Matthew 28:2-4

A second earthquake (divine intervention) had occurred (cf. Matthew 27:51). The relationship between the earthquake, the descent of the angel, and the rolling away of the stone is indefinite in the text. All of these events have supernatural connotations. An angel had announced the Incarnation, and now an angel announced the Resurrection (Matthew 1:20-23; cf. Matthew 18:10). [Note: Plummer, p. 417.] The angel rolled the stone away to admit the witnesses, not to allow Jesus to escape (cf. John 20:26). The guards experienced the earthquake and observed the angel who appeared as a young man (Mark 16:5). It was seeing the angel that evidently terrified them so greatly that Matthew could describe them as dead men (Matthew 28:3-4). Perhaps they fainted dead away.