The Historical Timeline
The timeline leading to when the three women went to the tomb to finish caring for Jesus stems from the Hebrew calendar month Nisan, which is the first month of spring in the Gregorian equivalent calendar that we know today. Starting from the last day of Passover, it is this evening that the Lord’s Supper is held, Jesus prays at the Garden of Gethsemane, arrested in Jerusalem, and tried before the Sanhedrin charged with blasphemy before sent to Pontius Pilate for judgment and condemnation. According to the Hebrew calendar, in the month of Nisan, the Last Supper, arrest and trial were held on Tuesday into Wednesday. Jesus was crucified and placed in the tomb on Wednesday evening before sunset and the Sabbath's start. The tomb was sealed with stone and guarded with Roman soldiers on Thursday. The women purchased the spices to anoint Jesus’ body on Friday, as Saturday was a regular Sabbath. As noted in Jonah, Jesus fulfilled the three full days and nights prophecy and His duties as the Messiah.
The Empty Tomb
Biblical scholar Paul Gould provides no distinctive reasoning as to why the empty tomb occurred when writing about this hypothetical theory that “Mary and company mistakenly went to a tomb other than that of Jesus.” Immediately he is left with more questions than answers, leaving this theory to be the shortest of his five. It was these three women that found the stone miraculously rolled back, supposed to be guarded by Roman soldiers, and saw that Jesus was not in the tomb. “And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments” (Luke 24:4, NKJV). The first argument is that this perplexity is not to be misconceived as only a time of mourning, but it must be noted that it was important that “[t]he faithful women are present as witnesses to the correct site.” Confirmation, given by the two angels standing before the women, implied that the women should have known they would not find Jesus in the tomb, as He told them earlier that He would “on the third day rise again” (Luke 24:7). Just as Mary was sitting at Jesus’ tomb, she had also sat at Lazarus’ tomb where she discovered Jesus’ power over death when He raised Lazarus from the dead. “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again’” (John 11:23).
The First Witness
The second argument is the angels’ reminder to the women, which was the starting point, opening their minds that Jesus’ words, preaching, and teaching now made sense in His ministry. The importance of Mary Magdalene is paramount as she “appears in all four Gospels,” “identified as ‘a woman disciple of the Lord,’” as “her women friends discover the empty tomb, are invited to look in, [and] then run away afraid.” Mary, the most faithful woman to Jesus, was chosen to see the resurrected Jesus first. He called her by name in the tomb where she stood weeping, bewildered over the missing Jesus, the One she felt closest to. Regardless of the events leading up and including the discovery of the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene is the one constant who is the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection. Being the first and continuous witness provides a counterargument to biblical scholars that the women went to the wrong tomb. Biblical scholar Claudia Setzer claims that in the three events of Jesus, Mary Magdalene was the “one who saw Jesus’ death and burial and discovered the empty tomb.” Mary Magdalene also witnesses the fourth event, which is the first person to see the risen Jesus. God sent Mary Magdalene to the apostles to tell them about Jesus and His Resurrection. At this point, we read that John, one of Jesus’ disciples, along with Simon Peter, run to the tomb to validate that it is empty. John outruns Simon Peter to see inside it first. Therefore, two of Jesus’ closest believers, Mary Magdalene and John, who stood at the foot of His cross, are “the first to believe in the risen Jesus.”
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