And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulcher.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:61 Go To Matthew 27
Jerome
AD 420
He is described as rich, not out of any ambition on the part of the writer to represent so noble and rich a man as Jesus’ disciple, but to show how he was able to obtain the body of Jesus from Pilate. For poor and unknown individuals would not have dared to approach Pilate, the representative of Roman power, and ask the body of a crucified malefactor. In another Gospel this Joseph is called acounsellor; and it is supposed that the first Psalm has reference to him, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.” .
By this simple burial of the Lord is condemned the ostentation of the rich, who cannot dispense with lavish expense even in their tombs. But we may also consider in a spiritual sense, that the Lord’s body was wrapped not in gold, jewels, or silk, but in clean linen; and that he who wrapped it, is he who embraces Jesus with a pure heart.
He is laid in a new tomb, lest after His resurrection it should be pretended that it was some other who had risen when they saw the other bodies there remaining. The new tomb may also signify the virgin womb of Mary. And He waslaid in a tomb hewn out of the rock, lest had it been one raised of many stones, it might have been said that He was stolen away by undermining the foundations of the pile.
That a great stone was rolled there, shows that the tomb could not have been reopened without the united strength of many.
Or, when the rest left the Lord, the women continued in their attendance, looking for what Jesus had promised; and therefore they deserved to be the first to see the resurrection, because “he that endureth to the end shall besaved.”
