John 20
1 On the first day of the week, Miriam the Tower came to the tomb before dawn while it was still dark, and she saw the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran, and she went to Simeon Peter and the other student whom Jesus was close with.a
“They took the Lord from the tomb,” she told them, “And I don’t know where they put him!”
3 So Peter and the other student went out and began to go to the tomb. 4 The two were began to run together, but the other student ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first. 5 Bending down, they saw the strips of linen lying there; however, they didn’t go inside. 6 Then Simeon Peter, who was behind them, arrived and went inside the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been over Jesus’b head, was not lying with the strips of linen, but was rolled up in a spot by itself instead. 8 So, then the other student who arrived first also went inside the tomb and saw it, and they trusted. 9 (You see, the studentsc didn’t yet understand the scripture about it being necessary for him to rise upd from among the dead.) 10 Then the students went away again to their families.e
11 Miriam had stayed and stood at the tomb, weeping outside. Then, while she was weeping, she bent down to look into the tomb, 12 and she saw two messengersf in white sitting where Jesus’ body had been lying, one by the head and one by the feet.
13 “Ma’am,”g they said to her, “Why are you weeping?”
“Because,” she said, “They took away my Lord, and I don’t know where they put him.” 14 After she said this, she turned around, and she saw Jesus standing there, but she didn’t realize it was Jesus.
15 “Ma’am,” said Jesus, “Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”
Because she thought he was the gardener, she said, “Sir,h if you carried him away, tell me where you put him, and I will take him.”
16 “Miriam,” Jesus said to her.
She turned around and said to him in Aramaic,i “Rabboni (which means, ‘Teacher’)!”
17 Jesus told her, “Do not touch me because I haven’t gone up toj the Father yet, but go to my Familyk and tell them I said, ‘I’m going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Miriam the Tower went to bring the message to the students: “I have seen the Lord!” and she told them what he said.
19 Then, when it was the evening of that day, the first day of the week, and the students had gathered and locked the doors for fear of the Judean authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you!” he said to them. 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the students celebrated having seen the Lord.
21 The Jesus said again, “Peace be with you! Just like the Father has sent me, I am sending you too.” 22 After saying this, he breathed on theml and said, “Receive the Sacred Life-breath! 23 Whenever you dismiss anyone’s deviations, they are dismissed for them. Whenever you hold on to them, they are held onto.”
24 Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So, the other students told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the wounds from the nails in his hands and poke my finger in the wounds from the nails and my hand into his side, I absolutely will not trust it!”
26 After 8 days, his students were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors and stood among them.
“Peace be with you!” he said. 27 Then, he said to Thomas, “Move your finger here, and look at my hands, and move your hand and poke it into my side. Don’t become distrustful, but be a trustful person.”m
28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas responded.
29 “Have you trusted because you have seen me?” Jesus said to him. “Those who don’t see me yet have trusted are truly gratified!”n
30 Then Jesus also produced many other signs in the presence of students that are not written in this book. 31 These ones have been written so that you can trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,o and so that since you trust, you can have life as his representatives.p
FOOTNOTES:
a Traditionally, ‘loved.’ The Greek word here is phileo rather than agapao. In order to attempt to differentiate them, I have translated agapao as ‘love’ and phileo as ‘care about’ or ‘have affection for’ or, in this case, ‘be close with.’ Phileo carries a meaning of a relational bond, emotional care and affection between family members or close friends. Agapao has more to do with a commitment to pursue benefit, take care of, or advocate on behalf of someone or something. Additionally, the word translated as ‘friend’ is connected with this verb phileo, whereas the word translated as ‘beloved’ is connected with the verb agapao.
b Literally, ‘his’
c The word ‘students’ has been added here in order to avoid confusion of ‘they’ regarding the two of them or all the students in contrast with ‘they’ being used as a singular, neuter pronoun for the unidentified student who was there with Peter. While the pronoun in Greek is masculine, the pronoun is modifying mathetes (student) which is a grammatically masculine word, so it has nothing to do with the gender of the person, especially when the person is not identified.
d Or ‘to stand up’ or ‘wake up’ or ‘be roused.’ This word anistemi is used of Eleazar (Lazarus) in John 11:23 and is the verb form of anastasis (‘rising up’) in John 5:29 and 11:25 (“I am the rising up and life”). See the note there for additional information. There is another verb, histemi, with a related meaning, in fact overlapping quite a bit. However, the prefix an- makes the ‘up’ part of the meaning more emphatic. Anistemi can mean literally to ‘stand up’ or ‘wake up’ and it can mean to ‘stand up’ in the metaphorical sense of taking a stand against oppressors or an army. There are examples of it being used to refer to ‘putting forward’ a champion to do battle in a duel and examples of it being used of driving people out of a land, ‘uprooting’ them from their homes. According to The Cambridge Greek Lexicon (2021), the possible definitions include the following: 1) cause to stand up, raise; 2) wake up, rouse; 3) bring back to life, raise (a dead person), restore (a dejected, poor, or injured person); 4) set up, erect (a statue, trophy, tomb, altar, tent, tower, etc.), make stand up, build for oneself; 5) bring into being (provide heirs), appoint (a prophet), 6) rebuild (e.g. walls), restore (e.g. honor), 7) rouse or incite to action (e.g. a warrior), 8) raise, recruit (e.g. soldiers), 9) cause to come forward, put forward, summon (e.g. a warrior or champion), 10) cause to depart, force out, dismiss, break up; 11) drive or flush out; 12) uproot, leave desolate, devastate. Here, it seems to be related to the concept of being connected with life and may also carry hints of those other meanings as well, particularly about rising up against oppression and being put forth as a champion.
e The Greek literally says, ‘Then the students went away again to them.’ It does not specify what ‘them’ refers to. Many translations supply ‘their homes.’ I tend to think they went back to be with each other or other family members, especially since they were found together by Jesus later.
f The word angelos was not a specifically supernatural word; it meant ‘messenger,’ i.e. someone authorized to speak—or act—on behalf of another. While this instance seems to be messengers that are not human, other uses of the word are possible, and it should be translated as ‘messenger’—not ‘angel’ which is just putting the Greek word for ‘messenger’ into English letters—and the context should communicate what the nature of the messenger is. The work of Michael S. Heiser is a great source of information on this topic. The messenger here may even be “The LORD’s messenger,” which refers to a specific concept of God showing up in ways that could not be ignored, such as the burning bush in Exodus 3:2, and it may be a reference to Genesis 18 when “The LORD appeared to Abraham” and “he saw three men standing near him” and he said to them, “My Lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.” In this case, if this is meant to be “the Angel of the LORD” and reflecting Genesis 18, then Jesus would be one of the three, and the two messengers would be the other two.
g Literally, the word means ‘woman.’ However, addressing a woman as ‘woman’ in our culture is considered rude, an attempt to put her in her place, especially when done by a man. In Jesus’ culture, it was done as a respectful way to address someone.
h This word is kurios, traditionally translated as ‘lord’ but it was used in a variety of ways, including to refer to God, to Caesar, to kings, to masters, employers, and a respectful way to address male strangers, as it is here.
i Literally, ‘Hebrew,’ but the language we call Hebrew was not the primary language spoken by the Hebrew people at that time. Aramaic was the language spoken by the Hebrew people and is the language of the several phrases referred to in this document as being ‘Hebrew.’
j This phrase is the same as is used for ‘going up to Jerusalem’ whenever anyone traveled to Jerusalem from any other location.
k Literally, ‘brothers’ or ‘siblings.’ It can also be used for cousins or even figuratively for fellow members of the same people group.
l This word is used in the Greek translation of Genesis 2:7 (and that’s the only place the word is used in the Septuagint) where God breathed on the human and it became a living being.
m Or ‘trusting’ or ‘faithful,’ perhaps something like ‘a truster’ or ‘someone who trusts’
n Traditionally, ‘blessed.’ There is not one English word that covers what is being described here. There is a sense of contentedness but also receiving something that meets a need. Sometimes it’s translated ‘happy’ to capture the mental/emotional component, and historically it was translated ‘blessed’ to capture the endowment aspect of it, the aspect that there’s a quality of goodness gifted to those being described, but what’s not captured in either of those is that the goodness being gifted is directly in response to what the recipients’ experience or actions are. In some cases here it is like restitution, reestablishing justice/equity, and in other cases it’s like the reward or consequence of commitment or accomplishment. At the same time, it’s not at all about ‘instant gratification’ or ‘self-gratification.’ It is about receiving something that inspires or is worthy of gratitude. With this word being about gratitude in response to receiving, and the structure of the sentences showing that what is being received is in response to some other characteristic of the recipient, there is a clear pattern of reciprocity, a mutual generosity and giving between the people and God.
o These are both royal titles. ‘Christ’ refers to the Lord’s anointed king of Israel in the line of David, and ‘Son of God’ is the title Caesar’s took on for themselves after Julius Caesar was worshiped as the divine Lord of the World.
p Literally, ‘in his name’