Matthew 28:1-10 “The Resurrection is Good News to be Shared”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for CTR Church Manhattan KS, 19 Jan. 2014, 4 Apr. 2021

Translation

28:1 Now, it was the end of the week during the twilight of the first of the week.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb.

28:2 And check [this out], a big earthquake took place,

for an angel of the Lord came down out of heaven

and came up and rolled away the stone [from the door] and was sitting upon it.

28:3 And the way he looked was like lightening, and his clothing was white as snow.

28:4 and out of fear of him, the guards were shaken up, and they became like dead men.

28:5 Then, in response, the angel said to the women,

“Stop being frightened, y’all,

for I know that it is Jesus the Crucified whom you are seeking.

28:6 He is not here, for He has been resurrected, just as He said.

Here, see the place where the Lord was lying.

28:7 Now get going quickly

and start telling His disciples that He was resurrected [after being] among the dead,

and, pay attention, He is going ahead of y’all into Galilee; you’ll see Him there.

See, I told you!”

28:8 So they quickly exited from the tomb – with fear and great joy – and ran to report to His disciples.

28:9 But while they were on their way to report to His disciples,

now look, Jesus encountered them saying, “Hello!”

Then the women came close and grabbed hold of His feet and bowed down to Him.

28:10 Then Jesus says to them,

“Stop being frightened.

Y’all go on, report to my brothers so that they may leave for Galilee,

and there they will see me!”

Introduction:News

Exegesis

28:1 Now, it was the end of the week during the twilight of the first of the week. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb.

Οψε1 δε σαββατων τη επιφωσκουση εις μιαν σαββατων ηλθεν ΜαριαA ‘η Μαγδαληνη και ‘η αλλη Μαρια θεωρησαι τον ταφον


28:2 And check [this out], a big earthquake took place, for an angel of the Lord came down out of heaven and came up and rolled away the stone [from the door5] and was sitting upon it.

και ιδου σεισμος εγενετο μεγας, αγγελος γαρ Κυριου καταβας εξ ουρανουB προσελθων απεκυλισεν τον λιθον [απο της θυραςC] και εκαθητο επανω αυτου


28:3 And the way he looked was like lightening, and his clothing was white as snow.

ην δε ‘η Dιδεα αυτου ‘ως αστραπη και το ενδυμα αυτου λευκον ‘ωςειE χιων


28:4 and out of fear of him, the guards were shaken up, and they became like dead men.

απο δε του φοβου αυτου εσεισθησαν ‘οι τηρουντες και εγενοντοF ‘ως[ειE] νεκροι


28:5 Then, in response, the angel said to the women, “Stop being frightened, y’all, for I know that it is Jesus the Crucified whom you are seeking. 6 He is not here, for He has been resur­rected, just as He said. Here, see the place where the Lord was lying.

Αποκριθεις δε ‘ο αγγελος ειπεν ταις γυναιξιν Μη φοβεισθε ‘υμεις οιδα γαρ ‘οτι Ιησουν τον εσταυ­ρω­μενον ζητειτε 6ουκ εστιν ‘ωδε ηγερθη γαρ καθως ειπεν, δευτε ιδετε τον τοπον ‘οπου εκειτο9 ‘ο ΚυριοςG


28:7 Now, get going quickly and start telling His disciples that He was resurrected [after being] among the dead, and, pay attention, He is going ahead of y’all into Galilee; you’ll see Him there. See, I told you!”

και ταχυ πορευθεισαι ειπατε τοις μαθηταις αυτου ‘οτι ηγερθη απο των νεκρων, και ιδου προαγει ‘υμας εις την Γαλιλαιαν εκει αυτον οψεσθε, ιδου ειπον ‘υμιν


28:8 So they quickly exited from the tomb – with fear and great joy – and ran to report to His disciples.

Και εξελθουσαιH ταχυ απο του μνημειου μετα φοβου και χαρας μεγαλης εδραμον απαγγειλαι τοις μαθηταις αυτου


28:9 But while they were on their way to report to His disciples15, now look, Jesus encountered them saying, “Hello!” Then the women came close and grabbed hold of His feet and bowed down to Him.

