The "Angels" at Christ's Resurrection:

Now before I move on to ghosts and Satan, I got one more tidbit of information I gleaned from looking at the Greek in the gospels. In the gospel of Mark, right at the resurrection, it says the Mary(s) come into the sepulcher and see a "young man sitting on the right side clothed in a long white garment..." Now the Greek there actually translates this as "new regenerate" sitting on the right side... The other gospels describe this scene as "an angel" (not a "new regenerate"), yet if we keep in mind that "angel" can also be "messenger", I think we can reasonably conclude that this particular one is a living human being.

Here's what I think happened. Keep in mind that events recorded in the gospels sometimes seem to contradict each other, but if we realize that events various gospels are talking about, could very well be things that happened more than once. (More than one gentile with a sick child came to Jesus. More than one woman with an issue of blood came to Jesus.) In this record of the resurrection, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb more than once.

Prior to dawn there's an earthquake. This I believe was the indicator that Christ was now alive again. This earthquake wakes Mary Magdalene up and she comes to the tomb alone before sunrise. (It probably woke up half Jerusalem.) I'm going to hypothesize that this happened shortly after 3 AM, on account of the number of soldiers who were at the tomb at the time. 3 AM would have been the changing of the watch; two soldiers coming on to watch and two soldiers leaving. In Jerusalem, there were two trumpet blasts that called soldiers to watch. (The colloquial term for this at the time was called "the cock crowing".) So from the time "the cock crowed" until the coming watch actually made it to the tomb, would have been at some point after 3 AM. (John's gospel) I believe there were 4 soldiers on account of what it says later in Matthew about "some of the watch" being bribed. Obviously this is plural and there would not have been more than two soldiers posted to guard a grave on a given watch. So thus is why I think this occurred during the change of watch.

An Angel comes down and rolls the stone away before Mary gets there. The Roman soldiers pass out from fear when they see the angel descend; although they never actually witnessed the resurrection. (Matthew's gospel)

Jesus emerges from the tomb without the grave clothes. (Either he folded up the head piece himself, or the angel(s) did? It's unclear from the text of how the grave clothes were found as to whether or not Jesus had any assistance in getting out of them, yet from a practical stand point, he very well may have "needed" it. (Remember that upon the raising of Lazarus, Jesus had instructed other people to "loose" him.)

Jesus's arms and legs would have been wrapped in place in semi mummy fashion and he would have been wrapped in a shroud. There were about 75 pounds of spices used, including Myrrh, which becomes is a gummy substance as it is used in burial. It was customary to stitch the (no less than three pieces) of burial garments together. It says the head piece was in a separate location than the "clothes" (shroud) and describes it as being "wrapped together". Now the shroud and spices weighted about 90lbs alone and if Jesus fell on the "1st Century bell curve" for Jewish mens' height and weight, he would have been between 4ft 11inches – 5ft 3inches and 110-130 lbs. So barring some miraculous transfiguration out of the shroud, (which from the description of the pieces being in different parts of the tomb, does not appear to be what happened) Jesus would have had to contend quite a bit with this sticky sewn up mess clinging to his flesh. (The sticky sewn up mess that would have been 2/3 to ¾ his living body weight.) So thus being said, I'm going to make an assumption here that the angel who rolled away the stone, (possibly also accompanied by a second angel) probably assisted Jesus out of the burial clothes.)

First human person on the scene was probably either the cemetery caretaker or his son. This I believe is the "new regenerate" the gospel of Mark is talking about. This young fellow's name is probably Cephas. One of the epistles says that "And he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve." (I Cor 15:3) Many interpret this "Cephas" to be Peter the disciple, but I don't think it is since the passage says he was seen of Cephas, then of the 12. Peter the disciple being one of the twelve and at that point even, one of 11 since Judas was dead. Later, the disciples "appoint" via "drawing of straws" who is to be number 12. (Again, same name, but I think it's a different person.)

Why do I think this was the cemetery's caretaker or his son? Two reasons:

First – The caretaker's family would have been the closest to the cemetery.

Second – When Mary sees Jesus, she thinks he's the caretaker. Now was this just a case of "silly Mary"? I don't think so. People in the first century were identified by the clothing they wore. This crossed over into all sorts of aspects of life like religious affiliation, occupation etc. It's likely that Mary thought Jesus was the caretaker based on the clothing he was wearing. Keep in mind that Jesus came out of the tomb naked and so thus the first person on the scene, obviously would have provided him with clothing.

