Bible Commentaries
John 20

Verses 1-31

XX 1-XXI 25 The Risen Saviour —That, on the. Sunday following the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, the tomb in which he had lain was empty, and that he showed himself alive from the dead many times that day and during forty days Are the best certified facts of human history. For thirty years and more eyewitnesses were proclaiming these facts to the world, and shaking the world with their proclamation. The fragmentary written record of their evidence which we possess in the four Gospels is unassailable, but, like all evidence of the kind, it presents difficulties of harmonization. This work of distinguishing persons and moments and other circumstances, so as to eliminate apparent contradictions, belongs mainly to commentators on the Synoptists. Jn concentrates on the empty tomb, on the first appearance to Mary Magdalene, and on three appearances to the Apostles as a body or in representative numbers. His narrative touches the synoptic narrative at four points only. These will be noted as they occur. Jn unites both Judaean and Galilean appearances, for after the three appearances at Jerusalem he records a fourth on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. This makes the Gospel end serenely, on an April or May morning, beside the waters where the Apostles were formerly called to be fishers of men. The last page dedicates its final words to Simon Peter, the Supreme Shepherd of the Lord’s sheep, and to the disciple whom Jesus loved. Chapter XX without its epilogue is really the record of an apparition marked by a miracle, 1-14, to which are attached the conferring of the primacy on Peter, 15-17, the prediction of his martyrdom, 18-19, and the rectification of a misunderstanding about Jn 20-

XX 1-10 The Empty Tomb —The Johannine witnesses of the empty tomb are first Mary Magdalene and then the two Apostles Peter and John. 1. After the Sabbath, Mt, Mk on the first day of the week —our Sunday, Lk, Jn—Mary Magdalene came to the tomb (not alone, but with other women). Jn agrees with Lk on the early hour, ’while it was yet dark’, but seems to differ from Mk who says that the sun had risen. As it seems likely that the women had been staying over in Bethany, the difficulty is solved by distinguishing the moment of setting out from the moment of arrival. Whereas in Mk the three Women saw the stone already removed, Jn only records the presence and action of her on whom the impression of the empty tomb was most rapid and vivid.

2. He does not say that Mary looked into the tomb, but the sequel supposes it. She ran back at once to tell the Apostles. The repetition of prepositions seems to indicate that she found Peter and John in different places. Her report is rapid: ’They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him’. The use of the first person plural shows that she had not gone unaccompanied.

3 f. Peter and John ran to the tomb. John’s youth is sufficient reason for his outrunning Peter. 5. Bending down to the low opening, he saw the bandages but did not go in—retained possibly by some strong emotion or more probably by respect for Peter.

6 f. The latter entered and found complete evidence that the body had not been removed; for bodysnatchers would surely never have carefully divested the body of its linen bands before taking it away. The bandages were not in a confused heap, but were ’lying’ on the ledge (in the shape of the body and not folded up?). And the napkin that had been over his head was lying apart and carefully rolled up.

8 f. John perceived the truth at once, and with the light of his faith saw the meaning of some Scriptural prophecy of the resurrection (probably Ps 1506)).

10. Each went his way, but Lk shows Peter ’wondering in himself’.

11-18 Appearance to Mary Magdalene —As Aug. says so beautifully: ’When the men went away, a stronger affection kept the weaker sex fixed in the same place’. 1

11 f. Mary was so completely absorbed in the grief of her loss, that she only just noticed the two whiterobed figures within.

13. To the question of the angels she has only one answer, ’they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him’.

14. She turned back, possibly because, while she was answering, the angel at the foot of the funeral bench was fixing his eyes on someone outside. Jesus was standing there, but either because he did not show the appearance which she had known, or because of tears in her eyes, or because of her state of soul she did not recognize him.

15. His double question was identical with that of the angels. With her fixed idea regarding the removal of the body, Mary grasped at what seemed some hope of finding it. This man (whom she thought to be the gardener) could tell her. In her request to the stranger she names no name, only him; him, him, as if the whole world should know who he was. In saying: ’I will take him away’, it is ’the audacious Mary Magdalene’, as St Thérèse called her, who speaks.

16. Jesus spoke then. In the sound of the name Mariam from the lips of the Saviour we should meditate the voice of the Good Shepherd calling his sheep by name. In calling him Rabboni Mary used a form of address which had more solemnity and respect in it than Rabbi.

17. A gloss in some MSS says: ’She ran forward to touch him’. Most probably she did take hold of his feet, for the words ’Touch me not’, representing a Gk present imperative, mean ’Do not cling to me’. The reason of the prohibition is that just now she must be a messenger, apostolorum apostola. The content of the message is that he is risen and is still with his brethren, till he ascends to his Father—not immediately. There are many interpretations or these difficult words, but the above seems the simplest. 18. Jn records that Mary delivered her message; Mk registers the incredulity of the disciples, 16:11.

