‘But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.'
‘On the first day of the week.' This is literally ‘on the first of the sabbaths'. It is a phrase that regularly indicates what we see as the first day of the week. But the word ‘sabbaths' was used to indicate the seven days in a seven day period ending on a sabbath. Thus the ‘first of the sabbaths' was Sunday (commencing at sunset on Saturday).
‘At early dawn.' Literally ‘at deep dawn'. Mark indicates that this is just after the sun has come up. It is indeed unlikely that at such a perilous time for the followers of Jesus, when danger would be seen as lurking everywhere, the women would venture abroad in the dark.
‘They came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.' we must remember here that Luke is intending to give the gist of what happened without going into too much detail. We discover elsewhere that Mary Magdalene (John 20:1) and the other Mary (Matthew 28:1) went ahead in order to try to work out a way of removing the stone blocking the entrance and getting into the tomb. It would seem that at what they found the other Mary went back to warn the women, while Mary Magdalene sped off to tell the leading Apostles. But Luke is more interested in what happened to the whole body of women.