Now it was already evening. Since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath),
We are here attending the funeral of our Lord Jesus, a solemn, mournful funeral. O that we may by grace be planted in the likeness of it! Observe, I. How the body of Christ was begged. It was, as the dead bodies of malefactors are, at the disposal of the government.
Commenting on Mark 15:42-47
And he bought fine linen,.... That is, Joseph, as is expressed in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Persic versions; which, when he had done, as is highly probable, in the city of Jerusalem, he went to Mount Calvary, and took him down; took the body of Christ down from the cross; though, no doubt, with the assistance of others, or by others, and not he...
Verse 42. The even. The time after three o'clock in the afternoon. The preparation, etc. The following day was to be a day of peculiar solemnity, called the great day of the feast. More than ordinary preparation was, therefore, made for that sabbath on the day before. Hence the day was known as a day of preparation. This preparation consisted in food, etc., to be used on the sabbath.