What does Matthew 28:17 mean?

The eleven remaining disciples, and likely many other people, are meeting with Jesus on a mountain up in Galilee after His resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:1–10). Matthew reports that the reaction of the disciples to Jesus when He appeared in His glorified body was the same as that of the women who saw Him immediately after the resurrection: worship (Matthew 28:9).

What does it mean that they worshiped Jesus? For the women, it involved getting low to the ground and taking hold of Jesus' feet. Both groups recognized, because of the resurrection from the dead following the terrible crucifixion, that Jesus was truly the powerful Son of God. They understood Him to be God in the flesh, and they likely bowed before Him and expressed honor and praise for Him.

Matthew adds, though, with frustratingly little detail that "some doubted." What did they doubt, exactly, and who did the doubting? We cannot know for sure, but Bible scholars speculate. Perhaps some doubted that this was really Jesus raised from the dead and not another being. Perhaps some doubted, still, that the resurrected Jesus was the Son of God and worthy of worship. Perhaps some simply doubted that what they were seeing with their own eyes, Jesus alive and breathing, could possibly be true.

Who doubted? Some say it must have been some among Jesus' main eleven disciples. Some say it must have been others present at the appearance of Jesus in this moment. Thomas, famously, stubbornly refused to believe Jesus was alive even after hearing it from the other ten disciples (John 20:24–29). It's possible that other followers of Christ were afraid to trust what seemed too good to be true.