John 20:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

She thought that the body had been moved, and without any pretense she reported everything to the disciples. Yet the Evangelist did not take from this woman the great praise that belonged to her. Nor did he consider it shameful for himself that the disciples first learned of the Resurrection from her, since she had kept watch all night. Thus, in every case, his truth-loving character shines forth.

And note this woman's prudence. She was grieving in soul because they had not believed her. On her first return, together with the Theotokos, she had announced the Lord's Resurrection to the disciples. Again, early in the morning, with the other women and men, she announced the same thing, and even then her words were regarded as false.

She grieved not only because they did not believe her. She also grieved because not one of them wished even to go to the tomb and look. Either from fear of the Jews, or crushed by strong and inexpressible sorrow, almost all of them sat as though dead.

Only Peter seemed to awaken after the women's second report and went to the tomb. Yet even he limited himself to looking into the sepulcher. As we have said, he did not dare even to enter it.

All this inflamed her spirit. Filled with divine fervor, she went again, as was said, alone for the third time in the morning. Finding the stone taken away from the tomb, she hastened back to the disciples.

On the way she reasoned with herself in this way: If I tell everyone, I shall again raise an outcry and bring suspicion on myself, as though I were not of sound mind. If they did not believe me with others, how will they now believe me alone?

It is better that I speak separately with His closest and most ardent friends, Peter and John. Yet they too have already heard of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. They treated so wondrous a matter with complete unbelief, as though they had heard nothing at all.

How then shall I persuade them at least simply to come to the tomb and see what is there? This is what I shall do. I shall not tell them that the Lord has risen, for then once again nothing will come of it. I shall tell them the most likely and plausible report.

So Mary Magdalene comes, as was said, to Peter and John and says to them: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."

It is as though she were saying: Listen to me, servants of God. Whether the Lord has risen from the dead or not, I shall not prove to you. But I tell you one thing with certainty: His body is not in the tomb. Therefore you must try to learn who took His body from the tomb, and where he laid Him.

Do you see the wisdom of the woman? If we did not suppose that she was guided by such reflections, we would fall into absurdity. How indeed could she, who had touched the Lord's feet together with the holy Theotokos Mary, and had twice heard from the angels the report of His Resurrection, speak of Him again as though He were dead?

How could she say, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him"? On the contrary, we must now recognize how skillfully and wisely she acted in this case. Her words had an immediate effect. There was nothing incredible in the claim that the body had been stolen from the tomb.

Clarifying for us the events connected with the Master's Resurrection from the dead, and narrating to us the manner of His appearance after the Resurrection, he was heard in the Church last Sunday through the Gospel writing composed by him. He narrated: "On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early, while it was still dark, to the tomb; and she saw the stone taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved." Here he is speaking of himself.

They waited for dawn, and that night seemed especially long to them. Without waiting for its end, and expecting day to come soon, they went by the light of the full moon.

Reconciliation of the apparent contradiction in the Evangelists’ accounts.

The Evangelist Luke testifies that the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Returning to the city, they prepared spices and ointments, to anoint the body of Jesus according to Jewish custom.

"On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment" (Lk 23:55-56). These were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them (Lk 24:10).

The Evangelist Matthew says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were present at the burial of Jesus, and sat opposite the tomb (Mt 27:61).

The Evangelist Mark, speaking of the same thing, explains that this other Mary was Mary of Joses, that is, the mother of Joses.

Thus, from the testimony of three Evangelists we know that Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, and other women who had come from Galilee tried to learn the place where Joseph and Nicodemus laid the body of Jesus.

Among them was Salome, the mother of the Apostles James and John. In narrating this, the Evangelists only wished to certify that certain women knew this place.

They considered it unnecessary for their purpose to list all these women by name. Therefore they limited themselves to the indications given above, concerning Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, and the others who had come from Galilee.

All of them bought spices or fragrant substances for anointing the body of Jesus. According to Luke’s account, some did this after returning to the city from the burial.

From this one must conclude that they returned rather early, before the paschal evening had begun, when trade was still continuing.

