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UPDV Updated Bible Version

Matthew Chapter 27 — Crucifixion and Burial

Overview

UPDV chapter 27 covers the delivery to Pilate (27:1-2), the trial before Pilate (27:3-14), the soldiers' mockery (27:15-19), the crucifixion (27:20-32), the death of Jesus (27:33-40), and the burial (27:41-47). This material comes from Matt 27:1-2, 11-17, 21-24, 26-61, Mark 15:23, Mark 15:38, and Mark 15:39.

This chapter contains the UPDV's most extensive removals from canonical Matthew. Entire blocks of M material are omitted: Judas's death and the potter's field (Matt 27:3-10), Pilate's wife's dream (27:19), the blood curse (27:25), the risen saints (27:52-53), and the guard at the tomb (27:62-66). The compiler's hand-washing scene (27:24) is reduced to a single clause. The cumulative effect is to strip the passion narrative of the compiler's dramatizations and OT typologies, leaving a sparer account closer to Mark 15's unadorned report.

Delivery to Pilate (27:1-2)

"Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pilate the governor." These two verses (Matt 27:1-2) pass through unchanged.

Judas's Death — Omitted (Matt 27:3-10)

The entire Judas death pericope is omitted. Matt 27:3-10 is M material — a narrative of Judas's remorse, the return of the thirty pieces of silver, his hanging, and the priests' purchase of the potter's field with a formula quotation attributed to Jeremiah. D&A conclude that Matthew "inherited a story which contained at least three items: (i) Judas hanged himself, (ii) the money of betrayal was used to purchase land, (iii) that land was known as the Field of Blood" — but that Matthew then "put that tradition into his own words and appended a formula quotation." The verbal echo in 27:5 (ἀπελθών... ἀπήγξατο, apelthōn... apēnxato) draws on 2 Sam 17:23 LXX, where Ahithophel — David's treacherous counselor — "went away and hanged himself" with identical language. D&A are frank about historicity: "we scarcely know with certainty concerning Judas even so much as that he came to a violent and untimely death."

The formula quotation (27:9-10) is attributed to Jeremiah but draws primarily from Zechariah 11:12-13, with secondary allusions to Jeremiah 18-19 and 32:6-15. D&A note the mixed citation follows the same pattern as Mark 1:2, which attributes Malachi 3:1 + Isaiah 40:3 to Isaiah alone. The passage is characteristic of the compiler's method: shaping narrative events to fulfill prophetic patterns. The thirty pieces of silver were already removed at UPDV 25:14 (where Luke 22:5's "promised to give him money" replaced Matthew's Zechariah-laden sum), so this sequel is naturally omitted as well.

The Trial Before Pilate (27:3-14)

"Now Jesus was standing before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said, You say." The trial (UPDV 27:3-14) follows Matt 27:11-17, 21-24, 26, with significant omissions and revisions.

The scene before Pilate opens at Matt 27:11 (UPDV 27:3) with Jesus' one-word response to the charge: σύ λέγεις (su legeis), "You say." Lane reads this as an affirmation "with a reservation which hinted that his own conception of kingship did not correspond to that implied in the question." France notes that before Pilate, Jesus "has even less to say" than before the Sanhedrin — "A single apparently evasive answer in v. 2 is his last word before the cross." Jesus' subsequent silence (27:4-6) follows the suffering servant motif of Isaiah 53:7.

The UPDV omits four blocks of M material from within the Pilate trial:

First, Matt 27:18 ("For he knew that for envy they had delivered him up") is omitted. This is a methodological problem: the verse derives from Mark 15:10 (ἐγίνωσκεν γὰρ ὅτι διὰ φθόνον παραδεδώκεισαν αὐτόν, eginōsken gar hoti dia phthonon paradedōkeisan auton), making it Markan baseline material, not a compiler addition. The UPDV's omission deletes text precisely because it is in Mark — applying a modern literary preference against "narrator omniscience" that the reconstruction's own methodology does not support. If the UPDV claims to recover Mark's account, Markan editorial asides should be retained. This omission is an unforced error that a future revision should correct.

