João 20

ARC · Chapter 20/21

1E no primeiro dia da semana Maria Magdalena foi ao sepulchro de madrugada, sendo ainda escuro, e viu a pedra já tirada do sepulchro.

2Correu pois, e foi a Simão Pedro, e ao outro discipulo, a quem Jesus amava, e disse-lhes: Levaram o Senhor do sepulchro, e não sabemos onde o pozeram.

3Então Pedro saiu com o outro discipulo, e foram ao sepulchro.

4E estes dois corriam juntos, porém o outro discipulo correu mais apressadamente do que Pedro, e chegou primeiro ao sepulchro.

5E abaixando-se, viu postos os lençoes; todavia não entrou.

6Chegou pois Simão Pedro, que o seguia, e entrou no sepulchro, e viu postos os lençoes,

7E que o lenço, que tinha sido posto sobre a sua cabeça, não estava com os lençoes, mas enrolado n'um logar á parte.

8Então entrou tambem o outro discipulo, que chegara primeiro ao sepulchro, e viu, e creu.

9Porque ainda não sabiam a Escriptura: que era necessario que resuscitasse dos mortos.

10Tornaram pois os discipulos para casa.

11E Maria estava chorando fóra, junto ao sepulchro. Estando ella pois chorando, abaixou-se para o sepulchro.

12E viu dois anjos vestidos de branco, assentados onde jazera o corpo de Jesus, um á cabeceira e outro aos pés.

13E disseram-lhe elles: Mulher, porque choras? Ella lhes disse: Porque levaram o meu Senhor, e não sei onde o pozeram.

14E, tendo dito isto, voltou-se para traz, e viu Jesus em pé, porém não sabia que era Jesus.

15Disse-lhe Jesus: Mulher, porque choras? Quem buscas? Ella, cuidando que era o hortelão, disse-lhe: Senhor, se tu o levaste, dize-me onde o pozeste, e eu o levarei.

16Disse-lhe Jesus: Maria! Ella, voltando-se, disse-lhe: Rabboni (que quer dizer, Mestre).

17Disse-lhe Jesus: Não me toques, porque ainda não subi para meu Pae, mas vae para meus irmãos, e dize-lhes: Subo para meu Pae e vosso Pae, e para meu Deus e vosso Deus.

18Maria Magdalena foi e annunciou aos discipulos que vira o Senhor, e que elle lhe dissera estas coisas.

19Chegada pois a tarde de aquelle dia, o primeiro da semana, e cerradas as portas onde os discipulos, com medo dos judeos, se tinham ajuntado, chegou Jesus, e poz-se no meio, e disse-lhes: Paz comvosco.

20E, dizendo isto, mostrou-lhes as suas mãos e o lado. De sorte que os discipulos se alegraram vendo o Senhor.

21Disse-lhes pois Jesus outra vez: Paz comvosco; assim como o Pae me enviou, tambem eu vos envio a vós.

22E, havendo dito isto, assoprou sobre elles e disse-lhes: Recebei o Espirito Sancto:

23Áquelles a quem perdoardes os peccados lhes são perdoados: e áquelles a quem os retiverdes lhes são retidos.

24Ora Thomé, um dos doze, chamado Didymo, não estava com elles quando Jesus chegou.

25Disseram-lhe pois os outros discipulos: Vimos o Senhor. Porém elle disse-lhes: Se eu não vir o signal dos cravos em suas mãos e não metter o dedo no logar dos cravos, e não metter a minha mão no seu lado, em maneira nenhuma o crerei.

26E oito dias depois estavam outra vez os seus discipulos dentro, e com elles Thomé. Chegou Jesus, estando as portas fechadas, e apresentou-se no meio, e disse: Paz comvosco.

27Depois disse a Thomé: Chega aqui o teu dedo, e vê as minhas mãos; e chega a tua mão, e mette-a no meu lado; e não sejas incredulo, mas crente.

28Thomé respondeu, e disse-lhe: Senhor meu, e Deus meu!

29Disse-lhe Jesus: Porque me viste, Thomé, creste; bemaventurados os que não viram, e creram.

30Jesus pois operou tambem em presença de seus discipulos muitos outros signaes, que não estão escriptos n'este livro.

31Porém estes foram escriptos para que creiaes que Jesus é o Christo, o Filho de Deus, e para que, crendo, tenhaes vida em seu nome.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Mary Magdalene finds the empty tomb and tells Peter and John, who confirm the resurrection. Jesus appears to Mary, then to the disciples gathered together, and a week later to Thomas, who had doubted, personally confirming his physical resurrection.

Explanation

Peter and John's race to the tomb, with precise details about the position of the linen cloths (v.6-7), suggests the account of an eyewitness who vividly remembers the scene. Jesus' encounter with Mary Magdalene, who at first mistakes him for the gardener, is only resolved when he calls her by name — a personal and intimate portrait of the relationship between Christ and his followers. Thomas' doubt, which demanded physical proof before believing, is met by Jesus with patience, but Jesus also praises the faith of those who would come to believe without seeing (v.29), a blessing extended to all future readers of the gospel. The practical application today is that sincere doubts can be brought to Jesus, who responds with patience, but faith that does not depend on visual evidence is especially blessed.

