Matthew28chapter 28

A sealed and guarded tomb is a legal precaution, not a decoration. Sealing meant a cord across the stone fixed with clay or wax, so that any tampering was visible. Roman military discipline for a guard who slept at his post was severe, which is exactly why the story the guards are paid to tell required the chief priests to promise to satisfy the governor if it reached him.

Women were the first witnesses, and in that world that was a liability. Jewish courts gave little weight to a woman's testimony, and Greek and Roman writers of the period say similar things. Nobody inventing a story to persuade first-century readers would have built it on women finding the tomb.

The rival explanation Matthew names — that the disciples stole the body — was still being told when he wrote, and he says so plainly. It is worth noticing what that admission concedes on the other side: the tomb was empty, and everyone involved agreed it was empty. The argument was only about why.

The final scene moves to a mountain in Galilee, not the temple in Jerusalem. And the closing command sends Jewish disciples to all nations, baptising and teaching — a startling assignment for men who had spent their lives inside one people's borders.