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morrow in our sense of the word, but in the evening after sunsetting, when the Jewish Sabbath was begun, and when they understood the body was buried. To have delayed it to sunrising would have been preposterous, as the disciples might have stolen the body away during the preceding night. Besides, there is no inconsistency between this account of the time when the watch was placed, and the subsequent articles of the history, which proceed upon the supposition that the women present at our Lord's funeral were ignorant that any watch was placed at his grave. For they departed so early, that they had time to buy spices and ointments in the city before the preparation of the Sabbath was ended; whereas the watch was not placed till the Sabbath began. Matt. xxvii. 65. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you con. Pilate thinking their request reasonable, allowed them to take as many soldiers as they pleased out of the cohort which at the feast came from the castle Antonia, (see the note on Mark xii. 41. § 122.) and kept guard in the porticos of the temple, Joseph. Ant. xx. 4, &c. For that they were not Jewish, but Roman soldiers, whom the priests employed to watch the sepulchre, is evident from their asking them of the governor. Besides, when the soldiers returned with the news of Christ's resurrection, the priests desired them to report that his disciples had stolen him away while they slept; and to encourage them to tell the faslehood boldly, promised, that if their neglect of duty came to the governor's ears, proper means should be used to pacify him, and keep them safe; a promise which there was no need of making to their own servants. 66. So they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch. The priests going along with the party, placed them in their post, and sealed the stone that was rolled to the door of the sepulchre, to hinder the guards from combining with the disciples in carrying on any fraud. See Dan. vi. 17. where we find a precaution of the like kind made use of by Darius, in the case of Daniel shut up in the lions den. Thus, while the priests cautiously proposed to prevent our Lord's resurrection from being palmed upon the world, resolving no doubt to shew his body publicly after the third day as an impostor, they put the truth of Christ's resurrection beyond all question, by furnishing a number of unexceptionable witnesses to it, whose testimony they themselves could not refuse.

§ CXLIX.

$ CXLIX. Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, ・go out to see the sepulchre; but are terrified by an earthquake. An angel descends, and Jesus arises *. Matt. xxviii. 1,-4.

Mark xvi. 1.

N.B. Before this and the following sections are examined, Prelim. Observ. III. ought to be carefully read.

To reconcile the several accounts which the evangelists have given of our Lord's resurrection from the dead, it is necessary to inquire

Because the method observed in the remaining part of this Harmony is uncommon, it may be expected perhaps that I should take into consideration the schemes which others have proposed for reconciling the accounts given by the evangelists of our Lord's resurrection from the dead, and shew wherein those schemes are judged defective. But the reader will see, that though the importance of the subject merits the most accurate discussion, to enter into it thus minutely would be tedious. I shall therefore content myself with giving a short account of the scheme offered by Mr West, in his Observations on the resurrection of Jesus; because I think it, upon the whole, ingenious, though I find myself obliged to recede from it in many particulars. Mr West's account of the resurrection is this-The women who accompanied our Lord from Galilee made an appointment to come and embalm him after the Sabbath was ended. Very early therefore on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, in pursuance of their purpose, went out to view the sepulchre. About the time that they were setting out, the earthquake happened, the angel descended and rolled away the stone, and Jesus arose. The two Marys either went with, or called upon Salome in their way; so the three went on till they came in sight of the sepulchre, and observed the door open. This circumstance leading them to conclude that the body was removed, Mary Magdalene ran immediately back to tell Peter and John what had happened. In the mean time the other Mary and Salome going forward, entered the sepulchre, and bad the vision of one angel, mentioned by Matthew and Mark, which informed them that Jesus was risen, and bade them carry the news to his disciples. After they were dêparted, Peter and John, with Mary Magdalene, came to the sepulchre. An account of this journey we have, John xx. 1,-10. The two apostles, having examined every thing, departed. But Mary Magdalene staid behind them at the grave, and saw first a vision of angels, then Jesus himself. Her joy gave her speed. She ran the second time into the city, that she might impart the news to the rest. After Jesus had shewed himself to Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre, he went and met Mary Magdalene's companions, viz. Mary the mother of James, and Salome, as they were going into the town, to give an account of the vision they had seen. The apostles and Mary Magdalene had not been long away from the sepulchre, till Joanna and some Galilean women, her companions, arrived with the spices to embalm the body. This company of women had the vision of two angels described by Luke, then departed. But, by some accident or other, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, who had been at the sepulchre and seen the one angel before Joanna came, and who as they returned had seen Jesus himself, lingered so long on the road, that Joanna and the women with her, who came to the sepulchre after them, got to the apostles lodging before them, and had told their story in such good time, that the two disciples of whom Luke speaks, chap. xxiv. 13. were

