Third section the judgment upon the church itself second picture of judgment

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Matthew 28:11. As they were going.—The Evangelist does not seek to show that the soldiers arrived in the city before the women, but only that, contemporaneously, a second account reached the city,—that one message was borne to the friends, and another to the enemies.

Matthew 28:12. And had taken counsel.—This is the last session of the Sanhedrin, so exacting of reverence, which is recorded by Matthew, and its last decision. It is a very significant transaction, which gives us a perfect Revelation, prospectively, of the post-Christian, unbelieving Judaism. Some have considered this very disgraceful decision of the council to be improbable. But, standing as they did upon the brink of moral destruction and condemnation, this improbability becomes the most awful reality. Still, we are not compelled by our text to believe that they held the meeting for the express purpose of bribing the guards: that was merely a result of their council, and of their deliberations. Probably the matter was handed over to a commission, to be examined into and disposed of; that Isaiah, the council left the matter in the hands of the high-priests, agreeing secretly with their designs.

Much money.—Increased bribes, as compared with the former bribery, that of Judas: 1. The bribery in this case was in consequence of a resolution of the Sanhedrin2. The bribery by means of large sums of money, contrasts strongly with the thirty pieces which Judas received3. The bribery of poor Gentiles, and these Roman soldiers, who were seduced into a breach of discipline and into lies, which might have cost their lives; and with this were connected self-humiliation and self-abandonment on the part of the Sanhedrin before these very Gentiles4. The formal resolution, which was aimed, though indirectly, at the corruption of the soldiers, was the culmination of that guilt to which they had subjected themselves in accepting the willing and volunteered treachery of Judas. The whole account expresses distinctly the extreme and painful embarrassment of the chief council. They imagined that by means of thirty pieces of silver they had freed themselves of Judas; but now they begin first to experience the far greater danger to which the crucified and buried Saviour exposed them.

[This Satanic lie carries its condemnation on the face. If the soldiers were asleep, they could not discover the thieves, nor would they have proclaimed their military crime; if they, or even a few of them, were awake, they ought to have prevented the theft; it is very improbable that all the soldiers should have been asleep at once; it is equally improbable that a few timid disciples should attempt to steal their Master’s body from a grave closed by a stone, officially sealed and guarded by soldiers, nor could they do it without awakening the guard, if asleep. But all these improbabilities are by no means an argument against the truthfulness of the narrative: for, if men obstinately refuse to believe the truth, “God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie,” 2 Thessalonians 2:11. With this agrees the old heathen adage: “Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad,”—which is constantly exemplified in history. Infatuation is a divine judgment, and the consequence of desertion by God. Among the Jews this lie finds credence to this day, as it did at the time of the composition of the Gospel of Matthew, and in the second and third centuries, according to the testimonies of Justin Martyr and Tertullian.—P. S.]

Matthew 28:14. And if this come to the governor’s ears.—Coram procuratore. Meyer, following Erasmus, interprets this in a judicial sense: When an examination shall be held before Pilate.^[FN31] But in that case, the mediation would come too late, because Pilate, according to military discipline, must have inflicted the penalty, if such a criminal violation of duty had been openly acknowledged. Accordingly, most commentators interpret, When this rumor shall reach the governor, be repeated unto him. Then the danger became imminent; but, according to this assurance, it would have been already removed.—This was undoubtedly an excuse highly dangerous for the soldiers (see Acts 12:19), and the high-priests could by no means be sure of the result, although they might be ready to give to the avaricious and corrupt Pilate a large bribe. The hierarchical spirit, which here reaches its climax, uses the Roman soldiers merely as tools to effect its own ends, as it had previously employed Judas; and was again fully prepared to let the despised instruments perish, when the work was finished.—We will persuade him, πείσομεν. An ironical euphemism, indicating the means of persuasion. This was the manner in which they will keep the soldiers free of care and danger.

