Steven Carr

Matthew 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

Jesus then meets the disciples in Galilee.

Should we assume that the brothers of the Lord were the disciples?

Toto

"Brothers" often seems to refer to believers in general. Are you asking if the disciples were Jesus' biological brothers? I think this is along the lines of Tabor's theory in the Jesus Dynasty.

Or are you asking if "Brother of the Lord" = James should just be viewed as a disciple?

Toto

On the other hand, compare Matt 28:7, where the angel specifically tells the women to tell his disciples. The disciples come and worship Jesus' feet, and Jesus tells the disciples to tell his "brethren" to meet him in Galilee. But only the 11 disciples are recorded as showing up on the mountain in Galilee. Is this an editorial lapse?

John Kesler

I think that in the verse you mention, the disciples are the intended "brothers," though this does not preclude the use of "brothers" to refer to siblings (Matthew 13:55). See Matthew 12:49-50 and 23:8 for additional references to the disciples as brothers.

John Kesler

Your analysis seems to hinge on identifying the "them" of verse 9 as the disciples. It seems to me that "them" refers more naturally to the women, whom Jesus met as they ran to the disciples.

Toto

It just gets more confusing. You think that the Angel told the women to go tell the disciples, then Jesus intervened and appears to the women, who then go on (although it is not mentioned) and tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee. But then what do you do with v. 16, which refers to the place where Jesus told the disciples to meet him?

And who are the guys who doubted?

Ben C Smith

John is correct. The pronoun them in Matthew 28.9 is feminine in the Greek. It is certainly the women who worship Jesus in this verse, and whom Jesus tells to inform his brethren. All the parallels (Matthew 28.7, 10, 16) line up here; the brethren must in this case be the (eleven) disciples, similarly to Matthew 12.49-50; 23.8; 25.40 (?).

Ben.

Ben C Smith

Correct. Matthew probably has this part because that is what he got from Mark.

I think Matthew has this appearance to the women because of a tradition that it was a woman who saw Jesus first. This same tradition was expressed in John as Mary Magdalene and the gardener and in the longer ending of Mark as Mary M. from whom seven demons were cast out. Note that, in Matthew, Mary M. is one of the women.

A clumsy Matthean afterthought. Meet me in Galilee is too broad; Jesus must have said (thought Matthew) meet me at such-and-such a spot. This is not the only spot where Matthew has arranged things rather clumsily. Jesus ordered them to go to that mountain indirectly, through the women and maybe also the angel.

Ben.

John Kesler

Matthew seems to follow Mark's account that women followers were told by a young man/angel to instruct the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee. It appears that perhaps Matthew also knew of a tradition in which women met the risen Jesus, so Matthew's Jesus says basically the same thing that the angel did. That the disciples' first encounter with the risen Jesus is narrated in v:17 makes more sense of the statement that "some doubted" (and my understanding is that "some" is missing in the Greek text), since it would be unlikely that they would doubt if they had already seen and worshiped Jesus.

gstafleu

The Greek for "Jesus met them" is ο ιησους απηντησεν αυταις which seems to me to be a feminine plural, hence he met the women. "My brothers" of the OP is τοις αδελφοις μου, male, indicating at least one non-woman. Given that hoi adelphoi is frequently used as just "the believers," "the fellow travellers" I don't think you can draw and siblingesque conclusions here.

Toto, why do you think just the eleven disciples showing up could be an editorial lapse? It matches the text in Mark: "[angel addressing the women] But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'" So it is just the disciples who are supposed to go Galilee-wards. In the Matthew version the women just don't chicken out. Hm, that would mean that Matthew shouldn't have the bit about the rising agent of Herod and the Pharisees, is that the case?

Gerard Stafleu