top of page
  • Writer's pictureBill Schwartz

Matthew 27

Updated: Mar 16, 2022

“When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death.” (10) “They had already determined his death, and pronounced the sentence of death on him; Matthew 26:66. And now they assemble under the pretense of reconsidering the evidence, and deliberating on it, to give the greater appearance of justice to their conduct. 'And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.' The Sanhedrin had no power of life and death, even in every thing that concerned religion; but “they wished to give countenance to their conduct by bringing in the civil power, and therefore they delivered him up to Pilate as one who aspired to regal dignities, and whom he must put to death, if he professed to be Caesar's friend.” (Adam Clarke)


Click link to the next study in my sequential chapter study through the Gospel of Matthew. https://www.mymorningmanna.com/post/matthew-28


“Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ And they said, ‘What is that to us? You see to it!’ Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.’ And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, that is, the price of him on whom a value was set. The word rendered ‘valued,’ here, does not, as often in our language, mean to ‘esteem,’ but to ‘estimate;’ not to love, approve, or regard, but to fix a price on, to estimate the value of. This they considered to be thirty pieces of silver, ‘the common price of a slave.’ whom they of the children of Israel priced— some of the Jews, the leaders or priests, acting in the name of the nation— ‘and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.’ (1-10)


"Words similar to these are recorded in Zechariah 11:12-13.” (Albert Barnes)

But Matthew attributed it to Jeremiah. "Probably Matthew was referring to Jeremiah 19:1-13, which he condensed using mainly the phraseology of Zechariah 11:12-13 because of its similarity to Judas’ situation… In Jeremiah 19 Israel’s rulers had forsaken God and made Jerusalem a place for foreign gods. The valley where the prophet delivered his prophecy and where he smashed the vessel received the name ‘Valley of Slaughter,’ symbolic of Judah and Jerusalem’s ruin. Similarly in Matthew 26-27 the rejection of Jesus led to the polluting of a field that is symbolic of death and the destruction of Israel, which foreigners were about to bury. In Zechariah 11 and in Matthew 26-27 the people of Israel reject God's shepherd and value him at the price of a slave. In both passages someone throws the money into the temple and eventually someone else uses it to buy something that pollutes.’” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)


Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?’ For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.’ But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy (ἀπώλεια) Jesus.”(1-20) “That the word ἀπώλεια, usually translated perishing…, does really signify the literal death of the wicked, will appear to the reader who remarks how currently it and its derivatives are employed in the New Testament, in cases where modern theologians would hesitate to employ its modern representative. Thus, Matthew 27:20, the chief priests sought to destroy Jesus, ἴνα τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἀπολέσωσιν.—And Festus applies the same term to the loss of life,—Acts 25:16, ‘It is not the custom of Romans to deliver any to die, etc., εἰς ἀπώλειαν.’ If that same word stood for endless misery, its use in such cases would have been almost impossible by the apostles in that age.” (Future Punishment etc. by Edward White) “In the Synoptic Gospels whenever this verb is used in the active voice to describe what one person or agent does to another, the intended meaning is always literal killing. This pattern is universal...” (Introduction to Evangelical Conditionalism by Glenn A. Peoples)


“‘Now as they came out,’ of the city; for no execution was made, neither in the court of judicature, nor in the city, but at some distance; as it was at stoning, so at crucifixion: ...as it is said, Leviticus 24:14, ‘bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp’. Upon which the gloss and Gemara say, ‘without the three camps; which were these, the court which was the camp of the Shekinah; or the divine presence; and the mountain of the house, the camp of the Levites; and the city, the camp of Israel; so that he that was executed, was had without the city.’ Maimonides says, ‘the place in which the sanhedrim executed, was without it, and at a distance from it, as it is said, Leviticus 24:14, and it appears to me, that it was about six miles distant; for so far it was between the sanhedrim of Moses our master, which was before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the camp of Israel. So Jesus went without the camp, and suffered without the gate, as the antitype of the red heifer; (Numbers 19:3, cp. Hebrews 13:11)…'they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross.’ which they did, not out of good will to Christ, but fearing lest through His faintness and weakness, He should, die before He got to the place of execution, and they be disappointed of their end, the crucifixion of Him; or because they were in haste to have Him executed [for He was weak].” (John Gill)Israel was looking for the conquering King of Psalm 21. Yet lo, I see a a hind— an adult female red deer— the gender thereof connecting the shared suffering of Christ and His church. The question asked Acts 8:34, is very proper here. "'Of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself, or of some other man?' It is confessed that David was a type of Christ, and that many Psalms, or passages of the Psalms, though properly and literally understood of David, yet had a further and mystical reference to Christ, in whom they were accomplished.” (Matthew Poole)


“David, nor we, are never completely alone in our sufferings, but ‘Alone He bare the cross, Alone its grief sustained.’ It was evening. In Matthew 27, they lead Jesus out of the city Jerusalem to a place called Golgotha. Jesus not only suffered for us, but He was killed outside the camp of Israel, according to the type of the red heifer in Numbers 19. I found this writing: "The offering of the red heifer was not only for the Israelite, but also for the stranger or gentile among them. (Num. 19:10). This offering was not a regular offering, only an occasional ceremony. It was universal in its scope. The word ‘red’ used here (vs 2) is adom'. It is related to the words adam and ground (or earth) [ada'mah]. The words ‘red’ ‘Adam" and ‘ground’ all come from the same root word 'dm. (In Lam. 4:7 the word adam is translated ‘ruddy’). In the beginning God made adam out of the ground (ada'mah) (Gen. 2:7). When Adam sinned all of creation was altered. The created structure of earth (ada'mah) was violated. Because of adam’s sin, the ada'mah brings forth thorns and thistles thus making adam's tilling of the ada'mah much more labor intensive (Gen. 3:17,18, 23). Finally after a lifetime of toil, adam must return to the ada'mah from which he was made (Gen. 3:19). However, from adam God promised to bring forth a lifegiver (Gen. 3:15). The woman ('ishsha) was the physical counterpart of the man (Gen. 2:23, 24). Woman used in a collective sense such as "born of a woman" indicates man's mortality with his inherent frailties. (See Job 14:1; 15:14; 25:4.). The last Adam was to be ‘born of a woman’ to redeem those who are under the condemnation of the law (Gal. 4:4, 5). In the first three chapters of Genesis we have the creation-fall-redemption pattern and model that guides us through the study of the Patriarchal, the Levitical, and the Christian ages revealed in both... Testaments...

The heifer was to be totally consumed with nothing remaining but ashes. This typified the extent to which the last Adam would go. He offered Himself, both soul and body, as a sacrifice made by fire (2 Cor. 5:21; Isa. 9:18, Psa. 22:14). When Jesus spoke of His death, He never called it a sleep as in the first death. He spoke of it as it really was—eternal death, separation from the Father, the equivalent of what the Bible calls the second death. Hell is where both soul and body are destroyed (Matt. 10:28). This is the depth to which Christ went in order to save the world. He went to hell for us. He offered His soul for us (Isa. 53:12). The burning to ashes represents the total consumption and destruction of sin and sinners (Mal. 4:1, 3). This is the full extent covered in the infinite sacrifice to which Christ gave himself! He took our place as the Sin-bearer. Yea, more than this. He became sin itself in order that He might destroy him who had the power of sin and death (Heb. 2:14, 15). [Glad tidings children:] The ashes were sufficient for all the people. When a person or a family needed purification, a fresh heifer was not required to be sacrificed. One was sufficient for all, including the sojourning stranger (Num. 19:10). So the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for everyone. It is everlastingly efficacious. There is enough virtue in His sacrifice for the sins of the world. (1 John 2:2). The ashes were stored for all future needs. So the sacrifice of Christ is laid up for us as an inexhaustible fountain of merit to which we have daily access for the purging of our consciences (Heb. 9:13, 14; Zech. 13:1).” (Significance of the Red Heifer: Christ Crucified Outside the Camp by G. Finneman)


Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, ‘Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.’” (49) But He was not here hailed as King of kings.

But as the hind or roe of manning pursued unto death, as the hind (Isa 13:14)- "the emblem of loveliness, Song of Solomon 2:9; and among the Arabians, of innocence. The persecutors are similarly designated by such terms as 'bulls, lions, dogs' [which in hunting as a sport helps lead the hunters to the prey].” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple”— which separated the most holy place from the other parts of the temple— “was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,” (50-51) By this was signified that now the way into God’s presence was opened by the blood of Christ. Hebrews 9:7-8; Hebrews 10:19-20. The rending veil of the temple, the quaking earth, the bursting rocks, the opening graves, and the rising dead, all testified to the greatness of the event of the Saviour’s death; and heaven and earth seemed to sympathize with their expiring Lord.” (Justin Edwards)


“‘and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;’ (52) Apart from the words thanatos/apothnēskō, (destroy) John also uses the verb koimaomai, ‘to sleep’ (John 11:11). The comparison of death to sleep is very common in both the Old and New Testaments (e.g., 1 Kgs 2:10; 11:43; Job 3:13; Matt 27:52; Acts 7:60; 13:36; 1 Cor 7:39; 11:30; 1 Thess 4:13–17). The symbolism grew out of the obvious similarities between the two states—the body in lying position, the lack of communication with the environment, the appearance of lifelessness in the sleeping person.— ’And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.’ (53)

“The cognate noun egersis appears only once in the New Testament (Matt 27:53) of the resurrection of Jesus and implies someone who stands up. Anistēmi and anastasis are compound words made up of the preposition ana, ‘again’ and the word ‘to stand,’ giving the meaning, ‘to stand again.’… This is exactly the meaning of ‘resurrect.’ (Death, Eternal Life, and Judgment in the Gospel and Epistles of John by Kim Papaioannou)


So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’ And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.” “Meanwhile two of the women... had followed the burial party, and were now sat down opposite the tomb. ‘The other Mary’ is probably the mother of James and Joses. Thus the care and love of the women is watching over their dead Master from the cross to the tomb. Mary had brought Him into the world. Marys would care for His body as well as they could as they saw Him out of the world. It was all that they could do.” (Peter Pett)


“On the next day, which followed the day of preparation,” for the Passover a high day sabbath (John 19:31), the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, "Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise.' "Arriving at Pilate’s palace they spoke these memorable words. Pilate must have been amazed. He would hardly have taken the idea seriously. To him people just did not rise again, especially when they had been crucified.” (Peter Pett) “Therefore, command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead.' So the last deception will be worse than the first." Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.” (62-66) "It is time to enquire, what possible motive these poor fishermen of Galilee could have to take away a dead body? Nothing can be more plain and evident than that the disciples of Jesus, at the time this transaction of Christ's death took place, knew not anymore than their enemies, what the resurrection from the dead should mean…. Oh! the blessedness of knowing, and from divine teaching too; the certainty of that glorious truth, Christ is risen from the dead. And oh! when the conviction of that glorious truth is secured in the soul, by a testimony founded in the faithfulness of Jehovah; then in Christ's resurrection, the sure resurrection of his redeemed is included. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power. Revelation 20:6.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)

12 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page