Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Matthew 27:60

Western Saints

Jerome

He is laid in a new tomb, lest after His resurrection it should be pretended that it was some other who had risen when they saw the other bodies there remaining. The new tomb may also signify the virgin womb of Mary. And He was laid in a tomb hewn out of the rock, lest had it been one raised of many stones, it might have been said that He was stolen away by undermining the foundations of the pile. That a great stone was rolled there, shows that the tomb could not have been reopened without the united strength of many.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Hilary of Poitiers

The body of the Lord, therefore, through the teaching of the apostles, is laid to rest in the empty tomb newly cut from a rock. In other words, their teaching introduced Christ into the hardness of the Gentile heart, which was uncut, empty and previously impervious to the fear of God. And because he is the only one who should penetrate our hearts, a stone was rolled over the entrance to the tomb, so that just as no one previous to him had been introduced as the author of divine knowledge, neither would anyone be brought in after him.

Commentary on Matthew 33.8 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

"And he laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewed out in a rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the monument and went his way." And he states four things about this monument. First, that it was his own. And it was quite fitting that he who died for the sins of others should be buried in the monument of another. Likewise, he says "new," because if other bodies had been placed there, it would not be known who had risen. …

Commentary on Matthew ↗