Acts 13:27

“For they who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet they asked of Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.”

What had happened to Him had happened because of ‘those who dwell in Jerusalem'. (What a contrast there is here with Stephen's sermon. But of course Stephen had been speaking to those who dwelt in Jerusalem. Here Paul wants his listeners to know that he does not blame them).

It was those who dwell in Jerusalem, along with their rulers, who did not recognise Him or hear the voices of the prophets speaking through the Scriptures, which are read every Sabbath day. Thus they fulfilled them in condemning Him. Even though they found no cause of death in Him they asked Pilate that He should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all the Scriptures concerning Him by crucifying Him, and nailing Him to a tree, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. Compare 1 Corinthians 15:3, ‘that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and that on the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures'. This is pure Pauline. Note Paul's great stress on the Scriptural backing to what had happened. Paul may well at this point have cited Psalms 22:6; Isaiah 50:4; Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12; Zechariah 12:10 to Zechariah 13:1; Zechariah 13:7; Deuteronomy 21:22).

‘They took him down from the tree.' We note that both Peter (compare Acts 5:30) and Paul stress that He was hung on a tree, both having in mind Deuteronomy 22:22. (Compare also Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24). Both mentions emphasise the Jewish viewpoint of the speaker. The point is that Jesus was treated by man as a criminal and as accursed, something which God demonstrated was totally untrue by raising Him from the dead. Thus the Jewish ‘experts' were proved to be totally wrong about Him, and all men should now be ready to accept God's openly revealed verdict.

‘And they laid him in a tomb.' ‘They' did it, for it was after all one of their own councillors, who, with his Jewish servants, arranged for the burial of Jesus. This was important. The point is that Jews were involved from start to finish in His death and all connected with it (we do not expect attention to detail in a short speech), and expected nothing further once it was done. This was true even of the best of them. The equal point is that God had no part in it. These actions were to be seen as having been the very opposite of God's view, demonstrated by the fact that He countered the curse, and the taking down from the tree, and the burial, and reversing them all raised Him from the dead. Even the devout and pious Joseph had not expected that. But God had surprised everyone. He had made clear that this One was His chosen One, His Messiah, the One whom He had appointed to be Lord of all.

We may take it as certain that Paul knew of what Joseph had done. It was not done secretly and the Jews would certainly want to know where he was buried, especially in view of the claims by witnesses to have seen Him risen from the dead. It would be a talking point in Jerusalem and would not go unnoticed.