John 16:22

16:22 So also you have sorrow ¹  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ² 

Isaiah 25:8-9

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ³ 

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ⁴ 

25:9 At that time they will say, ⁵ 

“Look, here ⁶  is our God!

We waited for him and he delivered us.

Here ⁷  is the Lord! We waited for him.

Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”

Matthew 28:8

28:8 So ⁸  they left the tomb quickly, with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Luke 24:41

24:41 And while they still could not believe it ⁹  (because of their joy) and were amazed, ¹⁰  he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” ¹¹ 

¹ tn Or “distress.”

² sn An allusion to Isa 66:14 LXX, which reads: “Then you will see, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass; and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but he will be indignant toward his enemies.” The change from “you will see [me]” to I will see you places more emphasis on Jesus as the one who reinitiates the relationship with the disciples after his resurrection, but v. 16 (you will see me) is more like Isa 66:14. Further support for seeing this allusion as intentional is found in Isa 66:7, which uses the same imagery of the woman giving birth found in John 16:21. In the context of Isa 66 the passages refer to the institution of the messianic kingdom, and in fact the last clause of 66:14 along with the following verses (15-17) have yet to be fulfilled. This is part of the tension of present and future eschatological fulfillment that runs throughout the NT, by virtue of the fact that there are two advents. Some prophecies are fulfilled or partially fulfilled at the first advent, while other prophecies or parts of prophecies await fulfillment at the second.

³ sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

⁴ tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

⁵ tn Heb “and one will say in that day.”

⁶ tn Heb “this [one].”

⁷ tn Heb “this [one].”

⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s instructions to tell the disciples.

⁹ sn They still could not believe it. Is this a continued statement of unbelief? Or is it a rhetorical expression of their amazement? They are being moved to faith, so a rhetorical force is more likely here.

¹⁰ sn Amazement is the common response to unusual activity: 1:63; 2:18; 4:22; 7:9; 8:25; 9:43; 11:14; 20:26.

¹¹ sn Do you have anything here to eat? Eating would remove the idea that a phantom was present. Angelic spirits refused a meal in Jdt 13:16 and Tob 12:19, but accepted it in Gen 18:8; 19:3 and Tob 6:6.