The malevolent coverup of the resurrection began, even while the women went to tell the disciples the good news. The guards came into the city and told the chief priest and rulers everything that had happened. Think of it -- the rulers and priests' own employees told them the truth about the resurrection, even though as soldiers, their words put them in potential jeopardy. This is how we know that the chief priests and all the people that were there knew Christ had risen from the grave. They knew because the guards told them. But they hated Christ, and had murdered Messiah, and they weren't about to allow His claims to be vindicated by His own resurrection. So they paid the soldiers to lie, and say that the disciples stole Christ's body. The soldiers lied for them out of greed, and the rulers were determined to suppress Christ's work at all costs. They had already murdered Him, so what was a little bribery to spread lies to deny His resurrection? This is in concert with what the scriptures teach, that the natural man, that is, the man without the Holy Spirit, cannot receive the things that be of God, because they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. Having and believing the facts aren't enough without the Spirit's supernatural work in your mind and heart. Without the Spirit, you cannot receive it. You cannot rest in it. You cannot trust in it. So it was with the rulers. They hated Messiah. They murdered Messiah. And they were going to continue their anti-Messiah agenda all the way to the end, no matter what they actually knew to be true.