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Bible chapter guide
Matthew 27
Jesus is handed over to Pilate; Judas hangs himself. The crowd chooses Barabbas, Pilate washes his hands, and soldiers mock Jesus and crucify him at Golgotha. Darkness covers the land, the temple veil is torn, a centurion confesses him as Son of God, and Joseph of Arimathea buries him in a sealed tomb.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
What happens in this chapter
At daybreak the council hands Jesus over to Pilate, and Judas, seeing him condemned, brings back the thirty pieces of silver, throws them into the temple and hangs himself; the priests use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Only Matthew tells of Pilate's wife sending word about her dream, of Pilate washing his hands before the crowd, and of the earthquake at Jesus' death that split the rocks and opened tombs. Jesus is crucified at Golgotha, darkness covers the land from the sixth hour to the ninth, and the veil of the temple is torn from top to bottom. Joseph of Arimathea lays the body in his own new tomb, and the next day the chief priests and Pharisees persuade Pilate to let them seal the stone and set a guard.
What the lab shows, and where to look
The Holy Week lab's Friday has two stops for this chapter. 'Before Pilate' shows the judgment seat at the Stone Pavement in the early morning, and you can switch the praetorium between Herod's palace and the Antonia Fortress, with the case for each. At 'The crucifixion' the figures are stylized and seen from a distance, with no wounds shown; step to 'The darkness'. Matthew's own detail comes on Saturday, which opens on the sealed tomb with the guard at watch. For the torn veil, the Sanctuary spot in the Temple Mount scene shows the building it hung in.
- Before Pilate: Herod's palace · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- Before Pilate: Antonia · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The crucifixion: The darkness · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The tomb and the resurrection morning · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The Sanctuary · The Temple Mount
Questions people ask
What happened to Judas?
Matthew says he threw the silver into the temple and hanged himself, and the priests bought the potter's field with it, so that it was called the Field of Blood (27:5–8). Acts 1:18–19 says that he obtained a field with the money and fell headlong, and that the place was called Akeldama, the field of blood. Both name the field; readers have long harmonised the two, the field bought in his name and a fall after the hanging, while others take them as two traditions told for different purposes.
Where did Pilate judge Jesus?
Roman governors lived at Caesarea and stayed in Herod's palace on the western hill when they came up for the feasts; Philo tells of Pilate hanging shields there, and Josephus of a later governor judging from a tribunal in front of it. Most scholars now place the praetorium and John's Stone Pavement there. The Via Dolorosa begins instead at the Antonia Fortress by the temple, but the paving long shown there as the Pavement belongs to a square of the 2nd century.
Why was a guard set at the tomb?
Matthew alone tells it. On the day after the Preparation the chief priests and Pharisees reminded Pilate that Jesus had said he would rise after three days, and asked for the tomb to be made secure so that the disciples could not take the body (27:62–66); they sealed the stone and set the watch. Matthew comes back to the guard in 28:11–15, to answer a story that was still being told in his own day.
Which veil of the temple was torn?
Matthew says only 'the veil of the temple'. Most readers, as Hebrews 10:19–20 already does, take it as the curtain before the most holy place; some point instead to the great curtain at the sanctuary's entrance, which Josephus also describes and which could be seen from outside. For the inner curtain, Josephus, who saw Herod's Temple, speaks of one veil, like the Tabernacle's; the Mishnah (Yoma 5:1) describes two curtains a cubit apart. The Gospels speak of a single veil and do not say which.
See it in the Labs
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe tomb and the resurrection morning · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- The Bible Time MapPontius Pilate · The Bible Time MapOpen
- The Temple MountThe Sanctuary · The Temple MountOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemBefore Pilate · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemBefore Pilate: Herod's palace · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemBefore Pilate: Antonia · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe crucifixion · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe crucifixion: The darkness · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe crucifixion: Holy Sepulchre · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
People in this chapter
Also in this chapter
How sure can we be?
- Textually stated
Matthew alone tells that the chief priests and Pharisees asked Pilate for a guard, sealed the stone and set the watch.
- Textually stated
When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.
Stated in the Gospels. That veil hung in Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, not in the wilderness Tabernacle, so the tearing shown in this lab is a reflection rather than a scene from the Tabernacle's history. Hebrews reads the veil as Christ's flesh, through which…
- Plausible
The Passover release: Mark, Matthew and John speak of a custom of releasing one prisoner at the feast. No source outside the Gospels mentions it; it may have been a local practice of Pilate's time.
- Plausible
Was there one veil in Herod's Temple, or two curtains? One veil before the most holy place, like the Tabernacle's.
Josephus, who saw it; the Gospels speak of “the veil”.