John 20:17

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John 20:17
  20:16
20:18  
Hans Holbein d. J. - Noli me Tangere (detail) - WGA11503.jpg
Jesus telling Mary not to touch him, by Hans Holbein the Younger
Book Gospel of John
Christian Bible part New Testament

John 20:17 is the 17th verse of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament. It contains Jesus' response to Mary Magdalene just after he meets her outside his tomb after his resurrection. According to the longer ending of Mark's Gospel (Mark 16:9) Mary Magdalene is the first person to whom Jesus shows himself alive after his resurrection.

Contents

Content

The original Koine Greek, according to the Textus Receptus, reads:

λέγει αὐτῇ Ἰησοῦς· μή μου ἅπτου, οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα πρὸς τὸν
πατέρα· πορεύου δὲ πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφούς μου καὶ εἰπὲ αὐτοῖς ἀναβαίνω πρὸς
τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν καὶ θεόν μου καὶ θεὸν ὑμῶν. [1]

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

Jesus saith to her, Touch me not; for I am 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.

The English Standard Version translates the passage as:

Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended
to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them,
'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

The Modern English Version instead reads:

Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father. But go to My brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.' " [2]

For a collection of other versions see BibleHub John 20:17.

Noli me tangere

The passage does not make clear how Mary is touching him. H.C.G. Moule speculates that she likely grabbed his arm or hand to try to verify his physical existence.

An important issue is why Jesus prevents Mary from touching or holding him. In Latin, this phrase is translated as noli me tangere. It is unclear why Jesus imposes this rule, especially since in John 20:27, he allows Thomas to probe his open wounds. It also seems somewhat contradictory to the other Gospels, Matthew 28:9 states that the women who found Jesus "came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him", and no mention is made there of Jesus disapproving.

Biblical scholar Raymond E. Brown has listed a wide array of explanations for his injunction:

There are also a number of scholars who have proposed alternative translations. They are not based on direct linguistic evidence but are rather attempts to synchronize the phrase with other parts of the Bible. There is also some evidence that the wording may have been mangled.

What not touching has to do with the ascension is also unclear. Barrett states that the phrase seems to have the paradoxical meaning that Jesus can be freely touched once he has ascended. Or rather, it may imply that her touch may somehow hinder his ascension into Heaven.

Jesus mentions that his ultimate fate is to return to his father, which is read as him making it clear that his resurrection has not made him king of the earth but king of heaven, and his return in physical form is only temporary.

Message to the disciples

Jesus then sends Mary to tell his brethren or brothers of the news. Elsewhere in the New Testament, the word "brethren" had been used to describe only Jesus' family, for example in John 2:12: "he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples": [4] so this phrase is very unusual. It also appears at Matthew 28:10: John Nolland suggests that there may be shared source used by the two evangelists. [5]

Jerome relates Jesus' direction to the disciples, "Tell my brothers (nuntiate fratribus meis)" to meet Jesus in Galilee to Psalm 22 :22 : "I will tell forth (Adnuntiabo) your name to my brothers (fratribus meis)." [6]

Mary delivers the message to his disciples, and scholars agree that they were whom Jesus was referring to as "brothers". According to Henry Alford this is said to show that since his resurrection a new closeness exists between Jesus and his followers and to confirm that even after the resurrection Jesus is fully human and a brother to other men.

The message Jesus gives Mary has been the subject of detailed analysis. The assertion that God is both Father and God to Jesus is central to the Monophysitism/Diophysitism debate. The Diphysitists take it as proof that Jesus as well as being God was also a human under God. This passage is often linked with Jesus now referring to his disciples as brothers. Since they are now all brothers they share the same father in God. Since the resurrection Jesus has been forged into a permanent link between humanity and God.

The message Jesus gives to Mary does not mention the resurrection, only that Jesus is soon returning to his father. This is said to show that the great joy of the resurrection is not the return to life but rather joining with God as this is the only aspect of it Jesus felt necessary to immediately tell his disciples. Some thus read the passage as meaning that to Jesus the ascension is far more important than the resurrection. Reading this verse in isolation or disregarding other notions, some even feel that there is no such thing as resurrection; it was purely ascension.

In Islam

A similar verse appears in the Quran when Allah will ask Jesus on judgement day if he told people to take him and Mary as deities besides Allah in Chapter 5 verse 117:

(Jesus will say) Never said I to them aught except what Thou didst command me to say to wit 'Worship God my Lord and your Lord'; and I was a witness over them whilst I dwelt amongst them; when Thou didst take me up thou wast the Watcher over them and Thou art a Witness to all things. (Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation)
I said not to them except what You commanded me - to worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them as long as I was among them; but when You took me up, You were the Observer over them, and You are, over all things, Witness. (Saheeh International)

For a collection of other versions, see Noble Quran translations.

The Godhead

John 20:17 has long been used to challenge the Trinitarian doctrine, which has been under debate before 200 A.D. [7] This verse appears to suggest that Jesus too has a God above him. Or at least another God besides him.

"... I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." (John 20:17)

Tertullian, one of the early Catholic Church Fathers, was utterly opposed to the doctrine of the Trinity. [8]

Tertullian's belief was, "The Son, on this theory, is not God himself, nor is he divine in the same sense that the Father is. Rather, the Son is "divine" in that he is made of a portion of the matter that the Father is composed of. This makes them "one substance" or not different as to essence. But the Son isn’t the same god as the Father." [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. Greek Text Analysis: John 20:17. Biblehub
  2. John 20:17: MEV
  3. Barrett 1978.
  4. John 2:12: King James Version
  5. Nolland, John. The Gospel of Matthew: a Commentary on the Greek text. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005 pg. 1243
  6. Jerome Comm. Matt. 4.1969-72 (CC Series Latina 77, 281), apud Tkacz, Catherine Brown, "Esther, Jesus, and Psalm 22", The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Vol. 70, No. 4 (October 2008), p. 716
  7. Tugg, D. "History of Trinitarian Doctrines". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  8. Schaff, Philip. (1885). "Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 3". Christian Classics Ethereal library.
  9. Tugg, D. "3.1.2 Tertullian". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Sources

Preceded by
John 20:16
Gospel of John
Chapter 20
Succeeded by
John 20:18