An overview of the women at the tomb

This is an attempt to analyze the four narratives in the four gospels of women visiting the tomb on the day after the Sabbath. It is necessary, however, to also discuss events that happen both before and after these narratives, as some narratives include details that are potentially in opposition with details included elsewhere in the other gospels. We will discuss

the women present at the execution of Jesus,
the burial of Jesus and those women witnessing this event,
the sealing of the tomb and guards the day after Jesus’s burial in Matthew,
the women visit the tomb,
moving the stone,
fetching Peter and another disciple in John,
the women talking to one or two angels or men,
messages told to the women by the individuals met,
the women talking to Jesus in Matthew and John,
the women telling others the message and what happened,
Jesus in Luke telling the disciples to remain at Jerusalem, and
we end with a comparison of the changes: did Matthew and Luke ever make the same change to the narrative found in Mark?

This is followed by a summary of the events in parallel with the various differences and contradictions highlighted, which is then followed by analogous stories told about events happening today, allowing the reader to see the contradictions more clearly outside the scriptural narratives. We the look at what I considered the best example of apologetics on these matters that I could find, where each issue discussed by the apologist is more carefully analyzed, and in some cases accepted, and in others refuted. This is my favorite section, so read this if nothing else.

My second favorite section is one were I make an honest attempt to harmonize the four accounts. It is quite the work of art, actually.

This is followed by a summary of the four narratives, a brief comparison of the synoptic narratives while contrasting these with the narrative in John, followed by a brief discussion of what would be necessary to harmonize all four narratives, and then a discussion of why the purpose of this article is.

The last piece is a humorous reflection on so many of the apologies offered for these wildly different stories.

1. Women present at the execution

Each of the gospels describes the women who were at the execution or burial of Jesus, and the relevant verses are presented here:

Matthew

Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Mark

There were also women looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome, who followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him, and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.

Luke

A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

John

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Three of the four gospels mention Mary Magdalene as being present with Luke being the exception. In Luke, it only refers to women beating their breasts and wailing for him. This may have been an attempt to emphasize that there were more present at the execution than just Galilean followers of Jesus. In addition to Mary Magdalene, the additional women listed in the remaining three gospels other than Luke are:

Matthew

Mary the mother of James and Joseph
The mother of the James and John (the sons of Zebedee)

Mark

Mary the mother of James and Joses
Salome

John

Mary the mother of Jesus
Mary’s sister
Mary the wife of Clopas

No gospel restricts the number of women present at the execution, so the only peculiar point is that only John explicitly mentions that Jesus’s mother and her sister were present. The sister of Mary (Jesus's aunt) is not mentioned anywhere else in the gospels, but we will look into whether it is reasonable that the Mary named in Matthew and Mark also refers to Jesus’s mother. We will compare and contrast the names of the sons of this Mary with those listed as being brothers of Jesus elsewhere in the gospels. Given that John never explicitly names Mary, it is not surprising that that author simply refers to here as “his mother, ” but in Matthew, two other sons of Mary are James and Joseph, while in Mark, two listed brothers are James and Joses. Going back to an earlier reference to Jesus's brothers:

Matthew 13:55

Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

Matthew at the execution:

Mary the mother of James and Joseph

Mark 6:3

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Mark at the execution:

Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses

Thus, it is reasonable to believe that this Mary is indeed the mother of Jesus, even if two of the gospels do not explicitly state this. There is one other reference to James being the brother of Jesus, and that is in the text by Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, where that author describes James as “the brother of Jesus who is called Christ.”

Tradition has it that the mother of the disciples James and John (described in Matthew) is the woman Salome named in Mark, but there is no evidence to support this anywhere else in the gospels.

2. The burial of Jesus

The verses in the gospels that deal with the burial of Jesus are as follows:

Matthew

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was himself a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

Mark

When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate wondered if he were already dead, and summoning the centurion he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. Then Joseph bought a linen cloth and, taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.

Luke

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

John

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Each of the gospels names Joseph of Arimathea of having buried the body of Jesus. As the council before which Jesus was tried was the Sanhedrin, it follows that Joseph of Arimathea was also a member of the Sanhedrin, as described in Mark and Luke. One should note the difference in the description of who Joseph of Arimathea was:

who also was himself a disciple of Jesus,
a respected member of the council who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God,
a good and righteous man named Joseph who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action, and
a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews.

Of course, each of these are a valid description of this individual if he was a secret disciple of Jesus as well as a respected member of the Sanhedrin, but one who feared them and disagreed with their actions, and who, like others, believed the coming of the Kingdom of God was imminent.

In the first three gospels, Joseph is simply indicated as having wrapped the body of Jesus in linen:

Matthew

wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock.

Mark

Then Joseph bought a linen cloth and, taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of rock.

John

Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid.

The first three gospels also indicate that some of the women who followed Jesus saw where he was buried:

Matthew

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

Mark

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.

Luke

The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.

The gospel of Luke then includes that these women “returned and prepared spices and ointments.” John, however, does not mention that the women witnessed the burial (which is not a contradiction), but includes that Joseph of Arimathea was joined by Nicodemus, and together, they did much more than simply wrap the body in linen:

Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

No mention of Nicodemus appears in any of the first three gospels, and neither is there a mention of a more elaborate burial, but this, too, is not a contradiction. However, if Joseph of Arimathea is given such prominence, would not someone who also is a member of the Sanhedrin also be mentioned? Remember that Nicodemus is only ever mentioned in John:

John 3:1-2

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.”

John 7:50-51

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before and who was one of them, asked, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?”

3. The next day

Matthew contains one narrative that does not appear in the other three gospels:

Matthew

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise, his disciples may go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

The story of the women going to the tomb....

For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.

The story of the women at the tomb...

While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You must say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Judeans to this day.

This story did not come from Mark, and the author of Luke was not aware or did not think it was worthy of inclusion; however, if true, it is a powerful story suggesting why so many Jews at the time refused to believe.

4. The women visit the tomb

Before we discuss the women visiting the tomb, remember that a person of significance need not be associated with that individual’s entourage. For example, one book may say that President Lincoln visited Gettysburg, while another may mention a few individuals in that entourage, while another may explicitly state that Lincoln and others visited Gettysburg. The first, referring only to Lincoln, does not contradict the others. The question, however, is if the authors of the gospels believe Mary Magdalene to be the central character at the tomb. First, referring back to the women who were described as being present at the execution:

Women recorded as being present at the execution:

Mark

Mary Magdalene

Mary the mother of James and Joses

Salome

Matthew

Mary Magdalene
Mary the mother of James and Joseph
The mother of the James and John (the sons of Zebedee)

Luke

[T]he women who had come with him from Galilee.

John

Mary Magdalene
Mary the mother of Jesus
Mary’s sister
Mary the wife of Clopas.

Now, the relevant verses in the gospels are:

Matthew

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Mark

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”

Luke

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women who had come with him from Galilee or Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them] went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.

John

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb

To compare the gospels:

Matthew mentioned three women, and two of those three are said to have visited the tomb,
Mark mentions three women, and all three are said to have visited the tomb,
Luke indicates later who was at the tomb, as the women who relayed the story of the empty tomb to the disciples are listed as “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them”, and
it is only in John that only one individual, Mary Magdalene, is mentioned.

What is apparent, however, is that Matthew does not mention spices, while Mark and Luke mention that the women brought spices, and while John does not mention spices, that author previously described Nicodemus of having brought the spices of myrrh and aloes. This is significant, as according to Jewish custom, the body needs to be anointed, but like the anointing of Jesus, where Luke has this occurring in the home of Simon the Pharisee significantly prior to the triumphal entry into Jerusalem; John has it occurring the night before the triumphal entry in the home of the siblings Lazarus, Mary and Martha; while Mark and Matthew have the anointing occurring the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany after the triumphal entry. Similarly, for the anointing of the body of Jesus, Matthew says nothing about the anointing of the body of Jesus, but

Mark and Luke record that the women going to the tomb had brought spices to anoint Jesus's body, yet
John has Mary Magdalene present at the burial of Jesus, and there she witnessed Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, anoint Jesus's body with fifty (50) pounds of aloes and myrrh.

Fifty pounds is more than six American gallons. It is fascinating that after forty or fifty years, all followers of Jesus heard about Joseph of Arimathea, yet only the last gospel to be written has any mention that a member of the Sanhedrin was at the burial of Jesus, with all those people present who also saw Joseph of Arimathea, and saw that Nicodemus brought six gallons of aloes and myrrh to anoint the body, so if Jesus's body was already being anointed while it was being buried, there is no need for anyone to come Sunday morning to further anoint it.

Similarly interesting is the description of when the women reached the tomb. Dawn is defined as that period of the morning when sunlight is already scattered in the atmosphere providing sufficient light to at least see one’s way but before sunrise. You should, however, contrast the descriptions of when they went:

as the first day of the week was dawning,
very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen,
on the first day of the week, at early dawn, and
early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark.

John suggests that Mary Magdalene reached the tomb while it was still dark, while Matthew and Luke suggest that the women were at least journeying during the period before sunrise, but Mark explicitly states that before the women reached the tomb that the sun had already risen. At least with the English translation, there is ambiguity in Matthew and Luke as the women could have begun their journey close to dawn while it was still dark, but John explicitly states that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark, while Mark indicates that before they got to the tomb that the sun had already risen, and this is a strong candidate for a contradiction.

Referring back to Mary, the mother of Jesus, once again, we see that in the first three gospels, it seems that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is said to have gone to the tomb. Luke does not explicitly mention the women who went to the tomb in this passage, but later in that gospel, the author lists the women who returned from the tomb, so we will list them here.

