Matius 27:60

27:60 and placed it ¹  in his own new tomb that he had cut in the rock. ²  Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance ³  of the tomb and went away.

Lukas 24:2

24:2 They ⁴  found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, ⁵ 

Yohanes 20:1

The Resurrection

20:1 Now very early on the first day of the week, ⁶  while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene ⁷  came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been moved away from the entrance. ⁸ 

[27:60]  ¹ tc ‡ αὐτό (auto, “it”) is found after ἔθηκεν (eqhken, “placed”) in the majority of witnesses, including many important ones, though it seems to be motivated by a need for clarification and cannot therefore easily explain the rise of the shorter reading (which is read by א L Θ Ë¹³ 33 892 pc). Regardless of which reading is original (though with a slight preference for the shorter reading), English style requires the pronoun. NA²⁷ includes αὐτό here, no doubt due to the overwhelming external attestation.

[27:60]  ² tn That is, cut or carved into an outcropping of natural rock, resulting in a cave-like structure (see L&N 19.25).

[27:60]  ³ tn Or “to the door,” “against the door.”

[24:2]  ⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[24:2]  ⁵ sn Luke tells the story of the empty tomb with little drama. He simply notes that when they arrived the stone had been rolled away in a position where the tomb could be entered. This large stone was often placed in a channel so that it could be easily moved by rolling it aside. The other possibility is that it was merely placed over the opening in a position from which it had now been moved.

[20:1]  ⁶ sn The first day of the week would be early Sunday morning. The Sabbath (and in this year the Passover) would have lasted from 6 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Saturday. Sunday would thus mark the first day of the following week.

[20:1]  ⁷ sn John does not mention that Mary Magdalene was accompanied by any of the other women who had been among Jesus’ followers. The synoptic accounts all mention other women who accompanied her (although Mary Magdalene is always mentioned first). Why John does not mention the other women is not clear, but Mary probably becomes the focus of the author’s attention because it was she who came and found Peter and the beloved disciple and informed them of the empty tomb (20:2). Mary’s use of the plural in v. 2 indicates there were others present, in indirect agreement with the synoptic accounts.

[20:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “from the tomb.”