Matthew 28
The Resurrection 1–10
The Guard's Report and the Bribe 11–15
The Great Commission 16–20
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Matthew 28
Verse 1
as it began to dawn — Epiphosko, to grow light; it occurs twice in the New Testament, here and in Luke 23:54, where ‘the sabbath drew on’. ‘The first day of the week’ joins mia, one, to sabbaton. The two women, ‘Mary Magdalene and the other Mary’, are the pair who had sat ‘over against the sepulchre’ at the burial (27:61).
Verse 2
rolled back the stone — Apokulio, to roll away, used four times, all of this stone (here; Mark 16:3–4; Luke 24:2). In Mark and Luke the women find it already moved. The ‘great earthquake’ (seismos) is the second in this Gospel’s closing chapters: the first came as he died, when ‘the earth did quake’ (27:51; 27:54).
Verse 3
His countenance was like lightning — Idea, appearance, used only here in the New Testament; astrape is lightning. Daniel saw a man whose ‘face as the appearance of lightning’ (Dan 10:6) and the Ancient of days whose ‘garment was white as snow’ (Dan 7:9). White dress also marks the ‘two men’ who stood by at the ascension (Acts 1:10, ‘white apparel’).
Verse 5
Fear not ye — The pronoun ‘ye’ (humeis) sets the women against the keepers of v.4, who ‘did shake’ for fear (phobos). The angel says what they ‘seek’ (zeteo) and names him as the one ‘which was crucified’ (stauroo): the cross is stated beside the resurrection, not set aside by it. Jesus repeats ‘Be not afraid’ in v.10.
Verse 6
he is risen, as he said — ‘Is risen’ is egeiro, to be raised up. ‘As he said’ points back to his own words: ‘be raised again the third day’ (16:21) and ‘the third day he shall rise again’ (20:19). The invitation, ‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay’ (keimai), sends the women to look at the empty place themselves.
Verse 7
he goeth before you into Galilee — Proago is the verb of 26:32, ‘after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.’ The angel repeats that promise, and Jesus himself repeats it in v.10. ‘Go quickly’ (tachu) is the speed of v.8, and ‘there shall ye see him’ (optanomai) is fulfilled at the mountain in v.16.
Verse 9
held him by the feet — Krateo, to take hold of. ‘All hail’ is chairo, the ordinary greeting, literally ‘rejoice’. They ‘worshipped’ (proskuneo), the word used again of the eleven in v.17 and of the men in the boat in 14:33, ‘Of a truth thou art the Son of God.’
Verse 10
my brethren — The disciples had ‘forsook him, and fled’ (26:56), and he calls them his brethren. John 20:17 has the same words to Mary Magdalene, ‘go to my brethren’, and Heb 2:11 says ‘he is not ashamed to call them brethren’. The message repeats v.7: do not fear (phobeo), and ‘there shall they see me.’
Verse 11
some of the watch — Koustodia, from the Latin custodia, a guard; it occurs only in Matthew (27:65–66; 28:11), where Pilate told the chief priests, ‘Ye have a watch.’ These are the men set at the sepulchre (27:66). They report ‘all the things that were done’ to the chief priests, not to Pilate.
Verse 12
large money — Literally sufficient silver (hikanos, argyrion). The same word for silver is used of the ‘thirty pieces of silver’ paid to Judas (26:15), which he threw down in the temple (27:5). The elders and chief priests ‘took counsel’ (symboulion) here as they had ‘against Jesus to put him to death’ (27:1).
Verse 13
His disciples came by night — The story answers the fear the chief priests voiced in 27:64: ‘lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away’. Klepto, to steal, is the verb of both verses. ‘While we slept’ (koimao, to put to sleep) places the whole event outside what the soldiers saw.
Verse 15
commonly reported among the Jews — Diaphemizo, to spread abroad; its only other uses are of the news of Christ’s healings (Matt 9:31; Mark 1:45). They ‘did as they were taught’ (didasko). ‘Until this day’ (as in 27:8) shows that Matthew wrote while the report was still being told.
Verse 16
into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them — ‘The eleven’ are the disciples left because Judas was gone (27:5). The place was ‘appointed’ (tasso, to arrange), though the angel (v.7) and Jesus (v.10) named only Galilee, and Matthew does not report when the mountain was fixed. They go as the promise of 26:32 had said.
Verse 17
some doubted — Distazo, to waver; used only here and of Peter on the water: ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ (14:31). ‘They worshipped him’ uses the same word (proskuneo) as v.9. The doubt is among those who had come to the mountain, and Jesus then ‘came’ (proserchomai) to them and spoke (v.18).
Verse 18
All power is given unto me — Exousia, authority, the right to act. ‘Is given’ (didomi) is the verb of Dan 7:14, ‘there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom’. ‘In heaven and in earth’ widens the earlier ‘All things are delivered unto me of my Father’ (11:27). Eph 1:20–22 sets the same authority at his resurrection and seating at God’s right hand.
Verse 19
teach all nations — The verb is matheteuo, to make disciples; its four uses are Matt 13:52, 27:57 (Joseph ‘was Jesus’ disciple’), here, and Acts 14:21. Baptizing is ‘in the name’ (onoma), one name in the singular, ‘of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’. ‘Nations’ (ethnos) is all the peoples.
Verse 20
I am with you alway — Literally ‘all the days’. It answers the name given at his birth, ‘Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us’ (1:23), and the LORD’s word to Joshua, ‘as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee’ (Josh 1:5). ‘The end of the world’ is sunteleia aionos, the completion of the age (13:39, 40, 49; 24:3).