CHAPTER XX.

1‐10. *On Easter Sunday morning Magdalen comes to the tomb, and then runs to Peter and John, who also come to the tomb.*

11‐17. *Magdalen, having followed Peter and John back to the tomb, sees first two angels, and then Jesus Himself.*

18. *Then she announces to the disciples that Jesus had appeared to her.*

19‐23. *Appearance of Jesus to the disciples on Easter Sunday evening when he instituted the Sacrament of Penance.*

24, 25. *Incredulity of Thomas.*

26‐29. *Appearance of Jesus again on Low Sunday to Thomas and the other disciples, when Thomas believes, and confesses his faith.*

30, 31. *Incompleteness of this narrative regarding the miracles which Christ wrought to prove his resurrection, and statement of the object which St. John had in view in recording what he has recorded.*

St. John’s narrative regarding the visit of Magdalen to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning is very simple, when taken by itself. She came to the tomb or, at least, started for it, “when it was yet dark,” and then ran from the tomb to tell Peter and John that the body of Jesus had been removed (xx. 1, 2). But when we compare this account with those of the other Evangelists several serious difficulties arise. Thus, while St. John says that Magdalen “cometh early, _when it was yet dark_, unto the sepulchre;” St. Matthew says that she and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre “in the _end of the Sabbath_ (according to the Vulgate: ‘_Vespere_ Sabbati’), when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week” (Matt. xxviii. 1). And St. Mark creates still further difficulty when he says: “And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalen, and Mary (the mother) of James, and Salome bought (not brought; Vulg. emerunt) sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they come to the sepulchre, _the sun being now risen_” (Mark xvi. 1‐2). Thus, while St. Matt. represents Magdalen as coming to the sepulchre in the end of the Sabbath, or as the still more difficult text of the Vulgate has it: “Vespere Sabbati,” St. Mark represents her as coming on Sunday morning, _when the sun was risen_; and St. John, as coming on the Sunday morning _when it was yet dark_.

Again, while St. John does not mention the appearance of any angel on the occasion of Magdalen’s first visit to the tomb (John xx. 1), St. Mark says that when the women entered the tomb “they saw a young man _sitting_ on the right side clothed with a white robe” (Mark xvi. 5); and St. Luke, that after the women entered the tomb, and found not the body of the Lord “behold _two_ men _stood_ by them in shining apparel” (Luke xxiv. 4).(132)

Various theories have been advanced to reconcile these different accounts. Maldonatus (on Matt. xxviii. 3) undertakes, with his usual great ability, but, we think, without success, to reconcile them in the hypothesis, not merely that there was only one company of women, but also that Mary Magdalen visited the tomb but once on the morning of the resurrection. Others, while admitting that Magdalen came twice to the tomb that morning, as, indeed, seems to follow naturally from St. John’s account (xx. 2‐11), hold that there was only one company of women, and that all the Evangelists speak of the same company. Others again hold that not only did Magdalen come twice to the tomb, but that at least two different companies of women visited the tomb that morning, and that some Evangelists refer to the visit of one company, others to the visit of the other company. Thus Patrizzi (_De Evang._, Diss. liii. 5, 6, 7) supposes SS. Matt. and Mark to refer to the visit of one company, SS. Luke and John to the visit of a different company. On the other hand Dr. Walsh (_Harmony of the Gosp. Narr._), Cornely (Introd. III., _Synops. Chron._, p. 301), and Greswell (_Harm. of the Gosp._), suppose St. Luke to refer to the visit of one company, the other three Evangelists to that of a different company.

The following seems to us the most satisfactory method of reconciling all the accounts. Very early on Sunday morning, “when it was yet dark” (John