Matthew 28:15. This saying, ὁλόγος οὗτος.—This does not refer to the entire account (Grotius, Paulus), but to the lying statement ( Matthew 28:13), voluntarily adopted by these soldiers, that the body of Jesus had been stolen by His disciples (de Wette, Meyer). Upon the doubts regarding the narrative itself, which Stroth maintained to be an interpolation, consult de Wette and Meyer. Among the opponents of the truth of the passage, are Paulus, Strauss, Weisse, Meyer; among the supporters, Hug, Kuinoel, Hoffmann, Krabbe, Ebrard, etc. Olshausen adopts a modified view, that the Sanhedrin did not act in a formal manner, but that Caiaphas arranged the matter privately. The most plausible arguments which de Wette brings forward against the credibility of the narrative, were already disposed of in the Exegetical Notes on Matthew 27:66 (p537). The objection that the Sanhedrin, in which “sat men like Gamaliel,” could not have so lost its sense of duty and dignity as to adopt so unworthy a resolution, rests entirely upon a subjective view of the worthiness of the council.^[FN32] We have already learned from the history of the crucifixion, that it was a Jewish custom to employ bad means to effect the ends of the hierarchy, and to deal with the despised Gentiles as mere tools, who were to be used and then treated with contempt. The existence of this saying among the Jews is acknowledged. See the quotations which Grotius gives out of Justin, from which we learn that the Pharisees spread the report among the people by appointed messengers; and also out of Tertullian. The Talmudic tract, Toledoth Jeschu.^[FN33] That the Evangelist has here communicated to us the prototype of the Talmud, and the Christ-hating Judaism, is a proof of his deep insight into the significance of the facts, and a testimony unto the consistent character of his Gospel.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Some of the watch.—The other guards appear to have been so overcome, so prostrated by the phenomena of the resurrection, as to have recognized the matter as settled, the attempt of the chief council as futile, and, without further delay, to have returned to their military station. Only a part so far overcomes the influence as to go and give a report, probably in hopes of having a reward promised to them, and ready to be bribed. Those mercenary soldiers are a type of all “trencher-soldiers,” who must supply the hierarchy with power to compensate for their want of spiritual might. The nobler soldier, like the independent state, will not allow it even to be supposed that he will yield himself up as a tool to the hierarchy.

2. The intensified heathenism of the disbelieving Judaism begins with disbelief regarding the resurrection of Jesus, and adopts at once a characteristic trait of heathenism, by forming a dark tradition. But the myth of the chief council is worse than the myths of heathenism. The latter, according to their bright side, point to Christ; but the lie of the Sanhedrin forms the dark contrast to the facts of light recorded in the Gospels. The myths of the heathen world are the seed of its culture;^[FN34] the lying myth of unbelieving Judaism is the fruit of its obduracy.

3. Matthew, with prophetic spirit, has preserved this fact, the unmistakable germ from which sprang the Talmud, along with which Judaism, that held in the Old Testament fast by the path of faith and repelled all the myths of the heathen world, now manifests itself in its unbelief as the most intensified heathenism; resorting to the most debased of all myths, and endeavoring to destroy the evangelical history by a false exegesis of the Old Testament, by false traditions concerning facts of Gospel history, and by a perversion of the Old Testament into a system of absolute legalism and formalism. Hence it Isaiah, that in the following section this type of the Talmud is succeeded by the type of the New Testament.

4. It is indubitable that our narrative is the history of the most extreme self-abasement of the chief council, but is not the less worthy of belief. This is the perfection of the judgment of self-abandonment, under which the council had flung itself. Upon the special points of this self-rejection, see the Exegetical Notes.

5. The hierarchical falsification of the history of the resurrection is the beginning of the hierarchical and antievangelical falsifications of history. The Ebionitic Apocrypha, the donatio Constantini, the pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, etc.

