Mark 16:5

‘And entering into the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were amazed.'

The entrance to the tomb would probably be low so that they had to stoop to enter, and the interior in semi-darkness, while the tomb itself would probably be just over two metres square and the same in height with a bench, or inset into the wall, to receive the body.

They entered expecting to find a body, and possibly Mary, and instead they found a young man dressed in white, probably sitting on the bench where the body should be, and no sign of a body. No wonder they were surprised. Instead of a dead body there was a living person. But it was not Jesus.

This was the memory and description of the one who told it to Mark as she remembered it. Others would describe two angels who at some stage ‘stood by them' with an unearthly glow on them (Luke 24:4).

‘Sitting on the right side.' There is no reason for this except reminiscence. The sobriety of the account and the incidental detail demonstrates its authenticity. And no one would have invented the idea that women should be first to the tomb. They were not regarded as reliable (Paul did not mention them in 1 Corinthians 15).

We note here the regular feature that when an angel comes as a messenger he gives the appearance of being an ordinary human being.