Matthew 27:45-56 recounts the death of Jesus. Going through the text, Matthew seems to make an intentional use of pairs, whether of words or themes. I am not entirely sure what Matthew’s underlying purpose might be for this, though my first guess is that it acts as a symbolic “double” witness, establishing the veracity of the event. Hard to know for sure, and perhaps further reading will give some other clues, but here it is for the time being. Sadly, some of the pairings get lost in English translations (including the ESV, referenced below), but I’ll do my best to make them clear.
land/earth – ge in Gk. (45, 51)
ninth hour (45, 46)
Jesus cried out with a loud voice (46, 50)
wait,yielded – aphiemi in Gk. (49, 50)
torn/split – σχίζω (v. 51, 2x – veil and rocks)
the earth shook – verb form / the earthquake – noun form (51, 54)
tombs (52, 53)
holy ones (saints)/holy city (52, 53)
raised – verb form /resurrection – noun form (52, 53)
soldiers keeping watch close by (54) versus women looking from afar (55) – different verbs are used.
2 Marys: Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph.
2 Mothers with two sons: Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee (James and John).
One other possible pair could be Jesus crying out in Aramaic/Hebrew, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” followed by the translation in the Greek, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Joe, I am in Matthew 19, so I have enjoyed seeing your work on the later chapters. I think the double witness idea is a good one. Matthew tends to use two where others only have one (Matthew 20:30 vs. Mark 10:46). With Grace, Peter Jones, Pastor Christ Church of Morgantown