Matthew refers to "the other Mary", but the only other Mary previously described is "Mary the mother of James and Joseph", and James and Joseph are previously referred to in Matthew as brothers of Jesus.
Mark refers to "Mary the mother of James" and previously referred to "Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses" which are, again, the names previously listed in Mark as being the brothers of Jesus.
Luke has not yet mentioned Mary, but as the author of Luke was copying from Mark, it seems that this may be an example of editorial fatigue. Whereas previously, when Matthew and Mark have the crowd describe Jesus as being the "brother of ...", in Luke, Jesus is simply referred to as “Joseph’s son” in Luke 4:22.
Although John specifically mentions that Jesus's mother was at the execution, there is no mention of anyone else at the tomb other than Mary Magdalene.

It does seem that Mary Magdalene has a greater significance, as Matthew did list both “Mary Magdalene” and “Mary the mother of James and Joseph” at the execution, but later only refers to the latter as “the other Mary.” Note that at the execution and the tomb, no mention is made that this is the mother of Jesus described in Matthew 1. John does not even mention the name of Mary, but simply refers to her as “his mother.” Consequently, if the author of Matthew seems to place more emphasis on Mary Magdalene, then it may not be surprising if the author of John focuses exclusively on her presence at the tomb. This does, however, contrast with modern interpretations where greater significance is given to Mary the mother of Jesus as opposed to Mary Magdalene. The only issue we will come across later, however, is that as we go through John, it seems to be reinforced in all but one situation that there is one and only one person present at the tomb: Mary Magdalene.

5. Moving the stone

In Mark, Luke and John, any women present see the stone has already been rolled back. Matthew, however, that author has a second earthquake occur when an angel descends from heaven and is explicitly said to have moved the stone and sit on it:

Matthew

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.

Mark

When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.

Luke

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

John

and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

It is interesting that Matthew mentions not one, but two earthquakes associated with Jesus’s execution and resurrection, the first immediately following his death:

Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split.

Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

It’s odd that none of the other gospels mention these earthquakes, and that when the women reach the tomb, they simply see the open tomb; no explanation is given as to how the stone was moved.

Now, if you read the surrounding passages of Matthew, it seems quite reasonable that the interpretation should be that these events occurred in the presence of the women:

... Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ...

However, to be fair, one could read this in such a way as to suggest that the angel moved the stone before the women appeared, and while the authors of Mark and Luke were not aware of how the stone was moved, the author of Matthew had some special insight into what happened 50 years before that author wrote his gospel. However, you will note that no other author has an angel sitting on the stone when the women arrive.

Again, as before, we note that Matthew is the only gospel that mentions the guards at the tomb, and that the guards were, out of fear of the angel not mentioned elsewhere, transformed into a death-like state.

6. Fetching Peter and another (beloved) disciple?

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the women remain at the tomb and either look into, or even enter it, but John tells a very different story. In John, Mary Magdalene immediately leaves the tomb and returns to Peter and the other disciples. Peter and the beloved disciple return with Mary. One observation is that Mary Magdalene refers to “we” when she addresses Peter and the other disciple: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

John

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

None of the other gospels suggest that Peter or any other disciple visited the tomb before any other communication took place. John is the only gospel that additionally includes the item of information that the cloth that covered Jesus's head was lying rolled up.

7. Talking to someone other than Jesus

In each of the gospels, an individual or individuals speaks to the women. In Matthew, the individual speaks to the women before they even enter the tomb; in Mark and Luke, the individual or individuals after they enter the tomb, and it is only in John that the individuals appear inside the tomb and speak to Mary Magdalene only after she first flees and then returns, having brought Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved, both of whom inspect the empty tomb and leave:

Matthew

His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay…”

Mark

When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him…”

Luke

…, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen…”

John

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

To be fair, in subsequent passages in Luke, these two men are referred to as angels.

Thus, as for who is there:

In Matthew, it is “an angel of the Lord…came and rolled back the stone and sat on it” whose “appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. ”
In Mark, “[a]s they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side,”
In Luke, “when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.”
Finally, in John, “[Mary Magdalene] bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.”

To be fair, in subsequent verses, the author of Luke refers to the two as angels.

Thus, we have the following:

Where they men or angels?
1. Matthew, Luke and John refer to them as angels, while
2. Mark refer to him as a young man.
How many were there?
1. Matthew and Mark refer to only one individual, while
2. Luke and John refer to two angels.
Where are these individuals?
1. Matthew refers to an angel descending from heaven and speaking to the women outside the tomb, while
2. Mark, Luke and John have the individual or individuals inside the tomb.
Had the women entered the tomb before they saw the individuals?
1. Matthew and John do not have the women enter the tomb before see and communicate with angels, while
2. Mark and Matthew have the women enter the tomb first before they see the men.
Are the individuals sitting or standing?
1. Matthew, Mark and John have the individuals sitting.
2. Luke has the individuals standing.
Did the women immediately see the individuals, or did they appear?
1. In Matthew and Mark, the women see the individuals as they approach or enter the tomb.
2. In Luke, the women enter the tomb, see nothing, and then two men appear.
3. In John, Mary sees no one when she is first there, and she brings Peter and disciple whom Jesus loved back, both of whom enter the tomb, and neither of whom see anyone, who then leave; however, when Mary looks into the tomb again, there are two angels there.
Did the women even enter the tomb?
1. Matthew has the women told to see where Jesus’s body was but does not indicate if they had to enter the tomb to observe this,
2. John do not describe Mary Magdalene as entering the tomb, while
3. Mark and Luke, as indicated, have them enter the tomb first.

Except between Matthew and Mark, the words of the angels or men is very different:

Matthew

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay…”

Mark

“Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him…”

Luke

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen…”

John

“Woman, why are you weeping?”

Note that in John, there is no reference to any other women at the tomb. Did they leave with Peter and the other disciple? Were they there in the background, but did not merit the attention of the angels? Or was Mary Magdalene simply so much more significant a figure? What is bizarre, however, is Mary Magdalene’s response: she is looking at two angels, and yet she is worried about Jesus’s missing body.

Also note that it is only in John where Mary actually responds to the individual's question: “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

8. The extended message

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the individual or individuals at the tomb gives the women an extended message:

in both Matthew and Mark, the women are told to go and tell Peter and the disciples that Jesus will meet them in Galilee and that is where Jesus will see them, while
in Luke, the women are given a theological sermon on why Jesus was raised.

Matthew

“Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”

Mark

“But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

Luke

“Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.”

It is rather interesting that the author of Luke never-the-less mentions Galilee, but of course, he was copying from Mark, and perhaps wanted to provide an alternate statement involving Galilee, for in Luke, the disciples never get to Galilee, instead they are commanded to stay near Jerusalem.

9. Talking to Jesus

In Matthew and John, it is suddenly Jesus who is now speaking to him. In Matthew, Jesus simply appears to the women, while in John, Jesus hides his identity at first (just like Jesus hides his identity elsewhere in Luke and John).

Matthew

Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

John

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

It is rather odd that Mark and Luke (who was copying off of Mark) make no mention what-so-ever of Jesus speaking to the women.

In Matthew, Jesus's words are directed at all of the women; however, in John, the words of Jesus are solely directed at Mary Magdalene. One would think if Mary his mother was there that he might say something.

Furthermore, in John, the last statement of Jesus subordinates himself to God:

I am ascending
to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.

The concept of the trinity (the idea that Jesus was god together with Yahweh and the Spirit of Holiness) was only conceived of in the second century, and so just like when Jesus was executed, followers searched through the Judean scriptures to find any verse that could possibly be interpreted as prophesying Jesus’s coming and execution, likewise when second-century Christians devised the idea of the trinity, they searched through the Christian scriptures to find any verse that could possibly be interpreted as Jesus being god. However, they completely ignored verses such as this that only make sense if Jesus is the divine entity described in the first chapter: the Word of God.

Finally, there is an interesting contrast in these two meetings: In Matthew, “[t]hey came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.” In John, however, Jesus does not want to be defiled, and therefore says “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father...”

10. Telling others

In Matthew, there is no description of how the women were received when they told their story to the disciples, but it is clear that the disciples believed the women and went to go see Jesus in Galilee. The ending in Mark, is much more terse: the women fled and said nothing. In Luke, the women tell the disciples but are not believed; Peter, however, does go to the tomb, sees the linen and is amazed.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

11. Jesus contradicts his own instructions

In Luke, Jesus or intermediaries do not tell the women to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee, but rather Jesus appears directly to the disciples and tells them “I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Nowhere in Luke or Acts do the disciples return to Galilee in anything that could be considered a timely manner, and instead, Jesus sees the disciples on a number of occasions in the vicinity of Jerusalem up until he is raised into heaven:

While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

12. Evidence of who copied from whom

The similar texts between Matthew, Mark and Luke suggest strongly that one of these documents was the first, and the other two had access to this document. All indicators, including editorial fatigue, point to Mark as being the first, and given how disparate Matthew and Luke are when they share a common source (the Q document), it is very unlikely that either Matthew or Luke had access to the other: they were copying solely from Mark. In this one narrative, however, there is further evidence that neither Luke nor Matthew copied from the other, and that is in the form of changes. Both Matthew and Luke made many changes to this narrative with the women visiting the tomb, but if neither had access to the other, they would almost certainly make different changes. It is only if one had access to the other that there would be a higher likelihood of common changes made to Mark.

All three gospels agree on these points, which given the length of the story, isn’t much:

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James (and Joseph, one may presume) went to the tomb.
The stone was moved aside.
There were linens inside the tomb.

Beyond this, there are many points where Matthew agrees with Mark, but Luke differs:

Are the individual or individuals the women speak to standing or sitting: Matthew and Mark say he is sitting, Luke has them standing.
Matthew and Mark have the women approach the individual, while Luke has them suddenly appear after they entered the tomb and found it empty.
What do the individual or individuals say to the women: Luke has the individuals say “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen…” while Matthew and Mark are similar with
“Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
“Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.

He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said.
He has been raised; he is not here.

