62 Burial & Resurrection of Jesus

Upon arrival they immediately realized that the massive stone had already been rolled away from the tomb. The earthquake that occurred and this as well as the angels caused the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb to be so scared that they fled (Matthew 28:1-2). They were sent to guard the tomb but they never expected something of this magnitude. They were risking severe discipline such as flogging for leaving their post in doing this.

So the ladies went inside the tomb and saw a young man sitting the right side of the inside of the tomb. This was an angel. Angels frequently appear in human form as young men. Matthew’s gospel says, “a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it (Matthew 28:1-2). Luke corroborates this by stating that there were two men, “suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel (Luke 24:4)." John’s gospel states that it was two angels” (John 20:1-2,12) An angel of the Lord moved the stone and was sitting upon it outside (Matthew 28:2). The two men (Luke 24:4) were angels (John 20:12). The Mark 16:5 passage just describes the angel inside. Combining all the accounts we see that there was one angel outside and another on the inside of the tomb.