---
title: Matthew 27:60
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-27-60/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-27-60.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 27:60
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 27:60

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut into the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.

## JW Usage

Joseph of Arimathea's burial of Jesus in his own new tomb is recounted in JW publications as part of the standard passion narrative. There is no distinctive doctrinal handling. The verse becomes relevant apologetically because Matthew uses the Greek word mnēmeion — a physical burial place quarried from rock — which is lexically distinct from Hadēs, the unseen realm of the dead.

## Protestant Usage

Matthew describes a literal stone-cut burial chamber, and uses mnēmeion for it — the same word John uses for Lazarus's tomb (11:17) and for the empty tomb on Easter morning (20:1). The Greek language reserved Hadēs for an entirely different concept: the realm where the dead are conscious in the New Testament's depictions (Luke 16:23, Rev 1:18, Rev 20:13). The NWT's translation of Hadēs as "the Grave" everywhere it appears collapses the lexical distinction these tomb-narratives preserve. The NT authors had two words available; they chose them carefully and never confused them.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Hadēs Is Not the Grave](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hades-the-grave-rendering.md) — Luke 16:23 / Revelation 1:18 — The NWT Collapses Two Greek Words Into One [NWT Translation]