ey are, indicate how completely certainty
regarding the fact of the resurrection removed from the thought of the
apostolic day nice carefulness concerning the testimony to individual
manifestations of the risen Lord. Doubtless the first preaching rested, as
in the case of Paul, on a simple "I have seen the Lord." When later the
detailed testimony was wanted for written gospels, it had suffered the lot
common to orally transmitted records, and divergences had sprung up which
it is no longer possible for us to resolve. They do not, however,
challenge the fact which lies behind all the varied testimony.

215. A general view of the events of that third day and those which
followed can be constructed from our gospels and Paul. Early on the first
day of the week certain women, including Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother
of James and Joses, Salome, Joanna, and others, came to anoint the body of
Jesus. On their arrival they found that the stone had been rolled back
from the tomb. Mary Magdalene saw that the grave was empty and ran to tell
Peter and John. The others saw also a vision of angels which said that
Jesus was alive and would see his disciples in Galilee, and ran to report
this to the disciples. Meanwhile Mary Magdalene returned, following Peter
and John who ran to see the tomb, and found it empty as she had said. She
lingered after they left, and Jesus appeared to her, she mistaking him at
first for the gardener. She then went to tell the disciples that she had
seen the Lord. These events evidently occurred in the early morning. The
next incident reported is that of the walk of two disciples, not of the
twelve, to Emmaus, and the appearance of Jesus to them. At first they did
not recognize him, not even when he taught them out of the scriptures the
necessity that the Messiah should die. He was made known when at evening
he sat down with them to a familiar meal. Either before or after this
event he had shown himself to Peter. This is the first manifestation
reported by Paul. If Luke xxiv. 12 is genuine (see R.V. margin), he also
tells that when the two again reached Jerusalem the apostles received them
with the news that Peter had seen the Lord. That same evening Jesus
appeared suddenly among the disciples in their well-guarded upper room.
His coming was such that he had to convince the disciples that he was not
simply a disembodied spirit. Luke says that he did this by bidding them
handle him, and by eating part of a fish