Second, Matt 27:19 (Pilate's wife's dream) is omitted. D&A attribute this to "Matthew's oral tradition" rather than pure redaction — "a fragment, an excerpt from a piece of popular folklore (parts of which might be preserved in the apocryphal Acts of Pilate)." The dream functions theologically to make Pilate's wife "resemble Joseph (1:20; 2:13, 19, 22) and the magi (2:12), earlier characters to whom God sent reliable dreams." It has no Synoptic parallel.

Third, Matt 27:20 ("Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus") is omitted. D&A identify this as a redactional reworking of Mark 15:11 — the compiler added "and the elders," changed Mark's verb (ἀνέσεισαν, aneseisan, "stirred up," to ἔπεισαν, epeisan, "persuaded"), and reshaped the clause into an antithesis. However, the underlying narrative beat — the chief priests stirring up the crowd — is Markan baseline (Mark 15:11: "But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them"). By deleting the entire verse rather than reverting to Mark's form, the UPDV creates a narrative gap: the crowd shouts "Barabbas" (27:10) without the Markan prompting that explains their choice. Like the omission of 27:18, this conflates Matthean redaction with Markan source material, and a future revision should restore Mark 15:11's baseline.

Fourth, the hand-washing and blood curse (Matt 27:24-25). This is the chapter's most consequential omission. The UPDV reduces Matt 27:24 to a single clause — "So when Pilate saw that he prevailed nothing" — and omits 27:25 entirely ("And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us, and on our children").

D&A are emphatic that vv. 24-25 are "purely editorial" — Matthean composition, not inherited tradition: "The verses are so closely tied to their present context and so full of Matthean themes that we have difficulty imagining their independent existence." The hand-washing draws on Deuteronomy 21:1-9 (the ritual for unsolved murder, where elders wash their hands and declare "Our hands have not shed this blood"), but D&A note the irony: "the OT text is about Israel not contracting blood guilt." Pilate's "see to it yourselves" (27:24) mirrors the priests' "see to it yourself" to Judas (27:4) — the same phrase of moral deflection. D&A firmly reject reading the scene as exonerating Pilate: "The point is not Pilate's exoneration — as though Matthew extols cowardice."

The blood curse itself (27:25) is one of the most historically consequential verses in the New Testament. D&A insist on careful limits: the cry "is not a self-curse but a declaration of responsibility." They argue it does not refer to "all Israel (neither Jewish Christians nor the Jewish diaspora are represented by the crowd) nor (against Origen and so many after him) should we find here a curse for all time." Rather, it is "an aetiological legend which explains the tribulations of Jerusalem and its environs during the Jewish war." The UPDV omits the verse not because of its reception history — though that history is grim — but because Mark 15 has no such scene. The Barabbas episode in Mark is spare: the crowd chooses, Pilate yields. The compiler added the dramatization of Pilate's moral struggle and the crowd's assumption of guilt.

The Barabbas naming is also simplified. At 27:8, the UPDV drops "Jesus" from "Jesus Barabbas" (Matt 27:16), and at 27:9, drops "who is called Christ" from Pilate's question (Matt 27:17). D&A accept "Jesus Barabbas" as the original reading — "most commentators now accept its originality" — noting that later scribes dropped the name "out of reverence for the name of Jesus." The UPDV's removal of the double name is a reversal of standard text-critical logic: the more difficult reading ("Jesus Barabbas") is typically preferred. The UPDV follows Mark 15:7's simple "Barabbas," which does not give a personal name. The result effectively aligns the UPDV with later reverential scribal alterations — the very manuscripts that dropped "Jesus" out of piety — rather than with either the original Matthean text or the Markan baseline. This is a tension the reconstruction should acknowledge: a future revision should either restore the original Matthean "Jesus Barabbas" (the text-critically superior reading) or fully revert to Mark's syntax.

The Soldiers' Mockery (27:15-19)

"Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium, and gathered to him the whole battalion." The mockery (27:15-19) follows Matt 27:27-31 with one revision.

