Mary, meanwhile, is the one most strongly agitated by this supposition. This is shown by the circumstance that she hastened away to the two disciples from whom she hoped soonest to get counsel and consolation.

Then went forth Peter and the other disciple, and proceeded to the sepulchre. Both of them began together to run; and the other disciple ran faster than Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then came Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre. And he saw the linen clothes lying, and the napkin, that had been about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also the other disciple, who came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed.

The two disciples appear first in a state of expectant excitement. They begin to run, and they run as fast as possible. Their individual characteristics come thereby distinctly into view. John outruns Peter, but Peter first enters the sepulchre. The paces of the first were winged with youthfulness, depth of love, and purity of conscience; the steps of the latter down into the sepulchre announced his personal resolution and courage. The discovery which John had already made, that the linen clothes were lying there, could now be completed by Peter in the sepulchre itself. From the circumstance that not only the linen clothes had been laid down in an orderly manner, but that also the napkin for the head had been folded and deposited in a place by itself, both of them might conclude with certainty, that here no invasion of the enemy by night, no violation of the tomb by marauders, had taken place. Nay, this thoughtful order with which the linen clothes had been arranged, bore testimony to a beautiful composure of spirit, a celebration of the sabbath of the soul in the tomb, such as was neither to be found among the enemies of Jesus, nor at that time among His disciples. When John now saw these things, faith in the resurrection began to dawn in his mind. The signs, namely, were subservient to this end; for, from the Scriptures, or in connection with divine revelation, neither of them had as yet recognised the necessity of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. From the circumstance that they now both returned home, two things may be concluded; first, that they had no apprehension of

Jesus having been taken away by His enemies; and further, that they had as yet no certainty of His resurrection. In this last case they would have hastened away to the other disciples. Thus had the first rays of the morning fallen on the souls of these select disciples while contemplating the signs of the resurrection; but the perfect day was not yet.

They were soon, however, made assured of the resurrection, by Christ appearing unto them; and these announcements served not only the purpose of showing them His victory over the darkness, but of dispelling the last remains of darkness in themselves.

John informs us of three chief manifestations of Christ which all possess this feature in common, and, in the relation in which they stand to each other, form a distinct whole in regular sequence.

The first appearance is vouchsafed to that female disciple, who, full of yearning, anticipates the Church in her desire to see the Lord; the second appearance to the assembled Church, which, in its fear, has locked itself off from the world; the third to the doubting apostle, who lags behind the Church itself.

The first appearance of Christ is a manifestation of the glory of His resurrection to the soul of a longing female disciple, who, in her desire to see the Lord, has outrun the Church.

Mary would not leave the sepulchre, like the two disciples. Her sorrow made her the keeper of the empty tomb of her Lord. She stood before its entrance and wept; and, as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre. And she seeth two angels in white raiment; the one sitting at the head, and the other at the feet (of the niche in the sepulchre),1 where the body of Jesus had lain. This angelic manifestation was thus very distinct. And they said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?' She saith unto them, 'They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.'-This is her sorrow. She misses the body of the Lord, and she has no rest until she has

'From this intimation may be determined, to what kind of grave the tomb belonged in which Christ was buried; namely, not to that in which the niches were dug like holes into the depth of the wall, but to that in which the niches were introduced lengthways on the side-walls of the excavation. See Schultz, Jerusalem, pp. 97 ff.

found it again, till she can see and anoint Him. In this longing, a dark but powerful instinct of hope is at work, but faith in the Risen One is yet wanting. Her mind, however, is so deeply moved, that she is not terrified by the appearance of the angels, nay, she passes it slightly by. Two living shining angels are less in her eyes than the one dead body of her Lord. She therefore turned herself immediately round, after she had given answer to the angels. But when she had done so, she saw the Lord standing before her. And she knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, 'Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?' She supposed Him to be the gardener, and saith unto Him, Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.' Jesus saith unto her, 'Mary.' She turned herself, and saith unto Him, 'Rabboni' (which is to say, Master). Jesus saith unto her, 'Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, and to My God, and your God.' Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the disciples that she hath seen the Lord, and that He hath spoken these things unto her.

6

She did not then recognise the Lord at once, when He stood before her. Her eyes were holden in several respects. She sought the dead, and He stood before her as the living; she sought in sorrow the form marred with anguish, and He stood before her as one who keeps holiday; she sought Him as distant, and He stood quite near to her; she sought the old well-known form, and He stood before her in the resurrection body. Still she looked on Him with an eye of rising hope, and therefore she thought with herself, He is the gardener. And with this hasty judgment there arise several others in quick, fleeting succession. She thinks, The gardener has carried Him away: he will show me the place where he has laid Him; I will run on before, and bring Him back again. That she was already on the point of hastening away to some certain place, is shown by the remark, that she had to turn round again when Jesus addressed her by her name, Mary! On hearing the sound of her name in His mouth, a sound she could never forget, she knew Him. And now she was able to utter only one word: My Master! From the answer of Jesus, we conclude that she was just about to embrace Him, falling down, perhaps, to clasp His feet, with a joy and

depth of love, as if she could rest for ever in the blessedness of seeing Him once more, as if she were in heaven itself. She has lost out of sight, time and place, the earth and the whole world. Therefore the Lord reminds her of time and place, of the earth, and of the brethren. She may not now hold Him fast, as if He were already transferred to heaven, and she with Him. She must return in her thoughts to the circle of the earthly life, and her duties.1 He therefore makes her the first bearer of the glad tidings of His resurrection to the disciples. That, however, the morning of victory is come, is shown by the message. He salutes the disciples as His brethren. He lets them know that the time of His ascent-of His gradual transition to the Father, has appeared. And this ascent they should celebrate with Him, as an ascent which is also for their advantage.

Mary obediently follows the direction of the Lord. And in this the victory of light in her heart is accomplished. Her involuntary powerful longing for the manifestation of Christ's life, which had just shown itself in a burning desire to see again and adorn the dead form of her Lord, and which finally had a

1 See above, vol. v. p. 50. According to Von Baur, pp. 172 ff., the expression μ μov тоν can have no other ground than this, that Jesus has not yet ascended to the Father, but is even now on the point of ascending. In connection with this, he remarks, 'It is an idle strife of words, when Lücke, p. 789, says, Could one even bring himself to suppose Christ in a so impatient, almost unseemly haste, where is there even a trace of it in the passage? If with αναβαίνω there had stood an άρτι or ευθύς, οι ταχύ. But not a syllable.' Baur has not given himself the trouble to explain the appearance of impatient haste referred to by Lücke. What, moreover, did it signify to him, whose special aim it is, along with all his school, to introduce into the Bible all the pagan finitudes, of which their own imagination is full, to find even in the New Testament that whole chaos of finitenesses, which the first line of Genesis has already left behind? Baur urges here the letter, and gains thereby an ascension which is antagonistic to the ascension of the Acts of the Apostles; as here also two finitenesses must be made to clash together-abstract spiritual ascension, abstract outward ascension-instead of both elements flowing together in the one infinitude of the spiritually mediated and verified historical ascension. So, indeed, everywhere, according to Baur, is the ideal at variance with the real, the symbolical with the historical, the miraculous with the actual, the beginning with the consummation. With such a dualistic reduction of all contrasted elements to the level of the finite, how could the historical ascension subsist by the side of the ideal, or the reverse?

series of subtle transient mistakes for its result, has been purified by the last awe-inspiring denial, which has had this last exercise of self-denial for its effect. This Mary, who goes forth from the presence of her risen Lord, without having embraced His feet, without having held fast the fleeting moment of her blessedness in a longer contemplation of the beloved rediscovered form,—who, with a soul full of gladness, fulfils the command of her Master, and goes hence to announce to His disciples the near-impending farewell, and who, in thus going from His presence, can celebrate her Easter festival, in this form of announcing His new life can find her Easter joy; this is the evangelist ripened to the maturity of angelic obedience, who has won the blessedness of heaven by the very act of leaving the glorious manifestation of heaven, in order to tell the heavenly message to her still disconsolate companions on the earth.

The second appearance of Christ is vouchsafed to the assembled apostolic Church, and procures the victory of light over the remains of the old darkness within the same.

When the evening of that day, the first day of the week, was come, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, 'Peace be unto you!' And while He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad that they saw the Lord. And Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be unto you! As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you.' And while He thus spoke, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost! Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, unto them they are retained.'

That the full day of Easter gladness has not yet shone on the Church of the apostles, although they have already received the Easter message from the Lord Himself, through Mary Magdalene, we learn from the circumstance, that they have locked all the doors of their place of meeting for fear of the Jews. But the closed doors cannot shut out their glorified. Lord. Suddenly He stands in the midst of the disciples. In what way, and how He has come in, they know not. And now He fulfils to them the promise which He had given them in the 1 See above, vol. v. p. 78.