set

inquire exactly into the time when the women first set out to visit the sepulchre.

"Matt. xxviii. 1. In the end of the Sabbath, (Mark, And when the Sabbath was past) as it began to dawn towards the first day ef the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, (Mark, Mary the mother of James) to see the sepulchre: (wgnomi) to see if the stone was still at the door, because by that they would know whether the body was within. For from John xix. 42. (There laid they Jesus, therefore, because of the Jews preparationday, for the sepulchre was nigh at hand) it would appear, that the friends of Jesus intended to carry him somewhere else; perhaps because Joseph's sepulchre was not yet finished, being a new

The women knowing this, had reason to think that Joseph would remove the body as soon as the Sabbath was ended. Accordingly, having bought the spices, they judged it proper to send two of their number to see if Jesus was still in the sepulchre, and if he was not, to inquire of the gardener where he was laid, John xx. 15. that when the spices were prepared, that is, pounded, mixed, and melted into an ointment, they might go directly to the place and embalm him.”

This journey to the sepulchre by the two Marys, is generally supposed to have been undertaken in the morning, according to our sense of the word, that is to say, some time after midnight. But this opinion, though universally received, may justly be called in question. For, first of all, what reason can be assigned for the women's not going to see the sepulchre as soon as the Jewish Sabbath was ended, that is, on Saturday immediately after sunsetting, (see Lev. xxiii. 32.) when they had more than an hour's twilight to carry them thither? In the second place, since they delayed it at all, why did they go at two or three in the morning, rather than at some more seasonable hour? Their anxiety cannot be pleaded, because that would have carried them out the precedent evening; nor can their fear of the Jews be alleged as the reason, seeing they had been so bold as to stand by the cross of Christ during his crucifixion, John xix. 25. Besides, the Romans and Jews had already permitted our Lord's friends to pay him funeral honours unmolested. And as for the soldiers at the sepulchre, if the women had known any thing about them, it must have frightened them from going in the night-time, rather than in the evening. To conclude, it cannot be said that the journey was too great to be undertaken in the evening; for the sepulchre was nigh to the city, John xix. 20, 41. It may be said indeed, that it was always full moon at the

passover, and therefore

set out for Emmaus, and Peter was gone to the sepulchre a second time before they came up. This, if I mistake not, is Mr West's account of the resurrection. The reasons on which it is built shall be considered by zud by, and what appear to be its defects shewed.

therefore that the middle of the night was as proper a season for their visit as any. It would not, however, be a proper season, if the weather was either rainy or cloudy then, as it seems actually to have been. This I gather from John xx. 1. where we are told, that in the morning when Mary Magdalene came to the sepulchre, it was dark. In the mean time, though the weather had been ever so fine, it was more agreeable to the womens anxiety, and to the design of their journey, which was to see the sepulchre, (a design which did not admit of any delay) and in every respect more proper for them to make their visit at the end of the Jewish Sabbath, when it was still light, than to defer it till two or three o'clock next morning. Wherefore, if the reasoning is to proceed upon the acknowledged circumstances of this affair, it cannot, I think, be allowed, that the women delayed visiting the sepulchre till the morning of the first day of the week. It is much more probable, that by appointment of the rest, and in conformity to their own inclinations, the two set out for the sepulchre on Saturday evening, according to our form of the day, perhaps about six or seven o'clock at night.

