John 20:5

5 Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying there on the ground, but he did not go in.

John 20:5 Meaning and Commentary

John 20:5

And he stooping down and looking in
That is, John; when he came to the sepulchre, stooped down to look into it, and see what he could see; he only went into the court, or stood upon the floor, where the bearers used to set down the bier, before they put the corpse into one of the graves in the sepulchre, which were four cubits lower; (See Gill on Mark 16:5). Hence he was obliged to stoop down, ere he could see anything within: when he

saw the linen clothes lying;
in which the body had been wrapped, but that itself not there:

yet went he not in;
to the sepulchre itself, but waited in the court or porch, till Peter came; and perhaps might be timorous and fearful of going into such a place alone; the Arabic version reads it, "he dared not go in".

John 20:5 In-Context

3 Peter and the other disciple started at once to go to the tomb, both of them running,

4 but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached it before he did.

5 Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying there on the ground, but he did not go in.

6 Simon Peter, however, also came, following him, and entered the tomb. There on the ground he saw the cloths;

7 and the towel, which had been placed over the face of Jesus, not lying with the cloths, but folded up and put by itself.