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MATTHEW 28:14 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 28:13Matt 28:15
“And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.”
If this report gets to the governor — the authorities acknowledge that the cover story requires official protection. The soldiers face real Roman consequences for leaving their post; the bribe includes the promise that Pilate will be satisfied and the soldiers will be kept out of trouble. The religious authorities, who had appealed to Pilate to seal the tomb against the disciples, now use their political relationship with Pilate to protect soldiers who abandoned their post. The detail communicates the conspiracy's reach: it is not just the chief priests and elders but the entire religio-political structure of Jerusalem — the same structure that executed Jesus — working together to suppress the resurrection evidence. The cover-up requires constant maintenance; the truth requires only witnesses willing to tell what they saw.

Church Fathers on Matthew 28:14

Of the signs which were shewn around Christ, some were common to the whole world, as the darkness; some peculiar to the watch, as the wonderful apparition of Angels, and the earthquake, which were wrought for the soldiers' sake, that they might be stunned with amazement, and bear testimony to the truth. For when truth is proclaimed by its adversaries, it adds to its brightness.

Chrysostom · 4th century · Hom. xc

Simple minds, and unlearned country-folk, often make manifest without guile the truth of a matter, as the thing is; but on the other hand, a crafty wickedness studies how to recommend falsehood by glosing words.

Rabanus Maurus · 9th century

Thus the Chief Priests, who ought to have been by this turned to penitence, and to seek Jesus risen, persevere in their wickedness, and convert the money which was given for the use of the Temple to the purchase of a lie, as before they had given thirty pieces of silver to the traitor Judas.

Jerome · 4th century
Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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Matthew 28:14 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy