My soul clings to you,Your right hand upholds me.
Was the stone rolled away when the women arrived at the tomb?
In the passages of Mark, Luke, and John it is clear that the stone was rolled away before the women arrived at the tomb . . .
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”
(Mark 16:1-3, ESV)
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
(Luke 24:1-3, ESV)
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
(John 20:1,ESV)
Matthew, however, tells the story a little differently,
[1] Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. [2] And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. [3] His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. [4] And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. [5] But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. [6] He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
(Matthew 28:1-6, ESV)
Some have taken Matthew’s account and have assumed that it describes the women having been present while the stone was rolled away. However, nowhere in Matthew’s account does it clearly say that the stone was closed when the women arrived at the tomb or that the women were present and saw the stone rolled away. It is likely the stone was rolled away at Jesus’ resurrection, which clearly had already happened before the women arrived since Jesus’ body was not there.
The Greek participle γάρ is often used when providing an explanation for something. Here it seems to be explaining the cause of the earthquake. “Descended” is also in the aorist participle, which allows it to be read as “had descended”. This allows verses 2-5 to be read as a parenthesized account (a common literary device at this time), put in to explain the earthquake. This is further emphasized by the fact that when Matthew picks up the story of the women again, he contrasts the angels effect on the soldiers and their fear to the angel’s effect on the women, “Do not be afraid”. He purposefully goes back to tell what happened before the women arrived at the tomb not only to explain the earthquake but also to provide this stark contrast between the effect of the angel on the guards and the women. It is a beautiful and effective literary device that wouldn’t work if he told the story in absolute chronological order.
A legitimate understanding of this passage, if you include the grammar and the literary devices Mathew uses, could be:
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, [on the way] there was a great earthquake, ([This earthquake occurred] because an angel of the Lord had descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.) In contrast [to the guards, when the women arrived] the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.”
It is also important to note that it appears that Matthew got the story from at least two sources and is combining those accounts here. Verses 2-5 appear to be an account of one of the guards, who described the events of the stone being rolled away, for we see later Matthew giving an account of the guards meeting with the Jewish leaders. This account could be from the guard or one of the Jewish leaders, or someone present at the meeting who heard the guard’s account firsthand. Either way, this description is specific to that time when the guards were present, and the stone was rolled away and does not necessarily describe, for example, the position of the angels at the time of the women’s arrival. We cannot read the Gospel accounts as if no one ever moves and they were just a panorama and static. No, the events of the Gospel were dynamic, and they describe people being in different places within the account. And this is what you would expect to see if multiple witnesses were giving their account of an event, emphasizing the things that stood out specifically to them, providing further evidence that the Gospels are indeed based on eyewitness accounts.
