Uphill arrivals to visits, and downhill returns…
…In John 20:1,2, Mary “comes”, to the grave – walking, uphill?
…In John 20:11f, where “Mary Magdalene had had stood after without at the sepulchre … she stooped down and looked down into the sepulchre.”
…Of only Peter and John has it been recorded that they ran to the grave John 20:3-10. “And they believed…” it was FIRST WORD THEY RECEIVED Jesus had been buried! Returning to their homes, they just walked back, obviously exhausted from their uphill run towards the sepulchre.
…In Luke also with the women’s first visit, we see two angels confronting the women, standing higher up in front of the women as they came out of the grave in a bent over forward position.
…In Mark, the women, ascertaining evidence about the things the two angels at their after midnight hours visit (Luke 24) had told them to go and think about, “looked the stone up, re-inspecting” [‘anablepsasai’] it, and could clearly deduce it had despite its huge size, been “cast upwards” [‘anakekulistai’]. That’s why the women were puzzled, and thought by themselves, “Who would have rolled the stone away for us?!” Just to think what immense power was needed for such a feat, “astonished” and “frightened” them, “measurelessly” [‘eksethambehthehsan’].
…In Mark, the women on “entering in …” [‘eielthousai…’], went “… down into [‘…eis’] the tomb”.
…In Luke the women “came upon the tomb … and going in, found not the body”.
…In John 20:11f, where “Mary Magdalene had had stood after without at the sepulchre … she stooped down and looked down into the sepulchre.”
…In Matthew, the women do not even enter the tomb; the angel stood outside, and “answering, explained… [‘apokritheis … eipen’] …to the women the additional and new information about events “of the Sabbath Day” [‘sabbatohn’] before, verses 1 to 4.
Departure downhill:
… In John 20:1,2, Mary “runs” back – as if downhill.
…In Mark they “fled”, away from the tomb, but with real fear of disbelief. They ran from the sepulchre without effort, so, downhill.
…In John, “Mary comes, announcing … I have seen the Lord…” doesn’t sound like she’s taking her time or was too tired to speak. No, she must have hurried, and hurriedly, she tells the news.
…In Matthew the women ran away from the tomb with joy and enthusiasm to share the news. The angel’s NEW information about the resurrection “In the Sabbath Day”, caused them suddenly to understand and believe everything!
The angel was STILL “explaining to the women…”, when, IN THE MIDDLE of his words to them, “… the keepers became as dead men, but don’t you, be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified…” he had to CALL after them, “…Come, you must see [‘deute idete’] the place where He lay! But they already GOING, with anxious zeal and great joy, were gone from the sepulchre… [‘tachu poreutheisai’] ...and RAN to bring the disciples word!”
Mark’s two stories, fused
It would certainly be true, “… the women would never (have) said what Mark reported them saying in Mark 16:3-4”, “IF”, as you Dr Walter, “demand”, “Mark 16:1-2 … preceded … Matthew 28:1-2” in time, Mark’s reference in 16:3,4 clearly being a rhetorical question of comparison / estimation, “They asked themselves, WHO, would have rolled the stone away for us, it being so impossibly LARGE to move!?” For only “IF” Mark 16:2-8>3-4 “preceded” Matthew 28:1-4 in time, would the women not have known the grave had been opened already. But since Matthew 28:1-4 tells of the actual events that accompanied the Resurrection and the women already had been informed about the opened tomb by Mary Magdalene, “Mark 16:3-4” in time HAD to have FOLLOWED on Matthew 28:1-2<1-4 in time and timing and time-description.
Two of the several more undisputable reasons that it was not “all the women” who together only once went to the grave, are contained,
First, John recorded that Mary “comes to Peter and the other disciple”, John. Only Mary is subject of action in verses 1,2;
Next, Only the two disciples, on the news Mary had brought them, had afterwards gone to the tomb. John recorded that the two men immediately went to the tomb. The fact no women went with them, implies there were no other women who could go with.
While all this which John recorded – Mary’s discovery of the OPENED tomb – happened during that night “on the First Day of the week” (Saturday night), inevitably and consequently was the single only event that happened BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, and triggered all subsequent actions and events of that night, until eventually next morning Jesus had “appeared, first to Mary Magdalene”, and to ‘all the women’ other than Mary, after her, “early on the First Day of the week” John 20:11-17 Mark 16:9 Matthew 28:8-10 in that order of events, logic and chronology.
It is indisputable.