§ 299. The Women, Peter, and John at the Grave.

We now proceed to a brief statement of the details of the resurrection.

On Sunday morning, the second day of Easter, Mary of Magdalene, with certain other women, came to the tomb, and found the stone removed. They began to fear that the body had been taken away, and that they should see it no more. Mary, in alarm, ran to seek for John and Peter; the other women afterward went to other of the Apostles. Peter and John hastened to the tomb. John, in anxious haste, anticipated Peter. Looking down into the tomb, and seeing the shroud decently 429disposed, but no corpse there, he started back in consternation. Peter, taking courage, descended into the tomb; John followed; and, now convinced that the body was not there, called to mind⁸⁰²⁸⁰²   The word ἐπίστευσεν (John, xx., 8) must be referred to a previous fortelling of the resurrection by Christ himself, in accordance with John’s usage of the idea of “belief,” as Lücke has admitted (Commentar, 2^te Aufl.). The sense of the passage is as follows: The disciples needed such an outward sign to revive their faith in Christ’s predictions of his resurrection; for they were not as yet penetrated by the conviction that Jesus, as Messiah, had necessarily to rise in order to accomplish the Messianic work according to the prophecies of Scripture. Had they been, they would have needed no such external perception. (Cf. Lücke’s excellent remarks on the passage.) the intimations which Christ had given⁸⁰³⁸⁰³   Cf. p. 423. of his resurrection, and faith began to spring up in his soul.