19-23 Appearance to Ten Apostles —Lk places this apparition after the return of the two disciples from Emmaus. The Apostles had reassembled during the day. The collegiate term ’eleven’ is used by Lk for those gathered, but there were actually only ten. Jn seems to consider the Apostles only, though some others were present, Luke 24:33. Faith in the resurrection had already established itself, for Jesus had appeared to Peter during the day. Nevertheless, Mk tells that the pilgrims from Emmaus were not believed. The joy of the resurrection, it seems, did not exclude the feeling expressed in the popular phrase that some things are too good to be true. The place of reunion is probably the Cenacle.

19. The news of the empty tomb and the calumny that the body had been stolen by disciples of Jesus, Matthew 28:13, was no doubt already circulating in Jerusalem. Hence the fear which made the disciples hide behind closed doors. Jesus, whose glorified body needed no open door to enter by, suddenly stood in their midst. The salute ’Peace be to you’ must have sounded like a general pardon.

20. Proof beyond all doubt of the identity of the Lord was given by the wounded hands and side which he showed them.

21. The exhibition of these signs of redemption was a fitting introduction to a repetition of ’Peace be to you’. The words that follow conferred on the Apostles the same mission which the Word Incarnate had from the Father, to be exercised in the name and with the authority of Jesus himself.

22 f. By the symbolic gesture of breathing upon them he signified that he was communicating the Holy Spirit —a partial anticipation of the gift of Pentecost. The words: ’Receive ye the Holy Ghost’ made the meaning quite clear. The power of remitting and retaining sins, clearly supposes judicial authority exercised over sins in a tribunal. Accordingly the Church has perpetually understood this act of the Saviour as the institution of the sacrament of Penance ( Trent, Sess. 14). Thus the sacrament of pardon was instituted under a double sign of the Saviour’s peace, on the most joyful day of the world’s history. It should be noted that in the intention of Christ who gave this power to the members of an apostolic college, Thomas, who was absent, also received it.

24-29 Appearance to the Eleven —The case of Thomas, in whom Jn took a special interest, 11:16; 14:5, is very important because, as St Gregory remarks, the slow surrender of Thomas is of more advantage to strengthen our faith than the more ready faith of all the believing Apostles. Besides, the act of faith made by the believing Thomas is the fullest and most explicit of all the confessions of faith recorded in the Gospels.

24. For the third time Jn mentions Thomas, and for the second time interprets his name, which means ’Twin’. A blend of scepticism and pessimism goes with a melancholic temperament, such as seems to have been that of Thomas. He had probably lost heart more than the others during the Passion, and his absence from the reunion on Easter Sunday may have been due to a hard-headed attitude towards such wishful imagining as he would have thought Mary Magdalene’s message to be. However, this is partly conjecture.

25. The fact is that he met the joyful announcement of the Apostles ’We have seen the Lord’ with a most exacting demand for proof. He required every sort of experimental test, before he would believe that the Crucified was risen.

26. And he remained in this stubbornness a full week, till Jesus appeared in the same circumstances to all the Apostles, including himself. Again our Lord gave his peace,

27, invited Thomas to apply his tests, and added: ’Do not become an unbeliever but a believer’. This is the force of the Gk words, which indicate that Thomas had not lost the virtue of faith, but was on the way to losing it.

28. The Apostle, we may feel certain, did not approach to touch Jesus in the way he had demanded, but immediately made his sublime act of faith. The words he spoke do not seem to be either an exclamation nor a vocative, but an elliptic proposition: ’Thou art my Lord and my God’. Rather than a confession of the Messianic character and divinity of Jesus, it is a double confession of his divinity.

29. If we read the words of Christ, which follow, as an assertion, we must understand them thus: ’Because thou hast seen me (risen), thou hast believed (me to be God)’. It is better, however, to read them as a question: ’Is it because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed?’ No, because believing does not require seeing. Hence the beatitude (the last evangelical beatitude) of believing without seeing. The more faith is an interior supernatural light—the more it is independent of the support of merely human arguments, the better it is.

30-31 First Epilogue —There are two tenable explanations of this first epilogue. Either the Gospel originally ended here and Jn later added ch 21 with another epilogue, or this first epilogue was originally at the end of 21 and migrated here, when presbyters of Ephesus, gathered around Jn and under divine inspiration, added the final epilogue. The first epilogue sums up the whole purpose of the Fourth Gospel. This writing was not intended as an exhaustive record of the signs wrought by Jesus. The evangelist made a choice of a certain number of facts and discourses, in order to confirm disciples in their faith regarding Jesus as Messias and Son of God, so that believing they may have life in his name—the life meant being everlasting life.