They returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Parallel Translations
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They returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
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And they returned and prepared odoures and oyntmetes: but rested the Saboth daye accordynge to the commaundement.
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And they returned and prepared odours, and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandement.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Luke 23:56 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Luke 24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.
- Mark 16:1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him.
- Deuteronomy 5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work— neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
- Exodus 20:8-10 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
- Exodus 31:14 You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
- Exodus 35:2-3 ‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of solemn rest to Yahweh: whoever does any work in it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day.’ ”
- Isaiah 58:13-14 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable; and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you will delight yourself in Yahweh, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.
- Jeremiah 17:24-25 It will happen, if you diligently listen to me,” says Yahweh, “to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein; then there will enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will remain forever.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments;…
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
Ver. 56. And rested the seventh day] From all servile work, yea, that (otherwise most honourable) work of embalming Christ’s dead body.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 56. Prepared spices and ointments] This was in…
Verse 56. Prepared spices and ointments] This was in order to embalm him; which sufficiently proves that they had no hope of his resurrection the third day.
And rested the Sabbath day] For though the Jewish canons allowed all works, necessary for the dead, to be done, even on the Sabbath, such as washing and anointing, provided they moved not a limb of the dead person, yet, as the Jews had put Christ to death under the pretence of his being a malefactor, it would not have been either prudent or safe to appear too forward in the present business; and therefore they rested on the Sabbath.
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CERTAIN copies of the Itala have some remarkable additions in these concluding verses. The conclusion of the 48th verse, Lu 23:48 in one of them, is read thus: Beating their breasts and their foreheads, and saying, Wo to us because of what is done this day, on account of our sins; for the desolation of Jerusalem is at hand. To Lu 23:52, another adds: And when Pilate heard that he was dead, he glorified God and gave the body to Joseph. On the circumstances of the crucifixion, see the observations at the end of Matt. 27, and consider how heinous sin must be in the sight of God, when it required such a sacrifice! See Clarke on Mt 27:66
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 56. they returned] As the sunset was now rapidly…
56. they returned] As the sunset was now rapidly approaching, they must have hurried home to complete their preparations before the Sabbath began.
prepared spices and ointments] The spices are dry, the ‘perfumes’ liquid. They wished to complete the imperfect embalming of the body which Joseph and Nicodemus had hastily begun. Comp. 2Ch_16:14. They had to purchase the spices (Mar_16:1). St Matthew alone relates the circumstances under which the Jews obtained leave to place a watch over the sepulchre, and to seal the stone, Mat_27:62-66.
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and rested] This clause is closely connected with the next chapter,
“And during the Sabbath day they rested...but on the first day of the week, &c.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (56) They returned, and prepared spices and ointments.—This seems…
(56) They returned, and prepared spices and ointments.—This seems at first inconsistent with their “buying” spices after the Sabbath was over (Luk_24:1). Possibly, we have two groups of women—the two Maries and “Joanna and the others” (Luk_24:10)—taking part in the same work; possibly, what they did on the Friday afternoon or evening was not enough, and it was necessary to buy more spices as soon as shops were open on Saturday evening.
Rested the sabbath day.—It is noticeable that this is the only record in the Gospels of that memorable Sabbath. Can we picture to ourselves how it was spent by those who had taken part in the great drama of the previous day;—Caiaphas and the priests officiating in the Temple services of that day, after their hurried Passover, just in time to fulfil the bare letter of the law, on the previous afternoon; the crowds that had mocked and scoffed on Golgotha crowding the courts of the Temple, or attending in the synagogues of Hebrew or Hellenistic Jews; scribes and Pharisees preaching sermons on the history and meaning of the Passover, and connecting it with the hope of a fresh deliverance for Israel? And the disciples, where were they? scattered each to his own lodging, or meeting in the guest-chamber where they had eaten their Paschal supper, or, as that was apparently a new room to them (Luk_22:8-9), in some other inn or lodging in the city, or its suburbs? On that Sabbath, John and Peter must have met, and the penitent must have found in his friend’s love the pledge and earnest of his Lord’s forgiveness; and the Twelve and the Seventy must, in groups of twos or threes, have mourned over the failure of their hopes; and the women have comforted themselves with the thought that they could at least show their reverence for the Lord they loved as they had never shown it before; and Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathæa have rested with satisfaction in the thought that they could honour a dead prophet without the danger that had attached to honouring a living one, or have reproached themselves for the cowardice which had kept them from any open confession till it was too late, and mourned over the irrevocable past. The records are silent, but the imagination which turns the dead chronicles of history into a living drama has here, within due limits, legitimate scope for action. May we go a step yet further, and think of what was then being accomplished behind the veil, of the descent into Hades and the triumph over Death, the soul of the robber in the rest of Paradise, and the good news proclaimed to “the spirits in prison” (1Pe_3:19)? If we dare not fill up the gap with the legends of the Apocryphal Gospel that bears the name of Nicodemus, we may, at least, venture to dwell reverently on the hints that Scripture actually gives.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Subdivision 3. (Luk 23:56; Luk 24:1-53.)
