The study of the synoptic has made a very remarkable finding and also acceptable worldwide that the Gospel of Mark is supposedly the first written gospel, and this particular finding is to be accredited to the last century. But we have to make note of the point that, from the time of Irenaeus canonised the scripture, Gospel according to Matthew has outweighed not only Mark but also the other gospels. This Gospel provides us with the more information on Jesus’ Jewish lineage and the account of all his disciples, than the other gospels. This Gospel came to us from the Vellum Codices of the New Testament that dates back to the fourth and the fifth century. We can see the Early Christian author Papias refers to Matthew as the author of a collection of Jesus’ Hebrew and Aramaic sayings and oracles, which Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180) speaks of, Matthew as the author of the Greek Gospel according to Matthew. But no Hebrew or Aramaic collection of Jesus’ sayings has survived time, hence leaving this as just a mere hypothesis
1. after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning; Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
2. and suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
3. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.
4. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.
5. But the angel said to the women "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
6. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come; see the place where he lay.
7. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you."
8. So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
9. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.
10. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
Historical Background
a) Author
The author of the book chooses to be anonymous as he fails to attest his name anywhere in the Gospel as in the other gospels. In this search for the author we must have a base to go further in the quest to find the author of this gospel. The early writers and church theologians referred to Matthew as the author of this gospel, people like Papias, Irenaeus in the second century and later by Origen in the third century and Eusebius in the fourth century all ascribe to Matthew as the author of this gospel.
Moving forward to find the author, we see a significant clue, that the tax-collector who followed Jesus is named “Levi, the son of Alpheus” in Mk 2:14 and in Lk 5:27 but is named Matthew in this gospel, and an interesting fact that Levi the tax collector does not appear in the list of disciple but Matthew is mentioned in the same as among the twelve.
However there are a few scholars who suggest that the Levi changed his name to Matthew as he began to follow Jesus. Whereas some others say that the author subtly substituted his name in the place of Levi the tax collector who has been less known.
Although no author’s name is mentioned anywhere in the gospel we must try and find clues in the book itself to accept Matthew as the author. The call of Matthew in 9:9 is followed by the meal at home in 9:10. This verse in English makes it feel like it was the house of Jesus, but actually when translated from Greek the last three words of the verse can also mean ‘at home’ that mean the house of Matthew and in parallel with the Mk 2:15 it makes it clear that it was not in the house of Jesus but the house of Matthew. And only when it refers to the author’s house it can mean ‘at home’ can also mean ‘at my home’. Hence we can make firm the argument that Matthew can most probably be the author of this book. This is one major reason why many scholars conclude with the traditional understanding that Matthew is the author of this gospel.
In addition to the evidence that Irenaeus’ reference to this gospel as the gospel according to ‘Matthew’, we can know that the meaning of the name ‘Matthew’ is ‘Gift of God’, which is fitting for a gospel title. Similarly the name Matthew also sounds somewhat close to the meaning of Disciple in Greek (maqhthvj-mathetes), the word literally means ’learner’. Some scholars feel that if it was not for Matthew, then either his disciple or even a member of the Antioch church could have written this book.
b) Date
As the other manuscripts this one too does not mention of the date and place of its writing. There are several criteria that point out that it must have been written in the 80’s or the 90’s of the first century C.E. some fifty or sixty years after the crucifixion of Jesus which could have been in 30C.E. There are sources that date the materiel back between 75 and 80 C.E., except for the sources that mention Matthew as the first gospel. Some of them date back between 80 and 100C.E. But most of them compromise with that fact that it was written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. it has been argued that Matt 22:7 and Ch: 24 accept the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem. But the language used in the same is based on Israel’s apocalyptic terms and shows no specific knowledge as to what happened in 70 C.E. On the other hand the gospel seeks to contain evidence of facilitating with an ongoing cultic life of the temple, its worship and the collection of temple tax (5:23-24; 23:16-22; 17:24-27)
There could be two possible reasons to date the materiel just after 70 C.E. It is a common understanding among a wide range of scholars that Matthew uses Mark as one of his sources. Matthew rewrites Mark, sometimes eliminating, editing, abbreviating, and adding material. Mark was probably written in or just before 70 C.E. or in the later 60’s. And Matthew was written years after Mark, it could maybe be a decade or two after Mark was written. There are three main critical issues that make this gospel’s date later are, synoptic problem, the fall of Jerusalem and the Church’s relationship with Judaism in the first century.
