The very fact that it is women, rather than men (the other gospels state that Magdalene was accompanied by two other women) who are first to discover the empty tomb is noteworthy in and of itself, in that it reveals, almost accidentally, a sort of absence of heroism that was general among the male disciples in the wake of Jesus’s death, as well as, conversely, a beautiful, if unsurprising, devotion on the part of the women, who had waited a day, until the sabbath was over (as was the Jewish custom) before going to the tomb, with spices, so that they could anoint the dead body of Jesus.