St. John — "On the very first day of the week, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early,

when it was still dark..."

Thus, all these indications of time coincide, speaking only of different moments of the onset of morning, from which it is clear that the myrrh-bearing women did not all come at the same time at once. Most of all, the description of St. John differs from the other Evangelists, which is understandable, for he, as always, omits what was told by the first three Evangelists and supplements their narratives with what refers only to Mary Magdalene and the two disciples. From the demolition of the narration of all four Evangelists, a complete picture of everything that happened is obtained. Of course, the earthquake described only by St. Matthew, as a result of the descent of the Angel of the Lord, who rolled away the stone from the doors of the tomb, took place even before the arrival of the myrrh-bearing women. Its significance is to put the guards to flight and show the tomb empty. The Lord was resurrected before this, as it is sung in our church hymns: "I will seal the tomb, the life [Life] hast shone forth from the tomb, O Christ God..." (troparion on the Sunday of Thomas). "O Lord, I will seal the tomb from the wicked, Thou hast passed from the tomb, as Thou wast born of the Mother of God: Thou hast not been able to understand how Thou wast incarnate, Thy angels; Thou didst not feel when Thou wast resurrected, guarding Thee among the soldiers..." (Sticheron for Praise at Sunday Matins, tone 5). Therefore, the depiction of the Resurrection of Christ, which has spread in our country in recent times, under the influence of the West, does not correspond to reality at all: the stone is rolled away, Christ comes out of the tomb, and the soldiers fall on their faces in fear. The angel descended from heaven and rolled away the stone after Christ had been resurrected. This caused trembling and numbness among the guards, who then fled to Jerusalem.

From a comparison of all four Gospel narratives, a clear picture of the sequence of events is created. The first to come to the tomb, as can be seen from the narration of St. John, Mary Magdalene, "While it was still dark" (John 20:1). But she did not walk alone, but with a whole host of myrrh-bearers, as the first three Evangelists relate. Only, because of her special love for the Lord and the vivacity of her temperament, she preceded the other women and came when it was still dark, while the other women approached the tomb when it was already beginning to dawn. The fact that she did not walk alone is also evident from the story of John, for when she returned to the Apostles Peter and John, she says not in the singular, but in the plural: "We do not know where they laid Him" (John 20:2). This is clearly seen in the Greek text and translated into Russian. Seeing that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb (she did not see the Angel who later appeared to the women), she thought that the Body of the Lord had been carried away, and immediately ran to inform the Apostles Peter and John about it. On the way back, of course, she met with the other women, who, meanwhile, were preoccupied with the thought of who would roll away the stone from the door of the tomb (Mark 16:3), and told them her fear. While she was going to the Apostles, the other myrrh-bearing women approached the tomb, saw the Angels, heard from them the good news of Christ's resurrection, and hurriedly went to the Apostles to share this joy with them. All this is described in detail by the first three Evangelists (Matt. 28:5-8; Mark 16:4-8 and Luke 24:3-8).

Meanwhile, two of the Apostles, Peter and John, in consequence of the news brought to them by Mary Magdalene (and perhaps by other myrrh-bearers, whom they did not believe) – "And their words seemed empty to them, and they did not believe them" (Luke 24:11), hurriedly went or even ran to the tomb. John, being younger than Peter, fled quickly, and therefore ran to the tomb earlier, when the women were no longer there, but did not enter the tomb. It can be assumed that timidity in the solitude of the garden kept him from doing so. Bending down, however, into the hole from which the stone had been rolled away, he saw the shrouds lying there.

After him comes Simon Peter, who, as the more courageous and courageous, decides to enter the tomb, and sees there only the swaddling clothes lying and the cloth with which the Lord's head was entwined, "not lying with swaddling clothes, but especially holy in another place" (John 20:3-7). Then "the other disciple who had first come to the tomb," i.e. John, also entered, "And he saw and believed," that is, he believed in the truth of Christ's resurrection, for when the body was stolen, there would be no need to untie and remove the swaddling clothes from it, and moreover to lay them there in this order. "For they did not yet know from the Scriptures that He was to rise from the dead" — before the Lord "opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45), they did not clearly understand many things: they did not understand the Lord's words about His impending sufferings and resurrection (as can be seen, for example, from Luke 18:34 and Mark 9:10), and therefore they needed material evidence. Such proof of the truth of the resurrection of Christ was for John the circumstance that the shrouds and cloths remained diligently folded in the tomb. But this convinced only John of the truth of what had happened. Of Peter, St. Luke says that he "went back, marveling in himself at what had happened" (Luke 24:12). His state of spirit, after his threefold renunciation of the Lord, was very difficult and did not dispose him to a living faith. And so, probably, on his return from the tomb, the merciful Lord appeared to him for the consolation and pacification of his heart, which is only briefly mentioned by St. Luke in 24:34 and St. Paul. Paul in 1 Corinth. 15:5. As can be seen from these passages, the Lord appeared to Peter in private and before the other Apostles.

