The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 259

peared ; to nnotber, two. Mo.ry Magdalene, chier priests and Jewish leaders would a little l1Lter, so.w two angels in white sitting, apparently ho.ve been surprised if something as it were keeping watch and ward over the startling had not happened (see Matt. sepulchre for o. short time after the sacred xxvii. 00, etc., where an account is given form ho.d left it. The words which these of the measures these able but un princi pied beings from another sphere spoke to the men took, in their short-sighted wisdom, to mourning women were slightly different, counteract any fulfilment of the Crucified but the teaching was the same in each case : One's word-a fulfilment they evidently "He is not here, but is risen. Do you not looked forward to as to no improbable remember what he told you when he wns contingency). The utt,,r surprise of the yet with you?" Van Oosterzee and Farrar disciples at the Resurrection, which in their repeo.t a beautiful passage from Leasing Gospels they truthfully acknowledge, is no on this: "Cold discrepancy-monger3, do small side-proof of the genuineness of these you not, then, see that the evangelists do records of the event. not count the angels? .•. '.fhe1·e were Ver. 12.-Then arose Peter, and ran unto not only two angels-there were millions of the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld them. They appeared not always one and the linen olothes laid by themselves, and the same, not always the same two; some- departed, wondering in himself at that times this one appeared, sometimes that; which was oome to pass. This verae is eemetimes on this place, sometimes on that; omitted in some of the ancient authorities. sometimes alone, sometimes in company; It is, however, no doubt genuine, and is, in sometimes they said ibis, sometimes they fact, a condensed report (omitting all men- eaid that." tion of John) of the narrative given at length Vera. 6, 7.-lle is not here, but is risen. in St. John's Gospel (xx. 3-10). These words were repeated in ee.ch of the Vere. 13-35.-The meeting with the risen angelic communications at the sepulchre. Jesus on the way to EmmaUB. Remember how he spe.ke unto you when he Ver. 13.-And, behold, two of them. W6II yet in Ge.Iilee, saying, The Son of man This long piece, which relates in a singu- must be delivered into the hands of llinful larly vivid and picturesque manner one of meD., and be oruoifted, and the third day rise the earliest appearo.nces of the Risen, is again. The angels here call to the women's peculiar to St. Luke. St. Mark (xvi. 12, 13) memory the Master's former promises of the mentions it, but as it were only in passing. Resurrection. In SS. Matthew and Mark This Gospel, written probably after the the angel bids them tell the disciples not to Gospels of SS. Matthew and Mark, holdd o. forget the appointed place of meeting in middle place between the earliest apostolic Go.lilee, referring to the Lord's words on memoirs represented by the first two Gospels the way from the "Last Supper" to Geth- and the last memoir, that of St. John, which semane (Matt. xxvi. 32 : Mark xiv. 28). was probably put out in its present form by Ver. 9.-And told all these things unto the o.postle "whom Jesus loved" some time the eleven, and to all the rest. The account in the last fifteen ye11rs of the first century. of the scenes at the sepulchre in St. Luke Writers of varied schools unite in expressions are the least vivid o.ud detailed of the four of admiration for this singularly beautiful evangelists. It must be remembered that "memory of the Lord." Godet styles it one Matthew, Mark (the amanuensis of Peter), of the most admirable pieces in St. Luke's and John relo.te their own memories here, o.s Gospel. Renan, belonging to another, per- well as what they had heard from the holy haps the most cheerless of all schools of women. Peter and John, we know, were religious thought, writes thus: "L'episode present themselves at the sepulchre. St. des disciples d'Emma.us est un des recite les Luke received his less detailed and more plus fins, lee plus nuances qu'il y a.it dnns summarized account of that early morning, o.ucune lo.ngue" (' Les Evo.ugiles,' p. 282). years after, most probo.bly from the lips of Dean Plumptre speo.ks of "the long and one of the holy women who had formed part singularly interesting narrative peculiar to of one of the" two companies" who carl'ied St. Luke." He says, "It must be looked spices for the embalming. upon as among the • gleo.ning of the grapes,' Ver. 11.-And their words seemed to them which rewarded bis researches even after as idle tales, and they believed them not. the full vintage had apparently bee11 The utter inoredulity of the friends of Jesus gathered in by others" (i.e. SS. Matthew when these reports of bis resurrection were and Mark). The "two of them,'' a.Ithough brought to them is remarkable when con- doubtless well known in the apostolio age, trasted with the evident dread of the seem to have held no distinguished place in Sanhedrin that something of gravB moment early Christian history (see note on ver. 18, would happen o.fter three days hnd elapsed. where Cleopas is mentioned). That same '.fhe disoiples were evidently amazed 11t day. Tha first day of the week-the first ~heir Mo.11ter'11 rising from the dead, The Easter Day. The events of the early morn- 270 THE G-OSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [ou. xx1v. 1-53,