¹² When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money,

¹³ telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away^(A) while we were asleep.’

¹⁵ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.