[‘ως δε επορευοντο απαγγειλαι τοις μαθηταις αυτουI] και ιδουJ Ιησους απηντησενK αυταις λεγων Χαιρετε, ‘Αι δε προσελθουσαι εκρατησαν αυτου τους ποδας και προσεκυνησαν αυτῳ


28:10 Then Jesus says to them, “Stop being frightened. Y’all go on, report to my brothers so that they may leave for Galilee and there they will see me!”

Τοτε λεγει αυταις ‘ο Ιησους Μη φοβεισθε, υπαγετε απαγγειλατε τοις αδελφοις μου ‘ινα απελθωσιν εις την Γαλιλαιαν κακειL με οψονται

Conclusion:

Just like those women, we too have good news to tell. It’s pretty much the same message: Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again, and you will see Him.

Let us, like the women of Galilee, go quickly and announce this good news. Turn off your fear and enter into the joy of knowing and sharing that Jesus is alive!

Amos’ versification:

The women came with oils sweet,
The came with steady, mourning feet,
They reached the tomb, and stop and quake,
At seismic strength rocks rend and brake.

The Roman soldiers joked and laughed,
Until the crack – like thunder clashed.
Their weapons fall, light blinds their eyes,
They crash to ground as if they die.

Two angels sped, from heaven sent,
A rich man’s tomb their object bent;
A stone to move, a cohort smite,
And gave the girls a message bright,

Then in the path the Savior stood,
To see the message understood,
To see the women grasp his feet,
And desperately his grace entreat.

The women run; their fear is gone,
They – joyous – hurry, scurry home.
The soldiers stand, their knees like jelly,
Celestial sights did knot their belly,

The women burst into upper-room,
And bid the disciples come, yea, come!
Good news they spread, “The Christ is risen!”
“His word is true,” Our sins forgiven!

The soldiers tell their guilty lie,
Each cautious, fearful, lest he die.
The priests are also sore perplexed,
They bought this lie, this false pretext.

And where was Jesus? Wonder you,
Walking to Emmaus with other two?
No doubt he cured the weaknesses,
Of His five hundred witnesses.

1 Only used 8x in the Greek Bible, all referring to evening: Gen. 24:11; Ex. 30:8; Isa. 5:11; Jer. 2:23; Matt. 28:1; Mark 11:11,19; 13:35.

2 http://www.ctrchurch-mhk.org/sermons/Matthew27_55-66Buried.htm#_ftnref2

3 as does ATR… contra JFB

4 Another reason the angel from heaven rolled back the stone was, as Matthew Henry put it, “to signify that, having undertaken to make satisfaction for our sin imputed to Him and being under arrest pursuant to that imputation, He did not break prison but had a fair and legal discharge obtained from heaven.” The fact that an angel sent from God rolled away the stone shows that Jesus wasn’t acting on His own, but that God was fully satisfied with His payment for sin and was therefore supportive of Jesus’ resurrection.

5 Or perhaps while waiting for the women to arrive.

6 τὰ δὲ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο λευκὰ ὡς τὸ φῶς

7 The first three times that “the angel of the LORD” appears in the Old Testament, he says what only God can say (Gen 16, “I will multiply your descendants,” Gen 22:11 “you have not withheld your only son from me… by myself I have sworn…”), and then says, “I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob…” (Ex. 3:2). Some of the next few appear­ances are in the book of Judges, where the angel of the Lord says, “I brought you out of Egypt… I will not break my covenant.” (2:1), and when he appears to Gideon he is called “the LORD” (6:14). Later during the times of the kings and the N.T., it seems like the angel of the LORD could be a different person from the LORD (Such as the angel of the LORD who was told by the LORD when to stop destroying people in response to David’s census of Israel, and “an angel of the Lord” who announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds in Luke 2). But both Daniel and John the Revelator describe Jesus in their visions as having hair or clothing white as snow (Daniel 7:9 …τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ χιὼν λευκόν… – exact same words as Matt. 28:3, with only one word out of the same order. Rev. 1:14 …λευκόν, ὡς χιών…). The possibility that this “angel of the Lord” is Jesus Himself would be strong, in my opinion, if Jesus weren’t spoken of as a different person in this account (and if there weren’t two angels in the parallel accounts).

