Juan 20

VBL · Chapter 20/21

1Temprano, el primer día de la semana, mientras aún estaba oscuro, María Magdalena fue a la tumba y vio que habían movido la piedra que estaba a la entrada.

2Entonces ella salió corriendo para decirle a Simón Pedro y al otro discípulo, al que Jesús amaba: “Se han llevado al Señor de la tumba, y no sabemos dónde lo han puesto”.

3Entonces Pedro y el otro discípulo fueron a la tumba.

4Ambos iban corriendo, pero el otro discípulo corrió más rápido y llegó primero.

5Se agachó, y al mirar hacia adentro, vio que los paños fúnebres estaban allí, pero no entró.

6Entonces Simón Pedro llegó después de él y entró a la tumba. Vio los paños fúnebres de lino que estaban allí,

7y que el paño con que habían cubierto la cabeza de Jesús no estaba con los demás paños fúnebres sino que lo habían doblado y lo habían colocado solo aparte.

8Entonces el otro discípulo que había llegado primero a la tumba, entró también.

9Miró alrededor y creyó entonces que era verdad—porque hasta ese momento ellos no habían entendido la Escritura de que Jesús tenía que levantase de los muertos.

10Entonces los discípulos regresaron al lugar donde se estaban quedando.

11Pero María permaneció fuera de la tumba llorando, y mientras lloraba, se agachó y miró hacia adentro de la tumba.

12Vio allí a dos ángeles vestidos de blanco, uno sentado a la cabeza y el otro sentado a los pies del lugar donde había estado el cuerpo de Jesús.

13“¿Por qué estás llorando?” le preguntaron.

14Después que dijo esto, volvió a mirar y vio a Jesús que estaba allí, pero ella no se dio cuenta de que era Jesús.

15“¿Por qué estás llorando?” le preguntó él. “¿A quién estás buscando?”

16Jesús le dijo: “María”.

17“Suéltame”, le dijo Jesús, “porque aún no he ascendido a mi Padre; más bien ve donde mis hermanos y diles que voy a ascender a mi Padre, y Padre de ustedes, mi Dios y el Dios de ustedes”.

18Entonces María Magdalena fue y le dijo a los discípulos: “He visto al Señor”, y les explicó lo que él le había dicho.

19Esa noche, siendo el primer día de la semana, cuando los discípulos se reunieron a puerta cerrada porque tenían mucho temor de los judíos, Jesús llegó y se puso en medio de ellos y dijo: “Tengan paz”.

20Después de este saludo, les mostró sus manos y su costado. Los discípulos estaban llenos de alegría por ver al Señor.

21“¡Tengan paz!” les dijo Jesús otra vez. “De la misma manera que el Padre me envió, así yo los estoy enviando a ustedes”.

22Mientras decía esto, sopló sobre ellos y les dijo: “Reciban el Espíritu Santo.

23Si ustedes perdonan los pecados a alguien, le serán perdonados; pero si ustedes no lo perdonan, quedarán sin ser perdonados”.

24Uno de los doce discípulos, Tomás, a quien le decían el gemelo, no estaba allí cuando Jesús llegó.

25Así que los otros discípulos le dijeron: “Hemos visto al Señor”.

26Una semana después, los discípulos estaban reunidos dentro de la casa y Tomás estaba con ellos. Las puertas estaban cerradas, y Jesús llegó y se puso en medio de ellos.

27Entonces le dijo a Tomás: “Coloca aquí tu dedo, y mira mis manos. Coloca tu mano en la herida que tengo en mi costado. ¡Deja de dudar y cree en mí!

28“¡Mi señor y mi Dios!” respondió Tomás.

29“Crees en mí porque me has visto”, le dijo Jesús. “Felices aquellos que no han visto, y sin embargo aún creen en mí”.

30Jesús hizo muchas otras señales milagrosas mientras estuvo con los discípulos, y que no se registran en este libro.

31Pero estas cosas están escritas aquí para que ustedes puedan creer que Jesús es el Mesías, el Hijo de Dios, y que al creer en quien él es, ustedes tengan vida.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Mary Magdalene finds the empty tomb and tells Peter and John, who confirm the resurrection. Jesus appears to Mary, then to the disciples gathered together, and a week later to Thomas, who had doubted, personally confirming his physical resurrection.

Explanation

Peter and John's race to the tomb, with precise details about the position of the linen cloths (v.6-7), suggests the account of an eyewitness who vividly remembers the scene. Jesus' encounter with Mary Magdalene, who at first mistakes him for the gardener, is only resolved when he calls her by name — a personal and intimate portrait of the relationship between Christ and his followers. Thomas' doubt, which demanded physical proof before believing, is met by Jesus with patience, but Jesus also praises the faith of those who would come to believe without seeing (v.29), a blessing extended to all future readers of the gospel. The practical application today is that sincere doubts can be brought to Jesus, who responds with patience, but faith that does not depend on visual evidence is especially blessed.