6. Christ’s resurrection, according to God’s counsel, officially announced to the civil authorities, and to the hierarchy; and hence the evangelical faith, as belief in the resurrection, is independent and free.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Heathen guards, the messengers whom God had ordained to announce the resurrection unto the chief council.—Despairing sinners (Judas, the guards), the usual preachers of repentance, sent unto the hypocritical, hierarchical powers.—The unbelief of the chief council is bold enough to impart its own obduracy to affrighted Gentile hearts.—Money and bribery, the A and Ω (the beginning and the end) of the salvation which remained with the council.—Bribery of every kind is the principal lever of all antichristian systems: 1. Bribery by money, 2. by honors.—The utter incertitude of the Sanhedrin is clearly manifested by their last decision.—The perfect overthrow which moral self-destruction caused to follow the supposed triumph of their faith.—The imagination of blinded spirits, as though they could debase the grandest facts of heaven into the meanest stories (scandala) of earth.—The fruitless lies, which are imagined capable of converting the most glorious facts into a deceptive myth.—The criticism passed in the dark Jewish lane, upon the facts of Gospel history which took place upon the broad, open highway of the world.—This is the course which all the enemies of Christian truth must pursue, because of the concealed self-contradictions: 1. They imagine the most absurd fables, to destroy the most glorious miracle; 2. they imagine the most senseless absurdity, to destroy what is full of meaning and clear to the soul; 3. they imagine what is mean, wicked, diabolical, to destroy what is sacred.—The latest criticism in the Jewish Talmud, and the Talmud in the latest works of criticism.—How the hierarchy has corrupted even the soldier’s honor.—Slander sneaks along in its impotent path, in pursuit of the Gospel rushing along its winged course: 1. Slander of Christ; 2. of the disciples; 3. of early Christendom; 4. of the Reformation, and so forth.—How Judaism and heathenism unite to oppose Christianity.—How the hierarchy leagues with the dissolute to battle against the faith.—The inhabitants of hell try to make themselves believe that heaven has been built up by the devices of hell.—God allowed the work of shame to run its wretched course, because the message of the resurrection was not intended to be extended in the form of worldly, but of heavenly certainty, by heavenly agencies.—Powerless as are such attempts, as concerns the Lord, they succeed in destroying many souls.—Thus has the Talmud, the production of the legalistic spirit of Judaism, placed itself between the poor Jew and his Christ, as a ruinous phantom. So too does the spirit of legalism endeavor to build up a wall of separation between the poor Christian and his Christ.—It is only the preaching of the Gospel which can overcome the enmity to the Gospel.—The more boldly the opposition advances, let the word ring out the clearer.

The Present Section considered in connection with the following Evangelical Narrative.—The twofold development of the Old Testament: 1. The false continuation of the Talmud2. The true continuation in the New Testament.—The great revolution in the life of Christ: 1. The apparent triumph of His foes becomes their most disgraceful defeat2. The apparent defeat of the Lord becomes His most glorious triumph.—The grand development of Christianity and its dark counter-picture: 1. The fleeing soldiers, the heroic women2. The great council, and its decision; Christ upon the mountain, and His sermon3. The empty expectations of Judaism, and the actual testimony afforded by the Church of Christ.—The perfect impotence of the opponents, and the omnipotence of Christ in heaven and upon earth.

Starke:—Nova Bibl. Tub.: As divine wisdom has decreed, unto even the bitterest foes and persecutors of Jesus must the truth be told by their own beloved confidantes.—The world takes money, and acts as she is taught, against her better knowledge and her conscience, 1 Timothy 6:10; 2 Peter 2:13; 2 Peter 2:15.—No compacts prevail against the Lord.—The devil seeks, where not by force and with boldness, still with lies and blasphemy, to oppose the kingdom and the life of Christ.—Money has great power, but thou and thy money shall perish together, Acts 8:20.—Manifest lies require no refutation; they refute themselves.—Quesnel: What a misfortune, that a man will turn to lies to cover his sin, rather than unto repentance for forgiveness!—Zeisius: The lie, no matter how absurd, is believed rather than the truth, especially by the low and godless masses.—Murder and lies, the devil’s weapons, John 8:44.

Lisco:—Hate and wickedness incite Christ’s enemies to bribe the soldiers; low avarice makes them ready to free themselves from the crime, of a neglect of duty by availing themselves of a convenient lie.

