[46] From this narrative it would seem that, for one night, the sepulchre was unsealed and unguarded.
[47] It seems that it was a custom to give criminals this drink in order to, in a measure, stupefy them and lessen the pains of the crucifixion.
[48] This was probably the usual custom, unless the criminal was too weak to bear the burden.
[49] No two of these superscriptions on the cross exactly agree.
[50] None of the other Gospels mention Jesus' mother or any of the apostles as being present at the Crucifixion, and all agree that the women stood "afar off."
[51] These were precautions, probably usual, to ensure that the criminals were really dead.
[52] These instructions are contrary to those given to His disciples in His life-time. He told them expressly not to go to the Gentiles (Matt. X:5) and said nothing about their baptizing either Jews or Gentiles. No time or definite place is assigned for this last appearance of Jesus.
[53] Mark does not tell of any appearance of Jesus to the apostles in Galilee.
[54] The name Cleopas does not appear in the list of the twelve apostles (Matt. X:2-4).
[55] The story of the resurrection and ascension would have even less chance of acceptance by an impartial tribunal, than that of the miraculous conception, or of the birth at Bethlehem. The accounts in the four Gospels, together with that in the Acts, are such a hopeless mass of confusion and contradiction that scarcely a single fact can be extricated, on which they all agree.
As to the time, the place, and the witnesses of the ascension, they are entirely at variance.
Jesus had, in His lifetime, fixed Galilee as the place of meeting His apostles after His rising from the dead (Matt. XXVI:32; Mark XIV:28). So the angel, or the "young man," at the tomb tells the women that Jesus has gone into Galilee, where His disciples should see Him, "as He said unto you" (Matt. XXVIII:7; Mark XVI:7).
Now, Matthew's account is the only one of the five originals which says anything about Jesus appearing to His disciples in Galilee. And, according to Matthew, this was the only time and place that He did appear to any one, except the two Marys (Matt. XXVIII:9, 10), and their statements were not believed by the apostles (Mark XVI:11; Luke XXIV:11).