The Resurrection: Women at the Tomb

Study notes

The unit centers on how the resurrection announcement moves from heavenly verification to human transmission. Divine intervention first displays the empty tomb by rolling away the stone and silencing the guards, then directs the women to confirm the vacancy and carry word to the disciples. Their departure mixes fear with joy as they run to fulfill the charge. Jesus’ subsequent appearance to them repeats the commission but shifts the recipients to “my brothers,” confirming bodily presence through their grasp of his feet and placing the message under his own authority rather than the angel’s alone. The passage thus presents the resurrection as both the fulfillment of Jesus’ word and the renewal of the circle that will meet him in Galilee.

What is The Resurrection: Women at the Tomb about?

Two women named Mary reach the tomb late on the Sabbath as the first day of the week begins to dawn. Their errand is simply to see the place where Jesus was laid, yet the ground shakes, an angel descends, rolls the stone aside, and sits on it while the guards collapse in fear. The angel addresses the women directly, announcing that Jesus is not there because he has risen, and directs them to inspect the empty spot before carrying word to the disciples that they will see him in Galilee.

This opening scene stands immediately after the account of the tomb being sealed and guarded at the request of the chief priests and Pharisees. The arrival of the women therefore tests the effectiveness of those measures and shifts attention from the authorities’ precautions to the testimony that must now be carried forward. The unit matters because it places the first human witnesses at the center of the transition from burial to renewed encounters with the risen Jesus, establishing the pattern of fear mixed with joy that will accompany the message sent to the disciples.

Where does this passage sit in Matthew?

This unit sits directly after the chief priests and Pharisees secure the tomb with a guard and seal, an arrangement meant to contain any claim that Jesus would rise. The women’s approach therefore functions as the first test of those precautions, shifting the narrative from defensive measures taken by opponents to the announcement that must now travel outward. The earthquake and the angel’s descent invert the intended security: the stone is moved not to allow escape but to display an empty space, and the guards who were posted to watch become inert while the women receive a commission.

The angel’s directive to go quickly and tell the disciples that Jesus goes before them to Galilee creates an explicit bridge to the book’s final scene. That same location, already named in earlier predictions of reunion after the resurrection, now becomes the setting where the risen Jesus will meet the eleven and issue the mission charge. The women’s errand thus carries forward the thread of testimony that the authorities had tried to preempt.

By placing the first proclamation in the mouths of these two women rather than the male disciples or the guards, the account also sets up the immediate sequel in which the guards report to the chief priests and a counter-story is fabricated. The contrast between the women’s rapid departure with fear and great joy and the later bribe that spreads a false report underscores how the resurrection announcement generates two competing lines of transmission, one faithful and one deliberately misleading. This tension remains unresolved until the disciples reach Galilee, where the book’s closing commission overrides the suppressed version.

How is the passage structured?

The unit opens with the two women reaching the tomb at the first light after the Sabbath, their purpose limited to observation. Immediately the narrative shifts from their quiet approach to a sudden sequence of divine actions: an earthquake, the descent of an angel, the rolling away of the stone, and the angel’s seated position atop it. The description of the angel’s lightning-like appearance and snow-white clothing is then set against the guards’ collapse into immobility, creating a sharp contrast between heavenly power and human paralysis.

The angel’s direct address to the women marks the first spoken turn. It moves from reassurance to declaration of the resurrection, then to an invitation to inspect the empty place, and finally to a commission to carry the message to the disciples with the added detail of a Galilean meeting. This speech occupies the center of the passage and supplies both explanation and instruction.

The women’s departure follows at once, their movement described as quick running accompanied by the paired responses of fear and great joy. That forward motion is interrupted by Jesus’ own appearance, which functions as a second, more personal encounter. His single word of greeting prompts the women to draw near, grasp his feet, and offer worship, an action not present in the angel’s scene.

Jesus’ closing words repeat the command to go and tell yet alter the recipients from “his disciples” to “my brothers,” tightening the connection between the risen one and those who will receive the report. The passage therefore advances through three successive addresses—angel to women, women running, Jesus to women—each building on the last while shifting the source of the message from heavenly messenger to the Lord himself.

What is the historical background?

