And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
And when the sabbath was past - that is, at sunset of our Saturday,
Mary Magdalene [see the note at Luke 8:2 ], and Mary the Mother of James [James the Less (see the note at Mark 15:40 )], and Salome - the mother of Zebedee's sons (compare Mark 15:40 with Matthew 27:56),
Had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. The word is simply 'bought' х eegorasan (G59)]. But our translators are perhaps right in rendering it here 'had bought,' since it would appear, from Luke 23:56, that they had purchased them immediately after the crucifixion, on the Friday evening, during the short interval that remained to them before sunset, when the Sabbath rest began; and that they had only deferred using them to anoint the body until the Sabbath rest should be over. On this "anointing," see the note at John 19:40.