Joh 20:3-10 | Clarke

John 20:3-10

Verse 4

Outrun Peter - Not because he had a greater desire to see into the truth of these things; but because he was younger, and lighter of foot. Verse 5

Went he not in - Why? Because he was fully satisfied that the body was not there. But why did he not seize upon the linen clothes, and keep them as a most precious relic? Because he had too much religion and too much sense; and the time of superstition and nonsense was not yet arrived, in which bits of rotten wood, rags of rotten cloth, decayed bones (to whom originally belonging no one knows) and bramble bushes, should become objects of religious adoration. Verse 6

Seeth the linen clothes lie - Θεωπει: from θεαομαι, to behold, and ὁραω, to see - to look steadily at any thing, so as to discover what it is, and to be satisfied with viewing it. Verse 7

Wrapped together in a place by itself - The providence of God ordered these very little matters, so that they became the fullest proofs against the lie of the chief priests, that the body had been stolen away by the disciples. If the body had been stolen away, those who took it would not have stopped to strip the clothes from it, and to wrap them up, and lay them by in separate places. Verse 8

That other disciple - John.

Saw - That the body was not there.

And believed - That it had been taken away, as Mary had said; but he did not believe that he was risen from the dead. See what follows. Verse 9

They knew not the scripture - Viz. Psa 16:9, Psa 16:10 : Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell - כי לא תעזב נפשי לשאול ki lo taazob naphshi l'sheol - For thou wilt not abandon my life to the grave, nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. It was certainly a reproach to the disciples that they had not understood this prophecy, when our Lord had given them often the most direct information concerning it. Christ had referred to the history of Jonah, Mat 12:40, which was at once the type and the proof of his own resurrection. However, this ingenuous confession of John, in a matter so dishonorable to himself, is a full proof of his sincerity, and of the truth of his narration. Verse 10

Unto their own home - Either to their own houses, if they still had any; or to those of their friends, or to those where they had a hired lodging, and where they met together for religious purposes. See Joh 20:19.