And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:60 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. S. John adds ( John 19:41) that it was in a garden. It was "a new tomb," lest any one else who had there been buried should be supposed (says S. Chrysostom) or pretended (S. Jerome) to have risen again. S. Augustine says,
Mystically: As no one either before or after Him was conceived in the Virgin"s womb, so no one either before or after Him was buried in this tomb.
In the rock. "For had it been built of many stones, and the foundations had fallen in, it might have been said that the body had been stolen away," says S. Jerome. Bede, on Mark xv, describes fully its shape, "That it was so high that a man could hardly touch the top. Its entrance was on the east. On the north was the place where the Lord lay, raised up above the rest of the floor, and open on the south." Adrichomius also describes it, and adds "that Joseph gave up his own tomb to Christ, who was thus buried in the grave of a stranger." "He who had no home of His own when alive (says Theophylact), has no tomb of His own, but is laid in another"s tomb, and being naked is clothed by Joseph." "He is buried," says S. Augustine (Serm. cxxxiii. de Temp.), "in the tomb of another, because He died for the salvation of others. Why needed He a tomb of His own, who had not any true cause of death in Himself? Why needed He a tomb on earth, whose seat was for ever in Heaven? What had He to do with a tomb, who for the space of three days rather rested in His bed than lay dead in the grave?"
Anagogically: Christ thus signified that He and His were strangers on earth, and that Heaven was their true country. S. Antony, S. Ephrem, S. Francis, and others preferred to be buried in another"s grave, and not their own, after Christ"s pattern. Here, then, was fulfilled Isaiah"s prophecy (xi10), "And His sepulchre shall be glorious." Hence, too, the custom of pilgrimages to Jerusalem for so many centuries. Hence the erection by S. Helena of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with its surpassing splendour, enclosing under the same roof the site of the crucifixion, resurrection, &c. Hence the wish of Godfrey of Bouillon, and other kings after him, to he buried on the same spot, and the institution also of an order of knighthood.
Lastly, that tomb was in a garden, because Adam had sinned in a garden. Hence, too, Christ began His Passion in a garden, and completed it by being buried in a garden. And this, too, to atone for the sentence passed on Adam; and, moreover, that He might form and plant a most beautiful garden, flourishing with the blossoms and fruits of all virtues, i.e, His Church. Note here that Christ"s body was laid in the tomb, as on the Cross, with its head and face so turned as to look away from the east, and towards the west. So Bede and Adrichomius.
Observe, Christ, as soon as He expired, descended in His soul to the Limbus Patrum, and made the patriarchs glad by manifesting to them Himself and His Godhead. He freed also the souls in Purgatory, and gave them the first general jubilee. He manifested His Godhead to them also, and made them blessed (see on 1 Peter 3:19). The devils also, and ungodly men in hell, He condemned to perpetual punishment, as their Lord, their Judges , and their triumphant Victor. The soul of Christ there remained till the third day, when it came forth with the Patriarchs and other saints, resumed its body, and rose in glory. He then made the Patriarchs resume their bodies, and rise together with Him. The order, mode and time when these things took place is mentioned in the beginning of Chap. xxviii. Observe, the Godhead of Christ, the Divine Person of the Word, ever remained hypostatically united both to His body in the tomb and to His soul in the Limbus, for that which it once assumed it never gave up, and will not give up for ever.
And he rolled (aided by his servants and Nicodemus) a great stone to the door of the sepulchre. That no one might take away the body; or, rather, Divine Wisdom so ordered it, lest the Jews after the resurrection should deny the fact, and maintain that the Apostles, who had stolen the body away, had boldly invented the tale. And for the same reason God willed that His body should be buried by those, as Joseph and Nicodemus, who were worthy of credit, and that it should he sealed up and watched by the Jews, that in this way His death and subsequent resurrection might be clearly known to all. Now the Lord"s body, while still in the grave, gave indeed an indication and prelude (as it were) of His resurrection, by remaining uncorrupt for three days; being in truth a virgin and holy body, fashioned by the Holy Spirit, and as such does it abide for ever.
