ON CERTAIN WOMEN WHO BROUGHT OINTMENTS; AND THAT THERE IS NO DISCREPANCY OR CONTRADICTION TO BE FOUND AMONG THE EVANGELISTS REGARDING THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Let us discourse a few words to your charity regarding the resurrection of Christ, and let us show that there is no discrepancy or contradiction to be found among the evangelists regarding this matter. For because those four wrote about this subject in various ways, it seemed to certain foolish persons that a contradiction—or rather, a falsehood—could be detected in this account. But our holy Fathers have refuted their stupidity in few words, saying that each of the evangelists narrated individual journeys of the women and the apostles to the divine sepulcher, which occurred at different times; and that none of them mentioned what was contained in the narrative of another, the most holy Spirit who spoke through them arranging it so that nothing of what was done then would be omitted, and—since all were relating a history of different times—they would avoid any grounds for suspicion.
A For, though we may distinguish the times and the approaches of the women to the tomb, as the Fathers have discovered, nevertheless some who are influenced by a demon accuse the women of having spoken with discord and incompatibility in what is written. But come, let us clarify the matters concerning these things by the inspiration of the All-Holy Spirit, as far as we are able. For I know in God that, with the different times and the supervision of the persons set in order, we will not stumble at the words. B Let us, then, briefly go through the events of the Lord’s passion. We were saying that the Lord was delivered up to Pilate, then, having been crucified, He died according to the human nature; He was also buried, and a great stone was placed upon the tomb—the very tomb being sealed by the Jews and guarded by the soldiers. When was this? On the evening of Preparation; for the Sabbath was dawning. For many good and most noble women, who had accompanied Him up from Galilee, saw what had happened, and the tomb, and where the body was laid. And on the Sabbath, as it is written, they rested according to the commandment; but they bought spices and ointments so that, when they came, they might anoint Jesus. From here, beloved, observe the harmony of the matter. C Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Salome, and the other women prepared the ointments on the Sabbath, so that, having come on the first day of the week—which is the Lord's Day—they might anoint Him. But Mary of James, who was the Theotokos (for she was so named then, as the stepmother, so to speak, of James, the one called brother of the Lord), could not bear to wait the whole night after the Sabbath due to her grief, but she came to the tomb immediately after the evening of the Sabbath, that is, late after the Sabbath. Indeed, some of the evangelists use "late in the Sabbath," as we are accustomed to say "late in the hour, late in the time." For it is not immediately on the evening of the Sabbath, but "later," that is, after the Sabbath. It signifies midnight, or even a little later. D Whence is this evident? From the fact that He had to rise on the third day according to His promise, that is, on the holy Lord's Day. For this is the third day, along with the Preparation on which He was crucified. The Lord's Day begins from the seventh hour of the night and ends at the sixth hour of the following night. And so, if you count the whole day, you will not stumble at the creation account which says: "And there was evening, and there was morning, one day." For when the middle of the night passes, the sun, traversing the earth, immediately lights up the eastern regions with brilliance—even if this is not seen by us—and makes what is called morning for those living there. Thus, the mornings among us appear at different and varied hours depending on the sun’s approach, and not for everyone at once. After midnight, therefore, as the Lord's Day was dawning, the Lord rose from the dead, that is, on the third day according to the Scriptures. Therefore, the holy Virgin and Theotokos Mary, grieving more than all, having found as a companion in her haste Mary Magdalene (for this woman was most diligent, which is why she is mentioned by all four evangelists), came immediately after midnight, that is, after the Sabbath, to the tomb—not with the spices (for the time did not permit it), but only to behold the grave. This is the first arrival of the honorable and holy women, which the evangelist Matthew records. B Then, as they entered the tomb, suddenly there is an earthquake, when the angel rolls back the stone from the tomb and sits upon it. And the Lord had already risen. For the evangelist did not say that the Savior went out of the grave when the stone was rolled back, but that the angel rolled back the stone and sat upon it. For the Lord, having already illuminated His own body with incorruption as God, went out from there while the stone was still at the tomb, just as He also entered to His disciples on the evening of the same Lord's Day while the doors were shut. These two women, that is, the holy Virgin and Theotokos and Mary Magdalene, going away with fear and great joy to report to the apostles that the Lord had risen as the angel had told them, and as they were to go into Galilee to see Him there, they met Him—the Word of God incarnate. And when He