John 20:5

John 20:5 is the fifth verse of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John in the Bible. The Beloved Disciple and Peter have traveled to the tomb of Jesus to investigate Mary Magdalene's report that the body of Jesus had disappeared. In this verse the Beloved Disciple arrives at the tomb and while he looks in he does not enter it.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

And he stooping down, and looking

in, saw the linen clothes

lying; yet went he not in.

The English Standard Version translates the passage as:

And stooping to look in,

he saw the linen cloths lying there,

but he did not go in.

Barrett reports that the term that is translated as stooping/bending over is one that is most often used to refer to looking down from a height. This would imply that Jesus' tomb is a vertical shaft like grave. The rest of the passage verse indicates a tomb that is more like a cave. However the word can also refer to any looking that requires the head to be bent. Tombs of this period generally had an entrance that was less than a meter high, which would thus require some contortion to peer in. The word that describes John looking at the grave clothes implies more a short glance than a detailed examination.^[1]

The main unanswered question about this passage is why the Beloved Disciple pauses outside the tomb. One theory is that he is deferring to Peter, as the junior disciple the Beloved Disciple pauses to allow Peter to be the first into the tomb. Another notion is that the Beloved Disciple paused because entering a tomb at this point would be a violation of ritual. Perhaps his concern was with respecting the burial place of his lord. Most scholars believe the first explanation is the most likely as the Beloved Disciple does enter the tomb soon after in John 20:8.^[2]

References

1. Barrett, C.K. The Gospel According to John, 2nd Edition. London:SPCK, 1978.
2. Brown, Raymond E. "The Gospel According to John: XIII-XI" The Anchor Bible Series Volume 29A. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1970.

• John Calvin's commentary on John 20:1-9
• Jesus Appears to His Disciples