Psychoboy ~
Your #1 and #2 statements seem to be fuzzified re-statements of #6 and #7. There's some room for misunderstanding in the statement, "Jesus meets Mary Magdalene, and then Jesus meets a whole bunch of other people all at about approximately the same time." Was there something unclear about what I already said:
"(6) Mary Magdalene lingers behind, and enters the tomb. She encounters the two angels there, and then encounters the risen Jesus.
(7) Mary Magdalene runs and re-joins the main group of women. As they are on their way to the disciples, Jesus meets them all (and it is this encounter that is described in Matthew 28:8-10)." ?
That arrangement shows harmony among the accounts. It doesn't concretely answer every imaginable historical question. For example: did the other Mary see angels at the tomb the first time she and Mary Magdalene visited the tomb? (Luke 24:23 supports the idea that she did; on the other hand, the texts nowhere say that all the women remained together on the journey from the tomb to the disciples, and at least one could have reported about the empty tomb and the angels to Cleopas at a time before Jesus appeared to them when they were en route to the (rest of the) disciples. So the question seems open.) But to answer your question again:
Mary Magdalene was the first human being to see Jesus after He arose from the dead. She saw Him at the tomb. Then she went and joined the other women who had gone down the road by that time. She caught up with them. Then Jesus appeared to the group of women that Mary Magdalene had just rejoined.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
Your #1 and #2 statements seem to be fuzzified re-statements of #6 and #7. There's some room for misunderstanding in the statement, "Jesus meets Mary Magdalene, and then Jesus meets a whole bunch of other people all at about approximately the same time." Was there something unclear about what I already said:
"(6) Mary Magdalene lingers behind, and enters the tomb. She encounters the two angels there, and then encounters the risen Jesus.
(7) Mary Magdalene runs and re-joins the main group of women. As they are on their way to the disciples, Jesus meets them all (and it is this encounter that is described in Matthew 28:8-10)." ?
That arrangement shows harmony among the accounts. It doesn't concretely answer every imaginable historical question. For example: did the other Mary see angels at the tomb the first time she and Mary Magdalene visited the tomb? (Luke 24:23 supports the idea that she did; on the other hand, the texts nowhere say that all the women remained together on the journey from the tomb to the disciples, and at least one could have reported about the empty tomb and the angels to Cleopas at a time before Jesus appeared to them when they were en route to the (rest of the) disciples. So the question seems open.) But to answer your question again:
Mary Magdalene was the first human being to see Jesus after He arose from the dead. She saw Him at the tomb. Then she went and joined the other women who had gone down the road by that time. She caught up with them. Then Jesus appeared to the group of women that Mary Magdalene had just rejoined.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
