Matthew begins his account of the resurrection with two temporal markers, after the sabbath and toward the dawn of the first day of the week. The first of these temporal markers is sufficiently clear: the sabbath had come to an end. But the second marker is not altogether clear. The Jewish day actually began at sunset; it was the Roman day which began with sunrise. Nevertheless, the vast majority of translations apparently accept the meaning as represented in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation: (“as Sunday morning was dawning”). But the same verb is used here as in Luke 23.54 (“and the sabbath was beginning”; RSV footnote “… was dawning”), and so Matthew may well mean “late on the Sabbath, at the beginning of the first day of the week.” If this interpretation is accepted, then the events took place in the evening following the Sabbath day, and the scene is that of two women traveling in the darkness to visit the tomb. Thus Matthew’s account would contrast with Mark’s, according to which the three women purchased spices at the end of the Sabbath day, but did not actually take them to the tomb until early the next morning. This suggests that in this part of his narrative Matthew represents the earliest tradition, which was later succeeded by the more popular account of the early Sunday morning visit.

Sabbath was discussed at 12.1. Most translators identify it as “the day of rest (for the Jews).” As for first day of the week, whether to translate literally or use “Sunday” (Good News Translation) will depend on whether this identification will help readers or not.

The mention of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary ties the resurrection narrative closely to that of the death of Jesus (27.56) and of his burial (27.61).

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .