Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Luke 24:5

"and as they were affrighted and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?" — Luke 24:5 (ASV)

Once again, Luke describes someone pondering a remarkable event (e.g., 1:29, 66; 2:19). Luke speaks of “two men” in the tomb who address the women; this mention of two men seems consistent with his other references to witnesses to Jesus (cf. Simeon and Anna, 2:25–38; and esp. 24:48). Two witnesses are the minimum number required for validation (19:15). That Luke understands that the two “men” were angels is evident from what he says of them in v.23 and from his description of their clothes as gleaming like lightning. Not only were the women frightened, but in their fear they bowed facedown to the ground (fear is a typical response in the presence of a supernatural visitation; e.g., 1:12; 2:9; 9:34). “The living” stresses the factual aspect of the Resurrection.