Mark tells us nothing about what happened between the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday evening and Easter Sunday, when the women found the tomb empty. Luke interprets Mark's silence as meaning that the women rested, as required by the law, making them pious women, like all those pious figures who begin his Gospel, including the child Jesus who goes to the temple in Jerusalem. It is a form of inclusion around the figure of Jesus, himself very respectful of the law. In Matthew, there is also a form of inclusion, as we have already pointed out: in the burial-resurrection sequence there are five episodes that echo the five episodes of the infancy narrative. The two episodes about the guards are probably taken from a collection of popular narratives from which we also derive the suicide of Judas, the dream of Pilate's wife, the washing of Pilate's hands, the extraordinary phenomena at Jesus's death. The Gospel of Peter, in addition to being inspired by the Gospel of Matthew, probably also used this collection. The stories around the tomb guards focus on God's miraculous confirmation of Jesus' victory. This is what we will now see in detail.

1. The Petition Made de Pilate (Mt 27: 62-64) (Mt 27: 62-64)
   1. Time Indication

      The Gospel of Peter places this request before the beginning of the Sabbath (9:34), which would mean late Friday afternoon according to the Jewish calendar, or early Saturday morning according to the Greek calendar. Given this imprecision, nothing can be concluded. For Matthew, the petition takes place after the preparation, i.e. on the Sabbath day. This variation suggests that the original account of the guards did not contain a precise indication of time, and each evangelist inserted the scene at a time convenient to him.

   2. Those Involved

      "there gathered together the chief priests and the Pharisees". The chief priests will return later with the elders (28:11-12). We are before the traditional adversaries of Jesus. What is surprising is the presence of the Pharisees who were never directly associated with the death of Jesus. And as they are also present in the GPet, we can think that they are part of the original account of the guards. Furthermore, it is possible that this account was formulated at a time when the Pharisees were the main opposition to the Christian community, suggesting a date after the year 70. Finally, we note two things about the Gospel of Peter: the fact that he uses the same verb "gathered together" as in Matthew betrays a certain knowledge of this Gospel; secondly, by describing a series of activities to seal the tomb while maintaining that it is the Sabbath day, the author of the Gospel of Peter shows a lack of knowledge of the laws of the Sabbath, which makes it doubtful that he is a Jewish-Christian.

   3. Recollection of Jesus and What He Said
      • "Lord, we remembered that that deceiver (planē) said when he was still living, 'After three days I am (to be) raised'". It is surprising to hear "Lord" in the mouths of the Jewish authorities addressing Pilate, a polite gesture totally absent from the passion narratives. Moreover, planē (deceiver) does not appear anywhere else in the Synoptics passion narratives. Since the latter expression appears in the Talmud to refer to Jesus, we have an indication that this account of the guards is a late creation.

      • "After three days I am (to be) raised". Nowhere in Matthew's Gospel do we have this expression in the mouth of Jesus who speaks rather of the third day: in the proclamation of the passion Jesus says that the Son of Man will raise on the third day. Moreover, saying "after three days" brings us to Monday. Perhaps we should not insist on the exact meaning of the words, and consider not the moment when it is pronounced, but the whole story of the passion. What is quite surprising, however, is that the chief priests and Pharisees understand perfectly well that the expression "after three days" refers to the resurrection of Jesus, whereas even the disciples seem to have understood nothing before the resurrection. All this encourages the idea that the story was formulated in a context where Christians have already proclaimed the resurrection and their opponents understand what it is about.

   4. A Petition Phrased because of Fear about Jesus' Disciples
      • "So order (keleuein) the sepulcher to be made secure until the third day, lest, having come, the disciples steal him and say to the people, 'He was raised from the dead,' and the last deception will be worse than the first". It is the same verb "to order" (keleuein) that Matthew used earlier to describe Pilate's gesture of ordering that the body be handed over to Joseph. The request is for three days, therefore limited in time, which facilitates a positive response. There is something sarcastic in Matthew's account: the Jewish authorities, who considered Jesus' preaching to be false, now take one of these claims about his death seriously. In Peter's Gospel we find the same idea and similar wording: it is feared that the disciples will come and steal the body. But the finale is a little different: the Jewish authorities fear the people who might want to harm him.

