Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Matthew · About this commentary
The Soldiers' Story
Matthew 28:11-15
11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guards came into the city and told the chief priests all the things that had happened. · WEB
The guards report what happened, and are paid to say they were asleep when it happened.
Now while they were going, behold, some of the guards came into the city and told the chief priests all the things that had happened Matthew 28:11.
Matthew alone follows the guard, and the scene is set deliberately against the one before it. Two groups leave the tomb that morning with a report. The women run to tell the disciples; the soldiers go to the men who posted them.
When they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave a large amount of silver to the soldiers Matthew 28:12.
The council meets a second time and reaches for money a second time. Thirty pieces bought the arrest; a large amount buys the account of the outcome, and the sum has gone up because the problem has.
What is not recorded is any suggestion that the report was false. Nobody asks the soldiers whether they are sure, and nobody proposes producing the body — which was the one move available and would have ended everything in an afternoon.
"Say that his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept" Matthew 28:13.
The story they buy is the one they had already imagined on the Sabbath Matthew 27:64, and it will not survive an honest hearing. Sleeping guards are witnesses to nothing; a man cannot testify to what happened while he was asleep. And the disciples cast as grave robbers are the men who ran from a garden two nights earlier and are now in hiding.
"If this comes to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and make you free of worry" Matthew 28:14. Sleeping on watch was a capital matter for Roman soldiers, so the bribe has to come with protection attached. The priests are now managing Pilate on behalf of the men they hired.
So they took the money and did as they were told. This saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continues until today Matthew 28:15.
Matthew records that the rumor was still circulating when he wrote, which is why he includes the episode at all. He is answering the explanation his readers would have heard — and the answer is not an argument. It is the record of who paid for it.
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