| 15. Dicit ei Iesus: Mulier, quid ploras? quem quaeris? Illa existimans quia hortulanus esset, dicit ei: Domine, si tu sustulisti eum, dicito mihi ubi posuisti eum: et ego eum tollam. | 15. Jesus saith to her: Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She thinking that it was the gardener, saith to him: Sir, if thou hast taken him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him: and I will take him away. |
15. The gardener; that is, the man who had charge of Joseph's garden, in which our Lord was buried. The man's presence in the garden at that hour of the morning—about 7 o'clock—naturally suggested the thought. Without answering his question, Magdalen replies: Sir, if thou hast taken him hence.... As if she imagined everyone to be filled like herself with only one thought, she does not say who it is she is seeking.
And I will take him away. [pg 365] To her love everything seemed possible, nor does she pause to think whether she could carry the body, nor whither she would bear it.
| 16. Dicit ei Iesus: Maria. Conversa illa, dicit ei: Rabboni (quod dicitur magister). | 16. Jesus saith to her: Mary. She turning, saith to him: Rabboni (which is to say, Master). |
16. Our Lord now calls her by her name, and she at once recognises Him.
She, turning, saith to him (very many authorities add “in Hebrew”) Rabboni. The word strictly means “my Master,” but the pronominal suffix, just as in Rabbi, gradually became almost a part of the title. The Hebrew spoken by Magdalen was of course Syrochaldaic The corresponding word in pure Hebrew would be Rabban (רבן).
| 17. Dicit ei Iesus: Noli me tangere, nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem meum, vade autem ad fratres meos, et dic eis: Ascendo ad Patrem meum, et Patrem vestrum, Deum meum, et Deum vestrum. | 17. Jesus saith to her: Do not touch me, for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God. |
17. Probably Magdalen had prostrated herself at His feet, and was clinging to them, as did other women that morning (Matt. xxviii. 9). Christ's words are variously explained. The following view seems to be the most natural: Do not seek to cling to Me, to remain with Me now (ἅπτεσθαι is often used not in the sense of touching, but of clinging to, hanging on by. See Lidd. and Scott); you shall have other opportunities of satisfying your love, since I am to remain with you for forty days, and am not at once ascending to My Father.
But go to My brethren and say to them. For her consolation she is made the harbinger of Christ's further exaltation.
To My Father and to your Father. “Non ait Patrem nostrum, sed Patrem meum et Patrem vestrum. Aliter ergo meum, aliter vestrum: natura meum, gratia vestrum. Neque dixit Deum nostrum, sed Deum meum, sub quo ego homo; et Deum vestrum, inter quos et ipsum mediator sum” (St. Aug. on St. John Tr. 121.)