Now upon the first day of the week
On which day it appears by what follows, Christ rose from the
dead, and which was the third day from his death, and so verified
the Scriptures, and his own predictions: very early in the
morning;
just as light began to spring, the day to dawn, and break; the
first appearance of the morning; when it first began to dawn;
when it was yet dark,
as in ( John 20:1
) and so read the Syriac and Persic versions here; and the
Ethiopic version, "while it was yet night": this must be
understood of the time when the women set out from the city, or
suburbs; for by that time they got to the sepulchre it was at
sunrise, ( Mark 16:2 ) and shows
their great love, zeal, and devotion for Christ, and great
courage and fearlessness to go out of the city at such a time,
without any man with them, and to a grave: they came unto
the sepulchre,
where Christ was laid; that is, the women who came with Christ
from Galilee, and who had observed where, and how his body was
interred: bringing the spices which they had
prepared;
on the sabbath eve, to anoint the body, but were prevented by
reason of the sabbath; see ( Luke 23:56 ) and
certain others with them;
that is, other women; besides Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother
of Joses, and Salome, and other Galilean women, there were other
Jerusalem women, or of Bethany, it may be, Mary, and Martha, the
sisters of Lazarus, and of the parts adjacent: this clause is
left out in the Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions, and in one
ancient copy of Beza's; but is retained in the Syriac, Arabic,
and Persic versions.