Teks -- Matthew 28:13 (NET)

28:13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole his body while we were asleep.’

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Robertson: Mat 28:13 - Stole him away while we slept

Stole him away while we slept ( eklepsan auton hēmōn koimōmenōn ).

Genitive absolute. An Irish bull on the face of it. If they were asleep they would not know anything about it.

Wesley: Mat 28:13 - Say, his disciples came by night, and stole him while we slept

Is it possible, that any man of sense should digest this poor, shallow inconsistency? If ye were awake, why did you let the disciples steal him? If asleep, how do you know they did?

JFB: Mat 28:13 - Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept

Which, as we have observed, was a capital offense for soldiers on guard.

Clarke: Mat 28:13 - His disciples came by night

His disciples came by night - This was as absurd as it was false. On one hand, the terror of the disciples, the smallness of their number (only eleven); and their almost total want of faith; on the other, the great danger of such a bold enterprise, the number of armed men who guarded the tomb, the authority of Pilate and of the Sanhedrin, must render such an imposture as this utterly devoid of credit

Clarke: Mat 28:13 - Stole him away while we slept

Stole him away while we slept - Here is a whole heap of absurdities

1st. Is it likely that so many men would all fall asleep, in the open air, at once

2dly. Is it at all probable that a Roman guard should be found off their watch, much less asleep, when it was instant death, according to the Roman military laws, to be found in this state

3dly. Could they be so sound asleep as not to awake with all the noise which must be necessarily made by removing the great stone, and taking away the body

4thly. Is it at all likely that these disciples could have had time sufficient to do all this, and to come and return, without being perceived by any person? An

5thly. If they were asleep, how could they possibly know that it was the disciples that stole him, or indeed that any person or persons stole him? - for, being asleep, they could see no person. From their own testimony, therefore, the resurrection may be as fully proved as the theft.

TSK: Mat 28:13 - stole

stole : Mat 26:64

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Mat 28:11-15

Ver. 11-15. No other evangelist hath this passage, which was necessary to be inserted by Matthew:

1. To satisfy readers how it could come to pass, that Matthew should know of the earthquake, or concussion of the air rather, and that an angel came and rolled away the stone; for all this was done, and Christ risen, before the women came: it came out by the watch, or by Pilate to whom the watch related it, or else by some of the priests and elders, who did not keep counsel so well as others.

2. To show the horrible wickedness of these priests and elders, that would thus cover the blood they had spilt with a lie and subornation. Thus one sin requires more to defend it.

3. To let us see how simple people will show themselves in their malice. What a story here was! If they were asleep, how could they know that Christ’ s disciples came by night and stole him away? Would no noise of rolling away the stone wake them? Malice will not allow men deliberation enough to show themselves wise. God infatuated these men, that succeeding ages might know they were suborned. Here we have also the ground of that fable with which the Jews presently filled all the world.

Haydock: Mat 28:13 - Responde scelerata cohors, si Christus, ut audes // Dicere, concluso furtim prductus ab antro // Sopitos latuit, cujus jacet intus amictus? // Cujus ad exuvias sedet angelus? Anne beati // Corporis ablator velocius esse putavit // Solvere contectum, quam devectare ligatum? // Cum mora sit furtis contraria. Cautius ergo // Cum Domino potuere magis sua lintea tolli

It hence appears, that the chief priests themselves were fully convinced of the fact; for otherwise, they would not have bribed the soldiers to dissemble, but would have accused the soldiers before the president of a neglect of duty. (Tirinus) ---

How was it possible for the timid and weak disciples, who dared not shew themselves in public, to come in defiance of an armed multitude to steal away the body! If these men dared not even to come forward in defence of their Master when alive, is it probable that these same men after his death would steal away his body? And could they, even allowing the possibility of conceiving the design, have removed the stone, before the guards were stationed? For it was on Saturday the priests petitioned for a guard. Why did they not also take the clothes, which St. Peter saw lying in the sepulchre? Would not a delay in taking off the clothes, and the napkin that bound his head, have appeared dangerous? Would it not have exposed their lives, particularly as the body had been anointed, and some time would be requisite to remove the linen, which would adhere to the body? The means they take to make the miracle uncertain, render it utterly undeniable. For in protesting that the disciples stole it away, they confessed that the body was no longer in the sepulchre. The fear and doubts of the disciples, joined to the idle story of the soldiers, is an evident demonstration, that the account of the body being stolen away, is a gross calumny. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xc.) ---

But let us again see how beautifully Sedulius paints the same in verse. ---------- Fare improbe Custos,

Responde scelerata cohors, si Christus, ut audes

Dicere, concluso furtim prductus ab antro

Sopitos latuit, cujus jacet intus amictus?

Cujus ad exuvias sedet angelus? Anne beati

Corporis ablator velocius esse putavit

Solvere contectum, quam devectare ligatum?

Cum mora sit furtis contraria. Cautius ergo

Cum Domino potuere magis sua lintea tolli.

Gill: Mat 28:13 - Saying, say ye his disciples came by night // and stole him away while we slept

Saying, say ye his disciples came by night,.... They charged them to tell every one that should ask them about this affair; and even publish it every where, that the disciples of Christ came in the dead of the night,

and stole him away while we slept: which was a very unlikely thing, and a foolish scheme this, for such a body of men to form. There is no show of probability in it, that the disciples, who were intimidated by the taking and putting Christ to death, and were now shut up in a house, for fear of the Jews, that these should venture out in the night, to take away the body of Christ, which was decently and honourably interred in a garden of one of his disciples: and when they knew it was guarded by a company of Roman soldiers; and who besides had no notion of his resurrection from the dead, nor never thought of it till he was risen, and therefore would never attempt any thing of this kind, in order to give out such a report. Moreover, had they took it away by stealth, it is not reasonable to think that they would afterwards have reported such a lie every where, that he was risen from the dead, when they were sure to obtain nothing by it, but reproach, afflictions, persecutions, and death: add to this, that this was never objected to them by their worst enemies, when they most strongly asserted his resurrection: nor was it a feasible account, or well put together, with respect to the watch. It can hardly be thought that they should be all of them asleep at once; and if they were, it is much they were not awaked by the coming up of the disciples, and the rolling away of the stone, and the bustle there must be in taking up the body, and carrying it away; and besides, if they were asleep, and continued so, what is their evidence good for? for how could they know that his disciples came and took him away? if they awaked, though too late, and saw them at a distance, why did not they pursue them, who might easily have been overtaken with such a burden? at least, why did not they search their houses for the body? and take up both the women and the disciples, and prosecute them for it? and yet nothing of this was done. Besides, how came the linen clothes to be left behind? why did they take the napkin from his head, and give themselves all that trouble to unwrap the body, and carry it away naked? It is clear the chief priests themselves were convinced in their own minds, that he was truly risen, or they would have punished the soldiers severely for their sleep and negligence, and would never have given them money to spread such a story.