Come, see the place where he lay…”
Look, there is the place they laid him…”
In Matthew and Mark, the individuals tell the women to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee. In Luke, the women are given no such directions and later Jesus explicitly tells the disciples to wait at Jerusalem.
In Matthew and Mark, the women simply return, while in Luke, Peter returns to the tomb to examine it.

There are also points where Luke agrees with Mark, but Matthew differs:

Neither Luke nor Mark describe how the stone was moved, but Matthew states the angel moved it and this subsequently caused a second earthquake (the first being when Jesus died, an earthquake not recorded in Luke or Mark).
Neither Luke nor Mark indicate anyone else is present at the tomb, while Matthew has guards who are frozen with fear present.
Luke and Mark both say that the women are bringing spices, while Matthew leaves this out.
Luke and Mark have the women see Jesus only after they enter the tomb, while Matthew has the angel sitting on the stone.
Luke and Mark indicate the individuals are men, but Matthew describes his as an angel.
Luke and Mark do not describe the women as having met Jesus, but Matthew has such a story where Jesus speaks directly to the women.

There are situations where all three disagree:

Mark says that Salome went to the tomb, while Luke mentions Joanna, but Matthew only mentions the two already mentioned in Matthew and Mark.
In Mark in the oldest ending has the women flee and say nothing, in Matthew it seems the women told the disciples, as they meet Jesus in Galilee, while in Luke the women are disbelieved, although Peter goes to the tomb.

There is exactly one change to thetext in Mark that is common between Matthew and Luke:

Mark says the women visited the tomb after the sun has risen, while Matthew and Luke say they went there at dawn (before sunrise).

Given that these events span a small chapter in Mark, and less than a chapter in Matthew and Luke, such changes strongly point to very different understandings of why no one believed that Jesus had been resurrected, and why likely some followers did not believe, either, but the above variations indicate again very strongly that Matthew and Luke copied from Mark independently.

In parallel

Instead of listing the stories series, lets compare them in parallel:

In Mark and Matthew, two Marys are going to the tomb; in Luke, two Marys, Joanna, and other women who had followed Jesus from Galilee are going to the tomb; and in John, it is only Mary Magdalene.
In Mark and Luke, the women visit he tomb to anoint Jesus's body with spices; in Matthew, no purpose for the women visiting the tomb is given; and in John, the body of Jesus was already anointed with a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred pounds brought by Nicodemus to his burial a day-and-a-half before Mary Magdalene visits the tomb, and no purpose for her visit to the tomb is given.
In Mark, the sun had risen; in Matthew and Luke, it was dawn (before sunrise); and in John, it was still dark.
When the women get to the tomb, in Mark, Luke and John, the stone was already rolled away and no one else is recorded as being present; yet in Matthew, the women reached the sealed tomb with guards present, an earthquake occurs, and an angel descends from heaven, moves the stone and sits on it.
Only Matthew records that there were guards at the tomb, but they were like dead men on account of their fear of the angel sitting on the stone, also only mentioned in Matthew; yet no guards are mentioned in Mark, Luke or John, for after all, the stone was already moved before the women get there.
In Mark and Luke, the women enter the tomb; in Matthew, the women are instructed by the angel to look into the tomb; and in John, Mary Magdalene only sees the stone was moved and she runs back to fetch Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Only in John does Mary Magdalene (and her alone) run to and return with Simone Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved, and while the latter reached the tomb first, Simon Peter goes into the tomb first and finds the linen wrappings and cloth, and only then does the latter disciple enter, and then they both leave the tomb together leaving Mary Magdalene apparently alone.
In Mark, the women see for the first time a young man dressed in a white robe as they enter the tomb; in Matthew, there is no mention of anyone in the tomb, as the angel was already sitting on the stone outside the tomb; in Luke, the women go into the tomb, do not find the body of Jesus and are perplexed, and only then do two men (angels) in dazzling clothes stand beside them in the tomb; and in John, Mary Magdalene never enters to tomb, but only looks into the tomb after Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved and sees two angels.
In Mark, the angel speaks to the women as they enter the tomb; in Matthew, the angel speaks to the women as they approach the tomb (with no record of the women going into the tomb); in Luke, the angels speak to the women only after they enter the tomb to discover that the body of Jesus is not there but before Simon Peter comes to the tomb; and in John, the angels speak to Mary Magdalene from inside the tomb as she is looking in after Simon Peter has come to the tomb and left.
In Mark, after the young man speaks the women, they exit the tomb, flee in terror, are afraid, and say nothing to anyone; in Matthew, after the angel sitting on the stone finishes speaking to them, they turn to leave; in Luke, after the two angels finish speaking to them, they return to the eleven disciples; in John, Mary turns around after the two angels speak to her.
As for the appearance of the young man, angel or angels:
1. in Mark, the young man is already sitting as they enter the tomb;
2. in Matthew, the angel descends from heaven while the tomb is still sealed, rolls away the stone and sits on it;
3. in Luke, only after the women enter the tomb and were perplexed at not having found Jesus's body do two angels appear standing beside them in the tomb; and
4. in John, only after Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved enter and inspect the tomb and leave, does Mary Magdalene looks into the tomb to see two angels sitting where the body of Jesus had been laid.
As for the words of the young man, angel or angels in Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, respectively:
1. “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
2. “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
3. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.”
4. “Woman, why are you weeping?”
In Mark and Luke, the women do not see Jesus; in Matthew, the women run to tell the disciples, and while running, Jesus appears to them, they immediately recognize him, touch him by taking hold of his feet, and worship him, and after Jesus speaks to them, the women leave and pass on Jesus's message to the disciples; and in John, Jesus speaks to Mary Magdalene, but she does not recognize Jesus, thinking him to be the gardener, and when she addresses him as “Rabbouni” but Jesus explicitly tells her not to touch him, and then she leaves and simply tells the disciples that she has “seen the Lord.”
As for the words of Jesus;
1. in Matthew he gives instructions as to where to where the disciples are to meet him in Galilee, and these instructions are to be passed on to the disciples: “Greetings! Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
2. yet in John, he only gives a statement that is to be passed on to the disciples: “Mary!” and “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
In Mark, the women say nothing, so the disciples know nothing of the resurrection; in Matthew, the disciples believe the women and then travel to Galilee to the place Jesus told the women to pass onto the disciples; in Luke, the disciples do not believe the women, although Simon Peter does go to the tomb and finds the linens; and in John, Mary Magdalene passes on the message “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” to the disciples.
In Mark, the women visiting the tomb does not impact the actions of the disciples, for the women said nothing to them; in Matthew, the disciples believe the women and travel to Galilee where they see Jesus and where Jesus gives the disciples the great commission; in Luke, the disciples (who did not believe the women until after Simon Peter returned from the tomb) remain in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and when Jesus finally appears to them, he explicitly orders the disciples “not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father,” that is, the coming of the Holy Spirit; and in John, the disciples do not appear to react to what they are told by Mary Magdalene, and Jesus visits the disciples in the vicinity of Jerusalem for the period of a week, and after the disciples return to Galilee, he appears to them again, and there is a great catch of fish.

Apologists will try to harmonize one aspect or another of these four narratives, but no apologist has come anywhere close to attempting to harmonize all contradictory aspects of all four narratives. However, you must remember the evangelical mantra: “There are no contradictions in the bible.” As one apologist, Michael Knowles, said, “You have four accounts, all of which basically agree with one another, and where they would seem to disagree on certain details, they do so in the way that newspapers disagree about news events.” Let's try that out:

From the Daily Mark: The victim, Mary Magden, and her friend came to her home yesterday morning after a long shift to find the front door open, and going in, they immediately Mary's ex-husband sitting there in the living room. He started cursing at her and they ran away but were too afraid to say anything to any of their friends.
From the Matthean Spectator: The victim, Mary Magden, and her friend came home yesterday morning after a long shift and while Mary was searching through her purse trying to find her keys, her ex-husband leapt out of the bushes, uses his shotgun to take out the two cameras watching the front of the house, and kicked in the door. He then leaned up against the broken door and began to laugh and curse at the two women. They fled down the street to their friend's home down the street, but while running, they came across a police officer who listened to their story and headed in the direction of Mary's house while the women continued running to their friends who believed them and kept an eye out for her ex-husband.
From the Lukan Review: The victim, Mary Magden, and her many friends came home yesterday morning after a long shift to find her front door open, so they enter and look around, but saw nothing. Then, while they were in the living room, the victim's ex-husband and his drinking buddy leaped down the stairs and they began to curse the women, so the women flee to their friend's home down the street. Those friends, however, didn't believe them, but one of them, Pete Simons, did go to Mary's house to find it empty, but he did find a baseball cap belonging to the ex-husband.
From John News: Mary Magden came home yesterday morning after a long shift to find her front door open, so she fled to get two of her friends. They returned with her, searched the house, and finding nothing, they left. Mary stayed at her home but as she approached her front door, she looked in to see see her ex-husband and his drinking buddy sitting there in the living room. The pair began to curse at her so she turned around and fled to her friend's home down the street. While running, she ran into a plain-clothed police officer, whome she begged for help. After hearing what Mary said, he identified himself as a police officer, and Mary started to thank that office for happening to be there, after which the police officer headed in the direction of Mary's home while ran down the street to her friends' home.

