A Draft Chronology
Saturday evening –
- Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome purchased burial spices (Mark 16:1)
Early Sunday morning –
- Mary Magdalene and the other Mary visit the tomb (Matt 28:1)
- They went to the tomb (Mark 16:2)
- The women went to the tomb (Luke 24:1)
- Mary Magdalene came to the tomb (John 20:1)
- Go quickly and tell His disciples (Matt 28:7)
- Go and tell His disciples, including Peter (Mark 16:7)
- The women ran quickly to give the disciples the angel’s message. Matt 28:8
- The women fled from the tomb, and they briefly reported all this to Peter and his companions (Mark 16:8)
- They rushed back from the tomb to tell His eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. (Luke 24:9)
- It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. (Luke 24:10)
- She (Mary Magdalene from John 20:1) ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved (John 20:2)
- The first person who saw Him was Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9)
- Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and she stooped and looked in (John 20:11)
- She turned to leave and saw Someone – Jesus (John 20:14)
- Go find My brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to My Father (John 20:17) Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them (John 20:18)
- She (Mary Magdalene) went to the disciples, who were grieving and weeping, and told them what had happened. (Mark 16:10) She told them . . . she had seen Him. (Mark 16:11)
- They (the women from verse 8) went, Jesus met them (Matt 28:9)
- They ran to Him, grasped His feet, and worshiped Him. (Matt 28:9) Go tell My brothers to leave for Galilee (Matt 28:10)
At first this post resurrection story seems confusing with so many women woven in and out of the story. It is indeed hard to keep a track of them all. You could be forgiven for thinking this section of the story is filled with contradictions. But rendered down to its essence, it is remarkable how uniform the story is across the four Gospels. But of course that does not mean we don’t still have questions. As I have encouraged you to do in previous cases list your questions and seek to harmonise your findings.
Another interesting element of this part of the text is just how many people, women and angels there are at each turn of the story. Again many would challenge the accuracy of these accounts and suggest there are errors. Are there any glaring anomalies? See what you can do to account for them. I will sum it up in the following Gem.
Following this we will move on to the Report of the Guards to the Jewish Leaders (Matt 28:11-15) before we analyse the meeting with The Two on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32). [Just in case you want to know and stay ahead of the pack.] But I know while saying that, many of you won’t want to do that because you are struggling to keep up as it is. We will come to the 1300th Gems on Monday soon. I never imagined I would write 1300 Gems when I first started on the 9th of September 2009 – it’s an easy date to remember because it’s 09/09/09. In that time I have sent 205,500 Tweets and the Gems have spread around the world. It still amazes me. At this point I am posting one Gem from Luke per day until i finish Luke then I will begin a new book and post three per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Which will give people more time to interact with the material. Gems will be live once again. I will start posting the Permata Alkitab (Indonesian Gems) again when the new website can handle multi languages versions. Just how close I don’t yet know.
In tomorrow’s Gem I will assist you to sort out all these women. Now not you, my female readers, all these women in the biblical story. I won’t even try to sort you lady readers out. I know it would be a mission too great for me.
Two criminals on either side of Jesus, equally close to Jesus. One changed and one did not. The gift of choice.
Max Lucado
It’s one thing to say you believe. It’s another thing to have your faith tested and come out on the other side of it still believing God.
Joyce Meyer
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
Albert Einstein