Did the women prepare their spices before the sabbath, or buy them after it?

Luke and Mark describe two stages of the women’s preparations, and Gill already read them this way. Jesus was buried late on the Friday, and the sabbath began at sunset (Luke 23:54). In the little time left the women went back and prepared what spices and ointments they could (Luke 23:56). Then they rested on the sabbath, as Luke stresses, “according to the commandment”. The sabbath ended at sunset on the Saturday, when the markets could open again, and then, Mark says, “when the sabbath was past”, they bought spices (Mark 16:1). Early on the Sunday the women came to the tomb with all that they had prepared.

Each Gospel mentions the stage that suits its account. Luke ties the women’s preparations to their keeping of the sabbath; Mark ties the purchase to the morning visit that follows. Neither says that nothing was done on the other day. Buying more after the sabbath would be natural if the Friday preparations had been hurried, or if more women had joined in; Luke shows that the group was larger than the three whom Mark names (Luke 24:10).

‘Had bought’

The KJV translates Mark 16:1 “had bought”, as if Mark meant the purchase made on the Friday, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown defend this. The Greek verb (ēgorasan) is a simple past, and since Mark places it after the sabbath, most modern versions have ‘bought’, as the Pulpit Commentary also prefers. On the KJV reading there was only one purchase, on the Friday.

Two groups of women

Ellicott suggests that two groups of women may have shared the work, the two Marys and ‘Joanna and the others’ (Luke 24:10). If so, one group may have prepared spices on the Friday while the two Marys and Salome bought more on the Saturday evening.