Annotations Upon the New Testament, John · Chapter 20
CHAP. XX.
Verse. 1. COmmeth Mary Magdalene early] With her companions, which Matthew, Marke and Luke name;Luke 24.1.10 Cornel à Lap. Vnam praecipuam nominat pro pluribus. Sic Marc. 5.2. & 46. si cum Matthaeo conferas. Grotius. but here she alone is named, because she was their leader, more zealous and diligent than them all, (therefore she is named in the first place in the other Evangelists) and especially because he intended to relate here upon what occasion Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalene alone. See 10. and 11. verses, and Marke 16.9.
Aetate velocior. Grotius. 6. v. Petrus aetate prudentior, eaque diligentius omnia explorans. Id. ibid.Vers. 4. The other Disciple did outrunne Peter] As younger, and so more nimble. Iohn out-ran Peter, Love is swifter, but Zeale in Peter is bolder to looke into the Sepulchre. See verse 6.
The Greek verbe is such as timber works fastened touch, and is to fasten unto, to be joyned unto, so St. Paul useth it 1 Cor. 7. not to touch, that is, not to be fastened by marriage, as one. Broughtons. Vide Bezam, Grotium & Brugensem. The words should be translated, I do not yet presently ascend. See Broughtons Epistle to the nobility of Engl. p. 45.Vers. 17. Touch me not] Goe in haste to tell my Disciples, stay not to touch me. 2 I am not ascended] viz. that it should bee time enough to touch me, or 3. she should touch him being ascended by faith, the profitablest touch.
He forbids her to touch him, that is, not to looke to enjoy his corporall presence as before, but rather to seeke for his Spirituall presence by faith, considering he was shortly to ascend to his Father. Mr. Perkins.
But goe to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.]I ascend] To what end, see Iohn 14.2. The words are as full of Comfort as the Ocean of waters. My brethren] A loving appellation. My Father and your Father,] A blessed union in a happy Correlation; my Father by nature, yours by grace saith Austen.
Vers. 18. Mary Magdalene came and told the Disciples that she had seene the Lord,] A Female Evangelist.En Magdalena hic à Christo fit Apostolorum Apostola & Evangelista. Cornel à Lap. Vide Piscat. in v. 26.
Vers. 19. When the doores were shut] Some thinke by his power hee caused the doore to give way, others that he rarified and thinned the substance of the doore.Primo non habtur è Scriptu…e ris, Christum intrasse per janua claulas: sed foreign, anas voces Latinus interpres reddidit semel, quum fores essent clausae, & iterum januis clausis. At Syrus utrobique cum essent fores clausae. Sic nihil necesse est penetrationem intelligere. Chamierus. Vide Calvinum. Mr. Perkins hath both. à Lapide saith falsely that Christ pierced the doores as he did the Virgins shut wombe when he was borne, and the stone of the Sepulcher in rising from the grave. The Scripture is evident that our Saviour was presented to the Lord according as it is written, every male that first openeth the Matrix, Luke 2.29. Clausas portas vulvae virginalis aperuit saith Ierom.
It is not said that Christ came through the doores being shut, but after the doores were shut, which yet at his entrie were opened miraculously, as to the Apostles the prison doores, Acts 5.19. and 12.10. The same may be said of the stone, if he arose before the Angell removed the same. Mat. 28. Fulke on the Rhem. Test.
Vers. 21. As my Father sent me, so send I your] First,As my Father sent mee so I send you] To imply, that he sent all with equall authority, every mans jurisdiction coming immediately alike from Christ. as Christ was immediately called by the Father, so were the Apostles immediately called by himselfe; Secondly, as Christ was sent from the Father to preach to the whole world, so Christ sent them into the whole world, for the whole world was their charge; Thirdly, as Christ was sent to reveale his Fathers will, so were they sent by Christ to reveale the Fathers will, partly in making things more fully knowne, which were before but darkely shadowed, and partly in foretelling things to come, they all being Evangelicall Prophets. In regard of this manner of sending them they were above the Angells themselves. See Ephes. 3.10. Perkins on Jude.