Fun facts

  • Thomas' declaration, 'My Lord and my God!' (v.28), is one of the most direct and explicit affirmations in the entire Bible of Jesus' divinity, made precisely by the most skeptical disciple of the group.
  • Jesus' gesture of breathing on the disciples and saying 'receive ye the Holy Ghost' (v.22) deliberately echoes Genesis 2:7, where God breathes the breath of life into the first man, suggesting a new spiritual creation through the resurrection.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Juan 20:1On the first day of the week, Sunday, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb while it is still dark and finds the stone already removed — the beginning of the resurrection account.
  2. Juan 20:2Mary’s first assumption is not resurrection, it is theft: she runs off thinking that someone has taken Jesus’s body somewhere else.
  3. Juan 20:3Faced with this alarming news, Peter and the other disciple immediately run off to check it with their own eyes.
  4. Juan 20:4The other disciple, likely younger or faster, arrives before Peter, though this does not diminish Peter’s importance in what happens next.
  5. Juan 20:5He bends down and sees the linen cloths lying there, but for some reason of respect or hesitation, he does not go into the tomb right away.
  6. Juan 20:6Peter arrives next and, without hesitating, goes straight into the tomb, seeing the same linen cloths lying there.
  7. Juan 20:7The cloth that had covered Jesus’s head is folded separately, apart from the other cloths — a detail that suggests an orderly scene, quite different from what one would expect from a hasty body theft.
  8. Juan 20:8Only then does the other disciple, who had arrived first, also go into the tomb, sees the scene, and comes to some kind of faith, even without yet understanding what had actually happened.
  9. Juan 20:9The narrator clarifies that this initial faith did not yet come from a full understanding of the Scriptures about the resurrection — it was more the recognition that something extraordinary had happened there.
  10. Juan 20:10After examining the scene, the two disciples go back home, leaving Mary alone outside the tomb for what comes next.
  11. Juan 20:11Mary stays weeping near the tomb after the disciples have already left, and bends down to look inside again.
  12. Juan 20:12She sees two angels dressed in white, sitting exactly where Jesus’s body had been placed, one at the head and one at the feet — framing the empty space.
  13. Juan 20:13The angels ask why she is weeping, and Mary repeats the same assumption as before, thinking she still does not know where they have taken the body — a sign that she still does not understand what has happened.
  14. Juan 20:14As she turns around, Mary sees Jesus right there, but does not recognize Him right away — a pattern that repeats in other resurrection appearance accounts.
  15. Juan 20:15Thinking He is the gardener, she asks for information about where the body was placed, still without realizing she is talking to the living Jesus Himself.
  16. Juan 20:16The KJV’s “Rabboni” is an even more respectful and affectionate form of “teacher” in Aramaic, close to the word “Rabbi” that appears elsewhere in the Gospel. The way Mary recognizes Jesus is not by seeing His face straight on, it is by hearing Him call her name.
  17. Juan 20:17This line can also be translated closer to the KJV’s “Touch me not,” which generates a good deal of discussion about its exact meaning in Greek. One common reading is that Jesus is asking Mary not to cling to Him there, because He still needed to complete something before He could be embraced without concern.
  18. Juan 20:18Mary becomes the first person to announce the resurrection to the disciples — a notable detail, since at the time a woman’s testimony carried little legal or social weight.
  19. Juan 20:19Even with the doors locked out of fear, Jesus appears in the middle of the disciples that same night, showing that His resurrected body was not limited by ordinary physical barriers.
  20. Juan 20:20Jesus shows the marks on His hands and side as concrete proof that it is truly Him, the same one who was crucified — and this confirmation brings the disciples immediate joy.
  21. Juan 20:21Jesus repeats the greeting of peace and makes an important declaration: just as the Father sent Him, He now sends the disciples — the formal beginning of their mission.
  22. Juan 20:22The gesture of breathing on someone recalls a very old image, from the book of Genesis, in which God breathes the breath of life into the first human being. Jesus repeating this symbolic gesture with the disciples is a way of linking this moment to a kind of new beginning.
  23. Juan 20:23Grants the disciples an authority tied to proclaiming forgiveness, connected to the gift of the Holy Spirit they had just received in the previous verse.
  24. Juan 20:24Thomas, also called Didymus, the Greek translation of the nickname meaning twin, the same detail already explained earlier in chapter 11, was not present at this first appearance of Jesus.
  25. Juan 20:25Thomas is not asking for just any proof: he wants to see and touch exactly the nail marks from the crucifixion and the wound left by the spear mentioned in the previous chapter. It is this very specific, physical demand that gives him the nickname he still carries today.
  26. Juan 20:26Eight days later, with Thomas now present, Jesus appears again the same way, passing through locked doors, specifically to deal with his doubt.
  27. Juan 20:27Jesus goes straight to the conditions Thomas had set earlier for believing, offering him the exact physical proof he had asked for.
  28. Juan 20:28Thomas’s answer, the KJV’s “My Lord and my God,” is one of the strongest declarations in the whole Gospel about Jesus’s divinity, moving straight from doubt to the highest possible recognition.
  29. Juan 20:29This line shifts the focus from Thomas, who had seen Jesus personally, to future readers of the Gospel, who would not have that chance. It is essentially the text speaking directly to anyone who would only come to know this story through reading, without having seen anything with their own eyes.
  30. Juan 20:30The narrator admits that this book is not a complete record: Jesus performed many other signs in front of the disciples that were not included here.
  31. Juan 20:31States directly the purpose of the whole Gospel: written so that readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life through that faith — functioning almost like the book’s original conclusion, before the final chapter.

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