Select font sizeSet to dark modeSet to dark mode
HomeBible CommentaryJohnChapter 20John 20:1-2

John 20:1-2 meaning

John 20:1-2: Mary Magdalene arrives at Jesus's tomb: John 20:1-2 describes Mary Magdalene coming to Jesus's tomb early on the first day of the week while it was still dark. When she sees that the stone has been removed from the tomb, she runs to Peter and John. Mary tells them that the Lord has been taken from the tomb and that she and the other women do not know where His body has been laid.

There are no parallel gospel accounts of John 20:1-2. However, Luke 24:10-11 parallels John 20:2 as it describes the other women joining Mary Magdalene as they add to their own account of what they saw to what Mary was already reporting to the disciples concerning the open tomb.

In John 20:1-2, Mary Magdalene discovers that the stone has been removed from Jesus's tomb and runs to tell Peter and John that His body is missing.

In the previous section of scripture (John 19:38-42), John described the hasty burial of Jesus. After Jesus died on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea received permission from Pilate to take away His body (John 19:38). Joseph and Nicodemus prepared Jesus's body for burial with a large quantity of spices and wrapped it in linen cloths according to Jewish burial customs (John 19:39-40). Because the Sabbath was rapidly approaching, they placed Jesus in a nearby new tomb located in a garden near the place where He was crucified (John 19:41-42).

This tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:59-60) who was a rich man (Matthew 27:57) and was a righteous member of the Sanhedrin Council who did not consent to their plan to have Jesus murdered (Luke 23:50-51). Luke described Joseph as a man waiting for the kingdom of God (Luke 23:51). John described him as a secret disciple of Jesus (John 19:38).

Jesus was crucified between two criminals and He was buried in a rich man's tomb in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9, which prophecies of the Messiah:

"His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death."
(Isaiah 53:9a)

One of the reasons Jesus was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb was because it was nearby and there was not much time to bury Him before the beginning of the Sabbath after He died on the cross. Jesus died on the cross about the ninth hour (Matthew 27:45, 50) or 3:00 pm according to modern time keeping. The Sabbath began a few hours later at sunset.

According to Jewish law, no work could be done on the Sabbath, which meant that Jesus had to be taken down from the cross and buried before sundown. To do this, Joseph had to first get permission from the Roman governor, Pilate, and Pilate had to confirm that Jesus really was dead (Mark 15:44). Joseph was granted permission and with the help of Nicodemus was able to take Jesus's body down, wrap His body in linen strips with ointment, and place it in a tomb cut out of the rock.

The tomb was conveniently located in a garden a short distance (a hundred yards or so) from Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified.

John concluded that one of the main reasons Jesus was buried in Joseph's tomb was because it was nearby and there was not time for other arrangements to be made (John 19:42).

Jesus was crucified and buried on "the Jewish day of preparation" (John 19:42) which Mark explained to his predominately Gentile readers as "the day before the Sabbath" (Mark 15:42). The day before the Sabbath is called preparation day because on that day Jews prepare for the Sabbath by taking care of all the things they will not be able to do on the Sabbath.

  • Preparation day is considered the sixth day of the week—Friday.
  • The Jewish Sabbath is considered to be the seventh day of the week—Saturday.
  • John resumes his narrative on the first day of the week (v 1)—Sunday.

These are the three days in which Jesus was in the grave, as He had predicted (Matthew 12:40, 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:18-19, Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34, Luke 9:22, 18:31-33, John 2:19-22). Jesus's predictions that He would rise on the third day were fulfilled in the Friday-Sunday sequence according to Jewish inclusive reckoning, in which any portion of a calendar day was counted as a day.

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark (v 1a).

What had happened between Jesus's burial and "Now"

The word Now marks a transition in John's narrative from Jesus's burial on the day of preparation (Friday) to the events that took place on the first day of the week (Sunday). The Jewish day of preparation (Friday) and the Sabbath (Saturday) have passed, and John now resumes his account early Sunday morning as Mary Magdalene comes to Jesus's tomb.

Several events happened between Jospeh and Nicodemus's burial of Jesus on preparation day and when Mary Magalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark on the first day of the week (v 1).

