ART. VIII-A HARMONY OF THE GOSPEL ACCOUNTS OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION.

By JOHN MACLEAN, D.D., LL.D., Princeton, N. J.

The Jewish day was reckoned from sunset to sunset. The Sabbath began at the going down of the sun on our Friday evening and ended at the same time on Saturday evening. Between the end of the Sabbath and the dawn of the next day several hours intervened. After the Sabbath, during which our Lord lay in the grave, and before the full dawn of the following day, which was the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and her companions, having provided spices to embalm the body of Jesus, set out for the sepulchre. That they all left Jerusalem

at the same time, or that they arrived at the sepulchre together, is no where affirmed by any of the sacred writers. On the contrary some of the facts mentioned by them favor the opinion that the women were not all at the sepulchre at any one time, but at different times; and it is certain that one of them, if none others, went thither more than once.

Before any of them reached the sepulchre, there had been a great earthquake, and an angel had descended from heaven, and rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre. The soldiers keeping watch, appalled at the sight of the angel, whose countenance was like lightning, and whose raiment was white as snow, became as dead men. Upon recovering from their fright, they perceived that the body of Jesus had disappeared from the tomb, and they evidently believed that he was risen from the dead. Coming into the city, while the women were returning to it, they shewed unto the chief priests all things that were done. It is not said that the risen Saviour was seen by the Roman soldiers, and it is most probable, that in their great terror, they did not see him as he left the tomb. Largely bribed they reported, as they were instructed to do, that the disciples had come and stolen him away while they were asleep.

Upon coming to the sepulchre and seeing the stone rolled away from the door, and not seeing the body of Jesus, Mary Magdalene runs and tells Peter and John. Whether the other Mary, and Salome, who accompanied Mary Magdalene on her

first visit to the sepulchre, also returned with her to Jerusalem is not mentioned; nor is there in the narrative anything that indicates the contrary. They probably did go back with her, or soon after, and confirmed her statement.

The first report brought to the disciples was simply a report of these two facts, viz., that the stone had been rolled away from the door of the sepulchre, and that the body of Jesus was not there.

Upon learning these facts Peter and John immediately ran to the sepulchre, accompanied, or followed, by Mary Magdalene. While she was on her way to tell Peter and John of the rolling away of the stone and of the removal of the body of the Lord, her companions may have gone in search of some of the other disciples to give them like information. (See John's Gospel, xx. 1, 2, 11.). The silence of the Evangelist John in regard to their accompanying Mary Magdalene upon her first return to the city, is no evidence that they did not accompany her, or soon follow her; for he is also silent as to the fact that they went with her on her first visit to the sepulchre, a fact expressly affirmed by Mark-xvi. 1, 2. The very feelings which prompted Mary Magdalene to run and inform Peter and John that the sepulchre had been found open, and that the body of the Lord had been removed, would naturally prompt them to do the same; and it can be readily imagined, that having told some of the other disciples of what they knew of the occurrences at the sepulchre, they would be very apt to go back and seek further information, especially upon hearing that Peter and John had gone thither, and Mary Magdalene with them; but there is nothing said in the gospels with respect to their being, or not being, at the sepulchre a second time, on the morning of the resurrection. The probability, or the improbability, of their having been there must be determined by a comparison of the various incidents. connected with the Saviour's resurrection from the dead.

Certain other women also went to the sepulchre, (See Luke xxiv. 1, 10), but arrived there, as we suppose, after Mary Magdalene had left it, and before her return to it. They entered into the sepulchre and there saw two angels, who said to them, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here; but is risen." Whereupon they went back to the city, and told the disciples what they had seen and heard.

They not only confirmed the report which Mary Magdalene

had carried to the disciples, that the sepulchre was open, and that the body of Jesus was not there, but the additional fact of their having seen, at the sepulchre, two angels, who told them that Jesus was risen. It was after the departure of the women just named from the sepulchre that Peter and John came to it, and Mary Magdalene a second time. The two disciples, having, one after the other, entered the sepulchre, and seen the linen clothes in which the body of Jesus had been wrapped, and the napkin which had been about his head lying by itself, left the place and returned to their homes. But Mary Magdalene remained at the sepulchre, and while standing there weeping, she stooped, and saw two angels, the one sitting at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, "Why weepest thou? And she saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." It is evident from these words taken from John's gospel (ch. xx.), that before this Mary Magdalene had seen no angel, and that she had heard no reports of the Lord having risen from the dead.

