< John 20 >
1 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary, the woman from Magdala [village], went to the [burial] cave [with some other women]. They saw that the stone had been removed {that someone had removed the stone} from the [entrance to the] cave.
2 So Mary ran to where Simon Peter and I [were staying in Jerusalem]. She said to us, “They have taken the Lord’s [body] out of the burial cave, and we do not know where they have put it!”
3 So Peter and I started going to the cave.
4 We were both running, but I ran faster than Peter and got there first.
5 I stooped down [at the entrance] and looked inside. I saw the strips of linen cloth lying there [where his body had been laid], but I did not go inside.
6 Then Simon Peter, who was running behind me, arrived. He went inside the cave. He, too, saw the strips of linen cloth lying there.
7 He also [saw the] cloth that they had [wrapped] around Jesus’ head. It had been folded and put {Someone had folded it and put it} aside, separate from the linen strips.
8 Then I also went inside. I saw [those things] and I believed [that Jesus had truly become alive again].
9 Before this happened, we did not understand from [what the prophets had written in] the Scriptures, that he had to become alive again after he died.
10 Then [we two] disciples went back to where we were staying. [In the meantime], Mary [returned to the cave].
11 As she stood outside the cave crying, she stooped down to look inside the cave.
12 She saw two angels in very white [clothing], sitting at the place where Jesus’ body had been laid. One was where his head had been, and the other was where his feet had been.
13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?” She said to them, “They have taken away [the body of] my Lord, and I do not know where they have put it!”
14 After she said that, she turned around and saw Jesus standing [there], but she did not know that it was Jesus.
15 He said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” Thinking that he was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have taken his [body] away, tell me where you have put it. Then I will get it [and bury it properly].”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned toward him [again and recognized him]. Then she exclaimed in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” which means ‘Teacher’.
17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to me, because I have not yet returned to my Father. Go to my disciples and tell them, ‘I am about to return to my Father and your Father, to the one who is my God and your God’.”
18 So Mary went to where [we] disciples were and told us that she had seen the Lord [alive again]. She also told us what Jesus said that she [should tell us].
19 On that Sunday evening [we] disciples gathered together. The doors were locked {[We] locked the doors} because we were afraid that [the Jewish leaders] [SYN] [might arrest us. Suddenly] Jesus appeared [miraculously] and stood among us! He said to us, “May God give you [inner] peace!”
20 After he said that, he showed us [the wounds in] his hands and his side. We were very happy when we saw the Lord!
21 Jesus said to us again, “May God give you peace! Just like [my] Father sent me, now I am sending you [to proclaim my message].”
22 After saying that, he breathed on us and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit!
23 If you forgive people for their having sinned, [God will already] have forgiven them. If you do not forgive them, [God] has not forgiven them.”
24 One of us disciples, Thomas, the one whom we called The Twin, was not with us when Jesus appeared to us.
25 When the rest of us told him that we had seen the Lord, he said to us, “If I do not see the marks of the nails in his hands and put my fingers in the place where the nails were, and put my hands into the place in his side [where the soldier thrust the spear], I will certainly not believe [that he was the one you saw]!”
26 A week later we were in [the house] again. This time Thomas was with us. Although the doors had been locked {[we] had locked the doors}, Jesus [again] appeared [miraculously] and stood among us. He said, “May God give peace to you!”
27 Then he [showed] Thomas [his hands] and said to him, “Put your finger here! Look at [the wounds in] my hands! Reach out your hand and put it in [the wound in] my side! Stop doubting [LIT/DOU]! Instead, believe [that I am alive again]!”
28 Thomas answered him, “[You are truly] my Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed [that about me]. But God [is truly] pleased with those who have believed [that about me], even though they have not seen me!”
30 [We] disciples saw Jesus perform many other miracles, but [I] have not written about them in this book.
31 But these [that I have written about, I] have written about them in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, (the Son of God/the man who is also God), and in order that you may have [eternal] life [by trusting] (in him/ in what he [has done for you]) [MTY].