Two notable events that happened in between John 19:42 and John 20:1 include:

  • The Jews seeking, and Pilate granting them, permission to have Jesus's tomb sealed and guarded to prevent the disciples from secretly stealing Jesus's body and then proclaiming that He has risen from the dead as Jesus predicted He would do. These events are described in Matthew 27:62-66. To learn more about them, see The Bible Says commentary for Matthew 27:62-66.
  • Some of the women, including Mary Magdalene buy spices once the shops reopen when the Sabbath ended at sundown (Saturday evening) and visit Jesus's tomb (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1). These women did this so they could be ready to finish preparing Jesus's body for burial the next morning.

    These women knew where Jesus's tomb was located (Matthew 27:61, Mark 15:47). They not only saw where Jesus was buried, they also went to His tomb the evening before He would rise back to life from the dead.

    To learn more about these events, see The Bible Says commentary for Matthew 28:1 and Mark 16:1.

But by far the most significant event that happened between John 19:42 and John 20:1 is that Jesus came back to life and rose from the dead.

The Gospel writers do not explicitly describe Jesus's resurrection or His exit from the tomb. Instead, all four Gospel writers describe how Jesus's followers discovered that He rose from the dead. It is largely through this discovery, and the subsequent appearances of Jesus alive and well, that the Gospels demonstrate that Jesus came back to life.

Matthew 28:2-4 comes the closest to directly depicting Jesus emerging from the grave. Matthew records that an angel descended from heaven, causing a great earthquake, and terrified the soldiers who were guarding the tomb. The angel then rolled away the stone and sat on it.

The next three things that happened are all inferred by the Biblical accounts.

  • Jesus exited the tomb.
  • The frightened guards ran away from the tomb.
  • The angel entered the tomb.

It is some time after these things took place that Mary Magdalene came early in the morning to the tomb, while it was still dark (v 1).

To see a full sequence of events recorded in the Biblical account of Jesus's resurrection, see The Bible Says article: "What Happened Between Jesus's Resurrection and His Ascension? Part 1."

…On the first day of the week…

John's expression: on the first day of the week (v 1) is a loaded expression. It has a literal, a figurative, and a prophetic meaning.

The Literal Meaning of "on the first day of the week":

The literal meaning of this expression is that the events that John will describe happened on the day after the Sabbath, which is the last day of the week. After the Sabbath, the seven-day week cycle starts over with the first day of the week.

Jesus was physically resurrected back to life on a Sunday, the first day of the week.

This commentary will return to the literal meaning of this expression after it has explained the figurative and prophetic meanings of on the first day of the week.

The Figurative Meaning of "on the first day of the week":

The figurative meaning of the expression the first day of the week is an allusion back to the Genesis creation account which is described over the course of seven days (Genesis 1:3 - 2:3). God created the world in six days, and He rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2).

In Genesis, God began to give form to the earth on the first day of the week. When "God said "Let there be light"; and there was light" (Genesis 1:3).

John's Gospel is full of references to creation, starting with the opening line of his prologue which reads: "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). This line parallels the opening of Genesis, which is, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). The opening phrase of John's resurrection account: Now on the first day of the week (v 1) is another reference to creation.

John's allusion to creation in version 1 carries two significant meanings concerning Jesus's resurrection.

The first and most direct meaning of John's on-the-first-day-of-the-week allusion to creation presents Jesus's resurrection as the beginning of the new creation.

The new creation is God's redemption and restoration of the world that was corrupted by sin and subjected to death (Romans 5:12, 8:20-21). Jesus came into the world to save it from sin and death (John 3:16-17), and His mission will ultimately culminate in a new heaven and a new earth where death, mourning, crying, and pain will be no more (Revelation 21:1-5).

God's plan of redemption is not merely to rescue people from the world, but to redeem His people and restore His creation until He makes "all things new" (Revelation 21:5). This redemption includes restoring humanity to its original design to reign as servant leaders in harmony with God and with one another. Jesus restored the right of humans to reign, and was "crowned" with the "glory and honor" of gaining all authority over heaven and earth as a human, the God-man, through the "suffering of death" (Hebrews 2:9, Matthew 28:18). Jesus desires to bring "many sons to glory" and share His authority with all believers who overcome as He overcame (Revelation 3:21, Hebrews 2:10).

Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of this new creation. The Apostle Paul described Jesus as both "the firstborn of all creation" and "the firstborn from the dead" (Colossians 1:15, 18). Jesus is the Creator through whom all things were made (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16), and He entered His own creation as a human when "the Word became flesh" (John 1:14). As the Word made flesh, Jesus is therefore both the God who created all things and a genuine human being within His creation. Therefore, at His resurrection, He demonstrates that He is both the God who raises the dead (John 5:21) and the resurrected Man whose glorified body marks the beginning of the new creation.

