John 20.1-31 will tell us about the discovery of the empty tomb; Peter and John go to see for themselves; Mary stands outside the tomb and weeps, seeing two angels, and then Yeshua appears to her; she is sent to the brethren to tell them he is alive; later that day, the talmidim meet Yeshua after he has risen and they receive the Shekinah; being absent, Thomas is skeptical as he hears of what happened; Yeshua appears to Thomas eight days later and his response; John’s relates that Yeshua did other signs that are not written in this book.
v 1…Now on the first of the week (in Greek it is “first of the Sabbaths” which would be a “Shabbaton” or high Sabbath. This was the festival of Yom Ha Bikkurim or First Fruits, which happened on the first day of the week after the weekly Sabbath of Passover week-Lev 23.9-11. Yeshua rose from the dead right after sundown on the seventh day leading to First Fruits in Matt 28.2. After Passover, priests would go very early in the morning on this day to the Valley of Motza, in the Kidron Valley. They had a sickle and a basket and they tied bundles of the barley sheaves, making sure these bundles were the first fruits. They cut the barley, used the wind, and beat the sheaves but not hard enough to crush the kernels. The barley was taken to the temple and placed the kernels into a skillet with holes and passed over a fire. Then the kernels were passed into 13 separate sieves until it was very fine, moving from corrupt barley to incorruptible. Yeshua resurrects at the end of the 17th of Nisan, and on this day Israel crossed through the Red Sea, the waters of judgment; and the day the Ark of Noah rested on the mountains of Ararat, after passing over the waters of judgment. Yeshua passed through the “waters of judgment” and was raised on the other side of death victorious) Mary Magdalene came early (while the first fruit ceremony was going on) to the tomb, while it was still dark (before dawn), and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.
v 2… And so she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other talmid whom Yeshua loved (she knew where to find them, they were still around), and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we (she was not alone at the tomb but the one mentioned here) do not know where they have laid him.”
v 3… Peter, therefore, went forth, and the other talmid (John) went to the tomb.
v 4… And the two were running together (eager to find out for themselves); and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter (John was younger, but Peter may have been a little slow, wondering what he would do if he saw Yeshua again after what he had done), and came to the tomb first;
v 5… and stooping and looking in (to go into a tomb with a body meant that he would have to be sprinkled with the ashes of the Red Heifer and be ritually unclean and unable to enter the temple for seven days) and he saw the linen wrappings lying (if the body was stolen, these would not have been left behind), but did not go in (did not want to be ritually unclean).
v 6… Simon Peter therefore also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he beheld the linen wrappings lying
v 7… and the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself (when Yeshua’s body was wrapped with linen and spices, the spices hardened after three days. When they looked in, they saw the outline of the body, and when Peter saw where the face was, there was nothing there but a hollow shell).
v 8… Then entered in therefore the other talmid (no body in the tomb so he could not be defiled) also, who had first come to the tomb, and he saw and believed (they had to see something that convinced them that Yeshua was resurrected. What they saw was an empty cocoon, with his body outlined by the hardened spices and wrappings).
v 9… For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead (Gen 22.3-5 says Abraham will return with Isaac and the story of Jonah are two types).
v 10… So the talmidim went away again to their own homes (satisfied he had risen from the dead).
v 11… But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping (she had returned to the tomb); and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb;
v 12… and she beheld two angels (came after Peter and John departed) in white sitting, one at the head (of the “cocoon”), and one at the feet (of the “cocoon”), where the body of Yeshua had been lying (like the two angels on the Ark of the Covenant).
v 13… And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
v 14… When she had said this, she turned around (because of the looks or gestures of the angels), and beheld Yeshua standing and did not know that it was Yeshua (it is possible that after the resurrection his visage had changed-Luke 24.13-31).
v 15… Yeshua said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
v 16… Yeshua said to her, “Mary!” (in a way she would recognize). She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
v 17… Yeshua said to her, “Stop clinging to me (do not delay or detain me); for I have not yet ascended to the Father (this is basically what a priest would say to you in the Temple if he was carrying the blood to the altar and you delayed him. Yeshua had not yet carried his blood to the Holy of Holies in heaven. He is merely saying that for right now he cannot be delayed. Later in the day he returns and others touch him and handle him. Being First Fruits, Yeshua was not taking the barley to the Temple, he was raising people from the dead and taking them to heaven as the first fruits of the coming resurrection-Matt 27 52-53. He still needed to do that); but go to my brethren (there was no change in their relationship, regardless of what they have done over the last few days); and say to them, ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.'”
v 18… Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the Talmidim, “I have seen the Lord.” and he had said these things to her.
v 19… When therefore it was evening on that day, the first of the week (or first of the Sabbaths, First Fruits, was over), when the doors were shut where the talmidim were, for fear of the Jews (the rulers), Yeshua came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you (“Shalom Aleichem”).”
v 20… And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The talmidim therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
v 21… Yeshua therefore said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent me, I also send you (he had told them this before-John 17.18).”
v 22… And when he had said this, he breathed on them (or “in” them, like Adam in Gen 2.7. The indwelling presence, or Shekinah of God, is in them now and they are now “born again”), and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit (this was the Shekinah, the indwelling presence of the God. The root can be seen in the word “Mishkan” or the Tabernacle where the presence of God was. Adam lost three things when he sinned, the Shekinah or presence of God, the Kivod or the glory and radiance of God, and the Ruach ha Kodesh or the power of God. Now, the Greek did not have a concept of the Shekinah, so the translators used “pneuma” or “spirit” for the concepts of the Shekinah and Ruach. So, when you see “Holy Spirit” and it is talking about being in you, it is the Shekinah. If it is the Holy Spirit coming upon you in power, it is the Ruach ha Kodesh, the power of God. Not knowing this, this verse causes confusion. If he gave them the Holy Spirit here, why does he tell them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit in Acts 1.5-8? It is because they received the Shekinah, the indwelling presence of God, in John, and will receive the Holy Spirit, the power of God, in Acts. They are two different manifestations but erroneously translated with “pneuma” in Greek. Yeshua will restore what Adam had lost, starting with them).
v 23… If you forgive the sins of any (doctrinally preaching the forgiveness of sins, telling people if they believe their sins are forgiven. This is not to be understood as forgiving sins, like in Catholic confession), they have been forgiven them (see Mark 16.16). If you retain the sins of any (they disbelieve), they have been retained (they stand condemned for unbelief).”
v 24… But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Yeshua came.
v 25…The other talmidim therefore were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I shall see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
v 26… And after eight days (eight is the number of new beginnings), again his talmidim were inside (in some private house, indoors), and Thomas with them, Yeshua came, the doors having been shut (for fear of the Jewish rulers), and stood in their midst, and said, “Peace be with you (“Shalom Aleichem”).”
v 27… Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into my side (this is probably the main reason he came); and be not unbelieving, but believing.”
v 28… Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
v 29… Yeshua said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed? Blessed (happy; empowered to succeed) are they who did not see, and believed.”
v 30… Many other signs therefore Yeshua also performed in the presence of the talmidim, which are not written in this book (of John; he could not include everything that was done in just one book);
v 31… but these have been written (the ones John did write about are enough) that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God (a title for the Messiah and his relation to the Father); and that believing you may have life in his name (the purpose of the book).
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