The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-28
Studies in the Gospel According to Luke.

women had beheld only the open tomb.
They inferred only that the body of their
Friend had been stolen away. But their
alarm at this suggestion quickly gave
place to overwhelming amazement.
1t is conjecture of some scholars that
there was vestibule or outer room of
the sepulchre, into which the women on
| their arrival Immediately entered. This
would explain as literally true Luke's
statement that they entered into the
sepulchre, and found not the body Of
him that liveth.
In some way the women at the sepul
chre became aware of the presence of
unearthly companions. There were
standing near two immortal beings, in
appearance like men, who we're clothed
in dazzling apparel. The women could
no more gaze directly at the. 9 immortals,
than one can with direct vision look at
the sun.
The surprised women were Frustrated
by their fear. Their faces were turned
downward toward the ground. Their
minds were almost bereft of reason.
Then they heard, as they afterwards re-
ported, words like these: Wig seek ye
the living among the deddP He is not
here, but is risen.
They were further,-whether by the
vivifying of their own memories or by
words the angelic beings uttered they
could scarcely ell,- reminded of the
teaching of Jesus in Galilee; how he re-
peatedly foretold that he must end his
earthly ministry by going to Jerusalem
and being crucifed. and on the third
day rising again. With the first restor-
alton of their power of thought they
wildly remembered the words Of Jesus,
which at the time we're SO utterly in
comprehensive.
Then they were directed. alike by the
vision they had beheld and by their own
hearts, to go directly to the apostles and
tell them the strange news.
They were warned especially to declare
to Peter, who, since his betrayal of his
Lord two days before, had been heart
broken, that his Lord had risen and de-
sired to meet him.
3. The WondrOus News Re-
ported, VS.. 8-12
They returned from the tomb, and
told all these things to the eleven, and
to all the rest. They came first to the
apostles; then they reported to all
friendly ears their marvellous story.
The women who testified to the
astounding story so far as Luke could
learn, were particularly these three:
Mary of Magdala. who had been restored
by the Master from violent insanity to
mental clearness and repose; Salome. the
wife of the nobleman Chuza, and prob
ably mother of the boy who had been
rest ored from fatal sickness in Caper-
naum is the early days of the ministry
of Jesus; Mary the mother of James the
Less, and probably sister of the mother
of Jesus. In addition we have Marks
mention of Joanna, and various indica-
tions that other women accompanied
these, who were all in different ways in.
timately connected with Jesus and his
cause.
These women, we easily understand,
were in such a tumult of mingled alarm
and rapture that it could not have been
possible for them to tell their stories
with coherency. Listeners with so much
at stake as the disciples. listeners SO
intent on learning whatever had the
impress of TRUTH could scarcely be
otherwise than impatient and even
scornful at the several stories which the
excited women simultaneously told;
stories which on their face, no doubt,
seemed in many particulars self contra
dictory.
That there should, therefore. in our
day, be incoherency variance, even con-
tradictions, in the extant reports of the
women's stories, is no contradiction Of
the essential truth of the central story.
The differences between the accounts Of
the resurrection, when fairly viewed. are
in themselves important testimony to
the general fact If there were exact
coincidence of all the accounts, there
might be reasonable suspicion that it
was designed agreement. The individ-
ual testimonies in the Resurrection
Story are such as men and women under
the bewilderment of the first knowledge
of such extraordinary things would be
likely to give. Their abnormal excite
ment is under the circumstances nor
NAL.
Out of this primary confusion soon
came the life-conviction of the first
Christians that Jesus had indeed risen;
that he was with them still. "In spite
of fear and anxiety" says Farrar, "and
that dull intelligence. which, by their
own confession, was SO slow to realize
the truths they had been taught. there
then dawned upon the disciples the
trembling hope which was rapidly to
become the absolute conviction, that
Christ had risen indeed That on that
morning the grave of Christ was unten-
anted; that his body had not been re-
moved by his enemies; that its absence
caused to his disciples the profoundest
amazement, n 1t unmingled in the breasts