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28:1 Mary Magdalene (see 27:56): The mention of two women as witnesses lends credibility to the historicity of the account—an inventor of tales would not have used women as witnesses, since a woman’s testimony was considered less reliable than a man’s.
28:1-10 The discovery of the empty tomb and the various resurrection appearances are presented with different emphases in each of the four Gospels. Matthew focuses on the reunion in Galilee, the attempt on the part of the Jewish leaders to discredit the resurrection, and the significance of the resurrection for the salvation of the world.
28:12 Such a bribe was contrary to the law (see Exod 20:16; 23:8). • elders: See study note on Matt 21:23.
28:13 stole his body: Tomb robbery was a common problem in the ancient world, so such an accusation would have been entirely believable.
exodus 20:16
exodus 23:8
deuteronomy 21:23
matthew 1:1
matthew 1:23
matthew 2:1-12
matthew 3:13-17
matthew 5:1-29
The Resurrection of Jesus
The Resurrection of Jesus Scripture unanimously depicts the personal and bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead by the power of God, but numerous other attempts to explain it have emerged: (1) Jesus never really died—instead, he lost consciousness and regained it after being laid in a cool tomb (the swoon theory); (2) the disciples of Jesus stole his body and then lied about a resurrection (see Matt 28:12-15); (3) the disciples had hallucinations and dreams that they mistakenly confused with a physical resurrection; and (4) the resurrection is a personal experience in the heart of faith, not an event in history. Behind such suggestions lies a deep-seated skepticism toward the supernatural, or at least toward whether a miraculous event could have happened. Such suggestions fail to take into account the fact that for New Testament authors and their audiences, the term resurrection could only have meant the literal reanimation of a dead corpse (see 1 Cor 15). The historicity of Jesus’ resurrection and the historical reliability of the biblical accounts are supported by (1) the evidence of an empty tomb; (2) the presence of women as witnesses (no one would have made up a stor...