The Gospels

by Sarah Ruden

  Chapter 20

  1 On the first day after the sabbaton, Maria the Magdalēnē came early in the morning, when it was still dark, to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken from the tomb. 2 So she ran and found Simōn Petros and the other student, who was Iēsous’ dear friend, and said to them, “They’ve taken the master out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”*208 3 So Petros and the other student went out and were coming toward to the tomb. 4 The two ran together, but the other student ran more quickly, ahead of Petros, and came to the tomb first. 5 Then, leaning in, he saw the linen bands lying there; nevertheless, he didn’t go in. 6 Now Simōn Petros came too, following him, and went into the tomb, and observed the linen bands lying there. 7 But the napkin that had been on his head wasn’t lying with the bands, but was rolled up and set apart, in another spot. 8 So then the other student as well, the one who’d come first to the tomb, entered it and saw and believed.*209 9 They didn’t yet understand what was written, that it was necessary for him to rise from among the dead.*210 10 Then the students returned to where they were staying.

  11 But Maria stood outside the tomb, close to it, crying. Then, while she was crying, she leaned down into the tomb 12 and saw two messengers in white clothing,*211 sitting one at the head and one at the foot of the place on which Iēsous’ body had been lying. 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?” She told them, “They’ve taken my master, and I don’t know where they’ve put him.” 14 Once she’d said this, she turned around and saw Iēsous standing there, but she didn’t know that it was Iēsous. 15 Iēsous said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” Thinking it was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if it was you who carried him away, tell me where you put him, and I will take him.”*212 16 Iēsous said to her, “Mariam!” Turning around, she said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouní!” (which means “teacher”).*213 17 Iēsous told her, “Don’t hang on to me, because I haven’t yet gone up to the father.*214 Be on your way to my brothers and tell them I’m going up to my father and the father of you all, and to my god and the god of you all.” 18 Mariam the Magdalēnē went to take the message to the students: “I’ve seen the master”; and she told what he’d said to her.

  19 When it was evening on that day, the first after the sabbaton, and the doors were locked where the students were staying, out of fear of the Ioudaioi, Iēsous came and stood among them and said to them: “Peace to you!” 20 And once he’d said this, he showed his hands and his side to them, and the students were overjoyed to see the master. 21 [Iēsous] then said to them again, “Peace to you! Just as my father has dispatched me in his service, I’m sending you.” 22 And having said this, he puffed air into them and told them, “Take the holy life-breath. 23 If people do wrong and you pardon them, they will be pardoned; but if people do wrong and you hold on to it, those wrongs will be held on to.”*215

  24 But Thōmas, one of the twelve, who was called the Twin, wasn’t with them when Iēsous came. 25 So the other students told him, “We’ve seen the master.” He, however, said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the holes from the nails and put my finger into those holes, and put my hand on his side, I’ll never believe.” 26 Then, eight days later, his students were again indoors, and now Thōmas was with them. And even though the doors were locked, Iēsous came and stood among them and said, “Peace to you.” 27 Next he said to Thōmas, “Let’s have your finger here, so you can check my hands, and let’s have your hand so you can put it on my side: become a believer, instead of an unbeliever.” 28 Thōmas answered by saying to him, “You are my master and my god.” 29 Iēsous said to him, “Because you’ve seen me, you’ve come to believe? They’re happy people who didn’t see, yet still believed.”

  30 Now Iēsous performed many other signs before [his] students’ eyes, signs that haven’t been written about in this book. 31 But what’s written here is meant to lead you all to believe that Iēsous is the anointed one, the son of god; and to allow you, by believing, to have life in his name.*216

  Chapter 21

  1 After these things, Iēsous revealed himself again to his students at the Sea of Tiberias;*217 and this is how he revealed himself. 2 There together were Simōn Petros and Thōmas, who was called the Twin, and Nathanaēl from Kana in Galilaia, and the sons of Zebedaios, and two other of Iēsous’ students. 3 And Simōn Petros said to them, “I’m going off to fish.” They told him, “We’re coming with you.” Then they went out and boarded the boat, but during that night they caught nothing. 4 But soon after dawn arose, Iēsous stood on the shore; the students, however, didn’t recognize that it was Iēsous.*218 5 So Iēsous said to them, “You don’t have anything to nibble, youngsters?” They replied to him, “No.” 6 Then he said to them, “Throw in the net to the right side of the boat, and you’ll find something.” They threw it in accordingly, and discovered they no longer had strength enough to drag it back, there were so many fish in it. 7 Hence the student Iēsous loved*219 said to Petros, “It’s the master!” Simōn Petros, hearing it was the master, tied his outer garment around his waist (as he had stripped)*220 and threw himself into the sea. 8 But the other students came in the small boat, as they weren’t far from land—only about two hundred cubits*221—dragging the net full of fish. 9 Then as they climbed out onto the land, they saw a charcoal fire laid, and a cooked relish lying on that, and a loaf. 10 And Iēsous said to them, “Bring some of the relish you’ve caught just now.” 11 So Simōn Petros climbed into the boat and dragged the net onto the dry land; the net was full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them. But even though there were so many, the net didn’t tear.*222 12 Iēsous told them, “Come and have breakfast.” But none of the students dared to ask him, “Who are you?” knowing as they did that it was the master. 13 Iēsous came up and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the relish. 14 This was now the third time Iēsous was revealed to the students after he rose from among the dead.*223

