Luke 23:50-54

The Burial of Jesus.

According to John, the Jewish authorities requested Pilate to have the bodies removed before the beginning of the next day, which was a Sabbath of extraordinary solemnity. For though Jesus and His companions in punishment were not yet dead, and though the law Deu 21:22 did not here apply literally, they might have died before the end of the day which was about to begin, and the day be polluted thereby all the more, because, it being a Sabbath, the bodies could not be removed.

The crucifragium, ordered by Pilate, was not meant to put the condemned immediately to death, but only to make it certain, which allowed of their being taken from the cross. Thus is explained the wonder of Pilate, when Joseph of Arimathea informed him that Jesus was already dead (Mark 15:44).

The secret friends of our Lord show themselves at the time of His deepest dishonour. Already the word finds fulfilment (2 Corinthians 5:14): “ The love of Christ constraineth us. ” Each evangelist characterizes Joseph in his own way. Luke: a counsellor good and just; he is the καλὸς κᾀγαθός, the Greek ideal. Mark: an honourable counsellor; the Roman ideal. Matthew: a rich man; is this not the Jewish ideal? Luke, moreover, brings out the fact, that Joseph had not agreed to the sentence (βουλή), nor to the odious plan (πράξει) by which Pilate's consent had been extorted. ᾿Αριμαθαῖα is the Greek form of the name of the town Ramathaim (1Sa 1:1), Samuel's birthplace, situated in Mount Ephraim, and consequently beyond the natural limits of Judaea. But since the time spoken of in 1Ma 11:34, it had been reckoned to this province; hence the expression: a city of the Jews. As to Joseph, he lived at Jerusalem; for he had a sepulchre there.

The received reading ὃς καὶ προσεδέχετο καὶ αὐτός, who also himself waited, is probably the true one; it has been variously modified, because the relation of the also himself to the other friends of Jesus who were previously mentioned (Luke 23:49) was not understood; by the double καί, Luke gives prominence to the believing character of Joseph, even when no one suspected it.

Mark (Mark 15:46) informs us that the shroud in which the body was wrapped was bought at the same time by Joseph. How could such a purchase be made if the day was Sabbatic, if it was the 15th Nisan? Langen answers that Exo 12:16 made a difference, so far as the preparation of food was concerned, between the 15th Nisan and the Sabbath properly so called, and that this difference might have extended to other matters, to purchases for example; that, besides, it was not necessary to pay on the same day. But the Talmud reverses this supposition. It expressly stipulates, that when the 14th Nisan fell on the Sabbath day, it was lawful on that day to make preparation for the morrow, the 15th (Mischna Pesachim, 3.6 et al.), thus sacrificing the sacredness of the Sabbath to that of the feast day. Could the latter have been less holy! There is no ground for alleging that the authorization of Exodus 12 extended beyond the strict limits of the text.

According to the Syn., the circumstance which determined the use of this sepulchre was, that it belonged to Joseph. According to John, it was its nearness to the place of punishment, taken in connection with the approach of the Sabbath. But those two circumstances are so far from being in contradiction, that the one apart from the other would have no value. What influence could the approach of the Sabbath have had in the choice of this rocky sepulchre, if it had not belonged to one of the friends of Jesus? The Syn. do not speak of the part taken by Nicodemus in the burial of Jesus. This particular, omitted by tradition, has been restored by John. It is of no consequence whether we read in Luke 23:54, παρασκευῆς or παρασκευή. The important point is, whether this name, which means preparation, denotes here the eve of the weekly Sabbath (Friday), or that of the Passover day (the 14th Nisan). Those who allege that Jesus was crucified on the 15th take it in the first sense; those who hold it to have been on the 14th, in the second. The text in itself admits of both views. But in the context, how can it be held, we would ask with Caspari (p. 172), that the holiest day of the feast of the year, the 15th Nisan, was here designated, like any ordinary Friday, the preparation for the Sabbath?

No doubt Mark, in the parall., translates this word by προσάββατον, day before Sabbath (Mark 15:42). But this expression may mean in a general way: the eve of Sabbath or of any Sabbatic day whatever. And in the present case it must have this latter sense, as appears from the ἐπεί, because. Mark means to explain, by the Sabbatic character of the following day, why they made haste to bury the body; it was the pro-Sabbath. What meaning would this reason have had, if the very day on which they were acting had been a Sabbatic day?

Mat 27:62 offers an analogous expression. In speaking of Saturday, the morrow after the death of Jesus, Matthew says: “the next day, that followed the preparation. ” We have already called attention to this expression (Comment. sur Jean, t. ii. p. 638). “If this Saturday,” says Caspari (p. 77), “had been an ordinary Sabbath, Matthew would not have designated it in so strange a manner. The preparation in question must have had a character quite different from the preparation for the ordinary Sabbath. This preparation day must have been so called as a day of special preparation, as itself a feast day; it must have been the 14th Nisan.”

The term ἐπέφωσκε, was beginning to shine, is figurative. It is taken from the natural day, and applied here to the civil day.