John 20
The full text of John 20 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
2 So she ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have laid him!"
3 So Peter and the other disciple set out and were heading to the tomb.
4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
5 He bent down and looked in, and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
6 Then Simon Peter, following him, also arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,
7 and the cloth that had been on his head was not lying with the linen wrappings but was folded up in a place by itself.
8 So then the other disciple, who had come to the tomb first, also went in. He saw and believed.
9 They did not yet know what the Scripture said—that he must rise from the dead.
10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 But Mary stood outside the tomb, weeping. As she wept, she bent down to look into the tomb,
12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying.
13 They said to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" She said to them, "They've taken my Lord away, and I don't know where they've put him."
14 When she had said this, she turned around and there stood Jesus — but she did not know it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you've taken him away, tell me where you've put him, and I'll take him."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,a "Rabboni!"—which means Teacher.
17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet gone up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!" — and that he had said these things to her.
19 So that evening, on the first day of the week, the disciples were together with the doors shut for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood right in the middle of them and said, "Peace be with you."
20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
23 If you forgive anyone's sins, they have been forgiven them; if you retain anyone's sins, they have been retained.
24 But Thomas (called the Twin), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples were telling him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
26 Eight days later his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach your hand here and place it in my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."
28 Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.
31 But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in his name.
Translation notes (28)
- John 20:1a The Greek phrase "the first of the sabbaths" uses the plural form of sabbaton to mean "week" here, which is a figure of speech where one word is substituted for another closely associated word.
- John 20:2a Greek 'we do not know' (plural) — hints that Mary was not alone at the tomb (cf. Matt 28:1; Luke 24:10).
- John 20:2b The Greek phrase "whom Jesus loved" uses the word phileō here, while elsewhere in John (13:23; 19:26; 21:7, 20) the same description uses the word agapaō. John seems to treat these two Greek verbs as very similar in meaning.
- John 20:7a The Greek word soudarion refers to a face cloth or head cloth, which is different from the othonia (linen burial wrappings).
- John 20:8a What the disciple believed is not explicitly stated. Verse 9 immediately notes that they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead, leading readers to debate whether he believed in the resurrection at this point, or only Mary's report (verse 2) that the body was gone.
- John 20:9a "The Scripture" (singular, definite) likely points to passages such as Ps 16:10 and Isa 53, which the apostles later identified as resurrection texts (Acts 2:25–31; 1 Cor 15:4).
- John 20:10a The Greek phrase πρὸς αὑτούς (pros hautous) literally means 'to themselves,' but it is an idiom meaning 'to their own place, home, or lodging.' It is rendered as 'where they were staying' because the disciples are in Jerusalem, not at their homes in Galilee.
- John 20:14a The Greek text uses the historical present tense here, for example, 'and she sees Jesus standing.' This is a literary device often used by John to emphasize the moment of recognition.
- John 20:16a The Greek word Ἑβραϊστί (Hebraisti) means 'in Hebrew.' Many scholars believe this refers to Aramaic, the common language spoken in Judea in the first century, though the term literally names the Hebrew language.
- John 20:16b Rabboni is a term of address, an intensified form of Rabbi, meaning 'my teacher' or 'my master'.
- John 20:17a The Greek phrase mē mou haptou has traditionally been translated as 'Touch me not,' similar to the Latin Vulgate's 'noli me tangere.' In Greek, the present imperative verb form often forbids an action that is already in progress or ongoing, so it can also be translated as 'do not cling to me' or 'stop holding on to me'.
- John 20:17b The Greek word adelphous, translated as 'brothers,' refers to Jesus' fellow disciples. Verse 18 identifies them specifically as 'the disciples'.
- John 20:19a The Greek phrase hoi Ioudaioi can be translated as 'the Jews' or 'the Judeans.' In the Gospel of John, this term often refers to the authorities who opposed Jesus, rather than the Jewish people as a whole; the exact meaning and reference of the term in John is debated among scholars.
- John 20:19b The Greek literally means 'the one of the sabbaths.' This is a Semitism, a Hebrew-influenced expression, where the word sabbaton means 'week'.
- John 20:19c The phrase 'Peace be with you' translates the Hebrew greeting shalom aleichem. See also John 14:27.
- John 20:21a The Greek text uses two different verbs for 'send' in this verse: ἀποστέλλω (apostellō), which describes the Father sending the Son and is in the perfect tense, and πέμπω (pempō), which describes the Son sending the disciples and is in the present tense. It is debated whether this distinction is meant to convey a theological meaning or is simply a matter of writing style, especially since John 13:16 uses these two verbs interchangeably.
- John 20:22a Greek ἐνεφύσησεν echoes the LXX of Gen 2:7, where God breathes life into the man; the same verb appears in Ezek 37:9. The object 'on them' is supplied; the best Greek text has no explicit object after the verb.
- John 20:22b The Greek phrase πνεῦμα ἅγιον (pneuma hagion) does not have the definite article 'the' before it, and because of this, it could also be translated as 'holy breath,' which would preserve the wordplay with the earlier mention of Jesus 'breathed' on them. However, the context in John's Gospel strongly indicates a reference to the Holy Spirit.
- John 20:23a Some early manuscripts read the present tense verb ἀφίενται (aphientai), meaning 'are forgiven.' However, the later Byzantine manuscripts and the Textus Receptus tradition read the perfect tense verb ἀφέωνται (apheōntai), meaning 'have been forgiven,' which this translation follows.
- John 20:23b The Greek text pairs the verb ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), meaning 'release' or 'let go,' with κρατέω (krateō), meaning 'hold fast' or 'retain,' creating a contrast between releasing and grasping. The use of the perfect tense in both parts of the statement ('have been forgiven/retained') indicates a completed action with a continuing result, pointing to a settled state. Readers have long debated whether this implies that the disciples ratify an action already taken in heaven, or if it grants them a specific sacramental authority.
- John 20:24a Didymus is Greek for 'Twin'; Thomas is the Aramaic equivalent.
- John 20:25a The Greek word τύπος (typos) refers to the imprint or wound left by the nails. It describes a physical depression that Thomas could probe.
- John 20:27a The Greek phrase μὴ γίνου ἄπιστος ἀλλὰ πιστός (mē ginou apistos alla pistos) literally means 'do not become unbelieving, but believing.' The adjective ἄπιστος (apistos) means 'unbelieving' or 'faithless,' which is a stronger term than mere doubt (see Mark 9:19). The use of the present imperative verb γίνου (ginou) with μή (mē) suggests a command to stop an action that is starting or ongoing, implying Thomas was beginning to be unbelieving.
- John 20:28a The Greek phrase ἀπεκρίθη ... καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ (apekrithē ... kai eipen autō) means 'answered and said to him.' The phrases ὁ κύριός μου (ho kyrios mou) and ὁ θεός μου (ho theos mou), meaning 'my Lord' and 'my God,' are in the nominative case with the definite article, and function as a direct address to Jesus. The word αὐτῷ (autō), meaning 'to him,' clearly indicates that Jesus is the one being addressed.
- John 20:29a This verse can also be read as a question: 'Have you believed because you have seen me?' The Greek word ὅτι (hoti) allows for either interpretation.
- John 20:29b The original Greek uses different forms of the verb "have believed": a perfect tense for Thomas, indicating a settled state of belief, and an aorist tense for those who have not seen, indicating a coming to faith. English translations typically do not show this distinction.
- John 20:31a Some early manuscripts read *pisteuēte* (πιστεύητε), meaning "may continue believing," while other early manuscripts read *pisteusēte* (πιστεύσητε), meaning "may come to believe." This difference affects whether John's purpose is to confirm existing believers or to evangelize new ones.
- John 20:31b The word "Christ" translates *Christos* (Χριστός), which is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word *Mashiach* (מָשִׁיחַ), meaning "anointed one." In John 1:41 and 4:25, the Hebrew form "Messiah" is directly brought into English, but here John uses the Greek title.
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