Matthew Chapter 28 verse 13 Holy Bible
saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
read chapter 28 in ASV
Say, His disciples came by night and took him away secretly while we were sleeping.
read chapter 28 in BBE
saying, Say that his disciples coming by night stole him [while] we [were] sleeping.
read chapter 28 in DARBY
Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
read chapter 28 in KJV
read chapter 28 in WBT
saying, "Say that his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
read chapter 28 in WEB
saying, `Say ye, that his disciples having come by night, stole him -- we being asleep;
read chapter 28 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 13. - Say ye, etc. They put the lie into the soldiers' mouth, directing them to answer inquiries in this way. The last resource of an infatuated obstinacy! If they were asleep, how could they know that the disciples stole the body? St. Chrysostom comments well on the infamous transaction, "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. For indeed, what they said was highly incredible, and the falsehood had not even speciousness. For how, I ask, did the disciples steal him, men poor and unlearned, and not venturing so much as to show themselves? What? was not a seal put upon it? What? were there not many watchmen and soldiers and Jews stationed round it? What? did not those men suspect this very thing, and take thought, and break their rest, and are in anxiety about it? And wherefore, moreover, did they steal it? That they might feign the doctrine of the resurrection? And how should it enter their minds to feign such a thing - men who were well content to be hidden and to live? And how could they remove the stone that was made sure? How could they have escaped the observation of so many? Nay, though they had despised death, they would not have attempted without purpose and fruitlessly to venture in defiance of so many who were on the watch. And that moreover they were timorous, what they had done before showed clearly: at least, when they saw him seized, all rushed away from him. If, then, at that time they did not dare so much as to stand their ground when they saw him alive, how when he was dead could they but have feared such a number of soldiers?" ('Hem.,' 90.).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(13) His disciples came by night.--The story was on the face of it self-contradictory. How could they tell, if they had been asleep, who had stolen the body? All that they could know was that they had fallen asleep, and that when they awoke the sepulchre was open and empty.