Subdivision 3. (Luk 23:56; Luk 24:1-53.)
Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven.
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The sorrow is past; the suffering is over; upon it all rises the glory of a serene and perfect day. The Lord risen; there is peace with God accomplished, acceptance in the Beloved; and with ascension; not only heaven opened, but (as another has said) "heaven furnished for us."
What strikes one especially in these resurrection scenes in Luke, as compared with the other Gospels, is the large place the word of God has in them. This is still, no doubt, the continuation of that Human Face which, as we have seen abundantly, the third Gospel presents to us. The word of God, as that by which in his true life man lives, (as He Himself affirms from Deuteronomy,) was that by which He walked and to which He ever appealed, which He honored and held up, whether before His own, or His enemies. In these last scenes it assumes peculiar prominence. In the journey to Emmaus it is that by which He leads the perplexed disciples to a firmer faith before He manifests Himself to them in the breaking of bread. Afterwards with the eleven He refers to what is written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Himself, and opens their understanding to understand the Scriptures. His ascension is to be a new light over all, the basis of mysteries hidden in the Old. Testament itself and which necessitate a new testimony afterwards to be committed to a fresh apostle sent forth from Christ in glory, and which is distinctively what he calls it in one place, "the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2Co 4:4, R.V.).
1. The light of the resurrection morning dawns with comparative slowness in Luke’s Gospel. Even because it is the Gospel of peace, we are made to see all the exercise and perplexity about it, and have that upon which all peace rests established upon the surest foundations. Here at first we have but the announcement, "He is alive," carried to the apostles by those who had themselves been only taking their spices to the grave to complete His burial, and hide away for ever their best hopes!
The angels, announcement has in the very fact that it is by angels an air of distance in it, intensified by the reserve and reproof pervading the message. They do not even promise a meeting with Him: He is alive; had He not told them He would rise? why seek the living One among the dead? The women are perplexed and terrified; the apostles sceptical: these are tales, idle tales, bred in the minds of enthusiastic and visionary women: just the thought of a noted sceptic of these latter days. Peter runs, however, to the sepulchre: nothing is said of his companion; John, who will relate the visit in his own Gospel. He sees the linen clothes lying, their tenant gone, and departs, wondering.
2. We are now made to accompany two disciples, of whom we have heard nothing before and shall hear nothing again; and of whom we only know the name of one, Cleopas, upon a sorrowful walk to Emmaus, a village sixty furlongs outside Jerusalem. Their backs upon the city at such a time, and under the peculiar circumstances which they themselves relate, is surely significant. Perplexity and discouragement have taken hold of them; and in such a condition a backward course is inevitable.*
{*There is something in the names that impresses us, though one may fail in giving them their proper application. Yet if we believe that every jot and tittle of the inspired Word have meaning, we cannot refuse to see significance in such points as these. Cleopas seems then to mean "All," or "every one," "a glory." The village to which he is going, if we accept the form that used to be given to the word, means "a despised people." Here is contrast, certainly, and one in agreement with a backward (and downward) course. It would remind us naturally of Israel according to the glory with which God in His promises has clothed her -(see Rev 12:1-17, the "woman clothed with the sun") and her condition, with Christ her glory renounced. The unbelief of the disciples tended to identify them with this lapsed condition, though divine love was about to recall them -could not possibly leave them to a path like this. But this is only a suggestion as to the meaning.}
While, then, they were on the road discussing the events that had happened, "Jesus Himself drew near and went with them." It is a sign of their condition that "their eyes were holden, that they did not know Him." In answer to His inquiries, the whole thing comes out, and "we trusted that it had been He who is going to redeem Israel" tells the tale of doubt and trouble. Yet they have heard the women’s story of His being alive, and of Peter’s visit to the sepulchre. What to think they know not.
