And now we have reconciled the accounts of SS. Matthew, Mark, and John regarding Magdalen and her companions. It remains to speak of St. Luke's account.
We believe that St. Luke speaks of a different company of women from that referred to by the other Evangelists. There is nothing improbable in supposing that more than one company of women came to the tomb on Sunday morning. As they had not been able to visit it on the Sabbath, a visit of several companies on Sunday morning is just what might be expected. But we are not obliged to depend merely on a priori reasoning. For St. Luke's company prepared their spices on Friday evening before the Sabbath: “and returning they prepared spices and ointments: and on the Sabbath-day they rested according to the commandment” (Luke xxiii. 56); the other company, after the [pg 360] Sabbath, when the first day of the Jewish week had begun: “and when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus.” (Mark xvi. 1). Moreover, the women of whom St. Luke speaks seem to have come to the tomb earlier than any other company, for they came ὄρθρου βαθέος (literally, at the first dawn, Luke xxiv. 1): and we are not to conclude that they merely set out for the tomb at this early hour, for they seem to have arrived at the tomb before the sun was risen: see Luke xxiv. 22: ὄρθριαι ἐπὶ τό μνημεῖον.
Again, the natural inference from Luke xxiv. 9-12, 22-24 is that the women he mentions had returned from the tomb and announced Christ's resurrection before Peter and John went to the tomb. We are disposed to hold with Patrizzi (Lib. iii., Diss. liii. 4) that St. Luke xxiv. 10 is a summary account of all the announcements made by the various women to the different followers of Christ that morning; and hence all the women there referred to need not be supposed to have gone to the disciples before Peter and John went to the tomb. But we think that Luke xxiv. 22-24, compared with Luke xxiv. 12, proves that others besides Magdalen had come to the disciples from the tomb before Peter and John went thither. “Yea, and certain women also of our company affrighted us, who before it was light (ὄρθριαι) were at the sepulchre. And not finding his body, came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who say that he is alive. And some of our people went to the sepulchre: and found it so as the women had said, but him they found not” (Luke xxiv. 22-24).
Hence we hold that St. Luke's company of women started for the tomb at early dawn, after Magdalen had set out from Bethany, but as they probably spent the night in Jerusalem, they arrived before her, saw the two angels standing (Luke xxiv. 4), and then went to announce Christ's resurrection to the disciples. Not long after the departure of this company, Magdalen and her companions arrived at the tomb, and Magdalen running from the tomb (John xx. 2) arrived at the house where Peter and John were staying, about the same time as St. Luke's company, or perhaps a little later. Her announcement that the Lord's body had been removed, confirming to some extent the announcement of St. Luke's company that He had risen, Peter and John now ran to the [pg 361] tomb. The events that followed have been already arranged above.
| 1. Una autem sabbati, Maria Magdalene venit mane, cum adhuc tenebrae essent, ad monumentum; et vidit lapidem sublatum a monumento. | 1. And on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalen cometh early, when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre: and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. |
1. The first day of the week. The Vulgate reading “una” (μιᾶ) is a Hebraism for prima; and the week is called by the name of its principal day, the Sabbath. Comp. Luke xviii. 22.
And when it was yet dark. She started from Bethany while it was yet dark, but she did not arrive at Calvary till the sun was risen (Mark xvi. 2).
| 2. Cucurrit ergo, et venit ad Simonem Petrum, et ad alium discipulum quem amabat Iesus, et dicit illis: Tulerunt Dominum de monumento, et nescimus ubi posuerunt eum. | 2. She ran therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith to them: They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. |
2. It is likely that before running to tell the Apostles that the body was removed, Magdalen had looked into the sepulchre and convinced herself it was not there.
And cometh to Simon Peter. Notwithstanding his fall on the preceding Thursday night, which can hardly have remained till now unknown to Magdalen, Peter was still regarded as the leader of the disciples.