Quotes & Notes on:     Matthew 28:8   

• John Wesley's Notes:
    (No comment on this verse).
   

• Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:

  * with. Ezr 3:12,13; Ps 2:11; Mr 16:8; Lu 24:36-41; Joh 16:20; 20:20,21
   

• Adam Clarke's Commentary:

   They departed quickly from the sepulchre] At the desire of the angel they went into the tomb, to have the fullest certainty of the resurrection.
  
  Fear and great joy] Fear, produced by the appearance of this glorious messenger of God; and great joy occasioned by the glad tidings of the resurrection of their Lord and Master. At the mention of unexpected good news, fear and joy are generally intermingled.
  
  ----Vix sum apud me, ita animus commotus est metu,
  Spe, gaudio, mirando hoc tanto, tam repentino bono.
  TERANT. Andr. v. 945.
  
  "I am almost beside myself, my mind is so agitated with fear, hope, and joy, at this unexpected good news."
   

• Family Bible Notes:

     (No comment on this verse).
   

• 1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
   (No comment on this verse).
   

• People's New Testament Commentary:

       (No comment on this verse).
   

• Robertson's Word Pictures:
  With fear and great joy (meta phobou kai charas megalês). A touch of life was this as the excited women ran quickly (tachu edramon) as they had been told "to bring his disciples word" (apaggeilai tois mathêtais autou). They had the greatest piece of news that it was possible to have. Mark calls it fear and ecstasy. Anything seemed possible now. Mark even says that at first they told no one anything for they were afraid (Mr 16:9), the tragic close of the text of Mark in Aleph and B, our two oldest manuscripts. But these mingled emotions of ecstasy and dread need cause no surprise when all things are considered..
   

• Albert Barnes' Commentary:

   And they departed quickly. Joyful at the news, and wishing to impart it to all, they fled to find the disciples, and tell them that the Lord was risen.
  
  With fear and great joy. Fear
  
  (1) at the wonderful scenes which they had witnessed--the stone rolled away, and the presence of an angel;
  
  (2) a confused state of mind, apprehensive, perhaps, that it might not after all be true. The news was too good to be credited at once. Yet they had sufficient belief in it to fill them with great and unexpected joy. Perhaps no language could better express the state of their minds--the mingled awe and rejoicing--than that which is here used.
  
  And did run, etc. They ran to announce what they had seen to the disciples. The city, where the disciples were, was half a mile or more from the place.
   

• Jamieson-Faussett Brown:

   And they departed quickly--Mark (Mr 16:8) says "they fled."
  
  from the sepulchre with fear and great joy--How natural this combination of feelings! See on a similar statement of Mr 16:11.
  
  and did run to bring his disciples word--"Neither said they anything to any man [by the way]; for they were afraid" (Mr 16:8).
   

• Spurgeon Commentary on Matthew:

   That seems a strange mixture, fear and great joy, awe and delight, doubt and faith; yet the joy was greater than the fear. It was not joy and great fear, but “fear and great joy.” Have we never had that mixture — drops of grief, like April showers, and peace and joy, like sunlight from heaven, making a glorious rainbow reminding us of God’s covenant of peace? A holy fear, mingled with great joy, is one of the sweetest compounds we can bring to God’s altar; such were the spices these holy women took
  away from Christ’s sepulchre. Fear and joy would both make them run to bring his disciples word. Either of these emotions gives speed to the feet; but when “fear and great joy” are combined, running is the only pace that records with the messengers’ feelings.
   

• William Burkitt's Notes:

  Observe here, What haste and speed these holy women make to carry the news of Christ's resurrection to the apostles; such as find and feel their hearts grieved for the absence and want of Christ, will be very ready to comfort such as are in the same condition. O how glad are these holy women to carry the good news of their Lord's resurrection to the heart-broken disciples!
  
  Observe, 2. How these holy women hastened, in obedience to the angel's command, to tell the disciples to meet with Christ in the way. Such as obey the directions of God's ministers, seeking Christ in his own way and means, shall find him to their comfort sooner than they expected. These holy women find Christ before they looked for him: as they went to tell his disciples, Jesus met them. O happy women, while they were weeping for a dead Christ, they find a living Jesus.
  
  Observe, 3. The affectionate and loving title which Christ puts upon his disciples: Tell my brethren. He might have said, "Go tell those apostate apostles, that cowardly left me in my danger, that durst not own me in the high priest's hall, that durst not come within the shadow of my cross, nor within the sight of my sepulchre." Not a word of this, by way of upbraiding them for their late shameful cowardice, but all words of kindness: Go tell my brethren.
  
  Where note, That Christ calls his disciples brethren after his resurrection and exaltation, as he had done before in his state of humiliation, to show the continuance of his former affection to them, and that the change of his condition had wrought no change in his affection to his despised members: but those that were his brethren before, in the time of his abasement, are so still after his exaltation and advancement.
  
  Observe lastly, The place where Christ chooses to meet with and speak to his disciples, not in Jerusalem, but in Galilee; I go before them into Galilee, there they shall see me. Jerusalem was now a forsaken place, a people abandoned to destruction; Christ would not show himself openly to them, but Galilee was a place where Christ's ministry was more acceptable. Such places wherein Christ is most welcome to preach, shall be most honoured with his presence. In Galilee they shall see me.
   

• Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:

   (No comment on this verse).
   

• The Fourfold Gospel:

   And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. Fear, because of the heavenly messengers; joy, because of their message.