Luke

24:1-12

The culmination of Messiah's mission, 19:45-24:53

3. The glorification of the Messiah, 23:26-24:53

iv] The empty tomb and the Angels' message

The account of the resurrection begins with three (four?) women, some, or all of whom, had witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and burial, and now return to the grave early on the first day of the week to embalm the body of Jesus. They find the stone rolled away from the grave and there they meet angels in dazzling garb. The angels ask them why they are seeking the living among the dead. If they had rightly understood Jesus' teachings they would not be so surprised to find the grave empty. The women return to where the disciples are staying and give them the good news, but the disciples are in no mood to listen to what seems little more than "an idle tale". None-the-less, Peter runs to the tomb to confirm the women's story.

Although the Son of Man must die, he must also rise again.

i] Context: See 23:26-31. The Empty Tomb, detailing the events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus, is the fourth episode of a series of six dealing with The Glorification of the Messiah, 23:26-24:53.

ii] Structure: The empty tomb:

iii] Interpretation:

iv] Synoptics:

v] Exposition: A simple exposition of this passage may be found in the linked pew-level Sermon Notes.

The resurrection of Jesus, v1-12. i] The introduction - setting. Matthew says that the women went to "look at the tomb" on the first day of the week. The usual practice was to anoint the body with perfumed oils, wrap it in a linen cloth or sheet and place it on a bed of spices. The anointing takes place soon after death, due to bodily decomposition. Joseph may have anointed Jesus' body before wrapping it in a linen sheet, but then again, he may not have had the time to properly prepare the body for burial. Anyway, these women have served Jesus throughout his Galilean ministry, and they obviously feel duty-bound to to perform this act of devotion. Luke tells us who the "they" are in verse 10, namely, three ladies and ai loipai sun autaiV, "the others with them". Mark adds Salome, but leaves out Luke's Joanna. Were there three, four, or more? Given that the tomb was guarded (Matthew) and that it was covered by a stone, it would be difficult to perform the anointing. Maybe they felt that attending to the body would be allowed by the guards. Either way, their number would be useful when it came to moving the stone.

de "-" - but on the other hand. The second part of a men ... de adversative comparative construction; see 23:56.

th/ .. mia/ adj. "on the first day" - on the first. The dative is adverbial, temporal; "very early on Sunday morning", Barclay.

twn sabbatwn (on) gen. "of the week" - day of the week, sabbath. Here "week". The genitive is adjectival, partitive.

orqrou baqewV gen. "very early in the morning" - deep of the morning. Adverbial use of the genitive, temporal, expressing time; "at early dawn", NRSV.

ferousai (ferw) pres. part. "took" - [they came] bringing. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the main verb "they came", as NIV, or possibly adverbial, modal, expressing the manner of their coming; "they came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared."

epi + acc. "to [the tomb]" - upon [the tomb what spiced they prepared. Spatial; "to, up to."

ii] The women find the tomb empty, v2-3: The tradition is clear, when the ladies reach the tomb they find the stone rolled aside and the grave empty.

The foundational fact of the Christian faith is an empty tomb, and this fact, rather than apparitions of the risen Lord, is the ground upon which the Christian faith rests. The empty tomb prompts the question, "Where is he?", to which comes the reply, "He is not here, he is risen." On this grounding fact comes the response, Because he lives, I can live also. The apologetic of the empty tomb is, even today, best presented in Frank Morison's work "Who Moved the Stone", reprinted by Zondervan in 1987 and first published in 1930. Frank was a journalist and approached the subject through the eyes of a sceptic.

ton liqon (oV) "the stone" - [but/and they found] the stone. Accusative object of the verb "to find." Interesting that it is not "a stone." The definite article may indicate that the stone was quite a famous stone and still well known to the gospel writers. A stone shaped like a round disk, covering a hewn out chamber, was common in Palestine for a wealthy person's grave.

apokekulismenon (apokuliw) perf. pas. part. "rolled away" - having been rolled away. The participle serves as the accusative complement of the direct object "stone", standing in a double accusative construction, and asserting a fact about the object. The passive implies divine action; "they found the boulder rolled back from the tomb", Williams.

apo + gen. "from" - from [the tomb]. Expressing separation; "from the entrance of the tomb."

eiselqousai (eisercomai) aor. part. "when they entered" - [but/and] having entered. The participle is adverbial, probably temporal, as NIV.