c) Place
To understand why the author wrote this gospel surely does not need just one reason. The suggestions are such that say, Matthew could have written it to a predominant Jewish Christian community. It was written for the congregation to read and follow Jesus’ teachings by reading it in public, it was also meant to convince the Christian Jews about the truth. In short, we can say that the gospel of Matthew was written by and for a Christian community.
d) Purpose
As we read along the text we can subtly get to know that the Matthean community was probably based itself in a city with Jews, Greeks and other groups of people mixed in it. We can also say that the Christians were more in number whose ancestral past is Judaistic. Hence with all indications we can get to know that the place from which the gospel was written is from Antioch in Syria, at that time the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It was a place of trade, exchange and commerce between the West and the East. It is believed that the Christian community moved here and Hellenistic refugees after the martyrdom of Stephen in Jerusalem.
e) Source
The author of Matthew’s gospel has mostly used sources from the oral tradition as he depends on this oral tradition very much, and most probably he must have had a copy of the Gospel of Mark and it seems like he has taken most of the work and made the necessary editing and compiled a gospel according to himself. We can see that as we read the gospel with parallels in comparison with Luke and Mark. Matthew did not compose this gospel on his own, but developed it by depending on the earlier sources like Mark and Q source. This is the two source hypothesis that many scholars have accepted. There is always a debate on the synoptic gospels.
Matthew draws much of the storyline from Mark. The baptism of Jesus at the river Jordan, the concentration of most of his ministry of teaching and the healing at Galilee, the fateful journey to Jerusalem, the climatic events in the temple area and the passion story itself, followed by the discovery of the empty tomb and the proclamation of the resurrection are fundamental elements of the Matthew’s story that was drawn from Mark.
We must note that the details that seem not so relevant are being dropped so that the Matthean version of the story is shorter than that of Mark (Matt 9:20-22=Mark 5:24b-34). The grammar and the linguistic style become more polished, though this is not always apparent in English translations. The inaccuracies are being corrected (King Herod in Mark 6:14 = Herod the tetrarch in Matt 14:1). Minor changes are made to make the material more relevant to the Jewish Christians, to an urban setting, or to a more prosperous audience (Matt 10:9, Mk 6:8). The power and dignity of Jesus are generally enhanced, (Matt 13:58, Mk 6:5), as is the character of his disciples (Matt 16:5-12, Mk 8:14-21). The portrait of the religious leader of Israel becomes more negative (Matt 22:30-34, Mk 12: 28-40).
Matthew’s access to the Q source leaves a remarkable impact on the gospel. Most of the Q material is the sayings of Jesus that Matthew combines with Markan material and shapes into discourses of Jesus that appear throughout his narrative. The most important is the first discourse of Jesus, the famous Sermon on the Mount (5-7) which serves as a foundation for all the rest of Jesus’ teaching. The other discourses are the mission discourse (10), the parable discourse (13), and the community discourse (18).
Matthew’s use of the sayings source is a bit more complicates than his use of Mark. For sure we can understand that Q is the material found in both Matthew and Luke and not in Mark. Hence most scholars agree that Matthew was more creative than Luke in the usage of words in the adaptation of the Q which is the speeches of Jesus. The placing of Q is very prominent in the narratives of the Sermon on the Mount found in chap. 5-7.
Matthew 28:1-10
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Mark 16:1-8
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Luke 24:1-11
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1 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning; Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
3 His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.
4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.