At 27:17, the UPDV drops "and a reed in his right hand" from the mocking scene (Matt 27:29). D&A confirm this is redactional: "Mark's soldiers do not place a reed in Jesus' right hand: there is no mock sceptre." The compiler brought the reed forward from Mark 15:19, where it appears only as a weapon used to strike Jesus on the head, and repositioned it as a mock scepter placed in his hand — completing the trio of robe, crown, and scepter. France observes that in Mark "the kalamos with which they struck him (v. 19) had previously been put in his hand as a mock sceptre" only in Matthew's staging. D&A note the literary point: "A king's sceptre should be a 'glorious staff' (Jer 48:17), a symbol of might; but Jesus' reed is a sham sceptre." The UPDV follows Mark's rougher, less staged version, where the reed is only a weapon.

The Crucifixion (27:20-32)

"And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: they compelled him to go with them, that he might bear his cross." The crucifixion (27:20-32) follows Matt 27:32-44 with one source switch.

At 27:22, the UPDV uses Mark 15:23 instead of Matt 27:34 for the drink offered at the crucifixion. The compiler changed Mark's "wine mingled with myrrh" (ἐσμυρνισμένον οἶνον, esmyrnismenon oinon) to "wine mingled with gall" (οἶνον μετὰ χολῆς, oinon meta cholēs). D&A confirm the change creates an allusion to LXX Psalm 68:22 (= Psalm 69:21): "They gave gall for my bread, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." In Mark, the myrrh-wine is plausibly an act of mercy — Lane identifies it as a narcotic drink offered according to "an old tradition" in which "respected women of Jerusalem provided a narcotic drink to those condemned to death" (citing Proverbs 31:6-7 and the Talmud, b. Sanhedrin 43a). The compiler transformed this possible kindness into a fulfillment of the Psalmic lament, turning mercy into mockery. The UPDV restores Mark's myrrh.

The remainder of the crucifixion follows Matt 27:35-44 without changes. The taunts from passers-by (27:27-28), the chief priests and scribes (27:29-31), and the robbers (27:32) all reproduce Mark 15:29-32 closely.

The Death of Jesus (27:33-40)

"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." The death of Jesus (27:33-40) follows Matt 27:45-51a with two source switches that strip the compiler's apocalyptic expansions.

The three hours of darkness (27:33), the cry of dereliction (27:34), the Elijah confusion (27:35), the vinegar (27:36-37), and the loud final cry (27:38) all pass through unchanged. Lane reads the darkness as "a cosmic sign" connected to Amos 8:9-10 — darkness at noon on the Day of the Lord expressing "mourning for an only son." France insists on the full force of the cry of dereliction (Psalm 22:1): "to read into these few tortured words an exegesis of the whole psalm is to turn upside down the effect which Mark has created by this powerful and enigmatic cry of agony." This is "the only time in Jesus' recorded prayers in all four gospels" where he addresses God not as "Father" but as "my God."

At 27:39, the UPDV switches to Mark 15:38 for the veil rending: "And look, the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom in two." The compiler's Matt 27:51 added "and the earth quaked; and the rocks were rent" — an earthquake with no Markan parallel. The UPDV drops the earthquake and keeps only the veil. Lane identifies the veil as the outer curtain — the magnificent one visible from the forecourt — rather than the inner veil of the Holy of Holies. France reads it as "divine vandalism" — the phrase "from top to bottom" indicates "no human being could have torn it that way."

Matt 27:52-53 (the tombs opening and the saints rising) is omitted entirely. D&A assign this to pre-Matthean tradition rather than pure editorial creation, noting that "nowhere else does Matthew use ἅγιος (hagios) as a substantive" and that the passage "harmonizes with what we otherwise know of primitive Christian theology" — the early linkage of Jesus' resurrection to the general resurrection. They also suggest the phrase "after his resurrection" (27:53) may be "an early gloss," since it creates an impossible narrative sequence: the centurion in 27:54 sees "the earthquake and what took place," but if the saints only rose after Easter, he could not have witnessed it. D&A are candid: they "discern in vv. 51-3 not history but a poetic or mythological expression of the profound meaning of Jesus' death." The UPDV omits the passage because it has no Markan parallel — Mark 15:38 has only the veil, with no earthquake, no split rocks, no opened tombs, no risen saints.

