Then said Jesus unto them, Fear not : go tell my
brethren to depart into Galilee, and there shall they see
me!' Note that the words here assigned to Jesus are
in Mark assigned to the young man in white. But —
the Jewish unbeliever may be supposed to have
objected, when he was told about the guard of Roman
soldiers and the sealed tomb — why, if they witnessed
the earthquake and other wonderful circumstances of
the resurrection, is their testimony not invoked by
the Christians ? Why do the latter rely exclusively
on a handful of scared and ecstatic women? The
soldiers were there to see that the disciples did not
come and steal the body ; nevertheless, this calumny
about the stealing "was spread abroad among the Jews
until this day " — that is, until the time when this last
chapter of Matthew was penned. If so, why was the
evidence of the soldiers themselves never appealed to
by the faithful in refutation of the calumny? If
the Christians had their independent testimony to
the resurrection, why not use it ? Here is another
objection which the incredulous Jews may have raised.
