How should the different Gospel accounts of the resurrection be harmonised? A possible order of events is suggested below. In Luke the women going to the tomb are listed as Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women. Matthew mentions only two of these (Matthew 28:1), and John who focuses on Mary Magdalene, and names only her. Mark names Salome also. They came to the sepulchre together, and found the stone rolled away. Mary Magdalene reacted more quickly than the others and leaves before the angels appear, running to tell the disciples that the body was gone (John 20:2). She does not mention seeing the angels. While she is reporting this, the other women, who are still at the tomb, see two angels (Luke 24:4), and believe their message that Christ is risen. They then leave the tomb with fear and great joy (Matthew 28:8) to go and tell the disciples. Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene’s report results in Peter and John running to the sepulchre (John 20:3; Luke 23:12) with Mary following more slowly behind them (John 20:11). Luke does not distinguish between the separate arrivals of Mary and the other women, and so combines the two reports (Luke 23:12). By the time Peter and John arrive at the tomb, the other women have left and are on their way to the eleven, where Peter and John will rejoin them presently (John 20:10). Peter and John enter the sepulchre and John believes in the resurrection (John 20:8), but they see no angels and depart back to their home [the Greek simply says ‘to their own’], to where the other disciples are. Mary Magdalene is now on her own at the tomb, and goes in where an angel appears and asks he why she is weeping. She says again that they have taken away her Lord and she does no know where they have laid him. This weeping is further evidence that she had left the tomb before the other women, and before they saw the two angels who convinced them that Jesus was risen. Her weeping is too markedly at odds with the great joy experienced by the other women as they leave the sepulchre (Matthew 28:8) for them to have left together. Turning around, Mary sees Jesus who asks her the same question, and she pleads to know if he has taken the body, not realising who he is (John 20:14-15). The Lord reveals himself to her in the first resurrection appearance (Mark 16:9), which means that his appearance to the other women in Matthew 28:9 had not yet taken place. [It is possible that what Mark calls the first appearance was the first that he includes in his Gospel. He does not mention the appearance to the other women at all, but goes next to the appearance to the two on the road to Emmaus.] The Lord sends her to inform the other disciples that he is alive. The other women are still on their way to the disciples when the Lord appears to them also (Matthew 28:9), and they hold his feet and worship him. This happened according to the Received Text as they were on their way to tell the disciples. The modern text simply reports the appearance, but does not say it happened as they were on their way to the disciples. Nevertheless, it uses a word – Jesus ‘met’ them – which indicates it was before they reached the eleven. The women reach the eleven disciples and tell them about the vision of angels and their message (Luke 24:9) – Peter and John are either already there, or arrive back from the tomb at some point while the women are delivering their message (John 20:10) – they would surely have wanted to speak to the others after what they had seen and would have gone to where they were gathered. Mary Magdalene then comes to the disciples for the second time, and now reports that she has seen the risen Lord, but they do not believe her (Mark 16:10-11). The Lord has not yet appeared to any of the disciples. The two on the road to Emmaus later relate that what the women reported was that they had seen a vision of angels which said that he was alive, but this is treated with astonishment (Luke 24:22-23). They do not mention the fact that the women also claimed to have seen the Lord (both Mary Magdalene and the other women). That may be because, since they themselves did not believe the account of the appearance of angels to the women and their saying that Jesus was risen, they were unlikely to go further and add that the women claimed to have seen the risen Lord themselves. It is hardly likely that this can be explained by the fact that the two travellers had left Jerusalem before this second piece of news was conveyed by the women. The two disciples surely knew about the report of Christ’s appearance to the women, but chose not to mention it to this stranger. When he revealed himself to them and then vanished, they returned to Jerusalem and told the eleven that Christ was risen indeed (Luke 24:34). [It is also possible that the eleven were not all present and that the term is used in a technical sense to describe the group – we know, as Hendriksen points out, that Thomas was not there (John 20:24). The same is possible in Luke 24:9.] The two also say that the Lord has appeared to Simon (Luke 24:34), which Paul confirms in 1 Corinthians 15:5. This is something that is not mentioned in the encounter of the two with the Lord on the road, but which was evidently made known to them.