      • Let us ask the question: Is what this story tells plausible? Or is it likely that Pilate would have acted to prevent such an exaction? It should be noted that the violation of burial sites was not unusual in ancient times, either for honest reasons, such as moving a body to a better burial site, or for dishonest reasons, such as stealing precious objects or practicing witchcraft or magic; the case at hand falls into the latter category. It is worth mentioning here this marble slab (about 2' by 1.25') found in Nazareth (but probably from elsewhere) in the 19th century, written in Greek, but probably translated from Latin, and bearing the title: Diatagma Kaisaros (pronouncement from Caesar). Experts date this inscription to the period from 50 BC to 50 AD, and probably to the time when Emperor Augustus reigned. Its purpose is to declare that sepulchers and tombs must remain intact in perpetuity, and those who violate these places must be brought to justice and punished; a body cannot be moved without a valid reason. This was all it took for some biblical scholars to have the far-fetched idea that this was the Emperor's response to Pilate's report on the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb and the ensuing ruckus between Jesus' disciples and the Jews. There is no data on any report by Pilate, or of any interest from Rome on this matter. In any case, this inscription provides a background to the story of the guards: on the one hand, it reminds us that the possibility of violating a burial site was taken seriously, and on the other hand, it shows the ridiculous side of the Jews' fear that some of the disciples, who fled at the time of Jesus' arrest, would later have had the courage to face the pronouncement and steal Jesus' body.

2. Pilate Grants the Petition
   • "Give over (paridididomai) soldiers to us... But Pilate gave over (paridididomai) to them Petronius the centurion with soldiers" (GPet 8:30-31). The same verb (to give over) is used in the Gospel of Peter for the request and the answer to the request, and since it is the same verb used when Jesus was "given over" to the authorities, there is an ironic note in the account. The centurion is given a name, Petronius, a very Latin name, but the centurion will not utter a word.

   • "You (may) have (echete) a custodial guard (koustōdian). Go, make secure as you know how" (Mt 27:65). What is the meaning of "you may have a custodial guard". Some biblical scholars have thought that Pilate would have said to the religious authorities: "You already have guards who serve you, take one of them". This is a misunderstanding of Matthew's text: one would not have gone to Pilate if one could use one's own guard, and the very term koustōdia is a Latinism that only appears here and is appropriate for a Roman prefect assigning troops. What the religious authorities ask is to have a Roman soldier to guard the sepulcher. Thus, when the resurrection takes place, the reader of Matthew will recognize that God has mocked both Roman and Jewish power.

   • "Having gone, they made the sepulcher secure with the custodial guard, having sealed the stone" (Mt 27:66); "And they marked (it) with seven wax seals; and having pitched a tent there, they safeguarded (it)" (GPet 8:33). Both Matthew and the Gospel of Peter speak of the act of sealing the tomb to protect it. And in both cases wax is applied to the stone, so that opening the tomb would involve breaking the seal. The GPet speaks of seven seals, a number that could have a special symbolism as in Rev 5:1-5, which speaks of a sealed scroll of seven seals, which can only be opened by the lion of the tribe of Judas: this makes its opening more difficult, but demonstrates the power of God that no human precaution can restrict.

3. Conclusion of the Guard Story in the Resurrection Narrative (Mt 28: 2-4.11-15)

   • "(after the Sabbath, at the sepulcher) And behold there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, having come down out of heaven and having come forward, rolled away the stone and was sitting upon it. Now his appearance was as lightning, and his garb white as snow. But from fear of him those keeping guard quaked and became as dead men.

     While the Gospel of Peter presents the account of the guards as a unit, followed by that of the women coming to the tomb, Matthew intertwines the two accounts. To unravel them, we must consider what he adds to Mark's account. First of all, while Mark describes the women as arriving early on Sunday morning to find the tomb already open and a young man sitting inside, Matthew tells instead that the women came late on Saturday night and, as they arrive at the tomb, witness an earthquake and see an angel like lightning coming down from heaven to roll away the stone. And ironically, as the earth "quakes," the guardians "quake"; as they are responsible for guarding the "dead," they become like "dead. The Gospel of Peter has similarities and differences with that of Matthew:

     • The scene also takes place on the evening when the Sabbath ends and the "Lord's Day" begins.
     • However, the scene begins with a cry from heaven that opens and two male angels coming down from it.
     • As to the stone, it rolls itself to the side to let the angels in.
     • Finally, the soldiers wake up the centurion and the elders to tell what they saw.

