And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And seeth two angels. There need be no difficulty in reconciling this with the accounts of the angelic appearances at the sepulchre in the other Gospels; since there can be no reasonable doubt, as Olshausen suggests, that angels can render themselves visible or invisible as the case may require, and so they may have been seen at one time and soon after unseen-seen also by one party and not by another, one seen by one set of visitants and two by another. 'What wonder,' asks Alford pertinently, 'if the heavenly hosts were variously and often visible on this great day, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy"?'
In white - as from the world of light (see the note at Matthew 28:3),
Sitting - as if their proper business had already been finished, but they had been left there to await the arrival of their Lord's friends, and reassure them --
The one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Why this special posture? To proclaim silently, as Luthardt, Alford etc., think, how entirely the body of the Lord Jesus was under the guardianship of the Father and his servants. But to us this is not a quite satisfactory explanation of the posture. What if it was designed to call mute attention to the narrow space within which the Lord of glory had contracted Himself?-as if they should say, Come, see within what limits, marked off by the space here between us two, THE LORD lay! But she is in tears, and these suit not the scene of so glorious an Exit. They are going to point out to her the incongruity.