John 20:14
John 20:14 is the fourteenth verse of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John in the Bible. In this verse Mary Magdalene has just finished speaking to the angel she found in Jesus empty tomb. She then turns and sees the resurrected Jesus, but fails to recognize him. In the Gospel of John this is the first moment anyone sees Jesus after his resurrection.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
- And when she had thus said,
- she turned herself back, and
- saw Jesus standing, and knew
- not that it was Jesus.
The World English Bible translates the passage as:
- When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and didn’t know that it was Jesus.
That it is Mary Magdalene who is the first to see the risen Jesus is considered to by of great importance. To Westcott it indicates the veracity of John's narrative as a fake work would have used a far more prominent witness. This is especially ture as in that period women were not considered valid legal witnesses.
The main debate over this verse is just why Mary did not recognize Jesus. She had known him a long time and had known him well, but fails to recognize him. In John 20:15 she even goes on to mistake him for the gardener. In Luke 24:16 two of his disciples also fail to recognize Jesus after his resurrection. One theory is that the resurrected Jesus did not have the same physical form as before, but rather a wholly new appearance. Or perhaps the ordeal of crucifixion had so altered his appearance and bearing that his closest friends failed to recognize him. John Calvin, and many other scholars, reject such theories arguing the fault is with Mary and that her blindness in the face of Jesus is a metaphor for those who fail to see Jesus despite his divine nature. It is also said to show how seeing and meeting Jesus in the flesh in not necessary, or even particularly helpful, in learning to worship him. Rather such an understanding of Jesus must be spiritual. More prosaic explanations have also been advanced. John 20:11 already mentioned that Mary was weeping and some feel that her vision was merely clouded by tears. In the other Gospels, such as in Matthew 28:9 and Mark 16 the period where Mary fails to recognize Jesus is not mentioned at all.
Why she turns is also unknown, raising the issue of how Jesus appeared. Chrysostom speculated that Christ had materialized behind her and awing the two angels and it was their stares that got Mary to turn around. Alternatively Jesus had made some noise or his movement caught Mary's eye.
That the angels of the previous two verses are from this point wholly forgotten is to Schnackenberg evidence that the angels were a later addition to the text and that the original narrative did not include them.
References
- Schnackenberg, Rudolf . The Gospel According to St. John: Volume III. Crossroad, 1990.
- Westcott, B.F. The Gospel of St. John. London: John Murray, 1889.
- John Calvin's commentary on John 20:10-15
- Jesus Appears to His Disciples
- Recognizing Jesus
| Gospel of John | ||
| Preceded by: John 20:13 |
Chapter 20 | Followed by: John 20:15 |