Fun facts

  • Thomas' declaration, 'My Lord and my God!' (v.28), is one of the most direct and explicit affirmations in the entire Bible of Jesus' divinity, made precisely by the most skeptical disciple of the group.
  • Jesus' gesture of breathing on the disciples and saying 'receive ye the Holy Ghost' (v.22) deliberately echoes Genesis 2:7, where God breathes the breath of life into the first man, suggesting a new spiritual creation through the resurrection.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. João 20:1On the first day of the week, Sunday, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb while it is still dark and finds the stone already removed — the beginning of the resurrection account.
  2. João 20:2Mary’s first assumption is not resurrection, it is theft: she runs off thinking that someone has taken Jesus’s body somewhere else.
  3. João 20:3Faced with this alarming news, Peter and the other disciple immediately run off to check it with their own eyes.
  4. João 20:4The other disciple, likely younger or faster, arrives before Peter, though this does not diminish Peter’s importance in what happens next.
  5. João 20:5He bends down and sees the linen cloths lying there, but for some reason of respect or hesitation, he does not go into the tomb right away.
  6. João 20:6Peter arrives next and, without hesitating, goes straight into the tomb, seeing the same linen cloths lying there.
  7. João 20:7The cloth that had covered Jesus’s head is folded separately, apart from the other cloths — a detail that suggests an orderly scene, quite different from what one would expect from a hasty body theft.
  8. João 20:8Only then does the other disciple, who had arrived first, also go into the tomb, sees the scene, and comes to some kind of faith, even without yet understanding what had actually happened.
  9. João 20:9The narrator clarifies that this initial faith did not yet come from a full understanding of the Scriptures about the resurrection — it was more the recognition that something extraordinary had happened there.
  10. João 20:10After examining the scene, the two disciples go back home, leaving Mary alone outside the tomb for what comes next.
  11. João 20:11Mary stays weeping near the tomb after the disciples have already left, and bends down to look inside again.
  12. João 20:12She sees two angels dressed in white, sitting exactly where Jesus’s body had been placed, one at the head and one at the feet — framing the empty space.
  13. João 20:13The angels ask why she is weeping, and Mary repeats the same assumption as before, thinking she still does not know where they have taken the body — a sign that she still does not understand what has happened.
  14. João 20:14As she turns around, Mary sees Jesus right there, but does not recognize Him right away — a pattern that repeats in other resurrection appearance accounts.
  15. João 20:15Thinking He is the gardener, she asks for information about where the body was placed, still without realizing she is talking to the living Jesus Himself.
  16. João 20:16The KJV’s “Rabboni” is an even more respectful and affectionate form of “teacher” in Aramaic, close to the word “Rabbi” that appears elsewhere in the Gospel. The way Mary recognizes Jesus is not by seeing His face straight on, it is by hearing Him call her name.
  17. João 20:17This line can also be translated closer to the KJV’s “Touch me not,” which generates a good deal of discussion about its exact meaning in Greek. One common reading is that Jesus is asking Mary not to cling to Him there, because He still needed to complete something before He could be embraced without concern.
  18. João 20:18Mary becomes the first person to announce the resurrection to the disciples — a notable detail, since at the time a woman’s testimony carried little legal or social weight.
  19. João 20:19Even with the doors locked out of fear, Jesus appears in the middle of the disciples that same night, showing that His resurrected body was not limited by ordinary physical barriers.
  20. João 20:20Jesus shows the marks on His hands and side as concrete proof that it is truly Him, the same one who was crucified — and this confirmation brings the disciples immediate joy.
  21. João 20:21Jesus repeats the greeting of peace and makes an important declaration: just as the Father sent Him, He now sends the disciples — the formal beginning of their mission.
  22. João 20:22The gesture of breathing on someone recalls a very old image, from the book of Genesis, in which God breathes the breath of life into the first human being. Jesus repeating this symbolic gesture with the disciples is a way of linking this moment to a kind of new beginning.
  23. João 20:23Grants the disciples an authority tied to proclaiming forgiveness, connected to the gift of the Holy Spirit they had just received in the previous verse.
  24. João 20:24Thomas, also called Didymus, the Greek translation of the nickname meaning twin, the same detail already explained earlier in chapter 11, was not present at this first appearance of Jesus.
  25. João 20:25Thomas is not asking for just any proof: he wants to see and touch exactly the nail marks from the crucifixion and the wound left by the spear mentioned in the previous chapter. It is this very specific, physical demand that gives him the nickname he still carries today.
  26. João 20:26Eight days later, with Thomas now present, Jesus appears again the same way, passing through locked doors, specifically to deal with his doubt.
  27. João 20:27Jesus goes straight to the conditions Thomas had set earlier for believing, offering him the exact physical proof he had asked for.
  28. João 20:28Thomas’s answer, the KJV’s “My Lord and my God,” is one of the strongest declarations in the whole Gospel about Jesus’s divinity, moving straight from doubt to the highest possible recognition.
  29. João 20:29This line shifts the focus from Thomas, who had seen Jesus personally, to future readers of the Gospel, who would not have that chance. It is essentially the text speaking directly to anyone who would only come to know this story through reading, without having seen anything with their own eyes.
  30. João 20:30The narrator admits that this book is not a complete record: Jesus performed many other signs in front of the disciples that were not included here.
  31. João 20:31States directly the purpose of the whole Gospel: written so that readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life through that faith — functioning almost like the book’s original conclusion, before the final chapter.

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