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Page 64
The pretended Matthew, however, tells us, that �when the even
was come (i. e., when the Sabbath day was actually begun,) Joseph
went to beg the body--took it down, wrapped it in linen, and
buried it; and that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, were
sitting over against the sepulchre. From the time that this writer has
thought fit to allot for the burial of Jesus, it is evident, that he was
not only no Jew, but so ignorant of the customs of the Jews, that
he did not know that their day always began with the evening, or
he would never have employed, Joseph in doing what no Jew
would, nor dared to have done, after the commencement of the
Sabbath. He takes no notice at all of the preparation made by the
women, mentioned by Luke; for that would not have agreed with
the sequel of his story. But to make up for that omission, he
informs us of a circumstance not mentioned at all by the other
Evangelists. For he tells us that �on the next day which followeth
the day of preparation, the Chief Priests, and Pharisees came
together unto Pilate,� &c. �The next day which followeth the day
of preparation!!�--such is the periphrasis that he uses for the
Sabbath day! It is well known that among the Jews it was, and is,
customary to prepare, and set out, in the afternoon of the Friday,
all the food and necessaries for every family during the Sabbath
day. Because they were forbidden to light a fire, or do any servile
work, on that day; and therefore Friday was very properly called
�the day of preparation.� But it appears to me next to impossible,
that any Jew would call the sabbath �the day that followeth the day
of the preparation.� Yet this singular historian so denominates it,
and moreover, goes on to inform us, that the chief priests, and
Pharisees went to Pilate to ask for a guard to place round the
sepulchre, till the third day, to prevent his disciples from stealing
away his body, and then saying, that he was risen from the dead;
and that after obtaining the governor�s permission, �they, went,
and secured the sepulchre by sealing the stone that was rolled
against it; and setting a watch.� Though there appears nothing very
strange in this account to a Christian, yet, I assure my reader, that
to the Jews, it ever did, and must appear utterly incredible. For it is
wonderful! that the Jewish rulers, and the rigorous Pharisees
should in so public a manner thus violate the precept for observing
the Sabbath day; for the penalty of this action of theirs was no less
than death! More wonderful still is it that they should have so
much better attended to, and comprehended the meaning of the
prediction of Jesus to his disciples, than his own disciples did; and
most wonderful of all, that a Roman Proconsul should consent to
let his troops keep watch round a tomb, for fear it should be
thought that a dead man was come to life again.
But though our author�s history of these extraordinary facts is
neither consistent with reason, and probability, nor with the other
histories of the same event; it proceeds in pretty strict conformity
to the manner in which it sets out. For to convince us still more
fully that the author was totally ignorant of the mode of computing
time in use among the Jews, and habituated to that in use among
the Greeks and Romans? He reckons the Sabbath to last till day
light on Sunday morn, and says, (chapter xxviii.), �that in the end
of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn, towards the first day of the
week,� the two Marys before mentioned, came, (not as in Luke, to
embalm the body, for, with a guard round the sepulchre, that would
have been impracticable, but) to see the sepulchre. �Whilst they
were there, the author tells us, there was another great earthquake,
and an angel descended, rolled away the stone, and sat upon it, at
whose sight, the soldiers trembled, and were frighted to death. But
to prevent the like effect of his appearance upon the women, he
said unto them, fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus who was
crucified. That the women as well as the soldiers were present at
the descent of this angel, appears not only from there being nobody
else, by whom these uncommon circumstances could have been
related, but also by the pronoun personal ye, inserted in the original
Greek, which in that language is never done, unless it be
emphatically to mark such a distinction, or antithesis, as there was
on this occasion, between them and the Roman guard. Here,
however, the author is inadvertently inconsistent with himself, as
well as with the other evangelists; and forgetting that the sole
intent of rolling away the stone, was to open a passage, absolutely
necessary to the body of Jesus to come forth out of the sepulchre;
and that if he had risen and come forth after the angel had rolled it
away, both the women and the soldiers must have seen him rise, he
makes the angel bid them look into the sepulchre, to see--that he
was not there! and tell them that he was already risen; and that he
was gone before them into Galilee, where they should see him! In
their way, the author adds, Jesus himself met the women, and said,
�be not afraid, go tell my brethren to go into Galilee, and there
shall they see me.� He says that the eleven apostles went
into Galilee, to an appointed mountain, and saw him there;
notwithstanding that some of them were so incredulous, as not
to believe even the testimony of their own senses.
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