At the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.
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Severus of Antioch
AD 538
The sacred authors of the Gospels did not say whether the Savior was raised “after the sabbath,” or when most of the night had passed, or at the dawn or when the sun had already begun to shine. Indeed, it would be contradictory for the authors to say that the same event transpired at different times. However, they did write that some of the women arrived at the tomb at one time and some of the women at another time, but not all at the same time—how could that be possible, since they came separately?—and that each of the women heard the angels say similar things regarding the Savior: “He is risen, he is not here,” without adding when his resurrection occurred. It follows that if the resurrection had taken place on that divine night, as all of the Evangelists aver and agree, no one has specified the hour. [That hour] is unknown to the entire world except for the God who was raised and for the Father—who alone knows the Son as he is known by the Son—and except for the Spirit, who “searches everything, even the depths of God.” … As for the expression “after the sabbath,” it does not refer to the evening which follows the setting of the sun at the end of the sabbath, for Matthew did not use the singular opse sabbatou but the plural opse sabbat&#;n. The Jews were accustomed to call the entire week sabbata. Thus the Evangelists call the first day opse sabbat&#;n when they mean the first day of the week. We also use a colloquial expression when we call the second and third days of the week the second and third of the sabbata. Matthew then did not say opse sabbatou, that is, the evening of the sabbath, because he did not intend to denote the evening of that very day. Rather, he used opse sabbat&#;n so as to indicate that it was very late and well after the end of the week. Similarly, I think, we are in the habit of saying “you came opse tou kairou [well after the time], opse t&#;s h&#;ras [well after the hour], opse t&#;s chreias [well after the need]” not in order to indicate the evening or the time after the setting of the sun but in order to suggest that the person arrived too late for the event. In a similar fashion, opse sabbat&#;n means that the women arrived very late and well after the end of the week. Now each week ends at the setting of the sun after the sabbath. Cathedral Sermons, Homily