Michael Knowles: if four newspapers covered the same story in these four different ways, you'd certainly question if any of the accounts were true. Unfortunately, most followers of Jesus have simply heard the stories so often that they just assume all the stories are essentially the same, just like most followers of Jesus don't realize that the birth narrative in Luke is one of gemütlichkeit, as the happy family starts in Nazareth, travels to Bethlehem for a census that never happened at the time of Quirinius, so no earlier than 6 CE, Mary gives birth, a week later Jesus is circumcision, and a month later, the happy family travels to Jerusalem for the ritual purification of Mary, where they gave the poor offering of two birds, after which, they happily return to Nazareth; while in Matthew, the family starts in Bethlehem, Jesus is born before the death of King Herod (who dies in 4 BCE), is given great gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (see my comment below on embellishments), the family flees for their lives to Egypt where they wait until King Herod dies, they return (to "fulfill" a prophesy), they want to return to Bethlehem, but they fear King Herod's son, Herod Archelaus, so an angel tells them to go to Galilee, where they, apparently, happen to come across a town called Nazareth. Likewise, if these four articles appeared in four newspapers, and it was known that the author of the Matthean Spectator article copied his from the Daily Mark, the embellishments of the shotgun (earthquakes), two cameras (two guards), and the ex-husband kicking in the door (an angel descending from heaven and rolling away the stone only to sit on it) would be seen as purely political sensationalism (not unlike The American Spectator). The other three accounts have the women see an open tomb when they arrive, and no angel or young man is seen until as they enter the tomb (in Mark), after they enter the tomb and find it empty (in Luke), or after she (that is, Mary Magdalene) has Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved inspect the tomb, find it empty and leave (in John). They are not the same story, they are not harmonizable, and they contradict each other, and what is worse, Matthew and Luke contradict Mark despite their authors having copied from Mark; that is, the authors of Matthew and Luke took the account written in Mark to be incorrect and took steps to correct the narrative to what their community understood happened fifty years before those gospels were written.

in-parallel

apologetics

Apologetics

What is really pathetic about most apologists is that they focus on the number of women at the tomb, and seldom mention any of the other differences. Let us, however, look at one that actually attempts to address more of the contradictions, by the National Catholic Register: 12 Alleged Resurrection “Contradictions” That Aren’t Really Contradictions. The author and apologist Dave Armstrong begins:

It seems to be one of the favorite pastimes of extreme biblical skeptics to peruse the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus and events surrounding it, in order to “identify” and challenge Christians with various alleged “contradictions.”

Yes, when you claim that your book is divinely inspired and that its instructions should be imposed on us, then yes, we will look very closely at the claims of your book. This is only reasonable. Notice that we are branded as extremists, immediately poisoning the well. I personally have no interest in challenging anyone, I only point out the issues for others to see. I have no interest in de-converting anyone.

Recently I came across one such effort, which claimed many “contradictions.” I believe none at all were adequately substantiated, once the claims were properly scrutinized. Almost all of them failed even elementary tests of standard logic. If I may indulge your patience a bit, I’d like to briefly examine the weakness of these arguments in this article and my next one.

Okay, let us see the argumentation.

1. How many women visited the Tomb? An actual logical contradiction requires exclusionary clauses such as “only x, y, and z were there and no one else” or “only three people witnessed incident a.” None of the Gospel texts do that here; hence, no demonstrable contradiction exists (see Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1-10; John 20:1). Some atheists will nonetheless go on to argue that it is still a “contradiction” in some sense because, after all, the texts don’t all say exactly the same thing. But that’s not how logic works, and it is absurd and unrealistic to demand that four separate accounts written by as many people must report what was seen in identical fashion.

This is the weakest one, except that in the gospel of John, only one woman is ever mentioned: Mary Magdalene. She is the only woman reported to visit the tomb, she alone ran to fetch Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved, she alone is said to remain at the tomb after Simon Peter and the other disciple leave, her reaction alone is recorded, she alone is addressed by Jesus (whom Mary did not recognize) with “Woman, why are you weeping?”, she alone is addressed by Jesus, who only says “Mary!”, and never once are the actions, words, or reactions of any other woman present recorded.

2. Were there guards at the Tomb? It’s not a contradiction merely because Matthew mentions this and the other three Gospels don’t. Arguments from silence prove nothing. A true contradiction would require one or more of the other three to say something like “the tomb was unguarded.”

True, the guards in Matthew are recorded as having become like dead men as a result of an angel descending from heaven, the same angel that opened the tomb and sat on the rolled-away stone, the same angel that talked to the women before they entered the tomb, the same angel not mentioned in any other gospel, so perhaps in the other gospels simply did not mention these dead-like guards standing frozen there. In both Mark and Luke, the women simply enter the tomb and do not appear to speak to any angel sitting on the rolled-away stone, the same angel whose presence apparently turned these two guards into their death-like state.

3. When did the women visit the Tomb? The descriptions in the RSV are “toward the dawn” (Matthew 28:1), “very early … when the sun had risen” (Mark 16:2), “at early dawn” (Luke 24:1) — clearly no contradiction so far. Then we have: “Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark” (John 20:1). John describes an earlier visit of Mary Magdalene only. She is mentioned in all four accounts as one of the visitors, but John informs us that she ran to tell the disciples the tomb was empty (20:2), then after “the disciples went back to their homes” (20:10), being outside the tomb again, weeping (20:11), seeing the risen Jesus (20:14-17), and then going to the disciples and telling them she saw Jesus risen (20:18). Conclusion: no contradiction.

I don't see the time at which the women are allegedly visiting the tomb as significant. What is interesting here is that the author is claiming that the account in John somehow describes an "earlier" visit of Mary Magdalene, when she and she alone visited the tomb while it was still dark. The problem is, if she visited the tomb alone first, then why was the stone rolled away when she came earlier, then in Matthew, Mary Magdalene seems to be returning with other women, and the stone is rolled away. The author attempts to string together a sequence of events that tries to identify similar events in the other narratives, but if you really think about it, it does not work: Mary Magdalene by herself finds an empty tomb, and then returns to tell the disciples, but then "Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him." If Mary Magdalene has already seen an empty tomb, why is she returning with another Mary to anoint his body? This is a standard tactic, to suggest an alternative narrative that, at first glance may appear to resolve all issues, and thus leave the true believer with sense that all is good. Conclusion: poor argumentation.

4. Did the women enter the Tomb? Mark and Luke say they did. Matthew and John don’t. But to contradict the other two reports, they would have to outright deny that it happened, and they don’t do that, so no contradiction is present. Matthew strongly implies that they did, however, because the angel says to them, “Come, see the place where he lay” (28:6).

True, Matthew does have the angel that is sitting on the door ask the women to see the place where Jesus did lay:

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”

and so it is entirely possible that after the invitation to see that Jesus was resurrected, that they saw that he wasn't there, but in Mark and Luke, no such interaction is even recorded: the women enter the tomb unaware that Jesus's body is not there, and in Mark, they see a young man sitting as they enter the tomb, and in Luke, they enter the tomb to find it empty, and only then do two angels appear standing next to them

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground...

However, according to Matthew, the angel told them that he had been raised from the dead, so why are they so perplexed about this, and if they had seen one angel, why are they terrified when two more appear? In John, however,

"Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran..."

Then, later, after Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved inspect the tomb (apparently without Mary),

"But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet."

5) Did the disciples enter the Tomb? John says Peter and John did; the others say nothing (argument of silence and thus, no contradiction). To not mention something is not the same as a denial.

Once again, correct: just because Mark and Matthew do not mention that Simon Peter and the disciple who Jesus loved even came to the tomb, let us consider the following:

In Mark, it explicitly says that the women "said nothing to anyone", so how could Simon Peter know to run to the tomb to find it empty, at least, as a consequence of the women pointing out that they found the stone rolled away.
In Matthew, the women are given a message by Jesus for them to meet Jesus in Galilee, where Jesus will see them. Apparently, the disciples believed the women, as they did go to Galilee and did see Jesus there and did receive the great commission. Also, in Matthew, "Jesus met them" where "them" refers to the women who went to the tomb, and according to John, Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene after Simon Peter left.
In Luke, the women return to the disciples, but the disciples don't believe the women, yet, despite not believing them, Simon Peter decides to never-the-less run to the tomb and finds it empty. The disciples do not go to Galilee, and they remain in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and Jesus subsequently “ordered [the disciples] not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father.” There is no mention of Mary Mary Magdalene or anyone else accompanying Simon Peter as he runs to the tomb, nor is there any mention of Mary Magdalene or any other woman subsequently seeing and speaking to Jesus after Simon Peter leaves.
As described above, in John, Mary Magdalene sees that the stone is rolled back, she returns to tell the disciples that the tomb was open, and has not yet received any message for the disciples to believe or disbelieve, and she returns with Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved. It also specifically records that it is the disciple whom Jesus loved entered the tomb first, and only later did Simon Peter enter.

So, yes, the absence of Simon Peter and in Mark and Matthew and the absence of the disciple whom Jesus loved in Mark, Matthew and Luke on its own do not constitute a contradiction, but where in the first two narratives do you place these two running to the tomb, and how do you reconcile the descriptions of one or two of the disciples running to the tomb as described in Luke and John? The author simply claims that the only way for there to be a "contradiction" is for an explicit statement to be made that contradicts the other; but if the stories themselves cannot be reconciled in any reasonable manner, that, too, is a contradiction.

6. What did the risen Jesus say to the women? Mark and Luke are silent; Matthew and John say two different, but not contradictory things. To be contradictory, one or both would have to say, Jesus said only [whatever]. But they don’t. Logic is what it is.

Once again, true, it is entirely possible that Jesus presented himself to the women said lots of things to the women, and yet, only two of the gospels even recorded that Jesus was present at the tomb, which is altogether surprising if he did, as this should have been absolutely critical, and the followers of Jesus had had forty years to get their stories consistent. Also, it is entirely possible that the authors of Matthew and John recorded only a small portion of what Jesus said, but once again, we must look at what Jesus told the women or just Mary Magdalene, and the subsequent actions:

In Matthew, Jesus explicitly tells the women to pass on a message to the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee, and subsequently, the disciples apparently do believe the women, and do to to Galilee and see Jesus at the appointed location. In Luke, however, as has already been pointed out, the disciples do not leave the vicinity of Jerusalem, Jesus meets them there, and orders them to not leave the vicinity of Jerusalem, and subsequently ascends into heaven near Bethany.
In John, no message is given to the disciples as to where to meet Jesus in Galilee, and Jesus actually as a series of interactions with the disciples in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and only subsequently do the disciples leave for Galilee. It is, of course, entirely possible that all these interactions between Jesus and the disciples in the vicinity of Jerusalem were not recorded by the author of Matthew, and yet, in Matthew, they meet Jesus at the "the mountain to which Jesus had directed them", and in John, "Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias." Was the meeting in Galilee in the mountains or by the coast of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus once again disguises himself before having the disciples go forth and bring in a great catch of fish, with no mention of a great commission, and where no other gospel mentions a great catch, except Luke, where the great catch is the event that calls his first four disciples, a story that contradicts how the first four disciples were called in Mark and Matthew...

