215.  A general view of the events of that third day and those which followed can be constructed from our gospels and Paul.  Early on the first day of the week certain women, including Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, Salome, Joanna, and others, came to anoint the body of Jesus.  On their arrival they found that the stone had been rolled back from the tomb.  Mary Magdalene saw that the grave was empty and ran to tell Peter and John.  The others saw also a vision of angels which said that Jesus was alive and would see his disciples in Galilee, and ran to report this to the disciples.  Meanwhile Mary Magdalene returned, following Peter and John who ran to see the tomb, and found it empty as she had said.  She lingered after they left, and Jesus appeared to her, she mistaking him at first for the gardener.  She then went to tell the disciples that she had seen the Lord.  These events evidently occurred in the early morning.  The next incident reported is that of the walk of two disciples, not of the twelve, to Emmaus, and the appearance of Jesus to them.  At first they did not recognize him, not even when he taught them out of the scriptures the necessity that the Messiah should die.  He was made known when at evening he sat down with them to a familiar meal.  Either before or after this event he had shown himself to Peter.  This is the first manifestation reported by Paul.  If Luke xxiv. 12 is genuine (see R.V. margin), he also tells that when the two again reached Jerusalem the apostles received them with the news that Peter had seen the Lord.  That same evening Jesus appeared suddenly among the disciples in their well-guarded upper room.  His coming was such that he had to convince the disciples that he was not simply a disembodied spirit.  Luke says that he did this by bidding them handle him, and by eating part of a fish before them.  According to John, Thomas was not with the others at this first meeting with the disciples.  A week later, presumably in Jerusalem, Jesus again manifested himself to the little company, Thomas being with them, and dispelled the doubt of that disciple who loved too deeply to indulge a hope which might only disappoint.  He had but to see in order to believe, and make supreme confession of his faith.  The next appearance was probably that to the seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee, when Peter, who denied thrice, was thrice tested concerning his love for his Lord.  Then apparently followed the meeting on the mountain reported in Matthew, which was probably the same as the appearance to the five hundred brethren; then, probably still in Galilee, Jesus appeared to his brother James, who from that time on was a leader among the disciples.  The next manifestation of which record is preserved was the final one in Jerusalem, after which Jesus led his disciples out as far as Bethany and was separated from them, henceforth to be thought of by them as seated at the right hand of God.