Easter with the Women at Jesus’ Empty Tomb: The Four Gospels

That Christianity began as a movement within Judaism is historical fact. For discussion, see, for example, Paula Fredriksen, When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation (Yale University Press, 2018). The New Testament Gospels are our earliest, and only real, sources for the historical Jesus, despite the fact that they were written some decades after his death. In his first letter to the Corinthians (5:6–7), Paul refers to some Passover practices and calls Christ “our pascal lamb.” Because Paul’s letters were written down prior to the Gospels, this passage suggests that the connection between Jesus’ death and the Passover was made within the first decade or two after his death.

Biblical translations follow the NRSVue, with modifications.

Passover and Easter are also the same word in Latin and in several modern languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and even Norwegian. Editor’s note: On the name Passover, see Barry Dov Walfish, “Why ‘Passover’? On the True Meaning of Pesaḥ–פסח,” TheTorah (2016).

During the Passover seder, after eating the bitter herbs, the participants say:

בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה יְיָ לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרַיִם. לֹא אֶת אֲבוֹתֵינוּ בִּלְבַד גָּאַל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, אֶלָּא אַף אוֹתָנוּ גָּאַל עִמָּהֶם.

In every generation one is obligated to see oneself as one who personally went out from Egypt. Just as it says: “You shall tell your child on that very day: ‘It’s because of this that God did for me when I went out from Egypt.’” (Ex. 13:8.). Not only were our ancestors redeemed by the Holy One Blessed Be He, but even we were redeemed with them.

The translation is from Noam Zion and David Dishon, A Different Night: The Family Participation Haggadah (Shalom Hartman Institute; American Friends of the Shalom Hartman Institute, 1997), 114. Emphasis in the original.

Here I do not consider the relatively recent phenomenon of Christian seders, which for many Jews including myself are a highly problematic example of “ritual tourism” and Christian appropriation of Jewish practices. Many Christians feel that way too. See, for example, the unattributed article at n/a, “Recognizing Jewish Roots in the Lectionary,” What’s Wrong with Christians Having Seder Meals?, nd. Editor’s note: On Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Passover sacrifice, see Marty Lockshin, “Searching for the Meaning of the Passover Sacrifice,” TheTorah (2017).

For a brief introduction to the concept of the lectionary, see Greg Paulson, “Lectionary,” The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 4th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2022).

It is standard practice to refer to the Gospels by the authors to whom they are attributed. Doing so, however, is not meant to suggest that the Gospels were really written by individuals named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It is not possible to identify the historical (real) authors of the Gospels. See Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 6th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2016), 8 and passim.

For recent discussion, see James W. Barker, Writing and Rewriting the Gospels: John and the Synoptics (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2025); Robert A. Derrenbacker, Ancient Compositional Practices and the Synoptic Problem, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 186 (University Press, 2005); Mike Duncan, Rhetoric and the Synoptic Problem (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2022); Mark S. Goodacre, The Synoptic Problem: A Way through the Maze (Sheffield Academic Press, 2001); Mark S. Goodacre, The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (William B. Eerdmans, 2025).

It is a common misconception that Mary Magdalene was a sex worker or engaged in adulterous or other immoral behaviors. This misconception arose from the tendency to identify her with other, often unnamed female characters in the Gospels, such as the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3–11). For a more accurate view, see, for example, Mary Rose D’Angelo, “Reconstructing ‘Real’ Women from Gospel Literature: The Case of Mary Magdalene,” in Women & Christian Origins, ed. Ross Shepard Kraemer and Mary Rose D’Angelo (Oxford University Press, 1999); Jane Schaberg, The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament (Continuum, 2002).

For detailed discussion of first-century burial customs, see Jodi Magness, Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus (William B. Eerdmans, 2011), 145–180.

In the first century, Jewish tombs were above-ground structures, the entrances to which were covered by a large block or stone. See Rachel Hachlili, Jewish Funerary Customs, Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 94 (Brill, 2005).

Biblical and postbiblical sources assign important roles to women in mourning practices. See, for example, Jeremiah 9:17; y. Moed Qatan 3:9:2; Lamentations Rabbah, Petichta 2. See also Meir Bar-Ilan, Some Jewish Women in Antiquity, Brown Judaic Studies 317 (Scholars Press, 2020), 70.

The allusions in this passage to the Song of Songs forge another connection to the Passover; the Song of Songs is recited in the synagogue on the intermediate sabbath of the festival. For detailed analysis of this motif, see Adele Reinhartz, “To Love the Lord: An Intertextual Reading of John 20,” in The Labour of Reading: Essays in Honour of Robert C. Culley, ed. Fiona Black et al., Semeia Studies (Scholars Press, 1999), 56–69. The article is reprinted in Adele Reinhartz, Jousting with John: Essays on Jews, Gender, and Ethics in the Fourth Gospel, Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 264 (de Gruyter, 2025), 425–438. The earliest reference to the (still current) practice of reading Song of Songs on the intermediate Sabbath of the Passover festival was in the 8^th century C.E. tractate Masekhet Soferim (18:14). Nevertheless, the Song was well-known in the second-temple period and, as the Johannine allusions indicate, already interpreted as a depiction of the relationship between the divine and believers. See Jonathan Kaplan, “A Divine Love Song: The Emergence of the Theo-Erotic Interpretation of the Song of Songs in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity,” Harvard Theological Review 103, no. 4 (2010): 505.

^{John 20:13} καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῇ ἐκεῖνοι· Γύναι, τί κλαίεις; λέγει αὐτοῖς ὅτι Ἦραν τὸν κύριόν μου, καὶ οὐκ οἶδα ποῦ ἔθηκαν αὐτόν. New Testament texts are from the SBL Greek New Testament.

Ann Roberts Winsor, A King Is Bound in the Tresses: Allusions to the Song of Songs in the Fourth Gospel (P. Lang, 1999), argues the allusions to the Song of Songs abound throughout the Gospel of John. See also Sandra M. Schneiders, “John 20:11–18: The Encounter of the Easter Jesus with Mary Magdalene—A Transformative Feminist Reading,” in What Is John? Readers and Readings of the Fourth Gospel (Scholars Press, 1998), 161, who argues that the encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is intended to evoke both the garden of Genesis 2:15–17, 3:8 and the garden of the Song of Songs, understood as “the hymn of the covenant between Israel and Yahweh.”

^{LXX Song 3:1} Ἐπὶ κοίτην μου ἐν νυξὶν ἐζήτησα ὃν ἠγάπησεν ἡ ψυχή μου, ἐζήτησα αὐτὸν καὶ οὐχ εὗρον αὐτόν, ἐκάλεσα αὐτόν, καὶ οὐχ ὑπήκουσέν μου. ^3:2 ἀναστήσομαι δὴ καὶ κυκλώσω ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς καὶ ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις καὶ ζητήσω ὃν ἠγάπησεν ἡ ψυχή μου· ἐζήτησα αὐτὸν καὶ οὐχ εὗρον αὐτόν.

^{John 20:14} ⸀ταῦτα εἰποῦσα ἐστράφη εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω, καὶ θεωρεῖ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἑστῶτα, καὶ οὐκ ᾔδει ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν.

^{John 20:15} λέγει ⸀αὐτῇ Ἰησοῦς· Γύναι, τί κλαίεις; τίνα ζητεῖς; ἐκείνη δοκοῦσα ὅτι ὁ κηπουρός ἐστιν λέγει αὐτῷ· Κύριε, εἰ σὺ ἐβάστασας αὐτόν, εἰπέ μοι ποῦ ἔθηκας αὐτόν, κἀγὼ αὐτὸν ἀρῶ.

^{John 20:16} λέγει ⸀αὐτῇ Ἰησοῦς· ⸀Μαριάμ. στραφεῖσα ἐκείνη λέγει αὐτῷ ⸀Ἑβραϊστί· Ραββουνι (ὃ λέγεται Διδάσκαλε). Although this is the only occurrence of rabbouni in the Gospel of John, other characters call him rabbi: the disciples of John the Baptizer (1:38); Nathanael (1:49); Nicodemus (3:2); Jesus’ disciples (3:26; 4:31; 9:2; 11:8); and the crowd (6:25). In these cases, rabbi is likely used as an honorific, signaling that these characters view Jesus as a teacher. Rabbi did not become a formal title until the period of the Mishnah. See Catherine Hezser, The Social Structure of the Rabbinic Movement in Roman Palestine, Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 66 (Mohr Siebeck, 1997), 59.

^{John 20:17} λέγει ⸀αὐτῇ Ἰησοῦς· Μή μου ἅπτου, οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα πρὸς τὸν ⸀πατέρα· πορεύου δὲ πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφούς μου καὶ εἰπὲ αὐτοῖς· Ἀναβαίνω πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν καὶ θεόν μου καὶ θεὸν ὑμῶν.

On the different interpretations of John 20:17, see Reimund Bieringer, Karlijn Demasure, and Barbara Baert, eds., To Touch or Not to Touch?: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Noli Me Tangere, Annua nuntia lovaniensia 67 (Peeters, 2013).

There was, however, considerable ancient speculation on the topic. See, for example, Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (Polebridge Press, 2003); Antti Marjanen, The Woman Jesus Loved: Mary Magdalene in the Nag Hammadi Library and Related Documents (E. J. Brill, 1996); Marvin W. Meyer, The Gospels of the Marginalized: The Redemption of Doubting Thomas, Mary Magdalene, and Judas Iscariot in Early Christian Literature (Cascade, 2012).

[23] ^{John 20:18} ἔρχεται ⸀Μαριὰμ ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ⸀ἀγγ έλλ ουσα τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὅτι ⸀Ἑώρακα τὸν κύριον καὶ ταῦτα εἶπεν αὐτῇ.

The identity of Mary, the mother of James and Salome, is unknown, as are the identities of James and Salome, here described as her children. Although one of Jesus’ brothers was named James (cf. Matthew 13:55), this Mary is probably not Mary the mother of Jesus. See Joel Marcus, Mark 8–16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Anchor Bible 27A (Yale University Press, 2009), 1059.

^{Mark 16:6} ὁ δὲ λέγει αὐταῖς· Μὴ ἐκθαμβεῖσθε· Ἰησοῦν ζητεῖτε τὸν Ναζαρηνὸν τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον· ἠγέρθη, οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε· ἴδε ὁ τόπος ὅπου ἔθηκαν αὐτόν· ^16:7 ἀλλ ὰ ὑπάγετε εἴπατε τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ καὶ τῷ Πέτρῳ ὅτι Προάγει ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν· ἐκεῖ αὐτὸν ὄψεσθε, καθὼς εἶπεν ὑμῖν.

^{Mark 16:8} καὶ ἐξελθοῦσαι ἔφυγον ἀπὸ τοῦ μνημείου, εἶχεν ⸀γὰρ αὐτὰς τρόμος καὶ ἔκστασις· καὶ οὐδενὶ οὐδὲν εἶπαν, ἐφοβοῦντο ⸁γάρ.

The theme of the messianic secret was explored in detail by William Wrede, The Messianic Secret (J. Clarke, 1971).

^{Mark 1:44} καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· Ὅρα μηδενὶ μηδὲν εἴπῃς, ἀλλ ὰ ὕπαγε σεαυτὸν δεῖξον τῷ ἱερεῖ καὶ προσένεγκε περὶ τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ σου ἃ προσέταξεν Μωϋσῆς εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς.

^{Mark 1:45} ὁ δὲ ἐξελθὼν ἤρξατο κηρύσσειν πολλ ὰ καὶ διαφημίζειν τὸν λόγον, ὥστε μηκέτι αὐτὸν δύνασθαι φανερῶς εἰς πόλιν εἰσελθεῖν, ἀλλ ὰ ἔξω ⸀ἐπʼ ἐρήμοις τόποις ἦν· καὶ ἤρχοντο πρὸς αὐτὸν ⸀πάντοθεν.

^{John 20:29} λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ὅτι ἑώρακάς με πεπίστευκας; μακάριοι οἱ μὴ ἰδόντες καὶ πιστεύσαντες.

^{John 20:30} Πολλ ὰ μὲν οὖν καὶ ἄλλ α σημεῖα ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐνώπιον τῶν ⸀μαθητῶν, ἃ οὐκ ἔστιν γεγραμμένα ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τούτῳ· ^20:31 ταῦτα δὲ γέγραπται ἵνα ⸀πιστεύητε ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ ἵνα πιστεύοντες ζωὴν ἔχητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ.

Πάντα δὲ τὰ παρηγγ ελμένα τοῖς περὶ τὸν Πέτρον συντόμως ἐξήγγ ειλαν. μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς καὶ ἄχρι δύσεως ἐξαπέστειλεν διʼ αὐτῶν τὸ ἱερὸν καὶ ἄφθαρτον κήρυγμα τῆς αἰωνίου σωτηρίας. ἀμήν.

(Some manuscripts add “Amen” to the end of the verse.)

^{Mark 16:19} Ὁ μὲν οὖν κύριος ⸀Ἰησοῦς μετὰ τὸ λαλῆσαι αὐτοῖς ἀνελήμφθη εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ. ^16:20 ἐκεῖνοι δὲ ἐξελθόντες ἐκήρυξαν πανταχοῦ, τοῦ κυρίου συνεργοῦντος καὶ τὸν λόγον βεβαιοῦντος διὰ τῶν ἐπακολουθούντων ⸀σημείων.