hat it is not opposed to what Matthew
says of our SAVIOUR's having risen 'in the end of the Sabbath.' For Mark's
expression, ('Now when He was risen early the first day of the week,') we
shall read with a pause, putting a comma after 'Now when He was
risen,'--the sense of the words which follow being kept separate. Thereby,
we shall refer [Mark's] 'when He was risen' to Matthew's 'in the end of
the Sabbath,' (for it was _then_ that He _rose_); and all that comes
after, expressive as it is of a distinct notion, we shall connect with
what follows; (for it was '_early_, the first day of the week,' that 'He
_appeared to Mary Magdalene_.') This is in fact what John also declares;
for he too has recorded that 'early,' 'the first day of the week,' [JESUS]
appeared to the Magdalene. Thus then Mark also says that He appeared to
her early: not that He _rose_ early, but long before, (according to that
of Matthew, 'in the end of the Sabbath:' for though He _rose_ then, He did
not _appear to Mary_ then, but 'early.') In a word, two distinct seasons
are set before us by these words: first, the season of the
Resurrection,--which was 'in the end of the Sabbath;' secondly, the season
of our SAVIOUR's Appearing,--which was 'early.' The former,(86) Mark writes
of when he says, (it requires to be read with a pause,)--'Now, when He was
risen,' Then, after a comma, what follows is to be spoken,--'Early, the
first day of the week, He appeared to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had
cast seven devils.' "(87)--Such is the entire passage. Little did the
learned writer anticipate what bitter fruit his words were destined to
bear!
1. Let it be freely admitted that what precedes is calculated at first
sight to occasion nothing but surprise and perplexity. For, in the first
place, there really is _no problem to solve_. The discrepancy suggested by
"Marinus" at the outset, is plainly imaginary, the result (chiefly) of a
strange misconception of the meaning of the Evangelist's Greek,--as in fact
no one was ever better aware than Eusebius himself. "These places of the
Gospels would never have occasioned any difficulty," he writes in the very
next page, (but it is the commencement of his reply to the _second_
question of Marinus,)--"if people would but abstain from assuming that
Matthew's phrase ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
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