John 20:1

ΤΗι δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων : “And on the first day of the week”. Mk. (Mark 16:2) and Lk. (Luke 24:1) have the same expression. Mt. (Matthew 28:1) has ὀψὲ δὲ σαββάτων, τῇ ἐπιφωσκούσῃ εἰς μίαν σαββάτων. [In the suspected ninth verse of Mark 16 πρώτῃ appears instead of μιᾷ.] Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ἔρχεται, Mary of Magdala, now Mejdel, a fishing village north of Tiberias; she is further described in Mark 16:9 as παρʼ ἧς ἐκβεβλήκει ἑπτὰ δαιμόνια (cf. Luke 8:2), which lends significance both to her being at the tomb and to her being the first to see the Lord. She alone of the three women present is here named, because she alone is required in John's account. The time is more exactly described as πρωΐ, σκοτίας ἔτι οὔσης. Mk. (Mark 16:2) has λίαν πρωΐ, but adds ἀνατείλαντος τοῦ ἡλίου, apparently having chiefly in view, not the first arrival of the women, but the appearance of Jesus to Mary. Luke's ὄρθρου βαθέος agrees with John's expression. Phrynichus defines ὄρθρος as the time before the day began while a lamp was still needed. [Cf. Plato's Crito at the beginning, and Roger's note on Aristoph., Wasps, 215.] The darkness is noticed by John to account for her seeing nothing of what Peter and John afterwards saw. She could not, however, fail to see τὸν λίθον ἠρμένον ἐκ τοῦ μνημείου; the slab closing the sepulchre had been removed. Seeing this she naturally concluded that the tomb had been violated, possibly that the authorities for purposes of their own had removed the body.