18Mary Magdalene came and informed the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what Jesus had said to her.

12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. He bent down and saw only the strips of linen cloth; then he went home,wondering what had happened

8Then they went out and ran from the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. He bent down and saw only the strips of linen cloth; then he went home,wondering what had happened

Chrysostom saw their pertinence to the notion of robbery of the tomb: “If anyone had removed the body, he would not have stripped it first, nor would he have taken the trouble to remove and roll up the napkin and put it in a place by itself” (In Jo. Hom. 85.4). One may add, nor would he have left those costly cloths and spices!

Early in this century H. Latham expounded the view that the wrappings that had been around Jesus lay flat on the tomb’s shelf, vacated by him without disturbing them, and that the napkin that had been about his head retained its shape; he had an artist draw an impressionist picture to illustrate the point (The Risen Master, [Cambridge: Deighton Bell, 1901] 29–56

The Evangelist had penned the story of Lazarus, and recorded how Lazarus, at the bidding of Jesus, came forth from his tomb, with the wrappings of the dead still binding him hand and foot, and the napkin on his head; he had to be freed to take up life again in this world. Jesus on the contrary left his wrappings in the grave as a sign of his resurrection into the life of God’s eternal order.

17 There is a clear contact between Mary’s attempt to take hold of Jesus and the scene in Matt 28:9, where the women to whom Jesus appears “seized” (ἐκράτησαν) the feet of Jesus and prostrated themselves before him. In this context the term κρατέω is virtually synonymous with ἅπτομαι (so Bultmann, 687 n. 1). It is even possible that Matthew’s statement about the women generalizes the action of Mary. Remembering Eastern customs, we are probably to assume that Mary did just what Matthew describes: she prostrated herself before Jesus and sought to clasp his feet. It was an act of joyful adoration combined with a simple desire to hold Jesus, not because she feared to lose him again, but in a perfectly normal expression of affection. Blank remarks, “Contact belongs to the primary ways in which man in this world becomes aware of outward reality.

But meeting and contact with the risen Jesus takes place on another plane, namely in faith, through the Word, or in the Spirit” (170–71).

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed.”

But meeting and contact with the risen Jesus takes place on another plane, namely in faith, through the Word, or in the Spirit” (170–71).