The others, namely Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, and Salome, probably returned to the city somewhat later. They bought spices only after the Sabbath had passed, that is, on Saturday evening.

Among the Jews, the celebration of the Sabbath began on Friday evening and ended with sunset on Saturday. The Evangelist Mark bears witness to this, saying: "When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might go and anoint Him" (Mk 16:1).

There is no contradiction or disagreement in this. Probably they all set out together, but they did not arrive at the tomb at the same time. Some walked more quickly and hastened to arrive before the others.

This explains the apparent disagreement among the Evangelists about the time of their arrival at the burial cave.

The arrival of Mary Magdalene at the tomb.

The Evangelist Luke at first does not name the women who went to the tomb. He merely indicates that they were those who had come with Jesus from Galilee, and says: "On the first day of the week, very early... they came to the tomb" (Lk 24:1).

The Evangelist John says that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark (Jn 20:1). The Evangelist Matthew relates that at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb (Mt 28:1).

The Evangelist Mark says that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome came to the tomb very early, on the first day of the week, at sunrise (Mk 16:1-2).

The Evangelists’ expressions, "very early," "at dawn," and "at sunrise," cannot be regarded as contradicting one another. Both sunrise and dawn are a very early time of day, its beginning.

Nor can the definitions of time by the words "at dawn" and "at sunrise" be considered contradictory. In southern lands there are no such prolonged dawns as we have in central and northern Russia.

There it grows dark quickly after sunset, just as the sun rises quickly at dawn. Therefore one and the same time may be described both as the true dawn of day and as the beginning of sunrise.

But with these definitions of time the Evangelist John’s statement stands in unmistakable contradiction, when he says that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark.

This contradiction would be irreconcilable if John were reporting the arrival of all the myrrh-bearing women. But since he speaks only of Mary Magdalene’s arrival, we must suppose that she went on ahead.

She left the other women far behind and came to the tomb while it was still dark. The others came later, yet still very early, at dawn, at the beginning of sunrise.

The Evangelist John wrote his Gospel last and supplemented what the first Evangelists had omitted. He did not find it necessary to speak of the other women who went to the tomb, since the other Evangelists had already said enough about this.

Nor would he have said that Mary Magdalene went with the other women, had the first Evangelists not failed to note that she came to the tomb first, while it was still dark.

The Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, when reporting the women’s arrival at the tomb, did not attach special importance to the fact that Mary Magdalene came before all the others.

Therefore, when they list some of these women by name, they mention Mary Magdalene as though she had come to the tomb together with the rest.

The Evangelist John, supplementing their accounts, makes a correction to their narratives. He says that Mary Magdalene came before everyone, and he does this because he tells of Christ’s appearance to her, about which the first Evangelists are silent.

This correction has special importance because it was made by an eyewitness. Mary Magdalene found the stone rolled away from the cave and immediately ran to Peter and John to tell them her grief.

Then she ran back again to the cave together with John. Therefore everything John relates about this he knew at that very time from Mary herself.

He also saw with his own eyes what she told him, namely the stone rolled away and the empty tomb.

In general, none of the Evangelists intended to describe every event of the Gospel history without exception. This would even have been impossible, since, according to the Evangelist John, the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.

Therefore the silence of one or several Evangelists about some event must not be taken as their denial of it.

For readers to believe consciously in the real Resurrection of Jesus Christ, it was quite sufficient for the first Evangelists to tell how the women who came to the tomb found it empty.

It was also sufficient to tell how, after this, Christ appeared to them and to the disciples. The details of exactly when the women came to the tomb, which of them arrived earlier, and which was late, did not seem essential to them.

Nor, it seems, did they attach essential importance to how many times Christ appeared.

Thus one must acknowledge that on the day following the Sabbath, which was called the first day of the week and is now called Sunday, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee left Jerusalem while it was still night and dark.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, Salome, and Joanna. They had the fragrant compounds they had bought and went toward the cave in which the body of Jesus had been laid.

John’s words that it was still dark must be understood to mean that it was still night and day had not yet begun. There was no daylight from the sun, but there was moonlight.

