John 20: 17 Commentary

MY FATHER YOUR FATHER MY GOD YOUR GOD
listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrT7sqV14_E

(Excerpt from toby Mac Made to Love)
The dream’s alive with my eyes opened wide
Back in the ring you’ve got me swinging for the grand prize
I feel the haters spittin vapors on my dreams
But I still believe
I’m reachin out, reachin up, reachin over
I feel a breeze cover me called Jehovah
And daddy I’m on my way
Cause I was made to love…

I was made to love you
I was made to find you
I was made just for you
Made to adore you
I was made to love
And be loved by you
You were here before me
You were waiting on me
And you said you’d keep me
Never would you leave me I was made to love
And be loved by you

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/tobymac/#share

By TIUCHE (wrote 2759 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/15/2011 23:54 pm

Juan, Creo que, como nuestro Sumo Sacerdote, Jesús ofreció su sangre en el cielo entre Juan 20:17 y Juan 20:27. (Hebreos 9:24)

El versículo 17 es inmediatamente después de la resurrección, el versículo 27 es de ocho días más tarde.

Lo siento, mi español es muy malo.

By Jason W. Elder (wrote 314 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/12/2010 12:39 pm

hmnos: ¿porque jesus le dijo a maria no me toques porque no he subido a mi padre, pero si le dice a tomas que le metiera el dedo en la llaga.

By juan silva (wrote 1 Bible Commentary - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/7/2010 18:24 pm

Reference post # 9:

In interpreting the scriptures, it is the textual context that should decide the meaning and not on our own understanding of the text.

It would be better to see the use of the word in New Testament.

Firstly, the word touch gives an extended meaning:

(a) Man touching woman: (1 Cor. 7: 1). This is a euphemism and clearly means sexual intercourse.
(b) Jesus blessing the children. (Lk 18:15) Here also literal touching is implied.
(c) Touch the burden of law keeping: (Lk 11:46). Here it means taking responsibility
(d) Touching means inflicting of wound on the first born. (Heb 11:28)
(e) Beast touching the mountain. (Heb. 12:20). Literal touching is implied by the beast nearing the mountain.

Secondly, literal touching is implied in the following cases

(a) In the case of woman subject to bleeding: (Mt. 9:21; Mk 5:28)
(b) Blind man at Bethsaida trying to touch Jesus. ( Mk 8:22 )
(c) Not touching unclean things. (2 Cor. 6:17).
(d) Food etc (Col.2:21)
(e) People trying to touch Jesus or his garment to get healed. (Mt. 14:36; Mk. 3:10; Mk. 6:56; Mk. 1013; Lk. 6:19)

If we read the first category of the occurrence of the word touch, even at the first reading we know that the word does not carry the literal meaning, but an extended one. In the second category, the word is used in literal sense. But in John 20:17, the word “touch me not” does not indicate any obvious extended meaning. In Greek it only means “Do not touch.” The literal versions like KJV or Young’s literal translation keep the word touch only. To substitute there as “Do not cling to me,” “Do not hold me” “Stop holding me” give quite a different meaning altogether of this difficult text and its disputed meaning. We need not force our understanding to decide what a text means. The different versions are just translation and some time unwarranted and therefore uncalled for interpretations. We cannot give the Greek text the meaning on the basis of their interpretation. It is not good to stretch a word too thinly. I believe a word should be given meaning on the basis of its use in the scriptures at the time of their writing.

By Jayant Christian (wrote 287 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 7/24/2010 01:03 am

Mary was distraught, she grasped Jesus in a natural reaction to see if he was real and in her emotion probably held on tightly. Could not the repley by Jesus be simply a droll, reassuring chiding of Mary - “Ease up Mary, I haven’t gone to the Father yet”.
I think there are many reported sayings of Jesus where he may be just chiding people in a perhaps joking way.
Do the texts bear such an interpreteation? I certainly don’t know, notbeing a biblical scholar but I feel goos about them

By MICHAEL ROACH (wrote 1 Bible Commentary - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 7/22/2010 06:10 am

Obviously the Lord ascended to the third heaven after He appeared to Mary. How do we know this? Simply because, He tells her to go and tell the other disciples that He is ascending to our Father and our God in heaven in Verse 17. Therefore there is no confusion in understanding when the Lord ascended to heaven! It is also obvious that the Lord did not prevent her from touching Him. How? because He told her not to ‘cling’ to Him. How could she cling to Him without touching Him? Touching Him before or after His ascension made no difference to Him and this should not matter to us at all.

By Bond Servant (wrote 2 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/9/2009 04:40 am

My name is Bond Servant. I was led to calvary in the early 70s. Baptised in Jehovah-Shamma, Madras and blessed by the anointing hand of dear Bro. Bakthsingh in 1983.
Jesus said unto her “Touch me not” this may seem strange because a little later he asks Thomas to touch him. “Touch me not” is a poor interpretation of the KJV Bible.
I am not using the word translate here because it is possible only for a single word to be literally translated to another language. A phrase needs to be interpreted in order to understand the essence of the original text. In the Greek the Lord told Mary “don’t cling to me” or “stop clinging to me” or “stop grasping me tightly” clearly evidences the fact that Mary had already touched Him. If it was the Decreed will of God that the risen Lord should not be touched by humans before His ascension, it would have been impossible for Mary to touch Him. It was not possible for Him to be defiled by a human touch. He would not have lost any virtue of holiness to enter the holy of holies by a human touch because He is the holy of holies Himself. Jesus was always entirely holy and he didn’t become holier after resurrection. His human body changed to a glorified human body after resurrection. He continued to eat like the rest of us but was able to appear and disappear in a closed room among other things as He is God Himself. There could be several reasons for the Lord to appear to Mary which we do not know. But we know that the risen Lord our God is more human than we may like to believe. He responds to someone’s overwhelming love just like us. Verse 10 says Peter and John ‘went home’ but Mary was gripped by deep sorrow and was unable to go home like the other disciples. Verse 11 – Mary was outside the tomb weeping. In Greek “constant unrestrained sobbing” Mary was not an apostle or anyone of great importance. She was an ordinary woman from whom the Lord had cast out seven demons. But her love for Him is unparalleled. She was grief stricken to find his body missing. Her judgment was clouded by grief and she did not understand the fact that the Lord is raised from the dead. She could not think of anything else but to be next to the body of the Lord. There was no one to console her and she was sobbing without end. The Lord wanted Mary to stop grieving as soon as possible. He wasted no time in appearing to her and letting her know that He is risen from the dead. Mary reacting with overwhelming joy clung to him real tight. The Lord therefore told her to relax and calm down by telling her not to cling on to Him or hold on to Him.

By Bond Servant (wrote 2 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/9/2009 04:21 am

It is obvious that Jesus newly resurrected body, a “glorified body” is now different from the body after Mary gave birth to him. Therefore this glorified body is not an ordinary flesh to touch unless He allowed to be touched, like what happened to Thomas to remove his doubt totally and to prove Himself once and for all, as being the Lord and God of mankind.

By Bro.Melvin (wrote 1 Bible Commentary - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/17/2009 12:26 pm

I want to correct myself with referencce to my post #6. According John 20: 18, Mary must have told the disciples about ascension too, but their message was centered on the resurection of Jesus and that they had seen Him.

By Jayant Christian (wrote 287 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/19/2009 17:24 pm

Yes, there seems to be two views: First, that Jesus went into the Holy of Holies in heavenly tabernacle in between the first two appearances to Mary Magdalene. The second opinion is that in Greek the meaning is to cling and that the Lord Jesus tells her not to cling to Him, but to go immediately to the apostles to tell them that the Lord Jesus is ascending to the Father.

In every language although the same word is used, it carries different meanings in different context. So it may be better not to be dogmatic about it. Again, the meaning should be as the original readers understood it.

Now in the first place, what was the message that Mary gave to the Apostles? Did she tell any thing about Jesus ascending to the Father? No, her message was that Jesus had risen. It was about the resurrection and not about the ascension. If this is so, we have a ground to believe that the second view doesn’t seem to hold water.

It is always better to examine the text before analyzing the meanings of the words. I mean the examination should be at macro level as well, even after a micro level examination. What does the text says? Why did Jesus ask Mary not to touch Him? The reason is given starting with the word “For”-For I am have not ascended to the Father. If we examine the text further, Jesus tells again that ” He is ascending to the Father,” as if He is ascending immediately.

Now Jesus had the knowledge that he would visibly ascend to the Father after forty days. He in fact appeared to the disciples many times in that period. He had then a spiritual body and it is unlikely that he had remained on the earth all the time, not visiting heaven. If he was to ascend to the Father after forty days, what ground was there to tell Mary not cling Him, but to rush to the disciples on an immediate basis? In the Old Testament the High priest was required to clean himself ceremonially before going into the Holy of Holies and no body could touch Him to make him unclean. In the same way, it was necessary for Jesus to ensure that Mary didn’t touch Him before he went into the Holy of Holies in the heavenly tabernacle. I am therefore inclined to accept the explanation given by Bro. Bakht Singh, just as explained above and just not because I am in fellowship with assembly connected with his ministry.

( By the way, I may tell you, Alex, that Brother Bakh Singh had revival meetings in Ahmedabad and Mehmedabad back in 1941. The messages delivered then are publishded in the form of a book published by Beer Sheba, House of prayer,Ahmedabad. One of the messages was on “Touch me not” Let me clarify that the arguments given herein above are not given in that book.)

By Jayant Christian (wrote 287 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/19/2009 09:55 am

1)Thank you for your comments,Jeyant.
2)I read some of the books of Bro.Bakth Singh for the first time in 1970s.(David recovered all,Bethany,Walk before me).I got the chance to listen to his sermon in person once in the 1970s.He was a great man of God.I did not come to know about his sermon “Touch me not.”
3)Of course some Bible scholars held the view as that of Bro.Bakth Singh in that Jesus entered into heaven after resurrection to complete the atonement work after the first appearance to Mary but before the second appearance to her.
4)The writer of Hebrews has explained in detail in Hebrews chapter 9 about the superiority of the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ over that of the Levitical priests by using the imagery of the Day of Atonement ritual narrated in Leviticus 16.
5)Please see comments for Hebrews 16.
www.vbvbc.org/bible-verse/hebrews9-12

By Alex (wrote 499 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/19/2009 03:22 am

Thank you Alex for your studied response. You have made mention of Brother Bakhtsingh. Back in nineteen forties, he had given a message on “Touch me not.” He had explained then that the Lord Jesus asked Mary Magdalene not to touch Him, but He later allowed or even encouraged to touch Him. It was because he had by the time Mary first met him after resurrection, not gone to the Holy of Holies of the heavenly tabernacle to present His blood of the New covenant shed as the propitiation for the remission of our sins, as mentioned in Hebrews 9:12. Does the fact that the word here in Greek means clinging make any difference to the above explanation?

By Jayant Christian (wrote 287 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/16/2009 17:41 pm

Thank you for the question asked by you,Jeyant.
Let us go through some passages from the Bible.
1)Jesus Christ after His resurrection appeared to different persons on different occasions at different places for 40 days before His ascension.
(Acts 1:3,9-11:Acts 16:19;Luke 24:51,52).
2)There are about 10 recorded appearances of the resurrected Christ in the Bible.
(Jeyant,I read the Book “Walk before me” in which Bakth Singh has narrated the 10 appearances of God to Abraham.That is an interesting book.Bakth Singh also mentioned in that book that there are 10 appearances of the resurrected Christ.)
3)The first appearance of the resurrected Christ was to Mary Magdalene.Mark 16:9;John 20:11-18.
4)The second appearance of the resurrected Christ was to some women.Matt.
28:1-8.Mary Magdalene was one among them.Matt.28:1.
5)During the fist appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene at first could not recognize Jesus & supposed Him to be the gardener.John 20:15.Jesus called her by name & she recognized him and called Him “Rabboni”(Master).
Jesus said to her,”Touch me not:for I am not ascended to my Father”
Touching is not the basis for believing.
“to touch” was used to mean “to cling” in Greek.
Jesus has appeared again to Mary Magdalene.
It is noted that during the second appearance of the resurrected Christ,the women held him by the feet and worshipped him.Matt.28:9.
6)Mary Magdalene had a message to tell the disciples of Jesus.
“….but go to my brethren,and say unto them,I ascend unto my father,and your father,and to my God and your God.”(John20:17).Mary Magdalene did what Jesus told.John 20:18.
7)After eight days of His resurrection,Jesus when appeared to the disciples,
said to Thomas,”Reach hither thy finger,and behold my hands;and reach hither thy hand,and thrust it into my side;and be not faithless,but believing.”John 20:27Thomas had not believed the report given by the other disciples about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.Thomas believed Jesus when he himself saw the resurrected Christ.Thomas died in India as a martyr for Christ.

By Alex (wrote 499 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/15/2009 03:33 am

Why did Jesus not allowed Mary Magdalene to him? What do you think about it, Alex?

By Jayant Christian (wrote 287 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/12/2009 07:49 am

Jesus said to Mary Magdalene,”Touch me not;for I am not ascended to my Father.”
On the same day of his resurrection,Jesus Christ has appeared to his disciples.Only Thomas was absent.(John 20:19-25).
After eight days,Jesus appeared to them again.This time Thomas was with them.Read John 20:26.Jesus said to Thomas,”Reach hither thy finger,and behold my hands;and reach hither thy hand,and thrust it into my side;and be not faithless,but believing.” Read John 20:27.
Jesus said to Mary Magdalene,”….but go to my brethren,and say unto them,I ascend unto my Father,and your Father;and to my God,and your God.” John 20:17.
When did Jesus ascend to His Father?
Please read John 14:12,28.
Please read Hebrews 4:14;9:12,24.

By Alex (wrote 499 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/8/2009 04:19 am