Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28. — On the Resurrection of the Lord. On the Guards of the Tomb, Witnesses of the Resurrection. On the Appearance of Christ to the Apostles and the Women in Galilee

¹ Now late on the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his garment white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers were shaken, and became as dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women: Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead; and behold, He goes before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Lo, I have told you. “Late on the Sabbath” is equivalent to what is said in Luke, “in the deep dawn,” and in Mark, “very early, when the sun had risen.” For here we must understand by “sun” the early rays of the sun; for from the moment the eighth hour of the night sets in, from then the beginning of the coming day, and the early morning, seems to set in. So it was then late on the Sabbath, but the beginning of the Lord’s Day, which he calls “the first day of the week.” For they called the days of the week “Sabbaths”; and “the first,” the Lord’s Day, “the first of the Sabbaths”—that is, the first of the days of the week; for in relation to the first the second is spoken of, then the rest. The Lord, then, rose with the tomb sealed; and after He had risen, the angel comes, in order that, having rolled away the stone, he might give the women entrance into the tomb. And the earthquake takes place so that the guards might be wakened and learn the strangeness of what had happened. The Lord, then, rose on the third day. And how are the three days reckoned? At the sixth hour of the Preparation He was crucified; from that hour until the ninth, darkness—reckon this for me as night. Again, from the ninth, light—this is day; behold, a day-and-night. Again, the night of the Preparation and the day of the Sabbath, a second day-and-night; the night of the Sabbath and the dawn of the Lord’s Day, a third; and Matthew himself bears witness, saying, “as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week”; for from the dawn the whole day is also reckoned. Behold, a third day-and-night. And you can reckon the three days in another way as well: on the Preparation He yielded up His spirit—this is one day; on the Sabbath He was in the tomb—this is a second day; and on the night of the Lord’s Day He rose, so the Lord’s Day too is reckoned in part as another day; thus, behold, three days. For indeed in the case of those who have fallen asleep, if someone dies about the tenth hour of the day, and another about the first hour of the same day, both are said to have died on the same day. And I have yet another reason to give you for this, how three days and three nights are reckoned. Attend, then: on Thursday evening the Lord made a supper, and said to His disciples, “Take, eat; this is My body”; so that, since He had authority to lay down His soul, it is plain that He then slew Himself, from the moment that He distributed His body to His own disciples; for no one eats anything unless it has first been slain. Reckon, then: the evening when He distributed His own body—that night is the first; then the whole day, that is, the darkness from the sixth hour, and the light from the ninth until evening—behold, a second day-and-night; the night after the Preparation, and the day of the Sabbath—behold, a third day-and-night. And late on the Sabbath He rose; these are three complete days-and-nights. As for the angel, Matthew said that he sat upon the stone, while Mark said that, having rolled away the stone, he was within the tomb on the right side. Is there, then, a contradiction? The angel first appeared seated on the stone, then went in; and again he appeared within the tomb, seated on the right side. And he said to the women: Do not be afraid—that is, It is for the keepers to be afraid; but you, the disciples of the Lord, do not be afraid. And after He frees them from fear, he brings them the good news of the resurrection. For first the fear had to be cast out, and then the good tidings received, while he named the Lord. For by the cross, as by a trophy of victory, we have come to know Christ.

² And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying: Rejoice. And they came and took hold of His feet, and worshiped Him. Then Jesus says to them: Do not be afraid. Go, tell My brethren to go into Galilee, and there they will see Me. He greets the women with “Rejoice.” For since the female sex had been condemned to sorrow, the Lord, through His resurrection, procured joy beforehand for the female sex, and blessed them. Therefore, out of their great reverence for Him, they take hold even of His feet, not daring out of awe to touch any other part of His body, except the lowest parts of it. Some, however, say that they deliberately grasped His feet, in order to learn whether He had truly risen and not in mere appearance, nor was a spirit. For they suspected that perhaps it was a spirit. But according to John, Mary Magdalene attempts to touch Him but is not permitted, because she wished to be always with Him as before. Or rather, for this reason she is not permitted to touch Jesus according to John, as being overcurious. For since, as Matthew says, she had touched His feet, what further need was there to touch Him again? So He pushes her away, as one whose touch was now superfluous.

³ Now as they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. And being assembled with the elders, and having taken counsel, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying: Say that His disciples came by night and stole Him while we slept; and if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were taught. And this saying is spread abroad among the Jews to this day. Those of the guard reported everything: that there had been an earthquake, that the stone had been lifted of itself, that they themselves, being afraid, had become as dead men. But the Jews, abashed neither by the wonders that took place at the Passion, nor by the things attested at the tomb by the soldiers, corrupt the soldiers by their own passion of avarice, persuading them to utter what is of all things most impious and most senseless—that He had been stolen. For how could the disciples have stolen Him, O senseless ones, when they were shut in for fear and did not dare to go out at all? And how, if they had stolen Him, would they later die for Him, proclaiming that He had risen, and be cut to pieces for a lie?

