Thank you for the exegetical question on Luke 24:1, “How would you explain Luke 24:1 in your own words?”
Luke 24:1 says this, “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb” (NIV).
Here are some thoughts of how I would explain Luke 24:1:
A. The first day of the week is Yom Rishon which is called Sunday to our days of the week. The last day of the week is the Sabbath according to the Jewish days of the week.
On the Sabbath, the Jews were prohibited from doing any work on the 7th Day (Exodus 20). It was a day of rest for the whole nation.
B. The rising of the sun begins the day for the Jewish people while the setting of the sun would indicate the end of the day.
The phrase, very early, means that the sun has begun to rise. The evening hours were gone, and the new day was dawning. This activity didn’t happen at noon or at the setting of the sun. It was at sunrise.
The text in verse 1 doesn’t explain the reason why the activity began that morning, but it is revealed in the later verses.
C. The subject, women, is plural. This means more than one woman was awake at the beginning of the day.
The text doesn’t state whether the other women came to a house early in the morning or whether they were already gathered before the Sabbath began. It is also important that there is no mentioning of the men being awake at the dawn of Yom Rishon. We don’t know if they were sleeping in or helped the women get ready the things that they wanted to do. The implication is that the men were not active participate. It was only the women who were preparing the activity of the day.
D. The activity by the women is taking the spices that they had prepared before the Sabbath began.
The phrase, had prepared, reflects an action that was completed in the past. They were not doing it that morning, but before the Sabbath began. The text doesn’t state how they prepared it or the amount that they prepared.
The object of the preparation was the spices. The word, spices, is plural which means a combination of spices were mixed into a jar. The text at this point doesn’t state the purpose of the spices whether it was going to be sold, donated, or given to someone. The spices were prepared by the women.
E. The purpose for the spices is indicated by their direction. The women were going to the tomb.
The tomb is a specific one. It wasn’t just to any tomb, but one in which they were aware a person was entombed. The indication is that the person is dead since one doesn’t go to a tomb if the person is alive unless they were there to meet someone that morning.
The previous context reflects that the women were aware of the place the body of Jesus was entombed after his death. They had seen how Joseph and Nicodemus prepared the body of Jesus. The women’s purpose appears to that they want to re-anoint the body of Jesus.
It doesn’t appear that the women thought this process out clearly since they didn’t think of how they were going to roll the stone away from the mouth of the cave. It is likely that the men in the house knew what the women were going to do since they would have heard them talking about it. Perhaps for the men, they were willing to help the women after breakfast. The women may have thought that they would be back in time to make breakfast for them.
F. The verb, went, reflects that it was an action in the past. They were going there, not that they had arrived at the tomb.
The action, went, would indicate that they were walking toward the tomb. The distance from the home to the tomb is unknown to the reader. The fact that the women got up early at dawn may indicate that the distance was not a short one otherwise it would not be necessary for them to go that early.
The women went carrying the spices to the tomb of Jesus. It is likely that the spices were divided between the women to carry or that they rotated in carrying the spices.
One may also conjecture that the women loved Jesus otherwise they wouldn’t have prepared the spices and walked to the tomb. No one would know how Joseph or Nicodemus anointed and wrapped the body of Jesus. To the women, it was not done properly. They wanted to clean, anoint, and wrap the body of Jesus for an appropriate burial.
SUMMARY: The women loved Jesus and wanted to show their love for him by cleaning, anointing, and re-wrapping the body of Jesus.
-Kingston