Passage

Matthew 28.9

Book: Matthew · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

7. And go quickly, and tell his disciples, He is risen from the dead; and lo, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 8. And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word.

9. And behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and took hold of his feet, and worshipped him.

Then saith Jesus unto them, Fear not: go tell my brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see me. 11. Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city, and told unto the chief priests all the things that were come to pass. (Matthew 28:7-11, ASV)

WEB

7. Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead, and behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you will see him.’ Behold, I have told you.” 8. They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word.

9. As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” They came and took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go tell my brothers that they should go into Galilee, and there they will see me.” 11. Now while they were going, behold, some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all the things that had happened. (Matthew 28:7-11, WEB)

KJV

7. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 8. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

9. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. 11. Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. (Matthew 28:7-11, KJV)

YLT

7. and having gone quickly, say ye to his disciples, that he rose from the dead; and lo, he doth go before you to Galilee, there ye shall see him; lo, I have told you.' 8. And having gone forth quickly from the tomb, with fear and great joy, they ran to tell to his disciples;

9. and as they were going to tell to his disciples, then lo, Jesus met them, saying, 'Hail!' and they having come near, laid hold of his feet, and did bow to him.

Then saith Jesus to them, 'Fear ye not, go away, tell to my brethren that they may go away to Galilee, and there they shall see me.' 11. And while they are going on, lo, certain of the watch having come to the city, told to the chief priests all the things that happened, (Matthew 28:7-11, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Matthew, narrating; Jesus speaks "All hail"
Audience: Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" (28:1), running from the empty tomb to tell the disciples (28:8)
Location: Near the tomb outside Jerusalem
Time period: The first day of the week after the crucifixion, c. AD 30 or 33

Theological reading

"And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him" (Matthew 28:9, KJV).

First witnesses. The first to meet the risen Jesus in Matthew are two women, already running "with fear and great joy" (28:8). In a culture where women's testimony carried little legal weight, it is an odd detail to invent, and historians often count it among the marks of an early, unvarnished report.

Held him by the feet. The women grasp his feet. Matthew is reporting a body that can be touched, not a vision. Luke makes the same point when Jesus eats fish before the disciples (Luke 24:39-43), and John when Thomas is invited to touch the wounds (John 20:27).

Worship without rebuke. "Worshipped" is proskuneō (Strong's G4352), to bow down. The word can mean simple homage (see Matthew 18.26), so the verb alone does not decide what the women meant. What decides is the pattern. When Cornelius bows to Peter, Peter stops him: "I myself also am a man" (Acts 10:26). When John bows to an angel, the angel stops him (Revelation 19:10). Jesus does not stop the women, and at the end of the chapter the eleven worship him too (28:17), just before he claims "all power ... in heaven and in earth" (28:18). The Jehovah's Witnesses vs the Christian God comparison makes this contrast. See Resurrection of Jesus and Christs Deity.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G2424 - Iesous, Iesous, Strong's G2424
G3004 - lego, lego, Strong's G3004

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Mary Magdalene, via Matthew 28.8-9

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.