8 Rev. 3:4-5 & 18, Rev. 4:4, 6:11, 7:9-13; 19:14

9 This verb is the same used to describe the baby Jesus “lying” in a manger – interesting parallel!

10 This is Matthew Henry’s position, “…he doth, as it were, discharge himself…”

11 Joel 2:23; Matt. 5:12; Luke 10:20; 2 Cor. 13:11; Philippians 2:18; 3:1; 4:4; 1 Thess. 5:16; 1 Peter 4:13

12 This is my rendering of the Greek prohibitive with the Present tense verb. It implies that they have been doing something which needs to be put a stop to.

13 Calvin and Hendriksen and interpreted “brothers” as “disciples,” but JFB believed it was His literal half-brothers (James and Joseph ). Matthew Henry suggested that this was in fulfillment of Psalm 22:22, “I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren.”

CRITICAL NOTES

ACritical editions spell her name with the Greek letter for “m” at the end of her name because that’s how some of the ancient Greek manuscripts (א, C, L, and Θ) spell it, but the Critical editions spell her name without the final mu when her name first occurs at 27:56, and just as many – if not more – ancient Greek manuscripts (incl. A, B, D, W) spell it here without the final mu, and, while the ratio of spellings in the first eight centuries may have been close, Greek scholars ran with the shorter spelling so that the ratio spreads by the hundreds in favor of “Mary” over “Miriam” over the next 800 years, so I’m siding with the Patristic, Textus Receptus (T.R.) and Majority editions of the Greek New Testament (GNT).

BThe Critical editions, on the basis of a few of the most ancient Greek manuscripts (א, B, C, L, W) add the word kai (“and”) here, but the addition is not in some of the earliest manuscripts (A D, Θ) and later scribes didn’t see fit to include the extra conjunction, so I’m following the majority/T.R./Patristic reading without kai. It makes no difference in translation, though. English grammar doesn’t allow the chain of participles there in Greek without some way to string them together, so it is practically necessary to add a conjunction between the verbs in an English translation, as the KJV, NKJ, ESV, NAS, and NIV did.

CThis phrase is not found in three of the earliest-known Greek manuscripts (א, B, C), and, curiously, it is not in the Latin Vulgate either, so, it is omitted in the Critical editions of the GNT, and therefore from the ESV, NAS, and NIV. However, the phrase appears in the majority of Greek manuscripts (including a couple of dated to the 5th Century - A, D), and is included in the traditional Patristic and T.R. editions of the GNT, so I have included it. A few manuscripts, including (A, L, Γ, Θ, f1, and f13) add the additional words tou mnemeion (“of the tomb”), but this is generally not considered to be in Matthew’s original. Even if all these words were to be accepted, it would not change the story at all because the position of the stone in the doorway and the mention of the tomb have already been given in the context of this passage, so the omission of those pieces of information merely leaves the reader to assume the same.

DOn the basis of four of the six oldest-known Greek manuscripts (A, B, C, D), the Critical Editions add an epsilon to the beginning of this word. I have kept the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (including one of the oldest – W – plus thousands of other later manuscripts) which is reproduced in the T.R. and Patristic editions of the GNT. Pershbacher’s Greek-English lexicon translates eidea as “appearance/face” and idea as “form/look,” so the latter may be a little more general, but there is no real difference in meaning. The Septuagint used idea to refer to the likeness of a son (Seth) to his father (Adam - Gen. 5:3) and to refer to the look of Daniel’s face (Dan. 1:13-15), but the eidea spelling occurs nowhere else in the entire Greek Bible. I don’t think it’s a different word; I think it’s just a variant spelling.