Imagine being this caretaker person / son. He's probably in his late teens or early 20's. There's been all this ruckus this past week about this guy named Jesus who made a big stir in the temple, said he was going to rise from the dead. He'd just been crucified a day or so prior and he's buried in your cemetery. Suddenly this earthquake, (which probably woke nearly everyone in Jerusalem up) you jump out of bed and make a bee line for the door. You go running through the cemetery. You know where the guy is buried, since it's hard to miss the Roman soldiers who've been standing around there for the past day. You get to the grave and all the soldiers are unconscious, the stone is rolled away and here's this fellow standing there who obviously just came out of the tomb. What's the first thing that's going to pop into your head: "God it's true. He did rise from the dead!" Second thought: "Eh, I'll give you my cloak. Let's go get you some clothes."

They go off; Jesus probably to bathe in addition to getting dressed. (Who knows, he may have still had dried blood in his hair after so hastily having been buried, besides sticky goo all over his body.)

At this point it seems the soldiers have woken up and they leave and go into the city. Some of them come to report to the chief priests having seen the angel and also apparently noticed the stone to the tomb had been rolled away and that there was no corpse in the grave. The chief priests gather the assembly and they give the reporting soldiers a large sum of money to say they'd fallen asleep and the disciples came and stole the body. Interestingly though as recorded in the book of Matthew that "this saying is commonly reported among the Jews..."; it does not say this is commonly reported among the Romans! Although the "official story" was ….. ; it's quite likely that at least one of the soldiers had maintained the truth of what had happened. Matter of fact, that occurrence is quite common. For example, take a look at the footage from 9/11. The "official story" is different from what you are hearing from "the boots on the ground". (It also varies from the footage you are watching.) Just listen to the testimonies from any of the firemen or police officers who were in New York City at the time.

So, Mary shows up at the tomb. It's empty, she sees the stone has been rolled away. There is no indication that she sees the soldiers laying on the ground; for if she'd seen them unconscious, she probably would have come to a different conclusion. She makes the assumption someone took the body. She goes off to tell Peter and John that Jesus's body is gone. (John's gospel.)

Now here is where things get a little confusing as to what happened next, since it does seem that more than one set of people are making these journeys to the tomb, of which many it seems probably started out independent of each other. Now all the gospels have this event in a certain sequence, but how to tie that sequence together among the separate gospels is unclear. Some gospels have Mary Magdalene coming by herself before dawn, others say "at dawn" accompanied by other women and one says "after the Sabbath had passed" (meaning the sun had already set and it was technically now Sunday morning – what time Sunday morning is ambiguous though).

In some of these accounts Mary is saying: "They stole the body." In other accounts she's saying: "He's risen from the dead." John's gospel has both Peter and John coming to the tomb. (John believes, Peter doesn't). Luke's gospel has just Peter returning to the tomb, and now he's questioning his disbelief.

The gospel of Matthew has the angel who rolled the stone away telling women (there only appears to be two women present in this account) that: "I know you seek Jesus who was crucified. He's risen as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay." This gospel names Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary". It says they leave "with fear and great joy".

My hypothesis here is that when Mary Magdalene left the tomb the first time to find Peter and John, she'd encountered this "other Mary", who is later called "Mary the mother of James", (who would also have been Jesus's mother since it does not say "mother of James and John") and they return to the tomb the second time. Mary Magdalene still in her state of doubt and unbelief undoubtedly knew there was an angelic presence in this tomb, although just like John the Baptist's father in the temple with the angel who'd come to visit him; although others knew there was an angel there, he was the only one who saw it. So thus too, I say that of these two Mary(s), the one who is also probably Jesus's mother, is probably the only one who knew particularly what the angel had communicated.

So when these two Mary(s) return to the disciples, Peter is in one location and John is in another. I hypothesize that Mother Mary goes to John and Mary Magdalene goes to Peter. Two different messages. (They stole the body. / He rose from the dead.) I venture to conjecture that Mother Mary made it to John before Mary Magdalene made it to Peter. My other conjecture is that Mother Mary and John encounter another group of women on the way to Peter. Mother Mary takes these women (who are heading to the tomb to anoint the body) to the cemetery, while John goes on to find Peter. The book of John picks up right where Mary Magdalene shows up and gives her account to both Peter and John of what she thinks happened.

Peter and John head for the tomb. Mary Magdalene is still mired in doubt and follows Peter and John back to the tomb. John gets there first, but Peter goes inside first. John just stoops down and sees the grave clothes there and it says he believes. Peter does not though and the gospel of John says that the two disciples go back to their own homes, apparently both taking different routes. (John's gospel.)

