His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| His | αὐτοῦ autou | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine |
| countenance | εἰδέα eidea | G2397 | a sight (comparative figuratively "idea") · noun — nominative singular feminine |
| was | ἦν ēn | G2258 | I (thou |
| like | ὡς hōs | G5613 | which how · particle |
| lightning | ἀστραπὴ astrapē | G796 | lightning · noun — nominative singular feminine |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| his | αὐτοῦ autou | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine |
| raiment | ἔνδυμα enduma | G1742 | apparel (especially the outer robe) · noun — nominative singular neuter |
| white | λευκὸν leukon | G3022 | white · adjective — nominative singular neuter |
| as | ὡσεί hōseí | G5616 | as if |
| snow | χιών. chiōn | G5510 | snow · noun — nominative singular feminine |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
His countenance--appearance. was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow--the one expressing the glory, the other the purity of the celestial abode from which he came.
His countenance was like lightning,.... There was such a lustre and brightness in his face, that it glittered like lightning: such a description is in Daniel 10:6, and his raiment white as snow: the word "white" is left out in the Vulgate Latin, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel: the angel appeared clad in white, as a token of the purity and innocence of his nature; and because of the victory and triumph of Christ over death and the grave; and that he might be known and taken by the women for a good angel, it being a commonly received notion of the Jews, that ministering angels were clothed in white (b). "Said R. Ame to R. Levi, show me the Persians; he said to him, they are like to the might…
Read the whole note in the consoleMatthew 28:1-7 Matthew 28:1-7 Mark 16:1-7 Luke 24:1-8 1. Now in the evening of the Sabbaths, [298] which began to dawn towards the first of the Sabbaths, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulcher. 2. And lo, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and approached, and rolled away the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 3. And his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment was white as snow. 4. And through fear of him the guards trembled, and became as dead men. 5. But the angel answering, said to the women, Fear not; for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. 6. He is not here; for he is risen, as he said. Come, see…
Read the whole note in the consoleThe discovery of the empty tomb and the various resurrection appearances are presented with different emphases in each of the four Gospels. Matthew focuses on the reunion in Galilee, the attempt on the part of the Jewish leaders to discredit the resurrection, and the significance of the resurrection for the salvation of the world. 28:1 Mary Magdalene (see 27:56): The mention of two women as witnesses lends credibility to the historicity of the account—an inventor of tales would not have used women as witnesses, since a woman’s testimony was considered less reliable than a man’s.
The Angel in white raiment signifies the glory of His triumph.
(Hom. in Ev. xxi. 4.) Or otherwise; Lightning inspires terror; snow is an emblem of equity; and as the Almighty God is terrible to sinners and mild to the righteous, so this Angel is rightly a witness of His resurrection, and is exhibited with a countenance as lightning, and with raiment as snow, that by His presence He might terrify the wicked, and comfort the good; and so it follows, And for fear of him the keepers did shake.
(Serm. 75.) The splendour of his countenance is distinct from the shining of his raiment; his countenance is compared to lightning, his raiment to snow; for the lightning is in heaven, snow on the earth; as the Prophet saith, Praise the Lord from the earth; fire and hail, snow and vapours. (Ps. 148:7.) Thus in the Angel's countenance is preserved the splendour of his heavenly nature; in his raiment is shown the grace of human communion. For the appearance of the Angel that talked with them is so ordered, that eyes of flesh might endure the still splendour of his robes, and by reason of his shining countenance they might tremble before the messenger of their Maker. (Serm. 77.) But what means this raiment where there is no need of a covering? The Angel figures our dress, our shape, our likeness in the Resurrection, when man is sufficiently clothed by the splendour of his own body.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
