Matthew 27:65

65 Pilate said to them, "You have a guard. 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 saying, "Sir, we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: 'After three days I will rise again.'

64 Command therefore that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest perhaps his talmidim come at night and steal him away, and tell the people, 'He is risen from the dead;' and the last deception will be worse than the first."

65 Pilate said to them, "You have a guard. Go, make it as secure as you can."

66 So they went, and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them.