Necessity is the Mother of Invention.
By R. F. Cottrell
"In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. "2. And, behold; there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. "3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. "4. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. "5. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. "6. He is not here; for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Matt. xxviii, 1-6. To meet the argument (if argument it may be called), in favor of first-day observance, from the fact of the resurrection of Christ on that day, some have asserted that he did not rise on the first, but on the seventh day, i. e., before sun-set on Saturday. To prove this, they take the first part of the text I have quoted above, claiming that the coming of the women to the sepulcher was in the end of the Sabbath, or "late in the Sabbath," and make the "dawn" of the day a little before the going down of the sun. Very well so far. But what the angel says to the women corresponds so exactly with what is recorded by the other evangelists as occurring very early in the morning, that the identity cannot be disputed. What shall be done? It will not do to give up the point that the resurrection took place on the Sabbath, and accept of those translations which render the text, "After the Sabbath" and "The Sabbath being ended," which would harmonize it with the testimony of Mark, namely, "And when the Sabbath was past," but it must be maintained that the Sabbath was not past. How shall this be done? Divide the text and find two visits to the sepulcher in it, one on the Sabbath, the other the next morning. Thus the angel descended and rolled back the stone, the earth quaked, the Saviour rose, and the keepers shook and became as dead, on the Sabbath; and the next morning this angel, or some other one "answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye," &c. This is very much like the view that the writing of Joshua on plastered stones caused Moses' face to shine forty years before, when he came down from the mount with the tables of stone in his hands. There is no real difficulty in the text. The renderings I have referred to, which harmonize this testimony with the other witnesses, doubtless convey the true meaning. This too is in harmony with the meaning of the word, dawn, namely, "to begin to shine, to grow light, dawn."—Greenfield. There is not the least probability that the resurrection, in connection with a great earthquake, took place while the Sabbath sun was shining, and nothing be known of it till the next morning, when the women went to the sepulchre expecting to find the Lord's body there. Unless the keepers lay as dead all night, they would have reported the matter to the chief priests before morning. But we are told that as the women left the sepulchre to tell the disciples, "some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done." Verse 11. All the circumstances combine to show that the resurrection took place at the early dawn, just before the women came to the sepulcher in the morning. As soon as the watch had recovered from the shock which laid them senseless to the ground, and saw the stone at a distance from the empty sepulchre, they dispatched a part of their number to the chief priests to bear the news of these wonderful occurrences. A candid and sensible examination of the evidences can leave no doubt that the resurrection of our Saviour took place in the morning of the first day of the week, just before the women came to the sepulcher, and that the same shining angel that rolled back the stone and sat upon it, immediately proceeded to tell them the glad news, directing them to go and tell it to the sorrowing disciples. The day of the crucifixion is another question. If the "heart of the earth" means the tomb "hewn out in the rock," as I think it does, "three days and three nights" back would make the fifth day or Thursday the crucifixion-day. The space of time included would be two whole days and two whole nights, and a part of another day and a part of another night; making the resurrection take place on "the third day," and with this view every text would harmonize. But if he was crucified on Wednesday, and lay in the tomb three times twenty-four hours, he would rise on the fourth, and not on the third day; for the moment the third day ends the fourth begins.