João 20

BLIVRE · Chapter 20/21

1E no primeiro [dia] da semana Maria Madalena veio de madrugada, sendo ainda escuro, ao sepulcro; e viu a pedra já tirada do sepulcro.

2Correu pois, e veio a Simão Pedro, e ao outro discípulo a quem Jesus amava, e disse-lhes: Tomaram o Senhor do sepulcro, e não sabemos onde o puseram.

3Pedro saiu pois e o outro discípulo [também] ,e vieram ao sepulcro.

4E corriam estes dois juntos: e o outro discípulo correu adiante mais depressa que Pedro, e chegou primeiro ao sepulcro.

5E abaixando-se, viu estar os lençóis; entretanto não entrou.

6Chegou pois Simão Pedro seguindo-o, e entrou no sepulcro, e viu estar os lençóis [ali] .

7E o lenço que fora [posto] sobre sua cabeça, não [o viu] estar com os lençóis, mas [estava] dobrado em um lugar à parte.

8Então pois entrou também o outro discípulo, que primeiro chegara ao sepulcro, e viu, e creu.

9Porque ainda não sabiam a Escritura, que era necessário que ressuscitasse dos mortos.

10Voltaram pois os Discípulos para [a casa] deles.

11E Maria estava fora chorando junto ao sepulcro. Estando ela pois chorando, abaixou-se para [ver] o sepulcro.

12E viu a dois anjos [vestidos] de branco, sentados um à cabeceira, e o outro aos pés, onde estava posto o corpo de Jesus.

13E disseram-lhe eles: Mulher, por que choras? Disse-lhes ela: Porque levaram a meu Senhor, e não sei onde o puseram.

14E havendo dito isto, virou-se para trás, e viu Jesus em pé, e não sabia que era Jesus.

15Disse-lhe Jesus: Mulher, por que choras? A quem buscas? Ela, pensando que era o jardineiro, disse-lhe: Senhor, se tu o levaste, dize-me onde o puseste, e eu o levarei.

16Disse-lhe Jesus: Maria! Ela, virando-se, disse-lhe: Rabôni! (que quer dizer Mestre).

17Disse-lhe Jesus: Não me toques; porque ainda não subi para o meu Pai; porém vai a meus irmãos, e dize- lhes: Subo para meu Pai, e para vosso Pai; [para] meu Deus, e [para] vosso Deus.

18Veio Maria Madalena, e anunciou aos discípulos, que vira ao Senhor, e [que] estas coisas lhe dissera.

19Vinda pois já a tarde, o primeiro dia da semana, e fechadas as portas onde os Discípulos, por medo dos judeus, tinham se reunido, veio Jesus, e pôs-se no meio [deles] ,e disse-lhes: Tenhais paz!

20E dizendo isto, mostrou-lhes suas mãos, e [seu] lado. Então os discípulos se alegraram, vendo ao Senhor.

21Disse-lhes pois Jesus outra vez: Tenhais Paz! Como o Pai me enviou, assim eu vos envio.

22E havendo dito isto, soprou [sobre eles] ,e disse-lhes: Recebei o Espírito Santo.

23A quem quer que perdoardes os pecados, lhes são perdoados; [e] a quem quer que vós retiverdes [os pecados] ,[lhes] são retidos.

24E a Tomé, um dos doze, chamado o Dídimo, não estava com eles, quando Jesus veio.

25Disseram-lhe pois os outros discípulos: Vimos ao Senhor. Porém ele lhes disse: Se em suas mãos não vir o sinal dos cravos, e não pôr meu dedo no lugar dos cravos, e não pôr minha mão em seu lado, em maneira nenhuma crerei.

26E oito dias depois, estavam os discípulos outra vez dentro, [e] com eles Tomé; e veio Jesus, fechadas já as portas, e pôs-se no meio, e disse: Tenhais paz!

27Depois disse a Tomé: Põe teu dedo aqui, e vê minhas mãos; e chega tua mão, e toca-a em meu lado; e não sejas incrédulo, mas sim crente.

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

29Disse-lhe Jesus: Porque me viste, Tomé, creste; bem-aventurados aqueles que não virem, e crerem.

30Jesus fez também ainda muitos outros sinais ainda em presença de seus discípulos, que neste livro não estão escritos;

31Porém estes estão escritos, para que creiais que Jesus é o Cristo, o Filho de Deus; e para que crendo, tenhais 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.

Chapters

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.