John 20: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene finds the tomb open, and Peter and another disciple run to see it and find the grave cloths lying there. Mary stays outside weeping, sees two angels, and then meets Jesus himself, who sends her to tell the disciples. That evening Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors, shows them his wounds, sends them out, and gives them the Holy Spirit; eight days later he appears again for Thomas, who had refused to believe without seeing. John closes by saying he wrote these signs so readers would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name.

Claim by Claim

1. 20:1
   • On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.
   • She came early, while it was still dark.
   • She saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
2. 20:2
   • She ran to Simon Peter and to the other disciple.
   • Jesus loved that other disciple.
   • She told them that they had taken the Lord out of the tomb.
   • She told them that they did not know where they had laid him.
3. 20:3
   • Peter went out toward the tomb.
   • The other disciple went out toward the tomb.
   • They came to the tomb.
4. 20:4
   • The two ran together.
   • The other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter.
   • The other disciple reached the tomb first.
5. 20:5
   • He stooped down and looked in.
   • He saw the linen cloths lying there.
   • He did not go in.
6. 20:6
   • Simon Peter came, following him.
   • Simon Peter went into the tomb.
   • He saw the linen cloths lying there.
7. 20:7
   • There was a cloth that had been on Jesus' head.
   • That cloth was not lying with the linen cloths.
   • That cloth was wrapped up in a place by itself.
8. 20:8
   • Then the other disciple, who had come to the tomb first, also went in.
   • He saw.
   • He believed.
9. 20:9
   • As yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise from the dead.
10. 20:10
    • The disciples went away again to their own homes.
11. 20:11
    • Mary stood outside at the tomb weeping.
    • As she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb.
12. 20:12
    • She saw two angels in white sitting.
    • One angel was at the head and the other at the feet.
    • They were where the body of Jesus had lain.
13. 20:13
    • The angels asked her why she was weeping.
    • They addressed her as woman.
    • She said they had taken away her Lord.
    • She said she did not know where they had laid him.
14. 20:14
    • When she had said this she turned around.
    • She saw Jesus standing.
    • She did not know that it was Jesus.
15. 20:15
    • Jesus asked her why she was weeping.
    • Jesus asked her whom she was seeking.
    • Jesus addressed her as woman.
    • She supposed him to be the gardener.
    • She asked him to tell her where he had laid him, if he had carried him away.
    • She said she would take him away.
16. 20:16
    • Jesus said to her, Mary.
    • She turned.
    • She said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni.
    • Rabboni means Teacher.
17. 20:17
    • Jesus told her not to touch him.
    • Jesus said he had not yet ascended to the Father.
    • Jesus told her to go to his brothers.
    • Jesus told her to tell them that he was ascending to his Father and their Father.
    • Jesus told her to tell them that he was ascending to his God and their God.
18. 20:18
    • Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord.
    • She told them that he had spoken these things to her.
19. 20:19
    • It was evening on that same day, the first day of the week.
    • The doors were shut where the disciples were.
    • The doors were shut for fear of the Jews.
    • Jesus came and stood in their midst.
    • Jesus said to them, Peace be unto you.
20. 20:20
    • When he had said this he showed them his hands and his side.
    • The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
21. 20:21
    • Jesus said to them again, Peace be unto you.
    • Jesus said that as the Father had sent him, so he sends them.
22. 20:22
    • When he had said this he breathed on them.
    • He said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.
23. 20:23
    • Jesus said that whosever sins they forgive are forgiven them.
    • Jesus said that whosever sins they retain are retained.
24. 20:24
    • Thomas was one of the twelve.
    • Thomas was called Didymus.
    • Thomas was not with them when Jesus came.
25. 20:25
    • The other disciples told him that they had seen the Lord.
    • Thomas said that unless he saw the mark of the nails in his hands he would not believe.
    • Thomas said that unless he put his finger into the place of the nails he would not believe.
    • Thomas said that unless he put his hand into his side he would not believe.
26. 20:26
    • After eight days his disciples were inside again.
    • Thomas was with them.
    • Jesus came while the doors were shut.
    • Jesus stood in their midst.
    • Jesus said, Peace be unto you.
27. 20:27
    • Jesus told Thomas to put his finger there and look at his hands.
    • Jesus told Thomas to reach out his hand and put it into his side.
    • Jesus told Thomas not to be unbelieving but believing.
28. 20:28
    • Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God.
29. 20:29
    • Jesus said to him, Thomas.
    • Jesus said that Thomas had believed because he had seen him.
    • Jesus said that those who have not seen and yet have believed are blessed.
30. 20:30
    • Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples.
    • Those signs are not written in this book.
31. 20:31
    • These things are written so that the reader may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
    • These things are written so that believing, the reader may have life through his name.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

20:1

The Jewish week ended with the Sabbath, Saturday, so the first day of the week is Sunday. The tomb was a chamber cut into rock and closed by a large stone rolled or levered across its mouth; shifting one was heavy work, not something a single person did quietly.