Heubner:—Contrast between this account and the preceding: 1. There truth; here lies2. There the glorified Hero in His perfect purity; here the terrified priesthood, affrighted because of its crime3. There, among the disciples, overmastering joy; here anguishing terror4. There, willing, unpaid servants of truth; here bribed servants of falsehood.—Injustice brings a man to humiliation, shame, before the instruments of his sin: he resigns himself to them, must fear them, and they laugh him to scorn.—Such people have never a clean mouth. The state of things might have been learned by the Apostles from secret friends and adherents among the priests, from several persons, perchance from converted soldiers.

Braune:—As the friends heard from their own, so the foes from their own, the news of the resurrection.—What revelation will be made on the day of judgment^[FN35] of what money can effect!—Lies find admission, but they flee before the truth. Let no one, accordingly, be affrighted for what men can do; the Lord’s counsel stands fast.—But let no one imagine that he must take in hand to destroy the attempts of another; leave that to the Lord.

Footnotes:

FN#25 - Matthew 28:11.—[Comp. Critical Note No6 on Matthew 28:8. Others prefer reported to.—P. S.]

FN#26 - Matthew 28:12.—[Or more literally: having assembled…and taken counsel, συναχθἔντες καὶ λαβόντες So Conant and the N. T. of the Am. Bible Union.—P. S.]

FN#27 - Matthew 28:12.—[Wiclif, Scrivener, Conant. etc, render ἀργν́ρια ἱκανά, much money, instead of large money, which dates from Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer, etc. The Rhemish N. T. has: a large sum of money. De Wette, Lange, and Ewald reichlich Geld; Luther: Geld’s genug; van Ess and other German Versions: viel Geld.—P. S.]

FN#28 - Matthew 28:14—[Or: be borne witness of before the governor; an official or judicial hearing is intended; comp. for a similar use of ἐπί Acts 24:19-20; Acts 25:9; Acts 25:12; Acts 25:26; Acts 26:2; 1 Corinthians 6:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; 1 Timothy 6:13. But compare the remarks of Dr. Lange in the Exeg. Notes. Lachmann and Tregelles read: ἐάν ἀκονσθῇ τον͂το ὑπὸ (instead of ἐπὶ) τον͂ ἡγεμόνος, if this shall be heard by the governor, following the Vatican Codex (B.), Codex Beza (D.), and the oldest Versions (Itale and Vulgata: si hoc auditum fuerit a prœside). But Meyer and Lange regard this as a mistaken explanation of ἐπί, which is sustained by the majority of authorities. Conant, in his Version, adopts the reading ν̔πό, but the N. T. of the Am. Bible Union, which otherwise follows his Version closely, has here: “before the governor.” Scrivener takes no notice of this verse.—P. S.]

FN#29 - Matthew 28:14—[Lange: sorgenfrei, free of care; Meyer: sorgenfrei im objectiven Sinne, i. e., frei von Gefahr und Plackereien; Tyndale1.: make you safe; Coverdale: ye shall be safe; Tyndale2, Cranmer, Genevan Bible, Scrivener: save you harmless; Bishops’ B, very improperly: make you careless; Conant and others: make you secure.—P. S.]

FN#30 - Matthew 28:15.—Lachmann and Tischendorf [not in his edition of1859] add ἡμέρας (day) after τῆς σήμερον, which is supported by Codd. B, D, L, al. [Tischendorf, in the edition of1859, says: ἡμέρα ubi a paucis tantum testibus prœbetur, potius illatum quam verum esse statuendum est,” but the fact that Matthew in two other passages ( Matthew 11:23; Matthew 27:8) uses οήμερον without ἡμέρα makes the insertion in this case less probable than the omission. Meyer and Alford likewise defend it here.—P. S.]

FN#31 - Erasmus: Si res apud illum judicem agatur. Se also Alford. Comp. my Critical Note No 4 above.—P. S.]

