John 20 Footnotes

20:1-2 Who went to the tomb when? All the Gospels agree that Mary Magdalene went along with several other women. She may have run ahead to be the first to see the empty tomb, or else John just didn’t mention the other women with her. Verse 2, after all, has Mary saying, “We don’t know where they’ve put him” (emphasis added). Similarly, she may have been the first to get back to the disciples, or else John simply left out Jesus’s first appearance to the women as a group. As for going while it was still dark, this scarcely contradicts Mk 16:2 (“at sunrise”), since the minutes before and after dawn always resemble “twilight”—part dark, part light.

20:11 Mary Magdalene obviously went back to the tomb, this time probably alone, for this separate special encounter with Jesus. That so much emphasis is placed on her witness (vv. 2,18) is doubly significant, since women’s testimony was not often admitted in ancient law courts. Early Christians, if they were making up a story about Jesus’s resurrection, would not likely have had a woman, and especially not one with a history of being demon possessed (Lk 8:2), as their primary witness.

20:12 Matthew referred to “an angel” (Mt 28:2); Mark, to “a young man” (Mk 16:5); and Luke, to “two men” (Lk 24:4). John harmonized the three accounts. Two angels, appearing like men (as consistently in Scripture), were present. Only one is ever said to speak, so abbreviated accounts could easily have left the second one out. Since no Gospel says that only one angel or man was present, there is no contradiction.

20:25-29 This story depicts Thomas in so poor a light that it was not likely invented by the disciples. It also portrays the disciples cowering behind locked doors for fear of the authorities, hardly in any psychological frame of mind to receive visions of a resurrected Christ. The text also confirms that Jesus was genuinely, bodily raised from the dead. Two theological themes coalesce: This kind of miracle (or sign) should have been adequate to convince people that Jesus was truly Lord and God (v. 28), and the testimony of the disciples should have been adequate to demonstrate that even without firsthand empirical proof (v. 29).