THE STONE SEAL OF THE GARDEN TOMB
The Kingdom Digest
Covenant Report, New Zealand
THE four Gospel accounts of what happened on that morning when Jesus rose from the dead often leave readers of our popular Bibles quite confused. The
Authorised Version is a typical example. Matthew 28:1 states that the two Marys ‘came’ to the sepulchre ‘as it began to dawn on the first day of the week’ and:
1. there was a great earthquake
2. an angel of the Lord descended and came and rolled back the stone (away) from the entrance and sat on it
3. the temple guards were terrified of the angel (verse 4) and fled and told the chief priests who bribed them with money to falsify their report (verses 12-14). [But this does not explain why the priests did not keep their money and have the guards executed for leaving their post].
Mark 16:3 states that the three women came at sunrise wondering who would move the stone away from the door for them. But on reaching the entrance they found that the ‘stone was rolled away’: the tomb open and a young man, dressed in bright garments, sitting inside, who told them that Jesus had risen and gone.
Luke 24:1 states that the women came ‘very early in the morning’ (Greek = deep dawn) and found the tomb already open. Then two men in shining garments
appeared and said that Jesus had risen.
John 20:1 states that Mary Magdalene ‘cometh to the tomb while it was yet dark’ and, seeing the stone had been taken away from the tomb, ran and told Simon Peter, and another disciple (John), that the body of Jesus had been taken away. [But this contradicts Mark’s report that she and the other Mary arrived at sunrise].
However when the Greek text of these passages is examined, we find that there is no confusion about the time the women arrived at the sepulchre; the date they went there; what happened to the stone ‘seal’ and why the guards fled from their post.
The two Marys lived in the village of Bethany which lay a mile or so to the east of Jerusalem. Therefore, they would have had to leave Bethany ‘while it was yet dark’ (as stated in John 20), in order to arrive at the sepulchre – north-west of the city – ‘at sunrise’ (as stated in Mark 16). The same thing applies to Luke’s account which states that they left ‘very early in the morning’ (deep dawn).
The women did not know that a guard had been set at the tomb or they would not have attempted to go there in the first place. Thus God had to remove the guards. First came an earthquake, but guards could not flee just because the earth shook. It was the angel of Jehovah who really terrified them. But still they couldn’t flee because the priests would have said they had fled from a ghost and would have had them executed for cowardice.
However, in the Greek text, Matthew 28:2 states that an angel of Jehovah, descending out of heaven and, approaching the tomb, ‘rolls the stone away (from the Tomb – not just from the entrance) and then sat on it:’ John 20:1 states that the stone was ‘lifted out of’ (its place as part of the tomb). But Mark 16:4 states that the stone was rolled UP backwards – ‘overturned’ somewhere up and over the tomb. That is, the angel had lifted the stone -which must have weighed at least half a ton, and rolled it up, back and above the tomb and then sat on it, defying the guards to get it back.
Because of its weight, the guards were ill-equipped to get the stone down again and seal the entrance as they would have done (when the angel had gone) if the stone had simply been rolled aside. This fact gave them the perfect excuse to make themselves scarce. Faced with that awesome power by which a great stone was handled like a toy, they fled the scene and told the priests. In the face of that situation the priests were then forced to bribe the guards to falsify their report in order to prevent the news from spreading.
Scripture itself proves the above facts to be true. The entrance to the tomb was below eye level, for John 20:5 states that John had to stoop down in order to see inside the tomb. Therefore the stone seal also should have been down at, or below, eye level to cover the entrance. But Mark 16:4 states that when the three women arrived at the tomb – wondering who would move the stone for them -they saw that the tomb was open. Then, looking UPWARDS (in surprised pleasure) “for the stone was exceedingly heavy’ they saw it had been taken up and left (on the rocky ground) above the tomb.
The day that the women went to the sepulchre varies with different Bibles, but there is no such difficulty in the Greek text. In that text, Matthew 28:12 states that the two Marys went to the tomb “after the end of (the) sabbaths toward the dawning of first of (the) sabbaths”.We should note here that the Greek word ‘sabbaths’ should be translated -according to context – as
1. the sabbath – singular or plural, or
2. 7 days, or, a “se’ennight”; (meaning a week -also singular or plural), just as we often use the term ‘fortnight’ to mean 14 days.
In Israel, the day began at sunset – not midnight. Hence, in the Greek text, Matthew 28:1 reads,
“after (the end of) the Sabbath towards dawn on the first (day) of the (next) week (se’ennight) came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see (inside) the sepulchre”.
In those days, the first working day of the week was Sunday.
But in all the excitement of that crowded Sunday morning, we must never forget that other earthquake (at Noon on Friday) when Jesus died on the stake. Matthew
27:52 states that this broke open the tomb of many Israelites. Nothing could be done to seal up those graves again during the Feast of Unleavened Bread – from Noon on that Friday, nor on the Sabbath (Saturday) that followed it. So, on Sunday morning, verse 53 states that the bodies of those Israelites were raised (to eternal life) immediately AFTER Jesus’ own resurrection – that is, after He had raised Himself from the dead.
For Jesus states (John 10:18) that He had received “from My Father” both the authority and the power to raise Himself from the dead. He was not raised by a
separate act of the Father (as all our Bibles imply) but by that authority and power God had already given to Him. A gift earned by His faithful sonship and obedience to the Father’s every Word. The fact that He arose with a different kind of body is self-evident from the state of the grave-cloths after He had risen.
Those Israelites therefore, were resurrected by His power. Matthew 27:53 then states that (in their raised, but now invisible, bodies) they entered the city and were
manifested (made visible) to many. Jesus also was made visible to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Mark 16:12) and when “their eyes were opened” (Luke 24:31) and they recognised Him, He vanished (Greek = became invisible again).
Jesus was indeed “the first fruit of them who slept” (I Corinthians 15:20) but He was not the whole sheaf. The sheaf wave-offering of Leviticus 23:10-12 typified not only the Resurrection of the Messiah Himself – but the Messiah together with others who would be raised at the same time in order to make up the full sheaf. Jesus represented the single grain of wheat which fell to the earth at His crucifixion (John 12:24).But it was a full sheaf of wheat which would spring forth at His Resurrection. Thus Jesus (and those Israelites whom He raised Himself) together fulfilled the symbolism of the Levitical teaching that the sheaf was but the ‘first fruit’ – and earnest of the full harvest yet to come.
We should note also that the angel did not remove the stone seal to let Jesus out of the tomb. It was removed to provide an excuse for the terrified guards to flee without fear of being executed. And to allow the disciples to enter the tomb (without interference from the guards) so that they could believe and begin to understand prophecy (e.g. Isaiah 53).
John 20:6-8 states that when Peter and the other disciple (John) arrived at the tomb, Peter went in first and then John. And seeing the grave-cloths lying – just as Joseph and Nicodemus had bound them around His body -they instantly believed (in His resurrection). The Gospel record does not explain why that sight swept every doubt from their minds. However, this should be evident from the artist’s impression of how the gravecloths would have appeared before and after the change took place. His head, body and limbs were bound up separately (in a ‘napkin’ a ‘toga’ and linen bandages) ‘as was the custom of the (Israelite) Judeans’:
The Greek text of Luke 24:12 states that “Peter.. .having seen the bindings only went away marvelling to himself at that which has happened”
Fig. 2 shows that those bindings had collapsed in their folds exactly as they bad been wound around His head, body and limbs. For His resurrection body had passed through all those swathings without disturbing them. Later on, in exactly the same way He passed through a closed door and appeared in the midst of His Disciples (John 20:19) and also ate food with them to prove that He was neither a ghost nor a figment of their imaginations.