Then, with a reproof for their unbelief, He begins to unfold the long prophetic burden of the ages past, through Moses and all the prophets following: their hearts burning within them as faith is rekindled at the sacred fire. They reach the village while He is reciting; and there they stay the wondrous Stranger from passing on; as He appears ready to do. Constrained by their solicitude, He enters the house to abide with them. There, in the breaking of bread He is revealed to them at last.
It is striking the character of all this: the first announcement made to women; here, before the apostles, two simple disciples are taken up to be ministered to, and with painstaking earnestness to bring them back to simplicity of faith. When they come back to Jerusalem, they find that He has appeared unto Simon; and we realize that here there is more pastoral work of the same tender sort. This appearing, however, is not given us any where at large, as we might have expected. They meet, as it were in secret, the Lord and His failed disciple, before He meets them together, Peter and the rest of the eleven. The tender style of all this, how like the Lord it is! How unofficial, too. It is plain that this is One who is going to be Himself the Shepherd of every individual soul of His, and not put them into the hands of some ecclesiastical go-between. It is, "One is your Teacher, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." Scripture is used, and they are built up with it: no miracles take the place of it: we hear again the Voice that said, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead."
3. (1) But the time is now come for fuller manifestation; and we see Him presently in the midst of the gathering of His people, inviting them to assure themselves fully of the reality of what they behold. With the doors shut, as John expressly tells us, His appearance in the midst impresses itself upon them as that of His bodiless spirit rather than the reappearance of the One they knew so well as He had lived and moved among them. In the tenderest way He invites them to make proof of His being in the body, to look at and handle Him, with the very wounds He had received still upon Him. When even yet, because of the greatness of the joy, they cannot realize it, he takes of the food they give Him and eats before them. It is the blessed fact and its full certification to those who are to be His witness that are put before us in Luke, and not yet the doctrines in connection with it, which are to be given us elsewhere.
(2) The Word is again appealed to, and His solemn testimony given to the written Word as it existed in His day, His sufferings and resurrection being a special part of this prophetic witness. Repentance and remission of sins are to be preached to all nations in the name of the Risen One; Jerusalem, guilty above all, to be first addressed. Thus Luke maintains its character to the end. Nothing is said of miraculous attestation, nor of baptism: the gospel is left in its own sufficiency. But they, its witnesses, are to be clothed with the power of the Spirit, the promise of the Father, sent by Himself: a step in advance of both Matthew and Mark, and in the line of the Acts and Paul.
(3) The gospel is to be first addressed to Jerusalem, but He does not ascend from thence, but from Bethany. "From thence He had set out to present Himself as King to Jerusalem. It was there that the resurrection of Lazarus had taken place; there that the family which present the character of the remnant -attached to His Person, now rejected, with better hopes -in the most striking manner received Jesus. It was thither He retired when His testimony to the Jews was ended; that His heart might rest for a few moments among those He loved; who, through grace, loved Him. It was there that He established the link (as to circumstances) between the remnant attached to His Person and heaven. From thence He ascends." (Synopsis.)
He ascends with His hands stretched out in blessing, to take that place before God in which He abides, the Representative of His people, the Head of blessing for them. While Israel and the earth wait for His return to find what the Old Testament has pledged in their behalf, His place in heaven is the sign of a new order of blessing which the "mysteries" of Christianity are to take up and unfold to us. Luke is here again the precursor of Paul while John has first his own glories to display, which, while seen on earth, are essentially of heaven; and at last will unite heaven and earth together, as surely as He in whom we recognize them unites already in His Person; in one indissoluble perfection; God with Man.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.