In the End of the Sabbath
By A. R. Bell
NOTING from time to time discussion pro and con on the words which head this article, I offer the following: Let us first note the circumstances and the situation. The Lord is dead. He has been taken down from the cross, and has been buried in Joseph’s “new tomb,” and the “great stone” has been rolled to the “door of the sepulcher,” and the tomb is closed. The next day is the Sabbath. The chief priests and the Pharisees, remembering the words of Jesus concerning His resurrection, seek an interview with Pilate, “saying, Sir, we remember that that Deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead.” Matt. 27: 63, 64. Pilate replies, “Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.” Verse 65. And the record runs, “So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” Verse 66. Now let us not forget that it is the Word alone that is inspired, and not its division into chapters, and its subdivision into verses and sentences. Note for instance John 7 and 8, where the division of chapters breaks a sentence. 3. That “next day” the chief priests and Pharisees go to Pilate with their demands. 4. They receive his instruction, and go and make “the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone.” 5. But that is not all that they did. The record further reads, “and setting a watch in the end of the Sabbath.” Those chief priests and Pharisees sealed the stone, then they set a watch. When did they set the watch? “In the end of the Sabbath.” The third day was soon to be ushered in. The Sabbath would soon be past. That third day Christ had said He would rise. So the priests, to prevent fraud, as they said, are found “sealing the stone, and setting a watch in the end of the Sabbath.” This makes the story clear. Making the beginning of verse 1 of Matthew 28 a part of verse 66 of chapter 27 takes from verse 1 of chapter 28 all controversy. The chapter rightly begins: “As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” This could not possibly be “in the end of the Sabbath.” No, it is exactly where Luke puts it, “very early in the morning.” Luke 24: 1. Joining the words “in the end of the Sabbath” to the words “and setting a watch” seems to the writer to make complete harmony of all in all the Gospels respecting this event.