Matthew 28 (WK) - Bible Truth Library

the end.The Hebrew word {Schabbath,} from which our English word is derived, signifies rest, and is applied to all solemn festivals, equally with that one day of every week devoted to the worship of God; Eze 20:21, "they polluted my sabbaths." Three evangelists say, the transaction recorded in this verse, occurred upon the first day of the week, early in the morning, about sunrising, and John says, while it was yet dark. [Opse sabbaton ,] does not signify "in the evening of sabbath," but "sabbaths."

Hence, the great feast having been concluded, the term "end of the sabbaths" denotes the time very clearly.

Again, it may be observed that the Jews, speaking of their passover, sometimes speak according to their civil computation, wherein they measured their days from sun-rising to sun-rising.

Sometimes according to their sacred computation, which was from sun-set to sun-set.

This reconciles Nu 28:18, which seems to make the fourteenth day of the first month, the first day of unleavened bread.

Mark 16:1‑2• ¹{i}And the Sabbath being [now] past, Mary of Magdala, and Mary the [mother] of James, and Salome,{/i} bought aromatic spices {i}that they might come and embalm him.{/i}
²{i}And{/i} very early, on the first [day] of the week, they came to the sepulchre when the sun had risen. (Mark 16:1‑2)

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Luke 23:56• ⁵⁶{i}And having returned they prepared aromatic spices and ointments, and remained quiet on the Sabbath, according to the commandment.{/i} (Luke 23:56)

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Luke 24:1,22• ¹{i}But{/i} on the first [day] of the week, very early in the morning, {i}they came to the tomb, bringing the aromatic spices which they had prepared.{/i}
²²And withal, certain women from among us astonished us, having been early at the sepulchre, (Luke 24:1,22)

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John 20:1‑10• ¹Now on the first [day] of the week Mary of Magdala cometh early while it was yet dark unto the tomb and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb.
²She runneth therefore and cometh unto Simon Peter and unto the other disciple whom Jesus dearly loved and saith to them, They took away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they laid him.
³Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and were coming unto the tomb.
⁴And the two were running together, and the other disciple ran forward more quickly than Peter, and came first unto the tomb,
⁵and stooping down seeth the linen clothes as they lay; nevertheless he went not in.
⁶Simon Peter therefore cometh following him, and entered into the tomb, and beholdeth the linen clothes lying,
⁷and the handkerchief which was upon his head, not lying with the linen clothes but folded up in a place apart.
⁸Then entered therefore also the other disciple that came first unto the tomb, and he saw and believed;
⁹for as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise from [the] dead.
¹⁰The disciples therefore went away again unto their own [home]. (John 20:1‑10)

Mary Magdalene.

Matt. 27:56,61• ⁵⁶{i}among whom was Mary of Magdala, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.{/i}
⁶¹{i}But Mary of Magdala was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the sepulchre.{/i} (Matt. 27:56,61)

• This was not the morning of the resurrection-day, but the evening previous to it. We, with our western reckonings of time, might think only of the early twilight; but it means simply that the week was drawing to its close. We must remember that to a Jewish mind evening twilight commenced the new day. (“Remarks on Matthew 28” by W. Kelly)

• There is no real ground for connecting the circumstances of the first three verses of this chapter. The first merely presents the devotedness of these holy women. When the disciples had gone to their own homes, these women, spite of natural fears at such a place and time, could not stay away. They had prepared spices for embalming the body, but rested the sabbath-day (as we read in Luke), according to the commandment. "It was just getting dusk" is the true thought here. It was the twilight after the sabbath. Their hearts took them to the grave, being bound up with Jesus, as soon as the sabbath-law permitted. (“Remarks on Matthew 28” by W. Kelly)

J. N. Darby Translation

Now late on sabbath, as it was the dusk of the next day after sabbathe, came Mary of Magdala and the other Mary to look at the sepulchre.

JND Translation Notes

Or "the first day of the week," as Mark 16.2.

W. Kelly Translation

Now late on Sabbath, as it was the duska of the next day after Sabbath, came Mary of Magdala and the other Mary to look at the sepulchre.

WK Translation Notes

In this verse the old and common error has created immense confusion in arranging the order of the facts of the resurrection. The word (epiphōskein) applies equally to the dusk as to the dawn, the context alone deciding. The Jewish day began with the evening. Here it is assuredly the dusk. The women came to the tomb on Saturday evening as here, as well as on Sunday morning early to which no doubt the earthquake in verse 2 belongs, when they were there again.

WK Verse Note

(Note: Words in italics have been inserted from the J. N. Darby translation where the W. Kelly translation doesn’t exist.)