John 20 (TFTU)
1 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary, the woman from Magdala village, went to the burial cave with some other women. They saw that the stone had been removed {that someone had removed the stone} from the entrance to the cave. 2 So Mary ran to where Simon Peter and I were staying in Jerusalem. She said to us, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the burial cave, and we do not know where they have put it!” 3 So Peter and I started going to the cave. 4 We were both running, but I ran faster than Peter and got there first. 5 I stooped down at the entrance and looked inside. I saw the strips of linen cloth lying there where his body had been laid, but I did not go inside. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was running behind me, arrived. He went inside the cave. He, too, saw the strips of linen cloth lying there. 7 He also saw the cloth that they had wrapped around Jesus’ head. It had been folded and put {Someone had folded it and put it} aside, separate from the linen strips. 8 Then I also went inside. I saw those things and I believed that Jesus had truly become alive again. 9 Before this happened, we did not understand from what the prophets had written in the Scriptures, that he had to become alive again after he died. 10 Then we two disciples went back to where we were staying. In the meantime, Mary returned to the cave. 11 As she stood outside the cave crying, she stooped down to look inside the cave. 12 She saw two angels in very white clothing, sitting at the place where Jesus’ body had been laid. One was where his head had been, and the other was where his feet had been. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?” She said to them, “They have taken away the body of my Lord, and I do not know where they have put it!” 14 After she said that, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 He said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” Thinking that he was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have taken his body away, tell me where you have put it. Then I will get it and bury it properly.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned toward him again and recognized him. Then she exclaimed in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” which means ‘Teacher’. 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to me, because I have not yet returned to my Father. Go to my disciples and tell them, ‘I am about to return to my Father and your Father, to the one who is my God and your God’.” 18 So Mary went to where we disciples were and told us that she had seen the Lord alive again. She also told us what Jesus said that she should tell us. 19 On that Sunday evening we disciples gathered together. The doors were locked {We locked the doors} because we were afraid that the Jewish leaders [SYN] might arrest us. Suddenly Jesus appeared miraculously and stood among us! He said to us, “May God give you inner peace!” 20 After he said that, he showed us the wounds in his hands and his side. We were very happy when we saw the Lord! 21 Jesus said to us again, “May God give you peace! Just like my Father sent me, now I am sending you to proclaim my message.” 22 After saying that, he breathed on us and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit! 23 If you forgive people for their having sinned, God will already have forgiven them. If you do not forgive them, God has not forgiven them.” 24 One of us disciples, Thomas, the one whom we called The Twin, was not with us when Jesus appeared to us. 25 When the rest of us told him that we had seen the Lord, he said to us, “If I do not see the marks of the nails in his hands and put my fingers in the place where the nails were, and put my hands into the place in his side where the soldier thrust the spear, I will certainly not believe that he was the one you saw!” 26 A week later we were in the house again. This time Thomas was with us. Although the doors had been locked {we had locked the doors}, Jesus again appeared miraculously and stood among us. He said, “May God give peace to you!” 27 Then he showed Thomas his hands and said to him, “Put your finger here! Look at the wounds in my hands! Reach out your hand and put it in the wound in my side! Stop doubting [LIT/DOU]! Instead, believe that I am alive again!” 28 Thomas answered him, “You are truly my Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed that about me. But God is truly pleased with those who have believed that about me, even though they have not seen me!” 30 We disciples saw Jesus perform many other miracles, but I have not written about them in this book. 31 But these that I have written about, I have written about them in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, ◄the Son of God/the man who is also God►, and in order that you may have eternal life by trusting ◄in him/in what he has done for you► [MTY].