Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, November 25th, 2025
the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Matthew 28:13

and said to them, "Tell the people that Jesus' followers came during the night and stole the body while you were sleeping.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Bribery;   Falsehood;   Jesus, the Christ;   Soldiers;   Witness;   Thompson Chain Reference - Dead, the;   Lying, Examples of;   Mortality-Immortality;   Resurrection;   Truth-Falsehood;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Resurrection of Christ, the;   Roman Empire, the;   Watchmen;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Resurrection;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Angel;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Resurrection of Christ;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Miracles;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Matthew, the Gospel of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Assumption of Moses;   Logia;   Matthew, Gospel According to;   Night (2);   Poet;   Police;   Resurrection of Christ (2);   Sleep ;   Soldiers;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Chief parables and miracles in the bible;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Number;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for October 15;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
and told them, “Say this, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him while we were sleeping.’
King James Version (1611)
Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
King James Version
Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
English Standard Version
and said, "Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.'
New American Standard Bible
and said, "You are to say, 'His disciples came at night and stole Him while we were asleep.'
New Century Version
and said to them, "Tell the people that Jesus' followers came during the night and stole the body while you were asleep.
Amplified Bible
and said, "You say this, 'His disciples came at night and stole Him while we were sleeping.'
New American Standard Bible (1995)
and said, "You are to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.'
Legacy Standard Bible
and said, "You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.'
Berean Standard Bible
and instructed them: "You are to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.'
Contemporary English Version
They said to the soldiers, "Tell everyone that Jesus' disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep.
Complete Jewish Bible
and said to them, "Tell people, ‘His talmidim came during the night and stole his body while we were sleeping.'
Darby Translation
saying, Say that his disciples coming by night stole him [while] we [were] sleeping.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Saying, Say, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
George Lamsa Translation
Telling them, Say that his disciples came by night and stole him while we were sleeping.
Good News Translation
and said, "You are to say that his disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep.
Lexham English Bible
telling them, "Say ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him while we were sleeping.'
Literal Translation
saying, Say that his disciples came and stole him by night, we being asleep.
American Standard Version
saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
Bible in Basic English
Say, His disciples came by night and took him away secretly while we were sleeping.
Hebrew Names Version
saying, "Say that his talmidim came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
International Standard Version
They said, "Say that his disciples came at night and stole him while you were sleeping.
Etheridge Translation
telling them, Say you that his disciples came (and) stole him away in the night, while we slept.
Murdock Translation
and said to them: Say ye, that his disciples came and stole him away by night, while we were asleep.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Saying. Saye ye, that his disciples came by nyght, & stole hym away while ye slept.
English Revised Version
saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
World English Bible
saying, "Say that his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Saying, Say his disciples came by night, and stole him while we slept.
Weymouth's New Testament
telling them to say, "His disciples came during the night and stole his body while we were asleep."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
that hise disciplis camen bi nyyt, and han stolen hym, while ye slepten.
Update Bible Version
saying, Say, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
Webster's Bible Translation
Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him [away] while we slept.
New English Translation
telling them, "You are to say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole his body while we were asleep.'
New King James Version
saying, "Tell them, "His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.'
New Living Translation
They told the soldiers, "You must say, ‘Jesus' disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.'
New Life Bible
They said, "Tell the people, ‘His followers came at night and took His body while we were sleeping.'
New Revised Standard
telling them, "You must say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.'
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
saying - Say ye, His disciples, coming, by night, stole him, while we were sleeping;
Douay-Rheims Bible
Saying: Say you, His disciples came by night and stole him away when we were asleep.
Revised Standard Version
and said, "Tell people, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.'
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
sayinge: Saye that his disciples came by nyght and stole him awaye whill ye slept.
Young's Literal Translation
saying, `Say ye, that his disciples having come by night, stole him -- we being asleep;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and sayde: Saye ye: his disciples came by night, and stole him awaye, whyle we were a slepe.
Mace New Testament (1729)
do you say "his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
Simplified Cowboy Version
"Tell people that Jesus's cowboys came in the middle of the night and bushwhacked you and stole Jesus's body.