FN#32 - Comp. the sharp reply of Ebrard to this objection of Strauss: “What pious and conscientious men the Sanhedrists all at once become under the magic hands of Mr. Dr. Strauss! All the scattered Christians, these humble and quiet men, must, without any cause whatever, have devised and believed a palpable lie: but the murderers of Jesus were altogether too good to devise for the Roman soldiers a falsehood that had become for them a necessity!”—P. S.]

FN#33 - This book gives an expansion of this lie of the Jews.—P S.]

FN#34 - In German: Der Same ihrer Kultur, which the Edinb. edition turns into “the germ of its worship,” as if Lange had written: ihres Kultus.—P. S.]

FN#35 - The Edinb. edition mistranslates “every day we see,” etc.; mistaking the German: jener Tag (remember: Dies inœ, dies illa) for jeder Tag.—P. S.]

Verses 16-20

THIRD SECTION

THE OMNIPOTENT RULE, AND THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST, IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH

Matthew 28:16-20

( Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:44-49.)

16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a [the, τό] mountain where Jesus had appointed them 17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him:^[FN36] but some doubted [hesitated].^[FN37] 18And Jesus came [drew near] and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in [ἐν] heaven and in [on. ἐπί] earth 19 Go ye therefore,^[FN38] and teach [make disciples of, or disciple, christianize, μαθητεύσατε]^[FN39] all [the, τά] nations, baptizing^[FN40] them in the name [into the name, εἰς τὸ ὄνομα]^[FN41] of the Father, and of the 20 Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching [διδάσκοντες] them to observe all things what- Song of Solomon -ever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway [all the days, every day, πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας], even unto the end [ἕως τῆς συντελεἰας] of the world [τοῦ αἰῶνος].^[FN42] Amen.^[FN43]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Matthew 28:16. Then the eleven disciples.—They come forward here as the representatives of the entire band of disciples, and not as the select apostolic college of the Twelve, which makes its first reappearance after the selection of Matthias. This distinction is to be found in the remark that some doubted, which cannot apply to the Eleven: reference is made to many witnesses in 1 Corinthians 15:6.

Upon the mountain.—The Evangelist himself informs us that Jesus had appointed the place of meeting, but does not tell us when and where, Inasmuch as the disciples were bidden at first merely to go into Galilee, the more special direction must have been given at a later date. Grotius thinks that the command was issued while they were still in Jerusalem. We agree with Ebrard and others, that Christ’s meeting with the seven ( John 21) preceded and introduced this manifestation. That there is a reference to an actual mountain in Galilee, may be seen from the connection between this passage and the injunctions to proceed into Galilee, Matthew 28:7; Matthew 28:10; also from the consideration, that in Galilee only could a place be found for so large an assemblage of disciples as is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:6. An apocryphal tradition, dating from the thirteenth century, named the northern peak of the Mount of Olives as the scene, and gave it the name of Galilæa. This theory has undoubtedly originated early, in an improper and interested attempt at harmonizing, the first traces of which we find in the apocryphal Actis Pilati. It is upon this statement that Rudolf Hofmann supports his views in his work, Ueber den Berg. Galiläa, Ein Beitrag zur Harmonie der evangelischen Berichte, Leipzig, 1856.^[FN44] We saw above that Mount Tabor could not have been the scene of the transfiguration. But should we conclude from this, that that tradition is wholly untenable? How easily could that which had been said of the second transfiguration of Jesus before the eyes of His Church, be confounded with the account of the former transfiguration! How well adapted, besides, was Mount Tabor for the accommodation of the disciples, who assembled for the purpose of celebrating the first great Easter festival! That the mount was then peopled, goes against the theory which makes it the scene of such an event as the first transfiguration, but not against the view which selects it as the centre to which the Galilean Christians were gathered. For the dwellers upon this mountain (if the mountain were not then, to some degree, waste and occupied only by ruins; see Schulz, Reisebeschreibung) could be but few in number, and would be, besides, friendly disposed to the Galilean believers, so that the assemblage upon this high peak of Galilee would not be in the least disturbed (see the author’s Leben Jesu, ii3, 1730). Grotius, too, writing upon this passage, is in favor of Tabor. “Southward from the Mount of Beatitudes, six miles distant from Nazareth, in an easterly direction (southeast), the Mount of Tabor rises, תָּבוֹר, i. e. peak, navel, Greek ’Ιταβύριον ( Hosea 5:1; Sept.), called by the natives Tschebel Tor. It is a great, well-nigh isolated ball of chalkstone, flattened on the top. Jerome says of it: Mira rotunditate sublimes. In omni parte finitur œqualiter. Upon the southern side, it extends far down into the plain of Jezreel:^[FN45] northward it overlooks all the confronting mountains of the highlands of Galilee. The sides of Tabor are covered with a forest of oaks and wild pistachio-trees, which shelter wild swine. The whole mountain is rich in flowers, and abounds with trees. The flat top is about a mile and a half in circumference; upon it are the remains of a large fortress, and two churches may still be recognized.” (K. von Raumer, Palästina, p62.) See Jeremiah 46:18; Psalm 89:12, [“Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name”]. Upon the prospect from Tabor, consult works of travel, Schubert, Robinson; also Schulz (Mühlheim an der Ruhr, 1852, p260). Gerlach supposes the mountain to have lain in a lonely neighborhood, in Lebanon, in the north of Galilee, but states no reasons.

