John 20:5 Commentary and Bible Study

John arrives first and stoops to look inside the tomb. Though it was a great stone the entrance was evidently low. There he could see the linen clothes in which the body had been wrapped, lying there. Well he couldn’t make it out. After all if vandals had come or the authorities had ordered the body of Christ to be removed, they would have taken everything. They wouldn’t have unwound the linen bandages and wrappings. They wouldn’t have taken the trouble to do that. They would have just taken the body still wrapped in the grave clothes. This was a great mystery - to see those linen bandages lying there. The situation as we will see was rather tidy and orderly. It didn’t speak of vandals, desecration, or soldiers coming to roughly remove the body. At first he couldn’t make it out.