The reader will be pleased to take notice, that the time here fixed for the womens first visit to the sepulchre, is capable of a direct proof likewise from the words of the text. Matt. xxviii.

1. In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. According to the Jewish form of the day, the Sabbath ended, and the first day of the week began at sunsetting. Lev. xxiii. 32. "From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbaths." If so, Matthew's description of the time when the women set out for the sepulchre, fixes it expressly to the evening, notwithstanding the word dawn, in our translation, falsely protracts it to some hours after midnight, being very improperly used in this passage. The word in the original is

Qx, which, applied to the Jewish day, signifies simply that the day began, without conveying any idea of light at all; contrary, I own, to its primary meaning, which doubtless includes the notion of light gradually increasing, in conformity to the commencement of the day among the Greeks, who formed the word so as to denote their own idea. But however contrary to the analogy of the Greek language, this signification of the word

wx, may seem, it could have no other in the mouth of a Jew, whose days all began at sun-setting. Besides, it has this meaning without dispute, Luke xxiii. 54. where, in the history of our Lord's burial, it is said, "And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath (won) dawned," i. e. was about to begin, or, as it is well rendered in our version, dreau on: for no body ever fancied that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus laid Jesus in the sepulchre when the Jewish Sabbath dawned, in the

sense

sense of its becoming light. But the meaning which this Greek word has in Luke it may have in Matthew, or rather must have; as it cannot be imagined that an historian capable of common accuracy, much less an inspired writer, would say it dawned torwards the first day of the week, nine or ten hours after the first day of the week began. Nor would he say that the women made their visit in the end of the Sabbath, if they really made it towards the middle of the day following. Farther, although is used by the sacred writers with all the latitude of, I apprehend that no passage of their writings can be produced, in which either the one or the other signifies the middle of the night, far less the morning. As the Jewish day began at sun setting, they distinguished the evening into two parts, which they called the first and second evenings; the first being the evening with which the precedent day ended, and the second the evening with which the new day began. Hence the expression in the institution of the passover, Exod. xii. 6. " between the two evenings." So it is in the original; see the marginal translation. Compare also Matt. xiv. 15..with verse 23. where both evenings are mentioned. The first evening was the space from three in the afternoon to sun-setting, the second began at sun setting, and lasted till nine, comprehending the whole first watch of the night, which was therefore called os. See Mark xiii. 35. § 123. where all the four watches are enumerated. But in the passage under consideration, signifies the first evening, being the evening of the Sabbath that drew on towards the first day of the week, ofs de σαββάτων, τη επιφωσκάση εις μιαν σαββάτων. The truth is, though ενια, with its primitive of, was applied by Jewish writers indifferently to the first and second evenings, these words, as far as I know, were never used to denote any time later than nine o'clock at night, when the first watch ended.

"For these reasons I think it probable, that the two Marys attempted to visit the sepulchre in the end of the Jewish Sabbath, or about the setting of the sun on our Saturday evening *. I say attempted

But there are three objections against fixing on Saturday evening as the time of the women's first visit to the sepulchre.

One objection against it is taken from Mark xvi. 9. Avasas de, Tewi πρόλη σαββαλας εφάνη πρωτον Μαρία τη Μαγδαληνη. Νόα when Jesus sum risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Here the evangelist seems to affirm, that Christ's resurrection happened in the morning of the first day of the week; whereas if the women were driven back by the storm about the time that Jesus arose, his resurrection must have happened about eight or nine o'clock on Saturday evening. But the answer is, it does not necessarily follow that Jesus arose on Saturday evening, because the storm occasioned by the descent of the angel began then. The storm may have come on several hours before the angel descended, and yet his descent might be the occasion of it. Wherefore, if it is judged necessary, we may suppose, that the angel descended, and Jesus arose after

the

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