The story about the guards at the tomb of Jesus (Mt 27:62-66 and 28:11-15) has often been labelled as an apologetical legend, and is rather too often all but ignored in both Matthean scholarship and in the studies on the resurrection stories. The aim of this book is to explore the origin of the guard story and analyze it in the context of continuous conflict between some Jewish leaders and Christ-believers. The author suggests that the story is derived from a pre-Matthean tradition which was a reply to the Jewish accusation that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus. It is also proposed that the guards were first introduced to the story by the Jewish leaders in order to give credence to the accusation of thetf.