Matthew 27:57-61 meaning

The parallel gospel accounts of Matthew 27:57-61 are found in Mark 15:42-47, Luke 23:50-56, and John 19:38-42.

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus (v 57).

The expression: when it was evening is a translation of the Greek word ὄψιος (G3798—pronounced: “op'-see-os”). “Opseeos” often (but not always) means “after sunset.” It can also mean “late in the day.” “Opseeos” can refer to the final hours of the Jewish day, specifically the period of time between 3:00pm and 6:00pm. Because Jewish days end at sundown, the late afternoon is “late in the day.” In other words, the final three hours of the afternoon is literally the evening of that day according to Jewish reckoning.

The second meaning of “opseeos”—“late in the day”—best fits the context of this verse.

Jesus died around 3:00 pm (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33-37, Luke 23:44-46) which meant that it was beginning to be “late in the day.” Sundown would begin the Sabbath. (Jesus was crucified the day before a Sabbath—Matthew 27:62, Luke 23:56, John 19:31). And if Matthew meant that it was literally sundown by the expression when it was evening, then all of the activity surrounding the burial of Jesus would have been forbidden and/or illegal according to Jewish custom and law.

Moreover, Matthew and the other Gospels seem to indicate that Jesus’s burial was done with great haste before the Sabbath began so that His burial would be legal. In fact, the Jews requested of Pilate that he expedite the death of the crucifixion victims so that their bodies would not remain on the cross during the Sabbath, and he obliged (John 19:31-33). (But Jesus “was already dead”—John 19:33)

Once Jesus died the race was on to take His body down from the cross, prepare it for burial, and to finally bury the Messiah’s body before sundown. It was already late in the afternoon, i.e. evening, when His followers could begin this process. (It is worth mentioning the immense irony of the Jewish leaders paying so much attention to keeping their burial rules after having broken just about every rule they had in order to get Jesus crucified).

This passage (Matthew 27:57-61) explains how this dramatic tension unfolded. It details how the Messiah’s body was able to be given a proper burial in so short a time according to Jewish law before the Sabbath began.

After commenting that it was already evening (late in the day), Matthew writes: there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

This rich man played a pivotal role in seeing that Jesus, the Messiah, was given a proper burial in so short a time.

The location of Arimathea is not precisely known. Luke wrote that Arimathea was “a city of the Jews” (Luke 23:51). Arimathea is generally believed to be in the vicinity of Jerusalem and somewhere in the district of Judea. This rich man was named Joseph. Matthew identifies him as someone who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

Because Matthew writes how he had become a follower of Jesus, this Joseph from Arimathea may have been a relatively recent disciple. This may have been Matthew’s way of drawing a distinction between Joseph of Arimathea and the Galilean women who were longtime supporters of Jesus whom Matthew mentioned in the previous verse. These women were looking on from a distance at Jesus’s crucifixion (Matthew 27:56).

Matthew describes Joseph as a rich man in order to demonstrate how Joseph’s involvement in Jesus’s burial was a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. Later Matthew will write that the body of Jesus was laid in Joseph’s own new tomb (vs 58, 60).

This was in fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah which said of the Messiah:

“Yet He was with a rich man in His death.”
(Isaiah 53:9b)

Matthew’s allusion to Isaiah’s prophecy would have been clear to his Jewish readers—who would have been familiar with this scriptural prediction. Therefore, he did not need to cite its specific reference.

This is Matthew’s fourteenth allusion to a Messianic prophecy being fulfilled over the course of his narrative of Jesus’s crucifixion.

While Matthew described Joseph as a rich man, Mark and Luke describe him as a prominent and righteous member of the Sanhedrin Council who “was waiting for the kingdom of God” (Mark 15:43, Luke 23:50-51).

John informs us that Joseph was “a disciple of Jesus, but [only] a secret one for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38).

Each of the four Gospels described Joseph from Arimathea according to their purpose.

Matthew, who was writing to demonstrate to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, described Joseph in accordance to Messianic prophecy (Matthew 27:57-60).

Mark and Luke, who were respectively writing to Gentile Roman and Gentile Greek audiences, described Joseph according to his political position and his heart for God’s kingdom (Mark 15:43, Luke 23:50-51).

John, who styled his Gospel as a kind of Platonic dialogue, subtly described the character of Joseph as someone who was cautious in his support for Jesus because he was afraid of what the Jewish authorities might do to him (John 19:38).

