And they said, Who shall roll us away the stone This seems to have been the only difficulty they apprehended. So they knew nothing of Pilate's having sealed the stone, and placed a guard of soldiers there. And when they looked Αναβλεψασαι, and having lifted up their eyes; they saw Namely, before they arrived quite at the sepulchre; that the stone was rolled away An angel having descended and done this, as is recorded Matthew 28:2; where see the note. For it was very great These words, the reader will observe, should be read after the third verse, with which they are connected: an instance of a similar transposition was noted on Mark 11:13. And entering into the sepulchre they saw a young man, &c. Matthew says, this was the angel, who had rolled away the stone, and frightened the guards from the sepulchre. It seems he had now laid aside the terrors in which he was arrayed, and assumed the form and dress of a human being, in order that when the women saw him, they might be as little terrified as possible. See note on Matthew 28:5. This is the appearance of the one angel which Matthew and Mark have described. The women, much encouraged by the agreeable news, as well as by the sweet accent with which the heavenly being spake, it seems, went down into the sepulchre, and lo, another angel appeared; this is the vision of the two angels, which Luke, Luke 24:3, has described as the principal vision. Probably the one sat at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. In which situation they showed themselves by-and-by to Mary Magdalene, John 20:12.

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