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1–10. Mary Magdalene and two disciples, Peter and John, at the tomb. – 11–18. Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene. – 19–23. The appearance of Christ to the disciples on the evening of Resurrection Day. – 24–29. The appearance of Christ to the Apostle Thomas in the presence of other disciples. – 30–31. Conclusion to the Gospel. John 20:1. On the very first day of the week, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early, when it was still dark, and sees that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb. The Evangelist John, like the weather forecasters, does not depict the event of the resurrection itself, but speaks only about how Christ’s disciples learned about this event: he needed to show his readers that the resurrection of Christ is a fact sufficiently attested. But, as in his other narratives, John does not repeat what has already been said by the weather forecasters, but supplements their messages with new details. “On the first day of the week” - see comments on Matthew 28:1 and parallel passages. “Mary Magdalene,” one of Christ’s most devoted disciples (John 19:25), comes to the tomb (of course, with the goal of anointing Jesus’ body with aromas, Mark 16:1) when it was still dark. She did not go alone, but with other wives, as can be seen from her words (“we do not know” - verse 2), but, according to John, she got ahead of the other wives and alone came to the tomb, where she saw that the stone covering the tomb had been rolled away. John 20:2. So he runs and comes to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and says to them: They have taken the Lord away from the tomb, and we do not know where they laid Him. Mary, thinking that the stone was rolled away by people who transferred the body of Christ somewhere, hurries to notify about this the most respected disciples of Christ - Peter and John (who, here, as in other places, does not call himself by name). "We don't know." She obviously says this because she did not know that the other wives who came after her to the tomb saw Angels here telling them that Christ had risen (see Matthew 28:5-8 and parallel passages). John 20:3. Immediately Peter and the other disciple came out and went to the tomb. John 20:4. They both ran together; but the other disciple ran faster than Peter, and came to the tomb first. John 20:5. And, bending down, he saw the linens lying; but did not enter the tomb. Peter and John quickly went to the tomb, even “ran,” adds John. Is it because John was younger than Peter, or because he was in a hurry to find out what was going on as quickly as Peter, the first overtook the second. But he did not enter the tomb itself out of a natural sense of fear of the mystery of death. Leaning towards the grave, he noticed only the shrouds, i.e. linen bandages or bandages, which usually tightly covered the members of the body of the deceased (cf. John 11:44). John 20:6. Simon Peter comes after him, and enters the tomb, and sees only the linens lying, John 20:7. and the cloth that was on His head, not lying with swaddling clothes, but especially rolled up in another place. John only cast a fleeting glance at the shrouds (as shown by the verb βλέπει used about him, verse 5), and Peter, as a more decisive person, entered the tomb itself and found nothing here except the shrouds and the head scarf, which lay rolled up separately from the shrouds. Peter considered this with attention (θεωρεῖ), but did not come to any definite decision on the question of what happened to the body of Christ. John 20:8. Then the other disciple, who had first come to the tomb, also entered and saw and believed. John 20:9. For they did not yet know from the Scriptures that He had to rise from the dead. John 20:10. So the disciples returned to themselves again. Then John also dared to enter the tomb and, seeing what Peter saw, believed that Christ had risen. He realized that the abduction of the body could not have taken place here, since the kidnappers would not have had time to remove from Christ the shrouds that were tightly stuck to the body, and even roll them up. John does not say anything about whether Peter believed in the resurrection of Christ, and therefore some interpreters (for example, Bishop Michael), taking into account the message of the Evangelist Luke, according to which Peter went from the tomb, “wondering at himself at what had happened” (Luke 24:12), believe that Peter did not yet believe at that moment, but believed after (Luke 24:34), while others (for example, Tsan) think that together with Peter also believed in John, since John says about himself and about Peter that until now they could not find any indication in Scripture that it was fitting for Christ to rise from the dead. The fact that after this visit to the tomb, Peter did not go to look for the body of Christ, but went home with John, makes the second opinion more likely. In fact, with his ardent and impetuous character, Peter would certainly have gone in search of the body of Christ if he had even the slightest suspicion that the body had been taken away somewhere (cf. the act of the disciples of the prophet Elijah, 2 Kings 2:16). “They didn’t know yet...” Like other Jews, the disciples of Christ before His resurrection did not imagine that the