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 28:1-15, Women at dawn and a bribed guard
At dawn after the Sabbath an angel rolls back the stone and tells two women that Jesus is risen. They meet him on the road, while the chief priests pay the guards to say the disciples stole the body.
Matthew 28:1-15, in every translation this tool compares.
At dawn after the Sabbath two women named Mary come to the tomb; an earthquake strikes, an angel rolls the stone away, and the guards freeze with fear. The angel tells the women that Jesus has risen and will meet his followers in Galilee, and on the way Jesus himself greets them. The chief priests bribe the guards to claim the disciples stole the body while they slept, a story Matthew says was still circulating in his day. Matthew is answering a charge that was being made against the first believers.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/witnesses-and-advocates\/","n":"Witnesses and advocates in court","s":"Jewish law convicted no one on a single witness: it demanded two or three, examined them closely and gave little weight to the word of women. Courts also had accusers and advocates, and Jewish pictures of God's heavenly court gave those roles to Satan and to defenders of Israel.","r":""}
The Sabbath ended at sundown, and the women set out as soon as there was light to see (Keener). The cultural backgrounds notes cite Josephus, the Mishnah and Roman law for the limited value given to a woman's testimony, and note that God's messengers entrust the news to women first. Guards who slept on duty faced severe penalties, among Romans even death, bribery was common, and Pilate was known to be open to it (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Tomb robbers in Judea took goods, not bodies (the cultural backgrounds notes). Keener and Wright both note that Matthew would hardly answer a charge that was not being made, and Keener adds that the authorities tried to explain the empty tomb, not to deny it. The theft story was still told nearly a century later (Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 108), and the Nazareth Decree, an inscription threatening death for disturbing tombs, shows how seriously the charge would be taken (Wilkins).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 28:1-10, 28:1, 28:2-4 and 28:11-15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 28:3, 28:7, 28:12-15 and 28:13
- N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Matthew 28:11-15
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 28:15
