The Evangelist Matthew reports on another important circumstance that occurred on the day after the burial: "On the next day that follows Friday," that is, on Saturday, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered before Pilate, not even thinking about disturbing the Sabbath rest, and asked him to give orders to guard the tomb until the third day. They motivated their request with the statement: "We remembered that the deceiver, while still alive, said: 'After three days I will rise again'; therefore command that the tomb be guarded until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away and say to the people, "He is risen from the dead"; and the last deception will be worse than the first." "The first deception" they call here what the Lord Jesus Christ taught about Himself as the Son of God, the Messiah, and the "last deception" is the preaching about Him as the Conqueror of hell and death who rose from the grave. They were more afraid of this preaching, and in this they were right, as the entire subsequent history of the spread of Christianity has shown. To this request Pilate answered them dryly: "You have a guard; go, guard as you know." At the disposal of the members of the Sanhedrin during the feasts was a guard of Roman soldiers, which they used to maintain order and tranquility, in view of the great concourse of people from all countries to Jerusalem. Pilate suggests that they use this guard to do everything as they want, so that later they cannot blame anyone for anything. "They went and set a guard at the sepulchre, and put a seal on the stone" — that is, rather, the stone with which it was covered, with a cord and a seal, in the presence of the guards, who then remained at the sepulchre to guard it.

In this way, the worst enemies of the Lord, without suspecting it, prepared indisputable proofs of His glorious resurrection from the dead.

Resurrection

Narrating about the greatest event of the Resurrection of Christ, all four Evangelists say nothing about the mysterious and incomprehensible side of this event, they do not describe exactly how it happened, and how the Resurrected Lord came out of the tomb without breaking its seals. They speak only of the earthquake that took place, as a result of the fact that the Angel of the Lord rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb (after the Lord had risen, which is also emphasized in our church hymns, and not as it is usually thought that the Angel rolled away the stone so that the Lord could come out of the tomb), about the speech of the Angel addressed to the myrrh-bearing women who came to the tomb, and then about a whole series of appearances of the Risen Lord to the myrrh-bearing women and His disciples.

The Arrival of the Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Sepulcher

(Matt. 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12 and John 20:1-10).

To the women who were present at Golgotha and then at the burial of the Lord, it seemed that His priceless body had been prepared too hastily for burial, and they were sorry that they did not take part in the usual Jewish anointing of Him. Therefore, having spent the whole Sabbath in peace, according to the commandment, on the first day of the week, already at dawn, they hastened to the tomb in order to fulfill their pious desire and the last duty of love towards their Beloved Teacher. At the head of these deeply devoted women, who went down in history with the name of "myrrh-bearing women," as all four Evangelists testify, was Mary Magdalene; she was followed by "the other Mary," or Mary of James, Salome, and other women who had followed the Lord from Galilee (Luke 23:55). It was a whole host of wives, some of whom walked quickly, almost ran, perhaps others walked more slowly, not with such great haste. It is not surprising, therefore, that the time of their arrival at the tomb is determined differently by the Evangelists, which, at first glance, creates the impression of a kind of contradiction between them, which, in reality, does not exist.

First of all: who is this "other Mary", about whom St. Matthew twice expresses himself in this way, telling about the burial of the Lord (Matt. 27:61), and then about the resurrection (Matt. 28:1). According to the ancient tradition of the Church, set forth in the Synaxarion on the day of Pascha, it was the Mother of God herself. Why is this not said with complete certainty? As the Synaxarion explains, "lest it seem doubtful" (because the testimony of such a great event is attributed to the Mother), the Evangelists say: Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9), who saw the angel on a stone.

Salome was the mother of the "sons of Zebedee," the apostles James and John. Joanna, mentioned by St. Luke (24:10), was the wife of Chuza, the steward of King Herod. The rest of the myrrh-bearing women are not mentioned by name, but St. Luke clearly says that there were "And the rest with them" (Luke 24:10). Among these "others" the Church tradition also indicates: Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, resurrected by the Lord, Mary of Cleopas and Susanna, as well as many others, "As the Divine Luke narrates: those who serve Christ and His disciples with their possessions" (Synaxarion on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women).

The myrrh-bearing women were waiting for the end of the Sabbath rest, and some of them bought the fragrances on Friday evening, as St. Luke says (23:56), and others already "after the Sabbath is over," that is, on Saturday evening (Mark 16:1).

The Evangelists then speak in various expressions about the time of the arrival of the myrrh-bearers at the tomb.

St. Matthew — "And after the Sabbath, at the dawn of the first day of the week..."

St. Mark — "very early, on the first day of the week,... at sunrise..."

St. Luke — "On the very first day of the week, very early..."