Mary, the Linen Cloths, the Locked Door
Chapter 20; The first witness was a woman, and that mattered
Where this chapter sits
See the full timeline →Right now: Crucifixion and Resurrection (AD 30)
Setting: Jerusalem (the empty tomb and the Upper Room)
By Bea Zalel
John 20
Read in NIV →- Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
- So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb," she said, "and we do not know where they have put Him!"
- Then Peter and the other disciple set out for the tomb.
- The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
- He bent down and looked in at the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
- Simon Peter arrived just after him. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there.
- The cloth that had been around Jesus' head was rolled up, lying separate from the linen cloths.
- Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. And he saw and believed.
- For they still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.
- Then the disciples returned to their homes.
- But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent down to look into the tomb,
- and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and the other at the feet.
- "Woman, why are you weeping?" they asked. "Because they have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I do not know where they have put Him."
- When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not recognize that it was Jesus.
- "Woman, why are you weeping?" Jesus asked. "Whom are you seeking?" Thinking He was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried Him off, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him."
- Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher").
- "Do not cling to Me," Jesus said, "for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and tell My brothers, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.'"
- Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them what He had said to her.
- It was the first day of the week, and that very evening, while the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. "Peace be with you!" He said to them.
- After He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
- Again Jesus said to them, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you."
- When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
- If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld."
- Now Thomas called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
- So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he replied, "Unless I see the nail marks in His hands, and put my finger where the nails have been, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe."
- Eight days later, His disciples were once again inside with the doors locked, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
- Then Jesus said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe."
- Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!"
- Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
- Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.
- But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.
Inline text: Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. Compare with the John 20 chapter in your preferred translation via the link above.
Theme
Mary Magdalene is the first witness of the resurrection in John 20:1 and again in verses 11 to 18. In first-century Roman and Jewish legal practice the testimony of women was generally not allowed in court or heavily discounted when allowed. The Mishnah tractate Rosh Hashanah 1:8, with its later commentary, explicitly bars women from being valid witnesses in most legal categories. Josephus in Antiquities 4.219 states the rule for his Greek-speaking readers without apology. For all four gospels to put women as the first witnesses of the resurrection is something a writer inventing a fictional account would never have done. It weakened the case by every legal standard first-century readers carried in their heads. Bauckham argues that this counter-intuitive choice is one of the strongest internal signs that the resurrection accounts come from eyewitnesses rather than from later legend. The gospel preserves what would have been embarrassing because the gospel remembers what actually happened.
When Peter enters the tomb in verses 6 and 7 he sees the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth folded up by itself in its own place. The detail reads like a cold-case forensic note. A grave robbery would have left chaos because thieves do not unwrap a body before removing it. The natural collapse of grave-cloths around a removed corpse would have produced a different scene altogether. The face cloth set apart and folded suggests deliberate and unhurried action. It does not look like a body taken away. It looks like a body departed under its own power. The beloved disciple, who reaches the tomb first but waits at the entrance, looks in after Peter and "saw and believed" in verse 8. The narrative's careful attention to the placement of the cloths is part of why Bauckham and Lincoln read John 20 and 21 as eyewitness memoir rather than as later theological construction.
In verse 17 Jesus says to Mary "do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father." The Latin Vulgate rendered this "noli me tangere," meaning "do not cling to me, Latin." The phrase entered Western art history as a frequent painted scene. The Greek behind it, "me mou haptou," is a present-tense imperative and the better English rendering is "stop clinging" or "don't keep holding on." Mary's instinct is to grasp Jesus and to hold the relationship the way she had known it before the cross. Jesus tells her the relationship is changing. The post-resurrection Jesus cannot be possessed by his disciples the way the pre-crucifixion teacher could be. A pattern is being set here that will mature in the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. A Jewish reader hears the rabbinic master-disciple bond inverted because physical closeness used to define the relationship. A Gentile reader hears mystery-religion language of divine transformation but without the cyclical-nature framing the mystery cults assumed.
Thomas demands physical evidence in verses 24 to 29 and when Jesus offers it Thomas responds with "my Lord and my God," the highest christological confession in the gospel of John. The phrase deliberately echoes the official styling of the emperor Domitian in the 80s and 90s CE, "dominus et deus noster," meaning "our lord and god, Latin." Domitian was the first emperor to demand the title during his lifetime rather than letting it be given after his death. For a community resisting the imperial cult Thomas's confession is an act of political theology. This man, this crucified Jewish teacher, is the Lord and God you owe ultimate allegiance to. Domitian is not. Carson notes that the gospel was likely written into a Domitian-era political climate. Thomas's confession had immediate civic implications. It was not the private pious abstraction modern readers often take it for.
Supporting cross-references
Discussion questions
- All four gospels place women at the empty tomb as the first witnesses despite first-century legal practice that would have weakened rather than strengthened the case in court. If the resurrection accounts had been invented later, the inventors would almost certainly have chosen male witnesses. What does it say about the gospel writers' commitment to memory over rhetoric that they kept the women in the story?
- The grave-cloths are described with forensic care. The linen lies there and the face cloth is folded by itself in its own place. If the detail is the kind of thing eyewitnesses notice and inventors do not, where else in John 20 do you find this same texture of remembered specificity? How does that texture shape your reading of the chapter as testimony rather than legend?
- Mary wants to cling to the relationship she had before the cross and Jesus tells her to stop clinging because the relationship is changing. Where are you holding on to a form of relationship with Jesus that worked at an earlier season of your life but that he is asking you now to release in order to receive what he is becoming for you next?
- Thomas's confession 'my Lord and my God' deliberately echoes the imperial styling demanded by Domitian and refuses it in favor of the crucified Galilean. If Christian confession was always political theology before it became a private piety, what are the contemporary 'dominus et deus' claims your culture makes on your ultimate allegiance? What would it look like to answer them with Thomas's words?
Further reading
- Jesus and the Eyewitnesses— Richard BauckhamAcademic but highly readable. Bauckham's argument that the gospels preserve eyewitness testimony is most persuasive precisely where the gospels report what would have been embarrassing or counter-intuitive, like women as first resurrection witnesses.
- The Death of the Messiah and The Gospel According to John, Volume 2— Raymond E. BrownThe standard scholarly reference on the resurrection narratives in John. Brown's reading of the linen cloths and Mary Magdalene's commission shapes most modern commentary.
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book 4)— Flavius Josephus, trans. William WhistonPrimary source for 1st-century Jewish legal practice excluding women's testimony (Antiquities 4.219). Public-domain Whiston translation.
- Surprised by Hope— N. T. WrightAccessible companion to Wright's larger and more technical Resurrection of the Son of God. Best entry point on resurrection-as-event for non-specialist readers.
- Bible Project: ResurrectionFree video walkthrough of the biblical-theological category of resurrection. Useful orientation to Daniel 12, Isaiah 26 and the gospel resurrection accounts together.