John 20:3-10 meaning

The parallel Gospel account of John 20:3-10 is Luke 24:12.

In John 20:3-10, Peter and John run to Jesus's tomb and discover His empty grave clothes, causing John to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead, even though they do not yet understand the Scripture that foretold His resurrection.

In the previous section of scripture (John 20:1-2), John described Mary Magdalene coming alone to Jesus's tomb early on the first day of the week while it was still dark. She went by herself before the larger group of women who had followed Jesus came—Mark writes "they came to the tomb when the sun had risen" (Mark 16:2).

When Mary arrived, she saw that the large stone which had sealed the entrance to Jesus's tomb had already been taken away. Without entering the tomb, Mary assumed that Jesus's enemies had removed His body and taken it to an unknown location. Alarmed by what she had discovered, Mary immediately ran to Simon Peter and John (referred to as "the other disciple whom Jesus loved," John 20:2) and reported, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him" (John 20:2).

Meanwhile, as Mary was returning to find Peter and John, another group of women had arrived at the tomb. Their encounter is described in Matthew 28:5-8, Mark 16:2-8, and Luke 24:1-9. The rest of the women's encounter can be summarized thus: Sometime after Mary Magdalene left the tomb and before Peter and John arrived, the rest of the women came to the tomb after "the sun had risen" (Mark 16:2). They saw that the stone had been rolled away, entered the tomb, and discovered that Jesus's body was gone (Mark 16:3-5, Luke 24:1-3).

Inside the tomb, the women encountered angels who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead and reminded them that He had predicted His resurrection (Matthew 28:5-7, Mark 16:5-7, Luke 24:4-8). The women then hurried away from the tomb in fear, amazement, and great joy to report what they had seen and heard to Jesus's disciples (Matthew 28:8, Mark 16:8).

The events of Matthew 28:5-8, Mark 16:2-8, and Luke 24:1-8 likely occurred between the events described in John 20:1-2 and the end of John 20:4 when Peter and John arrived at the tomb.

For a more extensive sequencing of the Bible's record of these resurrection events, see The Bible Says article: "What Happened Between Jesus's Resurrection and His Ascension? Part 1."

From Luke's account it appears that while Mary Magdalene was telling Peter and John her message, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him" (John 20:2), that the rest of the women who arrived at the tomb after Mary then returned to the disciples and began telling their account of what they saw and encountered there,

"Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles."
(Luke 24:10)

The women who arrived to the tomb after Mary "when the sun had risen" (Mark 16:2), saw that the tomb was open with the stone rolled away just as Mary had seen. But unlike Mary, who was by herself when she "came to the tomb, while it was still dark" and who ran away (John 20:1), these women entered the tomb:

"When they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus."
(Luke 24:3)

Instead of seeing the body of the Lord Jesus, as expected, they saw two angels appearing as men standing next to them in dazzling clothing (Luke 24:4). The angels said to them:

"Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again."
(Luke 24:5b-7)

The women remembered that Jesus has said this before He was crucified, "and [they] returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest" (Luke 24:9). Matthew and Mark also record the women's encounter with the angels from inside the empty tomb (Matthew 28:5-8, Mark 16:5-8).

Luke describes the scene, which is highly unflattering to the disciples, validating both the major turn they took as well as the authenticity of the account. First, Mary Magdalene, followed by the rest of the women as they arrived, tried to share with and convince Peter and the apostles what they had seen at the tomb. Luke writes that their words seemed like "nonsense" and that the disciples "would not believe them" (Luke 24:11).

John does not include the rest of the women's report, he only mentions the part that Mary Magdalene told them. With all the commotion, it may have been that he only understood what Mary Magdalene told them or that her report was how he understood the situation in that moment.

John continues his account of that morning by describing how he and Peter responded to Mary's stunning message:

So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb (v 3).

The word So is an inferential conjunction that connects Peter and John's actions to what Mary just told them. The Greek word that is translated as So in verse 3 is the same Greek word that was translated as "So" in John 20:2. It is the Greek word: οὖν (G3767—pronounced "oun"). "Oun" means "then," "so," "therefore" or "since."

John uses "oun" to tell us that Peter and John went forth because of what they just heard Mary tell them. Just as Mary ran to Peter and John because she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb, Peter and John now went forth because Mary told them that Jesus's body had been taken away.

Peter is Jesus's disciple Simon Peter. The other disciple is the author's way of referring to himself. The author is John; therefore, the other disciple refers to Jesus's disciple John.

John does not specify whether they went forth because they believed Mary or not. They may have believed her story, or they may have gone to investigate. But either way they responded to her message by leaving and going to the tomb. They went forth in a hurry. We know they were in a hurry because John says they were running (v 4).