The differences simply compound themselves, and the only common factor is that a woman or women found the tomb empty and Jesus's body wasn't there. It is like the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke, where neither mentions any of the events told in the other except for Jesus being born to a virgin in Bethlehem and the names of the parents: Mary and Joseph.

7. Grabbing risen Jesus’ feet, but later no touch allowed? Mark and Luke are silent on this aspect. The women grab Jesus’ feet and worship him in Matthew, but Mary Magdalene later is told “not to touch” Jesus in John 20:17. Well, “touch” is the translation of older translations, and it’s quite arguable. I found no less than 20 prominent Bible translations in my collection that render the Greek here as “hold,” “hold[ing] on to,” or “cling[ing].” This clarification of meaning removes any supposed contradiction in John.

Once again, Mark and Luke do not mention Jesus speaking to the women, which in itself is awkward given that this is Jesus's resurrection: if it was common knowledge in the communities forty or more years after the execution of Jesus that Jesus was present there at the tomb, would these authors not have thought of mentioning this? Indeed, if Jesus did speak to the women, just the author of Mark forgetting to mention this, why did the women exit the tomb "and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Why would they be afraid to say anything, as they had just spoken to Jesus, even if that was not recorded by the author? As for the variations between Matthew and John, the claim is that Mary Magdalene did indeed take "hold of his feet," even if that is not recorded, and then Jesus tells Mary Magdalene to “Do not [hold on or cling to] me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father...” This is an argument I can accept prima facia, but the words in Koine Greek in every version of such a document for "touch me" are μου απτου, and the latter word does not appear to be used elsewhere. It would be nice if there was some referenced independent source. But even if this was a valid argument, it does not explain why two gospel writers did not even mention that Jesus was there, at the tomb, after his resurrection, and spoke to the women.

8. Where did the risen Jesus first appear to his disciples? Mark doesn’t say. The others don’t indicate that their account was the “first” appearance (logically speaking, one cannot arbitrarily assume this to be the case), so different harmonious chronologies are entirely possible to construct — and an airtight “contradiction” is impossible to construct.

This is the saddest rebuttal, as it is simply a statement to palliate the concerns and placate the cognitive dissonance of the true-believing reader. Nothing is offered her to justify this, it simply says that “different harmonious chronologies are entirely possible to construct.” The apologist is correct, Mark says nothing of subsequent meetings of Jesus and his disciples, but

Matthew has the disciples explicitly being told, through the women (whom they apparently believe), to meet him at a mountain in Galilee, and apparently they travel to that mountain and meet him to receive the great commission.
Luke has the disciples disbelieve the women, remain around Jerusalem, and then when Jesus meets them in the vicinity of Jerusalem, he explicitly “ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father.” All subsequent events occur in the vicinity of Jerusalem, including Jesus's ascension.
John has no message about where to meet Jesus being passed onto Mary Magdalene, the disciples then meet Jesus in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and then they journey to Galilee where they once again meet Jesus by the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus, of course, disguises himself.

The apologist is claiming that these three accounts can somehow be reconciled, but no reconciliation is given, just palliative statements such as “harmonious chronologies are entirely possible to construct” and “an airtight “contradiction” is impossible to construct.” Also, why quote the word contradiction?

The next few do not deal with events related to the women at the tomb, but you are welcome to read them, but the last is

12. Why were the women going to visit the Tomb? Matthew says two women “went to see the sepulcher” — that is, they wanted to see if it was left as it was when Jesus was laid there, in order to apply burial spices. What other reason would there be? Mark and Luke mention the intent to anoint Jesus’ body. Matthew doesn’t contradict that. It simply (arguably) describes it in different terms. John gives no reason, but again, the logical thing is to assume it is referring to anointing of the body.

The apologist is correct on this point: to have "bought spices" and to have "prepared spices and ointments" and later "taking the spices that they had prepared", as mentioned by Mark and Luke, respectively, do not contradict each other, nor does it contradict Matthew's silence on this matter. John, however, does mention an anointing, and one more significant than the one in Mark or Luke:

Neither Mark, Matthew or Luke even mention Nicodemus, someone who was allegedly a member of the Sanhedrin. Indeed, he is only mentioned three times, and those three appearances are in John. If Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene, another Mary, and (according to Luke) the women who had come with him from Galilee all were present at the tomb when Jesus was buried, together with Nicodemus with 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes to anoint the body, why would not all followers of Jesus be aware of this individual: A Jew on the Sanhedrin was one of Jesus's earliest followers! A Jew on the Sanhedrin brought a hundred pounds of aloes and myrrh to Jesus's burial. And all this was watched by many witnesses, the same witnesses who, no doubt, passed on the information that they had all been present at the burial. The apologist suggests (see above) that the journey of Mary Magdalene before dawn was one that she took alone, and returned when she saw the stone had been moved, only to come back with the two disciples and perhaps others, including other women. However, if this was the case, why would they be bringing spices? The whole point of them following Mary Magdalene back to the tomb was that she had reported that the stone had been moved, even though when the women in Matthew (including Mary Magdalene) reach the tomb, the stone is in place and only then does an angel descend from heaven to role the stone away.

David Armstrong makes a poor case that these are not contradictions, by only focusing on very specific details, as opposed to consider all four stories insgesamt. One or two of his arguments do indeed answer some of the skeptic's arguments, but for the balance, his arguments are not to refute the claims made by the author who recognized the contradictions, but rather are said to placate and palliate the fears of the true believer, and allow the mind of that true believe to once again rest assured knowing that the mantra "there are no contradictions in the Bible" does indeed hold. The author continues with another eleven claims at this site, but this is filled with even more statements that exist only to, as I said, placate and palliate the fears of the true believer, and by repeating the mantras such as "this is not a “contradiction”" (again, why quote the word contradiction here?) and "that’s simply a groundless extrapolation." I would also hope that the apologist was simply responding to claims one at a time, in which case, one may not delve so deep: the apologist simply answers at a surface level, suggesting why an apparent contradiction is not, without consider the domino effect. Indeed, the apologist my never have even tried to consider all possible relationships between the various actions, under the same fundamental assumption that there are no contradictions, and thus, saw no need to dig any deeper. If pointed out with these issues, however, I would hope the apologist could actually present a chronological list of events that explains the many differences (always identifying which gospels failed to identify specific events, and perhaps even explaining or at least suggesting why), and such a response would address the totality of what I would consider clear and interwoven contradictions in the four narratives of the women at the tomb. I suspect his primary goal is not to convince the skeptic about the harmonization of the narratives, but rather, I suspect he likely is focused on helping true believer to come from reading his responses believing that a harmonization exists, even if the author gives no such harmonization. Perhaps the true believer is expected to understand that we may never know what the actual sequence of events is until that believer enters the pearly gates of heaven. However, as Yahweh knew that we would be discussing this in this manner two thousand years in the future while he was inspiring those four authors to write down their individual gospels, would he not want to make a better effort in his inspirations? Indeed, I do not know what David Armstrong's response to his 23 contradictions are, but if I, like Yahweh, would know, I would make every effort to address each and every response right now. It would have been much more appropriate for Yahweh to inspire his authors to deliver four clearly consistent narratives of the visits of these four women at the tomb.

An honest attempt at a harmonization

This was initially an attempt to show how quickly various harmonizations fail, but with some imagination and some interesting observations as to what is explicitly written in each of the gospels, I was able to come up with a reasonable harmonization of the four:

After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary and many other women are in Jerusalem with the other disciples as they prepare to visit the tomb when it is still dark, gathering the herbs and spices they had previously prepared to anoint the body of Jesus. After dawn breaks, the women begin their journey, and they reach the vicinity of the tomb after the sun rises.
As the women are walking towards the tomb, an earthquake occurs, but they continue in their quest. The earthquake spurs Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to pick up their pace, soon leading the group. At the same moment as the earthquake (shaking the pillars holding up the earth), an angel in white descends from heaven, terrifies the guards into a death-like state, rolls back the stone and sits down on it.
As they head towards the tomb, having watched the burial less than a day-and-a-half before, they ask each other “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
As they crest of last hill before the tomb, they see in the light of the rising sun that the stone had been moved and the angel sitting on the rock appears as bright as lightning; however, at that distance, the women can hardly make out that the light on the stone is an angelic figure. While the other Mary continues toward the tomb, followed by the other women, Mary Magdalene turns to fetch the other disciples and she begins to run back to them.
The other Mary and the other women, however, continue towards the now-open tomb. The angel, whose clothes are as white as snow and is sitting on the stone, engages the remaining women in a conversation and says to them “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
As the other women enter the tomb, they see another angel in a white robe sitting there who reiterates the message of the angel sitting on the stone: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
As the women are standing there looking at where the body of Jesus had been laid, the angel sitting on the stone entered the tomb and the two angels walk up behind them and began to glow in a dazzling light, causing the women to become terrified and they bow their heads, and the two angels said said “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” The women remembered those words.
The women leave the tomb to return to the disciples in Jerusalem, but then Jesus appears to them and says “Greetings!” and they come to him, taking hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Jesus says to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Thus, all the women (other than Mary Magdalene, who had already gone back) leave to give the message to the disciples.
Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” The disciple whom Jesus loved sets out with Mary Magdalene back towards the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved takes a different set of streets out of Jerusalem, so they miss the other women returning from the tomb, so they know nothing of the angels or the appearance of Jesus.
The other women return to the disciples but are too startled to say anything and they are all silent. The disciples and their other followers get them to sit down, they fetch water for them to drink, and the women finally recover and begin telling their story. The disciples, however, do not believe the women as Mary Magdalene had mentioned nothing of angels, but Simon Peter, remembering the distresses in Mary Magdalene face, runs after the two towards the tomb, and on the way, he almost catches up to them.
As Mary Magdalene and the disciple whom Jesus loved get closer to the tomb, the disciple sees that the tomb is open, and begins to run towards it, not heeding Simon Peter who is close behind, and that disciple looks into the tomb and in the dim light sees the linen wrappings.
Simon Peter catches up and also looks into the tomb, also seeing the linen wrappings by themselves and is amazed. He then decides to enter the tomb and in the dim morning light coming through the entrance of the tomb, he also sees the cloth that covered Jesus's head rolled up and sitting in a darker corner of the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved then entered the tomb and the two look about but did not comprehend what happened. They decide to return to the other disciples, leaving Mary Magdalene alone at the tomb.
Mary Magdalene begins to cry, and looking into the tomb, she sees the two angels in white that had previously spoken to the other women, and they are sitting there on the floor at the head and foot of where Jesus had been laid. They say to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” and Mary responds with “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” You will remember that Mary Magdalene ran back before the angel sitting on the stone engaged the women in a conversation and told them that Jesus had risen.
Jesus then appears to Mary Magdalene, and speaks to her, but with tears in her eyes and her focus is on the empty tomb, she does not recognize him or his voice. Jesus then says “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Mary Magdalene asks him “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus then says “Mary!” causing Mary Magdalene to recognize him, and she responds with “Rabbouni!” Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “I have seen the Lord,” and she tells them all that he had said to her.
The disciples now believe the women and Mary Magdalene and journey to Galilee to see Jesus there (unless you're reading Luke/Acts).

