Re:
“48 And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts. 49 And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, seeing these things.”
These verses form a single retrospective parenthesis the parallel of
Mark 15:40,41 and
Matthew 27:55,56. They may also be grouped with verses
Mark 15:39, Matthew 29:54 and
Luke 23:47 about the centurion.
All three parentheses imply that the people who came, also left the scene of the crucifixion after Jesus had died. Luke emphatically kept record that
“ALL the people”, viz., “everybody” [kai pantes]
“(all) the crowds” [hoi ochloi]
“those who tumulted together” [sumparagenomenoi]
“who saw the things happening” [theohrehsantes ta genomena] AT THE CROSS
“returned” [hupestrephon]
“smiting their breasts” [piptontes ta stehtheh]
Now, if this was after the Burial, there would not have been
two accounts of people who came and left,
but this -- the first of the two accounts -- would have been the only account of people who came and went;
and this -- the first of the two accounts -- would have appeared not in between the Crucifixion and the Burial before the Burial, but after it,
as if -- supposedly -- it described the end of the day of the Crucifixion AND Burial,
and not in reality the end of the day of ONLY the Crucifixion.
So, Where does <<the text painting a picture>> that <<The crowds left the scene, but the friends of Jesus and the women stayed and were observing>>?
And where must I read to find the verse that reads, <<The crowds left but the women did not leave>>?
And where in
Luke 23:52-54 have you read that <<the crowds left>>?
No sir! The text is contradicting what you, Klute David, posted. The text is painting a different picture from the one you are trying to paint, Mr Klute David.
You may tell me that <<the women never left>> until you are blue in the face, but it will never make this first account of people who came to and left from the scene of Jesus’ Crucifixion, the record of the two Marys and Joseph and Nicodemus who buried Jesus, attending and leaving the scene at the grave after his Burial “mid-afternoon” on Friday.
But I clearly, distinctly, see your method. MIX THE TEXT UP so that there’s NO ORDER left and the reader is so confused he won’t make head or tail and like a foie gras must swallow everything you force-feed him.