The timing phrase places the women’s arrival at the close of the Sabbath, when the first day of the week was beginning to dawn. Jewish days ran from sunset to sunset, so this moment marks the earliest permitted activity after the day of rest. The two Marys come simply to see the tomb, a modest act consistent with first-century practices of visiting burial sites to confirm the body’s condition or to perform further mourning rites once the Sabbath had ended.

The presence of guards at the tomb reflects the earlier request made by the chief priests and Pharisees to Pilate. Roman soldiers could be posted to secure a site when Roman or local authorities judged public order at risk. Their collapse in fear before the angel underscores the contrast between official precautions and the event that overrides them. The angel’s descent, the earthquake, and the stone rolled away echo earlier biblical accounts of divine intervention at tombs or mountains, where an angel of the Lord functions as a visible messenger whose appearance signals heavenly authority rather than human permission.

Women served as the first to receive the announcement and the charge to tell the disciples. In Jewish legal custom of the period, testimony from women carried restricted weight in formal settings, yet the narrative assigns them the initial report without qualification. The instruction to meet Jesus in Galilee recalls the region where his public ministry had centered and where most of the disciples originated, shifting attention from Jerusalem, the site of the crucifixion, to the place of earlier teaching and calling.

When Jesus appears, the women take hold of his feet, a gesture of physical reverence and recognition. Such contact with the risen figure confirms bodily presence while the command “Do not be afraid” repeats the angel’s earlier reassurance, linking the two encounters. The address “my brothers” for the disciples extends the earlier language of discipleship into a renewed familial relationship after the resurrection.

What does this passage teach about God?

The resurrection announcement in this unit centers on the reliability of Jesus’ own prior words. The angel states that the tomb stands empty because Jesus “has risen just as he said,” locating the event inside the pattern of his earlier declarations rather than as an unexpected reversal. This claim presents God as the one who keeps the promises Jesus made, even when those promises concern his own death and return to life. Human efforts to prevent such an outcome, visible in the sealed and guarded tomb, prove powerless once divine action begins.

The women’s encounter further clarifies what faith looks like in the face of this event. They arrive simply “to see the tomb,” yet receive both the sight of the empty place and the charge to carry the message forward. Their departure “with fear and great joy” shows that the proper response combines awe before God’s power and readiness to speak what they have heard. When Jesus himself meets them, their immediate action of taking hold of his feet and worshiping him indicates that recognition of the risen Lord leads directly to reverence, not merely to information.

Jesus’ address to the women reinforces the continuity of his mission. He repeats the instruction to go to Galilee and adds the phrase “my brothers,” extending the circle of those who will see him to include the very disciples who had scattered. The repetition of “Do not be afraid” from the angel’s earlier words to the women now comes from Jesus himself, showing that the same mercy that overcomes death also calms the fear of those sent to announce it. In this way the passage presents the resurrection as both the vindication of Jesus’ mission and the renewal of the community that follows him.

What are the interpretive difficulties?

The timing phrase in verse 1 places the women’s arrival at the boundary between the Sabbath and the first day without clarifying whether the earthquake and the angel’s descent belong to one day or the next. The wording leaves the exact sequence open, yet the narrative treats the moment as the point where prior precautions by the authorities lose their force. Readers must decide how much weight to give the temporal markers when the text itself moves immediately to the angel’s announcement rather than lingering on chronology.

The women’s stated purpose is simply “to see the tomb,” a modest errand that the angel interprets as seeking “Jesus who was crucified.” Nothing in the passage indicates they came prepared to anoint the body or expected an empty grave. Their subsequent mixture of fear and great joy therefore arises directly from the angel’s words and the empty place they are invited to inspect, not from any prior plan. The text does not resolve whether their initial intention would have changed had the stone remained in place.

The guards’ collapse “like dead men” creates a narrative silence about what they later report to the chief priests. Verse 4 records only their physical reaction; the passage never returns to their perspective or explains how they regained enough composure to speak. This gap keeps attention fixed on the women’s commission rather than on the authorities’ response, which appears only in the following unit.

When Jesus meets the women, he addresses them with the same reassurance the angel gave (“Do not be afraid”) and then redirects their message to “my brothers.” The shift from “disciples” in the angel’s instruction to “brothers” here is left without comment, yet it occurs at the moment the risen Jesus himself confirms the earlier command. The passage therefore settles that the women are reliable messengers while leaving open how the term “brothers” redefines the circle that will see him in Galilee.

Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.