     But the Gospel of Peter presents a scene that is unique

     • The two male angels, whose heads reach to heaven, bring out of the sepulcher Christ whose head is even higher
     • They are followed by a cross that speaks to reassure the heavens that those who have fallen asleep have also received the proclamation

   • "some of the custodial guard, having entered the city, announced (apaggellein) to the chief priests all the things that had happened (ta ginomena). And having gathered (synagein) with the elders and having taken a decision (lambanein symboulion), they gave many silver pieces (argyrion) to the soldiers".

     The whole vocabulary of Matthew is a reuse of what he wrote earlier to create an inclusion: the centurion who, seeing what happened (ta ginomena) proclaimed his faith (27: 54), the high priests who had gathered (synagein) earlier to make a decision (symboulion lambanein) to condemn Jesus (26: 3), and what led Judas to bring back the money (argyrion). For Matthew, the Jewish authorities continue to be consistent in their deceit.

   • "Say that, 'His disciples, having come at night, stole him while we were sleeping. And if this be heard by the governor, we shall persuade (him) and make you free from worry'". Now having taken the silver pieces, they did as they were instructed. And this word has been spread about among the Jews until this day".

     The reader of Matthew should not be surprised by this deception, for the evangelist told at Jesus' trial how the religious authorities sought false testimony to put him to death: just as they resorted to lies to put him to death, they now resort to lies to kill his memory. And just as Judas took the money (26:15), so the soldiers take the money to act according to their instructions. The scene ends with the reference to the "Jews" who spread the false story. This is one of the occurrences in the Synoptics where the expression "the Jews" refers to a foreign and hostile group, reflecting a period when Jesus' disciples no longer considered themselves Jews.

   • The account of GPet 11:43-49 is much more elaborate. Those who were watching the tomb (soldiers and elders) immediately go to Pilate, even though it is dark, to tell what they saw, including their understanding that all this shows that he was a son of God, a confession of faith. Pilate's response shows that he admits this confession of faith, while reminding them that the responsibility for Jesus' death lies with the Jews. However, the acceptance of this confession does not prevent him from agreeing with them to keep silent about the whole affair. Thus, for the GPet, both the Jewish and Roman authorities are dishonest and deceive the people.

1. Structure of Matthew's Burial Narrative and Origins of the Guard-at-the-Sepulcher Story
   1. Originally a consecutive Story
      • Two easily observable clues show that originally the episode of the guard of the tomb constituted a single consecutive narrative:
        1. The Gospel of Peter is a single consecutive narrative, and it would be difficult to understand why the author would have taken the trouble to sew the various pieces of Matthew together and then make a preface to the story of the women at the tomb.
        2. When you take out of the account of the tomb in Matthew everything that comes from Mark, you get a complete account of the custody of the tomb.

      • But then, why would Matthew have split up a consecutive original story to fit it into a more complex structure? To answer this question, we must look at the whole of the Gospel, and more particularly at his infancy narrative: just as he organized the infancy narrative into five episodes, alternating episodes favourable to Jesus with those unfavourable, each episode including a reference to Scripture, so he constructed the whole burial-resurrection narrative in five episodes, alternating episodes favourable to Jesus with those unfavourable. Let us call A the favorable episodes (in capital letters, the main character), and B the unfavorable episodes (in dark type, the main character).

        Part One: The Birth Account
        A1	1: 18-25	(Isa 7: 14)	First angelic dream revelation to JOSEPH about the child to be born of Mary as the Messiah
        B1	2: 1-12	(Micah 7: 5)	The magi come to Herod, the chief priests, and the scribes, who supply information but actually plot hostilely against Jesus; the magi find child and mother at Bethlehem and worship, they go back another way
        A2	2: 13-15	(Hosea 11: 1)	Second angelic dream-revelation to JOSEPH to take the child and his mother to Egypt
        B2	2: 16-18	(Jer 31: 15)	Herod kills the male children of Bethlehem in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Jesus
        A3	2: 19-23	(Isa 4: 3?)	Third angelic dream-revelation to JOSEPH that those who sought the child's life are dead; he is to take the child and his mother from Egypt to Nazareth