Messiah would die and, therefore, did not even think about any of His resurrection (cf. Mark 9:10). Christ spoke, according to John, about His resurrection only in images (John 2:19, 10:18). John 20:11. And Mary stood at the tomb and cried. And when she cried, she leaned into the coffin, John 20:12. and sees two Angels, in white robes, sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. John 20:13. And they say to her: wife! Why are you crying? He says to them: They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. Bypassing in silence the secondary question of how Mary Magdalene again found herself at the tomb, the evangelist reports that she “stood at the tomb and wept.” Just like John, she leaned towards the tomb and at that time saw two Angels sitting there (cf. Luke 24:4; Matthew 28:3). Heavenly messengers ask her about the reason for her tears, and Mary answers them as if they were ordinary people, not realizing that there are Angels in front of her, because she would hardly have considered it necessary to report the loss of the body of Christ to those who, of course, themselves knew about what really happened. If John mentions here the appearance of Angels, he probably has the purpose of showing how Christ was glorified from the very moment of his resurrection: this glorification was best evidenced by the appearance of Angels. Why didn’t Peter and John see the Angels? This question can only be answered speculatively. Probably, from them, as from the apostles, faith was required that did not require those extraordinary angelic appearances that Mary and the other wives were awarded with (cf. Luke 24:4-11). John 20:14. Having said this, she turned back and saw Jesus standing; but did not recognize that it was Jesus. John 20:15. Jesus says to her: woman! Why are you crying? who are you looking for? She, thinking that it is the gardener, says to Him: Master! if you have brought Him out, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him. John 20:16. Jesus says to her: Mary! She turned and said to Him: Rabbi! - which means: Teacher! Having given an answer to the Angels, Mary turned away from the tomb, because she was convinced that the body of Christ was not in the tomb. At this time, she saw Jesus standing close to her. She did not recognize Him, probably because her eyes were held back, like those of the two disciples going to Emmaus (Luke 24:16). When Christ asks who she is looking for, Mary, considering Christ to be the gardener, asks her to tell her where he laid Him (she does not say who, assuming that the gardener was busy transferring the body of Christ and knows what Mary is asking). Mary probably did not immediately receive an answer to her question: she was again looking at the tomb when Christ called her by name. The tone in which Christ delivered His address to Mary immediately gave her the opportunity to recognize Him, and she exclaimed in joy: “Rabbi!” Although John translates this word in the same way as the word “Rabbi,” there is no doubt that in the mouth of Mary this title had a special meaning. The fact is that in ancient Hebrew literature the word “Rabban” did not mean a scribe-teacher, but was equivalent to the expression “Adon the Lord” (Tzan, p. 664). Mary, calling Christ who appeared to her alive as such, obviously recognizes Him as the Lord of life. John 20:17. Jesus says to her: Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; But go to My brothers and say to them: I ascend to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God. Probably Mary, in unexpected joy, rushed to Christ to grab His feet. Only this can explain the words of Christ addressed to her: “do not touch Me” (more precisely, do not take hold of Me, do not hold me; cf. the meaning of the verb used here ἅπτεσθαι with Matthew 8:15, 9:20; Luke 22:51). The reason why Christ forbids Mary to embrace His feet is because He “has not yet ascended to His Father.” By this He makes it clear to Mary that the time has not yet come for the believers to resume personal communication with Him; this communication will become possible only when He again enters the state in which He was before He came into the world (cf. John 6:62). And this was necessary so that the will of God for the salvation of all mankind could be fulfilled. Mary, as if keeping Christ in the circle of His former disciples, prevented the boundaries of Christ’s communication with humanity from expanding to the limits that He had in mind when He said that He would draw everyone to Himself (John 12:32). Only after the ascension of Christ can everyone who believes in Him, without interfering with anyone, enjoy fellowship with Him (John 3:15). “Go to My brothers...”