Luke similarly writes that after hearing the women’s report, “Peter got up and ran to the tomb” (Luke 24:19a). It is from John’s account that we know that John also ran to the tomb together with Peter.

The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first (v 4).

The two disciples (Peter and John) were running because they felt an urgency to see if Mary Magdalene's story was true and to see the empty tomb for themselves. They also may have gone to glean any clues about who exactly took Jesus's body and/or where they might have taken Him.

John writes that the two disciples were running together, which meant that he and Peter were going to the tomb together and that they both started off running for the tomb at the same time. But during this run to the tomb, one disciple began to pull ahead of the other.

John says that he (the other disciple) ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first (v 4). This oddly specific detail is the first of several that John will relate about what he personally experienced that morning. Such details are characteristic of an eyewitness account and reflects John's personal recollection of that urgent morning when he and Peter raced to see the empty tomb for themselves.

The fact that John ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first (v 4) may also indicate that John was significantly younger than Peter, and therefore in better shape to run long distances.

John writes what he saw, "with his own eyes" (1 John 1:1), when he arrived at the tomb while he waited on Peter to catch up. As Mary had told them, the tomb was open, and the large stone was no longer covering its entrance.

and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in (v 5).

John describes how he was stooping and looking into the tomb. He was stooping to get a better view of what was inside the tomb. From the book of Matthew, we know that Jesus's tomb was "hewn out in the rock" which meant that it was chiseled out of a rocky hill. The entrance of the tomb was likely cut lower than a person's stature, typical of first century tombs, so John may have had to stoop down to look inside it.

John says that he saw the linen wrappings lying there and then adds the detail: but he did not go in (v 5).

Linen wrappings are the long strips of linen cloth that were used to wrap a deceased person's body for burial. The body of Jesus was bound "in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews" (John 19:40). Lazarus was buried this way, because they had to remove the linen wrappings that bound his hands and feet when Jesus raised him from the dead (John 11:44).

The Gospel of Mark says that Joseph of Arimathea bought the linen cloth that was used to wrap Jesus's body (Mark 15:46). These wrappings were wound around Jesus's body together with a large quantity of myrrh and aloes (John 19:39-40), helping to secure the spices in place and prepare His body for burial. When John looked into the tomb, he saw these linen wrappings still lying there, but the body they had once enclosed was gone.

The sight of the linen wrappings lying there signaled to John that something from Mary's theory that "they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb" (John 20:2) was incorrect.

If someone had secretly moved Jesus's body in the middle of the night as Mary assumed, they would have been highly unlikely to have unwound the linen cloth that wrapped His corpse. Unwrapping a corpse would not have been something a person would be likely to do under normal circumstances. And they would have been even less likely to want to deal with the mess of unwrapping a bloodied and mutilated corpse that had been recently flogged and crucified.

And yet the tomb was empty. John only saw the ointment-soaked and blood-stained linen wrappings that had been used to cover Jesus's body lying there inside the tomb. But John did not see Jesus's corpse. It was not there. His body was gone.

John specifically recalls for his audience that he did not go inside the tomb. This is another small eyewitness detail that John recalls from his personal experience that morning: he arrived first, stooped down, looked inside, saw the linen wrappings, but he stopped at the entrance. John only stooped down to look inside, but he did not go in (v 5).

John does not explain why he did not go in (v 5). Perhaps John hesitated because he was stunned and trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Perhaps he was afraid of what was inside the tomb. Or perhaps, because of his Jewish upbringing, John was instinctively reluctant to enter a tomb and come into contact with the dead and become ceremonially unclean (Numbers 19:11-16). Some have speculated that John may have been a Levite because he hesitated to enter the tomb. Perhaps he was, but this conjecture is speculative.

Whatever his reasons, John remained outside the tomb until Peter arrived and went inside.

And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself (vv 6-7).

The expression And so advances John's eyewitness account to what happened next. While John remained outside the tomb, Simon Peter also came to the tomb, following behind John.

Peter was following John in the sense that he was traveling the same route to the same destination but was behind him. John had outrun Peter and arrived at the tomb first. Now Peter caught up with John at the entrance to Jesus's tomb.

Sometimes modern readers (somewhat) jokingly interpret John's arrival at the tomb first as a brag that he ran faster than Peter. But John's inclusion of this fact may actually have had the opposite intent. John may have been indicating that Peter had more boldness to enter the tomb first and to do so immediately, while John stooped outside hesitating. John may mention this detail, that he got there first, as a way to commend Peter, and candidly confess his own fears or misgivings.

John had arrived first but hesitated at the entrance. Peter arrived second and went straight inside. John does not describe Peter as pausing to speak with him or even stooping to look inside the tomb (as John had done) before Peter entered it. It seems that Peter simply came and entered the tomb right away.

