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MATTHEW 28:5 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 28:4Matt 28:6
“And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.”
The angel's first words to the women are the same words that mark every divine encounter in Matthew's Gospel: do not be afraid. The angel says this to shepherds at the birth announcement in Luke and to the disciples at the Transfiguration — fear is always the human response to the divine breaking in, and the divine response to human fear is always reassurance. The specificity of the angel's knowledge — I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified — communicates that the resurrection is the answer to this specific search, not a general religious experience. The women came looking for the crucified Jesus, and the resurrection addresses that specific grief, that specific loss. The resurrection is the answer to the cross, not an escape from it.

Church Fathers on Matthew 28:5

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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