After her reply to the angels, she turned herself back and saw Jesus, but knew not that it was he. Accosting her in a voice well known to her, he says, "Mary;" upon which she turns herself and says, "Rabboni," that is to say, "Master." "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." She went and told the disciples, "that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her."

If Mary and Salome, also went again to the sepulchre, their second arrival there occurred after our Lord's appearance to Mary Magdalene. They then entered the sepulchre, saw the angel mentioned by Matthew and by Mark, received from him a message to the disciples, ran from the sepulchre to deliver their message; and on their way they are met by the risen Saviour, who addresses them with the salutation" All hail." Upon his saying this, they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto. them "Be not afraid, go tell my brethren, that they (may) go into Galilee, and there shall they

see me."

According to the view here presented, the Saviour, after his

resurrection, showed himself first to Mary Magdalene, and next to the women who accompanied her upon her first visit to the sepulchre; one of whom, mentioned both by Matthew and Mark, was Mary the mother of James, and the other mentioned only by Mark, was Salome. The silence of Matthew in regard to Salome is no evidence that she did not accompany the two Marys; while the positive statement of Mark is conclusive as to the fact that she went with them. If the other Mary and Salome did not go a second time to the sepulchre, then the expressions in Matthew, respecting the women who saw our Lord on the morning of resurrection, must be restricted to Mary Magdalene the first mentioned of them; the plural form being used by enallage for the singular, a thing of very frequent occurrence. (See Robinson's Harmony, Section 15.)

The Saviour's next appearance was probably to Cephas, that is Peter, of which mention is made by Luke, ch. xxiv. 34, and by Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 5-but at what precise time, or under what precise circumstances this manifestation of himself occurred, no hint is given us, only the fact of such an appearance is mentioned. The next manifestation of himself was to Cleopas and his companion, near and at the village of Emmaus, on the first evening after he rose from the dead. His next appearing was to the company of disciples, somewhat later on the same evening. This manifestation of himself is mentioned by Luke and John, and alluded to by Mark and Paul. On the evening after the first day of the following week, he showed himself again to the disciples, as appears from John's gospel, ch. xx. 26. This third appearance to his disciples was at the Sea of Tiberias in Galilee. The feast of unleavened bread being over, the disciples left Jerusalem, and returned to Galilee, according to the instructions sent to them through the women to whom our Lord first showed himself alive, after his passion. His next appearance to his disciples was at the mountain in Galilee at which they, according to his instructions went to meet him, see Matthew, xxviii. 16. On this, or on some other occasion, he was seen of the five hundred brethren of whom Paul speaks as being witnesses of his resurrection. See 1 Cor. xx. 6. After this he was seen of James, then by all the Apostles; when, assembled with them once more at Jerusalem, he led them out as far as Bethany, on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, and lifting up his hands he blessed

them, and was parted from them and taken up into heaven. See Luke's gospel, xxiv. 50, and Acts, i. 12.

These include all the recorded appearances of Christ, after he arcse from the dead, and before his ascension into heaven. Luke, the writer of the Acts, tells us that after his resurrection, and before his ascension, he was seen by the apostles for forty days, in which he was speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. During this period of forty days, he may have showed himself on other occasions, of which no mention is made; but whether he did, or did not, is a matter of no moment to our purpose, which is to show the perfect accord of the several accounts given by the sacred writers respecting the resurrection of Christ, and of the attending circumstances. By a comparison of these several accounts with the above arrangement of all the incidents, it will be seen, that, notwithstanding any seeming discrepancies, there is an entire harmony in the statements of the several Evangelists. And these apparent but not real discrepancies, show that in narrating the circumstances of our Saviour's resurrection, the several Evangelists did not copy one from another, and that they have given us each one his own independent testimony, selecting such evidences of the fact as they, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, severally deemed best suited to their purpose. The perfect harmony of their several narratives, where such a variety of incidents is mentioned, and the manifest absence of all collusion on the part of the writers, furnish strong evidence of the truthfulness of their statements, and justify, and even demand, our assent to the fact that our Lord rose from the dead, as predicted and affirmed in the holy Scriptures. Let us now compare the statements respecting the time at which the women went to the sepulchre.

According to our English version, Matthew says: "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week came Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre." Matthew xxviii, 1.

The use of the phrase, "as it began to dawn, etc." shows that by Ofè de oaßßátor, the original of the first clause, Matthew did not mean the evening or first watch of the night that followed the Jewish Sabbath, but simply that the Sabbath was ended, and the original terms might, in conformity with the