This took place on the second night after the full moon, when the moon shines until the very rising of the sun.

The grief-stricken women walked quietly, intending only to reach the tomb by morning. But Mary Magdalene, as one who especially loved Jesus, went ahead of them.

Perhaps without noticing it herself, she separated from them and went alone with hastened steps. There is, however, some reason to suppose that she did not go ahead alone.

Afterward, when speaking to Peter and John about the Lord having been taken from the tomb, she added: "We do not know where they have laid Him." Was Mary of Cleopas perhaps walking with her?

Her hasty departure to Jerusalem to the Apostles.

Approaching the cave, Mary Magdalene saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. Without entering the cave, she thought that the body of Jesus had been carried to another place.

But by whom, and where? In fear and bewilderment she runs back to Jerusalem to tell the Apostles Peter and John about this.

The return of the myrrh-bearing women to the city.

After hearing such good tidings (Mt 28:5-7), the women came out of the cave and ran to the city to announce it to the Apostles.

Meanwhile Mary Magdalene had already managed to run to the Apostles, Peter and John. As she entered, she cried out in despair: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him" (Jn 20:2).

On the first day of the week: in our usage, Sunday. See the note on Mt 28:1 and parallels in Mark and Luke.

Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb. According to the accounts of the first three Evangelists, she was not alone, but there was a whole company of myrrh-bearing women. This is also clear from John's account, that she was not alone. Returning to the apostles Peter and John, she says to them: "We do not know where they have laid Him." She could say this only on behalf of herself and the other myrrh-bearing women. Therefore she was not alone.

We find a similar manner of narration in the Evangelist Luke. He tells of the journey to Christ's tomb of one apostle, Peter (Lk 24:12), and then reports the words of the travelers to Emmaus: "Some of those who were with us went to the tomb," and so forth (Lk 24:24; cf. Jn 20:22).

At the same time, we must suppose, together with Chrysostom and others, that Mary set out to the tomb with the other women, but went ahead of them on the way. As always, she was especially active and swift compared with the others. She came, or drew near enough to the tomb to see the stone rolled away, earlier than the other women.

This also explains John's indication of the time of her arrival at the tomb: early, while it was still dark. The other women came when it was already dawning (cf. the note on Mk 16:2 and parallels).

Seeing that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, she did not know of the Angel on the stone, who later appeared to the other women. She thought that the Lord's body had been carried away (Jn 20:2), and immediately ran in haste to inform the Lord's disciples, Peter and John.

On this return journey she, of course, met the other women. Meanwhile they were occupied with the thought of who would roll away the great stone from the door of the tomb for them (Mk 16:3). She told them her fear. For this reason she later says to the apostles: "We do not know."

When she came to Peter and John (cf. Jn 13:23; Jn 19:26), she told them her supposition. Meanwhile the other myrrh-bearing women approached the tomb, saw the Angels, heard the good tidings of the Lord's Resurrection, and hastily departed from the tomb to the apostles. The first Evangelists narrate this in detail (Mt 28:5-8; Mk 15:4-8; Lk 24:3-8).

Let us go to them with trust. Grace is joined to their words. Often, even when we simply tell them of our sufferings, the grace of consolation arises in our soul. Jesus, always ready to forgive because of His love, gives the name brothers even to the disciples who abandoned Him.

Yet to loving souls, who remain faithful to Him even to the tomb, He appears before the others. They are the ones who receive the first consolations. Moderate your joy, however holy and lawful it may be, for fear that it draw you into some levity.

Likewise, to be overly troubled and to fall into extreme sorrow when God deprives us for a time of the sweetness of His consolations is faintheartedness and a lack of trust in the Lord's goodness. Even then He testifies no less to His love and favor toward us than when He grants us consolations. He removes them only to move us to be more careful and attentive to ourselves, and to compel us to render Him the honor and glory due to Him.

This alternation of joy and sorrow is far more useful for us than the constant calm we would desire. The dignity of the soul does not consist in having more divine consolations, but in submitting to the will of God, being established in sincere humility, and being filled more fully with love for God and neighbor.