  15 Then when they’d had breakfast, Iēsous spoke to Simōn Petros: “Simōn, son of Iōannēs: do you love me more than these others do?” Simōn said to him, “Yes, master, you know I’m your close friend.” Iēsous said to him: “Pasture my lambs.” 16 Iēsous spoke to him again, a second time: “Simōn, son of Iōannēs, do you love me?” Simōn said to him, “Yes, master, you know I’m your close friend.” Iēsous said to him, “Shepherd my sheep.” 17 Iēsous spoke to him a third time: “Simōn, son of Iōannēs, are you my close friend?” Petros was aggravated that Iēsous had spoken to him a third time, now saying, “Are you my close friend?” Now Petros said to him, “Master, you know everything; you recognize that I am your close friend.” [Iēsous] said to him, “Pasture my sheep.*224 18 Amēn amēn, I tell you: when you were a young man, you belted up your clothes and walked around wherever you wanted. But when you get old, you’ll stretch out your hands, and someone else will truss you in a belt and take you where you don’t want to go.” 19 He said this to signal the kind of death with which Petros was going to glorify god.*225 And having said this, he told him, “Follow me.”

  20 Turning around, Petros saw the student Iēsous loved, who was following them; during the banquet he had reclined against Iēsous’ chest and had said, “Master, who’s the one who’s going to hand you over?”*226 21 Seeing this man, Petros said to Iēsous, “But Master, what about him?” 22 Iēsous told him, “If I want him to stay until I come back, what does that have to do with you? You, follow me.” 23 Thus the story arose among the brothers that this student wouldn’t die. But Iēsous didn’t say to him that he wouldn’t die; he only said, “If I want him to stay until I come back, [what does that have to do with you]?”

  24 This is the student who is testifying about these things, and the one who’s written them down, and we know his testimony is true. 25 But there are many other things Iēsous did, and if every one of them were written down, I don’t think that even the whole universe would have room for the books that would
be written.*227

  Skip Notes

  *1 John’s opening reflects both the first verses of the Genesis creation story and Greek philosophical language. See “W/word” (or logos) and “beginning” in the Glossary. I render logos here as “true account.” The pronoun used in translation for this term could be either “it” or “he” (I opt for the masculine), a thematic ambiguity: the abstraction and the person merge.

  *2 The Greek does not leave it certain whether the light or every human being is “coming into the universe.” “The coming one” is a messianic designation.

  *3 The “light” of Verse 9, a neuter noun, yields a masculine pronoun in Verse 10, so the symbolic thing seems to merge into a person.

  *4 Name is the essence of identity, and correct naming the basis of a correct relationship. Deities must always be called on by their correct names.

  *5 See “birth, give/be born” in the Glossary. Ginomai is used once in Verse 12, gennaō once in Verse 13.

  *6 The verb reflects the Jewish patriarchs’ nomadic life. The verb is also connected to the “tabernacle,” the holy tent in which the Israelites are said to have worshipped before the Temple’s existence.

  *7 Jewish tradition included very favorable inheritance conditions for the firstborn son. Ideally for avoiding conflict and disappointment, a Jewish family would have a single thriving son, a “favor/delight/free gift” (See “grace” in the Glossary) and a vessel of “truth” because his mother is virtuous and his paternity undoubted.

  *8 Attached to words of giving or receiving, the Greek preposition anti normally means “in exchange for.” Its meaning in this verse likely refers to a two-sided (though of course unequal) relationship with the deity.

  *9 Moses is traditionally called the author of the first five books of the Bible, the Torah or Teaching, which contain both fundamental and detailed Jewish law.

  *10 Cleopatra had popularized an image of herself holding her infant son against her chest (kolpos), a propagandistic reflection of the goddess Isis with her son Horus. This influenced eventual Christian pictorial images of the divine child: he is always held by his mother and not by his father, as here.

  *11 The Gospel of John can be particularly odd-sounding in its references to “the Jews” as if they were a separate people from Jesus and his adherents.

  *12 The hereditary priesthood (concerned with Temple sacrifice) and the Levites (also a hereditary class, representing one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, with other important religious duties) concentrate Jerusalem’s traditional authority.

  *13 Elijah was a very important pagan-slaughtering, miracle-working, worship-purifying, tyrant-persecuting prophet. The next question may allude to Moses, a “prophet” of liberation from foreign bondage as well as a channel of the law; see Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18.

