The New Testament with Commentary Matthew 27

Crucifixion Day—Friday, 04/05/30

1 When early morning came, all the chief priests and elders plotted against Jesus to kill Him. 2 And having bound Him they went and handed Him over to Pontius* Pilate, the governor.

The end of Judas—parenthetical

3 (Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, felt regret and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and elders 4 saying, “I sinned, by betraying innocent blood.” But they said: “What do we care? It's your problem!” 5 So throwing the silver down in the sanctuary he left, and went and hanged himself!† 6 Then the chief priests took the coins and said, “It isn't lawful to put them into the treasury, being blood money.”‡ 7 So after consultation they bought the potter's field with them, as a burial ground for strangers. 8 Therefore that field has been called ‘field of blood’ to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet,§ namely: “And they took the thirty silver coins, the value of the one who was priced, whom some of the children of Israel priced, 10 and they gave them for the potter's field, just as the Lord directed me.”)

Jesus before Pilate

11 So Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him saying, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus said to him, “As you say.” 12 But although the chief priests and elders kept accusing Him, He answered nothing. 13 Then Pilate says to Him, “Don't you hear all that they are saying against you?” 14 But He did not answer him, not even one word, so that the governor was really amazed.

“We want Barabbas!”

15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release one prisoner to the crowd, whomever they wanted. 16 Just then they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 So while they were assembled Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Messiah?” 18 For he knew that they had handed Him over through envy.

19 Now as he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, because I suffered a great deal in a dream today because of Him.”

20 But the chief priests and elders had persuaded the crowds that they should ask for Barabbas, but destroy Jesus. 21 So the governor spoke up and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” And they said, “Barabbas!” 22 Pilate says to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Messiah?” They all say to him, “Let Him be crucified!” 23 So the governor said, “But, what evil did He do?” But they kept yelling all the more saying, “Let Him be crucified!!” 24 When Pilate saw that nothing was being gained but rather a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd saying: “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man.* It's your problem!” 25 So in answer all the people said, “His blood be upon us and upon our children!”† 26 Then he released Barabbas to them, but Jesus, after flogging Him,‡ he delivered to be crucified.

Soldiers make fun of Jesus

27 Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. 28 They stripped Him and put a scarlet cloak on Him. 29 They plaited a crown out of thorns and put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and kneeling before Him they would mock Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”§ 30 Spitting on Him they took the reed and hit Him repeatedly on the head.* 31 After they had mocked Him they took the cloak off Him and put His own clothes back on; and they led Him away to be crucified.

The crucifixion

32 Now as they went out they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon; they compelled him to carry His cross. 33 Upon arriving at a place called Golgotha, which means ‘place of a skull’, 34 they gave Him sour wine mixed with gall to drink;† but having tasted it He would not drink. 35 Having crucified Him they divided up His clothes by casting lots.‡ 36 And sitting down there they guarded Him.§ 37 And they put the charge against Him over His head in writing:

THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.*

38 Then they crucified two bandits with Him, one on His right and one on His left. 39 And the passers-by kept blaspheming Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying: “You who destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!” “If you are ‘Son of God’, come down from the cross!” 41 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders and Pharisees, said: 42 “He saved others; himself he cannot save!” “If he is ‘King of Israel’ let him come down from the cross now and we will believe him!”† 43 “He trusted in God; let Him rescue him now, if He wants him; for he said, ‘I am God's Son.’ ” 44 Even the bandits who were crucified with Him were reviling Him in the same way.‡

Jesus takes the ‘wages’ for our sin

45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour a darkness came over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachtani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?”§ 47 So upon hearing it some of the bystanders said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 Right then one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed and started to give Him a drink; 49 but the rest said: “Don't! Let's see if Elijah comes to save Him.”*

The shout of victory

50 Then Jesus called out again with a great shout and dismissed His spirit.† 51 And then, the veil of the temple was ripped in two from top to bottom!‡ And the earth was shaken, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened. (And many bodies, of the saints who had fallen asleep, were raised; 53 and coming forth out of the graves after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and were made visible to many.§) 54 Now when the centurion and those with him guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that happened they were scared stiff and said, “This Man really was the Son of God!”*

55 Many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were also there looking on from a distance;† 56 among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

The burial

57 Now at evening there appeared a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.‡ 58 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered that the body be given. 59 So taking the body Joseph wrapped it in clean linen cloth 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and left. 61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.

The tomb is guarded

62 The next day, which is after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees went together to Pilate 63 saying: “Sir, we remember that that deceiver, while still alive, said, ‘After three days I am going to rise.’ 64 Therefore command that the grave be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him and say to the people, ‘He was raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 So Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go make it as secure as you can!”§ 66 So they went and secured the grave with the guard, having sealed the stone.*

*27:2 Perhaps 0.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “Pontius” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

†27:5 For a discussion of the seeming discrepancy with Acts 1:18-19, please see the Appendix: How did Judas die?

‡27:6 Having gulped down a camel they now strain out a gnat. When you put on legalistic blinders you lose moral perspective.

§27:9 The quote resembles Zechariah 11:12-13 (not a perfect fit) but really has no counterpart in the canonical Jeremiah. However, Daniel (9:2) refers to “the books” (plural) in connection with Jeremiah the prophet. Just as Jude (verse 14) had access to a prophecy by Enoch, of which no copy survives, Matthew may have had access to other writings of Jeremiah (Daniel 9:2), of which no copy survives. For further discussion of this, please see the Appendix: Jeremiah? Matthew 27:9-10.

*27:24 Perhaps 0.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “righteous” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). Notice that Pilate declares Jesus to be righteous.