Everyone who believes in Jesus is spiritually born into this new creation. Jesus told Nicodemus that a person must be "born again" to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3-8), and John explained that those who receive Jesus and believe in His name become children of God who are "born of God" (John 1:12-13). Jesus declared, "I am the resurrection and the life," and promised that the one who believes in Him will live even if he dies and "will never die" (John 11:25-26). Therefore, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

When a person believes in Jesus and receives the Gift of Eternal Life, he becomes part of the new creation and a member of God's family. And he gains an unconditional inheritance of God as their Father and a promise as well as the hope of a future resurrection (Romans 8:17a).

John's language draws a parallel between the beginning of the original creation and the beginning of the new creation. His Gospel begins, "In the beginning was the Word," (John 1:1) and explains that "all things came into being through Him" (John 1:3); his resurrection account begins, Now on the first day of the week (John 20:1).

The same Word through whom God created all things has become flesh, entered the creation He made, died to redeem it, and now rises from the dead on the first day of the week. Just as the Word was there in the beginning of the first creation (John 1:1-3), Jesus—"the Word made flesh" (John 1:14)—is there on the first day of the new creation, beginning the work through which God will ultimately make all things new.

Christ's resurrection is the first act of the new creation.

The second meaning of John's on-the-first-day-of-the-week allusion to creation connects the resurrection of Jesus with the creation of light.

On the first day of creation, "God said 'Let there be light'; and there was light" (Genesis 1:3) and "God saw that the light was good" (Genesis 1:4). Light was therefore the first thing God called forth as He began to give form and order to the world. John’s reference to the first day of the week recalls this moment from the original creation as he begins his account of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead.

Throughout his Gospel, John closely associates Jesus with both life and light. John wrote of Jesus, "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men" (John 1:4), and Jesus later declared: "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:12, 9:5). John continued in his prologue: "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:5). In this imagery, light is associated with life, while darkness is associated with separation from God and death (John 3:19-21, 12:35-36, 46).

Just as light shone into the darkness on the first day of the original creation, so too does the Light shine in the darkness on the first day of the new creation. Jesus had entered the darkness of death, but death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24). On the first day of the week, Jesus—the Light of the world and the One in whom is life—rose bodily from the dead, demonstrating that the darkness had not overcome Him and that His life could not be extinguished (John 1:4-5, 10:17-18).

Jesus claimed, "I am the resurrection and the life," and promised that everyone who believes in Him will live even if he dies and will never die (John 11:25-26). Through faith in Jesus, believers share in His resurrection life and become part of the new creation that began with His resurrection from the dead (Romans 6:4-5, 2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Prophetic Meaning of "on the first day of the week":

The prophetic meaning of John’s expression—on the first day of the week—is that Jesus rose from the dead on the day Israel celebrated the Feast of First Fruits.

The Feast of First Fruits was an annual celebration in which the Israelites brought the first portion of their harvest to the LORD as an offering of thanksgiving and anticipation of the harvest that was still to come (Leviticus 23:9-14). The LORD commanded Israel to bring a sheaf of the first fruits of their harvest to the priest, who would wave it before the LORD so that the people might be accepted (Leviticus 23:10-11).

This offering was to take place "on the day after the sabbath" during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:11), which meant that the First Fruits offering was presented on the first day of the week (v 1).

The First Fruits offering symbolized the promise that the first portion of the harvest was only the beginning and that a greater harvest was still to come. The First Fruits were therefore both the beginning of the harvest and a pledge of the full harvest that would follow.

To learn more about the Festival of First Fruits, see The Bible Says article: "The Original Passover."

Jesus was crucified on the day of Passover, which began the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Jesus was in the grave for the entire Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the next day was the first day of the week, which meant it was the Feast of First Fruits.

Jesus's resurrection on the Feast of First Fruits fulfilled the prophetic meaning of this celebration. Paul explicitly declared, "Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20), and explained that just as Christ was raised, "those who are Christ's" will also be raised at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:22-23). Jesus is the first person to rise from the dead never to die again, for "Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him" (Romans 6:9, Revelation 1:5).

Christ's resurrection is therefore both the beginning of the resurrection harvest and the promise that all who believe in Him will also be raised to eternal life, just as Jesus promised His disciples: "because I live, you will live also" (John 14:19; see also John 6:40, 11:25-26).

