When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that coming they might anoint him. And very early in the morning on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
Truth to Learn
We need to read the Scriptures very carefully if we are to glean the truth.
Behind the Words
“Was past” is translated from the Greek verb diaginomai, which is made up of dia, meaning “through” and ginomai, meaning “to be” or “to begin to be.” Thus, we see that diaginomai means “to be through, to be past, or to have elapsed.” In other words, it was no longer the Sabbath, it was the day after the Sabbath.
The word translated “bought” is agoradzō, meaning “to purchase something.”
“Very” in verse 2 is from lian, which means “very much” or “exceedingly.”
“In the morning” is translated from the adverb prōi, which is from pro, meaning “before.“ Prōi means “early in the morning.” When this is combined with lian it means, “exceedingly early in the morning.”
Meaning Explained
Most of us, when we read these two verses, see no problem with what is said. We know it was after the Sabbath and the women got up very early, bought the spices to anoint Jesus’ body and then went to the tomb to anoint Him. Except that’s not what these two verses tell us. “Say what!” Verse one says that they bought the spices on the day after the Sabbath and verse two says that they went to the tomb exceedingly early on the first day of the week.” Still don’t see it?
OK, we’ll take it slow. Verse one says that the women bought the spices on the day after the Sabbath. It does NOT say that they bought the spices very early in the morning on the day after the Sabbath. They couldn’t have done that because the shops weren’t open very early in the morning. And even if they had been able to purchase the spices early in the morning, the preparation of the spices took a fair amount of time. So much so, in fact, that they would not have been able to go to the tomb “exceedingly early on the first day of the week,” which is what verse two says.
So, there wasn’t enough time on Sunday to have purchased the spices, prepared them, and then visited the tomb very early in the morning. Don’t feel bad if you missed this. I have read many Biblical scholars and learned preachers who missed this. For some of them, the explanation is that on the Preparation Day, shops frequently stayed open past 6:00 because of a little wrinkle in the laws governing the Sabbath. This would have allowed the women to purchase the spices on the day Jesus was crucified. The problem with this explanation is that verse one says they bought the spices, “When the Sabbath was past.” Remember, Jesus was crucified on the Preparation Day, the day before the Sabbath. The next day was the Sabbath and it was the day after that in which the spices were purchased. They did not purchase the spices on the Preparation Day.
Okay, you say, but what if they didn’t have to prepare the spices. They could have purchased them already prepared late on the Preparation Day. The problem with this is in Luke 24:1 which says:
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
This tells us that they did not purchase the spices already prepared for them. The two Marys and Salome prepared them and they prepared them on the day after the Sabbath.
Application
Careful reading of the Bible sometimes gives us a different picture than what we have been taught in Sunday School and from the pulpit. Tomorrow we will talk about how to make sense of all this.
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2020 Will Krause. All rights reserved