✨WEB · Luke 23:52
What does Luke 23:52 mean?
"this man went to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body."
— Luke 23:52 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
All his acquaintances, and the women who followed with him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man
(he had not consented to their counsel and deed), from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who was also waiting for God’s Kingdom:
this man went to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body.
He took it down, and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that was cut in stone, where no one had ever been laid.
It was the day of the Preparation, and the Sabbath was drawing near.
The women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid.
Explanation
This verse describes a specific action taken immediately after Jesus' death on the cross. Luke tells us that "this man" — identified in the verses just before as Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish ruling council (the Sanhedrin) who was described as "a good and righteous man" who had not consented to the council's decision to condemn Jesus — went boldly to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, and requested custody of Jesus' body. In plain language, someone stepped forward to claim the body of a man who had just been executed as a criminal, so that it could be given a proper burial rather than left exposed or discarded, which was the common fate of crucified criminals.
The Gospel of Luke was written by Luke, a companion of the apostle Paul, likely for a largely Gentile audience, to provide an orderly and carefully researched account of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Luke pays close attention to eyewitness details and to the identities of the people involved in the events surrounding Jesus. In this passage, Luke is careful to establish who Joseph of Arimathea was — a respected,
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