Ihsou (oV) gen. "[of the Lord] Jesus" - [they did not find the body of the lord] jesus. Genitive in apposition to "of the Lord", a possessive genitive. "The body of the Lord was not to be found", Phillips.

iii] The angels appear to the women, v4-7. The tradition as to how many andreV, "men" ("angels" in Matthew and also Luke v23) appeared to the women and whether they were in, or outside the tomb, is unclear. Given the nature of the vision, there is bound to be some conflict among the eyewitnesses. Luke goes with two. The response of the women is to bow their heads, or more properly, do obeisance - the usual response when confronted with a divine manifestation (emfoboV, "fear", here is more likely "reverential awe" rather than fright). The angels go on to underline the significance of the empty tomb - Jesus is alive; "Why do you seek the living among the dead". "He is not here, he is risen", as prophesied, Lk.9:22, 18:31-33. The angels remind the women of the suffering Son of Man saying, a saying which will go on to serve as a shorthand gospel statement: God's anointed man may be done in by wicked men, but you can't keep a good man down! - cf., 9:22, 18:32-33,

kai egeneto (ginomai) aor. "-" - it became. Used "to mark an immediate sequence of events", Culy; see egeneto, 1:8. "And it happened that ......"

en tw/ + inf. "while [they were wondering]" - in [to be uncertain, at a loss, perplexed]. This construction, the preposition en with the dative articular infinitive, usually forms a temporal clause, contemporaneous time; "while ...."

peri + gen. "about [this]" - about [this]. Expressing reference / respect; "about, concerning this."

en + dat. "in" - [two men] in. Local, expressing state / condition; the angel's condition as they stood beside the women.

astraptoush/ (astraptw) pres. part. "[clothes] that gleamed like lightning" - dazzling, flashing [clothing]. The participle is adjectival, attributive, limiting "clothes". "Dressed in dazzling light", Phillips.

epesthsan (efisthmi) aor. "stood beside" - attended, stood beside, came upon unexpectedly, appeared by. "Two men flashed on them in dazzling raiment", Moffatt.

autaiV dat. pro. "them" - them. Dative of direct object after the epi prefix verb "to stand beside."

As already noted, the response of the women is probably not so much "fear", but reverential awe / amazement. So, as if in the presence of a theophany, they do obeisance. Given that tombs are for dead people, the men / angels ask why they are looking for Jesus in a graveyard.

genomenwn (ginomai) gen. aor. part. "in [their fright]" - [but/and they] having become [afraid, and laying the = their faces into the ground]. This genitive participle, and the following genitive participle, klinouswn, "bowing", and their genitive subject autwn, "they", form a genitive absolute construction, temporal, "as they were .....", ESV, modal, expressing manner, as NIV, or causal, "because they were ...." "At this they were greatly perplexed", Weymouth. The participle "laying" takes a present tense, probably serving to express durative action; "They were so terrified they could not even look up", Barclay.

tiv pro. "why [do you look for]" - [they said to them] why [are you seeking, inquiring after]. Interrogative pronoun introducing a question.

ton zwnta (zaw) pres. part. "the living" - the one living. The participle serves as a substantive, accusative direct object of the verb "to seek." The presence of the articles "the living" and "the dead", may imply proverbial use, but most likely not, so "why are you searching among the dead for him who is alive", Barclay.

meta + gen. "among [the dead]" - with [the dead]? Expressing association / accompaniment; "with, in company with", but possibly just spatial, "among".

It is interesting how the men / angels remind the women of the suffering Son of Man saying from their time in Galilee, as opposed to Matthew and Mark who have the men / angels instruct the women to tell the disciples that Jesus will go before / meet up with them in Galilee.

alla "-" - [he is not here] but. Strong adversative standing in a counterpoint construction, "not ....., but ....."; "He is not here, but has risen", ESV.

hgerqh (egeirw) aor. mid./pas. "he has risen" - he has risen / was raised. An aorist middle voice gives us "he has risen", with a perfective aspect, ie., punctiliar action. A passive gives us "he was raised", and as a theological passive it implies divine action, "he has been raised", NAB. Possibly, "he has come back to life", Weymouth.

wJV "[remember] how" - [remember] as = how. This comparative conjunction is used here instead of oJti to introduce an object clause / dependent statement of perception, expressing what they should "remember", although weighted toward the manner of the telling, "how, in such a way", rather than the content, "what"; "Remember how, when he was still with you in Galilee, he told you that .........", Barclay.

uJmin dat. pro. "[he told] you" - [he said] to you. Dative of indirect object.

w]n (eimi) pres. part. "while he was still [in]" - [yet/still] being [in galilee]. The participle of the verb "to be" is adverbial, best treated as temporal, and along with the temporal use of the preposition eti, "still", introduces a temporal clause; "while he was still in Galilee." The mention of Galilee has prompted numerous theories, but it may be nothing more than a factual statement.

