When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus.
Matthew 27:57. And when the evening was come. Let it be understood that Joseph did not come in the dusk of the evening, but before sunset, that he might perform this office of kindness to his Master, without violating the Sabbath; for the Sabbath commenced in the evening, and therefore it was necessary that Christ should be laid in the grave before night came on.
He went to Pilate,.... To his house where he lived, and went in, as Mark says, Mar 15:43, boldly; not being ashamed of Christ crucified, or afraid to own him, and show his respect to him as dead, though he knew he should incur the displeasure, reproach, and persecution of the Jews: and begged the body of Jesus; which could not be taken down and...
Verse 57. When the even was come. That is, some time after three o'clock in the afternoon. Before this, the Jews had besought Pilate that the legs of those who were crucified might be broken, and the bodies be taken down, that they might not remain on the cross during the sabbath. The soldiers coming to Jesus, for that purpose, found that he was already dead, contrary to their expectation.