Moreover, Luke explicitly states that Joseph was not involved in the conspiracy to execute Jesus when he wrote: “he had not consented to their [the Sanhedrin Council’s] plan and action” (Luke 23:43). Luke had previously written that “the whole body of them got up and brought Him before Pilate” (Luke 23:1) which indicates that Joseph from Arimathea was not among those who attended Jesus’s illegal religious trials :

• Religious Trial 1 was in the Home of Annas
  (John 18:14, 19-24)
• Religious Trial 2 was in the Home of Caiaphas
  (Matthew 26:57-68, Mark 14:53-65)
• Religious Trial 3 was at Sunrise in the Council Chamber
  (Matthew 27:1, Mark 15:1, Luke 22:66-71)

This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him (v 58).

Matthew says that Joseph went to the Roman Governor and requested to take responsibility for Jesus’s corpse. Because Joseph was a rich man and a leading member of the Sanhedrin Council (Mark 15:43a), he was in a position to make this request of Pilate.

Mark adds how this prominent Council member “gathered up courage and went in before Pilate” (Mark 15:43b). Courage is a virtue that would have especially resonated with Mark’s Roman audience. The reason this was courageous of Joseph was because the powerful Sanhedrin Council under the leadership of the high priest and his father-in-law had just successfully conspired to execute Jesus. By courageously asking Pilate for the body of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea was risking his position and reputation on the Council.

This seems to have been the moment when Joseph ceased being a disciple in secret and went public with his faith in Jesus as the Messiah (John 19:38).

Matthew writes that Pilate granted Joseph’s request and ordered for control of Jesus’s body be given to him.

Mark adds the following details to this transaction:

“Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.”
(Mark 15:44-45)

Crucifixion victims often suffered on the cross for days before they finally expired. Jesus was only on the cross for six hours before He gave up His spirit (Mark 15:25, 34, 37). This explains why Pilate was surprised to learn that Jesus was already dead. Pilate spoke to the centurion who was entrusted to oversee Jesus’s crucifixion to verify Joseph’s report that He was in fact dead.

The centurion verified His death. One of the Roman soldiers under his command even “pierced His side with a spear,” to confirm His death, “and immediately blood and water came out” of His side, which proved that Jesus was deceased (John 19:34).

Once Pilate ascertained from the centurion overseeing Jesus’s crucifixion that Jesus was dead, he granted His corpse over to Joseph (Mark 15:45).

Joseph’s bold request and Pilate’s permission to take Jesus’s body not only assured that the body would be buried before the Sabbath, it also meant that Jesus’s body would be buried in a known location instead of being tossed into some unmarked burial pit for criminals or strangers. This was significant because after Jesus rose from the dead, everyone could see and verify for himself that His tomb was empty. The fact that His body was placed in a tomb and not an anonymous pit was an important and unalterable proof that Jesus really did rise from the dead.

And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth (v 59).

As soon as Joseph took control of Jesus’s body, he had it prepared for burial by having it wrapped in a clean linen cloth according to Jewish customs.

The expression—clean linen cloth—means that it was new. It likely referred to strips of linen that would be soaked in oils and used to wrap Jesus’s body according to custom.

Mark added that Joseph purchased this linen cloth for this purpose (Mark 15:46a).

The Gospel of John reveals that Joseph from Arimathea had a fellow Sanhedrin member as a partner in helping him prepare Jesus’s body for burial. This council member was none other than “Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night” (John 19:39).

The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus took place near the beginning of Jesus’s ministry—possibly when He was in Judea or Jerusalem. It is recorded in John 3:1-21. Jesus was offering Nicodemus the opportunity to be His disciple. Nicodemus’s later behavior infers that Nicodemus believed, but did not leave his position and follow. Perhaps Nicodemus could have become one of the twelve had he followed.

Later, Nicodemus tried to speak on Jesus’s behalf during a contentious debate about His identity, but was rebuked by the Sanhedrin for doing so. This debate is recorded in John 7:40-53.

Now Nicodemus elevates his association with Jesus at His burial. That he did so prior to Jesus’s resurrection is noteworthy. It seems unlikely that Nicodemus and Joseph understood the prophetic significance of what they had observed, since even Jesus’s closest disciples did not understand (Luke 24:25). Perhaps they knew the gross injustice that had been perpetrated and sought to do what they could to counter it.