5 But the angel said to the women "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come; see the place where he lay.
7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you."
8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.
10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
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1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
3 They had been saying to one another,
"Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"
4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.
5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
6 But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.
7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."
8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
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1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.
2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3 but when they went in, they did not find the body.
4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."
8 Then they remembered his words,
9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.
11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe them.
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Methodological Concerns
The gospel writer emphasises on the Messianic promise that is fulfilled in Jesus the Christ. Who was sent to restore and renew Israel, the royal Son of God enjoys the extraordinary intimacy with God and reveals God’s will, the Son of Man who suffers humiliation and rejection yet will come in glory to judge all the people to the end of time. The author portrays Jesus as a teacher, is a prominent theme that is found in the gospel. With this theme he shows the strong Jewish nature of the text in his rabbinic approach. In this gospel Jesus challenges his disciples to lead a life of righteousness and justice. It is in this essence that has the saying; ‘the one who does the will of God’ is an authentic disciple.
In this we can understand the two important clues of the overall issue of the text that is, the author and the community’s Jewishness and the portrayal of Jesus as teacher or rabbi. We also see that the author is very negative on the Judaistic teacher and Judaism itself. We at this moment cannot deny the author’s concern for the gentiles as he believes that Israel alone does not deem the elect status but that the salvation of Christ is for the gentiles too (8:5-13; 21:043; 28:29).
The ‘kingdom of heaven’ is often used in Matthew and is synonymous with the phrase, ‘kingdom of God’ as used in other Gospels and occasionally in the gospel of Matthew (6:33). Matthew would opt to refer to it as the kingdom of heaven as it makes him and the readers not to utter ‘God” which is a Holy word for the Jews. Either of the phrases refers to the reality of God ruling, an incident not limited to time and space. In other words, the kingdom of heaven is not just a place where God lives, but is a sphere of God’s influence.
Literary
a) Genre
Hence the actions, teachings and evaluations of Jesus are contained in a narrative which resembles to a limited extent and ancient Greco-Roman ‘life’ of a person. The goal of the ancient ‘life’ is not a detailed historical accuracy and completeness as in a modern biography, but to encourage the reader to a life of virtue. In some ways Jesus’ ‘life’ in the gospel of Matthew resembles that of the lives of the early prophets which stress on the role or task to which the prophets are dedicated and often sufferings which they must undergo.
Some scholars have fruitfully compared the gospels to aspects of the so-called Greco-roman romances or novels, which stress on the interaction between the hero and the heroine with god’s and their escapes from danger. On the other hand the gospels lack the highly emotional and erotic motifs common with one another than with Hebrew or Greco-Roman literary types and constitute an identifiable genre of its own.
b) Form
Matthew’s written sources depend predominantly on the oral tradition. As we see that the various events of the life and teachings of Jesus was orally transmitted and followed before it was put into writing. Through this we can understand that the orally transmitted stories were not as part of the life of Jesus but were witnesses to the event of Jesus’ life and teaching. Hence all these were theological witnesses of the Christ event that helped in formulating the meaning of Christian faith and was subject to continual expansion, modification, interpretation, reinterpretation in order to communicate the meaning of the faith to the changing situations.
c) Redaction
“The study of how the author of the gospel selected, arranged, modified and added to the tradition in the composition of the gospel is called redaction criticism”. In the gospel according to Matthew we see redaction as the editing and the rewriting of Q and Mark. The attention is to be given to the theological understanding of the author as it is seen in the additions, omissions and modifications of the sources. As we see the writing of Matthew and Mark as parallels we see a lot of places where Matthew has been redacted. For example in the chosen text we can see the differences in the Matthew as he uses Mark, for example in the first verse Matthew omits ‘Salome’ which Mark includes as the third woman, and as we see further, Matthew replaces the word ‘young-man’ in Mark into an ‘angel’ and later in the text Matthew omits the mane of Peter whom he addresses very often but fails to do so in this pericope. These are the few examples of redaction in spite of the Synoptic similarities.
