The Resurrection According to the Evangelists

Mark ● Matthew ● Luke ● John ● Conclusions

When the Sabbath was over, and towards dawn on the first day of the week, [1] Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, [2] and Salome, went to visit the sepulchre [and] brought spices they had prepared with which to go and anoint him.

And suddenly there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled away the stone and sat on it. His face was like lightning, his robe white as snow. The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they were like dead men. [3]

They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ But when they looked they saw that the stone- which was very big- had already been rolled back. On entering the tomb they could not find the body of the Lord Jesus, [but] as they stood there puzzled about this they saw two young men in a brilliant white robe suddenly appear seated on the [4] right-hand side, and they were struck with amazement. Terrified, the women bowed their heads to the ground. But the two said to the women, ‘There is no need to be so amazed [5] .Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he has risen as he said he would, he is not here. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee : that the Son of man was destined to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.’ And they remembered his words. [6] ‘See, here is the place where they laid him. But you must go and tell his disciples and Peter, “He has risen from the dead and now he is going ahead of you to Galilee ; that is where you will see him, just as he told you. [7] ”’ And the women came out filled with awe and great joy and ran quickly away from the tomb to tell his disciples because they were frightened out of their wits; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. [8] ^{, [9]}

And suddenly, coming to meet them was Jesus. ‘Greetings,’ he said. And the women came up to him and, clasping his feet, they did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do no be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee ; there they will see me.’ And they returned from the tomb and told all this to Simon Peter and the other disciples [10] , the one whom Jesus loved. And the other women [11] with them also told the apostles, but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,’ [Mary of Magdala] said, ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’ [12]

Now while there were on their way, some of the guards went off into the city to tell the chief priests all that had happened. These held a meeting with the elders and, after some discussion, handed a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with these instructions, ‘This is what you must say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” And should the governor come to hear of this, we undertake to put things right with ourselves and to see that you do not get into trouble.’ So they took the money and carried out their instructions, and to this day that is the story among the Jews. [13]

Peter, however, set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb, running. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went into the tomb, bent down and looked in and saw the linen cloths but nothing else lying on the ground and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had still not understood the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home, amazed at what had happened. [14]

But Mary was standing outside near the tomb, weeping. [15] Then, as she wept, she stooped to look inside, and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet. They said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she replied, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.’ Jesus said, ‘Mary!’ She turned round then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’ – which means Master. Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and find my brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ So Mary of Magdala told the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord,’ and that he had said these things to her.

Now that very same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem , and they were talking together about all that had happened. And it happened that as they were talking together and discussing it, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He said to them, ‘What are all these things that you are discussing as you walk along?’ They stopped, their faces downcast.

Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, ‘You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.’ He asked, ‘What things?’ They answered, ‘All about Jesus of Nazareth, who showed himself a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and the whole people; and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have now gone by since it happened; and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they could not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.

 

They he said to them, ‘You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?’ Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.

 

When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them saying, ‘It is nearly evening, and the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them. Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; but he had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’

 

They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem . There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, ‘The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.’ [16] Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognized him at the breaking of bread.

They were still talking about all this in the evening [17] of that same day, the first day of the week [and] doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, when Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’ In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, ‘Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts stirring in your hearts? See by my hands and [my] side [18] and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ And as he said this he showed them his hands and his feet. Their joy was so great at seeing the Lord that they still could not believe it, as they were dumbfounded; so he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ And they offered him a piece of grilled fish, which he took and ate before their eyes. And he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ After saying this he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.’

Then he told them, ‘This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this. And now I am sending upon you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.’

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord,’ but he answered, ‘Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him: ‘You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

There were many other signs that Jesus worked in the sight of the disciples, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.

Later on, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias , and it happened like this: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee , the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing,’ They replied, ‘We’ll come with you.’ They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night.

When it was already light, there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus called out, ‘Haven’t you caught anything, friends?’ And when they answered, ‘No,’ he said, ‘Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something.’ So they threw the net out and could not haul it in because of the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ At these words ‘It is the Lord,” Simon Peter tied his outer garment round him (for he had nothing on) and jumped into the water. The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net with the fish; they were about a hundred yards form land.

 

As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three [19] of them; and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, ‘Who are you?’ They knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish. [20] This was the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.

 

When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more that these others do?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He replied, ‘Yes, Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Look after my sheep.’ Then he said to him a third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt that he asked him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and said, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. In all truth I tell you, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you and take you where you would rather not go.’

 

In these words he indicated the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God. After this he said, ‘Follow me.’

 

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them – the one who had lent back close to his chest at the supper and had said to him, ‘Lord, who is it that will betray you?’ Seeing him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘What about him, Lord?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does it matter to you? You are to follow me.’ The rumor then went out among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus had not said to Peter, ‘He will not die,’ but, ‘If I want him to stay behind till I come.’

 

This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has written them down, and we know that his testimony is true.

 

Meanwhile the eleven disciples set out for Galilee , to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. [21] When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’ [22]

 

Now having met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come for you to restore the kingdom to Israel ?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit which will come on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth’s remotest end. [23]

Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany [24] , and raising his hands he blessed them. Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky as he went when suddenly two men in white were standing beside them and they said, ‘Why are you Galileans standing here looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way as you have seen him go to heaven.’ They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.

There was much else that Jesus did; if it were written down in detail, I do not suppose the world itself would hold all the books that would be written. [25]

 

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