✨WEB · Luke 23:55
What does Luke 23:55 mean?
"The women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid."
— Luke 23:55 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
this man went to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body.
He took it down, and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that was cut in stone, where no one had ever been laid.
It was the day of the Preparation, and the Sabbath was drawing near.
The women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid.
They returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Explanation
Luke 23:55 comes at a pivotal, quiet moment in the crucifixion narrative. Jesus has just died, and Joseph of Arimathea has taken his body down from the cross, wrapped it in linen, and placed it in a rock-hewn tomb that had not yet been used. This verse tells us that a group of women who had traveled with Jesus all the way from Galilee did not leave the scene. They followed Joseph to see where the tomb was and to observe exactly how Jesus's body was laid within it. The next verse notes that they then went home and prepared spices and ointments, resting on the Sabbath according to the commandment, before returning early on the first day of the week.
To understand the context, it helps to remember who these women were. Luke had already introduced them earlier in his Gospel, in chapter 8, naming several — including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna — as women who had been healed or delivered by Jesus and who then followed him and supported his ministry out of their own means. They had journeyed with him from Galilee all the way to Jerusalem, witnessing his teaching, his arrest, and now his death. Luke, writing to a Gentile audience (traditionally identified with Theophilus) to give an orderly and reliable account of the events concerning Jesus, includes this detail deliberately. It is not incidental; it establishes these women as eyewitnesses to the burial, which becomes crucial later when they are also the first witnesses to the empty tomb.
Theologically, this verse underscores several important themes. First, it highlights fa
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