Exegesis
v1. After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning; Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
After the Sabbath, as Matthew starts the narration by denoting the time of the event that means the Sabbath has ended (at sunset on Saturday). This phrase appears parallel to Mark, but it seems like it was on the Saturday as portrayed in Mark, but Matthew goes on to explain that is was in the dawn of the new day. Hence it has to be the Sunday morning as traditionally accepted as the day of Easter. Matthew significantly omits the mane of Salome the third woman in his narration. They bought spices maybe after the shops opened on the Saturday evening so that they may go in the morning of the Sunday.
The use of the verb ‘to see’ has a clue to offer to us, ‘seeing’ or ‘to see’ in the gospel has important meaning, that is to denote understanding or insight into Jesus’ teaching and experience. They for sure have heard of his accurate teachings of death and resurrection, therefore they have come ‘to see’ as they have waited to see. It is significant to note that this particular privilege of seeing the empty tomb was given to the women who in those days were not regarded as well as the men on even greater than the disciples themselves, they were the marginalised and were not among the elite, to be receptive to God’s purpose.
v2. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
The great earthquake was explained by the coming of the angel to roll away the stone door in front of the tomb. The angel then sat on the stone, remaining at the tomb entrance. The angel did not come to let Jesus out of the tomb as Jesus had the stone rolled away for Lazarus to come out of the tomb alive when He called Lazarus to come out. Jesus passed through the stone walls, for the women found the tomb empty and they did not see Jesus walk out of the tomb when the angel rolled away the stone. Jesus later passed through walls or a closed door to appear to His disciples.
v3. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.
The angel appeared to both the guards and the women. The women were not confused about where Jesus was buried or the location of His tomb (Matt 27:61). The guards reacted with fear, similar to the guards’ terrified response when Jesus died on the cross and there was an earthquake (Matt 27:54). In the case of Jesus’ resurrection, both guards and women were aware of the angel coming to the tomb and they were overwhelmed at his appearing. The lightening like appearance asserts God’s sovereignty even over death, something the empire cannot duplicate.
v4. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men
The Roman guards had both a physical and mental reaction to the angel. Rather than bravely stand their ground as they had been taught and challenge the angel over his actions, they shook with fear and fell to the ground. Perhaps they had also learned from the guards at the crucifixion (or were the same guards) that Jesus was the Son of God, so they expected immediate execution from an angry God at the hands of the angel. The guards fell unconscious and the women witnessed their respons
v5. But the angel said to the women "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
The young man dressed in as in white Mark becomes an angel in Matthew. The angel disregarded the guards, and sought to comfort the women who had come to honour Jesus by caring for his dead body according to their burial practices. The angel made it clear the fact that Jesus had indeed been crucified; that in fact He had died and had been buried at that exact location where he appeared. The women were right to come there looking for Jesus, but they were not accurate in their thinking because they expected to find Jesus still dead.
v6. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. “Come; see the place where he lay.
The angel corrected their thinking and invited them to become witnesses regarding the empty tomb. He declared they would not find Jesus’ body because Jesus had been raised (though at one time Jesus had been laid in the empty tomb, in which no other body had ever been laid). Jesus’ resurrection had occurred sometime prior that day, prior to the opening of the tomb by the angel and the earthquake. The angel’s perfect timing made it possible for the women to see the guards guarding the tomb, experience the earthquake, and see the stone rolled away before they entered the tomb. There could be no confusion or doubt about someone having come to the tomb earlier to remove Jesus’ body.
v7. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you.”
