JESUS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS—BURIED—TOMB SEALED.
AND, behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
And when the centurion, which stood over against him, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, stood afar off, beholding these things; among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome, the mother of Zebedee's children; (who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the
cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
And after this, when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, there came a rich man of Arimathea named Joseph, an honorable counsellor, and he was a good man, and a just: (the same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews. This man went in boldly into Pilate, and begged that he might take away the body of Jesus.
And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead; and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered unto Joseph. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture
of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. And when Joseph had taken the body down, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.