John 20:5

5 And when he stooped, he saw the sheets lying, nevertheless he entered not [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 Therefore Peter went out, and that other disciple, and they came to the grave.

4 And they twain ran together [Forsooth they two ran together], and that other disciple ran before Peter, and came first to the grave.

5 And when he stooped, he saw the sheets lying, nevertheless he entered not [in].

6 Therefore Simon Peter came following him, and he entered into the grave, and he saw the sheets laid,

7 and the sudarium that was on his head, not laid with the sheets, but by itself wrapped into a place.