After the women saw where Jesus had been laid and the angel once again emphasized that Jesus had been dead and had been raised from the dead, the angel told them that Jesus also had the ability to travel to Galilee. Jesus would later need to demonstrate His fully human resurrected powers by appearing to them in a locked room to convince them that He was alive and well and that they should travel to Galilee to see Him again. It is surprising that Matthew, who elsewhere, shown a special interest in Peter (10:2; 16:17), does not retain Mark’s special mention to him: ‘Tell his disciples and Peter’. This maybe because Matthew is concerned of the accusation, which the disciples staged, what they were expecting to take place.
v8. So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
The women believed the angel because he was no ordinary man and miracles accompanied his appearing. They saw the guards fall in fear. They saw the empty tomb. They felt the earthquake and the earthquake’s perfect timing. They saw the angel roll the stone away without the help of other angels or people. Most probably, the disciples felt the great earthquake where they were in hiding, and the women could explain the cause of the earthquake. The two women could give good and sufficient reasons for the disciples to believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead, but the disciples were foolish and slow to believe (Lk 24:25-26).
v9. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.
The Bible teaches the need for two witnesses in case of a trial. Two witnesses to an event should be believed in they are known to be trustworthy. The Hebrews knew that witnesses would be held accountable by God for bearing false witness or lying. In addition to the events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection, both the angel and the living, resurrected Lord Jesus bore witness to the fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead. At this point in time, the women worshiped Jesus as would all those in the early Christian church. Jesus received their worship as the right as the Son of God. Angels and the apostles, no matter what miracles they worked, always refused the worship of others, saying only God deserved to be worshiped. Jesus did not refuse to be worshiped. He willingly received the worship of others as God.
v10. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
This was the second time that the women were told not to be afraid. Though Jesus is the Son of God, He called His disciples “brothers” (Heb 2:11). He reaffirmed what the angel told the women; again we have two witnesses to the command because the command was given to them twice by two different persons. Obedience to this command would become a test for the disciples, and they failed the test by remaining in the locked room until Jesus appeared to them to convince them He was raised from the dead—which also gives us more good reasons to believe that the facts presented regarding Jesus’ resurrection are true.
Theological Implication
The resurrection is an eschatological event that has taken place as the ultimate event in the history of humanity and not merely a spectacular event in the life of Jesus. Hence this is not just the belief of the dead body that was back to life or jus that the tomb was empty. This act of Jesus is the most significant of all, as this is where it could be noted as the starting point of Christianity, where many scholars believe that Christianity began with the ‘open tomb’. Jesus’ resurrection is not the same as he brought from the dead the three people as mentioned in the gospels, but a different one, which denotes the victory of Jesus over death.
This is the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament, as we also say in our creeds, “…and he rose again on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures...” It is the foundation of Christian faith that resurrection was the fulfilment of the promise of God to the people of Israel, as in Micah and other prophetic literature that a son will be born to save humanity and that he will die an unpleasant death and will rise on the third day to return to heaven. In this resurrection was the hope of a new life for humanity. The resurrection event is not only an ordinary happy ending to the tragic end of the life of Jesus, but a hope of a new beginning. It for sure is not the final accomplishment but the continual presence and a symbolism of a God who lives among humanity and suffers along with the victims and the one who died a human death.
Application
As I went through the passage there were two important themes that showed me light. Believe and Share. The two very important themes that can be reflected upon, firstly believe, the belief the women showed when the angel said ‘go quickly’ they ran with fear and joy, that shows they did not doubt what the angel told to them but believed it and obeyed the message they had received. Secondly share, the women who were said to share what they heard ran quickly to share to the disciples and hence they shared their experience to the people.
The same passage on the other hand can be presented as the women being a preferential option of God, over all the other people who were indeed of higher status in the society, to reveal God-self to humanity, as they were the first ones to know about the resurrection and were meant to pass on the message to the other disciples, thus, making God the God of the marginalised, the victimised and the poor, who died and rose again to live with the people forever.
Bibliography
Carter, Warren. Matthew and the Margins; Theological Publications in India, 2007
Warren Carter. Matthew and the Margins; Theological Publications in India, 2007 pg.15
