Matthew 27 Footnotes

27:51-53 Presumably the tombs were opened when Jesus died, and the saints were raised and came out when Jesus arose, later ascending at his ascension. Matthew referred to their resurrection here apparently because he wished to link the messianic victory and end of the age represented by that resurrection with the death of Christ. That they “appeared to many” indicates that Matthew’s intention in this report was historical, for the detail is irrelevant if his intention was merely symbolic.

27:62-66 Some have argued that Matthew created this account to provide evidence that the body of Jesus was not stolen. But if Matthew wished to create such evidence, surely he would have had the guard posted immediately upon burial, not a day later, or even witness the resurrection (as in the clearly contrived Gospel of Peter). The account rather seems intended to provide background for the report in 28:11-15, which in itself points toward its historicity. The Jewish response to this story would have been to deny it altogether, had it not been true, rather than complicate it by asserting the sleeping guard allowed the theft of the corpse. An inscription discovered in Nazareth and dating to before AD 70 records an imperial decree forbidding the removal of bodies from graves on pain of death. This decree is thought to have been issued by either Tiberius (AD 14–37) or Claudius (AD 41–54). Grave robbing was a perennial problem in the Roman Empire. Other inscriptions as late as the third century AD threaten severe punishment to those who remove bodies from tombs.