said to them, "Rejoice," falling down they grasped His feet and worshipped Him. The Lord did not rebuke them for touching Him (for they were the first to behold Him), but on the contrary, He even raised them up, saying: "Do not be afraid you, but go, tell my brothers that they should go to Galilee, and there they will see me." C So much for the account of Matthew concerning the women. Those women, having gone to the disciples, reported to them and to all who were with them the words of the angel, and the words of the Lord, and how they saw Him; and not only this, but that they even grasped His feet. But the disciples of the Lord, out of the great and unspeakable grief from the cross, did not even endure to hear them. And as for the Magdalene, I think they did not even utter a word, but concerning the Mother of the Lord, since they honored and revered her, they said among themselves that the excess of her grief had disturbed her mind and deceived her sight, hearing, and touch. But that pure and illuminated soul of the Virgin, persuaded precisely by what she saw and felt, remained within herself, struggling no more with the disciples; but she no longer went to the tomb, being persuaded without doubt by what she had seen. D But Mary Magdalene, at first persuaded by the apostles, was somewhat by herself, and not believing in that one sight, but thinking it had been a hallucination, she takes with her a certain Joanna, and another Mary, and other women with the spices, and she goes away again that night. When it was late at night, that is, long before the breaking of dawn, with the dawn—that is, the morning star—barely shining above the earth, she enters the tomb with those who were with her; for the stone had already been rolled back. They did not find the body of the Lord (for how could they?); but as they were perplexed among themselves, behold, two men stood by them (who were actually holy angels) in shining garments. And when they were afraid, the angels not only relieved them of their fear, but even spoke to them reproachfully: "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." Observe, beloved, how it is shown that this was not the first arrival of the women's approach to the tomb; for it would have been absurd for the angels to rebuke them, saying, "Why do you seek the living among the dead," had the women seen and heard nothing about the Lord’s resurrection. But it is clear that since they had already heard everything from those who had actually seen the Lord and had heard from Him the answer to the disciples, and yet had not believed, for this reason the angels now reproach them—for there were also some men with those women who had been sent forth. Who says these things? Luke the evangelist. For he says, "On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared; and some with them." Then, not only did the angels rebuke them, but they also reproached them, saying: "Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." And they remembered, he says, His words. 639 Then, having departed again, these people—both men and women, with Mary Magdalene—reported to the disciples; and the Magdalene had seen the tomb a second time, while the others, once. And their words, he says, appeared to the disciples as nonsense, and they did not believe them. If anyone should wonder why the evangelist did not mention by name the men who went with the women on the second arrival, I suspect that they were not among the notable ones, but were servants of the women, or some who were under their authority. Indeed, Peter, having been awakened when he for the second…
time heard the report of the women and having run to the sepulchre, merely peered in, as we have said. A Therefore, Mary, fervid in spirit and full of divine sense, departed again, as has been said; and this she did in the morning and for the third time. And when she had found the stone removed from the monument, returning to the disciples, she reasoned thus with herself: "If I tell this to everyone, I shall stir up an uproar again, and they will consider me insane. For if, when I and the other companions reported these things, it was not believed, how will it be believed from me alone?" She addresses, therefore, the more notable and fervent ones, Peter and John. But these, too, had already heard of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and because of their utmost incredulity regarding the astonishing miracle of the thing, they were so affected as if they had heard nothing. How, therefore, shall I stir them up, so that at length they may betake themselves to the monument, and see what has come to pass? I have found what must be done. B I will not say to them, "The Lord has risen," lest I fall into the same trap; but I will report a matter more probable and more credible to them. Mary Magdalene comes, therefore, as has been said, to Peter and John, and says to them: "They have taken away my Lord from the monument, and I know not where they have laid him" (John 20:2); as if she were saying: "Hear me, servants of God; whether the Lord has risen or not, I do not know what to tell you; one thing I can affirm to you: His body is not in the monument. Diligence, therefore, is needed on your part, so that we may know who took it away and where he laid him." You see the wisdom of the woman. For unless we say that she deliberated in this way, we shall fall into absurdities. For how could she, who with the holy Theotokos Mary