Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Matthew 27:63

63. Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver--Never, remarks Bengel, will you find the heads of the people calling Jesus by His own name. And yet here there is betrayed a certain uneasiness, which one almost fancies they only tried to stifle in their own minds, as well as crush in Pilate's, in case he should have any lurking suspicion that he had done wrong in yielding to them.

said, while he was yet alive--Important testimony this, from the lips of His bitterest enemies, to the reality of Christ's death; the corner-stone of the whole Christian religion.

After three days--which, according to the customary Jewish way of reckoning, need signify no more than "after the commencement of the third day."

I will rise again--"I rise," in the present tense, thus reporting not only the fact that this prediction of His had reached their ears, but that they understood Him to look forward confidently to its occurring on the very day named.