William Etty's Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection first exhibited in 1834 John 20:16 is a verse in the Gospel of John in the Bible. The verse is the moment that Mary Magdalene realizes that Jesus has returned from the dead. It takes place in Jesus' tomb, where Mary has found it empty and is worrying about what happened to Jesus' body. At first she does not recognize Jesus when he appears, thinking he is the gardener. In John 20:16 she recognizes him when he calls her by name.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
- Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She
- turned herself, and saith unto him,
- Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
Modern versions reject the word master seeing teacher as a far more accurate translation. The New International Version, for instance, reads:
- Jesus said to her, "Mary."
- She turned toward him and cried
- out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!"
- (which means Teacher).
According to Brown the author of John has Jesus use the word Miriam to refer to Mary Magdalene rather than the more Aramaic Mariam. Some scholars see this as evidence that the two are talking in Hebrew with the one specifically excepted word Rabboni. Most scholars disagree, arguing that authors in this period tended to vary between Miriam and Mariam indiscriminately.
John 20:14 has already mentioned that Mary had turned around to see Jesus, so why does this verse say she turns again? One school of thought is that unmentioned by the author Mary had turned away from Jesus in the meantime. Kastner argues that she did so because the resurrected Jesus was nude. According to Brown most scholars simply believe that she had not fully turned in John 20:14 and was now fully turning towards Jesus.
In Rabboni is translated as meaning "beloved teacher", John here and in other verses translates it as simply teacher. The use of this phrase says much about the relationship between Mary and Jesus. Most scholars consider the title a respectful one, but one less adoring than the term adonai. By contrast in when Thomas accepts the truth of the ressurection he calls Jesus "My lord and my God."
The exact translation of Rabboni is disputed. In some works from this period Rabbuni is used as a name for God. Thus some scholars, such as Hoskyns, see the term as demonstrating that Mary has understood Jesus' divinity. W.F. Albright and others have a completely different view is that Rabboni is the diminutive form of Rabbi, and should thus be translated as "my dear Rabbi" showing the close friendship between Mary and Jesus. Mary's reaction seems to be spontaneous, and it is not known if Rabboni is an exclamation of discovery, or whether it should read "Rabboni?" with Mary momentarily questioning Jesus.
Mary earlier did not recognize Jesus. When he addresses her by name she quickly realizes who it is. Some scholars link this to , which states that "the good shepherd calleth to him by name every sheep of his flock", arguing that Jesus using Mary's name had deep powers. Some see Mary's transition from ignorance to worship as a metaphor for the adoption of faith.
Mary calls Jesus with what is believed to be the title she had long used, signifying that Mary sees Jesus' return is a reversion to the status quo before his crucifixion. In John 20:17 and John 20:18 he divests her of this view, informing her that everything is changed.
The three other gospels do not recount this exchange, and give somewhat different accounts of the event. , for instance goes:
- And as they went to tell his disciples,
- behold, Jesus met them, saying, All
- hail. And they came and held him by the
- feet, and worshipped him.
This passage describes the women having already been informed of the resurrection by the angels in the tomb and leaving to tell the disciples of the event. It also clearly describes more than one woman being present, and omits the period where Mary is uncertain of Jesus' identity. Mark, and Luke agree with Matthew on these incongruities. Some scholars, such as Norman Geisler, explain this by arguing that, unmentioned by John, Mary ran into another group of women after leaving the tomb. This larger group returns goes to the tomb together whence the events described by the Synoptic Gospels unfold.
Mystery play
The York Cycle of English mystery plays has a whole (ten minute) play about this incident. The word discussed above is Rabony in the original manuscript (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=AnoYork&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed&tag=public&part=41&division=div) and Rabbi in one modernized version (http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/yorkplays/York39.html).
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