How long did he remain in the grave? Synoptics: Being buried on Friday evening, and having risen on or before Sunday morning, he was in the grave, at the most, but two nights and one day. 401 What occurred on the morning of the resurrection? Matthew: "There was a great earthquake" (xxviii, 2). The other Evangelists know nothing of this earthquake. They not only omit it, but their accounts of the resurrection preclude the possibility of its occurrence. 402 Who were the first to visit the tomb on the morning of the resurrection? John: "Mary Magdalene" (xx, 1). Matthew: "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary" (xxviii, 1). Mark: "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome" (xvi, 1, 2). Luke: "Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women" (xxiv, 1-10). 403 Who was Salome? "The wife of Zebedee, as appears from comparing Matt. xxvii, 56, with Mark xv, 40."--Smith's Bible Dictionary. Matthew says that the women who witnessed the crucifixion were "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children." Mark says the women were "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome." This is a discrepancy that can be reconciled only by supposing that the mother of Zebedee's children (James and John) was Salome. But the Gospel of the Egyptians, older than either Matthew or Mark, and accepted by early Christians as authentic, states that Salome was a single woman. 404 At what time in the morning did the women visit the tomb? Mark: "At the rising of the sun" (xvi, 2). John: "When it was yet dark" (xx, 1). If they came "at the rising of the sun," or "when the sun was risen" (New Ver.), it was not yet dark. 405 When does Matthew say they came? "In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week" (xxviii, 1). If they came "in the end of the Sabbath," and Jesus had already risen, then his resurrection took place, not on the first day of the week, as claimed, but on the seventh day. Matthew was a Jew; yet the author of this Gospel was seemingly ignorant of the Jewish method of computing time, according to which the Sabbath began and ended at sunset. He evidently supposed that the night preceding their visit to the tomb belonged to the seventh day, whereas it belonged to the first day. 406 Was the tomb open, or closed, when they came? Luke: "They found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre" (xxiv, 2). Matthew: The tomb was closed. The stone was not rolled from the door until after they came (xxviii, 1, 2). This, in the opinion of most critics, is the meaning of Matthew's language. 407 Whom did they meet at the tomb? Matthew: "The angel" (xxviii, 2-5). Mark: "A young man" (xvi, 5). Luke: "Two men" (xxiv, 4). John: "Two angels" (xx, 12). 408 Were these men or angels in the sepulchre or outside of it? Matthew: Outside of it (xxviii, 2).