The gospel of Mark seems to be the first incident where women coming to the tomb see "an angel". There is one person inside the tomb. This is the translation "young man", of which I believe may have been the gardener / gardener's son who'd been the first to find Jesus immediately after the resurrection. My guess would be he'd be returning to the tomb in expectation that other people would soon be arriving, which there does not seem to be any indication that at that time, he was aware of the angel who rolled the stone away. He apparently missed Mary Magdalene the fist time she came.

This group I conjecture to be Mother Mary who is returning with people she'd encountered after she'd left the tomb the first time. How many people (or who) are with her, it's not real clear, but in this account It states these women (besides Mother Mary, whom I'd assume would be trying to calm them) are too afraid to tell anyone what they'd seen. My second conjecture is that this occurs before Peter and John get to the tomb. Mother Mary (if I am correct and this really is Jesus's mother) would have left with the other women.

The gospel of John says that Mary Magdalene remains standing outside the tomb after Peter and John leave. The gospel of Luke seems to be the "intermediary" between non-belief and belief and very well may have been Mary Magdalene's second encountering of women coming to / returning to the tomb. This would make sense if besides Mother Mary, Salome would have gathered up the courage to tell some of the other women about what she'd / they'd seen (the young man in Mark's gospel) and were returning to show others. In this account, the women encounter two angles who now ask: "Why do you seek the living the dead?" They tell the women he's risen, he goes before you into Galilee, go tell the disciples. In this account they all went into the tomb and looked around and they all are leaving believing that Jesus is risen from the dead.

It does not seem that in their second encounter with two angels, that Mary Magdalene is immediately present. I believe she's in the vicinity of the tomb, but not a first hand witness to this at this time. These other women come away from the tomb and since Mary Magdalene is the first one they encounter, I would assume they'd tell her, although obviously she still doesn't quite believe them. So in this case, it seems everyone but Mary Magdalene goes to tell the disciples he's risen from the dead.

So we come back to the gospel of John, which records that Mary is outside crying when she decides to stoop down and take a look inside the tomb. There she sees the two angles and the angels ask her "Why are you crying?" She says: "They took my Lord away." She doesn't even give the angels a chance to answer her (nor does it seem to dawn on her what she's looking at). She turns around and just about bumps into Jesus. He asks her why she's crying and she says: "Sir if you have carried him away, tell me where he is and I will get him." Then it isn't until Jesus actually says her name that she recognizes his voice and realizes who he is. (John's gospel.)

The next thing that probably happened is Mary Magdalene tried to hug Jesus. He tells her. "Don't touch me. I've not yet ascended to the father." I know there is all kinds of interpretation as to what this means. The Da Vinci Code is one of the modern works of fiction that makes an assertion that Jesus and Mary were some how secretly married and she would have a child by him. Obviously anyone who knows their Christian theology well enough, would realize this idea would wreak all kinds of havoc with the redemption plan. Jesus had stated that the Holy Spirit would not come unless he went back to heaven. (John 16:7) Well, if he'd ever produced children, there would be no pouring out of the Spirit because Christ's presence would have still been on earth; which of course would have prevented anyone from being redeemed. So, so much for the Da Vinci Code.

Another thing I've discovered in my time reading church history, is that there's a lot of misconceptions as to who Mary Magdalene actually was. According to the Scripture, she seems to have been a wealthy woman who contributed financially to Jesus's ministry. She is named among wealthy women in one of the gospels. There is no Scriptural evidence that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. The "woman of reputation" named in the gospels (who was also named Mary) was most likely the sister of Lazarus and Martha. The Scripture does say Jesus cast 7 devils out of Mary Magdalene, but does not get specific as to "nature of sin" these devils may have been an influence in. The notion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute comes out of Roman Catholic Church tradition.

So, I suppose it is fair to ask than why Jesus had said this to Mary, when obviously other women who encounter him later, it says they held his hands and feet and worshiped him? Also we read that disciples are touching him and sticking their fingers in his wounds etc. Did Mary Magdalene have some internal desire to marry Jesus, or was she just happy to see him? Who knows, the Scripture doesn't tell us that. Whether she did or didn't is immaterial though, for we know how the plan played out in the end and why Jesus never got married.

So Jesus tells Mary to go tell the disciples that he's risen from the dead and will be going on before them. As far as I can tell, this appears to be the last time disciples come to the tomb. The next appearance of Jesus to any of the disciples is on the road to Emmaus.

So here concludes this segment about angels at Christ's resurrection. The next segment will be on a theory about ghosts. Are they real? Are they demons? What are they?