. Mary should not keep Christ here on earth, but go to His brothers - this is what Christ calls His disciples in order to show His special closeness to them (cf. the expression “friends” in John 15:13–15) and to tell them that He is now ascending (ἀναβαίνω - present tense) to His Father and God, Who at the same time is their Father and God. Christ, obviously, is not talking here about the ascension that was to take place in forty days. According to John, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene at the moment when he had just left the tomb. He has risen, but has not yet been glorified - glorification will follow immediately, and, apparently, He appeared to Mary in order to send her to the disciples with the announcement that the glorification of Christ should now take place, about which He had repeatedly told them before as the most important event, which should lead to their own glorification (cf. John 16: 7, 22). As if wanting to show that He had not yet entered into a state of divine glorification, Christ here calls the Father His God: He does not use such an expression anywhere in His other speeches found in John. However, Christ speaks separately about His attitude towards God and separately about the attitude of the disciples towards God. By this He shows that He is the Only Begotten Son of God, Who hid His eternal glory in the state of incarnation and again comes to accept it as something belonging to Him from all eternity - to accept it precisely as the God-man, so that weak human nature may also be worthy of glorification with Him. Hence, calling the apostles “brothers” of Christ takes on a special meaning: Christ seems to want to say by this that the apostles, thanks to the glorification of Christ, will also one day come to the Father and enter into the glory of Christ (cf. John 3:2; Heb. 6:20) 50. John 20:18. Mary Magdalene goes and tells her disciples that she saw the Lord and that He told her this. Mary goes and announces that Christ has appeared to her and conveys His words addressed to her. Some interpreters, based on the testimony of the Evangelist Mark, believe that the disciples did not believe Mary (Mark 16:11). This opinion must be recognized as correct, although John himself does not talk about how the news of the resurrection was received by the disciples. If Loisy claims that, according to John, the apostles appear to have believed Mary (Peter and John himself, says Loisy, already believed, and the other disciples accepted Christ who appeared to them without fear and with joy), then this statement is broken by the direct testimony of the Evangelist Mark. Of course, however, Peter and John must be excluded from the number of disciples who did not believe Mary. John 20:19. On the same first day of the week in the evening, when the doors of the house where His disciples were meeting were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them: Peace be with you! John 20:20. Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet and His ribs. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. It speaks here (up to verse 24) of the appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples in the evening of the same first day of the week. The Evangelist Luke reports in more detail about this phenomenon (Luke 24:36 et seq.). John only adds some details to what Luke said. Thus, he says that at that time the doors of the house where the disciples were gathered were locked for fear that the Jews would suddenly burst in to seize the disciples of Christ. Mentioning this circumstance, John obviously wants to note that if Christ did appear to the disciples, then His glorification through the body, through humanity, has already been accomplished: He is no longer held back by locked doors, and His body passes freely through the walls. Then one John says that Christ showed His side to the disciples (Luke mentions “feet” instead) 51 . If John does not mention the bewilderment and fear of the disciples at the sight of Christ appearing to them so unexpectedly (cf. Luke 24:37) and speaks only of the joy that they felt at the same time, then this is, of course, explained by John’s usual method of omitting the details of events known from the Synoptic Gospels. He repeats about the joy of the apostles, mentioned in Luke (Luke 24:41), in order to show here the fulfillment of the promise given by Christ to the disciples in his farewell conversation (John 16:20–22). It should be noted that Christ undoubtedly pointed to His wounds, inflicted on Him by nails and a spear, for the purpose of assuring the disciples that it was their crucified Teacher who stood before them. Of course, John and the women standing at the cross had already told the apostles how a soldier pierced the side of Christ with a spear, which the apostles themselves did not see. John 20:21. Jesus said to them a second time: Peace be with you! just as the Father sent Me, so I send you. Since the disciples, having abandoned their Teacher and Lord during the hours of His suffering, thereby, as it were, abandoned the task entrusted to them of spreading the teachings of Christ in the world (John 17:18), Christ now again restores them to their dignity and destroys any doubts that arose in them regarding their right to be apostles, saying that He sends them just as the Father sent Him Himself. By this, He already makes it clear to them that He is sending them fully armed so that they can fulfill the mission entrusted to them, just as His Father sent Him with all the power of the Spirit (John 3:34). John 20:22. Having said this, he blew and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:23. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; On whomever you leave it, it will stay on it. To strengthen the disciples, Christ imparts to them the gift of the Holy Spirit, and also uses an external sign (symbol) - a breath. Some ancient interpreters saw only one symbol here. Thus, Theodore of Mopsuet was condemned at the V Ecumenical Council for claiming that Christ, in his first appearance to the disciples, did not give them the Holy Spirit, but only pretended to breathe this Spirit into them (pr. 22). In our time, Tsang renewed this heresy, arguing that in the passage we are considering, Christ only speaks of the future sending of the Spirit. The breath that Christ uses here is, according to Zahn, only a symbol. It did not give the apostles any special powers or hierarchical advantages. If they are granted here the right to forgive and not forgive sins, then not in the Sacrament of Confession, which is not discussed here, but only through the proclamation to all people of the great truth that from now on in Christ everyone can receive remission of sins under the condition of repentance and faith, which are required of those entering the Church of Christ... But one cannot agree with such an interpretation. It takes too much imagination to grant the apostles the right to knit and decide to see the commission to proclaim the Gospel. Christ expressed this commission directly (Matthew 28:19–20). Moreover, there is not a single case in the Gospels when Christ used a symbol that did not contain real content. The view of B. Weiss seems more plausible, according to which here Christ gives not the Spirit that He promised to all believers (John 7:39), but a special gift intended only for the apostles and, of course, their successors. As for the right to knit and decide, then, now giving His disciples this right, Christ fulfilled the promise He once made in the person of Peter to all the apostles (Matthew 16:19). But in this case, one cannot but agree with those theologians (for example, with Loisy) who say that with this gift of the Spirit and the power to bind and decide, Christ opens the beginning of the existence of the Church. John 20:24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not here with them when Jesus came. John 20:25. The other disciples said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails, and put my finger into the marks of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” After this appearance, the apostles themselves are the messengers of the resurrection. They joyfully report the resurrection of Christ to the Apostle Thomas, who probably left Jerusalem on the day of the resurrection and was not worthy to see the Risen One. Thomas does not believe their story that they saw Christ and the wounds on His hands and side. He himself personally wants to see and even touch these wounds - the stubbornness of his character (cf. John 11:16, 14:5) was reflected in this case with particular force! John 20:26. After eight days, His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came when the doors were locked, stood in the midst of them and said: Peace be with you! John 20:27. Then he says to Thomas: put your finger here and see my hands; give me your hand and place it in my side; and do not be an unbeliever, but a believer. Thomas remained in this state for eight days. On the next Sunday after the first, he was already with his disciples (the whole situation here is almost the same as in the first appearance of Christ, and therefore we can believe that the second appearance also took place in Jerusalem, and not in Galilee, as Tsang thinks). After the greeting, Christ turns to Thomas with the requirement to touch with his own fingers (this is the meaning of the expression “look”) His hands, on which there were traces of being pierced by nails, and then with his own hand to examine the wound from a spear strike in Christ’s side. Repeating with accuracy the demand that Thomas himself expressed in the presence of the disciples, but which Christ did not hear, the Lord already with this insight has a beneficial effect on the soul of Thomas (cf. the words spoken to Nathanael at his calling, John 1:48). "Don't be an unbeliever". For some reason, some interpreters explain these words in the sense of an invitation to Thomas: from the two paths that lay before him, faith and unbelief, to choose the first path (Bishop Michael partly holds this view). But from John’s message it is clear that Thomas had already taken the path of unbelief: he did not even believe the consonant testimony of his comrades, who claimed that they had seen the Lord (verse 25). John 20:28. Thomas answered Him: My Lord and my God! John 20:29. Jesus says to him: You believed because you saw Me; Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. The words of the Risen One triumphed over the stubborn heart of Thomas. He forgot about his previous demand and no longer wants to touch the wounds on the body of Christ. And the fact that Thomas did not really take advantage of Christ’s permission is evident not only from the fact that John does not talk about his examination of these wounds, but also from the fact that he calls Thomas’s confession a direct immediate response, which was given by Thomas to the Lord’s proposal (“said... in response”). “My Lord and my God!” Thomas, having brought to mind everything that Christ had previously said about His relationship to the Father (John 8:58, 10:29-38, etc.), as well as various manifestations of the miraculous power of Christ, now expresses an open confession of his faith in Christ not only as his Lord - this is how the disciples called Christ before (Matthew 21:3) - but