This is a better harmonization than I have seen written anywhere else, as it includes all of the events and, for the most part, does not directly contradict any one statement made in any one gospel: in Mark, Matthew and Luke, when the angels speak to the women, it never says that they were speaking to Mary Magdalene, but rather, it simply says that the angels were speaking to "the women" or "they", so if Mary Magdalene was no longer amongst them, then that does not form a contradiction. There are two angels, but one descended from heaven, rolled back the stone and sat on it, while the other angel was sitting inside the tomb. Then, as the women are in the tomb, the two angels stand up behind the women. Later, the angels do not reveal their presence to the disciples, but do reveal themselves to Mary Magdalene. Jesus speaks to the women and then again to Mary Magdalene, but not to the disciples.

There are still, however, two issues, for when the gospel of Luke speaks about the women returning to the disciples, it says:

In Luke, it says "Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them."
Simon Peter, as recorded in Luke, appears to be alone and never enters the tomb: "But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened." There is no record of Simon Peter going into the tomb or being in the tomb with the disciple whom Jesus loved.
The disciples are supposed to meet Jesus in Galilee, but we must now harmonize Luke, who never has the disciples journey to Galilee, despite this being what Jesus explicitly told them to do, it seems in Luke the women are never believed. The disciples remain around Jerusalem, Jesus meets them in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and he orders them to stay there.
John has the disciples meet Jesus again in Galilee, but in circumstances very different from what is described in Matthew.

Finally, if this is actually what really happened, why would each of the four gospel writers be so specific in what they choose to record and what they chose to leave out of their record? Why did none of the synoptic gospel writers mention Mary Magdalene by herself? Why do the angels appear in four different manners, if not more, and yet, each gospel writer only discusses one of them. Why do two of the gospel writers leave out the fact that Jesus was speaking to the women right there at the tomb? Is he not the central character? Why would three gospel writers focus on the actions of all the women, while the author of John focuses entirely on Mary Magdalene, leaving out any mention what-so-ever of the other women?

To demonstrate that this is indeed a valid harmonization, I present this harmonization with the text from each of the four gospels highlighted. You will note that only the occasional phrase that ties some of the disparate events together do not appear in any of the gospels.

Mark 16

The verses in Mark 16 are:

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.
But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Linking them to the narrative above:

[1] After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary and many other women are in Jerusalem with the other disciples as they prepare to visit the tomb when it is still dark, gathering the herbs and spices they had previously prepared to anoint the body of Jesus. After dawn breaks, the women begin their journey, and [2] [T]hey reach the vicinity of the tomb after the sun rises.
As the women are walking towards the tomb, an earthquake occurs, but they continue in their quest. The earthquake spurs Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to pick up their pace, soon leading the group. At the same moment as the earthquake (shaking the pillars holding up the earth), an angel in white descends from heaven, terrifies the guards into a death-like state, rolls back the stone and sits down on it.
As they head towards the tomb, having watched the burial less than a day-and-a-half before, [3] [T]hey ask each other “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
As they crest of last hill before the tomb, [4] [T]hey see in the light of the rising sun that the stone had been moved and the angel sitting on the rock appears as bright as lightning; however, at that distance, the women can hardly make out that the light on the stone is an angelic figure. While the other Mary continues toward the tomb, followed by the other women, Mary Magdalene turns to fetch the other disciples and she begins to run back to them.
The other Mary and the other women, however, continue towards the now-open tomb. The angel, whose clothes are as white as snow and is sitting on the stone, engages the remaining women in a conversation and says to them “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
[5] As the other women enter the tomb, they see [an]other angel in a white robe sitting there [6] who [says] reiterates the message of the angel sitting on the stone: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
As the women are standing there looking at where the body of Jesus had been laid, the angel sitting on the stone entered the tomb and the two angels walk up behind them and began to glow in a dazzling light, causing the women to become terrified and they bow their heads, and the two angels said said “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” The women remembered those words.
[8] The women quickly leave the tomb with terror, fear, joy and amazement to return to the disciples in Jerusalem, but then Jesus appears to them and says “Greetings!” and they come to him, taking hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Jesus says to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Thus, all the women (other than Mary Magdalene, who had already gone back) leave to give the message to the disciples.
Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” The disciple whom Jesus loved sets out with Mary Magdalene back towards the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved takes a different set of streets out of Jerusalem, so they miss the other women returning from the tomb, so they know nothing of the angels or the appearance of Jesus.
[8 cont'd] The other women return to the disciples but are too startled to say anything and they are all silent. The disciples and their other followers get them to sit down, they fetch water for them to drink, and the women finally recover and begin telling their story. The disciples, however, do not believe the women as Mary Magdalene had mentioned nothing of angels, but Simon Peter, remembering the distresses in Mary Magdalene face, runs after the two towards the tomb, and on the way, he almost catches up to them.
As Mary Magdalene and the disciple whom Jesus loved get closer to the tomb, the disciple sees that the tomb is open, and begins to run towards it, not heeding Simon Peter who is close behind, and that disciple looks into the tomb and in the dim light sees the linen wrappings.
Simon Peter catches up and also looks into the tomb, also seeing the linen wrappings by themselves and is amazed. He then decides to enter the tomb and in the dim morning light coming through the entrance of the tomb, he also sees the cloth that covered Jesus's head rolled up and sitting in a darker corner of the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved then entered the tomb and the two look about but did not comprehend what happened. They decide to return to the other disciples, leaving Mary Magdalene alone at the tomb.
Mary Magdalene begins to cry, and looking into the tomb, she sees the two angels in white that had previously spoken to the other women, and they are sitting there on the floor at the head and foot of where Jesus had been laid. They say to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” and Mary responds with “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” You will remember that Mary Magdalene ran back before the angel sitting on the stone engaged the women in a conversation and told them that Jesus had risen.
Jesus then appears to Mary Magdalene, and speaks to her, but with tears in her eyes and her focus is on the empty tomb, she does not recognize him or his voice. Jesus then says “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Mary Magdalene asks him “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus then says “Mary!” causing Mary Magdalene to recognize him, and she responds with “Rabbouni!” Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “I have seen the Lord,” and she tells them all that he had said to her.
The disciples now believe the women and Mary Magdalene and journey to Galilee to see Jesus there (unless you're reading Luke/Acts).

Matthew 28

The verses in Matthew 28 are:

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.
For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.
But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Note that Matthew does not explicitly state that the women watched the stone being rolled away by the angel. Linking them to the narrative above:

