John 20:5

5 He bent down and looked in and saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, 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 So Peter and the other follower started for the tomb.

4 They were both running, but the other follower ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first.

5 He bent down and looked in and saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in.

6 Then following him, Simon Peter arrived and went into the tomb and saw the strips of linen lying there.

7 He also saw the cloth that had been around Jesus' head, which was folded up and laid in a different place from the strips of linen.