At 27:40, the UPDV switches to Mark 15:39 for the centurion's confession. The compiler's Matt 27:54 expanded Mark's single centurion to "the captain, and those who were with him watching Jesus" and changed the trigger from how Jesus died to "when they saw the earthquake, and the things that were done." The UPDV follows Mark: a single centurion, responding to the manner of Jesus' death, declares "Truly this was the Son of God." France calls this the christological high point of the Gospel at the narrative level — "the first human witness to describe Jesus as υἱὸς θεοῦ (huios theou) and mean it" is "not a disciple or even a Jew at all, but a Gentile army officer." Lane draws the structural parallel: at baptism the heavens were torn and God declared "You are my beloved Son"; at death the veil was torn and a human declares "Truly this man was the Son of God."

The Burial (27:41-47)

"And many women were there watching from far, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, serving him." The burial (27:41-47) follows Matt 27:55-61 with no changes. The compiler closely reproduces Mark 15:40-47 here.

The Guard at the Tomb — Omitted (Matt 27:62-66)

Matt 27:62-66 is omitted. This is the first of three interconnected M passages about the tomb guard (27:62-66; 28:2-4; 28:11-15) that D&A attribute to "a traditional piece" — pre-Matthean apologetic tradition also taken up in the Gospel of Peter. The narrative answers Jewish polemic about a stolen body: the stone is sealed, soldiers keep watch, and they will later be bribed to lie. D&A note this is "the only mention of the Pharisees in the synoptic passion narratives — a fact explained only by the influence of historical memory; they were not responsible for Jesus' execution." They are skeptical of historicity: "Mark, Luke, and John, who know that the rolling stone would be an obstacle for visitors to Jesus' tomb, yet say nothing about the guard."

What the UPDV Removes from This Section

  • Matt 27:3-10 (Judas's death, potter's field): Omitted. M material with Ahithophel typology and Zechariah/Jeremiah formula quotation. D&A: "we scarcely know with certainty concerning Judas even so much as that he came to a violent and untimely death."
  • Matt 27:16-17 — revised: "Jesus Barabbas" simplified to "Barabbas"; "who is called Christ" dropped. Aligns with later scribal censorship rather than the text-critically superior "Jesus Barabbas" or Mark's syntax — a tension requiring future revision.
  • Matt 27:18 ("for envy"): Omitted. Derived from Mark 15:10 — Markan baseline material inadvertently deleted. A methodological error requiring future correction.
  • Matt 27:19 (Pilate's wife's dream): Omitted. M tradition — "a fragment... of popular folklore" (D&A).
  • Matt 27:20 (chief priests persuade crowds): Omitted entirely rather than reverted to Mark 15:11. Creates a narrative gap — the crowd chooses Barabbas without the Markan priestly prompting. Requires future correction.
  • Matt 27:24-25 — revised/omitted: Hand-washing reduced to "So when Pilate saw that he prevailed nothing"; blood curse omitted. D&A: "purely editorial." No Markan parallel.
  • Matt 27:29 — revised: "and a reed in his right hand" dropped. Redactional mock-scepter staging absent from Mark.
  • Matt 27:34 — source switch: Mark 15:23's "wine mingled with myrrh" replaces compiler's "wine mingled with gall." D&A: the compiler changed myrrh to gall to create a Psalm 69:21 allusion.
  • Matt 27:51b — revised: earthquake and rock-splitting dropped; only veil rending retained (Mark 15:38).
  • Matt 27:52-53 (saints rising from tombs): Omitted. Pre-Matthean tradition (D&A), no Markan parallel. D&A: "not history but a poetic or mythological expression of the profound meaning of Jesus' death."
  • Matt 27:54 — source switch: Mark 15:39's single centurion replaces compiler's group. Cause changed from earthquake to the manner of death.
  • Matt 27:62-66 (guard at the tomb): Omitted. Pre-Matthean apologetic tradition answering Jewish polemic. No Synoptic parallel.

References

  • Davies, W. D. and Dale C. Allison Jr. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. 3 vols. International Critical Commentary. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988–1997.
  • Lane, William L. The Gospel according to Mark. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.
  • Evans, Craig A. Mark 8:27–16:20. Word Biblical Commentary 34B. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001.
  • France, R. T. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
  • Collins, Adela Yarbro. Mark: A Commentary. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007.
  • Brooks, James A. Mark. New American Commentary 23. Nashville: Broadman, 1991.