24:5 The11 women12 were terribly frightened13 and bowed14 their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living15 among the dead? 24:6 He is not here, but has been raised!16 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,17
snBowed their faces to the ground. Such respect for angels is common: Dan 7:28; 10:9, 15.
15
sn By referring to Jesus as the living, the angels make it clear that he is alive. There should be no surprise.
16
tc The phrase “He is not here, but has been raised” is omitted by a few mss (D it), but it has wide ms support and differs slightly from the similar statement in Matt 28:6 and Mark 16:6. Although NA27 places the phrase at the beginning of v. 6, as do most modern English translations, it is omitted from the RSV and placed at the end of v. 5 in the NRSV.
tn The verb here is passive (ἠγέρθη, ēgerthē). This “divine passive” (see ExSyn437–38) points to the fact that Jesus was raised by God, and such activity by God is a consistent Lukan theological emphasis: Luke 20:37; 24:34; Acts 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30, 37. A passive construction is also used to refer to Jesus’ exaltation: Luke 24:51; Acts 1:11, 22.
17
snWhile he was still in Galilee looks back to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. So the point is that this was announced long ago, and should come as no surprise.