Matthew 28:17. And when they saw Him.—In the case of the Eleven, this was “neither the first occasion upon which they saw Him since the resurrection, nor yet the first impression.” Judging from the import of what follows, we believe that Matthew groups the eleven Apostles together with the assembled pilgrim throng of Galilean believers. To this congregated body does the prostration refer, and also the doubting of some. We consider, however, that the statement: some doubted, is not applied to the reality of the Risen One, but is used in regard to the immediately preceding προσεκύνησαν. These “some” were not in doubt whether the person before them was really Jesus who had risen. That would have been a total inversion of the order of things, if they had come to the mountain believing, and had been plunged back into doubt upon the sight of the Lord. Why, it was the very vision of the Lord which made the women and the Eleven believing. So that they doubted whether it was proper to offer unto the Lord such an unbounded worship as was expressed in the supplications and prostration of the disciples. This view is held also by de Wette. The following declaration of Jesus refers to this hesitation. Hence we find in this a prophetic allusion by the Evangelist to that germ of Ebionism which developed itself at a later period among the Jewish Christians, just as he had before pointed out the germ of the antichristian Judaism. These “some”—οἱ δὲ without a preceding οἱ μέν—constitute a particular section of that assembled mass, formerly mentioned as a body, to which special attention would be directed.^[FN46] The words, οἱδὲ ἐδίστασαν, have received various explanations1. The reading itself, οὐδὲ: Bornemann [Beza]. 2. The meaning, Some prostrated themselves, the others separated in dismay: Schleussner3. The occasion: (a) They doubted, because Jesus’ body was already glorified: Olshausen and others; (b) dread of a phantom: Hase; (c) on account of a change in the body of Jesus, which was now in the intermediate state, between its former condition, and glorification, which was completed at the ascension: Meyer,^[FN47] 4. The subject: (a) The Eleven were they who doubted: Meyer; (b) certain of the Seventy: Kuinoel; (c) certain of the five hundred brethren, 1 Corinthians 15:6 : Calovius and others [also Olshausen, Ebrard, Stier, who suppose, from the previous announcement of this meeting, and the repetition of that announcement by the angel, and by Christ, that it included, probably, all the disciples who could be brought together:—in which case we must take the ἕνδεκα in Matthew 28:16 in an emphatic, not in an exclusive sense, the Eleven being the natural leaders of the rest.—P. S.] This last explanation is undoubtedly the correct one. (See above.)

Matthew 28:18. And Jesus drawing near, spake unto them.—This drawing near was manifestly a special approach unto those who were doubting; and unto them likewise were the following words in the first instance addressed, though not exclusively.