Peter's immediate entrance into the tomb is consistent with the bold and impulsive personality he displays throughout the Gospel accounts. Peter was often the first disciple to speak or act, sometimes courageously and sometimes rashly (Matthew 14:28-31, 16:16, 22-23, John 13:6-9, 18:10-11).

By entering the tomb, Peter was able to examine the scene more closely than John had from outside. John had already seen the linen wrappings lying there. From inside the tomb, Peter saw the linen wrappings lying there as John observed (v 5). And Peter also saw the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself (v 7).

Similarly, Luke records of Peter, "stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only" and not Jesus' body nor any angels (Luke 24:12b).

John carefully distinguishes between the two burial cloths. The linen wrappings were the long strips of linen used to bind Jesus's body, whereas the face-cloth was a separate cloth that wrapped around Jesus's head and covered His face.

Peter observed both burial cloths. He observed the linen wrappings lying where Jesus's body had been, and the separate face-cloth which had been on His head. And Peter saw that the face-cloth was rolled up in a place by itself (v 7).

This detail suggests order rather than haste.

A grave robber would have had no reason to remove the face-cloth from Jesus's head, separate it from the other burial cloths, and neatly roll it up before leaving. Likewise, if Jesus's enemies had secretly relocated His body, there would have been no practical reason to unwrap His corpse or carefully arrange His burial cloths. The orderly placement of the face-cloth was another piece of evidence that Mary's conclusion that "they have taken away the Lord" (John 20:2) did not fit what Peter and John were seeing inside the tomb.

The reason the linen wrappings were lying there and that the face cloth was neatly rolled up and separated by itself was because they were no longer needed. Jesus was no longer dead. He was alive. Apparently before He left the tomb, He (or the angels) rolled up His face-cloth and set it aside.

Once Peter entered the tomb, John did also.

So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered (v 8a).

The expression So is once again the Greek conjunction οὖν (G3767—pronounced "oun"). As in John 20:2, 3, "oun" connects what follows with what has just happened. Because Peter entered the tomb and began examining what was inside, John now followed him and entered the tomb as well.

John, through his indirect way of referring to himself, reminds his readers that he was the disciple who had come to the tomb first (v 8). He had arrived before Peter, but waited outside the tomb until Peter entered first. Only after Peter had gone inside and examined the tomb for himself did John also enter it. This is yet another small but vivid eyewitness detail that reflects John's personal recollection of the events.

Having now entered the tomb, John was able see what Peter had already seen, and could inspect the burial cloths and the inside of the tomb for himself rather than merely looking in from the entrance. John continues:

and he saw and believed (v 8b).

From inside the tomb, John saw the same thing that Peter saw. Namely that:

• the linen wrappings lying there (v 6)

• and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself (v 7)

John then writes that it at this moment that he believed.

What did John believe?

The context suggests that what John believed in this moment was that Jesus had come back to life. The evidence of the open tomb, the linen cloths lying there, and the face-cloth rolled up in a place by itself (v 7), alongside the fact that Jesus's body was not there suggested to him that Jesus's body was not taken away by His enemies as Mary Magdalene had suggested without entering the tomb (John 20:1-2), but rather that Jesus was alive.

It is not the case that John is saying that this was the moment he first believed that Jesus was God and received the Gift of Eternal Life. John had been a close follower of Jesus for three years and had witnessed Him perform many signs that demonstrated His divine authority and identity (John 2:11, 6:68-69, 11:27).

John had already believed in Jesus as God and the Messiah, for instance:

• John was in the boat when Jesus walked on water and was among the disciples who said: "You are certainly God's Son!" (Matthew 14:33).

• John was also with Peter when Peter told Jesus:

"You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God"
(John 6:68-69)

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"
(Matthew 16:16).

In these instances, Peter is speaking not only for himself, but appears to be expressing what the other disciples also believed.

Therefore, John had already received eternal life in His name (John 1:12-13) before he looked inside or entered the tomb. What John first believed inside the tomb was that Jesus had risen from the dead.

John later explained that the signs recorded throughout his Gospel (including the resurrection) were written so that his readers also "may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:30-31).

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in their accounts of the empty tomb, rely on the presence and message of angels to demonstrate that Jesus has been raised back to life (Matthew 28:5-7, Mark 16:5-7, Luke 24:4-8), before they go on to narrate His resurrection appearances (Matthew 28:9-10, Mark 16:9, Luke 24:13-43). These otherworldly appearances prove that Jesus was God and are an accurate part of the Bible's testimony.

But John's account mostly relies on what he personally saw—which was an open tomb, with no corpse inside it, and grave clothes lying there with the face-cloth rolled up beside it. John verifies that his account is based on personal testimony and is therefore trustworthy when he writes at the end of his Gospel narrative:

"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)

After describing that he believed when he saw the empty tomb and the grave cloths set aside, John then makes a narrative interjection to explain his limited understanding in that moment:

For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead (v 9).

