Following the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses (probably Jesus’s mother) visit the tomb of Jesus early on Sunday morning. Their ointments of oil mixed with myrrh and aloes (John 19:39), which they had not had time to buy or apply when Jesus was buried, were not intended for embalming (i.e., to prevent decay of the body) but to perfume the decaying corpse as an act of devotion. The naming of the women three times in connection with Jesus’s death and resurrection (15:40, 47; 16:1) establishes the veracity of the resurrection on the basis of eyewitnesses. The names of women attest to the authenticity of the resurrection narrative, for had the early Christians fabricated the resurrection account they would scarcely have done so on the testimony of women, which was immateri…