JOHN 20:15 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?' Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away' — Mary mistakes the risen Jesus for a gardener (kopōs), evoking Genesis 2-3: the garden of Eden, the fallen world's labor and sorrow. Her willingness to retrieve the body herself expresses determined love, yet she seeks a corpse rather than the living Christ. The gardener motif hints at new creation and resurrection as the restoration of Eden.
Church Fathers on John 20:15
Mary Magdalene, who had been the sinner in the city, and who had washed out the spots of her sins by her tears, whose soul burned with love, did not retire from the sepulcher when the others did: Then the disciples went away again to their own home.
i.e. To the place where they were lodging, and from which they had ran to the sepulcher. But though the men returned, the stronger love of the woman fixed her to the spot. But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping.
Be not astonished that Mary wept for love at the sepulcher, and Peter did not; for the female sex is naturally tender, and inclined to weep.
Read all 38 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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