Marshall takes the view that what we have here is a Lukan summary of the suffering Son of Man sayings drawn from gospel tradition. He suggests Mark 14:41 and 16:6, although Luke would be well aware of these sayings from his own oral sources. It is also not unreasonable to assume that this particular Son of Man saying is part of Luke's received passion tradition.

legwn (legw) pres. part. "-" - saying. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "to say", v6, redundant, but possibly introducing direct speech. Possibly adverbial, temporal, "when he said", or modal, "saying"; see legwn 4:35.

oJti "-" - that. Introducing a dependent statement of direct speech, as NIV, .... or indirect speech, ESV, Moffatt, ... expressing what he said; "Remember how he told you, when he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man had to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and ...", Moffatt.

paradoqhnai (paradidwmi) aor. pas. inf. "[the Son of Man must] be delivered" - [the son of man] to be delivered over, betrayed, given over [into the hands of sinful men, and to be crucified, and to rise again on the third day, is necessary]. This infinitive, along with the infinitives "to be crucified" and "to rise again", serve as the subject of the impersonal verb "it is necessary (must)." The accusative "the Son of Man" serves as the subject of the infinitives, so forming an accusative infinitive construction. The verb "it is necessary" often implies divine necessity. For this construction see grayai, "to write, 1:3. For "Son of Man" see oJ uiJoV tou anqrwpou, 5:24. "The Son of Man will be handed over to sinners and .....", CEV. Interestingly, "to be crucified" is passive, seeing the action is upon Christ, but "to rise again" is active, allowing the possibility that Christ performs the action; "be crucified and rise on the third day", Moffatt.

iv] The women remember Jesus' prophetic words, v8.

twn rJhmatwn (a atoV) gen. "[then they remembered his] words" - [and they remembered] the words, sayings. Genitive of direct object (gen. of the thing) after the verb "to remember."

autou gen. pro. "his" - of him. The genitive is best taken as adjectival, possessive, but possibly verbal, subjective, "the words spoken by him", or ablative, source/origin, "the words from him"; "Then they remembered what Jesus had said", CEV.

v] The women report Jesus' resurrection to the disciples, v9-11. The ladies return to the apostles with the news. The apostles, and some other disciples (probably including Mary the mother of Jesus), are most likely in the city proper. We are unsure how many women went to the tomb, although Luke lists three. Only Luke mentions Joanna. Interestingly, in Mark the women don't tell anyone what they saw, although Mark uses this to dramatize his ending. As far as the disciples are concerned, the women's report seems like an idle tale, nothing more than "nonsense".

uJpostrefasai (uJpostrefw) aor. part. "when they came back" - [and] having returned. The participle is adverbial, probably temporal, as NIV; "after they returned from the tomb", TH.

apo + gen. "from [the tomb]" - from [the tomb]. Expressing source / origin.

aphggeilan (apaggellw) aor. "they told" - they told, reported, proclaimed. This verb is often used of proclaiming the gospel.

tauta panta "all these things" - all these things. Accusative direct object of the verb "to tell"; "They told the eleven apostles and the others what had happened", CEV.

toiV endeka adj. "the eleven" - to the eleven [and to all the others]. The adjective serves as a substantive, dative of indirect object.

Luke now lists the women who went to the tomb.

hsan "it was" - [but/and] there were. Imperfect of the verb "to be." Missing in some manuscripts, probably dropped in order to sort out the grammar (it does not have a predicate). The sense is probably "they (the women previously mentioned) were Mary ......", Evans.

Iwanna (a) "Joanna" - [mary magdalene and] joanna. Nominative subject of the verb to-be. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James are both mentioned by Mark, but Mark has the third woman as Salome (poss. the mother of the sons of Zebedee) rather than Joanna, presumably the wife of Herod's steward. These three, with Susanna, are noted by Luke as those who ministered to Jesus, 8:3.

hJ Iakwbou (oV) gen. "[Mary] the mother of James" - [and mary] the one of james. The genitive is adjectival, relational. The sense may be "mother of", but it could be "sister of", "wife of", but given Mark 15:40, "mother of" is the likely sense.

sun + dat. "[the others] with [them]" - [and the others] with [them]. It is unclear whether Luke intends us to read these others as others with the apostles, cf. v9, or other women with the three listed women who have returned from the tomb to report. The grammar doesn't help, given that the two third person plural verbs, "it was" and "told", do not clearly identify whether or not "the others" are with the object, "the apostles", or the subject, the three women; is it "told the apostles" or "told the apostles and others"? cf. Bock 1897 and Nolland 1191. John only mentions Mary Magdalene, but when Mary reports the resurrection to the apostles she uses the plural "we don't know where they have laid him." A minimum of four women attending the grave solves all the problems! "Told the eleven and all the rest", Ellis.

elegon (legw) imperf. "told [this]" - they were telling [these things toward the apostles]. Marshall suggests that the imperfect here is iterative, "they tried repeatedly to get their story across to the apostles." The use of the imperfect verb "to disbelieve" in v11 may be used to express the same sense.

