Matthew 27 Study Notes

27:1-2 This early morning meeting of the Sanhedrin was convened to compensate for the illegal procedures of the previous night. According to Jewish law, judges had to conduct and conclude capital trials during daylight hours (m. Sanh. 4:1). The law also prohibited conducting trials on the eve of the Sabbath. The Jewish leaders also needed to plot and secure Roman approval for the intended execution of Jesus. Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect of Judea during AD 26-36. The title governor (Gk hegemon) was an acceptable Greek translation of the Latin title “prefect” and was also used of Pilate by Josephus (Ant. 18.55).

27:3-4 Betraying innocent blood is a heinous offense that results in a divine curse (Dt 27:25). The reaction of the chief priests and elders shows that they realized that Jesus was innocent.

27:5 Some Jews believed that criminals received atonement from God through their execution (m. Sanh. 6:3). Once he realized the horror of his crime, guilt-stricken Judas ended his life, perhaps hoping to earn atonement. But only one death brings atonement: that of Jesus Christ.

27:6-8 Verse 8 hints that Matthew wrote his Gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. That such a burial field could be located and recognized by name decades after the utter destruction of Jerusalem is unlikely.

27:9-10 Matthew’s appeal to the OT blends themes from Zch 11:12-13 and Jr 32:6-9. The first text describes Israel’s rejection of its spiritual Shepherd, the low estimation they had of him (worth thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave; Ex 21:32), and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The second text assures that Israel will be restored after its devastation by the Babylonians. The two prophecies do more than just foretell the events surrounding Judas’s actions. By merging these texts, Matthew shows that Jerusalem’s rejection of Messiah would result in its destruction, but that God would restore the city in due time.

27:11-14 According to Roman law, the refusal to offer a defense counted as an admission of guilt. Jesus’s silence before his accusers recalls Is 53:7.

27:15 The custom of releasing a prisoner for Passover seems to be attested in one Jewish text (m. Pes. 8:6: “they may slaughter a Passover lamb for one . . . whom they have promised to bring out of prison”).

27:16-18 Mark 15:7 describes Barabbas as a murderous rebel. Some ancient manuscripts of Matthew and some important figures in the early church mention that Barabbas’s full name was Jesus Bar Abbas, which might indicate that he was the son of a renowned teacher (“son of Rabba”). Thus Pilate apparently offered the Jews a choice between a Jesus who was the son of a teacher and a Jesus who was the Son of God.

27:19 Greeks and Romans believed the gods spoke to them in dreams.

27:20-25 Both Judas (vv. 3-5) and Pilate (v. 24) feared being accountable for Jesus’s death, but the people gladly accepted responsibility. Many later Christians speculated that the destruction of Jerusalem was the penalty for this self-confessed guilt. Pilate’s actions could not absolve him of the guilt of crucifying an innocent Jesus (see Ac 4:27).

27:26 Roman flogging utilized an instrument of torture called the (Gk) flagellum, a leather whip that had thongs laced with sharp pieces of iron or bone. Although beatings in the Jewish synagogue were limited to thirty-nine blows, no limit was imposed on Roman flogging. Ancient writers described victims being disemboweled or having their bones laid bare by the flagellum.

27:27-31 With their mock royal robe . . . crown, and scepter, the soldiers ridiculed Jesus’s messianic claims.

27:32 Crucifixion victims normally carried the cross’s (Gk) patibulum (crossbeam) to the execution site. Having lost much blood, Jesus was too weak to carry it beyond the city walls. The soldiers impressed (see note at 5:41) Simon, a Cyrenian, to carry the beam the rest of the way. Simon’s sons were later known in the early church (Mk 15:21). This suggests that Simon became a disciple of Jesus. Cyrene was situated near the Mediterranean coast in northern Africa. Simon was probably an ethnic Jew visiting Jerusalem for the Passover (Ac 6:9).

27:33-34 This wine was probably intended to dull the pain of crucifixion or hasten death. Jesus’s refusal to drink it expressed his determination to suffer the full agony of the cross.

27:35-36 Crucifixion was a horrifying and torturous means of execution. Naked victims were tied or nailed (Jn 20:25) to a cross. The victim might remain alive for days, and after death they were often consumed by dogs, carrion birds, or insects. Josephus described crucifixion as “the most wretched of all ways of dying” (War 7.5.4). Cicero (106-43 BC) said that crucifixion so frightened Roman citizens that they refused to speak the word cross.

27:37 A wooden placard called a titulus was often tied around the criminal’s neck as hemarched to death. This sign announced the reason for his crucifixion. When Jesus arrived at Golgotha, the placard was nailed over his head. Although Roman crosses were sometimes shaped like X or T, the placement of the titulus on Jesus’s cross shows that it was shaped like a lowercase letter “t.”

27:38-44 Jesus’s final temptation was to abandon the cross. But “although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered” and thereby was “perfected” so that “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb 5:8-9). “It was the power of love, not nails, that kept him there” (Robert H. Mounce).

27:45 The bystanders naturally interpreted the darkness as God’s judgment (Am 8:9). While they likely thought the judgment was against Jesus (as if he were a heretic), in light of his later resurrection they came to see the darkness as judgment against the sin that Jesus became on our behalf (2Co 5:21).

27:46-49 Jesus’s lament quotes Ps 22:1. The psalm reads as if it were written by someone standing near the cross (see esp. Ps 22:7-8,14-18). Jesus’s cry expressed the alienation from God that he endured as he bore the Father’s wrath against sin. Although Jesus elsewhere addressed God as “Father,” he addressed him merely as my God in this verse.

27:50-51 Jesus’s death at 3:00 p.m. coincided with the afternoon sacrifice. Thus the priests were present in the temple to observe the rending of the curtain. The curtain of the sanctuary separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple. According to the Mishnah, it was sixty feet long, thirty feet wide, and as thick as a man’s palm. It was so heavy that it took three hundred men to lift it when it was wet (m. Shek. 8:5). That it was torn in two from top to bottom shows that it was torn by God. This signified that Jesus’s death granted sinners new access to God (Heb 6:19-20; 10:19-20).

27:52-53 Although the tombs were ruptured at the time of Jesus’s death, the saints did not depart from them until after Jesus’s resurrection. This demonstrated that Jesus’s victory over death guaranteed that God would also raise his people (1Co 15:20).

27:54 Gentiles again recognized and confessed Jesus’s true identity. This hints at God’s worldwide plan for salvation (see note at 28:19).

27:55-56 Mary the mother of James and Joseph was probably the mother of two of Jesus’s lesser-known disciples (Mk 15:40).

27:57-61 Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin (Mk 15:43), had opposed their condemnation of Jesus (Lk 23:50-51). Though Jesus taught that rich people cannot enter God’s kingdom by their own efforts, Joseph is proof that God can save anyone by his grace (Mt 19:24-26). The bodies of crucified victims were normally allowed to rot on the cross, but Pilate respected Jewish scruples and allowed the dead to be buried.

27:62-64 The Jewish leaders may have been remembering Jesus’s resurrection prediction in Mt 12:38-40. They misjudged the disciples, whose grief was such that they had no notion of Jesus rising from the grave.

27:65 Pilate sent a detachment of soldiers to protect the tomb from disciples who might attempt to stage a fake resurrection. The Greek term for the detachment does not specify the number of soldiers in the unit.

27:66 The seal consisted of wax bearing the imprint of an official Roman seal. This ensured that no one could tamper with the tomb without being detected. Any unauthorized persons who broke the seal defied the authority of Rome and could be punished by death.