A3 O1 1-18. Events. Morning.
O2 19-31. Events. Evening.
O1 P 1,2. Report of Mary.
Q 3-10. Peter and John.
P 11-17. Mary alone.
Q 18. Report of Mary.
29 A.D.
John 20)
1 The first day of the week (on the 1st day of the Sabbaths. A reference to Lev. 23:15-17 shows that this "first day" is the first of the days of reckoning the 7 Sabbaths to Pentecost. On this day, therefore, the Lord became the first-fruits [vv. 10,11] of God's resurrection harvest [1 Cor. 15:23]) comes Mary Magdalene early (about 3 to 4 a.m.), when it was yet dark, to the tomb, and sees the stone having been taken away from the tomb. (Sunrise services are for the worship of the Pagan Sun god – only. In addition, Jesus was not resurrected on Sunday, the first day of the week.
One mythological legend says that sometime after Semiramis died, a huge egg dropped from heaven. Out of the egg came a re-incarnated Semiramis, now a goddess. The Babylonian Talmud refers to her as Ishtar, or Easter.
The forty days of Lent symbolize one day for each year of Tammuz' life. This period of time is celebrated in the "Christian" church by giving up something to mourn the death - of Tammuz, the son of the pagan goddess Semiramis! See Ezekiel 8:13,14 to see what God thinks about this!)
2 Therefore she runs, and comes to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They took away the LORD out of the tomb, and we know not where they laid Him." (Implying care and reverence, and so suggesting Joseph and Nicodemus had removed Him)
3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and were came to the tomb.
4 So they were running both together: and the other disciple ran ahead, more quickly than Peter (this affords no ground for the assumption by so many commentators, even Alford, that John was younger than Peter), and came first to the tomb.
5 And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; however he went not in.
6 Then comes Simon Peter following him, and went into the tomb, and intently beholds the linen clothes lying,
7 And the napkin, that was upon His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but coiled round and round into a place by itself. (Her it implies that the cloth had been folded round the head as a turban, and it lay still in the form of the turban. The linen clothes also lay exactly as they were when swathed round the body. The Lord had passed out of them, not needing, as Lazarus [11:44], to be loosened. It was this sight that convinced John [v. 8].)
8 Then went in also that other disciple also, who came first to the tomb, and he saw, and believed. (i.e. believed He had risen. All that He had said about rising again the 3rd day had fallen upon dull ears. The chief priests had taken note of His words [Matt. 27:63], but the Disciples had not.)
9 For they knew not yet the scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. (Cp. Ps. 16:10,11, &c.)
10 Then the disciples went away again to their lodging. (Galilean fishermen, constantly moving about with their Rabbis since the Feast of Tabernacles, 6 months before, could have no settled home, as we understand it, in Jerusalem. They had not been there since their Master left it [see 10:49], till the last few days)
11 But Mary stood outside of the tomb weeping: therefore as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the tomb,
12 And sees two angels in white sitting (probably Michael and Gabriel. Cp. Dan. 9:21; 10:21; 12:1. Luke 1:19,26. The supreme importance of the Lord's resurrection in the Divine counsels demanding the presence of the highest angels.), the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. (At either end of the rock-cut ledge whereon the Lord had been laid [as the cherubim at either end of the mercy-seat, Ex.25:19]. They sit in the empty tomb who stand in the presence of God [Luke 1:19. Rev. 8:2].)
13 And they say to her, "Woman, why do you weep?" She said to them, "Because they took away my LORD, and I know not where they laid him."
14 And having said these things, she turned half round, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why do you weep? whom do you seek?" She, supposing Him to be the gardener, says to Him, "Sir, if You did bear Him from here, tell me where You did laid Him, and I will take Him away."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned herself, and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni;" which is to say, "Master."
17 Jesus said to her, "Do not be holding Me (He didn't have time right then to talk to her); for I am not yet ascended to My Father (This gives the reason for the prohibition. He afterwards allowed the woman to hold Him by the feet [Matt. 28:9]. On this day, the morning after the Sabbath, the high priest would be waving the sheaf of the first-fruits before the Lord [Lev. 23:10,11]; while He, the first-fruits of the dead [1 Cor. 15:3], would be fulfilling the type by presenting Himself before the Father): but go to My brethren, and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.'" (This marks the essential difference in His and their relationship with the Father. But because God is the God and Father is our Lord [Eph. 1:3, He is therefore our God and Father too.])
18 Mary Magdalene comes telling the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that He had spoken these things to her.
R f 19. Peace.
g 20. Gladness.
f 21. Peace.
g 22,23. Power.19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were (probably in the upper room. Mark 14:15. Luke 22:12. Acts 1:13) on account of fear of the Jews (Kenites), came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be to you."
20 And when He had so said, He showed to them His hands and His side (Luke says hands and feet. All 3 were pierced). Then the disciples rejoiced, when they saw the LORD.
21 Then said Jesus to them again, "Peace be to you: as the Father has sent Me, I also send Me to you." (Note the distinction. The Father sent the Son alone, but the Son sends His disciples with an "escort" or guard, i.e. the Holy Spirit. This is to emphasize the fact that the Lord remains [by the Spirit] with those whom He sends)
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive you the Holy Spirit: (The same Lord, who as Yehovah Elohim, breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life so that he became a living soul, here breathes upon the apostles that they may receive Divine power. Satan tries to parody the Lord's words and works. In the "Great" Magical Papyrus of about the 3rd century A.D. occurs the following in a spell for driving out a demon: "When you adjure, blow, sending the breath from above to the feet, and from the feet to the face". The First-fruits of the resurrection here bestows the first-fruits of the Spirit, not only on the apostles, but on "them that were with them" [Luke 24:23, and cp. Acts 1:14; 2:1)
23 Whose soever sins you forgive, they are fogiven to them; and whose soever sins you retain, they are retained." (This authority bestowed upon the apostles and others continued in force with other "gifts" till Acts 28, which records the final rejection of the Kingdom. To suppose the "Church" of Eph. 1 has any share in them is not rightly to divide the Word of Truth, but to introduce perplexity and confusion. See Mark 16:17)
24 But Thomas, one out of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the LORD." But he said to them, "If I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will by no means believe."
26 And after eight days (i.e. a week later, on the day following the 2nd Sabbath of the 7 in the reckoning to Pentecost) again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut (this shows that the Lord had now the spiritual body of 1 Cor. 15:44), and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace be unto you."
27 Then said He to Thomas, "Bring here your finger, and behold My hands; and bring here your hand, and thrust it into My side: and become not unbelieving, but believing."
28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My LORD and my God." (First testimony to the Deity of the risen Lord. Possibly Thomas was using the words of Ps. 86:15, which in the Sept. read Kurie ho Theos, and claiming forgiveness for his unbelief on the ground of Ex. 34:6, to which this verse of this Psalm refers.)
29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed: blessed are they saw not and believed, and yet have believed." (Those who crave for miracles and signs today will have them, but they will be Satan's miracles.)
30 Therefore many and other signs truly did Jesus in the sight of His disciples (these were always in relation to and in proof of His Messiah-ship.), which are not written in this book: (Here was the opportunity for the writers of the Apocraphal Gospels, &c., of which they were not slow to avail themselves.)
31 But these have been [and therefore] stand written (emphatic), in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life in His name. (Cp. Acts 3:6; 4:10,12; 10:43. 1 Cor. 6:11. 1 John 5:13.)