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MATTHEW 28:2 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 28:1Matt 28:3
“And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.”
The angel's appearance — like lightning, clothing white as snow — echoes the Transfiguration's radiant whiteness (Matthew 17:2) and Daniel's angelic visions (Daniel 10:6), placing the resurrection within the same order of divine self-disclosure. The earthquake is Matthew's third in close succession: the earthquake at the crucifixion (Matthew 27:51), the earthquake at the resurrection, and now the rolling of the stone — each a seismic sign that the age is turning. The guards' collapse communicates the resurrection's cosmic power: the Roman soldiers commissioned to keep the tomb sealed are undone by the divine act that unseals it. The stone is rolled away not so Jesus can exit but so witnesses can enter and see the empty space where he lay — a visible invitation to examine the evidence.

Church Fathers on Matthew 28:2

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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