Matthew 28:1 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 28:1 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary come to see the tomb — the two faithful women who had watched the crucifixion from a distance and watched Joseph seal the tomb now become the first witnesses of the resurrection. Their presence at both ends of the burial narrative establishes continuity of testimony: the same women who saw him die and saw him buried are the first to hear he is risen. The earthquake and the angel descending to roll back the stone mirror the language of theophany throughout Scripture; the guards become like dead men while the women who came in fear become the first bearers of the resurrection message. Matthew 28:1 inaugurates the new age that the death of Matthew 27 made possible — the stone rolled away does not let Jesus out but invites witnesses in.

Church Fathers on Matthew 28:1

After the mockings and scourgings, after the mingled dr aug hts of vinegar and gall, the pains of the cross, and the wounds, and finally after death itself and Hades, there rose again from the grave a renewed flesh, there returned from obstruction a hidden life, health chained up in death broke forth, with fresh beauty from its ruin.
Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century · Hom. de Resur., iii

Concerning the hour when the women came to the sepulchre there arises a question not to be overlooked. Matthew here says, 'On the evening of the Sabbath.' What then means that of Mark, 'Very early in the morning, the first day of the week?' [Mark 16:2]
Augustine · 4th century · de Cons. Ev., iii, 24

Otherwise; It may be understood that they began to come in the evening, but that it was the dawn of the first day of the week when they reached the sepulchre; that is, that they prepared the spices for anointing the Lord’s body in the evening, but that they took them to the sepulchre in the morning. This has been so shortly described by Matthew, that it is not quite clear in his account, but the other Evangelists give the order more distinctly. The Lord was buried on the…
Bede · 8th century · Beda in loc.

Read all 35 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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