Verse explainer

What does Luke 24:6 really mean?

The angels at the empty tomb don't announce something new — they call the women to remember what Jesus had already said.

KJV

He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,

BSB

He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee:

The plain meaning

Mary Magdalene and the other women come to the tomb at dawn expecting to anoint a body. They find the stone rolled away and no body inside. Two angels appear and redirect them: don't look for the living among the dead (v. 5). Then comes v. 6 — He is not here; He has risen — and immediately the angels add: remember. The resurrection isn't presented as breaking news without context. It is the fulfillment of something Jesus told them plainly while he was still with them in Galilee. Verse 7 fills in what they should remember: that the Son of Man must be delivered into sinful hands, crucified, and rise on the third day. The women had heard those words. They had simply not understood, or not believed, they could come true. The angel's task is not to deliver new theology but to trigger a memory that was already there.

The common misreading

"He is risen" is the whole point — the angels are announcing the resurrection as breaking news. The declaration 'He is not here; He has risen' is genuinely climactic, but the angels don't stop there and neither does Luke. The very next word is 'Remember.' The resurrection is presented not as an out-of-nowhere miracle that overthrows everything but as the fulfillment of words Jesus had already spoken openly. Verse 7 quotes those words: the Son of Man must be delivered, crucified, and rise on the third day. The women had heard this. The disciples had heard this. Luke 9:22 records Jesus saying it plainly after Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi. The misreading treats the empty tomb as the beginning of the story; the text insists it is the arrival of a story that had been told in advance. That matters, because the angels' 'remember' is a challenge to everyone who heard Jesus and still didn't take him at his word — the evidence was always there, the tomb only makes it undeniable.

What the commentators say

John Gill18th c. · PD

Gill emphasizes that the angels point back to Christ's own predictions precisely to confirm the resurrection by testimony the women had already received firsthand. The necessity stated in those earlier words — that the Son of Man must be delivered, crucified, and rise on the third day — rested on divine decree, covenant, prophecy, and justice together. The empty tomb was the proof that every word of it had been kept.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown19th c. · PD

JFB notes the quiet significance that these same women had been present in Galilee (see Luke 23:55 — they had followed from Galilee and watched the burial). They were not strangers to Jesus' ministry. They had heard him speak. The angel's 'remember' is not rhetorical; it appeals to direct, personal recollection from the women standing right there at the tomb.

Matthew Henryearly 18th c. · PD

Henry observes that Christ had given his disciples repeated, plain warnings about his death and resurrection precisely so that when the event came they would not be overwhelmed or in doubt. The angels calling the women to remember is itself a mark of divine care: God does not leave his people without prior witness. The resurrection was no surprise to heaven, and it should not have been a surprise to those who had listened carefully.

The word behind it

ἠγέρθη ēgerthē

"He has risen" — passive aorist of egeirō, to raise up or awaken. The passive voice is significant: it is not simply that Jesus revived himself but that he was raised. The same verb appears in the Galilean predictions (v. 7 echoes it). Luke's choice of the aorist signals a completed act with present consequences: the tomb is empty because the rising is already done, not still in progress.

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