Luke emphasises the disciples' disbelief in Jesus' resurrection. Even when Jesus appears in their midst later that evening, "they still don't believe it because of joy and amazement", v41, ie., they wanted it to be true, but resisted believing something that could turn out to be nothing more than an apparition. As Stein suggests, Luke is possibly making the point to his readers that the disciples only believed in the resurrection of Jesus, "because of the overwhelming evidence they encountered in the appearance of the risen Christ."

enwpion + gen. "[they did not believe the women] because" - [and these words appeared] before [them]. Usually with a spatial sense; "before, in front of", but sometimes extending, as here, to express "in the opinion of, judgment of", BAGD; "but to them (ie., in the opinion of the disciples) their words seemed to have every appearance of being nothing more than empty chatter", Cassirer.

wJsei "like" - as if, like. Comparative

lhpoV (oV) "nonsense" - empty talk, idle talk, babbling [and they were disbelieving them]. A hapax legomenon, once only use in the New Testament. "It struck them as sheer imagination", Phillips. Note that, the dative pronoun autaiV, "them", serves as a dative of direct object after the imperfect verb hpistoun, "they were disbelieving."

vi] Peter runs to the tomb, v12: None-the-less, Peter (with the apostle John, cf., Jn.20:3-9. Note, "companions" plural, Lk.24:24) acts to check out the tomb and finds it empty, with nothing in it but the sheets that once covered Jesus. He leaves "wondering". Going away "wondering" is at least a first step on the road to faith. This verse is not found in some texts, but is found in the majority of manuscripts. Rather than being added, it is more likely that some copyist made the decision that it was an interpolation from John 20:3, 5, 6, and so left it out.

oJ de "[Peter], however," - but/and the = he. Transitional, indicating a change in subject from the disciples to Peter; "but Peter got up and ran to the tomb."

anastaV (anisthmi) aor. part. "got up [and ran]" - having got up [ran upon = up to the tomb]. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "ran", as NIV.

parakuyaV (parakuptw) aor. "bending over" - [and] having bent over / stretched / peered. The participle is adverbial, probably temporal; "when he looked in he saw nothing except the linen ...", Moffatt. Possibly here describing a straining of the neck to get a look at the contents of the tomb, but usually taken as "bending over"; "he stooped down and looked in", Barclay.

blepei (blepw) pres. "he saw" - he sees. Historic present tense.

ta oqonia (on) "the strips of linen" - the linen cloths, sheets. Accusative direct object of the verb "to see." One suspects that movies like the Mummies Curse have left us with the image of a body bound in bandages, but in reality, the Jews did not mummify their dead. They used a linen sheet or two, loosely wrapped around a body that had been washed and anointed with perfumed oil. It was these sheets that Peter saw.

mona adj. "lying by themselves" - alone, only. Accusative complement of the direct object "sheets", standing in a double accusative construction and asserting a fact about the object, namely that the sheets are placed by themselves - only the sheets are in the grave; Jesus' body is not there. Of course, there is something about the scene that prompts a reaction other than shock, even anger; in Peter's case, "wondering". There is obviously no evidence of grave robbers. John's description of the grave makes particular note of the head towel folded by itself. The scene is one of order, as if someone had just got out of bed. He "saw the linen cloths, but nothing else", NJB.

qaumazwn (qaumazw) aor. part. "wondering" - [and he went away, departed] amazed, wondering, marvelling. The participle is adverbial, modal, expressing the manner of his going. Amazement is always viewed in the NT as a response short of faith, although, given the circumstances, it is not an unreasonable response. Mark, in particular, makes much of the response of "marvelling", "being amazed." For Mark, "amazement" is the first step toward faith, but sadly, it is the only step most people take. Mark ends his gospel with the women leaving the tomb amazed - the tomb is empty; how amazing! It's as if Mark asks the reader whether they are willing to make the next step and put our faith in the notion of a risen Lord?

proV + acc. "to [himself]" - toward [himself]. Fitzmyer and Carson think that this preposition goes with aphlqen, "departed, went away", rather than qaumazwn, "wondered". So "departed to", presumably with the sense "departed to his own home"; "then he went home amazed at what had happened", Culy.

to gegonoV (ginomai) perf. part. "what had happened" - the thing having happened. The participle serves as a substantive, accusative direct object of the participle "wondering".

Luke Introduction.

Exposition

Exegetical Commentaries

lectionarystudies.com