The Lord's Appearance to Mary Magdalene

(John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9-11; Matt. 28:9-10).

After the Apostles Peter and John left the tomb, only Mary Magdalene remained there, perhaps having come with them or immediately after them. Her soul was in turmoil, and she wept, considering the body of the Lord stolen. Weeping, she bent down to the opening of the tomb and saw there two angels sitting on the bed on which the bodies of the dead were laid in the tomb caves. Sorrow for the Lord was so great that it drowned out all other feelings, and therefore Magdalene, apparently, was not even particularly shocked by this appearance of the Angels, and to their question, of course, with a desire to console her: "Woman! Why are you weeping?" she easily, as if speaking to earthly creatures, touchingly expresses her sorrow in the same words as before to the Apostles Peter and John: "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." Having said this, she turned back, perhaps by chance, in a confusion of feelings, or perhaps by an instinctive inner feeling, and saw Jesus, but did not recognize Him. She did not recognize Him, probably because He appeared "in a different way" than later to the Emmaus travelers, in a "humble and ordinary" form (St. John Chrysostom), which is why she took Him for a gardener. Or perhaps she did not recognize him because her eyes were filled with tears, she was overwhelmed with grief and did not expect to see the Lord alive. At first she did not recognize Him even by His voice, when He asked her: "Woman! Why are you crying? Taking Him for a gardener, which is quite natural, for who should be so early in the garden if not a gardener, she says to Him: "Lord," in the sense of "master," "if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him," without even thinking whether she, a weak woman, will be able to lift Him up.

Then the Lord revealed Himself to her, pronouncing her name, apparently in a special, well-known and long-familiar intonation of voice: "Mary?" Having turned" — this shows that after her words to the imaginary gardener, she again turned her eyes to the tomb — "She said to Him, 'Rabbi! — which means: "Teacher!" and at the same time, apparently, in indescribable joy, she fell at the feet of the Lord, wishing to cling to them, to touch them, perhaps in order to make sure that she was seeing the real living Jesus, and not a ghost. The Lord forbade her to do this, saying: "Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." "Believe not your senses, but My word," as the Lord would say to her. The meaning of this prohibition is also that the Lord wanted to say to Mary: "Leave Me, for you cannot be with Me always, do not hold Me, but go and preach My resurrection, but now I must no longer remain with you, but ascend to the Heavenly Father." A good explanation of the meaning of this prohibition to touch the Lord is found in the morning sticheron of the 8th tone: "Yet the earthly woman is wise: by the same she is sent not to touch Christ."

"Mary Magdalene goes and declares to the disciples that she has seen the Lord, and that He has told her this" – comparing these words with the narration of St. Matthew, we must assume that on the way Mary Magdalene met "another Mary", and the Lord appeared to both of them together again (the second apparition), "He says, Rejoice!" calling them "My brethren," and announcing to them His resurrection, repeating what the Angel had said before: "Let them go into Galilee." Touching is the designation "brethren" given by the resurrected Lord, the already glorified Messiah, who is ready to go to the Father, to His disciples—He is not ashamed to call them as He later emphasized in his Epistle to the Hebrews 2:11-12 ap. Paul.

St. Mark says that the myrrh-bearing women were attacked by such trembling and horror, of course, reverent, that they "said nothing to anyone." This must be understood in the sense that on the way, when they fled, they did not say anything to anyone about what they saw and heard. The fact that when they came home they told the Apostles about everything, is further narrated by the Evangelist Mark himself (Mark 16:8 and 6:10) and other Evangelists (Luke 24:9).

According to the Gospel legends, the first appearance of the Lord after the resurrection was as if to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9-10). But the Holy Church has preserved from ancient times the tradition that before Mary Magdalene, the resurrected Lord appeared to His Most-Pure Mother, which is quite natural and understandable. In Jerusalem, in the Church of the Resurrection, they still indicate the place of the appearance of the resurrected Savior of His Most-Pure Mother not far from the Edicule. Tradition, sanctified by centuries, cannot but be based on a real fact. And if the Gospels say nothing about this, it is because the Gospels do not record much at all, as St. John testifies (21:25; 20:30-31). It must be assumed that the Most-Pure Mother of God Herself, in Her humility, was not pleased that the cherished mysteries of Her life should be divulged, and that is why very little is said about Her in the Gospels, except for the most necessary facts directly related to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Evangelists, apparently, did not want to mention the Most Holy Theotokos at all as a witness to the truth of the event of the Resurrection of Christ, because the testimony of the mother could not be accepted with confidence by doubters (see the synaxarion on the Sunday of Pascha). The Evangelists say that the stories of the myrrh-bearing women about what they saw and heard at the tomb and about the appearance to them of the risen Lord Himself seemed empty to them, they did not believe them (Luke 24:11). If even the apostles did not believe the myrrh-bearing women, then could outsiders believe the testimony of the Mother?

Bribery of the Coffin Guard