Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 28:7

"And go quickly, and tell his disciples, He is risen from the dead; and lo, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you." — Matthew 28:7 (ASV)

He goes before you into Galilee — These words seem to point to a meeting in Galilee as the first appearance of the risen Lord to His disciples, and Matthew records no other. No adequate explanation can be given for this omission of what the other Gospels report if we assume the entire Gospel was written by the Apostle Matthew.

On the hypothesis that this is a “Gospel according to Matthew,” representing the substance of his oral teaching, the absence of a particular fact that we would have expected him to record may have been due to some idiosyncrasy of the scribe or, so to speak, editor of the Gospel.

It is also possible that if the disciples had believed the report brought by the women, the mountain in Galilee would have been the scene of the first meeting between them and their Master. But they did not believe, and they required the evidence which He, in His compassion, gave them in order to quicken their faith and lead them to obey the command.