had touched His feet, and who had heard again from the angels that He had risen, speak now as if of a dead man: "They have taken away my Lord from the monument, and I know not where they have laid him"? But it is evident that she spoke these things with a certain art and wisdom. And immediately she persuaded them. For it was not a great thing that a body had been taken away from a monument. Immediately, therefore, both hastened to the monument; and the admirable woman followed them. Then the two disciples entered into the monument: "And they saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin that had been about his head, not laid with the linen cloths" (Ibid. v. 5-7); but the body was not present. Then therefore, he says, they saw and believed that the Lord had been taken away from the monument. C For before that, Peter had gone alone; but on account of fear, and because it was still dark, he had not clearly seen the place, as he now saw it when it was the morning hour. Then therefore both saw that the body of the Lord had been taken away, as Magdalene had said. Nor did they as yet believe that He had risen. Whence do you prove this? The evangelist introduces that, after Peter had entered into the monument; but he says of himself: "And he saw, and believed." For they did not yet know the Scripture, that He ought to rise from the dead. The disciples therefore departed again to their own home (John 20:8-10), believing nothing of the resurrection. And they cast that great woman, Mary, despite the fact that she had seen and heard so much, into doubt; because, to be sure, she was pondering these things out of the utmost reverence for them: "Because thus far it seems to be sensed safely, since the apostles had not yet seen the monument, nor believed the resurrection; but after they, seeing the body was not there, persisted in that same opinion, it is manifest that the woman was imagining these things, and that she heard or saw nothing certain; but they, being illuminated by God, remain free from error, nor are they easily deceived, as we women are." Agitated by this thought, Mary Magdalene remained weeping at the monument. And after Peter and John had departed, she peers again into the monument: "And she saw two angels in white sitting: and being asked by them, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" (Ibid. v. 11-15). D The woman answered: "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." Then, turning around, because the angels had risen, she saw the Lord coming there; she did not recognize Him. Why? Because, clothed in an incorruptible body after the resurrection, the Lord was not recognized except by whom He willed, and when He willed. Being asked later by Him Himself, "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" she answered similar things to those which she had said to the angels. For thinking Him to be the overseer of the garden in which the monument was, she says to Him: "Sir, if thou hast taken him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." She made that response, as also the former one which she made to the angels, not meditated, not feigned, did Mary Magdalene, otherwise than that with which she answered the disciples: for to these she had answered as to those who did not know, so that she might stir them up to coming to the monument. But when they had come and seen that the body was not there, yet did not believe in the resurrection; finally, she also changed her opinion, because she greatly revered them and thought their opinion to be more certain than her own. Being turned at length to the angels and to the Lord, and thinking for certain that the body had been taken away by some, she answered thus. At any rate Jesus, when He saw the heart of her, inasmuch as He was God, cried out in the manner of one rebuking, "Mary." She, however, having recognized His voice (for she had seen Him twice), fell down, as at the first time, at His feet. But He did not accept her peacefully, as before; but repelled her, saying, "Do not touch me" (Ibid. v. 16, 17). [alt-version omitted] And yet before, those two women at their pleasure kissed His venerable and immaculate feet, and did not hear Him saying anything like this. Do you see the Savior having repelled her as if an unbeliever, and said, "Do not touch me"? For in the prior encounter and vision, the Lord permitted them to touch and kiss His feet at their pleasure, so that not from sight and hearing only, but also from touch, they might be led to believe that He, who had been crucified and buried, had risen. Therefore, Magdalene is now repelled by Him; inasmuch as she, who after so many arguments of believing had changed, hears that: "Do not touch me; for I have not yet ascended to my Father." By these words He rebukes her because she had not believed, and stirs up her mind, calling to memory the heavenly Father, and persuading her not to think that He was only that which was perceived by the eyes, namely, a man raised from the dead; but truly God, and the true Son of God, who for our sake had become man. For, "Say," He says, "to my brethren, I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God." Having heard and seen these things, Magdalene goes to all the disciples: nor does she say anymore, "They have taken away my Lord from the monument"; but she comes with the greatest confidence and freedom of speech, saying that she had seen the Lord. And she spoke these things (Ibid. v. 18).
