Saying, Say this, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
All Commentaries on Matthew 28:13 Go To Matthew 28
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
It hence appears, that the chief priests themselves were fully convinced of the fact; for otherwise, they would not have bribed the soldiers to dissemble, but would have accused the soldiers before the president of a neglect of duty. (Tirinus)
How was it possible for the timid and weak disciples, who dared not show themselves in public, to come in defiance of an armed multitude to steal away the body! If these men dared not even to come forward in defence of their Master when alive, is it probable that these same men after his death would steal away his body? And could they, even allowing the possibility of conceiving the design, have removed the stone, which required a great number of hands to stir? Was not the mouth of the sepulchre also sealed? But why did they not steal away the body the first night, before the guards were stationed? For it was on Saturday the priests petitioned for a guard. Why did they not also take the clothes, which St. Peter saw lying in the sepulchre? Would not a delay in taking off the clothes, and the napkin that bound his head, have appeared dangerous? Would it not have exposed their lives, particularly as the body had been anointed, and some time would be requisite to remove the linen, which would adhere to the body? The means they take to make the miracle uncertain, render it utterly undeniable. For in protesting that the disciples stole it away, they confessed that the body was no longer in the sepulchre. The fear and doubts of the disciples, joined to the idle story of the soldiers, is an evident demonstration, that the account of the body being stolen away, is a gross calumny. (St. Chrysostom, hom. xc.)
But let us again see how beautifully Sedulius paints the same in verse.
- Fare improbe Custos, Responde scelerata cohors, si Christus, ut audes Dicere, concluso furtim prductus ab antro Sopitos latuit, cujus jacet intus amictus? Cujus ad exuvias sedet angelus? Anne beati Corporis ablator velociùs esse putavit Solvere contectum, quam devectare ligatum? Cum mora sit furtis contraria. Cautiùs ergo Cum Domino potuere magis sua lintea tolli.
