XXVIII. (1) It will probably help the student to place before him, in their right order, the recorded appearances of our Lord Jesus after His resurrection: — (1.) To Mary Magdalene, John 20:14; Mark 16:9. (2.) To Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, Matthew 28:9. (3.) To Peter, Luke 24:34; 1 Corin... [ Continue Reading ]
There was a great earthquake. — The words imply, not that they witnessed the earthquake, but that they inferred it from what they saw. The form of the angel is described in Mark 16:5 as that of a “young man” in white or bright (Luke 24:4) raiment. This was the answer to the question they had been as... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE LIGHTNING. — The word employed by St. Luke to describe the “raiment has the same force. The “white as snow” has its counterpart in the record of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:3) and the vision of the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KEEPERS DID SHAKE. — The words imply that the two Maries when they reached the sepulchre saw the soldiers prostrate in their panic terror.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ANGEL ANSWERED AND SAID.... — We do not read of any words as spoken by the women, but the words which they now heard were an answer to their unuttered questionings and fears. The bright one on whom they gazed knew their distress and amazement at the sight of the emptied sepulchre, and told them... [ Continue Reading ]
HE IS NOT HERE. — It is not given to us to fix the precise moment when the grave was opened and the risen Lord came forth from it, but the indications point to the time at or about sunrise. There was an obvious fitness in the symbolism of the Resurrection of the Son of Righteousness coinciding with... [ Continue Reading ]
HE GOETH BEFORE YOU INTO GALILEE. — The words seem to point to a meeting in Galilee as the first appearance of the risen Lord to His disciples, and St. Matthew records no other. No adequate explanation can be given of the omission of what the other Gospels report, if we assume the whole Gospel to ha... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY DEPARTED QUICKLY. — It is natural that independent narratives, given long years afterwards, of what had passed in the agitation of “fear and great joy “should present seeming, or even real, discrepancies as well as coincidences. The discrepancies, such as they are, at any rate, show that the na... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL HAIL. — Literally, _rejoice._ The word was probably our Lord’s wonted greeting to the company of devout women, and though used in homage, real or derisive, as in Matthew 27:29; John 19:3, had not necessarily the solemnity which modern usage has attached to “hail.” It was, we may believe, by that... [ Continue Reading ]
GO, TELL MY BRETHREN. — The words are clearly used of those who were brethren by spiritual relationship, as in Matthew 12:49, and have their counterpart in John 20:17, “I ascend to My Father and your Father.”... [ Continue Reading ]
SOME OF THE WATCH. — This incident, like that of the appointment of the guard, is reported by St. Matthew only. As writing primarily for the Jews of Palestine, it was natural that he should take special notice of the rumour which hindered many of them from accepting the fact of the Resurrection, and... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY WERE ASSEMBLED. — Obviously the chief priests to whom the soldiers had told their tale. AND HAD TAKEN COUNSEL. — Better, as before in Matthew 27:1; Matthew 27:7, _having held a council._ It was a formal, though probably, as before, a packed, meeting of the Sanhedrin. They decided on the r... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS DISCIPLES CAME BY NIGHT. — The story was on the face of it self-contradictory. How could they tell, if they had been asleep, who had stolen the body? All that they could know was that they had fallen asleep, and that when they awoke the sepulchre was open and empty.... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS SAYING IS COMMONLY REPORTED. — The passage is interesting as the earliest indication of a counter-statement to the witness borne by the disciples, and as in part explaining the partial non-acceptance of their testimony. The phrase “until this day” suggests some considerable interval — say, at l... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE ELEVEN DISCIPLES. — The writer passes over, for some reason which we cannot now discover, all the intermediate appearances, and passes on at once to that which connected itself with the mission and work of the Apostles, and through them of the universal Church. INTO A MOUNTAIN. — Better, to... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WORSHIPPED HIM — i.e., fell prostrate at His feet. The act, as has been said, was not new in itself, but it seems certain that our Lord’s manifestations of His Presence after the Resurrection had made the faith of the disciples stronger and clearer (comp. John 20:28), and so the act acquired a... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME. — Literally, _all authority was given,_ the tense used being that in which men speak of something that occurred at a given point of time. We may possibly connect it with St. Paul’s use of the same tense in the Greek of Philippians 2:8. The exaltation came, the authority w... [ Continue Reading ]
TEACH ALL NATIONS. — Better, _make disciples of all the heathen._ The Greek verb is the same as that which is rendered “instructed” in Matthew 13:52, and is formed from the noun for “disciple.” The words recognise the principle of a succession in the apostolic office. The disciples, having learnt fu... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU. — The words obviously point, in the first instance, to the teaching of our Lord recorded in the Gospels — the new laws of life, exceeding broad and deep, of the Sermon on the Mount, the new commandment of Love for the inner life (John 13:34), the new outwa... [ Continue Reading ]