John 20:2 - Exposition

Then she runneth in advance of the other women, who are each intent on communicating what she had seen and heard, and cometh to Simon Peter —why not, if, as Mark says, Peter had been specially mentioned by the angel?— and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved . The form of the expression suggests that they were living in different houses. [There were two disciples on whom Jesus poured out the abundance of his love. The word here used is not ἠγάπα , that which is used in John 13:23 and John 21:7-20 , and which denotes the love of high regard, but ἐφίλει , the love of personal affection, the kind of love showered on Lazarus and his sisters ( John 11:5 ). So far, then, from John especially exalting himself at the expense of Peter, he gives to Peter the first place in the affection of his Master.] And she saith to them, They have taken away the Lord— even the corpse of Jesus was the Lord to this urgent and impassioned disciple— out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they— Joseph and Nicodemus, or the chief priests, or Roman soldiers, or Jews— have laid him . We know not what other burying-place "they" have chosen! The anti-harmonistic commentators, with ponderous literalism, insist that Mary could have said nothing more. A gushing woman like Mary of Magdala uttered one sentence, and that was all: It is, however, entirely evident that she must have said enough to excite great wonderment, haste, and activity in the breasts of these two disciples (see above on the three hypotheses).