Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, &c.— That is, after the sun was set. They took this measure, therefore, not on the morrow, in our sense of the word, but in the evening after sun-setting, when the Jewish sabbath was begun, and when they understood the body was buried: to have delayed it till sun-rising would have been preposterous, as the disciples might have stolen away the body during the preceding night. Besides, there is no inconsistency between this account of the time when the watch was placed, and the subsequent articles of the history, which proceed on the supposition that the women present at our Lord's funeral were ignorant that any watch was placed at his grave; for they departed so early, that they had time to buy spices and ointment in the city before the preparation of the sabbath was ended; whereas the watch was not placed till the sabbath began. The day of preparation was the day before the sabbath, (see Mark 15:42.) whereon they were to prepare for the celebration of it. The next day then was the sabbath, according to the Jewish style; but the Evangelist here expresses it by the circumlocution, the day which followed the day, because the Jewish sabbath was then abolished, and a new order succeeded. The Christian sabbath is the octave of that week. See Heylin.
When the scribes and Pharisees demanded a sign from Jesus, he referred them to that of the prophet Jonah, see Ch. Matthew 12:39-40 where he foretold his own resurrection from the dead the third day. Also at the first passover, when the Jews required a miracle of him, in confirmation of his mission, he replied, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." See also what he said further to the Pharisees, John 10:17-18. Now if the persons to whom these two last declarations were made happened to hear the promise of the miracle of the prophet Jonah, they might, by connecting the three, understand, that Jesus meant to signify to them his resurrection from the dead on the third day, and might tell Pilate they remembered that he had said, while yet alive, after three days I will rise again. Perhaps also, on some occasions not mentioned by the Evangelists, our Lord might have made a public declaration of his resurrection in the very terms here set down; or we may suppose that Judas informed the council of his prediction; in short, whatever way they came to the knowledge of it, certain it is, that the chief priests and Pharisees were well acquainted with our Lord's predictions concerning his resurrection. It seems they were often repeated, and so public, that they were universally known; and one cannot help remarking upon this circumstance, that if our Lord's resurrection had been a cheat, imposed upon mankind by his disciples, it was the most simple thing imaginable for him to speak of it beforehand, because the only effect of such a prediction was to put all his enemies on their guard. Accordingly, the precaution and care which we find the rulers used in guarding the sepulchre, rendered it next to impossible for the disciples to be guilty of any deceit in this matter; and so by the Providence of God, what they meant for the entire subversion of the Christian cause, turned out the strongest confirmation of it. Mr. West, in his excellent observations on the history of the resurrection, has the following very useful remarks concerning the evidence of our Saviour rising on the third day: "That he did not rise before the third day, says this author, p. 222 is evident from what St. Matthew here relates of the watch or guard set at the door of the sepulchre. Now I observe from these words, 1. That the watch or guard was set at the sepulchre the very next day after the death and burial of Christ. 2. It is most probable this was done on what we call the evening of that day, because it was a high day—not only a sabbath, but the passover; and it can hardly be imagined that the chief priests, and especially the Pharisees, who pretended to greater strictness and purity than any other sect of the Jews, should, before the religious duties of the daywere over, defile themselves by going to Pilate; for that they were very scrupulous upon that point, appears from what St. John says, John 18:28 of their not entering into the hall of judgment or praetorium, where Pilate's tribunal was the day before, lest they should be defiled, and so kept from eating the passover. And if it should be said, that, the paschal lamb being always eaten in the night, all their sacrifices upon that account were over, and they at liberty to go to Pilate in the morning, or at what other time they pleased; I answer, that allowing the objection, it is still farther to be considered, that this was the sabbath-day; and can it be supposed that the Pharisees, who censured Jesus for healing, and his disciples for plucking and eating the ears of corn on the sabbath-day, would profane that day, and defile themselves, not only by going to Pilate, but with the soldiers, to the sepulchre of Christ, and setting a seal upon the door of the sepulchre, before the religious duties of that solemn day were past? Especially, as they were under no necessityof doing it before the evening, though it was highly expedient for them not to delay it beyond that time. Jesus had said, while he was yet alive, that he should rise again from the dead on the third day; which prophesy would have been equally falsified by his rising on the first or the second as on the fourth. If his body therefore was not in the sepulchre at the close of the second day, the chief priests and Pharisees would gain their point, and might have asserted boldly that he was an impostor; from whence it will follow, that it was time enough for them to visit the sepulchre at the close of the second day. On the other hand, as he had declared he should rise on the third day, it was necessary for them (if they apprehended what they gave out,—that his disciples would come and steal him away) to guard against such an attempt on that day, and for that day only. And as the third day began from the evening or shutting in of the second, according to the way of computing used among the Jews, it was as necessary for them not to delay visiting the sepulchre, and setting their guard, till after the beginning of that third day; for if they had come to the sepulchre, though never so short a time after the third day was begun, and had found the body missing, they could not from thence have proved him an impostor. And accordingly Matthew tells us, they went thither on the second day, which was the sabbath; and though the going to Pilate, and with the Roman soldiers to the sepulchre, and sealing up the stone, was undoubtedly a profanation of the sabbath in the eyes of the ceremonious Pharisees, yet might they excuse themselves to their consciences, or
(what seems to have been of greater consequence in their opinions) to the world, by pleading the necessity of doingit that day: and surely nothing could have carried them out on such a business, on such a day, but the urgent necessity of doing it then or not at all. And, as I have shewn above, that this urgent necessity could not take place till the close of the second day, and just, though but one moment, before the beginning of the third, it will follow, from what has been said, that in the estimation of the high priests and Pharisees, the day on which they set their guard was the second day, and the next day consequently was the third, to the end of which they requested Pilate to command that the sepulchre might be made sure. Here then we have a proof, furnished by the murderers and blasphemers of Christ themselves, that he was not risen before the third day; for it is to be taken for granted, that before they sealed up the sepulchre, and set the guard, they had inspected it, and seen that the body was still there. Hence also we are enabled to answer the cavils that have been raised upon these expressions, three days and three nights, and after three days; for it is plain that the chief priests and Pharisees, by their going to the sepulchre on the sabbath-day, understood that day to be the second; and it is plain, by their setting the guard from that time, and the reason given to Pilate for their so doing, viz. lest the disciples should come in the night, and steal him away, that they construed that day, which was just then beginning, to be the day limited by Christ for his rising from the dead; that is the third day. For had they taken these words of our Saviour, The Son of man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, in their strict literal sense, they needed not have been in such haste to set their guard; since, according to that interpretation, there were yet two days and two nights to come; neither for the same reason had they any occasion to apprehend ill consequences from the disciples coming that night, and stealing away the body of their Master; so that unless it be supposed that the chief priests and Pharisees, the most learned sect among the Jews, did not understand the meaning of a phrase in their own language; or that they were so impious or impolitic as to profane the sabbath, and defile themselves without any occasion; and so senseless and impertinent, as to ask a guard of Pilate for watching the sepulchre that night and day, to prevent the disciples stealing away the body of Christ the night or the day following; unless, I say, these strange suppositions be admitted, we may fairly conclude, that in the language and to the understanding of the Jews, three days and three nights, and after three days, were equivalent to three days, or in three days. That he rose on the third day, the testimony of the angels, and his own appearances to the women, to Simon, and to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, which all happened on that day, are clear and sufficient proofs."