and (to sit · verb — present middle or passive deponent participle, nominative plural masculine
watched
ἐτήρουνetēroun
G5083
perhaps akin to G2334 (θεωρέω)) · verb — imperfect active indicative, 3rd person plural
him
αὐτὸνauton
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — accusative singular masculine
there
ἐκεῖ,ekei
G1563
there · adverb
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 27:54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatl…
Mark 15:39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son o…
Mark 15:44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 27:9
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying-- (Zac 11:12-13). Never was a complicated prophecy, otherwise hopelessly dark, more marvellously fulfilled. Various conjectures have been formed to account for Matthew's ascribing to Jeremiah a prophecy found in the book of Zechariah. But since with this book he was plainly familiar, having quoted one of its most remarkable prophecies of Christ but a few chapters before (Mat 21:4-5), the question is one more of critical interest than real importance. Perhaps the true explanation is the following, from LIGHTFOOT: "Jeremiah of old had the first place among the prophets, and hereby he comes to be mentioned above all the rest…
And sitting down, they watched him there. That is, the soldiers, after they had crucified Jesus, and parted his garments, sat down on the ground at the foot of the cross, and there watched him, lest his disciples should take him down; though there was no need to fear that, since they were few, and weak, and wanted courage, and were in the utmost dread and consternation themselves; or lest the people, who were very changeable with respect to Christ, one day saying Hosanna to the son of David, and another day crucify him, crucify him, should once more change their sentiments of him, and through pity to him rise and take him down; or rather, lest Jesus himself should, by his miraculous power, u…
Matthew 27:24-32
Matthew 27:24-32
Mark 15:15-21
Luke 23:24-32
24. But Pilate, perceiving that he gained nothing by it, but that the tumult became the greater, took water, and washed his hands before the people, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man: see you to it. 25. And the whole people, answering, said, His blood be on us and on our children. 26. Then he released to them Barabbas, and after having scourged Jesus, he delivered him up to be crucified. 27. Then the soldiers of the governor conducted Jesus into the Pretorium, and gathered around him the whole band. 28. And having stripped him, they put on him a scarlet robe. 29. And having wreathed a crown of thorns, th…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 36.) And they kept watch over him while he was sitting. The diligence of the soldiers and priests helps us so that the greater and more evident power of his resurrection may appear.
It proceeds, And sitting down, they watched him there. This watchfulness of the soldiers and of the Priests has proved of use to us in making the power of His resurrection greater and more notorious.
And sitting down they kept watch over him there. And the soldiers indeed kept watch over the body, having been assigned by the chief priests, as though it were liable to be stolen away by his disciples if it were not guarded; but the divine dispensation raised him up and made not only two or three to be witnesses of his resurrection, but far more. For "he was seen by Cephas, then by the eleven, then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once", "and last of all" by Paul. And it was no small sign of his resurrection, that he was seen by so many — by those who took up the danger of proclaiming him alive among the peoples who had demanded him for the cross. And now new chief priests (namely the sons of those chief priests) crucify the word of truth set down in the Scriptures by their false expositions, and slay it with lies; but the word of truth, because among them indeed it is slain yet lives in its own nature, always finds and chooses for itself vessels in which it may rise again and live and still confound its own slayers, shown by many testimonies to be alive.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Crucifixion — A common mode of punishment among heathen nations in early times. It is not certain whether it was known among the ancient Jews; probably it was not. The modes of capital punishment according to the…
Soldiers · Crucified Jesus — Crucified Jesus
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
they . . . nailed him to the cross: Crucifixion, though not generally practiced by Jews, was a widespread Roman punishment for military and political offenders, particularly slaves, rebels, and insurrectionists. The sheer cruelty and the public spectacle of crucifixion worked as a powerful social deterrent. Victims were flogged and then crucified naked, adding to the humiliation. It was seen as the most painful of all possible deaths; it involved intense suffering, exposure to weather and insects, suffocation, and often a final violent thrust of a spear to end life. Further, since crucifixion was a curse from God (Deut 21:22-23), the act was particularly heinous to Jewish sensibilities. Para…