⁴ Now the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had appointed them; and when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying: All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. According to John, Jesus first appeared to the disciples on the very day of the resurrection, the doors being shut; then after eight days, when Thomas also believed; then, since they were to meet in Galilee, but not all had yet gathered together—rather, some of them were fishing on the Sea of Tiberias—He appeared then to the fishermen alone, who were seven. So what Matthew here relates took place later, after the things in John that happened earlier; for He appeared to them many times, presenting Himself over forty days and again withdrawing, not remaining continuously. The eleven, then, went into Galilee, having of course come together with the rest, and the eleven worshiped. And by “some” he means “certain ones”—that is, some of the seventy—who doubted concerning Christ; yet they too were confirmed. Some, however, understand it thus: that Matthew passed over saying who they were that doubted; and what this one passed over, John told—that it was Thomas who doubted. And perhaps they doubted again, as Luke relates. So you ought to understand it thus: that having come into Galilee, they worshiped Him; but these who worshiped in Galilee had doubted earlier in Jerusalem, as Luke says. Jesus, then, spoke to them: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” And this means the following: I had, as God and Creator, authority over all things—For all things are Your servants, David says to God—but I did not have the voluntary submission of all. Now, then, I am about to have this too; for all things will be made subject to Me; through the cross I have conquered him who had the power of death. For submission is twofold: the one involuntary, in that we are all servants of God, as even the demons are; the other voluntary, in the way that Paul was a servant of Christ. Before, then, when all had only the involuntary submission, the Savior had the authority over all but by half; but after the cross, the knowledge of God having been spread to all, and all having been brought into voluntary submission, Christ fittingly says, Now I have received all authority. For before, the authority belonged to Me partially, in that men served Me only involuntarily, inasmuch as I am their Maker; but now that men serve Me with knowledge as well, all authority, whole and entire, has been given to Me. And by whom was it given? Surely by Himself and by His own humility; for unless He had humbled Himself and grappled with the adversary through the cross, He would not have saved us. So understand “Authority has been given to Me” thus: By My own struggles and wrestlings I saved men, and there came to be Mine, henceforth, an inheritance and a chosen people. The Lord, then, has authority on earth, in that all the earth has come to know Him; and in heaven, because the reward of those who believe in Him, and their commonwealth, is in the heavens; and besides, since human nature, formerly condemned, being joined to God the Word according to hypostasis, sits in heaven, worshiped by angels, He fittingly says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven”; and human nature, which formerly was in servitude, now in heaven rules over all. To say it briefly, then, understand “All authority has been given to Me” thus: take it as spoken from God the Word, that “All authority has been given to Me,” inasmuch as both unwillingly and willingly all now acknowledge Me as God—those who formerly served Me after the manner of involuntary submission; but if taken as spoken from the human nature, understand it thus: that I, the formerly condemned nature, but, according to the unconfused union with the Son of God, being God, have received authority over all, so as to be worshiped by angels in heaven, and glorified on earth by all the ends of the world. He sends the disciples, then, no longer to the Jews only, but, since He had received authority over all, having sanctified human nature in Himself, He fittingly sends them to all the nations, commanding them to baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Let Arius, then, be ashamed, and Sabellius: Arius, in that Christ did not say to baptize “into the names,” but “into the name”; and the name of the three is one, the Godhead; so the three are one God. And Sabellius, in that He sets forth the names of the three persons—not of one person, as that man would have it, but of three persons; whereas Sabellius would have it that there is one person, sometimes named Father, sometimes Son, sometimes Spirit. And since it is not enough to be baptized only, but one must also work the good after baptism, He says: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. He did not say one or two of the commandments, but all; we are not perfect unless we keep all. For we are required to keep all. And see the teaching of the Lord, how it embraces both the chief points of Christianity—doctrine and practical virtue: for in saying that we must baptize into the name of the Trinity, He delivered to us theology; and in saying to teach also the keeping of the commandments, He delivered to us practical virtue. And encouraging them, since they were going to be sent among the nations and to slaughters and dangers, He says: Do not be afraid; for I will be with you until the end of the age. And notice this too, that He made mention of the consummation, in order the more to rouse them to endurance of hardships. Do not be discouraged, He says; and He said this quite simply to all His disciples, for surely the apostles were not going to live until the consummation. So He promises this to us also, and to those after us; not that, being present until the consummation, He will be absent after the consummation—far from it. For from that time He will be present all the more purely and clearly; for the word “until,” wherever it is found set down in Scripture, does not do away with what comes after. Having given thanks, then, to the Lord who is here present with us, and who supplies every good thing, and who will be present with us again more perfectly, let us send up glory to Him, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

⁵ The end of the interpretation of the holy Gospel according to Matthew, by our father among the saints Theophylact.