John 20

John 20:1-10

• 20:2; cf., Matthew 28:9—Who are the “we”?
• 20:3—This equates “the disciple Jesus loved” and “the other disciple” (Brown, 1970, p. 1004-1007).
  a. The testimony of women would not have been regarded as valid in the ancient world.
  b. 20:6-7—Are they there because the body passed through the burial clothes or have they been properly removed (Talbert, p. 259)?
  i. Matthew 28:11-15—The religious leaders devised a scheme to accuse Jesus’ disciples of stealing His body.
  ii. Both Justin Martyr and Tertullian confront this accusation.
  c. 20:8—What did the other disciple believe?
  d. 20:9; cf., 1 Corinthians 15:4—What Scriptures are being referred to here? How would the early Church understand this?

John 20:11-18

• 20:12—Angels appear to Mary Magdalene.
  a. The angels serve as the symbol that reality is different.
  b. It appears that Mary mourns for two reasons (Morris, p. 739-740):
  i. Her own personal grief over Jesus’ death.
  ii. The concern about one having a proper burial.
  c. 20:16-17—Jesus stops Mary Magdalene from embracing Him, although it is not clear if He stops her before and after she embraces Him (Barnett, p. 470). Why would Jesus do this?
  d. 20:17—Jesus is present with the Church although He is not present in the flesh. This is the first reference to the disciples being referred to as “brothers.”
  e. 20:18—Why is it told this way, since it does come across as somewhat embarrassing?
  i. Celsus says that this was nothing more than a hallucination by “a hysterical woman” (Origen, Against Celsus 2.55; MacDonald, p. 1-7).
  ii. There is more emphasis on her experience with the risen Christ than on the accuracy of what He said to her (Morris, p. 744).
  iii. It was written this way so that we would believe!
• Talbert notes the following about this text (p. 260):
  a. 20:16; cf., 19:25—The One she encounters is the same One she saw crucified.
  b. 20:17—The One who can pass through burial clothes (20:5-7) and doors (20:19 and 26) is still physical.
  c. 20:17—The Ascension follows the Resurrection.
  i. It was a popular Gnostic teaching to say that Christ ascended before the Crucifixion (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.26.1).
  ii. 2 John 7-9—One of the most destructive false teachings is to deny that Jesus rose from the grave in human form (Hughes, p. 382).

John 20:19-23

• 20:19—This may have been because the religious leaders wanted to stomp out Jesus’ movement.
  a. 20:20—Ignatius says that Jesus maintains the marks of the Crucifixion in order to confirm His identity (Epistle to the Smyrneans 3:1-2; Talbert, p. 262).
  b. 20:21-22—Jesus brings a new eschatological peace not only to the disciples but to the Church (Morris, p. 746-748).
  c. 20:23—This is the establishment of the ability to forgive sins (Brown, 1970, p. 1030-1031).
  i. This is the establishment of the office of confessor.
  ii. This is a statement about the preaching of the Gospel.

John 20:24-31

• 20:24-29—Jesus appears to Thomas.
  a. This is why we remember Thomas as a doubter and a coward. What does Thomas have in common with us (before seeing Jesus)?
  b. 11:16—Thomas said that they should go and die with Jesus.
  c. 20:26—Why keep mentioning what day it is?
  i. It appears that the Church met with an anticipation that Jesus would return on Sunday.
  ii. Luke 24:35—The Church gathers on Sunday to break bread and remember the Resurrection.
  d. John 20:28—We do not read that Thomas touched Jesus, yet he believed it was Him.
  i. 4:53—The nobleman believed the words of Jesus.
  ii. There is an old rabbinical proverb that says that proselytes are closer to God than those Jews who were at Sinai (Barrett, p. 478).
• 20:30-31—Is this the end?
  a. This was a common way to conclude an ancient biography (1 Maccabees 9:22; Lucian, Life of Demonax 67; Talbert, p. 268).
  b. We are invited to find our place in the story.
  c. Brown says that the purpose of this statement is “to deepen the faith of those who are already Christians so that they would appreciate Jesus’ unique relation to the Father” (1970, p. 1060).

References

C. K. Barnett, The Gospel According to St. John (London: SPCK, 1958).

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible 29a (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970).

Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, The True Image (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989).

Margaret Y. MacDonald, Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion: The Power of the Hysterical Woman (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, rev. ed., New International Commentary on the New Testament 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed., Reading the New Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2005).