20:2

"The other disciple, whom Jesus loved" is how this gospel refers to one particular follower all the way through, never giving his name. Notice also that Mary says "we know not": the plural hints that she was not at the tomb alone, though John names only her.

20:5

Bodies were wrapped in linen cloths or strips packed with spices, as described in John 19:40. The Greek word covers cloths, bandages and wrappings; it does not mean clothing that was worn.

20:7

The KJV's "napkin" means a face cloth, nothing to do with a dining napkin. The Greek word is soudarion, a cloth for wiping sweat from the face, used here over the head of the corpse. The verb behind "wrapped together" and "rolled up" can mean folded, rolled, or still wound in its original coils, so the picture may be a tidily folded cloth or a wrapping left lying in the shape of the head it had covered.

20:9

"The scripture" means the Hebrew scriptures, what Christians later called the Old Testament. No part of the New Testament existed yet.

20:11

In the King James, "without" here means outside, not lacking something. Mary is standing outside the entrance while the men have gone home.

20:12

Angels are messengers that God sends to people.

20:13

"Woman" was an ordinary and not a rude way to address someone in Greek, closer to "madam" than to anything abrupt. Jesus uses the same word to his own mother in John 2:4 and 19:26.

20:15

Jesus had been buried in a tomb set in a garden (John 19:41), so a gardener is the obvious person to meet there at dawn. The word Mary uses for "Sir" is kyrios, the same word translated "Lord" everywhere else in this chapter; spoken to a stranger it simply meant "sir".

20:16

Rabboni is Aramaic, an intensified form of rabbi, roughly "my master" or "my teacher". John elsewhere calls such words Hebrew, which in his usage covers the Aramaic that people in Judea actually spoke day to day.

20:17

The KJV's "Touch me not" misleads. The Greek verb is in a form used to stop an action already under way, so the sense is "stop holding on to me", not "do not make contact with me"; in verse 27 Jesus invites Thomas to touch him. "My brethren" here means his followers, not his blood relatives.

20:19

In John, "the Jews" usually means the Judean authorities who had moved against Jesus rather than the Jewish people at large: Jesus and every disciple behind those locked doors were themselves Jews. "Peace be unto you" is the ordinary Hebrew and Aramaic greeting, shalom, the everyday word for hello, though the circumstances here give it weight.

20:20

His hands and side carried the marks of the execution: nails driven through the hands or wrists, and the spear wound described in John 19:34. Showing them identified him as the same man who had been killed.

20:22

"Holy Ghost" is simply the KJV's term for the Holy Spirit; in 1611 "ghost" meant spirit or breath, with none of the modern sense of a haunting. The Greek word pneuma means breath, wind and spirit all at once, so breathing on them and telling them to receive the Spirit are one image in Greek, not two. The verb used for the breathing is the one the Greek Old Testament uses when God breathes life into the first human.

20:23

"Remit" is the KJV's word for forgive, and "retain" means keeping hold of the sins instead of letting them go. In Greek the second verb in each clause stands in a tense that can be read either as "they have already been forgiven" or as "they stand forgiven from this point on", and translators divide over which is meant.

20:24

Thomas is an Aramaic name meaning twin; Didymus is simply the Greek word for twin. The verse gives the same name twice, once in each language. "The twelve" is the standing label for the inner group of disciples, still used here even though the group was one short.

20:25

Thomas's refusal is blunter in Greek than in English: the phrase uses a double negative, closer to "I will absolutely never believe".

20:26

Ancient counting included both the day you started from and the day you arrived at, so "after eight days" means the following Sunday, a week after the evening of verse 19.

20:27

The KJV's "be not faithless" does not mean disloyal, which is what the English word suggests now. The Greek pair is apistos and pistos, unbelieving and believing, so the sense is "stop disbelieving and believe".

20:28

The Greek puts "my Lord and my God" in the nominative case with the article, which was the normal way of addressing someone directly in the Greek of this period. The words are spoken to Jesus, not exclaimed about him.

20:29

Greek manuscripts carried no punctuation, so the first half can be read either as a statement, "you have believed because you have seen me", or as a question, "have you believed because you have seen me?". "Blessed" renders makarios, meaning fortunate or happy, the word that opens sayings of the kind found in the Beatitudes.

20:30

John's own word for these acts is "signs", not "miracles". A sign is something done that points beyond itself to who the doer is, and it is the term he uses throughout for the wonders he reports.

20:31

"Christ" is the Greek christos, a translation of the Hebrew "messiah", meaning anointed one. It is a title, not a surname. The Greek verb behind "ye might believe" appears in the manuscripts in two forms, one meaning "come to believe" and one meaning "go on believing", which changes whether the book is addressed to people making up their minds or to people already persuaded. "Through his name" renders a phrase that in Greek is "in his name", where the name stands for the person himself.