We must now turn to the second Gospel. The women going to the sepulchre with spices that they might anoint the body of Jesus--which, according to the fourth Gospel, had already been fully embalmed and, in any case, had lain in the sepulchre since the Friday evening--are represented as saying amongst themselves: "Who will roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?"(1) This is a curious dramatic speculation, but very suspicious. These women are apparently not sufficiently acquainted with Joseph of Arimathaea to be aware that, as the fourth Gospel asserts, the body had already been embalmed, and yet they actually contemplate rolling the stone away from the mouth of a sepulchre which was his property.(2) Keim has pointed out that it was a general rule(3) that, after a sepulchre had been closed in the way described, it should not again be opened. Generally, the stone was not placed against the opening of the sepulchre till the third day, when corruption had already commenced; but here the sepulchre is stated by all the Gospels to have been closed on the first day, and the unhesitating intention of the women to remove the stone is not a happy touch on the part of the second Synoptist. They find the stone already rolled away.(4) Ver. 5: "And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were 4 Mk. xvi. 4. The continuation: "for it was very great" [-- ----], is peculiar, but of course intended to represent the difficulty of its removal. {452}