462-463 : God Is Laid To Rest
THE sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks split, and graves were opened.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said,
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." And after this, He said, "It is finished,"
and bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
Now when the captain of the guard saw the earthquake and all those things that were done,
he praised God, saying, "Truly this man was the Son of God."
All the people who had come to watch the spectacle, seeing the things which were done,
beat their breasts and went away.
And those who knew him,
and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood afar off, watching these things.
THE BODY IS BURIED
The people, that the bodies should not remain on the crosses on the sabbath day,
asked Pilate that he have them taken away.
But when the soldiers came to Jesus,one of them with a spear pierced his side
and forthwith there came out blood and water.
When evening was come, behold, a disciple of Jesus,
a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea came secretly to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus.
Pilate gave orders that the body be delivered and when Joseph had taken it,
he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb which
he had had hewn out of the rock.
This tomb was in a garden near the place where Jesus was crucified
and the women who had come from Galilee followed along and saw the tomb
and how his body was laid in it.
Then Joseph rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed.
But Mary Magdalene and Mary the wife of Cleophas stayed for a while sitting by the tomb.
Then they, too, left and prepared spices and ointment.
They rested the following day since it was the sabbath.
And on the sabbath the chief priests and Pharisees went in a body to Pilate,
saying, "Sir, we remember what that deceiver said, while he was still alive:
'After three days I will rise again.'
"Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day,
lest his disciples should come by night and steal him away, and say to the people,
'He is risen from the dead.' Then the final deception would be worse than the first."
Pilate said to them, "You may have your guard. Go your way and make it as secure as you can."
So they went and secured the tomb, sealing the stone and setting a guard of soldiers over it.
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