Matthew 28:1 meaning

The parallel Gospel account for Matthew 28:1 is Mark 16:1.

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave (v 1).

After recording how the chief priests and Pharisees schemed with Pilate on the Sabbath to prevent the disciples from being able to steal Jesus’s body and fraudulently claim that He had risen from the grave (Matthew 27:62-66), Matthew continues his narrative by telling us that it was now after the Sabbath. This was now the third day in which Jesus had been deceased.

The Sabbath was the last day of the week. The day after the Sabbath was the first day of the week. Jews were commanded to rest from their work on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:13-15). This was now the third day in which Jesus had been deceased.

• Jesus was arrested, condemned, crucified, gave up His spirit, and was buried on the day before the Sabbath. The Jews referred to this day as “preparation day,” since they had to prepare for the Sabbath rest.
• Jesus rested from His work of redemption and was in the grave on the Sabbath.
• And Jesus would rise from the grave on the first day of the week, after the Sabbath had ended.

When Jesus offered “the sign of Jonah” as the sign that proved His Messianic identity, He told the Pharisees “so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Jesus was buried in the earth for parts of three days and three nights.

1. Jesus was buried the day He was crucified—the day before the Sabbath.
2. Jesus remained in His grave for the entire Sabbath.
3. Jesus was entombed on the first day of the week until He rose that morning.

Matthew begins this verse establishing the time: Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week…

At first glance, Matthew seems to be describing the morning, but as we will explain just below, Matthew is in fact describing the evening.

Unlike Western methods of reckoning days, Jewish days ended and began at sundown.

The expression: as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week can seem misleading in English, particularly the word, dawn. In English, the word dawn usually describes the time when the sun is coming up in the early morning.

The expression—as it began to dawn—is a translation of the Greek word ἐπιφωσκούσῃ (G2020—pronounced: “epi-phōs-kou-sé”). The Greek language of verse 28 literally reads: “the Sabbath lighting unto the first day of the week.”

According to Jewish custom, an old day ends, and a new day begins as soon as the light of three stars become visible in the evening sky. The expression—as it began to dawn—in verse 28 is perhaps better understood to mean as the light of three stars began to dawn toward the first day of the week. The Greek language also seems to be an attempt to capture one or more Jewish idioms used to describe the closing of the Sabbath.

If the Greek language is trying to express a Jewish idiom in this verse, then this would further support the idea that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic to the Jews, and later translated into Greek. (The original Hebrew or Aramaic manuscripts of Matthew are lost and the oldest manuscripts we have of this book are in Greek).

The main point of all of this is that Matthew seems to be describing the early evening hours of the new Jewish day in this verse rather than the early morning hours of sunrise.

As an aside, the only other time any form of the word, “epiphōskousé,” appears in the New Testament, it is explicitly used to describe the closing of one day at sunset and the beginning of another:

“It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.”
(Luke 23:54)

In Luke 23:54, the phrase “was about to begin” is a translation of the same root word as “epiphōskousé,” and it is used to signal the end of the preparation day and the beginning of the Sabbath which occurred as the sun was setting. Luke clearly uses this Greek word the same way Matthew appears to be using it in verse 28.

With this expression, Matthew says that as soon as the sun set and the first day of the week began, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at Jesus’s grave. 

All four Gospels explicitly point out that Jesus’s resurrection was on the first day of the week (See Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1).

In this context, the expression the first day of the week indicates three things:

1. That Sabbath is over
2. An allusion to Creation
3. That it was the Festival of First Fruits which began the week after Passover.

We have already discussed how it was now after the Sabbath because it was the first day of the week.

The first day of the week alludes to creation.

God created the world in six days and He rested on the seventh (Genesis 2:1-3). God created light on the first day of creation (Genesis 1:3-5). The fact that Jesus, “the light of the world” (John 8:12), was raised from the dead on the first day of the week is indicative that His resurrection is the first day of the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5, Revelation 21:5).

To the Jewish readers of Matthew’s gospel, the phrase on the first day of the week is especially significant because it indicates to them that it was the Festival of First Fruits.

According to the Law of Moses, the festival of First Fruits began “on the day after the [first] sabbath” following the start of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:11).

The Bible associates Jesus’s sacrificial death and burial with Passover and Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians 5:7, Matthew 26:26-28, John 1:29, 1 Peter 1:19, Revelation 5:6) and His resurrection with First Fruits (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, Colossians 1:18).

The festival of First Fruits was commanded while the Israelites were in the wilderness and was to be observed “when you enter the land which I am going to give to you” (Leviticus 23:10). Because of this, the festival of First Fruits was associated with the Promised Land and the fulfillment of God’s promises. It was viewed as the consummation of Passover and Unleavened Bread which commemorated Israel’s Exodus journey.

Faithful Jews would have immediately recognized that it was the beginning of the festival of First Fruits from Matthew’s opening line: now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, because Matthew’s narrative accurately depicts how Jesus celebrated the Passover (Matthew 26:19-20), was arrested, condemned, crucified, and buried on the First Day of Unleavened Bread and was in the grave the next day (Matthew 27:62) which was the Sabbath.

By alluding to his Jewish readers that the day of First Fruits was when Jesus rose from the dead, Matthew was linking this Holy Day commemorating the fulfillment of God’s promises with the fulfillment of the Messiah, His resurrection, and the future resurrection of all who believe in Jesus.

In other words, just as Jesus’s death and burial fulfilled the Jewish holy days of Passover and Unleavened Bread, so too did His resurrection fulfill the Jewish holy day of First Fruits. This was because Jesus was the first human to gain a resurrection body that would not die again.

