The Guards at the Tomb (Matthew 27:62–66; 28:11–15)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homilies LXXXIX–XC (on Matthew 27:62–66; 28:11–15) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.LXXXV.html

On how the enemies, in asking for the seal and the watch, are made against their will to establish the facts of the burial and the rising:

Everywhere deceit recoils upon itself, and against its will supports the truth.

It was necessary for it to be believed that He died, and that He rose again, and that He was buried, and all these things are brought to pass by His enemies.

On the sealed tomb found empty, which turns their own precaution into incontrovertible proof:

So then the proof of His resurrection has become incontrovertible by what ye have put forward. For because it was sealed, there was no unfair dealing. But if there was no unfair dealing, and the sepulchre was found empty, it is manifest that He is risen, plainly and incontrovertibly. Seest thou, how even against their will they contend for the proof of the truth?

On the seal, the stone, and the watch that could not hold Him:

behold, both a seal, a stone, and a watch, and they were not able to hold Him. But there was one result only, that the burial was published, and the resurrection thereby proved.

On the soldiers bribed to say the disciples stole the body, that truth is the brighter for being proclaimed by its adversaries (Homily XC, on Matthew 28:11–15):

When then they came and showed it (for truth shines forth, being proclaimed by its adversaries), they again gave money, that they might say, as it is expressed, ... that His disciples came and stole Him. How did they steal Him? O most foolish of all men! For because of the clearness and conspicuousness of the truth, they are not even able to make up a falsehood.

On the folly of the tale of the theft, the great stone and the sleeping guards:

how could they remove the stone that was made sure? how could they have escaped the observation of so many? ... A great stone lay upon it, needing many hands to move it.

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 27:62–66; 28:11–15) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxvii.html

On the chief priests who would not rest until they had guarded the sepulchre:

It was not enough for the Chief Priests to have crucified the Lord the Saviour, if they did not guard the sepulchre, and do their utmost to lay hands on Him as He rose from the dead.

On the money of the Temple turned to the purchase of a lie (on Matthew 28:11–15):

Thus the Chief Priests, who ought to have been by this turned to penitence, and to seek Jesus risen, persevere in their wickedness, and convert the money which was given for the use of the Temple to the purchase of a lie, as before they had given thirty pieces of silver to the traitor Judas.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 27:62–66; 28:11–15) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxvii.html

On the sealing and the watch as marks of folly and unbelief:

Their fear lest the body should be stolen, the setting a watch on the tomb, and sealing it, are marks of folly and unbelief, that they should have sought to seal up the tomb of One at whose bidding they had seen a dead man raised from the tomb.

On the Resurrection they sought to conceal by money (on Matthew 28:11–15):

The concealment of the Resurrection, and the false allegation of theft, is purchased by money; because by the honour of this world, which consists in money and desire, Christ's glory is denied.

St. Peter Chrysologus (c. 380–450)

Sermons (on Matthew 28:11–15) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxviii.html

On the charge of theft, and how in truth the disciples bore their Master away not by fraud but by faith:

Not content to have put the Master to death, they plot how they may destroy the disciples, and make the Master's power matter of charge against His disciples. The soldiers indeed lost Him, the Jews missed Him, but the disciples carried Him away, not by theft, but by faith; by virtue, and not by fraud; by holiness, and not by wickedness; alive, and not dead.

On the report that the money bought, and what faith proclaimed instead:

"Among the Jews," not among the Christians; what in Judaea the Jew concealed by his gold, is by faith blazed abroad throughout the world.

Remigius of Auxerre (c. 841–908)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 28:11–15) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxviii.html

(Remigius is a later Carolingian compiler; his comment survives only as preserved in the Catena Aurea.) On the self-refuting lie, that sleeping guards can be no witnesses to a theft:

But if the guards slept, how saw they the theft? And if they saw it not, how could they witness thereto? So that what they desire to shew, they cannot shew.