[1] After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary and many other women are in Jerusalem with the other disciples as they prepare to visit the tomb when it is still dark, gathering the herbs and spices they had previously prepared to anoint the body of Jesus. [a]fter dawn breaks, the women begin their journey, and they reach the vicinity of the tomb after the sun rises.
As the women are walking towards the tomb, [2] [A]n earthquake occurs, but they continue in their quest. The earthquake spurs Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to pick up their pace, soon leading the group. At the same moment as the earthquake (shaking the pillars holding up the earth), [and] an angel in white descends from heaven, [3] terrifies the guards into a death-like state, rolls back the stone and sits down on it.
As they head towards the tomb, having watched the burial less than a day-and-a-half before, they ask each other “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
As they crest of last hill before the tomb, [T]hey see in the light of the rising sun that the stone had been moved and the angel sitting on the rock appears as bright as lightning; however, at that distance, the women can hardly make out that the light on the stone is an angelic figure. While the other Mary continues toward the tomb, followed by the other women, Mary Magdalene turns to fetch the other disciples and she begins to run back to them.
The other Mary and the other women, however, continue towards the now-open tomb. [5] The angel, whose clothes are as white as snow and is sitting on the stone, engages the remaining women in a conversation and says to them “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. [6] He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. [7] Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
As the other women enter the tomb, they see another angel in a white robe sitting there who reiterates the message of the angel sitting on the stone: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
As the women are standing there looking at where the body of Jesus had been laid, the angel sitting on the stone entered the tomb and the two angels walk up behind them and began to glow in a dazzling light, causing the women to become terrified and they bow their heads, and the two angels said said “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” The women remembered those words.
[8] The women quickly leave the tomb with terror, fear [and] joy and amazement to return to the disciples in Jerusalem, [9] but then Jesus appears to them and says “Greetings!” and they come to him, taking hold of his feet, and worshiped him. [10] Jesus says to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Thus, all the women (other than Mary Magdalene, who had already gone back) leave to give the message to the disciples.
Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” The disciple whom Jesus loved sets out with Mary Magdalene back towards the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved takes a different set of streets out of Jerusalem, so they miss the other women returning from the tomb, so they know nothing of the angels or the appearance of Jesus.
The other women return to the disciples but are too startled to say anything and they are all silent. The disciples and their other followers get them to sit down, they fetch water for them to drink, and the women finally recover and begin telling their story. The disciples, however, do not believe the women as Mary Magdalene had mentioned nothing of angels, but Simon Peter, remembering the distresses in Mary Magdalene face, runs after the two towards the tomb, and on the way, he almost catches up to them.
As Mary Magdalene and the disciple whom Jesus loved get closer to the tomb, the disciple sees that the tomb is open, and begins to run towards it, not heeding Simon Peter who is close behind, and that disciple looks into the tomb and in the dim light sees the linen wrappings.
Simon Peter catches up and also looks into the tomb, also seeing the linen wrappings by themselves and is amazed. He then decides to enter the tomb and in the dim morning light coming through the entrance of the tomb, he also sees the cloth that covered Jesus's head rolled up and sitting in a darker corner of the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved then entered the tomb and the two look about but did not comprehend what happened. They decide to return to the other disciples, leaving Mary Magdalene alone at the tomb.
Mary Magdalene begins to cry, and looking into the tomb, she sees the two angels in white that had previously spoken to the other women, and they are sitting there on the floor at the head and foot of where Jesus had been laid. They say to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” and Mary responds with “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” You will remember that Mary Magdalene ran back before the angel sitting on the stone engaged the women in a conversation and told them that Jesus had risen.
Jesus then appears to Mary Magdalene, and speaks to her, but with tears in her eyes and her focus is on the empty tomb, she does not recognize him or his voice. Jesus then says “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Mary Magdalene asks him “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus then says “Mary!” causing Mary Magdalene to recognize him, and she responds with “Rabbouni!” Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “I have seen the Lord,” and she tells them all that he had said to her.
[Implied] The disciples now believe the women and Mary Magdalene and journey to Galilee to see Jesus there (unless you're reading Luke/Acts).

Luke 23

The verses in Luke 23 are:

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they went in they did not find the body.
While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen.
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.”
Then they remembered his words,
and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.
But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Linking them to the narrative above:

[1] After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary and many other women are in Jerusalem with the other disciples as they prepare to visit the tomb when it is still dark, gathering the herbs and spices they had previously prepared to anoint the body of Jesus. After dawn breaks, the women begin their journey, and they reach the vicinity of the tomb after the sun rises.
As the women are walking towards the tomb, an earthquake occurs, but they continue in their quest. The earthquake spurs Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to pick up their pace, soon leading the group. At the same moment as the earthquake (shaking the pillars holding up the earth), an angel in white descends from heaven, terrifies the guards into a death-like state, rolls back the stone and sits down on it.
As they head towards the tomb, having watched the burial less than a day-and-a-half before, they ask each other “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
As they crest of last hill before the tomb, they see in the light of the rising sun that the stone had been moved and the angel sitting on the rock appears as bright as lightning; however, at that distance, the women can hardly make out that the light on the stone is an angelic figure. While the other Mary continues toward the tomb, followed by the other women, Mary Magdalene turns to fetch the other disciples and she begins to run back to them.
[2] The other Mary and the other women, however, continue towards the now-open tomb. The angel, whose clothes are as white as snow and is sitting on the stone, engages the remaining women in a conversation and says to them “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
As the other women enter the tomb, they see another angel in a white robe sitting there who reiterates the message of the angel sitting on the stone: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
[3] As the women are standing there looking at where the body of Jesus had been laid, the angel sitting on the stone entered the tomb and the [4] two angels walk up behind them and began to glow[ing] in a dazzling light, [5] causing the women to become terrified and they bow their heads, and the two angels said said “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. [6] Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, [7] that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” [8] The women remembered those words.
[9] The women leave the tomb to return to the disciples in Jerusalem, but then Jesus appears to them and says “Greetings!” and they come to him, taking hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Jesus says to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Thus, all the women (other than Mary Magdalene, who had already gone back) leave to give the message to the disciples.
Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” The disciple whom Jesus loved sets out with Mary Magdalene back towards the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved takes a different set of streets out of Jerusalem, so they miss the other women returning from the tomb, so they know nothing of the angels or the appearance of Jesus.
The other women return to the disciples but are too startled to say anything and they are all silent. The disciples and their other followers get them to sit down, they fetch water for them to drink, and the women finally recover [10/11] and begin telling their story. The disciples, however, do not believe the women as Mary Magdalene had mentioned nothing of angels, [12] but Simon Peter, remembering Mary Magdalene the distresses in face, runs after the two towards the tomb, and on the way, he almost catches up to them.
As Mary Magdalene and the disciple whom Jesus loved get closer to the tomb, the disciple sees that the tomb is open, and begins to run towards it, not heeding Simon Peter who is close behind, and that disciple looks into the tomb and in the dim light sees the linen wrappings.
Simon Peter catches up and also looks into the tomb, also seeing the linen wrappings by themselves and is amazed. He then decides to enter the tomb and in the dim morning light coming through the entrance of the tomb, he also sees the cloth that covered Jesus's head rolled up and sitting in a darker corner of the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved then entered the tomb and the two look about but did not comprehend what happened. [He] decide to return[s] to the other disciples, leaving Mary Magdalene alone at the tomb.
Mary Magdalene begins to cry, and looking into the tomb, she sees the two angels in white that had previously spoken to the other women, and they are sitting there on the floor at the head and foot of where Jesus had been laid. They say to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” and Mary responds with “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” You will remember that Mary Magdalene ran back before the angel sitting on the stone engaged the women in a conversation and told them that Jesus had risen.
Jesus then appears to Mary Magdalene, and speaks to her, but with tears in her eyes and her focus is on the empty tomb, she does not recognize him or his voice. Jesus then says “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Mary Magdalene asks him “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus then says “Mary!” causing Mary Magdalene to recognize him, and she responds with “Rabbouni!” Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “I have seen the Lord,” and she tells them all that he had said to her.
The disciples now believe the women and Mary Magdalene and journey to Galilee to see Jesus there (unless you're reading Luke/Acts).

John 20

The verses in John 20 are:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,
and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed,
for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb,
and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.
They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Linking them to the narrative above:

[1] After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary and many other women are in Jerusalem with the other disciples as they prepared to visit[ed] the tomb when it is still dark, gathering the herbs and spices they had previously prepared to anoint the body of Jesus. After dawn breaks, the women begin their journey, and they reach the vicinity of the tomb after the sun rises.
As the women are walking towards the tomb, an earthquake occurs, but they continue in their quest. The earthquake spurs Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to pick up their pace, soon leading the group. At the same moment as the earthquake (shaking the pillars holding up the earth), an angel in white descends from heaven, terrifies the guards into a death-like state, rolls back the stone and sits down on it.
As they head towards the tomb, having watched the burial less than a day-and-a-half before, they ask each other “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
As they crest of last hill before the tomb, [1 cont'd] [She] see[s] in the light of the rising sun that the stone had been moved and the angel sitting on the rock appears as bright as lightning; however, at that distance, the women can hardly make out that the light on the stone is an angelic figure. While the other Mary continues toward the tomb, followed by the other women, [2] Mary Magdalene turns to fetch the other disciples and she begins to run back to them.
The other Mary and the other women, however, continue towards the now-open tomb. The angel, whose clothes are as white as snow and is sitting on the stone, engages the remaining women in a conversation and says to them “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
As the other women enter the tomb, they see another angel in a white robe sitting there who reiterates the message of the angel sitting on the stone: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
As the women are standing there looking at where the body of Jesus had been laid, the angel sitting on the stone entered the tomb and the two angels walk up behind them and began to glow in a dazzling light, causing the women to become terrified and they bow their heads, and the two angels said said “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” The women remembered those words.
The women leave the tomb to return to the disciples in Jerusalem, but then Jesus appears to them and says “Greetings!” and they come to him, taking hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Jesus says to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Thus, all the women (other than Mary Magdalene, who had already gone back) leave to give the message to the disciples.
[2 cont'd] Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” [3] The disciple whom Jesus loved sets out with Mary Magdalene back towards the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved takes a different set of streets out of Jerusalem, so they miss the other women returning from the tomb, so they know nothing of the angels or the appearance of Jesus.
The other women return to the disciples but are too startled to say anything and they are all silent. The disciples and their other followers get them to sit down, they fetch water for them to drink, and the women finally recover and begin telling their story. The disciples, however, do not believe the women as Mary Magdalene had mentioned nothing of angels, but [3 cont'd] Simon Peter, remembering the distresses in Mary Magdalene face, runs after the two towards the tomb, and on the way, he almost catches up to them.
[4] As Mary Magdalene and the disciple whom Jesus loved get closer to the tomb, the disciple sees that the tomb is open, and begins to run towards it, not heeding Simon Peter who is close behind, and [5] that disciple looks into the tomb and in the dim light sees the linen wrappings.
[6] Simon Peter catches up and also looks into the tomb, also seeing the linen wrappings by themselves and is amazed. [7] He then decides to enter the tomb and in the dim morning light coming through the entrance of the tomb, he also sees the cloth that covered Jesus's head rolled up and sitting in a darker corner of the tomb. [8] The disciple whom Jesus loved then entered the tomb and the two look about [9] but did not comprehend what happened. [10] They decide to return to the other disciples, leaving Mary Magdalene alone at the tomb.
[11] Mary Magdalene begins to cry, and looking into the tomb, [12] she sees the two angels in white that had previously spoken to the other women, and they are sitting there on the floor at the head and foot of where Jesus had been laid. [13] They say to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” and Mary responds with “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” You will remember that Mary Magdalene ran back before the angel sitting on the stone engaged the women in a conversation and told them that Jesus had risen.
[14] Jesus then appears to Mary Magdalene, and speaks to her, but with tears in her eyes and her focus is on the empty tomb, she does not recognize him or his voice. [15] Jesus then says “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Mary Magdalene asks him “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” [16] Jesus then says “Mary!” causing Mary Magdalene to recognize him, and she responds with “Rabbouni!” [17] Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
[18] Mary Magdalene returns to the disciples and says “I have seen the Lord,” and she tells them all that he had said to her.
The disciples now believe the women and Mary Magdalene and journey to Galilee to see Jesus there (unless you're reading Luke/Acts).

