Matthew 27

Matthew 27 is the 27th chapter in the Gospel of Matthew, part of the New Testament in the Christian Bible. This chapter contains Matthew's record of the day of the trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Scottish theologian William Robertson Nicoll notes that "the record of this single day is very nearly one-ninth of the whole book".[1]

Matthew 27
Gospel of Matthew 27:62-64 on Papyrus 105, from 5th/6th century.
BookGospel of Matthew
CategoryGospel
Christian Bible partNew Testament
Order in the Christian part1
Gospel of
Matthew
Chapters

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 66 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:[2]

Old Testament references

New Testament references

Structure

This chapter (Mat 27) can be divided into the following subsections:

Overview

During the morning after his arrest, Jesus is taken to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor (procurator) of Judea.[6] As Jesus was being led away,[7] Judas Iscariot, who had betrayed Jesus, sees that his former teacher has been condemned,[8]and is overcome by remorse: in the words of the King James Version, he "repented himself". The word translated as "repented" (Greek: μεταμεληθεις, metamelētheis) is not the same as the word for repentance which John the Baptist and Jesus himself used in their ministry (Greek: μετανοειτε, metanoeite);[9] Arthur Carr, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges notes that "it implies no change of heart or life, but merely remorse or regret".[6]

Judas brings back the 30 pieces of silver which had been given to him by the priests of Judea as recompense for identifying his master to Caiaphas, throwing them down in the temple, and then leaves to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Jesus impresses Pilate, who is taken aback by Jesus' silent dignity at his questioning. Pilate begins to address the crowd, and knowing (or "shrewdly suspecting")[1] that the chief priests had handed Jesus over because they were jealous of his popularity, asks the crowd to choose between freeing a notorious prisoner known as Barabbas, or Jesus. The crowd, persuaded by the chief priests and elders, respond passionately, repeating "Let Him (Christ) be crucified!" Pilate, bewildered by this, asks the crowd for a reason for their choice. Instead, they continue to call ever more loudly for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Pilate comes to see that he cannot reason with the crowd. His wife has had a disturbing dream and asks him to have "nothing to do with that just man".[10] Instead, he tries to absolve himself of his responsibility in the case, washing his hands in a basin and saying to the crowd: "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it".[11] Then the Jews present at the trial take responsibility for the shedding of Jesus' blood. Pilate has Barabbas released, lets Jesus be flogged and sends him off to be crucified.

Jesus is led away to the Praetorium of the Governor's Residence, where Pilate's guard and the praetorian guard mock him, giving him a scarlet robe in place of his own clothes, a reed to hold as a sign of his "kingship" and a crown made of twisted thorns. The soldiers then replace the robe with Jesus' own clothes and lead him to Golgotha (the "place of a skull"); in Luke's Gospel this journey is recorded with "several particulars of what happened on the way to Golgotha, omitted in the other Gospels: the great company of people and of women who followed Him; the touching address of Jesus to the women; the last warning of the coming sorrows; the leading of two malefactors with Him".[12][6] A man named Simon, from Cyrene, is compelled to carry Jesus' cross. At Golgotha he is offered wine mingled with gall, but does not drink it. The soldiers cast lots for his garments once he is crucified. Those who passed him deride him, taunting him to come down from the cross, saying "He trusts in God, let God deliver him now".

At three o'clock Jesus cries "My God, why have you forsaken me?", and starts to give up on his life. One passer-by offers Jesus some wine to drink but the group tell him "Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him". They misunderstand Jesus' pleas, as he is in tremendous physical pain. Jesus cries out once more, but eventually dies.

Suddenly, rocks start to split, and an earthquake occurs, and there follows, after Jesus' resurrection, a resurrection of the dead saints, who enter the holy city. This indicates how the earth has been shaken by the death of the Son of God. Centurions stare on at Jesus in disbelief, as do other bystanders.

On the night following Jesus' death, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus, asks for the body of Jesus. Pilate permits this, and Joseph, wrapping the body in a linen cloth, buries the body and rolls a stone against the entrance of the tomb, sealing it from looters and gravediggers.

Meanwhile, the priests and pharisees remember Jesus' remark that "After three days I will rise".[13] The chapter concludes with Pilate authorising a detachment of troops to guard the tomb, in case the disciples come to remove the body.

Analysis

Matthew's crucifixion story has many parallels with Mark's crucifixion story. However, Matthew follows a theme recurring throughout his gospel by providing deeper descriptions than Mark. Matthew's crucifixion scene runs for only sixteen verses from 27:35 to 27:51, the same number of verses as in the Gospel of Mark, but one more than the Gospel of Luke, and three more than the Gospel of John. It is postulated that all writers wished to simply recall the facts surrounding Jesus' death, rather than engage in theological reflection.

Mark 15:24, Luke 23:33, John 19:18, Matthew 27:35 all share a succinct summary of the crucifixion, in that they all say, "They crucified Him". Mark and John give an account of the time of Jesus' death ("The third hour" in Mark 15:25, and the "sixth hour" in John 19:14-15), whereas Luke, and Matthew himself do not.

There are differences between the Gospels as to what the last words of Jesus were. Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 declares that Jesus' last words were: "Why have you forsaken me"?, disagreeing with Luke 23:46 ("Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"), and John 19:30, ("It is finished").

Further differences can be found in the Gospels as to whether Jesus carried his own cross or not. In the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and Mark, Jesus receives assistance from Simon of Cyrene, whereas in the Gospel of John Jesus carries the cross by himself.

Parallelism

Dale Allison notes an obvious formal feature in Matthew 27:3-10, that is, a parallelism underlining the fulfillment between the scriptural quotation (cf. Zechariah 11:13) and the narrative.[14]:

the narrativeverse(s)the quotationverse
'taking'6 'they took'9
'thirty pieces of silver'3, 5,6 'thirty pieces of silver'9
'money' (Greek: time)6 'price' (timen)9
'the potter's field'7, 8 'the potter's field'10

Other resemblances between Matthew 27:51-55 and Matthew 28:1-11 are also noted by Allison:[15]

The Death of JesusThe Resurrection of Jesus
An earthquakeAn earthquake
Opening of tombsOpening of tombs
A resurrectionA resurrection
The guards fearThe guards fear
Witnesses to the events
(the resurrected saints)
go to the holy city		Witnesses to the events
(the Roman guards)
go to the city
There are women witnesses
(including Mary Magdalene
and another Mary)		There are women witnesses
(Mary Magdalene
and another Mary)
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See also

References
  1. Nicoll, W. R., Expositor's Greek Testament on Matthew 27, accessed 3 March 2017
  2. List of manuscripts „Fortsetzung der Liste der Handschriften“ Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung, Universität Münster. (PDF-file; 147 kB)
  3. Thomas, J. David. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri LXIV (London: 1997), pp. 12–13; "Liste Handschriften". Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  4. Kirkpatrick 1901, p. 839.
  5. Kirkpatrick 1901, p. 838.
  6. Carr, A., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Matthew 27, accessed 2 March 2017
  7. Meyer, H. A. W., Meyer's NT Commentary on Matthew 27, accessed 19 October 2019
  8. Matthew 27:3
  9. Matthew 3:2: 4:17
  10. Matthew 27:19: NKJV
  11. Matthew 27:24: NKJV
  12. Luke 23:27-32
  13. See Matthew 12:40, the Sign of Jonah and Matthew 16:21, Jesus' private teaching to his disciples
  14. Allison 2007, p. 882.
  15. Allison 2007, p. 884.

Sources

Further reading
Preceded by
Matthew 26		 Chapters of the New Testament
Gospel of Matthew		 Succeeded by
Matthew 28
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