Matthew 26:32
Matthew 28:7
7. And go quickly, and tell his disciples—For a precious addition to this, see on Mr 16:7.
that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee—to which those women belonged (Mt 27:55). there shall ye see him—This must refer to those more public manifestations of Himself to large numbers of disciples at once, which He vouchsafed only in Galilee; for individually He was seen of some of those very women almost immediately after this (Mt 28:9, 10). Lo, I have told you—Behold, ye have this word from the world of light!Matthew 28:10
10. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid—What dear associations would these familiar words—now uttered in a higher style, but by the same Lips—bring rushing back to their recollection!
go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me—The brethren here meant must have been His brethren after the flesh (compare Mt 13:55); for His brethren in the higher sense (see on Joh 20:17) had several meetings with Him at Jerusalem before He went to Galilee, which they would have missed if they had been the persons ordered to Galilee to meet Him.The Guards Bribed (Mt 28:11-15).
The whole of this important portion is peculiar to Matthew.
Matthew 28:16
16. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee—but certainly not before the second week after the resurrection, and probably somewhat later.
into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them—It should have been rendered "the mountain," meaning some certain mountain which He had named to them—probably the night before He suffered, when He said, "After I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee" (Mt 26:32; Mr 14:28). What it was can only be conjectured; but of the two between which opinions are divided—the Mount of the Beatitudes or Mount Tabor—the former is much the more probable, from its nearness to the Sea of Tiberias, where last before this the Narrative tells us that He met and dined with seven of them. (Joh 21:1, &c.). That the interview here recorded was the same as that referred to in one place only— 1Co 15:6 —when "He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remained unto that day, though some were fallen asleep," is now the opinion of the ablest students of the evangelical history. Nothing can account for such a number as five hundred assembling at one spot but the expectation of some promised manifestation of their risen Lord: and the promise before His resurrection, twice repeated after it, best explains this immense gathering.
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