Departed translates a verb which technically means “go away from,” suggesting that the women did not actually enter the tomb. Mark has “went out” (16.8), indicating that the women had been inside the tomb and now go out of it.

Quickly translates the same adverb used in verse 7. Matthew indicates that the women did precisely as the angel had commanded them.

Fear is the same noun used in verse 4; elsewhere in the Gospel it is found only in 14.26, when the disciples encounter Jesus walking on the water. Mark is even more dramatic in his use of “trembling and astonishment” (16.8). In place of Mark’s second noun (“astonishment”), Matthew substitutes great joy; then he adds and ran to tell his disciples (Mark: “and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid”).

With fear and great joy is often rendered by a short sentence: “they were afraid but very happy.”

If tell requires an object, translators can have “tell his disciples what the angel had said” or “… what had happened.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .