Exodus 3:3

3:3 So Moses thought, ¹  “I will turn aside to see ²  this amazing ³  sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” ⁴ 

Psalms 111:2

111:2 The Lord’s deeds are great,

eagerly awaited ⁵  by all who desire them.

Matthew 2:1-2

The Visit of the Wise Men

2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem ⁶  in Judea, in the time ⁷  of King Herod, ⁸  wise men ⁹  from the East came to Jerusalem ¹⁰  2:2 saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose ¹¹  and have come to worship him.”

Matthew 2:9-11

2:9 After listening to the king they left, and once again ¹²  the star they saw when it rose ¹³  led them until it stopped above the place where the child was. 2:10 When they saw the star they shouted joyfully. ¹⁴  2:11 As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down ¹⁵  and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, ¹⁶  and myrrh. ¹⁷ 

Matthew 12:42

12:42 The queen of the South ¹⁸  will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon – and now, ¹⁹  something greater than Solomon is here!

John 20:1-10

The Resurrection

20:1 Now very early on the first day of the week, ²⁰  while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene ²¹  came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been moved away from the entrance. ²²  20:2 So she went running ²³  to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 20:3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out to go to the tomb. ²⁴  20:4 The two were running together, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter ²⁵  and reached the tomb first. ²⁶  20:5 He bent down ²⁷  and saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, ²⁸  but he did not go in. 20:6 Then Simon Peter, who had been following him, arrived and went right into the tomb. He saw ²⁹  the strips of linen cloth lying there, 20:7 and the face cloth, ³⁰  which had been around Jesus’ head, not lying with the strips of linen cloth but rolled up in a place by itself. ³¹  20:8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, came in, and he saw and believed. ³²  20:9 (For they did not yet understand ³³  the scripture that Jesus ³⁴  must rise from the dead.) ³⁵ 

Jesus’ Appearance to Mary Magdalene

20:10 So the disciples went back to their homes.

[3:3]  ¹ tn Heb “And Moses said.” The implication is that Moses said this to himself.

[3:3]  ² tn The construction uses the cohortative אָסֻרָה־נָּא (’asura-nna’) followed by an imperfect with vav (וְאֶרְאֶה, vÿ’er’eh) to express the purpose or result (logical sequence): “I will turn aside in order that I may see.”

[3:3]  ³ tn Heb “great.” The word means something extraordinary here. In using this term Moses revealed his reaction to the strange sight and his anticipation that something special was about to happen. So he turned away from the flock to investigate.

[3:3]  ⁴ tn The verb is an imperfect. Here it has the progressive nuance – the bush is not burning up.

[111:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “sought out.”

[2:1]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[2:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “in the days.”

[2:1]  ⁸ sn King Herod was Herod the Great, who ruled Palestine from 37 b.c. until he died in 4 b.c. He was known for his extensive building projects (including the temple in Jerusalem) and for his cruelty.

[2:1]  ⁹ sn The Greek term magi here describes a class of wise men and priests who were astrologers (L&N 32.40).

[2:1]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “in its rising,” referring to the astrological significance of a star in a particular portion of the sky. The term used for the “East” in v. 1 is ἀνατολαί (anatolai, a plural form that is used typically of the rising of the sun), while in vv. 2 and 9 the singular ἀνατολή (anatolh) is used. The singular is typically used of the rising of a star and as such should not normally be translated “in the east” (cf. BDAG 74 s.v. 1: “because of the sg. and the article in contrast to ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, vs. 1, [it is] prob. not a geograph. expr. like the latter, but rather astronomical…likew. vs. 9”).

[2:9]  ¹² tn Grk “and behold the star.”

[2:9]  ¹³ tn See the note on the word “rose” in 2:2.

[2:10]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “they rejoiced with very great joy.”

[2:11]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “they fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”

[2:11]  ¹⁶ sn Frankincense refers to the aromatic resin of certain trees, used as a sweet-smelling incense (L&N 6.212).

[2:11]  ¹⁷ sn Myrrh consisted of the aromatic resin of certain shrubs (L&N 6.208). It was used in preparing a corpse for burial.

[12:42]  ¹⁸ sn On the queen of the South see 1 Kgs 10:1-3 and 2 Chr 9:1-12, as well as Josephus, Ant. 8.6.5-6 (8.165-175). The South most likely refers to modern southwest Arabia, possibly the eastern part of modern Yemen, although there is an ancient tradition reflected in Josephus which identifies this geo-political entity as Ethiopia.

[12:42]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “behold.”

[20:1]  ²⁰ sn The first day of the week would be early Sunday morning. The Sabbath (and in this year the Passover) would have lasted from 6 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Saturday. Sunday would thus mark the first day of the following week.

[20:1]  ²¹ sn John does not mention that Mary Magdalene was accompanied by any of the other women who had been among Jesus’ followers. The synoptic accounts all mention other women who accompanied her (although Mary Magdalene is always mentioned first). Why John does not mention the other women is not clear, but Mary probably becomes the focus of the author’s attention because it was she who came and found Peter and the beloved disciple and informed them of the empty tomb (20:2). Mary’s use of the plural in v. 2 indicates there were others present, in indirect agreement with the synoptic accounts.

[20:1]  ²² tn Grk “from the tomb.”

[20:2]  ²³ tn Grk “So she ran and came.”

[20:3]  ²⁴ tn Grk “went out and were coming to the tomb.”

[20:4]  ²⁵ sn The other disciple (the ‘beloved disciple’) ran on ahead more quickly than Peter, so he arrived at the tomb first. This verse has been a chief factor in depictions of John as a young man (especially combined with traditions that he wrote last of all the gospel authors and lived into the reign of Domitian). But the verse does not actually say anything about John’s age, nor is age always directly correlated with running speed.

[20:4]  ²⁶ tn Grk “and came first to the tomb.”

[20:5]  ²⁷ sn In most instances the entrance to such tombs was less than 3 ft (1 m) high, so that an adult would have to bend down and practically crawl inside.

[20:5]  ²⁸ sn Presumably by the time the beloved disciple reached the tomb there was enough light to penetrate the low opening and illuminate the interior of the tomb sufficiently for him to see the strips of linen cloth lying there. The author does not state exactly where the linen wrappings were lying. Sometimes the phrase has been translated “lying on the ground,” but the implication is that the wrappings were lying where the body had been. The most probable configuration for a tomb of this sort would be to have a niche carved in the wall where the body would be laid lengthwise, or a low shelf like a bench running along one side of the tomb, across the back or around all three sides in a U-shape facing the entrance. Thus the graveclothes would have been lying on this shelf or in the niche where the body had been.

[20:6]  ²⁹ tn Grk “And he saw.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[20:7]  ³⁰ sn The word translated face cloth is a Latin loanword (sudarium). It was a small towel used to wipe off perspiration (the way a handkerchief would be used today). This particular item was not mentioned in connection with Jesus’ burial in John 19:40, probably because this was only a brief summary account. A face cloth was mentioned in connection with Lazarus’ burial (John 11:44) and was probably customary. R. E. Brown speculates that it was wrapped under the chin and tied on top of the head to prevent the mouth of the corpse from falling open (John [AB], 2:986), but this is not certain.

[20:7]  ³¹ sn Much dispute and difficulty surrounds the translation of the words not lying with the strips of linen cloth but rolled up in a place by itself. Basically the issue concerns the positioning of the graveclothes as seen by Peter and the other disciple when they entered the tomb. Some have sought to prove that when the disciples saw the graveclothes they were arranged just as they were when around the body, so that when the resurrection took place the resurrected body of Jesus passed through them without rearranging or disturbing them. In this case the reference to the face cloth being rolled up does not refer to its being folded, but collapsed in the shape it had when wrapped around the head. Sometimes in defense of this view the Greek preposition μετά (meta, which normally means “with”) is said to mean “like” so that the comparison with the other graveclothes does not involve the location of the face cloth but rather its condition (rolled up rather than flattened). In spite of the intriguing nature of such speculations, it seems more probable that the phrase describing the face cloth should be understood to mean it was separated from the other graveclothes in a different place inside the tomb. This seems consistent with the different conclusions reached by Peter and the beloved disciple (vv. 8-10). All that the condition of the graveclothes indicated was that the body of Jesus had not been stolen by thieves. Anyone who had come to remove the body (whether the authorities or anyone else) would not have bothered to unwrap it before carrying it off. And even if one could imagine that they had (perhaps in search of valuables such as rings or jewelry still worn by the corpse) they would certainly not have bothered to take time to roll up the face cloth and leave the other wrappings in an orderly fashion.

[20:8]  ³² sn What was it that the beloved disciple believed (since v. 7 describes what he saw)? Sometimes it is suggested that what he believed was Mary Magdalene’s report that the body had been stolen. But this could hardly be the case; the way the entire scene is narrated such a trivial conclusion would amount to an anticlimax. It is true that the use of the plural “they” in the following verse applied to both Peter and the beloved disciple, and this appears to be a difficulty if one understands that the beloved disciple believed at this point in Jesus’ resurrection. But it is not an insuperable difficulty, since all it affirms is that at this time neither Peter nor the beloved disciple had understood the scripture concerning the resurrection. Thus it appears the author intends his reader to understand that when the beloved disciple entered the tomb after Peter and saw the state of the graveclothes, he believed in the resurrection, i.e., that Jesus had risen from the dead.

[20:9]  ³³ tn Or “yet know.”

[20:9]  ³⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:9]  ³⁵ sn Verse 9 is a parenthetical note by the author. The author does not explicitly mention what OT scripture is involved (neither does Paul in 1 Cor 15:4, for that matter). The resurrection of the Messiah in general terms may have been seen in Isa 53:10-12 and Ps 16:10. Specific references may have been understood in Jonah 1:17 and Hos 6:2 because of the mention of “the third day.” Beyond this it is not possible to be more specific.