ACC ~ Mark 16 v2b

THE SEQUENCE OF BURIAL EVENTS

BEDE: As to its being said in the gospel reading that holy women came to see the sepulcher “on the evening which was growing on toward the dawn of Sunday,” we should understand this thus: they started to come during the evening, but reached the sepulcher as the morning of Sunday was dawning; that is, they prepared the spices with which they wanted to anoint our Lord’s body on [Saturday] evening, but brought the spices that they had prepared in the evening to the sepulcher in the morning. Matthew, for the sake of brevity, wrote this more obscurely; [1] but the other evangelists [2] show more distinctly the order in which it was done. After our Lord had been buried on Friday, the women went away from the tomb and prepared spices and ointments for as long as it was permitted them to work. They then refrained from activity on the sabbath, in accord with they commandment, [3] as Luke clearly reports. [4] When the sabbath was over, as evening was coming on, the time for working had returned. Being resolute in their devotion, they bought the spices that they had not prepared [earlier] (as Mark records it) so that they might come and anoint him. [5] EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL OF MARK 2.7. [6]

[1] Cf. Mt 28:1.

[2] Mk 16:1-2; Lk 24:1.

[3] Cf. Ex 12:16; 20:8-10.

[4] Cf. Lk 23:56.

[5] Cf. Mk 16:1.

[6] Cetedoc 1367, 2.7.26; HOG 2:59-60. The women who were present on the day before the sabbath returned on the day after the sabbath.