        Part Two: The Burial/Resurrection Account
        A1	27: 57-61	Burial by Joseph, a DISCIPLE, with the WOMEN FOLLOWERS observing
        B1	27: 62-66	Chief priests and Pharisees get custodial guard from Pilate to secure the sepulcher against Jesus' claim to be raised
        A2	28: 1-10	WOMEN FOLLOWERS go to sepulcher; earthquake; angel comes from heaven and rolls back stone; guards quake and become as dead; angel reveals to women who are to tell DISCIPLES; the women see Jesus
        B2	28: 11-15	Custodial guard announce all these things to chief priests, who with the elders bribe them with silver to lie that the disciples stole the body
        A3	28: 16-20	On a mountain in Galilee Jesus appears to the eleven DISCIPLES and commissions them to go to all nations

        As can be seen, the positive episodes (A) were intertwined with the negative episodes (B) in a pattern: positive-negative-positive-negative-positive. This structure in the burial-resurrection narrative supports the idea that Matthew's current arrangement of the story of the tomb guards does not represent the original sequence. In creating this skein, Matthew must have deviated from the Mark sequence, which used burial as a transitional scene between crucifixion and resurrection; in Matthew's case, burial is the beginning of a sequence that points to resurrection. And in the alternation of positive and negative episodes, the emphasis is on the positive episodes: the negative episodes are there only to emphasize the power of God.

   2. A Story from the Same Body of Popular Material from which Matthew Drew Other Passion Narrative Addenda
      • We have already pointed out that Matthew complements from time to time the account he receives from Mark with popular accounts marked by a reflection of a very colourful imagination on the death of Jesus: to speak of popular accounts only means that they were conveyed by means other than missionary preaching or baptismal catechesis. We can think of the scene of Judas' suicide and the purchase of a field with the money from the betrayal, that of the dream of Pilate's wife and the description of the washing of Pilate's hands, that of the poetic quatrain (earthquake, rocks splitting open, tombs opening, dead coming out) on the events accompanying the death of Jesus. The scene of the guard at the tomb belongs to this collection. But let us note its very anti-Jewish character with the high priests, the Pharisees and the elders presented as deceivers.

      • The idea of a popular narrative is reinforced by the presence of a parallel in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter where Pilate also says that he is innocent of the blood of the righteous, where the resurrection is proclaimed to the already asleep, just as the already asleep wake up in Matthew. The idea of a popular narrative is also reinforced by the parallel with the infancy narrative, which also presents popular scenes, such as the revelations in dreams by an angel and the story of the Magi who receive a celestial revelation through a star landing on Bethlehem.

      • But let us not believe that Matthew took only glue and scissors to insert these popular stories into the Gospel he receives from Mark. He took the time to rethink and reformulate them to give the final result a unity of purpose and style.

   3. A Story that is Preserved in Matthew in a Less Developed form than in GPet
      • We have already pointed out that the Gospel of Peter has retained the original form of the guard's account, whereas Matthew has split it up. Moreover, the version of GPet is much longer, due on the one hand to the fact that it reflects the evolution of the account in the 2nd century, and on the other hand to the fact that it probably knew the Matthean account from a distant memory and would have combined it with the well-known account.

      • Here is a possible list of borrowings from Matthew found in the Gospel of Peter.
        • The expression "Truly he was God's Son" (GPet 11:45) is much closer to Matthew's "Truly this was God's Son" than Mark's "Truly this man was God's Son.".
        • speaks three times of the elders in his account of the passion, a term also much used by Matthew in the same context: Mt = 7; Mk = 3; Lk = 1; Jn = 0.
        • The situation of those who are asleep ("Have you made proclamation to the fallen-asleep?" GPet 10:41) is probably an echo of Mt 27:52 ("many bodies of the saints who had been asleep were awakened").
        • The GPet has probably heard at least vaguely about Pilate's washing of hands and his declaration of no responsibility for the death of Jesus (Mt 27:24), which he repeats at two points, 1:1 for the washing of hands, and 11:46 for the declaration of no responsibility.

