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Mat_27:60 Ὃ ἐλατόμησεν ] Aorist, as in Mat_27:55.
The other evangelists say nothing about the grave having belonged to Joseph; Joh_19:42 rather gives us to understand that, owing to the necessary despatch, it was made choice of from its being close at hand. We thus see that Matthew’s account is unsupported by the earlier testimony of Mark on the one hand, and the later testimony of Luke and John on the other. This, however, only goes to confirm the view that in Matthew we have a later amplification of the tradition which was expunged again by Luke and John, for this latter at least would scarcely have left unnoticed the devotion evinced by Joseph in thus giving up his own tomb, and yet it is John who distinctly alleges a different reason altogether for the choice of the grave. The ordinary supposition, that Matthew’s account is intended to supplement those of the other evangelists, fails to meet the exigencies of the case, especially in regard to John, on whom so tender a feature in connection with the burial would doubtless have made too deep an impression to admit of his passing it over in silence.
As a new grave was calculated to do honour to Jesus (comp. on John as above), the circumstance that this one had not been previously used may have gone far to determine the choice, so that there is no ground for supposing that what is said with reference to this has been added without historical warrant (Strauss, Scholten).
ἐν τῇ πέτρᾳ ] The article is to be understood as indicating a rocky place just at hand.
τῇ θύρᾳ ] Comp. Hom. Od. ix. 243: πέτρην ἐπέθηκε θύρῃσιν . In Rabbinical phraseology the stone used for this purpose is called âÌåÉìÈì , a roller. See Paulus, exeget. Handb. III. p. 819. Such a mode of stopping up graves is met with even in the present day (Strauss, Sinai u. Golgatha, p. 205).