[251]These Scriptures clearly foretell the resurrection of Jesus.  Besides this, Jesus had told his disciples while in Galilee that he would be put to death and rise from the dead. (Luke 24:6,7) “And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men:  and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again.  And they were exceeding sorry.” (Matthew 17:22,23) But it may not be expected of them that they should understand the meaning of these Old Testament Scriptures as referring to the resurrection of the Lord.  They were not men of great learning.  They were poor and followed humble occupations.  They had doubtless not had the advantage of a great amount of education; but a stronger reason is that the holy spirit had not then been given and their minds had not been illuminated, and it is not to be expected that they would understand then the deep things of God’s Word. (1 Corinthians 2:14) Nor is it at all surprising that they had forgotten some of the sayings of Jesus concerning his betrayal, his death and resurrection.  We must remember that they loved Jesus very devotedly; and uppermost in their minds was the hope that he would be the deliverer of Israel.  Only five days before his death they had joined him in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the common people hailed him with gladness and joy. (Matthew 21:1-11) His death was so very sudden, so cruel, the shock so terrible, that the minds of these faithful disciples and others who loved him dearly were stunned.  They were truly overwhelmed with sorrow and grief.  He had been rudely snatched from them; unjustly tried, brutally condemned, and then subjected to the most ignominious death known to man, the death of the cross.

[252]Clearly in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah above noted, Jesus was put to death as an evil one, thereby making his grave with the wicked; and he was laid in the sepulchre of a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph.—­Matthew 27:57.

[253]Little is said as to the doings of the disciples and their associates immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus when he was laid away in the tomb.  The good women went and “beheld where he was laid”.  No doubt little else was done.  After 6 o’clock p.m. of that day was the beginning of the sabbath day, and under the law the Jews must rest; hence we are not to expect that they did much of anything.  Nor could it have been a day of much rest to them.  It was a day of great sorrow.  They could do no work to divert their minds from the terrible shock caused by the crucifixion of the Lord.  The rest must have been one merely of cessation from labor.  Surely they had little rest of body or peace of mind.  It was a day of sorrowful waiting for them, because tomorrow they would go to the tomb.  The sabbath ended at 6 o’clock p.m., but the night followed, which prevented them from visiting the tomb then.