Luke 24:4

Two men stood by them. — St. Mark and St. Matthew mention one only. Had St. Matthew given the two, it might have been urged by adverse critics that this duplication of phenomena, as in the case of the demoniacs (Matthew 8:28), and the blind men at Jericho (Matthew 20:30), was an idiosyncrasy of his. As it is, we must suppose that each set of informants — the two Maries, and the “others” from whom it seems probable that St. Luke’s report was derived — described what they themselves had seen. At such moments of terror and astonishment, perception and memory are not always very definite in their reports.