You will notice that no apologist ever tries, in any of their harmonies, to emphasize the links as done above. This is because it would show the weaknesses in the so-called harmony. In this case, the harmony does indeed cover all the points, but the harmony itself is so much larger than any of the gospels, with so much in John absolutely missing from any other gospel, as well.

One apologist suggests that Mary Magdalene made a visit by herself, and then tries to suggest that when she returns with Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved that this may be when the other women came, too, but this doesn't make sense, as in at least two of the gospels, the women are going to the tomb to anoint the body with spices, so if they believe the body has been taken, why would they still go with that as their intention? After some more searches, here is another possible harmonization, although it has events occurring throughout the day, and is hardly as satisfying. Here is another possible harmonization, but it doesn't have Mary Magdalene leave until after they see that the body has been taken, but this makes little sense if the angels have been speaking to them before they enter the tomb, as they enter the tomb, and as they look at where Jesus's body laid. Remember, before the women enter the tomb, the angel was speaking to them, telling them what happened; however, when Mary Magdalene runs back to tell the disciples, she says “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” This makes no sense if Mary Magdalene had in any way communicated with any angel. Similarly, the text, at least as translated, says "

Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb." If the second sentence is prefixed with "But", this suggest that her staying behind and crying is being contrasted with the disciples returning; that is, she is there at the tomb while the two disciples are there. So often, the harmonizations ignore the fact that there are angels appearing multiple times and in different numbers. By having one angel start sitting on the stone and the other being just inside the tomb as the women enter it, we now have two angels for the subsequent two appearances (standing behind the women, and then sitting while Mary Magdalene looks in).

Recall that Michael Knowles suggested that all the gospels are harmonized, except for minor differences that would the same as newspapers might disagree in their reporting of a story. If the story above is the absolute minimum that is required to harmonize all four gospels, then I would suggest that these "reporters" (the gospel writers) did a very poor job indeed, especially as they are allegedly divinely inspired.

harmonization

summary

Summary

In Matthew, we have that:

Jesus is buried in linen.
Two women are identified as going to the tomb at dawn.
An angel moves the stone causing an earthquake and the angel sits on the stone.
There are guards at the tomb.
The women approach the tomb and see the angel.
The angel tells the women to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee.
Jesus appears to the women and tells them to tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee. The women touch his feet.
The disciples meet Jesus in Galilee.

In Mark, we have that:

Jesus is buried in linen.
Three women are identified as going to the tomb after the sun had risen.
They bring spices to anoint Jesus's body.
They find the stone moved away and they enter.
They see a young man is sitting in the tomb.
The young man tells the women to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee.
The women flee and say nothing.

In Luke, we have that:

Jesus is buried in linen.
Three women are identified along with at least two other women as going to the tomb at dawn.
They bring spices to anoint Jesus's body.
They find the stone moved away and enter but find nothing.
Two angels suddenly appear inside the tomb.
The women are given a theological sermon.
The women return and tell the disciples but are not believed; however, Peter does go to the tomb, sees the linen and is amazed.
Jesus later appears to the disciples and tells them to not leave Jerusalem. The disciples never go to Galilee.

In John, we have that:

Jesus is buried in linen and is anointed with with six (6) gallons or 50 pounds of aloe mixed with myrrh.
Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb while it is still dark, but there is no mention of Mary the mother of Jesus, who was at the execution, of going to the tomb.
Mary Magdalene finds the stone moved away.
Mary Magdalene runs back to tell Peter and another disciple. They run to the tomb, and the latter looks into the tomb to sees the linens, while Peter goes into the tomb and also sees the linens, but nothing else. They both return home.
Crying, Mary Magdalene remains at the tomb, looks once more into the tomb and sees two angels.
Mary Magdalene turns away from the tomb to see Jesus (who has chosen not to allow her to recognize him). When she finally does, he tells her not to touch him and passes onto her the message that ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’.
Mary Magdalene passes this message to the disciples.
The disciples do ultimately see Jesus in Galilee.

To observe, the narratives told in the synoptic gospels are more consistent, with exceptions being the number of women, the earthquake in Matthew, the presence of the guards in Matthew, the relative placement (inside/outside the tomb) and positions (standing or sitting) of the individual or individuals met, and whether or not the women are told to tell the disciples to Galilee, but not in Luke where there the disciples do not believe the women but Peter does visit the tomb, and Jesus talking to the women in Matthew.

The narrative in John, however, like so much else in that gospel, is at complete odds with the narrative in the synoptics. The only woman ever referred to is Mary Magdalene (although, she does use the pronoun “we” in the English translation) and the story is told as if she is the only person present. She finds the stone moved but does not apparently go in, but rather returns and gets Peter and another disciple who both return with her to the tomb and examine the empty tomb and linen and who both then leave again, leaving Mary Magdalene alone at the tomb. Crying, she looks into the tomb and sees two angels, and then she turns around and sees Jesus. After this, she returns to the disciples.

To harmonize these disparate narratives, one must believe that Peter visits the tomb twice (the first time with another disciple), but two of the authors don’t even record one of the visits, and the other two only record one of the two visits. Peter apparently also did not try to support what the women were saying when they returned the disciples the second time. One must also believe that three of the authors ignored the fact that Mary the mother of Jesus was at the execution together with her sister, but also decided to not visit the tomb. One must believe one angel was sitting on the stone, and at least two other men or angels were inside the tomb. One must believe that an earthquake was only recorded by the same gospel author who was the only gospel author to record an earthquake when Jesus died. One must believe that either an angel or Jesus told the women to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee, and while one records that they did, the other does not, and the third gospel has Jesus later telling the disciples to not leave the area around Jerusalem.

In summary, while the number of women differ in the four gospels, the first three may only identify significant figures and Matthew and Mark may not identify lesser figures, what is significant with John is that the full narrative focuses only on Mary Magdalene and it seems as if she is the only person present. Any one difference may be explained away (for example the number present), but to suggest that all four narratives tell exactly the same events insgesamt is, in this author’s opinion, a fanciful dream. Any harmonization cannot simply focus on one difference providing a narrative that explains away that difference, but rather should explain all differences simultaneously, as a narrative that potentially explains one difference may contrast with other issues and differences. This author would suggest that the four stories are irreconcilable.

None of this will convince the true believer, because the true believer is only interested in the belief, and not the truth. This will help those who came from evangelical beliefs to realize that those beliefs are unfounded, and that the fears of hellfire burned into their worldview without any merit, for if Yahweh has the character described by fundamentalists, then as he was guiding the hands of these four authors, he knew you would be reading this two-thousand years later, and knowing this, he should have taken much greater care in his inspiration of these four authors (especially as two of them were copying from Mark, and yet still were able to introduce contradictory material). If any Jew is told that Jesus was some sort of alternative messianic figure sent by Yahweh to be a substitutional sacrifice for all sins for all time, putting away the covenant and the law, this should dissuade that believer that this could ever be the case, for none of the four authors can agree what actually happened immediately after Jesus's resurrection, and all four authors contradict each other: not even two authors have stories that are in any way harmonious, even when one was copying from another. Similarly, for any Muslim who is told the Christian interpretation of the purpose and life and character of Isa (عِيسَى), it should be obvious that as none of the gospels agree with any other, that it is impossible that those authors could have in any way been inspired by Allah (ٱللَّٰ), whose angel Gabriel revealed the words of the recitation or Quran (ٱلۡقُرۡءَانُ) to the prophet Mohammad (مُحَمَّد ﷺ), a recitation where Isa does not die, and thus needed not be resurrected, and instead simply ascended into heaven, waiting to return before the day of judgment.

humorous-aside

Humorous aside

In preparing this, I read a number of associated web sites. Often, apologists who try to explain differences focus on one difference at a time, and provide an alternative scenario where that difference or apparent contradiction may be explained. This is to ease the angst of the Christian whose cognitive dissonance is causing frustration. Many fundamentalist Christians do not want a full understanding of what actually happened, but rather, simply wants their worries allayed: there are no contradictions. They wish to be palliated: these apparent contradictions are not contradictions. They don’t have to know the full story that explains and harmonizes all the differences, they just need to believe that this or that particular difference is not really a contradiction, but rather, just an alternative descriptions of the same situation. Also, once one difference is given an plausible alternate interpretation, then many fundamentalist Christians are happy enough to believe, as well, that any other differences also have alternate interpretations. Numerous web pages that provide apologies for this narrative simply focus on one of the differences in the narratives of the women visiting the tomb: those apologies that try to explain why the number of women at the tomb is recorded as being different say nothing about Mary Magdalene fetching Peter and another disciple who return with her to see the empty tomb, and none of them, either, try to explain why, if Jesus was present at the tomb, why Mark and Luke do not mention this fact. I have not found one attempt at an apology that even begins to try to explain more than one of the differences; the one apologetic described above is one of the best. In some cases, however, it was humorous, as the attempt made to reconcile two differences requires an explanation that actually make worse the other contradictions.