†27:25 Terrible, terrible, terrible! This may well be the worst curse that any parents ever placed upon their descendants. Just terrible!!

‡27:26 Apparently flogging was considered to be a necessary part of the ritual/procedure—you had to flog first, and then crucify!

§27:29 They were really having fun! The soldiers were not Jews and presumably did not know anything about Jesus. They probably held a low opinion of Jews in general, and some ‘peasant’ who thought he was a king, well…

*27:30 Here they get nasty. The thorns were probably poisonous and the blows drove the points into His scalp down to the bone. His face began to swell from the poison; the blood oozing from the wounds was mixed with the spit. We assume from Isaiah 50:6 that the soldiers also yanked out parts of His beard, which would have torn away the skin as well. The total effect must have been horrible, leaving Jesus unrecognizable—Isaiah 52:14 was literally fulfilled.

†27:34 This was a small humanitarian gesture—gall is a crude anesthetic, and would deaden the pain. But Jesus refused it, so He remained fully alert on the cross and felt it all. For a discussion of the seeming discrepancy with Mark, please see the Appendix: ‘Gall’, or ‘myrrh’?

‡27:35 If they divided up His clothes it means they were no longer on Him—one last bit of humiliation. Perhaps 95% of the Greek manuscripts do not have the rest of verse 35 as found in the KJV and NKJV, although it would make a nice addition.

§27:36 The Lord was alive on the cross for some six hours, and the soldiers had to stay there to make sure no one tried to interfere with ‘justice’. So naturally they sat down.

*27:37 The board must have been of fair size, because the full Accusation, in three languages (John 19:20), was: “This is Jesus the Natsorean, the king of the Jews”.

†27:42 This was a lie; they already knew that Jesus was the Messiah but had deliberately rejected Him. However, if Jesus had descended from the cross (as presumably He had the power to do) we would be without hope. The people were being satanically nasty, but Jesus was totally committed to the Father's will and thus the redemptive program was not aborted.

‡27:44 Evidently they both started out by reviling Him, but later one of them repented—they were on the cross about three hours before the supernatural darkness, so there was time to think.

§27:46 I take it that the Father turned His back on the Son during those three hours—to be separated from the Father is spiritual death. For Jesus to pay for my sin and yours He had to take our wages: “The wages of sin is death”—both physical and spiritual.

*27:49 Comparing this verse with Mark 15:36 we have an apparent discrepancy: Matthew records that others told the man to stop, while Mark records that the man told them to stop! So which is it? What I imagine is this: as both accounts state, a certain man [could it possibly have been John Mark himself?] decides to offer Jesus a drink of wine vinegar; several others, supposing that Jesus had just called on Elijah, tell him to stop; to which he retorts, “You (pl) stop!” and repeats their statement with sarcasm [anyone who really understood the language would have known that Jesus wasn't calling Elijah at all]. However, it does appear that the man stopped his action before Jesus could drink, since a bit later Jesus says, “I'm thirsty” (John 19:28).

†27:50 Oh praise God! Jesus dismissed His spirit (see also John 19:30)—it was not the cross that killed Him (for details see the note at 27:54 below). As He said in John 10:18, “no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself”. I take it that John 19:30 gives the content of the shout—Τετελεσται! = “Paid in full!” It was a shout of victory.

‡27:51 God Himself ripped the veil (or ordered it done). Access to God's presence is no longer limited to one man once a year. See Hebrews 10:19-22.

§27:53 Wow! How would you like a departed saint to knock at your door?! It would be tremendous confirmatory evidence for Christ's resurrection. The Text does not say what happened to these resurrected saints, but to be sent back into the ground would be a real drag. It is more likely that they went with the risen Christ to heaven.

*27:54 “All that happened” is better explained in Mark 15:39—the loud shout followed immediately by death convinced the centurion. He had seen many crucifixions and was doubtless hardened to it. He knew that a person on a cross dies from asphyxiation. The weight of the body pushes the diaphragm against the lungs and you cannot breathe. Nailing the feet was a sadistic procedure that prolonged the agony—rather than die they would push against the nail to get a breath. Finally, when too weak to do that they would die for lack of air. (That is why they broke the legs of the two thieves; they then died within a few minutes.) Obviously, if you are dying without air you cannot shout! The centurion knew that the cross had not killed Jesus. But what mere human can just tell his spirit to leave? 2 + 2 = 4. Jesus had to be the Son of God.

†27:55 “Ministering to Him”—here we may have a clue as to how Jesus was maintained financially during His ministry, since He presumably did not have time for carpentry.

‡27:57 He “appeared”—he had been waiting in the wings. Just as with the owner of the donkey, and the owner of the upper room, who were doubtless advised in advance that their services would be needed, Joseph was prepared. He didn't just “happen” to have a tomb he didn't know what to do with, complete with a large stone just right for sealing. According to Isaiah 53:9 He was to have a rich man's grave, not whatever the common criminals got (the Father did not allow the Son's body to suffer that humiliation).

§27:65 Was Pilate happy? No he was not! And maybe, just maybe, he was not as stupid as some might like to think. From Mark 15:44-45 we know that he debriefed the centurion, who had to explain why Jesus died sooner than expected! “Make it as sure as you can.” Right. For a detailed analysis concerning Pilate, please see the Appendix: Poor Pilate—wrong place, wrong time.

*27:66 Ironically those great champions of the Sabbath had to violate the Sabbath to secure the tomb. They thought they were being shrewd, but only played into God's hand. Their effort only made the evidence for the resurrection all the stronger.