He Is Risen
So the guards took the money and did as they were instructed. And this account has been circulated among the Jews to this very day. Matthew 28:15 · Berean Standard Bible
The soldiers took the money and did what they were told. And that made-up story has been repeated ever since.
Matthew is writing to people who have heard this alternative story. He's pulling back the curtain to show where it really came from: a bribe and a conspiracy.
Matthew wraps up the cover-up narrative with a note that the lie was still circulating when he wrote this Gospel.
Lies can travel a long way, especially when they're backed by money and power. But the truth has a way of outlasting every cover-up—and two thousand years later, it's the resurrection that's still being proclaimed.
The soldiers accepted the bribe and spread the fabricated account, which Matthew notes was still circulating among Jewish communities at the time of his writing (mechri tēs sēmeron hēmeras).
Matthew's editorial note ('to this very day') indicates this Gospel was written when the stolen-body theory was an active counter-narrative, and he provides the bribery account as its refutation.
Matthew narrates the soldiers' compliance and adds an authorial aside about the story's ongoing circulation.
The persistence of this false narrative among Jewish communities actually served as indirect evidence for the empty tomb, since both sides agreed the tomb was empty—they only disagreed about why.
13and instructed them: “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’
14If this report reaches the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”
15So the guards took the money and did as they were instructed. And this account has been circulated among the Jews to this very day.
16Meanwhile, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus had designated.
17When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.
Read all of Matthew 28 — An earthquake. An angel. An empty tomb. And then the most important words ever spoken: He is not here. He has risen.
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