And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
All the Gospels refer to the period when the heavens were just beginning to brighten in the east. This, of course, does not take place until the sunrise is at hand. For it is the brightness which is diffused by the rising sun that is familiarly designated by the name of the dawn. Mark does not contradict the other Evangelist who uses the phrase, “When it was yet dark.” For as the day breaks, what remains of the darkness passes away just in proportion as the sun continues to rise. .
As to its being said in the gospel reading that holy women came to see the sepulcher “on the evening which was growing on toward the dawn of Sunday,” we should understand this thus: they started to come during the evening, but reached the sepulcher as the morning of Sunday was dawning; that is, they prepared the spices with which they wanted to anoint our Lord’s body on [Saturday] evening, but brought the spices that they had prepared in the evening to the sepulcher in the morning. Matthew, for the sake of brevity, wrote this more obscurely; but the other evangelists show more distinctly the order in which it was done. After our Lord had been buried on Friday, the women went away from the tomb and prepared spices and ointments for as long as it was permitted them to work. They then refrained from activity on the sabbath, in accord with they commandment, as Luke clearly reports. When the sabbath was over, as evening was coming on, the time for working had returned. Being resolute in the...
Upon this most sacred early morning hour is bestowed great dignity from the glory of the Lord’s victory over death. For it was in the earliest inception of that day that the women became attentive in doing their service to their Lord. Speaking mystically, the night was already beginning to grow toward an emerging dawn. He who is the author and superintendent of time rose from the dead during the final part of the night. The whole of the emerging day is thus made a festival, brightened by the light of his resurrection.
St. Mark says very early, the sun being now risen, whereas St. John tells us that it was yet dark. But when St. Mark says the sun was risen, he means that it began, by its approach to the horizon, to enlighten the heavens, at which time there is still darkness remaining, (according to St. John) which decreases as light approaches the earth. (St. Augustine)