      • On the other hand, there are elements in the Gospel to Peter which are absent from Matthew and which support the idea that he had in his possession a much more developed account of the guards at the tomb.
        • The episode contains 22 verses, as opposed to 10 in Matthew, so presents a more developed narrative
        • The centurion has a name, Petronius.
        • One talks about seven seals
        • The stone rolls itself
        • There is the presence of gigantic figures
        • The cross talks
        • The confession by the Jewish authorities of Jesus as Son of God
        • The fear of the people

      • Another fact supports the idea that the author of the Gospel of Peter knew two versions of the episode of the custody guard at the tomb. In the Bob(b)iensis codex (an old Latin version of the 4th or 5th century, but probably a copy of an archetype of the 2nd or 3rd century) of Mk 16:3/4 there is a Latin addition: "Suddenly at the third hour of the day darkness came about through the whole earth, and there came down from heaven angels; and rising in the shining brightness of the living God, they went up [ascended] with him; and immediately light came about". Here we have a parallel with GPet 9:36 ("two males who had much radiance had come down from there"); 10:39-40 ("three males who have come out from the sepulcher") in a similar context. It is possible that the account in this codex was originally attached to the hour when Jesus died, when darkness came over the whole earth, and the angels came to take Jesus off the cross. In this case, GPet would have combined this scene with that of the guards at the tomb.

      • In addition to the borrowings from a popular story and the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Peter also reflects personal touches of the author.
        • The expression "Lord's Day"
        • Setting at the end of the Friday, before the beginning of the Sabbath, the time when the request was addressed to Pilate, whereas the original account had no precise date.
        • The frequency of the expression "the Jews"

   4. The Basic Thrust of the Guard Story

      Three goals stand out:

      1. A polemical goal. It refutes the lie that Jesus' disciples stole his body. This emphasis probably appeared late in the guard's account, when the Jews began to describe Jesus as a deceiver and there were ongoing conflicts between Christian missionaries and Jewish teachers of Pharisaic affiliation.

      2. An apologetic goal. For the account shows that Jesus keeps his word: "After three days I am (to be) raised"; therefore there is no longer any doubt about the truth of the word that is preached to all nations until the end of time.

      3. An eschatological goal with an apocalyptic imagination. The message proclaims the triumph of the Son of God over his enemies, those who appeared to be all-powerful rulers and the highest religious authorities; through cosmic phenomena there is the dramatization of the great power of God that cannot be stopped by human obstacles.

2. Historicity of the Matthean Story of the Guard at the Sepulcher
   • When discussing the historicity of a narrative, it is a bad method to declare a narrative as non-historical from the outset, because it contains the supernatural, as here with the angel who comes down from heaven to roll away the stone; such a principle would dismiss at the outset any discussion of the resurrection. Similarly, it is not because a story is labeled as popular history or as having an apologetic purpose that it should be rejected out of hand as a fabrication. Finally, this is not a better method used by some biblical scholars who, after examining, for example, the scene of the corruption of the guards in response to false news, decided that the scene was absurd, and therefore not historical; on the contrary, if one examines the whole story for itself, its elements are quite plausible.

   • On the other hand, a major argument against its historicity is not only the absence of tomb guards in all the other Gospels, but the fact that their presence would have made their account unintelligible; for the only obstacle to the women's entry into the tomb is the stone, and if there had been guards, the women could not even have thought of entering it. Other unlikely, though minor, elements could also be pointed out, such as the fact that the Jewish authorities knew Jesus' words about his resurrection and would have interpreted them correctly, while his own disciples clearly understood nothing. Some biblical scholars have tried to imagine a preevangelical account in which a Joseph of Arimathea would have taken precautions to protect the sepulcher, and this preevangelical account would have evolved into the account we have in Matthew. But neither Matthew nor GPet, who present this episode of the guarding of the tomb, make any link between Joseph and this episode. It is better to recognize that we have no data, either internal or external, to support the historicity of this scene, just as for other scenes in Matthew, such as the massacre of the children of Bethlehem or the flight into Egypt of the child Jesus.

   • Having said that, all this does not detract from the value of the narrative, which has above all an eschatological aim in an apocalyptic setting, i.e. the dramatization of the power of God by which the cause of his son emerges victorious from all human opposition, and which allows him to send him on a mission with these words: "Behold! I am with you always, until the end of time".