Matthew 27:63

63 and said, "Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, "After three days I will rise again.'

Matthew 27:63 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 27:63

Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said
Meaning Jesus; for no better name could they give him alive or dead, and they chose to continue it; and the rather to use it before Pilate, who had a good opinion of his innocence; and to let him see, that they still retained the same sentiments of him: (tyom) , "a deceiver", is with the Jews F24,

``a private person, that deceives a private person; saying to him there is a God in such a place, so it eats, and so it drinks; so it does well, and so it does ill.''

But which can never agree with Jesus, who was not a private person, but a public preacher; and who taught men, not privately, but openly, in the temple and in the synagogues; nor did he teach idolatry, or any thing contrary to the God of Israel, or to the unity of the divine being; or which savoured of, and encouraged the polytheism of the Gentiles. The Ethiopic version renders these words thus; "Sir, remember" as if Christ had said this to Pilate in their hearing, and therefore put him in mind of it.

While he was yet alive;
so that they owned that he was dead; and therefore could not object this to the truth of his resurrection, that he was taken down from the cross alive, and did not die:

after three days I will rise again:
now, though he said to his to his disciples privately, ( Matthew 16:21 ) ( 17:23 ) , yet not clearly and expressly to the Scribes and Pharisees; wherefore they must either have it from Judas, and lied in saying they remembered it: or they gathered it either from what he said concerning the sign of the prophet Jonas, ( Matthew 12:40 ) , or rather from his words in ( John 2:19 ) , and if so, they acted a most wicked part, in admitting a charge against him, as having a design upon their temple, to destroy it, and then rebuild it in three days; when they knew those words were spoken by him concerning his death, and resurrection from the dead: they remembered this, when the disciples did not: bad men have sometimes good memories, and good men bad ones; so that memory is no sign of grace.


FOOTNOTES:

F24 Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 10.

Matthew 27:63 In-Context

61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate
63 and said, "Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, "After three days I will rise again.'
64 Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, "He has been raised from the dead,' and the last deception would be worse than the first."
65 Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can."
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.