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65. ἔχετε κουστωδίαν. The meaning is either (1) that Pilate refuses the request; ‘Ye have a watch of your own’—(a) the Levitical temple guard, or more probably (b) a small body of soldiers whom Pilate may have already placed at their disposal—or (2) he grants it curtly and angrily, ‘Take a watch; begone.’
The latter view is generally adopted now; but it involves a meaning of ἔχειν (‘to take’) of which no clear example appears either in classical or Hellenistic Greek. See, however, Alford on 1Ti 2:13, who argues for such a meaning in that passage: ὑποτύπωσιν ἔχε ὑγιαινόντων λόγων, ‘have (take) an ensample of (the) healthy words,’ &c. It should also be mentioned that in modern Greek ἔχειν and λαμβάνειν are so nearly connected in meaning that the defective parts of ἔχειν (aor. and 2nd future) are supplied from λαμβάνω. Still the argument in favour of retaining the ordinary meaning of ἔχειν in this passage is strong, and the objection that we have no record of a body of Roman soldiers being placed occasionally under the orders of the Sanhedrin need not have great weight. In this case Pilate may well have held it to be a measure on the side of order.
It seems quite clear from ch. Mat 28:14 that the guard was of Roman soldiers.
In any view the asyndeton ἔχετε ὑπάγετε ἀσφαλίσασθε indicates impatience on the part of Pilate.
κουστωδίαν appears to have meant a guard of 60 men. See quotation from Theophylact, note on Mat 27:27 of this chapter.
ἀσφαλίσασθε … ἠσφαλίσαντο. The middle voice has its proper form, ‘secure for yourselves.’ A providential point, for if the Roman soldiers had secured the sepulchre the Jews might still have affirmed that deceit had been practised.
ἀσφαλίζειν is a Polybian word which does not seem to have been used earlier. Cp. Act 16:24, τοὺς πόδας ἠσφαλίσατο αὐτῶν εἰς τὸ ξύλον. The verb does not occur elsewhere in N.T.