Matthew 28:14

ἐπὶ τοῦ ἡγεμόνος. ‘Before the governor.’ With this use of ἐπὶ comp. ἐπὶ μαρτύρων, 1 Timothy 5:19; ἐπὶ τῶν� … ἐπὶ τῶν ἁγίων, 1 Corinthians 6:1, ‘at the bar of,’ and the common phrases ἐπὶ δικαστῶν, δικαστηρίων. These expressions are closely connected with the physical notion of ἐπὶ, ‘upon.’ A matter may be said to rest upon witnesses or judges, i.e. depend upon their evidence or decision. This use explains the expression in the text, which means either, (1) ‘If the matter should be heard in the Procurator’s Court’—come before him officially. (2) Or perhaps in a more general sense; ‘If rumours of it should come before him’—if he should hear of it.

πείσομεν. ‘Will persuade’ (by bribes). Cp. Eur. Medea 964, μή μοι σύ, πείθειν δῶρα καὶ θεοὺς λόγος· | χρυσὸς δὲ κρείσσων μυρίων λόγων βροτοῖς. Hdt. VIII. 134, ξεῖνόν τινα καὶ οὐ Θηβαῖον χρήμασι πείσας.

ἀμερίμνους. At Rome, in Cicero’s time, judicial bribery was so organized that contracts were taken to secure acquittal by this means. And the whole process of bribery had a special vocabulary, in which this very word ἀμέριμνος appears to have had a place, Curio meeting Verres and assuring him that he has won his acquittal by bribery: ‘hunc jubet sine cura esse: renuntio inquit tibi te hodiernis comitiis esse absolutum.’ ἀμέριμνος here and 1 Corinthians 7:32 only in N.T.