When they had fulfilled all that was written of him. — The words are suggestive of much that lies below the surface. St. Paul, also, had studied in the same school of prophetic interpretation as the writers of the Gospels, and saw as they did, in all the details of the Crucifixion, the fulfilment of that which had been written beforehand, it might be, of other sufferers, but which was to find its highest fulfilment in the Christ.
They took him down from the tree. — In the brief summary which St. Paul gives, it was apparently deemed unnecessary to state the fact that our Lord was taken down from the cross and laid in the sepulchre by those who were secretly disciples, like Joseph and Nicodemus. It was enough that they too were among the rulers of the Jews, and that they, in what they did, were acting without any expectation of the Resurrection. On the use of the word “tree” for the cross, see Note on Acts 5:30.