John 20:2
Encyclopedia
John 20:2 is the second verse of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John
in the New Testament
. Mary Magdalene
has just discovered that the tomb of Jesus
has been opened. In this verse she seeks out and tells this news to Peter
and the Beloved Disciple.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
The World English Bible
translates the passage as:
That she seeks out Peter and the Beloved Disciple implies that Mary Magdalene knew these two well enough to know where they were staying in Jerusalem. It also shows that Mary felt the two would be concerned enough to act on her information, despite Peter's actions at the crucifixion
. The repeated word "to" implies that Peter and the Beloved Disciple were staying at different places and that Mary thus delivered her message twice. John
, who is often considered to be the Beloved Disciple, is said by other sources to be staying with Mary, the mother of Jesus, at this time. Schnackenberg notes that the double-barreled name Simon Peter is how the Gospel of John usually refers to Peter.
This is the third appearance of the Beloved Disciple in John, he also appears in John 13:23 and John 19:26. The introduction of the Beloved Disciple leads to two starkly different views on the veracity of the passage and those that come later. To those who believe in the traditional view that the Beloved Disciple is the author of the Gospel it adds great weight to what comes next as it is the report of an eyewitness. To most modern scholars who feel the Gospel was written at a later date the arrival of the Disciple makes the text less credible as they see him as a fictional creation.
Mary Magdalene refers to they, but does not make clear who they are. Westcott
lists three possibilities: She might mean grave robbers. Grave robbery was a problem in Palestine during this era, as a Roman
first century edict condemning the practice makes clear. They could also refer to the Jewish leaders who may have had a reason to take the body. Some feel the "we don't know where they have put him" makes it possible that they refers to the grave keepers and that Jesus' body was merely shifted to another tomb. Brown notes that the verb tithenai, which is translated as laid/put can also mean buried. However, if Mary was thinking the body had merely been shifted by workers it raises the question of why she is so concerned, and why Peter and the Beloved Disciple so quickly leave to investigate.
Mary refers to Jesus as lord, previously in John this title had not been used by Jesus' followers. Some, such as Brown, see this as evidence that this section was written by a different author from the rest of the gospel. An alternative theory is that the new title is permissible now that Jesus is dead.
Mary states that "we don't know where they have put him." However the previous verse only mentioned her at the tomb. Many scholars link this to the synoptic gospels
where Mary is described as going to the grave with a group of other women. To those who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible this is evidence that the other women were in fact with Mary, but the author of John did not feel it was necessary to mention them. Conversely Wellhausen and Spitta have both argued that the we could have been an alteration by a later editor who modified John to make it more like the other Gospels. Some early versions of the Gospel do have I instead of we at this point. Brown does not think much of this theory as the rest of the passage remains unaltered. Dalman argues that it was not uncommon to use the first person plural for the first person singular in this era.
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
has just discovered that the tomb of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
has been opened. In this verse she seeks out and tells this news to Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
and the Beloved Disciple.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
- Then she runneth, and cometh to
- Simon Peter, and to the other
- disciple, whom Jesus loved,
- and saith unto them, They have
- taken away the LORD out of
- the sepulchre, and we know
- not where they have laid him.
The World English Bible
World English Bible
The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...
translates the passage as:
- Therefore she ran and came to
- Simon Peter, and to the other
- disciple whom Jesus loved,
- and said to them, "They have
- taken away the Lord out of
- the tomb, and we don’t know
- where they have laid him!"
That she seeks out Peter and the Beloved Disciple implies that Mary Magdalene knew these two well enough to know where they were staying in Jerusalem. It also shows that Mary felt the two would be concerned enough to act on her information, despite Peter's actions at the crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
. The repeated word "to" implies that Peter and the Beloved Disciple were staying at different places and that Mary thus delivered her message twice. John
John the Apostle
John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
, who is often considered to be the Beloved Disciple, is said by other sources to be staying with Mary, the mother of Jesus, at this time. Schnackenberg notes that the double-barreled name Simon Peter is how the Gospel of John usually refers to Peter.
This is the third appearance of the Beloved Disciple in John, he also appears in John 13:23 and John 19:26. The introduction of the Beloved Disciple leads to two starkly different views on the veracity of the passage and those that come later. To those who believe in the traditional view that the Beloved Disciple is the author of the Gospel it adds great weight to what comes next as it is the report of an eyewitness. To most modern scholars who feel the Gospel was written at a later date the arrival of the Disciple makes the text less credible as they see him as a fictional creation.
Mary Magdalene refers to they, but does not make clear who they are. Westcott
Brooke Foss Westcott
Brooke Foss Westcott was a British bishop, Biblical scholar and theologian, serving as Bishop of Durham from 1890 until his death.-Early life and education:...
lists three possibilities: She might mean grave robbers. Grave robbery was a problem in Palestine during this era, as a Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
first century edict condemning the practice makes clear. They could also refer to the Jewish leaders who may have had a reason to take the body. Some feel the "we don't know where they have put him" makes it possible that they refers to the grave keepers and that Jesus' body was merely shifted to another tomb. Brown notes that the verb tithenai, which is translated as laid/put can also mean buried. However, if Mary was thinking the body had merely been shifted by workers it raises the question of why she is so concerned, and why Peter and the Beloved Disciple so quickly leave to investigate.
Mary refers to Jesus as lord, previously in John this title had not been used by Jesus' followers. Some, such as Brown, see this as evidence that this section was written by a different author from the rest of the gospel. An alternative theory is that the new title is permissible now that Jesus is dead.
Mary states that "we don't know where they have put him." However the previous verse only mentioned her at the tomb. Many scholars link this to the synoptic gospels
Synoptic Gospels
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...
where Mary is described as going to the grave with a group of other women. To those who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible this is evidence that the other women were in fact with Mary, but the author of John did not feel it was necessary to mention them. Conversely Wellhausen and Spitta have both argued that the we could have been an alteration by a later editor who modified John to make it more like the other Gospels. Some early versions of the Gospel do have I instead of we at this point. Brown does not think much of this theory as the rest of the passage remains unaltered. Dalman argues that it was not uncommon to use the first person plural for the first person singular in this era.