After Joseph had courageously asked Pilate to take Jesus’s body, Nicodemus:

“also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.”
(John 19:39b-40)

Nicodemus supplied the initial burial spices and oils used to prepare the Messiah’s body. They were expensive, costing about “a hundred pounds weight.” Estimates are that this amount of spices would have cost $67,000 American dollars in the year 2024. When we harmonize Mark and John’s accounts together it seems that Joseph from Arimathea put up most of these funds and that Nicodemus ran the errand (Mark 15:46, John 19:39-40). Joseph’s ability to afford these spices on such short notice affirmed Matthew’s description that he was a rich man.

After Jesus’s body was wrapped in linen, Joseph took the body (v 59)… and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock (v 60a).

Jesus’s body was laid in a freshly cut tomb which Joseph had intended to use for himself. Matthew says he had this tomb hewn out in the rock. The fact that Joseph had a tomb cut in the rock for his own place of burial was another indicator that he was a rich man. Most people would not be able to afford this kind of burial.

As previously mentioned, this explains how the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53:9 was fulfilled.

The Gospel of John tells us:

“Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.”
(John 19:41)

This indicates that Joseph’s newly hewn tomb was not far from the place where Jesus was crucified. And John explains this significance as they hurried to prepared for the Sabbath:

“Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
(John 19:42)

In other words, it seems that the reason they laid Jesus’s body in Joseph’s tomb, was in part because there was no other place where they could bury Him before the Sabbath—remember it was already evening (“late in the day”) when Jesus died.

As with the location of Jesus’s crucifixion, there are two proposed sites for where Jesus’s body was laid. There is the traditional location and a more recent proposal called Gordon’s Garden Tomb.

The traditional location is where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now sits. This church is built over the believed location of Jesus’s crucifixion and His tomb, based on where the early Christians recognized these things to have happened.

The second possible location of Jesus’s tomb is situated less than a mile north of the traditional site. It is called “Gordon’s Garden Tomb.” It is called “Gordon’s Garden Tomb” because a promoter named Gordon popularized this location in the 1800’s.

John’s description of this place as “a garden” may be an allusion to the Garden of Eden, where the first Adam exalted himself and disobeyed God with the consequence of bringing death into the world. At this garden, Jesus, who is the second Adam, humbled Himself and obeyed God unto death (Philippians 2:8) so that the world might not perish but live (John 3:16, 6:51).

After Jesus was laid in the tomb, Matthew writes that Joseph rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away (v 60b).

This large stone enclosed the Messiah’s tomb. This action completed Jesus’s burial. All of this was done while it was evening and before the Sabbath had begun.

“And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”
(Luke 23:55b)

Matthew ends his account of Jesus’s burial by naming two of the women who saw where Jesus was buried.

And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave (v 61).

Both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were also present at Jesus’s crucifixion. Matthew identified Mary Magdalene’s presence at the cross (Matthew 27:55-56). The other Mary was likely identified by John at the cross as “Mary the wife of Clopas” (John 19:25).

Matthew’s expression about how Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting opposite the grave means they were sitting just outside of it and they “saw the tomb and how [where] His body was laid” (Luke 23:55). This is important because this means they knew where Jesus was buried, and that they were able to go to the correct tomb two days later where they learned that Jesus had been resurrected (Matthew 28:1).

Matthew’s account only summarizes these events. His main purpose is to highlight how Jesus being buried in Joseph’s tomb was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about how the Messiah would be “with a rich man in death” (Isaiah 53:9). Beyond this, Matthew does not seem especially concerned about establishing specific details.

Mark, Luke, and John however are interested in explaining these details. Specifically, Luke is interested in explaining these events in chronological order (Luke 1:3). Luke writes:

“Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes.”
(Luke 23:55-56a)

After they saw the body placed in the tomb, they “returned” to their lodgings to prepare spices and perfumes, which they intended to anoint Jesus with after the Sabbath.

After Jesus was placed in the tomb, Joseph rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and everyone went away.

In Jewish tradition, day began at sundown. It was now the next day. It was the Sabbath. Therefore there would be no work, including activity associated with burial. This is why Luke ends his record of Jesus’s burial by stating:

“And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”
(Luke 23:56b)

It is fitting that Jesus finished His mission (John 19:30) and His body “rested” from His work to bring about the new Creation on the Sabbath, which honored the seventh day of creation, when God rested from His work (Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:11). “On the first day of the week” (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1) we will see a new creation, the first fruits of the hope of all who believe: the resurrection.