A Up to this point, this evangelist has explained the third of the arrivals at the monument, which occurred in the morning while it was still dark. This is John the Theologian, whom Jesus loved for many just and godly reasons. There remains for us, therefore, the fourth arrival of the women at the monument, which the evangelist Mark was divinely moved to record. And how is it evident that the one recorded by Mark is the fourth arrival? The time reveals it. For Mark alone writes that the women arrived when the sun had risen. For what does he also say? "Mary," he says, "the Magdalene" (for all four evangelists mention her, as has been said before, along with other women who had prepared spices). "When the Sabbath was past, very early on the first day of the week, they come to the monument, when the sun had risen." B Let us, however, consider why the Magdalene comes again with them to the monument after three visions, and this while they are carrying myrrh and aromatic substances, and thinking they would find the body in the tomb. Listen, beloved, with understanding. Having been clearly confirmed through the third vision regarding the resurrection of the Lord, and having testified to the disciples clearly that she had seen the Lord, and having said these things, as we said before, she no longer doubted. But because she saw Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome, and other women arriving at the monument, and because they also had spices and wished to go now that the sun had risen, she went with them, not as one doubting, but as one leading, rejoicing, and exulting in seeing the tomb empty many times and Hades despoiled. The other women either did not hear, or even if they heard, they heard the word spoken only superficially, and they are to be pardoned as they knew nothing accurately. Indeed, he says, they were saying among themselves—for they did not say it to the Magdalene, but among themselves—"Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the monument?" And looking up, they see that the stone has been rolled away. For it was very great. You see that they were not yet accurately informed about the stone, as were the women in Matthew and Luke, and the apostles Peter and John who had seen it with their own eyes. C Then, "entering," he says, "into the monument, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were amazed." He did not rebuke them, as did the Lord himself in Luke and in John; for he knew that they had arrived for the first time. Moreover, he did not rebuke the Magdalene; for he recognized through the joy of her countenance that she had not come now to the monument doubting the resurrection of the Saviour, but rejoicing and exulting in what had happened. Whence, not only did he not rebuke them, as I said, but he also recovered them from their fear, just as the first angel did in Matthew. Saying what? "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified; he is risen, he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him, as he told you." It is well added here, "And Peter." For if it had not been expressly indicated to him to go into Galilee with the other disciples, he would not, I think, have believed that the Lord was reconciled to him regarding his denial. The women, therefore, fleeing quickly, went out from the monument. "And trembling and ecstasy held them, and they said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid." See, from this fact that they told nothing to anyone, it is shown that these women are different from the first, apart from the Magdalene, and that this is another descent to the monument distinct from the previously mentioned three; and not as the atheists and polytheists say, who became tyrants and transgressors. D There was one arrival of the women at the monument, and the evangelists disagreed about the history. For it is evident both from the times, and from the persons, and from the manner of the promise to the disciples and the silence, that both the women and the arrivals at the monument are different. Whence, to sum up, with Matthew the Magdalene and she who is called the mother of James—who was the Theotokos—came at the end of the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, that is, late on the Sabbath, as we said. With Luke, again, were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary of James and certain others. This Mary of James, I do not say is the Theotokos, even if she is so designated in Matthew (for he would not, the truth of her being honored by all notwithstanding, place her third here, I mean after Mary Magdalene or some Joanna), but she was the wife of someone else named James; she was indeed the mother of James the Less and Joses; for thus did Mark record about her. These women, then, in Luke were not at the end of the Sabbath, but very early in the morning when they came to the monument; while in John, only the Magdalene is recorded as having walked thither, no longer at the end of the Sabbath, nor yet very early, but when? In the morning, yet while it was still dark; for some have thus interpreted it. And with her, immediately again, the apostles Peter and John, when by their own unbelief they prepared her also to disbelieve. And in Mark, again, the Magdalene, the courageous and brave woman, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses. Note, beloved, "of James the Less." For the Theotokos was called the mother of the Great James, that is, motherly. With them also were Salome and certain others in this fourth descent. These walked to the monument not at the end of the Sabbath, nor very early in the morning, nor even in the morning while it was still dark, but rather in the morning when the sun had risen, as the evangelist said. Whence it is shown that what is called "morning" approaches closer to the rising of the sun, and is not "very early." This has been said by me, beloved, because some before us have said that the descent mentioned in the evangelist John as occurring in the morning, while it was still dark, is the second, and the one in Luke, "very early," is the third, as if "in the morning" happened first, and after this the "very early" followed; which, even from the obvious facts, appears to me to contain an absurdity, and from the fact that Mark the evangelist says that as it was morning on the first day of the week, the women came to the monument when the sun had risen. If "very early" was after "morning," it is plain that the sun's rising would have hindered the "very early," not the "morning." And Daniel, speaking about Darius, says thus: "Then the king arose in the morning in the light, and came in haste to the den" (Dan. 6.19). Moreover, even if the descent in John were the second and the one in Luke the third, many other things regarding the history would be shown to be absurd, including these: How could Peter and John, having gone and entered and themselves beheld the things inside the monument, as John himself says, again—later, when the women announced to them, as Luke says, the words of the angels—regard the things said as nonsense? Or how could Peter alone have had the impetus to hurry to the monument, and not dared to enter, but stooped to look in from outside, as if the matter were strange and he were afraid, seeing that he had previously gone with John and entered and examined everything accurately? It is absurd, therefore, as I think, to say that the account in John precedes that in Luke. It remains now to say how many Marys there are, whom the evangelists mentioned. For many have differed concerning them. I believe, therefore, that there are five. But attend to me with all accuracy. There is then Mary the Magdalene, from whom the Lord had cast out seven demons; whence also the woman became diligent because of the return of such a great benefit. And Mary of James; so called is the Theotokos, as we said. For because the truth of the seedless birth could not then be revealed owing to the incredulity and the greatness of the miracle—for otherwise the Virgin would have been in danger of being stoned...