According to Luke, as soon as Jesus was dead, Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate, and begged his body, and hasted to bury it, because the Sabbath (which began at sunset,) drew on; that his female disciples attended the burial; observed how the body was placed in the sepulchre, and returned and prepared spices and ointments to embalm it with, before the Sabbath commenced; and then rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.

The pretended Matthew, however, tells us, that “when the even was come (i. e., when the Sabbath day was actually begun,) Joseph went to beg the body—­took it down, wrapped it in linen, and buried it; and that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, were sitting over against the sepulchre.  From the time that this writer has thought fit to allot for the burial of Jesus, it is evident, that he was not only no Jew, but so ignorant of the customs of the Jews, that he did not know that their day always began with the evening, or he would never have employed, Joseph in doing what no Jew would, nor dared to have done, after the commencement of the Sabbath.  He takes no notice at all of the preparation made by the women, mentioned by Luke; for that would not have agreed with the sequel of his story.  But to make up for that omission, he informs us of a circumstance not mentioned at all by the other Evangelists.  For he tells us that “on the next day which followeth the day of preparation, the Chief Priests, and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,” &c.  “The next day which followeth the day of preparation!!”—­such is the periphrasis that he uses for the Sabbath day!  It is well known that among the Jews it was, and is, customary to prepare, and set out, in the afternoon of the Friday, all the food and necessaries for every family during the Sabbath day.  Because they were forbidden to light a fire, or do any servile work, on that day; and therefore Friday was very properly called “the day of preparation.”  But it appears to me next to impossible, that any Jew would call the sabbath “the day that followeth the day of the preparation.”  Yet this singular historian so denominates it, and moreover, goes on to inform us, that the chief priests, and Pharisees went to Pilate to ask for a guard to place round the sepulchre, till the third day, to prevent his disciples from stealing away his body, and then saying, that he was risen from the dead; and that after obtaining the governor’s permission, “they, went, and secured the sepulchre by sealing the stone that was rolled against it; and setting a watch.”  Though there appears nothing very strange in this account to a Christian, yet, I assure my reader, that to the Jews, it ever did, and must appear utterly incredible.  For it is wonderful! that the Jewish rulers, and the rigorous Pharisees should in so public a manner thus violate the precept for observing the Sabbath day; for the penalty of this action of theirs was no less than death!  More wonderful still is it that they should have so much better attended to, and comprehended the meaning of the prediction of Jesus to his disciples, than his own disciples did; and most wonderful of all, that a Roman Proconsul should consent to let his troops keep watch round a tomb, for fear it should be thought that a dead man was come to life again.