also as God. He does not even limit himself to the name “Son of God,” because the name could also be understood in a figurative sense, but directly calls Christ God, who, of course, took on human flesh. “You believed...” . Christ affirms Thomas's confession, as if saying that Thomas, having believed in the Divinity of Christ, acted quite correctly. The Lord, however, by this indication of the path by which Thomas came to faith in Him, the path of personal identification, does not at all humiliate Thomas in front of the other disciples: after all, they also did not believe the testimony of women (Mark 16:13) and were convinced only when the Lord appeared to Peter (Luke 24:34). However, in the Lord’s pleasing of those who believe in Him without seeing Him (Jesus Christ, of course, had in mind here the Christians of future times) lies a gentle reproach to Thomas for wanting to have more tangible evidence of the resurrection of Christ than which God deigned to give to people. John 20:30 . Jesus did many other miracles before His disciples that are not written in this book. John 20:31. These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name. Here John gives the first conclusion to his Gospel. He notes, bearing in mind the incompleteness of his narrative about the life of Christ, that Christ performed many “other miracles” or, more correctly, signs (σημεῖα), which, however, are not mentioned “in this book,” i.e. in his Gospel. The Lord performed miracles or signs “before His disciples.” This does not mean that the whole people were not their witnesses, but was said by John in order to inspire confidence in his Christian readers in the apostles, who were leaders of Christians, in order to find out that the preaching of the apostles about Christ as God incarnate is based on the numerous testimonies that Christ gave them about His divine dignity. “This is the same”, i.e. John's accounts of the signs performed by Christ. "So that you may believe." Since John wrote the Gospel already for those who believe in Christ, it would be correct to recognize another reading here: “so that you may believe,” i.e. continued to believe (ἵνα πιστεύητε, not πιστεύσητε). This reading is confirmed by other codes (see Tischendorf). You need to believe that “Jesus is the Christ,” the Messiah, whom the Jews were expecting, and at the same time, “the Son of God,” as the Jews did not want to recognize Him and whom many Christian heretics did not see in Christ afterward. Only such faith in Christ as the Son of God can give a person eternal life. This life is obtained “in His name”; more correctly, there is life, it lies in His name. Since we have found the true Son of God in Christ, then through this we already have true, eternal life (cf. John 1:12). The Fathers of the Church and our Orthodox exegetes do not see unity in the explanation of the words of Christ addressed to Mary Magdalene (verse 17). According to the interpretation of St. John Chrysostom, Christ inspires Mary to now treat Him with great reverence, “since He became much more perfect in the flesh.” Thus, according to Chrysostom, the glorification of the body of Christ has already been accomplished. Saint Cyril of Alexandria explains Christ’s prohibition from touching Him by the fact that Mary, as she had not yet received the cleansing grace of the Holy Spirit, should not have touched the most holy body of the Lord. Consequently, according to the thought of St. Cyril, the body of Christ became most holy or glorified from the very moment of the resurrection. Bishop Michael finds here an indication that Christ was “in the same body.” Archbishop Innocent expresses himself even more clearly in the same spirit: “Mary’s acceptance of the Lord as a heli-grader shows that the glory of the resurrection was already hidden under the roof of flesh, although it had solemnly passed through the gates of death, but had not yet been raised to the full height of heavenly grandeur.” By “ascent,” Archbishop Innocent understands “temporary ascension into the heavenly world,” where Christ was to appear with his resurrected body as the conqueror of hell and death, Archbishop. Innocent ed. 1875, vol. 5, p. 240, etc. 10, p. 338). In general, I agree with Archbishop Innocent G.K. Vlastov, who says that the process of glorifying the body of Christ was just taking place at the hour when He spoke to Mary. When the Lord appeared to His disciples and allowed them to touch Him, glorification had already taken place (vol. 2, p. 248). Among the defenders of the opposite opinion, we should mention Roman Levitsky, who says that to admit that the body of Christ immediately after the resurrection had not yet completely renounced the conditions of earthly material existence means to admit that the death of Christ was not a complete, real death, and His resurrection was not the abolition of the very sting of death, a decisive victory over it, the destruction of all its flesh (“The Body of the Risen Lord” in Right Review, 1880, p. 632). But all the bewilderments that he expresses about this interpretation disappear if we adhere to the view of G.K. Vlastov that the glorification of the Lord lasted only a few hours after the resurrection. In John, according to the best codes, it reads “arms and side”, the expression “legs” is omitted (Tischendorf). You might be interested in: