less at the raised end of the chamber where the head rested.1 Then John also went in, and saw what Peter had seen; and, as he afterwards remembered, he believed; 2 there arose in his mind at that moment a nascent confidence that in some way as yet unknown their darkness would be turned to light, and the victory of the Christ be secured. For the present, however, the mystery remained unsolved; they seemed to have exhausted their means of getting at the truth, and both men went home again.

But Mary, who had followed them to the tomb, was not satisfied. When they were gone, after John's example, she looked into the tomb, and at once she saw what even he had missed: a vision of white angels sitting, one at the head, the other at the feet, where the Lord's body had lain. Was it only the glint of the linen body-clothes and head-dress? Or was it indeed a spiritual reality, which could be seen only in an ecstasy? A voice from within the tomb came to her, which asked why she wept; and without fear or any

1 See Latham, Risen Master, plate 2, for an imaginary sketch of the interior.

2 εἶδεν καὶ ἐπίστευσεν. ‘It is not likely that it [ἐπίστευσεν] means simply "believed that the body had been removed," as Mary Magdalene reported' (Westcott). 'That rising faith John kept to himself . . . perhaps his first public mention of it was when, so many years afterwards, he sat down to write that Gospel which bears his name' (Hanna, The Forty Days, p. 31).

token of surprise she answered in the words of which her mind was full: They have taken away

my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. Then, turning away from the tomb, she found herself face to face with a man in the dress of working life. Her eyes were dim with tears, and she did not recognize him; but but the thought flashed into her mind that it was Joseph's gardener, and that his presence explained everything; doubtless it was he who, on returning to work after the Sabbath, had rolled back the stone and removed the body. She begs him to let her know where it is, and she will remove it out of

his way.

In the greatest moments of life words are few. Jesus said 'Mary'; she, Master.' 3 The good shepherd calleth his own sheep by name,

. . and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Mary was seized by an irresistible desire to grasp what she had found, to convince herself that it was not a vision only, to detain the Lord lest He

1 Nearly the same words had been said by her to Peter and John (v. 2).

2. Her heart is so full of the Person .. that she assumes that He is known to her questioner' (Westcott).

3 The Aramaic word (Rabbuni) is given.

*Cf. Latham, Risen Master, p. 235: 'It is so exactly after our Lord's manner that He should recall her to a knowledge of Him by uttering her name, that I see an assurance of veritable historical relation here.'

should be taken from her again. But the risen Christ checks the impulse: Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto the Father; but go unto my brethren and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. It seems at first sight a strange answer to the loyalty of the most loyal of disciples, at the very moment of reunion. There must have been a stern necessity for such an apparent repulse. It was necessary to make it clear at once that old relations were not to be restored, as Mary evidently hoped; that the Resurrection was the beginning of a new order. The Lord's "Touch me not" does not mean that the risen body was intangible, for it was afterwards offered to the touch of all the Apostles; nor is it a refusal of intercourse of any kind with disciples who are still in the flesh. On the contrary, the words that follow imply that the intimacy of the life in Galilee is to be exchanged for a new fellowship of a closer kind.2 The Resurrection must, however, first be consummated by the Ascension; the visible presence must be finally withdrawn before the presence of Jesus in the Spirit can be realized.3

1

1 Lc. xxiv. 39 ψηλαφήσατέ με, Jo. xx. 27.

2 μή μου ἅπτου, οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα

Cyril of Alexandria: τουτέστιν, οὔπω τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα κατέπεμψα πρès vμâs. He compares Jo. xvi. 7.

The first saying of the risen Lord is therefore at once a warning against a mistaken hope, and a promise of something higher than that which is to be withdrawn. These brief appearances are presently to be superseded by a life of fellowship which on His side will be unbroken; the spiritual and eternal is to take the place of the visible and temporal.1 If Mary may not hold the prize which she thinks that she has won, it is only because to keep it would be to lose one immeasurably greater. Meanwhile, it is her privilege to carry to the Lord's brethren the first tidings of the Resurrection and incipient Ascension,2 and with it a new assurance that His Father was their Father, and His God their God, with all the great hopes which such an announcement must

create.

Mary, unable to detain the Master, hastened back to Jerusalem to deliver her message. She found the disciples in the depth of despair,3 for by this time they all knew that the worst had happened: the body of the Master was missing. We can see her break into the gloomy gathering with the excited

1 For the theology of this great saying see Bp. Moberly, Sayings of the great Forty Days, p. 82 ff.

2 οὔπω ἀναβέβηκα, yet ἀναβαίνω. world and exaltation to 'heaven' of the Resurrection.

3 Με” πενθοῦσι καὶ κλαίουσιν.

The withdrawal from the visible began in fact from the moment

3

cry, The Lord is alive; I have seen Him, He has spoken to me; He has bidden me tell you that He is about to ascend to God.'2 But her words, it seems, awakened no response. Hope was dead within these men; it was not to be roused by the ravings of a half-frantic woman. So far was Mary of Magdala from creating the belief in the Lord's resurrection, that for hours, as it appears, she alone believed; or if there were others who shared her conviction, they were not to be found among the Apostles or the men of their company.5

We left the other women of Mary's party at the moment when the angel at the tomb entrusted them with a message for the Eleven. But they scarcely

waited to hear it The dazzling vision, the voice from the grave, filled them with dismay; they turned and fled, and on their way back to the city, so great was their terror, not a word was spoken, not a greeting exchanged with a passing friend; they said nothing to any one; for they were afraid. Here the genuine S. Mark comes to an abrupt end. If, as may be inferred from the first and third

10. ἑώρακα . εἶπεν. 2 v. 18.

Cf. Με. ζῇ καὶ ἐθεάθη.
34 Με. ἠπίστησαν.

4 Renan, Vie de Jésus, p. 450: 'La passion d'une hallucinée donne au monde un Dieu ressuscité.' Cf. Les Apôtres, p. 13.

5Cf. Lc. xxiv. II, which probably describes words of Mary as well as of the other women. another reminiscence of the same fact.

the effect of the 'Mc.' xvi. 14 is