To learn more about how Jesus is the fulfillment of First Fruits, Unleavened Bread, and Passover, see The Bible Says article: "Jesus and the Messianic Fulfillments of Passover and Unleavened Bread."

Mary Magdalene's Arrival at the Tomb

Having explained the figurative and prophetic meanings of John's expression on the first day of the week, this commentary will now return to explaining the literal events of John’s resurrection account.

John writes on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb and he points out that she came while it was still dark (v 1).

Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus's most devoted followers and supporters. She was likely from the city of Magdala on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, from which she received the name Magdalene. Before she encountered Jesus, Mary was possessed by seven demons, but Jesus miraculously healed her by casting them out (Luke 8:2). Afterward, Mary followed Jesus and His disciples on their journeys and helped support His ministry from her own resources (Luke 8:2-3). Her devotion continued through Jesus's arrest and crucifixion, when many of His other followers abandoned and denied Him.

Mary witnessed His crucifixion (Matthew 27:55-56, Mark 15:40). And she observed where His body was buried (Matthew 27:61, Mark 15:47). On the evening after the Sabbath, Mary and other women purchased burial spices in preparation to finish anointing Jesus's body for burial and returned to visit His tomb that same evening (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1).

Now she was coming alone to His tomb early while it was still dark (v 1) to be near Jesus and spend time at His grave, before the other women arrived and the grim task of anointing His corpse began.

This was now (at least) Mary's third time to come to Jesus's grave. She knew exactly where Jesus's tomb was located. And it is evident that Mary Magdalene loved Jesus, was deeply devoted to Him, and that she was grieved by the sudden and horrific loss of Him.

John adds while it was still dark to emphasize how early Mary had come, and to show that because it was still dark, no work could be done, but Mary could be near Jesus and be in place, ready to work as soon as it was time to finish preparing His body for burial.

The expression while it was still dark figuratively describes Mary's grief, confusion, and despair, and by extension the disciples' grief, confusion, and despair in the wake of all that had happened since the night of Passover when Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested in the garden of Gethsemane.

John then describes what Mary Magdalene saw when she arrived at the tomb early that morning.

She saw the stone already taken away from the tomb (v 1).

The stone was a giant rock that had been rolled in front of the entrance of the tomb by Joseph of Arimathea to close the grave off from animals and the outside world (Matthew 27:60). Jesus's body was laid to rest inside a small cave that had been carved into the side of a rocky hill. Mark describes the stone as "extremely large" (Mark 16:4). The massive stone may have been cut into a circular wheel-like shape to make it easier and safer to roll back and forth. Jewish authorities and Roman soldiers had set a seal over the stone to secure and guard Jesus's body from being stolen (Matthew 27:65-67). This seal would have to be removed and the stone rolled away for Mary or anyone else to be able to enter Jesus's tomb.

But as Mary approached the garden tomb in the early dark of that morning, she saw that the stone had already been taken away from the tomb (v 1).

This sight surprised and appeared to disturb Mary. Only a few hours ago, the evening before, had she seen the tomb with the large stone covering it. Now it was open and the stone was rolled away, and apparently the guards were gone also, or if they were still fainted on the ground from seeing the angel (Matthew 28:4), Mary did not seem to notice them.

John only comments that Mary Magdalene saw that the stone had already been taken away from the tomb. Unlike the other group of women, who arrived later "when the sun had risen" (Mark 16:2), Mary did not enter the tomb or see and converse with any angels (Matthew 28:5-7, Mark 16:5-8).

Fresh fear seemed to come over Mary when she saw that the stone was already taken away from the tomb (v 1). As we will learn in verse 2, Mary assumed that the authorities secretly relocated Jesus's body. Mary reacted quickly. She left in a hurry to report this troubling news to the disciples.

Mary Reports to Peter and John

So 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 do not know where they have laid Him" (v 2).

The word So is an inferential conjunction that connects Mary's response in verse 2 with what she saw in verse 1. So is the translation of the Greek word οὖν (Strong's G3767—pronounced "oun"), in this verse. "Oun" means "therefore," "so," "then," or "consequently."

In this context, so means because Mary saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb (v 1), therefore she ran to Peter and John.

The place, or rather the people, to whom Mary ran and came to were at least two of Jesus’s disciples.

John, the author of this narrative, identifies two disciples: Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved (v 2). It is possible that more than two disciples were present, but because only two disciples are mentioned, it seems most likely that Mary ran to the place where only these two disciples were hiding.