  *14 Isaiah 40:3; See the note at Mark 1:3.

  *15 When the Gospel of John appeared, at least a generation after the loss of the Temple and its rituals in 70 C.E., proponents of rabbinic Judaism—which was the new dispensation the Pharisees propagated—were rising in influence, while Christianity continued to spread.

  *16 See the note at Mark 1:4 concerning baptism.

  *17 The comparison rests, as usual, on a menial and dirty task of slaves and servants.

  *18 The town of Bethany was close to Jerusalem, to the east, and on the west side of the Jordan.

  *19 Here the Temple sacrifices made as “sin offerings” are probably conflated with the sacrifice of a Passover lamb, one for each household, for the festival of the unleavened bread that marked the freeing of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.

  *20 See the note at Mark 1:10.

  *21 Not quite: See “rabbi” and “teacher” in the Glossary.

  *22 See “Christ” in the Glossary.

  *23 See the second note at Mark 3:16.

  *24 Again, Jesus’ own home, the town of Nazareth, was in this hilly, more sparsely settled, and independent-spirited region, at the time ruled by the Romans’ client king Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great.

  *25 The town of Bethsaida was near the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and the resources of fishing and navigation would have made it a more important town than Nazareth.

  *26 The word Jesus uses for Nathanael’s nationality harks back to a much earlier and more powerful stage of Jewish history. The fig tree is a symbol of national peace and prosperity (1 Kings 4:25, Micah 4:4). Jacob (also called Israel) in his youthful exile had a dream of angels going up and down on “Jacob’s Ladder,” a dream related to his dynasty’s God-given destiny (Genesis 28:10–17).

  *27 The location of this town has not been identified.

  *28 This is a disaster, as the community feast, and not any religious ceremony, was the heart of an ancient wedding.

  *29 Cleansing before meals was prescribed in the Jewish law. Each jar would contain somewhere between twenty and thirty gallons.

  *30 Capernaum is another fishing town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

  *31 Again, the greatest of the Jerusalem pilgrimage festivals, celebrating the release of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

  *32 Psalms 69:9. Also See the note at Mark 11:17.

  *33 Again, the resurrection took far from three twenty-four-hour days, as every unit of time is reckoned as a full one.

  *34 Begun by Herod the Great around 20 B.C.E., the Temple renovation was not completely finished until the sixties C.E., pathetically close to the year 70, when it was destroyed.

  *35 See the note at Mark 2:16.

  *36 This probably means that he belonged to the Jewish high council or Sanhedrin.

  *37 Jesus makes clever use of a verbal ambiguity: anōthen means both “once again” and “from above.” See “heaven” in the Glossary.

  *38 I.e., baptism, for a long early period the only essential rite for Jesus’ followers. See the note at Mark 1:4.

  *39 See “S/spirit” in the Glossary. Jesus continues to play with verbal ambiguities.

  *40 Pneuma pnei, a euphonious and playful expression, implying “a pneuma is something that does the pneuma thing.”

  *41 The word fōnē is (here, indistinguishably) either an animate or an inanimate sound.

  *42 “Born of the Spirit,” the traditional translation, does not reflect the wordplay in the Greek. The word is the same pneuma ordinarily translated as “wind” in the earlier part of this same verse.

  *43 Up to this verse, the verb used for “to be born” normally refers only to actual birth or begetting; now the ambiguous word is used. See “birth, give/be born” in the Glossary. Nicodemus is in effect answering his own question by a slippage of speech: there is more than one way to come into being.

  *44 In Numbers 21:6–9, the Israelites wandering in the wilderness are attacked by poisonous snakes as a punishment from God for complaining. Once the people repent and Moses intercedes with God for them, God instructs him to make a bronze snake and set it on the end of a pole: the mere sight of it cures snakebite. The “lifting up” wordplay will become usual in John for crucifixion (lifting up on the cross), resurrection, and ascension to heaven.

  *45 The location of these baptisms is uncertain. See Mark 6:14–20, Matthew 14:3–5, and Luke 3:19–20 about John the Baptist’s imprisonment, to which this Gospel author only alludes.

  *46 The point of marriage in the ancient world was fertility: the married blessing of “increase” is a traditional wish in many cultures.

  *47 Two modes of legal certainty are combined symbolically in this verse: verbal testimony that must be true, under stringent penalties (Deuteronomy 19:15–21), and the seal that conveys its owner’s authority and prot
ects his important documents from tampering.

  *48 In the ancient world well-to-do fathers did not tend to preside over day-to-day business affairs into middle age, but let sons or other trusted people do it.

  *49 Not so: there was an alternate route, popular with Jews, through the Transjordan.

  *50 See Luke 10:25–37, and the note on Samaritans. Given the two groups’ competing claims, these are hard-hitting references to Jacob (also called Israel), the progenitor of the Twelve Tribes, and to his most famous son, Joseph.

  *51 The Jews treat the Samaritans as they would any pagans, as untouchable.