EThe majority of Greek manuscripts, supported by about half of the oldest-known manuscripts (A, C, W) and by the Patristic and T.R. editions of the GNT read hwsei “as if” at the end of v.3. The other half of the oldest-known manu­scripts (א, B, D) and the Critical editions of the GNT read the simpler form of this word hws (without the ei) “as.” It makes no difference in translation. The same variant occurs at the end of v.4, although there, A & W side with the simpler form of the word, leaving less ancient support for the majority reading which still goes with the longer form.

FCritical editions of the GNT render this word as a Passive Deponent (εγενηθησαν) instead of Middle Deponent, due to this spelling in four of the six oldest-known Greek manuscripts (א, B, C, D – and precious little else). The reading of the vast majority passed along in the Patristic and T.R. editions is supported by A & W. It makes no difference in translation, however; the KJV, ESV, NAS, and NIV all translated it “became.”

GOn the basis of two of the oldest-known Greek manuscripts (א & B + Θ – and precious little else), the Critical editions omit “the Lord.” I have sided with the Patristic and T.R. editions which reflect the reading of the majority of the oldest-known Greek manuscripts (A, C, D, W, etc.) as well as the overall majority of Greek manuscripts. However, the omission does not change the story, since the subject implied by the context is the same.

HAbout half of the oldest known Greek manuscripts (א, B, C + L, Θ, f13) use the prepositional prefix apo- “[went] away fromNIV” and the other half (A, D, W, etc), together with the vast majority of all later Greek manuscripts use the prefix ex- “went out fromNKJ.” The Critical editions go with the former, and the Patristic and T.R. editions go with the latter. The difference is not significant, and the word “departed/left,” used by the KJV, ESV, and NASB, could point to either one. Exelth- makes more sense to me because the women had apparently stepped inside the tomb to see, then the angel said, “I told you so,” and then the women stepped back “out,” before they “ran.”

ICritical editions of the GNT omit this phrase because it is not in four of the oldest-known Greek manuscripts (א, B, D, W + Θ but omitted in very few other manuscripts), thus the phrase is not to be found in the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but it is in the KJV because it is in the T.R. (& Patristic) editions which follow the vast majority of Greek manuscripts, includ­ing two of the oldest-known (A&C). It doesn’t add any new information because it is redundant to the end of verse 8.

JA significant set of manuscripts (including D, L, W, Θ, f1 and f13) adds the Greek definite article here, modifying “Jesus,” so it is in the T.R., but the Critical and Patristic editions of the GNT, don’t include it because it’s not in the majority of Greek manuscripts (including א, A, B, C). It doesn’t change the meaning one way or the other because “Jesus” is a proper noun, and proper nouns are already definite.

KAs with v.8, Critical editions have a variant prepositional prefix for this verb (following א, B, C, Θ, f1 and f13), literally translated “under” (instead of “from” – the reading of the vast majority of Greek manuscripts, including some of the oldest like A, D, L, and W, and carried on in the Patristic and TR editions) but making no difference in the overall meaning of the verb. Both forms of the verb mean “to meet,” and that is the word used both in the KJV and in the NAS, NIV, and ESV. This same variant occurs in four other places in the Greek Bible (Mk. 5:2, Lk 14:31, John 4:5, and Acts 16:16) leaving 5 undisputed uses of hupantaw (Mt. 8:28, Luke 8:27, John 11:20, 11:30, and 12:18). It seems that apantaw was the old-fashioned form of this word (found in the LXX - before the Gospels were written – in Gen. 28:11; 33:8; 1 Sam. 15:2; 25:20; 1 Kings 2:32,34; Job 4:12; Jer. 13:22; plus Luke 17:12 – where the 10 lepers stop Jesus on the road), and the word may have been on its way out of usage and being replaced with hupantaw, which could explain why the former is common in the Greek O.T. and the latter not in the Greek O.T. while the latter is used synonymously with the former in variant manuscripts in the Greek N.T. So, if my hypothesis is correct, I chose the old-fashioned word and Aland chose the new-fangled word.

LThis contraction of και εκει (“and there”) is the reading of the Critical, T.R. and Patristic editions of the GNT. However, a slight majority of the totality of Greek manuscripts spells it as two separate words instead of contracting them. It makes absolutely no difference in meaning, however.