When the Apostle Paul is discussing the resurrection and its implications to the believers of Corinth, he explicitly states that Jesus is “the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

To learn more about how Jesus’s resurrection is a fulfillment of First Fruits, see The Bible Says article: “Jesus and the Messianic Fulfillments of Passover and Unleavened Bread.”

Who were the women who came to see Jesus’s grave as the evening stars began to dawn away from the Sabbath and toward the first day of the week?

Mary Magdalene was a devoted follower of Jesus from His early days in Galilee (Matthew 27:55-56). She was from the city of Magdala, located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. The name, Mary Magdalene, means “Mary of Magdala.” Mark and Luke’s gospels reveal that before Mary Magdalene encountered Jesus, she was possessed by seven demons which He cast out of her (Mark 16:9, Luke 8:2).

The other Mary was also among the many women present at Jesus’s crucifixion (Matthew 27:55). John’s Gospel seems to refer to her as “Mary the wife of Clopas” (John 19:25). She was also the “mother of James the Less and Joses” (Mark 15:40). “James the Less” was another of Jesus’s twelve disciples named James.

Mary Magdalene, along with the other Mary, were present when Jesus’s body was laid in Joseph’s tomb (Matthew 27:61).

Once the Sabbath had ended, these two women came to look at Jesus’s grave again while it was evening. They do not appear to have come to anoint His body at this time, although they intended to prepare to anoint Him by buying spices that evening (Mark 16:1). This is likely why Matthew says they came to look at Jesus’s grave rather than saying they came to anoint. It would have been impractical to anoint His body in the dark. Their purpose for coming to His grave at this time seems to have been mainly to visit it.

Mark’s Gospel adds that Salome was at with them (Mark 16:1), at least at some point. Salome was also at Jesus’s crucifixion (Mark 16:40). Salome was the wife of Zebedee and the mother of Jesus’s disciples, James and John (Matthew 27:56). Salome also may have been Jesus’s aunt, the sister of His mother (John 19:25).

Mark’s Gospel also reveals something else these women did the evening just after the Sabbath had ended. They were on an errand. “When the Sabbath was over” these three women “bought spices so that they might come and anoint” His body (Mark 16:1). They likely “bought” spices the evening after Sabbath ended as well as viewing the grave, with the intent to anoint Jesus the next morning.

As soon as the sun set after the Sabbath, Jewish shops were often opened for business for a brief time. John says “it was still dark” when Mary Magdalene first went to the tomb (John 20:1). Few if any shops would have been open for business this early in the morning—which supports the notion that they were buying spices in the evening as soon as the Sabbath had ended. It seems their intent was to prepare to anoint Jesus’s body first thing in the morning.

Because Mark identifies three women (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome—Mark 16:1) who went to buy spices and Matthew only mentions two (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary), it seems plausible that the three women went to buy the burial spices, then Salome returned home with the spices, while the two Marys went on to look at Jesus’s grave.

When the three women bought spices, they may have used donations from Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus to purchase the expensive perfumes and oils (Matthew 27:57-60, Mark 15:46, John 19:39). It could also be that Mary Magdalene financed the purchase, as she is first in the listing of women donors who financed Jesus’s ministry (Luke 8:2-3).

The women bought the spices to finish the task of anointing Jesus’s body so that it could be properly buried. Regarding Jewish burial practices, the Jews did not use oils to embalm the dead as Egyptians did. They used perfumes and oils to prevent the body from stinking.

The reason Mary Magdalene and the other Mary did not buy the spices the day Jesus died was because they were with Him as He was crucified. Moreover, He died late in the day and there was not enough time to complete the job of preparing His body or making all the necessary purchases (Matthew 27:57). The Jewish shops were closed for business in observance of the Sabbath commandment.

In buying the spices in the evening as soon as the Sabbath had ended as the stars began to light toward the first day of the week, the women did what they could as soon as they could do it. Their intent was to then go finish preparing Jesus’s body for burial in the morning at sunrise. John says “it was still dark” when Mary Magdalene first went to the tomb (John 20:1).

Mark’s announcement that the events of Mark 16:2 and what followed occurred “when the sun had risen” contrasts what came before that in Mark 16:1 “when the Sabbath was over” the evening before:

“Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.”
(Mark 16:2)

This contrast further highlights that when Matthew and Mark wrote how Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, and Salome were going to buy spices and to look at Jesus’s grave in Matthew 28:1 and Mark 16:1, that it was evening and not morning.

The fact that Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, and Salome (Mark 16:1) were buying these perfumes and oils to prepare Jesus’s body was revealing of three things.

First this action revealed their love for Jesus. As He had served and blessed them in life, so they were seeking to serve and honor Him in His death—even though it was an unpleasant task of preparing His mangled body.

In writing of the Messiah’s appearance resulting from the physical abuse He suffered, Isaiah prophesied:

“His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form more than the sons of men.”
(Isaiah 52:14b)

Despite the swollen bruises, the bloody gashes, the horrific wounds from the beatings, floggings, the crown of thorns, and the crucifixion itself, these women were still willing to clean up His body and prepare it for burial. They were serving Jesus through this incredible act of love.

The second thing their act of buying the spices to anoint His body for burial revealed was that they were not anticipating His resurrection. It is unlikely that they would have anointed His body for burial and decay had they believed or known that His body would not undergo decay because He would come back to life. Despite Jesus’s numerous statements (several of them explicit) predicting His resurrection (Matthew 12:39-40, 16:4, 16:21, 20:18, 26:32) it came as a complete shock and surprise to all of His disciples, including these women.

The third thing it reveals is that Saturday evening Jesus’s body was still in the grave.