Contextual Overview

11 The women went to tell the followers. At the same time, some of the soldiers who were guarding the tomb went into the city. They went to tell the leading priests everything that happened. 12 Then the priests met with the older Jewish leaders and made a plan. They paid the soldiers a lot of money 13 and said to them, "Tell the people that Jesus' followers came during the night and stole the body while you were sleeping. 14 If the governor hears about this, we will talk to him and keep you out of trouble." 15 So the soldiers kept the money and obeyed the priests. And that story is still spread among the Jews even today.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

stole: Matthew 26:64

Reciprocal: Genesis 34:13 - deceitfully Matthew 27:64 - and steal

Cross-References

Genesis 12:7
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "I will give this land to your descendants." Abram built an altar to honor the Lord who appeared to him there.
Genesis 13:15
All this land that you see I will give to you and your people who live after you. This will be your land forever.
Genesis 15:1
After all these things happened, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. God said, "Abram, don't be afraid. I will defend you and give you a great reward."
Genesis 26:3
Stay in this land, and I will be with you. I will bless you. I will give you and your family all these lands. I will do what I promised to Abraham your father.
Genesis 26:24
The Lord spoke to him that night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Don't be afraid. I am with you, and I will bless you. I will make your family great. I will do this because of my servant Abraham."
Genesis 28:4
and that God will bless you and your children the same way he blessed Abraham. And I pray that you will own the land where you live. This is the land God gave to Abraham."
Genesis 28:6
Esau learned that his father Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. He also learned that Isaac commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman.
Genesis 28:7
Esau learned that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and went to Paddan Aram.
Genesis 28:15
"I am with you, and I will protect you everywhere you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised."
Genesis 28:16
Then Jacob woke up and said, "I know that the Lord is in this place, but I did not know he was here until I slept."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Saying, say ye his disciples came by night,.... They charged them to tell every one that should ask them about this affair; and even publish it every where, that the disciples of Christ came in the dead of the night,

and stole him away while we slept: which was a very unlikely thing, and a foolish scheme this, for such a body of men to form. There is no show of probability in it, that the disciples, who were intimidated by the taking and putting Christ to death, and were now shut up in a house, for fear of the Jews, that these should venture out in the night, to take away the body of Christ, which was decently and honourably interred in a garden of one of his disciples: and when they knew it was guarded by a company of Roman soldiers; and who besides had no notion of his resurrection from the dead, nor never thought of it till he was risen, and therefore would never attempt any thing of this kind, in order to give out such a report. Moreover, had they took it away by stealth, it is not reasonable to think that they would afterwards have reported such a lie every where, that he was risen from the dead, when they were sure to obtain nothing by it, but reproach, afflictions, persecutions, and death: add to this, that this was never objected to them by their worst enemies, when they most strongly asserted his resurrection: nor was it a feasible account, or well put together, with respect to the watch. It can hardly be thought that they should be all of them asleep at once; and if they were, it is much they were not awaked by the coming up of the disciples, and the rolling away of the stone, and the bustle there must be in taking up the body, and carrying it away; and besides, if they were asleep, and continued so, what is their evidence good for? for how could they know that his disciples came and took him away? if they awaked, though too late, and saw them at a distance, why did not they pursue them, who might easily have been overtaken with such a burden? at least, why did not they search their houses for the body? and take up both the women and the disciples, and prosecute them for it? and yet nothing of this was done. Besides, how came the linen clothes to be left behind? why did they take the napkin from his head, and give themselves all that trouble to unwrap the body, and carry it away naked? It is clear the chief priests themselves were convinced in their own minds, that he was truly risen, or they would have punished the soldiers severely for their sleep and negligence, and would never have given them money to spread such a story.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Matthew 28:13. His disciples came by night — This was as absurd as it was false. On one hand, the terror of the disciples, the smallness of their number (only eleven;) and their almost total want of faith; on the other, the great danger of such a bold enterprise, the number of armed men who guarded the tomb, the authority of Pilate and of the Sanhedrin, must render such an imposture as this utterly devoid of credit.

Stole him away while we slept. — Here is a whole heap of absurdities.

1st. Is it likely that so many men would all fall asleep, in the open air, at once?

2dly. Is it at all probable that a Roman guard should be found off their watch, much less asleep, when it was instant death, according to the Roman military laws, to be found in this state?

3dly. Could they be so sound asleep as not to awake with all the noise which must be necessarily made by removing the great stone, and taking away the body?

4thly. Is it at all likely that these disciples could have had time sufficient to do all this, and to come and return, without being perceived by any person? And

5thly. If they were asleep, how could they possibly know that it was the disciples that stole him, or indeed that any person or persons stole him? - for, being asleep, they could see no person. From their own testimony, therefore, the resurrection may be as fully proved as the theft.


 
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