Matthew 28 (KJV) - 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• ¹And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
²And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. (Mark 16:1‑2)

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Luke 23:56• ⁵⁶And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. (Luke 23:56)

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Luke 24:1,22• ¹Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
²²Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; (Luke 24:1,22)

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John 20:1‑10• ¹The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
²Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
³Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
⁴So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
⁵And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
⁶Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
⁷And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
⁸Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
⁹For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
¹⁰Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. (John 20:1‑10)

Mary Magdalene.

Matt. 27:56,61• ⁵⁶Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.
⁶¹And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. (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.)