Were they real angels? Or optical illusions?
But first, how credible were the witnesses? It was Mary of Magdala, whom everybody knew that she was possessed by demons:
(Jn 20:1-18) On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it is still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him”. 3 So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. 4 They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; 5 he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. 6 When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, 7 and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. 8 Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. 9 For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned home. 11 But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb. 12 and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him”. 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus, but did not know it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him”. 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni”, which means teacher. 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”, and what he told her.
'11 But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb.' Therefore, when this demon-possessed woman was alone with no witnesses (no witnesses = claim does not stand according to the Jewish Law or any other court of law), she wept, which means she had tears in her eyes. Logic says that in her bent position, the teardrops were dangling from her eyes. By this time of the morning, the sunrays will be in a certain angle with her line of sight through the teardrops. The rays along with the tears in her eyes and with her bent position will make her see two strange sources of light. Inevitably, Mary has to see two strange sources of light, one sparkling in each eye. If there were really two angels there, she should have seen six sources of light, two from each of the two angels and two from the sun. Logic says that there were no angels there but she perceived the optical illusion by the sunrays as two angels in white.
Some Christians say that this happened before there were any sunrays and Mary wiped off her tears. But those Christians failed to explain how could the two disciples have run in such treacherous terrain in the dark without any source of light. Shouldn’t they have carried two torches with them (since they ran separately)? That they later left behind in the tomb? They needed at least some source of light, otherwise they would have walked very cautiously. It is absurd to assume that they ran in the dark in such treacherous terrain without any source of light at all.
Assuming she was never possessed by demons, logic says that innocent Mary was emotionally battered and had tears in her eyes when she mistook the gardener for Jesus. She was still in her ‘Denial Stage’. In this stage, a person in loss will hold on to practically any idea that will take away his/her emotional pain. Mary found that idea when she heard the disciples speak about the resurrection. That’s why Mary thought that it must have been Jesus and not the gardener. Science says that Mary was still in her denial stage when she convinced herself that the gardener was actually Jesus and those two sparkling lights were angels. She went and told the disciples what she wanted to believe. The gardener simply asked her twice “Woman, why are you weeping?” but she thought that it was the angels the first time and Jesus the second time: 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him”. 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus, but did not know it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him”. It was the gardener all along. If this man was really Jesus, she should have recognized him immediately. But this was not the case. When she turned around, she looked at him in the face, recognized him as the gardener, and talked to him as the gardener “Sir if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him”. Mary looked at this man straight in the face but did not recognize the looks of this man, not even his voice. The voice of this man and his looks did not resemble the voice nor the looks of Jesus. She even talked to him as the gardener and asked him where he laid Jesus and proposed that she would take his body.
Christians give many reasons why Mary misperceived the identity of Jesus, but what they failed to explain is why did she NOT misperceive the identity of the angels for exactly those same reasons. Why should we believe that Mary was in a perfect state to determine that those were actually angels, but still not in the least state to identify whom she was talking to? “Sir if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him”.
Because she used to have demons, everybody in such a small community would have known her name. She had tears in her eyes and talked to him as the gardener who knew her name and asked her not to touch him because he was afraid of her demons... He tried to comfort her by telling her that the dead man she was looking for went to heaven (like all good guys)… She talked to him as the gardener and did not think that it was Jesus until later when she imagined that it must have been him 'For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead' and
neither did she at that time.
