Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 27:57-66, Joseph's tomb and the sealed stone
Joseph of Arimathea, a rich disciple, asks Pilate for the body and lays it in his own new tomb. The next day the chief priests get a guard and a seal on the stone.
Matthew 27:57-66, in every translation this tool compares.
That evening Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy follower, gets Pilate's permission to take the body and lays it in his own unused rock tomb, sealing it with a large stone while two women named Mary watch. The next day the chief priests and Pharisees remind Pilate that Jesus predicted he would rise, and ask for the tomb to be guarded against theft. Pilate grants a guard, and they seal the stone. These precautions set up the story of the empty tomb that follows.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sabbath\/","n":"The Sabbath","s":"The seventh day, a commanded rest from sundown to sundown, a badge of Jewish identity, and a law the experts argued over in detail.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rome-in-charge\/","n":"Rome in charge","s":"Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
Romans expected those executed for treason to be left for scavengers, and even Jewish executions led to a criminals' grave, so a prominent man who asked for the body took a risk (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). The Zondervan archaeology handbook answers that Josephus says the Romans let Jews follow their own burial law (Against Apion 2.73), and the crucified Jehohanan was buried in his family tomb. Burying someone in one's own family tomb was a special honor (Keener). The oldest tradition for the site, the Holy Sepulchre, lay outside the walls until Agrippa I extended them in the forties, while the Garden Tomb has no early evidence and was proposed only in 1883 (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes and article on the tomb's location). The priests' visit to Pilate fell on the Sabbath, not a day for business with the governor (the cultural backgrounds notes). The sources differ over the guard: Keener thinks Roman soldiers put at the priests' disposal, since the guards later fear Pilate; the cultural backgrounds notes give that view and the view that Pilate let the priests post their own Levite guard; Wilkins thinks it was the Roman detachment already assigned to the temple authorities.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 27:58, 27:60, 27:62 and 27:66
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 27:57-58, 27:59-60, 27:61 and 27:62-66
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article The Location of Jesus' Tomb
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 27:65
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Matthew 27:35 Archaeological Evidence for the Crucifixion, and Matthew 27:59-60 Sealing the Tomb of Jesus
