He went to Pilate, and begged for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:58 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
He came to Pilate. "Came boldly, says S. Mark , for though, for fear of the Jews, he was a secret disciple, yet he fearlessly entered on this difficult work; for he was both strengthened by Christ and urged on by the Blessed Virgin (see above, ver55). "From this we may see, says Victor of Antioch, "his great resolution and boldness, for he nearly sacrificed his own life for Christ"s sake, by drawing down on himself the suspicions of his Jewish enemies;" and S. Chrysostom, "The boldness of Joseph is highly to be admired, when for love of Christ he incurred peril of death, and exposed himself to general hatred." S. Luke and S. Mark say, "who also himself waited for the Kingdom of God." He hoped, i.e, through Christ, for heavenly love, and thus risked danger for His sake.
And begged the body of Jesus. S. Anselm (Dial. de Pass.) says it was revealed to himself by the Blessed Virgin that Joseph gave this reason, among others, for his request, that His mother was dying of grief for her only Song of Solomon , and that it was unreasonable that the innocent mother should die as well as the Son; but that it would be some consolation to her to bury Him. Grant her, therefore, most afflicted as she Isaiah , this favour. It is probable, also, that he alleged the holiness and innocence of Jesus, which Pilate well knew, and that therefore His body ought not to be cast forth with those of criminals into the Valley of Corpses, adjoining Golgotha, but was worthy of honourable burial, which he was ready to provide.
A wild story is here told, on the authority of the Gospel of Nicodemus, that Joseph was in consequence imprisoned by the Chief Priests, and miraculously delivered; and that, when the Chief Priests required the soldiers to produce the body of Jesus, they replied, "Do you produce Joseph, and we will produce Christ" (Greg. Tur. Hist. i21), whereupon the soldiers were acquitted of the charge. There is an equally improbable story in Baronius (ad An35 , cap4), that Joseph crossed with S. Mary Magdalene and others in a vessel without oars or sail to Marseilles, and from thence to England, where he preached Christ, and was venerated after his death there as the Apostle of England.
Then (having heard and approved of Joseph"s reasons) Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. That he might thus make Him some kind of satisfaction for having condemned Him to death, and also palliate his own conduct by giving Him an honourable burial, as though he had condemned Him by compulsion.
To be delivered. On Joseph paying a price, says Theophylact. But this is not probable, for the reasons just given, and because S. Mark says, "He gave the body to Joseph," who had it as a gift, and did not pay for it. It would indeed have been a most sordid and avaricious act for Pilate to have sold it. "To be delivered" means "to be given," as in the Syriac. But the Evangelist says "to be delivered," because the body had been already given up to the soldiers for crucifixion. He orders them, therefore, to return it to Joseph. S. Mark adds, "But Pilate marvelled if He were already dead," because the thieves were not yet dead, and also (says Euthymius) because he expected that Jesus would die slowly being a divine Prayer of Manasseh , far surpassing others in endurance. "But when he knew from the Centurion that He was dead, he gave the body to Joseph" ( Mark 15:45).
