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MATTHEW 28:4 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 28:3Matt 28:5
“And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.”
The guards who had been posted to prevent any deception become the first involuntary witnesses of the resurrection's power: they shook and became like dead men. The irony is complete — the soldiers sent to guard against a fake resurrection encounter the real one and are incapacitated by it. They experience the death-like paralysis while the women who came expecting death encounter life. The guards will later become paid false witnesses (Matthew 28:11–15), testifying to a story they themselves know is false. The contrast between the guards' fear-induced paralysis and the women's fear transformed into great joy (Matthew 28:8) illustrates the resurrection's different effects: to the enemies of the kingdom, it is overwhelming; to the disciples of the kingdom, it is commissioning.

Church Fathers on Matthew 28:4

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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