The expression For as yet means in that moment. What John is saying in verse 9 is that in that moment, even though he now believed Jesus rose from the dead, neither he nor Peter fully understood its significance. Only later would they understand how the Scripture predicted that the Messiah (Jesus) must rise again from the dead (v 9).

The Scripture predicted Jesus. And the Scripture both foreshadowed and predicted not only the Messiah's death, but also His resurrection. Some of the more direct prophecies predicting the Messiah's resurrection include:

• Psalm 16
  
  "For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
  Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
  You will make known to me the path of life."
  (Psalm 16:10b-11)

Peter and Paul both explicitly use this prophecy when explaining Jesus’s resurrection in Acts 2:25-32 and Acts 13:35-37.

• Isaiah 53 and the Fourth Servant Song

The Servant/Messiah is sacrificed and put to death as a guilt offering, yet afterward the Messiah is clearly seen as living and prospering after His death. After the Servant is described as being in the grave (v 9), He is then described thus:

"He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand."
(Isaiah 53:10b)

• Psalm 22 likewise describes the Messiah as killed—"You lay me in the dust of death" (Psalm 22:15b) and then later as triumphant and alive and rescued by the LORD (Psalm 22:11-31).

• Hosea prophesies a third-day resurrection:

"He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day..."
(Hosea 6:1-2)

Hosea's prophecy has a double fulfillment. It describes the restoration of the nation of Israel and the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah.

Events and Festivals that foreshadow the Messiah's resurrection that are found in the Old Testament Scripture include:

• Abraham receiving back Isaac his son, from the sacrificial offer.
  (Genesis 22—see also Hebrews 11:17-19)

• Joseph being rejected by his brothers, thought dead, and exalted to save the world.
  (Genesis 37-50)

• Jonah spending three days and nights in the belly of the fish.
  (Jonah 1:17)

Jesus explicitly identified the sign of Jonah foreshadowing His burial and resurrection (Matthew 12:39-40).

It was only sometime after Jesus was raised from the dead and had appeared to the disciples that John and the other "disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture [about His resurrection] and the word which Jesus had spoken" (John 2:22).

John's belief in Jesus’s resurrection without fully understanding is similar to how Luke described Peter as "marveling at what had happened" (Luke 24:12d). This again serves as a confirmation of the veracity of scripture. John's account is anything but self-serving. It is confessional and shows us John's journey from being in the dark to having the light of understanding.

John ends this section by describing what he and Peter did after they saw the linen wrapping and rolled up face-cloth inside the open and empty tomb.

So the disciples went away again to their own homes (v 10).

The expression So is once again the Greek conjunction: οὖν (G3767—pronounced oun). John uses "oun" to indicate that what follows was in response to what had just taken place.

In this case, So connects Peter and John's departure from the tomb with what they had found inside it.

They saw in the tomb that:

• Jesus's body was gone,
• His grave clothes were lying there.

What they did not see was an angel. No angel greeted them as was the case for the women who visited the tomb after Mary Magdalene had seen the stone rolled away and ran to tell Peter and John (Matthew 28:5-8, Mark 16:5-8, Luke 24:4-7).

Peter and John found the tomb empty, and there was nothing more for them to do at the tomb, so they left the tomb and went away.

John simply says that the disciples went away again to their own homes (v 10). The expression their own homes refers to the place where they were staying while they were in Jerusalem for the Passover feast. Peter, John, and many of the other disciples were from Galilee (Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:16-20, John 1:43-44). Their permanent residences were located in Galilee, roughly 100 miles (by ancient roads) from Jerusalem where Jesus was buried.

John does not say where Peter and he were staying after the crucifixion of Jesus. It may have been somewhere in Jerusalem, such as the Upper Room or in one of the nearby villages such as Bethany, where Jesus and His disciples had often lodged during visits to Jerusalem (Matthew 21:17, Mark 11:11-12, Luke 21:37). Whatever the location, John's point is simply that after inspecting the empty tomb, he and Peter departed again and returned to the place where they were lodging.

Luke says something similar: "and [Peter] went away to his home, marveling at what had happened" (Luke 24:12d).

At this point, neither Peter nor John, nor anyone else had yet seen the risen Jesus. John believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, but he and Peter still did not understand the Scripture concerning the Messiah's resurrection. Therefore, they did not yet comprehend the meaning and significance of the resurrection.

Their departure from the tomb therefore marks the end of their initial investigation of the empty tomb and prepares the way for the next event in John's narrative, where Mary Magdalene remained behind at the tomb and encountered the risen Lord (John 20:11-18).