Luke 24:4

And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, &c.— This threw them into a great perplexity, when on a sudden two men stood, &c. It hence seems probable, that the angels disappeared at certain times; for the words intimate, that the women did not see them at their first entrance into the sepulchre, and that their appearance was sudden, and occasioned a surprize. The evangelist here calls them men; but Luke 24:23 he calls them angels. The truth is, angels are sometimes called men, because they appeared in the human form. See Genesis 18:2.—Mark 16:5 where one angel only is mentioned under the appellation of a young man; whence somehaveinferred,thatthetransactiontherementionedwasdifferentfromthis before us: but be that as it may, it is easy to account for the presence of two angels, though only one of them might be seen by some of those who came to view the sepulchre. If the reader will attend to the supposed form of the sepulchre, and to the position of our Lord's body therein, he will find this method of reconciling the evangelists easy, natural, and probable. The sepulchre seems to have been a square room, hewn out of a rock, partly above ground, its roof being as high as the top of the door which formed its entrance. The door opened upon a stair, which ran down straight to the bottom of the sepulchre, along the side of the left wall. Having therefore carried the bodydown with its feet foremost, they would naturally place it lengthwise bythe right side wall of the sepulchre, in such a manner, that its head lay pointing towards what might be called the front, had the sepulchre been wholly above-ground, and its feet to the back wall. They laid the body on the floor, close to the right side wall of the sepulchre, because in that position it was most out of the way of those who might come down. This description is agreeable to the accounts which travellers give us of the Jewish sepulchres; particularly Mr. Maundrell, who was on the spot, and saw several of them. They were generally caves, hewn out of rocks; and as the Jews did not make use of coffins, they placed their dead separately in niches or little cells cut in the sides of these caves or rooms. But Joseph's sepulchre, being a new one, was in all probability unfinished; and particularly it might have no niches cut into the sides where they could deposit the dead; for which reason they laid Jesus on the floor, (see John 20:12.) in the manner described; intending very probably, when the sabbath was past, to remove him to some finished burial-place. See John 19:42. Admitting these suppositions,—most of which are founded on some authority, and all of them perfectly natural,—the women, intending to search the sepulchre a second time, might, as soon as they came upon the threshold, see the angel, who sat on the right side, where the feet of Jesus had been; that is, who sat in the furthermost right corner of the sepulchre: and though his companion, who sat on the same side at the head, or in the hithermost right corner, had been then visible, they would not have observed him; so that, at the first, they must have seen one angel only, as St. Matthew and St. Mark tell us: but stepping down the stairs upon the invitation of the angel who appeared, they got the whole cavity of the sepulchre under their eye, and discovered the other heavenly messenger. Thus they saw two angels, as St. Luke affirms. Besides, the brilliant appearance of him who spake to them, might so fix their eyes, as to hinder them from taking notice of his companion, till, landing at the bottom of the stairs, they turned themselves about upon the floor. Their fear and confusion also might have some influence upon them. The word επεστησαν, which we render stood by, does not imply that the angels at their first appearance were close by the women; this is proved from Genesis 18:2.—LXX: where, though it is said, that Abraham lift up his eyes, and looked, and lo three men, εστηκεισαν επανω αυτου —stood by him, it is added, that when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, which shews that they were at some distance from him; wherefore the words επεστησαν αυταις in St. Luke, answering to the words εστηκεισαν επανω αυτου in Genesis, signify simply they appeared unto them: if so, we may suppose that both the angels were in a sitting posture when they shewed themselves to the women, because St. Mark expressly affirms it of one whom he mentions Mark 16:5 and because they shewed themselves in this posture afterwards to Mary Magdalene, John 20:12. However, if the reader be not satisfied with this solution, the evangelists may easily be reconciled, by supposing that the angel, of whom St. Mark speaks, arose when the women went down into the sepulchre.—It may be proper, and perhaps agreeable to the reader, to observe, that it cannot be objected to the description of our Lord's sepulchre given above, that what is shewn at this day as his sepulchre is of a different form; for the real sepulchre, being originally a matter of private property, must have passed from one owner to another, and of course have undergone various changes; especially as it does not appear that the first Christians were led to preserve it, from that veneration for places and things which in latter ages engrossed the attention of the world. Besides, it should be considered, that though superstition taught Christians, very early, to venerate and perpetuate things of this kind; yet their enemies, on the other hand, would do what they could to destroy them, as having an apparent tendency to confirm the followers of the new religion in their opinions; and therefore, if our Lord's sepulchre was visited by Christians before they obtained the protection of the civil government in Judea, the rulers would certainly destroy it. Nor is this supposition rendered improbable by the accounts which are given of the sepulchre, as subsisting in later times; for when the Roman empire became Christian, and superstition grew apace, the monks would repair the repository of our Lord's body; or if it was entirely destroyed, would make a new one to supply its place. Farther, it ought to be considered, that although the sepulchre had actually subsisted safe till it came into the possession of the monks, it was liable to many accidents after that period: for during the wars which the Mahometans waged with the Christians about the possession of the Holy Land, it is natural to suppose, that when the former carried their victorious arms into Judea, they would destroy every monument of Christianity, as well as of learning. After they were driven out indeed, the Christians would be equally assiduous to repair the devastations occasioned by the Mahometans; and, in particular, they would take care not to be without the holy places, so necessary to the superstition of the times. What confirms this conjecture is, that in the description given of those places, as they now subsist, things evidently and grossly fictitious are found. For example, before our Lord's sepulchre there lies a great marble stone, on which they affirm his body was anointed; and near at hand is another sepulchre, in which Joseph of Arimathea is said to have been buried: nay, they even shew the room where the Virgin Mary was saluted by the angel; with many other things, the knowledge of which could not possibly have been preserved during the course of so many ages, without such a series of miracles as we cannot by any means suppose, on account of things of so trifling a nature. Farther, it is certain, that the sepulchre in Bede's time was different, not only from what it is at present, but from that which the evangelists have described: for he tells us, that the travellers of those days affirmed it had a niche, into which our Lord's body was put; whereas from John 20:11 it appears that his body was laid on the floor.