Father Augustus Bisping's Commentary on John 20:1-9

§ 20. The Testimony to Jesus as the Risen One Before His Disciples and Women Disciples. Conclusion. 20:1–31.

1. Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene, Jn 20:1–18.

See on Matt 28:1 ff.; Mark 16:1 ff.; Luke 24:1 ff.

Jn 20:1 f.: "But on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene comes early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and sees the stone taken away from the tomb."

Concerning μία τῶν σαββάτων ["one of the Sabbaths"], see on Matt 28:1. According to the first three Evangelists, several women went with Mary—who is here named alone—to the tomb, namely, Mary the mother of James, Salome, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza. John names only Mary Magdalene because it was precisely she who first brought the message to him and to Peter that the tomb was empty. That, however, she had companions is indirectly indicated in the plural οἴδαμεν ["we know"] in v. 2. Concerning σκοτίας ἔτι οὔσης ["while it was still dark"], see on Mark 16:2. From ἐκ τοῦ μνημείου ["from the tomb"] it follows that the stone had been pushed into the entrance of the tomb. See on Matt 27:60.

Jn 20:2: "She runs therefore and comes to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and says to them: 'They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.'"

In order to bring this account into harmony with the report of the first three Evangelists, we must assume that Mary Magdalene, who loved the Lord so deeply, hurried ahead of the other women and, when she found the stone removed and the tomb empty, ran back in fright and without waiting any further, and announced to Peter and John what she had seen. Meanwhile, the other women also arrived at the tomb and found there an angel, who announced to them the resurrection of the Lord, reminded them of His prophecies, and directed them to Galilee, where they would see Him. When these had then returned to the city, Peter and John come to the tomb. In the plural οἴδαμεν ["we know"], Mary, in her agitation, includes her companions.

Jn 20:3: "Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they came to the tomb."

Luke 24:12 narrates only concerning Peter; but the τινές ["some"] in Luke 24:24 indicates that John also was in his company.

Jn 20:4-5: "And the two ran together; and the other ran on ahead, faster than Peter, and came first to the tomb, and stooping down he sees the linen cloths lying, yet he did not go in."

Thus John overtakes Peter in the race and arrives first at the tomb; but, timid as he is, he at first ventures only to stoop down to peer into the burial cavity, and he sees at some distance the linen cloths lying, with which the corpse had been wrapped. The reason why John ran faster than Peter lay probably not in the greater age of the latter; rather, it was the deep love which quickened the steps of the disciple of love. Had it been a matter of a work of vocation, had something been to be done or suffered for Jesus or His Church, Peter would certainly not have remained behind him.

Jn 20:6-7.: "Simon Peter therefore comes, following him, and he entered into the tomb; and he sees the linen cloths laid aside, and the face cloth, which had been upon His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but separately folded together in one place."

John, as the more hasty, comes first to the tomb; but Peter, as the bolder, is the first to enter into the tomb and perceives that the individual linen cloths have been carefully laid aside, as by one who has undressed himself, and he sees the face cloth, which was ordinarily wrapped around the face of the dead, lying elsewhere, neatly folded.

Jn 20:8: "Then therefore the other disciple also entered, who had come first to the tomb, and he saw (the state of affairs in the tomb just reported) and believed."

Some refer ἐπίστευσε ["he believed"] back to v. 2: "He believed what Mary had said concerning the emptiness of the tomb and the removal of the body of Jesus." So already Augustine: "Quid ergo vidit, quid credidit? Vidit scilicet inane monumentum et credidit quod dixerat mulier, eum de monumento esse sublatum." ["What therefore did he see, what did he believe? He saw, of course, the empty tomb and believed what the woman had said, that He had been taken from the tomb."] But this would have to be more precisely indicated; moreover, the emphatic use of πιστεύειν ["to believe"], especially in John, speaks against this (cf. 19:35). What John believed results of itself from the context, namely: that Jesus had risen from the dead.

1. From the care with which the burial cloths had been folded together and left behind, John gained the faith that the Savior had risen. For if the corpse had been carried away by a foreign hand, one would not have removed the burial cloths, or at least, on account of haste, would have thrown them down in disorder. John now believed; but Peter remained still at mere astonishment; for concerning him it is said in Luke 24:12: θαυμάζων τὸ γεγονός ["marveling at what had happened"].

Jn 20:9 To his own shame, John adds in v. 9: "For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead."

Had the Apostles possessed a true understanding of Scripture, had they, for example, grasped Ps 16, Ps 110, Isa 53, and many other passages in their true significance, then it would not have been necessary for them to inspect the empty tomb in order to believe in the resurrection that had occurred. This full understanding of Holy Scripture came to the disciples first through the Risen One Himself (cf. Luke 24:27, 46 ff.; Acts 1:3) and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:24 ff.). Only then did they also understand the Lord's own predictions concerning His resurrection (see on Matt 16:21 f.).

Concerning δεῖ ["it was necessary"], cf. Luke 24:26: Christ had to emerge gloriously from the tomb in order to be able to make His merit of redemption the common possession of all. See on Rom 4:23 ff.

CONTINUE