What Does John 20:1 Mean?
On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and she saw the stone lifted out of the tomb.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.THE KEY
The stone is already lifted while it is still dark: the opening comes before Mary can see what it means.
THE MEANING
You can encounter an opening before you can name its meaning. Darkness remains around Mary, yet the stone is already removed; obscurity and change are present at once. The sign arrives before its explanation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The darkness around you does not prove that nothing has changed; the stone is already gone before dawn.
THE ROOT
ἦρται
ērtai from airō
GROWS FROM
αἴρω
airō
To lift, take up, carry, or remove.
“lifted out of” in this verse is ērtai from airō. English “taken away” can sound like simple disappearance, but the Greek verb also carries the image of lifting and carrying something from its place. Its completed form presents the stone as already lifted away while it is still dark.
ALSO GROWS
taketh away: Carries away or removes.
The same verb describes the Lamb of God taking away the world’s sin, giving the stone’s removal a release-shaped resonance.
take up: Lift and carry an object.
The same verb is used when the healed man takes up his bed; it keeps the image of something lifted from where it had been.
THE PATTERN
An opening can already be made while the surrounding darkness remains.
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD made the sea go back by a strong breath of the east all that night, and made the sea dry ground, and the waters were split.For the burning of his anger lasts a moment, and in his favor is life. Weeping may lodge in the evening, but a ringing cry of joy comes in the morning.And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not take hold of it.THE THREAD
The next day John perceived Jesus coming toward him, and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the falling short of the world.The verb for the stone being “taken away” comes from αἴρω (airō), the same verb rendered “taketh away” here. In both verses, something is carried out of its place; the shared word connects the opened tomb with release.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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