seek His forgiveness and salvation.
When the priests and Pharisees heard the report of the soldiers, they could tell that these hardened and callous men were telling the truth, and that the tomb really was empty--not opened up by the disciples but by a mighty angel of God. If they had been skeptical, they would surely have gone to the tomb themselves to investigate. They did not do so, however, but instead bribed the soldiers and possibly Pilate later to lie about the matter.
One would think that these respected religious leaders, now that they knew that Christ really had risen from the dead, would have been willing to confess their mistake and receive Christ gladly as their long-awaited Messiah. Instead they became more determined than ever to oppose Him and His disciples, denying the almost undeniable truth of His victory over death and the grave. They had known about His miracles and His wonderful teachings for over three years, yet they still bitterly opposed Him and sought for some means to destroy Him, still deluding themselves and others with the notion that He was a "deceiver," doing His mighty works by the power of the devil.
Just three days earlier, before the assembled Sanhedrin Council, Jesus had acknowledged that He was indeed the very Son of God and that "ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" Mark They should by all reason have fallen down to worship Him, but instead they accused Him of blasphemy and "they all condemned him to be guilty of death" Mark , still convincing themselves that He was a deceiver. When the soldiers came back to them with their amazing report of mighty angels and an empty tomb, thus confirming that He was back from the dead as He had promised, they surely must have realized that He was all that He had claimed and could do all that He had promised.
No one but God could defeat death, for it was God who had pronounced the judgment of death on all who sin. No one but the Creator could bring life out of death, for it was He who had created life in the beginning. Jesus was, therefore, as He had claimed, "the bread of life," "the light of the world," "the resurrection, and the life," "the way, the truth, and the life" John ; ; ; , and He could, indeed, "give unto them eternal life" John if they would only believe that He was Lord and had been raised from the dead.
As the Apostle Paul said later: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" Romans They surely must have realized all this by now, for He had risen from the tomb. Instead, like old Pharaoh, they "hardened [their hearts]" Exodus yet again, and proceeded to do everything in their power to deny His resurrection and to prevent His followers from proclaiming it.
They may once have thought Jesus was a deceiver, but now knew He was not. They themselves became conscious deceivers, bribing the soldiers also to deceive. The sad thing is that many Jews to this day still believe this impossible lie. Pilate had no sympathy or agreement with these Jewish elders when he gave them the watch they requested for the tomb, but possibly through fear of their political influence with King Herod or other authorities reluctantly agreed to do so.
He knew that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God and his wife had, because of a dream, warned him not to have anything to do with "that just man" Matthew Yet he gave in to the Jews anyway, and consented to have Jesus executed.
Then, once he had delivered Jesus up to be crucified, his fears must have been increased by the supernatural darkness and the great earthquake. Next, Joseph of Arimathaea, known to Pilate as a rich and godly member of the Council, had come to request the body of Jesus, and Pilate knew that this would mean Joseph's expulsion from the Council and ostracism and persecution by his colleagues there.
This was bound to make a deep impression, and then here came his own centurion with his conviction that Jesus had been the Son of God after all. Very soon after the soldiers' report to the priests, the news must have reached Pilate also about the empty tomb.
He could hardly believe the story that the disciples had stolen the body, nor would he have appreciated the part that his soldiers had played in its fabrication. It is doubtful that the soldiers escaped punishment after all, not because of sleeping on their watch, but because of the obvious lie that they had done so, no matter how much money the priests may have offered Pilate.
He would surely have forced the truth out of his soldiers when he questioned them. That means that Pilate, as well as the soldiers and the priests, also realized that "that just man" whom he had sent to the cross, had risen from the dead.
There is a rather doubtful tradition that Pilate, as well as some of the soldiers, eventually accepted Christ as Savior and Lord. If so, it was a remarkable testimony to the grace of God, and an answer to His prayer on the cross: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" Luke In any case, Pilate knew that the tomb was empty and there is no record that either he or the chief priests ever tried to find the body.
Beyond any doubt, they would have tried diligently to find the body if they really thought there was any chance at all that it was somewhere on Earth. After the great conversion on the day of Pentecost, with the flame of Christianity rapidly spreading through Jerusalem and into other regions, the Jewish leaders did everything they could to stamp it out.
Displaying the dead body of Jesus would have done this instantaneously, because the preaching of Peter and the others centered on the triumphant fact of the resurrection. This they could not do, however, and they knew they could not do it, because they knew the tomb was empty on that first Lord's Day morning. Other than the soldiers, the first ones to learn about the empty tomb were faithful women who had watched Joseph and Nicodemus bury Him there.
Matthew and Mark both mention Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" evidently the "mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome," and possibly also "Mary the wife of Cleophas"-- Matthew ; ; Mark ; John Luke gives a more complete account in Luke as follows:. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
And they remembered his words, And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
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It was hewn out of solid rock. It was near the city of Jerusalem and accessible for investigation. The Stone The Bible says that a large stone was rolled in front of the tomb of Jesus.
The Roman Seal The Roman seal was also placed over the tomb. The Guard A guard watched Jesus' tomb. The Religious Leaders Felt Secure These precautions made the religious rulers feel secure that the excitement around Jesus would soon go away. An angel at the tomb asked: Why do you seek the living among the dead?
They went back to tell the other disciples, who at first did not believe their report. Summary Although the religious leaders felt satisfied when they handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilate to be crucified they remembered Jesus' words that He would come back from the dead. Donate Contact. Blue Letter Bible is a c 3 nonprofit organization. APA Format. Chicago Format. SBL Format. Share This Page. Follow Blue Letter Bible.
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