Vers. 22. He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost] The ceremonie of breathing on them, seemeth to give them all a like portion & power of the Spirit,Christ used the Ceremony of breathing upon his Apostles, with this forme of words, receive ye the Holy Ghost, as it were of set purpose visibly to represent he proceeding of the Holy Spirit from himselfe, so Cyrill and Austen. Flatus designat Spiritum Sanctum, quemadmodum & ventus (Act. 2. v. 2.) Eò quòd Spiritus Sanctusfit veluti flatus quidam Patris & Filij, nam & hinc Spiritus vocatur. Dedit autem praeterea intelligendum, Spiritum sanctum à se quoque procedere, & se illius esse datorem non minus quam Patrem. Brugensis in loc. that is, some smaller measure of gifts as a pledge for the time, but directing them when and where to expect the plentifull powring out of the Spirit upon them after his departure. This outward breathing upon the Disciples was a lively token and resemblance of their inward inspiration with the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost, for the Holy Ghost is as it were the breath of the Father and the Sonne. Our Saviour doth the same that God did, Gen. 2.7. to shew that the same person that giveth life giveth grace, and also to signifie unto his Disciples, that being to send them over all the world to preach his Gospell, he was as it were to make a second Creation of man by renewing the image of God in him which he had lost by the fall of Adam; also to put them in mind that their preaching of the Gospel could not be effectuall in the hearts of the hearers before the Lord did breath into them his Spirit. Cant. 4.10.
Vers. 23. Whose soever sinnes ye remit, they are remitted unto them;Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostome and Cyrill, Make this observation, that this is not their worke properly, but the work… of the Holy Ghost, who remitteth by them & therein performeth the work of the true God. The Minister remits sins by assuring them out of Gods word that beleeve and repent, that their sins are forgiven; a private Christian may do this, but the promise is peculiar to the Ministers. Matth. 16.19. and 18.18. and whose soever sinnes ye retaine, they are retained] First, it is certaine, that properly to remit sinnes belongeth only unto God, Marke 2.7. God challengeth this as his prerogative royall, Esay 43.25. The Ministers have power to remit or retaine sinnes ministerially, in that they have power to declare unto men remission of sinnes if they repent and beleeve, otherwise the retention of them; and also in that they are instruments under God to bring men unto repentance and faith whereby to obtaine remission, or otherwise to leave them the more without excuse. Compare this place with Marke 16.15, 16. and Luke 24.47. in all which places there is the same speaker Christ, the same persons spoken unto the Apostles, and the same time of speaking after the resurrection.
Figuram clavorum] i. e. Vestigium vulneris ex clavis impressum foreign est foreign vestigium, quod à percussione imprimitur, & post percussionem in corpore percusso relinquitur, Vulg. versio minus commodè reddit fixuram. Syrus vertit loca clavorum, Augustinus vertit cicatricem. Gerhard.Vers. 25. Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nailes, and put my finger into the print of the nailes, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not beleeve] Plus mihi profuit dubitatio Thomae quam credulitas Mariae. Gregorius Magnus. The doubting of Thomas hath profited me more than the credulity of Marie; Nil tam certum quam quod post dubium certum.
Ex his verbis manifestum est, Christum Dominum à resurrectione servasse non tantum cicatrices quinque vulnerum quae in cruce acceperat, quales remanent in plagis sanatis, sed & ipsa foramina vulnerum non repleta carne quae speciem clavi haberet, qualia fuisse dicuntur stigmata S. Francisci, sed aperta, ita ut caro continua non esset. Lugas Brugensis.Vers. 27. Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side] Into the wound of my side pierced with the Soldiours speare.
Vide Bezam. Hominum alij Christum nec oculis carnis nec fidei intuiti sunt, ut Phocion; alij oculis carnis & fide, ut Apostoli; alij oculis carnis non fide, ut Carphas & Pharisaei; alij non carnis sed fidei oculis, ut Abraham. Ioan. 8.56. & nos omnes. Grynaeus.Vers. 29. Blessed are they that have not seen, but heard, and yet have beleeved.
Ergo quae scripta sufficiunt ad salutem.Vers. 31. But these are written, that he might beleeve that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that beleeving yee might have life through his name] This was the finall cause of the writers of the Gospell.