Simon Peter had been one of the twelve disciples selected by Jesus (Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:13-19, Luke 6:12-16). He was among the most outspoken of the group and, along with John and James, had been present for special miracles that Jesus had done including the raising of Jairus's twelve-year-old daughter from the dead (Mark 5:35-43, Luke 8:49-56) and witnessing the Jesus's transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36).

Simon Peter had been regarded as the spokesperson of the disciples. But in addition to abandoning Jesus, as all of the disciples did, Simon Peter had also publicly denied knowing Jesus in three different settings (John 18:15-18, 25-27; see also Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:54-62) despite swearing that he would never deny Jesus just a few hours prior (Matthew 26:33-35, Mark 14:29-31, Luke 22:33, John 13:36-38).

The other disciple whom Jesus loved (v 2) is how the author refers to himself throughout this Gospel account (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 20). Of this disciple, the author writes:

"This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true."
(John 21:24)

Jesus's disciple John is widely regarded as the author of this Gospel account of Jesus's life. Therefore, the other disciple whom Jesus loved (v 2) most likely refers to John.

John was also one of the twelve disciples selected by Jesus (Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:13-19, Luke 6:12-16). He and his brother James were the sons of Zebedee and were fishermen before Jesus called them to leave their fishing business and follow Him (Matthew 4:21-22, Mark 1:19-20). Jesus gave James and John the nickname "Boanerges," which means "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17), perhaps reflecting their bold and sometimes over-zealous personalities (Luke 9:51-55).

Along with Peter and James, John was part of an inner group of three disciples whom Jesus selected to witness special events (Mark 5:37-43, 9:2-8). John sat beside Jesus during the Last Supper and leaned against Him as the disciples asked who would betray Him (John 13:21-26).

Unlike Peter and rest of the twelve, John was present at Jesus's crucifixion. As Jesus was dying on the cross, He entrusted the care of His mother to the disciple whom He loved, and from that hour John took her into his own household (John 19:25-27).

John and Peter witnessed Jesus's religious trial together (John 18:15-16) and apparently were hiding together in the aftermath of Jesus's execution.

Mary Magdalene now ran to Simon Peter (v 2) and John, two of Jesus’s closest disciples, to tell them that the stone had been rolled away from His tomb.

When she found them, she said to them: "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him" (v 2).

The they whom Mary refers to in her troubling message is somewhat indefinite. In a general sense they refers to Jesus's enemies. More specifically, they refers either to the Jewish authorities—the Sanhedrin Council, consisting of chief priests (Sadducees), elders (Pharisees), and scribes (religious lawyers)—or they refers to the Roman officials under the leadership of Pilate; or they refers to both the Jewish and Roman authorities together.

But the indefiniteness of they reveals the vagueness and the lack of informed knowledge Mary has of the situation. She saw the stone was already taken away from the tomb (v 1) and she quickly assumed that this meant that they had taken away the Lord out of the tomb (v 1).

It did not appear to have occurred to Mary Magdalene (or anyone else) at this point that Jesus rose from the dead, even though He predicted to them that He would rise from the dead many times (Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:18-19, Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34, Luke 9:22, 18:31-33, John 2:19-22, 10:17-18, 16:16-22).

By the Lord, Mary means Jesus's body. It is revealing of Mary's devotion to Jesus that even three days after His death, she continued to refer to Him as Lord.

Mary saw where they laid His body just before the tomb was first closed (Mark 15:47). Mary might have assumed that they, Jesus's enemies, had taken the Lord's corpse away maliciously in order to do Him and/or His movement additional harm beyond what they had already inflicted. At the very least, by taking the Lord away without notifying anyone that they were going to do so, it would have prevented Mary and the others from properly honoring Jesus by anointing His body with oil for burial.

Mary expresses something of this fear when she said: and we do not know where they have laid Him (v 2). Mary and the women could not prepare Jesus's body unless they knew where His body was laid to rest. The women would not be able to anoint the Lord's body until they knew where they have laid Him (v 2). Mary seemed to fear that she and her friends would never know where Jesus's body was removed to.

We will soon see that Mary was wrong in her assumptions. Jesus's corpse had not been taken away by His enemies or anyone else. Jesus's body had risen back to life. He was alive once more, though Mary Magdalene did not yet know this.

The next thing John tells us is how he (the other disciple) and Simon Peter responded to Mary Magadalene's startling message that the tomb was open and that someone has secretly taken away the Lord's body out of the tomb to an unknown location (John 20:3-10).

To explore more about Jesus's resurrection, see the following The Bible Says Articles: