John 20 - Introduction
CHAPTER 20. _ The resurrection and subsequent manifestations_.... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 20. _ The resurrection and subsequent manifestations_.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΗι δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων : “And on the first day of the week”. Mk. (Mark 16:2) and Lk. (Luke 24:1) have the same expression. Mt. (Matthew 28:1) has ὀψὲ δὲ σαββάτων, τῇ ἐπιφωσκούσῃ εἰς μίαν σαββάτων. [In the suspected ninth verse of Mark 16 πρώτῃ appears instead of μιᾷ.] Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ἔρχεται, Mar... [ Continue Reading ]
_The empty tomb_.... [ Continue Reading ]
τρέχει οὖν … αὐτόν. She therefore runs, disregarding unseemliness, and comes to those who would be most interested, and without preface, breathless and anxious, exclaims: ἦραν … “they have removed the Lord from the tomb, and we know not where they have laid Him”. Evidently she had no idea that a res... [ Continue Reading ]
At once the two men ἐξῆλθεν … καὶ ἤρχοντο, singular and plural as frequently, aorist and imperfect, the one referring to the passing beyond the city wall, the other to the whole course from the house to the tomb.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔτρεχον δὲ οἱ δύο ὁμοῦ, “and the two ran together”: equally eager; but ὁ ἄλλος μαθητὴς προέδραμε ταχίον τοῦ Πέτρου, “the other disciple ran on before more quickly than Peter”; probably John was the younger man. [Lampe suggests two other reasons: either Peter's steps were slower “ob conscientiam culp... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ παρακύψας … The R.V [94] renders παρακύψας by “stooping and looking in,” A.V [95] has merely “stooping down”; the Vulgate “cum se inclinasset,” Weizsäcker “beugte sich vor”. Field (_Otium Norvic._ on Luke 24:12) prefers “looking in,” although, he says, “peep in” would more accurately define the... [ Continue Reading ]
Peter is not so withheld. He enters καὶ θεωρεῖ τὰ ὀθόνια … τόπον. θεωρεῖ is probably used here in its stricter sense of seeing so as to draw conclusions.... [ Continue Reading ]
What he saw was significant; the linen wrappings lying, and the napkin which had been on His head not lying with the linen cloths, but separately folded up in a place by itself. The first circumstance was evidence that the body had not been hastily snatched away for burial elsewhere. Had the authori... [ Continue Reading ]
On Peter reporting what he saw τότε οὖν … ἐπίστευσεν. “then entered accordingly the other disciple also, who had first arrived at the tomb, and he saw and believed”. Standing and gazing at the folded napkin, John saw the truth. Jesus has Himself risen, and disencumbered Himself of these wrappings. _... [ Continue Reading ]
The emptied and orderly grave convinced him, οὐδέπω γὰρ ᾔδεισαν … ἀναστῆναι; it was not an expectation founded on scripture which prompted belief in the resurrection; but only those matter-of-fact observations, the empty grave and the folded napkin.... [ Continue Reading ]
Satisfied in their own minds ἀπῆλθον οὖν … οἱ μαθηταί. πρὸς ἐαυτούς or αὐτούς or αὑτούς = home; “chez eux,” Segond's French version; εἰς τὰ ἴδια, modern Greek. Kypke gives examples of a phrase which he says is “trita profanis”.... [ Continue Reading ]
Μαρία δὲ εἱστήκει … ἔξω. Hitherto John has told us simply what he himself saw: now he reports what Mary told him, see John 20:18. She had come to the tomb after the men, but could not share in their belief. She remained _outside the tomb_ helplessly and hopelessly weeping. She herself had told the d... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jesus reveals Himself to Mary_.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐστράφη εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω … “And she sees Jesus standing and did not know that it was Jesus”; not merely because her eyes were dim with tears, but because He was altered in appearance; as Mark (Mark 16:12) says, ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῇ. So little was her ultimate recognition of Jesus the result of her expectation... [ Continue Reading ]
λέγει … ζητεῖς; That she was searching for some one she had lost was obvious from her tears and demeanour. But not even the voice of Jesus sounds familiar. Ἐκείνη … ἀρῶ. She supposed Him to be the gardener (or garden-keeper) not because He had on the gardener's clothes for probably He wore merely th... [ Continue Reading ]
λέγει … Διδάσκαλε. His uttering her name, Μαριάμ, revealed that He was a friend who knew her; and there was also that in the tone which made her instantly turn fully round to search Him with her gaze. Surprise, recognition, relief, joy, utter themselves in her exclamation, Ῥαββουνί, which Buxtorf re... [ Continue Reading ]
Μή μου ἅπτου, “noli me tangere,” not because it was indecorous (Luke 7:38); nor because she wished to assure herself by touch that the appearance was real, a test which He did not prevent His disciples from applying; nor because her embrace would disturb the process of glorification through which Hi... [ Continue Reading ]
The time of the manifestation is defined, it was τῇ ἡμέρᾳ … σαββάτων “on that day, the first of the week,” and during the evening, οὔσης οὖν ὀψίας, which agrees with Luke's account, from which we learn that when Jesus and the two disciples reached Emmaus, two hours from Jerusalem, the day was declin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Manifestations of the risen Lord to the disciples, first without Thomas, then with Thomas_.... [ Continue Reading ]
His body, therefore, however changed in its substance, retained its characteristic marks. The fear of the disciples was replaced by joy, ἐχάρησαν … Κύριον. In this joy the promise of John 16:22 is fulfilled (Weiss).... [ Continue Reading ]
When they recognised Him and composed themselves, He naturally repeated His greeting, εἰρήνη ὑμῖν, but now adds, καθὼς … ὑμᾶς. “As the Father hath sent me, so send I you.” In these words (_cf._ John 17:18) He gives them their commission as His representatives. And in confirmation of it, (John 20:22)... [ Continue Reading ]
The authorisation of the Apostles is completed in the words: ἄν τινων … κεκράτηνται. “Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven to them: whosesoever ye retain, they are retained.” The meaning of κεκράτηνται is determined by the opposed ἀφέωνται [the better reading]. The announcement is unexpect... [ Continue Reading ]
Θωμᾶς δὲ … Ἰησοῦς. Θωμᾶς [תָּאוֹם or תּאֹם a twin, from תָּאַם to be double; of which Δίδυμος from δύο is the Greek equivalent]. εἷς ἐκ τῶν δώδεκα “one of the twelve,” the familiar designation still used of the eleven, οὐκ ἦν … “was not with them when Jesus came,” why, we do not know.... [ Continue Reading ]
The rest accordingly, when first they met him, possibly the same evening, said, ἑωράκαμεν τὸν Κύριον; which he heard with incredulity, not because he could mistrust them, but because he concluded they had been the victims of some hallucination. Nothing would satisfy him but the testimony of his own... [ Continue Reading ]
Καὶ μεθʼ ἡμέρας … αὐτῶν. μεθʼ ἡμέρας ὀκτὼ πάλιν. Probably he had been with them every day during the interval, but as Bengel remarks, “interjectis diebus nulla fuerat apparitio”. On the first day of the second week the disciples were “again,” as on the previous Sunday, “within” in the same convenien... [ Continue Reading ]
Εἶτα λέγει … πιστός. He does not need to be informed of Thomas' incredulity; although it is quite possible that, as Lücke supposes, the others had mentioned it to Him. Still, this is not in the text. _Cf._ Weiss, who also quotes Bengel's characteristic note: “Si Pharisaeus ita dixisset Nisi videro,... [ Continue Reading ]
Grotius, following Tertullian, Ambrose, Cyril and others, is of opinion that Thomas availed himself of the offered test: surely it is psychologically more probable that the test he had insisted on as alone sufficient is now repudiated, and that he at once exclaims, Ὁ Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ θεός μου. His f... [ Continue Reading ]
πολλὰ μὲν οὖν … τούτῳ. That this was the original or intended conclusion of the gospel is shown by the use of the words “in this book,” which indicate that the writer was now looking back on it as a whole (Holtzmann). Perhaps τούτῳ is emphatic, contrasted with the Synoptic gospels in which so many o... [ Continue Reading ]
_First conclusion of the gospel_... [ Continue Reading ]