Matthew 27:65

65 Pilate said to them, “You have ¹a guard^[a] of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can. ”

Matthew 27:65 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 27:65

Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch
Meaning either the watch of the temple, said to be placed in the tower of Antonia, for the service of it: hence mention is made of the captain of the temple, ( Acts 4:1 ) , but it is not likely they would remove the temple guards, to watch a sepulchre night and day: or rather, therefore, the soldiers that had had the care of the crucifixion of Christ, and watched him on the cross, are designed: the words may be read imperatively, "have yea watch", or "take a watch", as the Ethiopic version renders it, and which seems best; for if they had a watch already, what occasion had they to have applied to Pilate for one? but having none, he gives them leave to take one, or such a number of soldiers as were sufficient:

go your way;
as fast as you can, take the watch as soon as you please, make no stay, but satisfy yourselves in this point:

make [it] as sure as you can;
or, as you know how to do it, and what will be proper and necessary.

Matthew 27:65 In-Context

63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise. ’

64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead, ’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first. ”

65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can. ”

66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

Cross References

• 1. 27:65 ch. 28:11

Footnotes

• [a] 27:65 Or 'Take a guard'