All four Gospels record that women—not men—were the first to discover the empty tomb and hear the announcement that Jesus had risen (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20).
To modern readers, that may not seem unusual. But in the first-century Jewish and Greco-Roman world, women’s testimony was often not considered legally reliable in court.
So if someone were inventing a story to convince people, this is not the detail they would choose. They would have named respected male leaders, disciples, or public figures as the first witnesses.
Instead, the Gospels unanimously report that women were first. That actually strengthens the credibility of the accounts, because it reflects what really happened rather than what would have been most persuasive.
Luke 24:10–11 even says that when the women told the apostles, they did not believe them because their words seemed like nonsense.
If this were propaganda, the writers would not portray the male disciples as doubting the first report. Matthew 28:5–6 says:
“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid… He is not here; He has risen.’”
These women were not political authorities or official witnesses. They were faithful followers who had stayed near Jesus when many others fled (Matthew 27:55–56). They came expecting to mourn, not expecting a miracle—and became the first carriers of the greatest news in history. John 20 shows Mary Magdalene being sent to tell the disciples:
“Go to my brothers and tell them…” (John 20:17)
In a culture that often minimized women’s public voice, God entrusted them with the first proclamation of the greatest message in the history of the world.
The message did not go first to the influential. It went to the faithful.
