John 20:11-14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping:— The vision mentioned in Matthew and Mark was of one angel; that seen by Mary was of two; as was likewise that by Joanna and those with her. And whereas the first angel was found by the women upon their entering the sepulchre, sitting on the right side, the two last-mentioned appearances were abrupt and sudden. For the angels which Mary Magdalene discovered sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been laid, were not seen by Peter and John, who just before had entered the sepulchre, and viewed every part of it with attention; and Joanna, and those with her, had been some time in the sepulchre before they saw any angels; which angels seem also to have appeared to them in a different attitude from those seen by Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. As the number of angels, and the manner of their appearance, was different, so likewise were the words spoken to them by the women, and their behaviour upon those several occasions. Mary and Salome were seized with fear and fled from the sepulchre; Joanna, and those with her, were struck with awe and reverence; but Mary Magdalene seems to have been so immersed in grief, at not being able to findthe body of the Lord, as to have taken little or no notice of so extraordinary an appearance; she sees, hears, and answers the angels without any emotion, and without quitting the object upon which her mind was wholly fixed, till she was awakened out of her trance by the well-known voice of her Master calling her by her name.—But here let us stop a little, and inquire—Could this appearance be an illusion? Could a mind so occupied, so lost in one idea, attend at the same time to the production of so many others of a different kind? Or could Mary's imagination be strong enough to see and converse with angels, and yet too weak to make any impression on her, or call off her attention from a less affecting, less surprising subject? Real angels she may indeed be supposed to have seen and heard, and not to have regarded them; but apparitions raised by her own fancy, could not have failed engaging her notice. For although when we are awake, we cannot avoid perceiving the ideas excited in us by the organs of sensation, yet is it, in most instances, in our power to give them what degree of attention we think fit; and hence it comes, that when we are earnestly employed in any action, intent upon any thought, or transported by any passion, we see, and hear, and feel a thousand things, of which we take no more notice than if we were utterly insensible of them: but to the ideas not proceeding from sensation, but formed within us from the internal operation of our minds, we cannot but attend; because, in their own nature, they can exist no longer than while we attend to them. It is evident, that the mind cannot apply itself to the contemplation of more than one object at a time; which, as long as it keeps possession, excludes or obscures all others. Mary Magdalene therefore, having persuaded herself, upon seeing the stone rolled away from the mouth of the sepulchre, that some persons had removed the body of her Lord; in which notion the was still more confirmed, after her return to the sepulchre with Peter and John; and grieving at being thus disappointed of paying her last duty to her deceased Master, whose body (as Peter, his most zealous, and John, his most beloved disciple, knew nothing of its removal) she might imagine had fallen into the hands of his enemies, to be exposed perhaps to fresh insults and indignities, or at least to be deprived of the pious offices which the duty and affection of his followers and disciples were preparing to perform—MaryMagdalene, falling into a passion of grief at this unexpected distress, and abandoning herself to all the melancholy reflections that must naturally arise from it, with her eyes suffused with tears, and thence discerning more imperfectly, looking as it were by accident, and while she was thinking on other matters, into the sepulchre, and seeing the angels, might, according to the reasoning above laid down, give but little heed to them, as not perceiving on a sudden, and under so great a cloud of sorrow, the tokens of any thing extraordinary in that appearance. She might take them for two young men, which was the form assumed by those who appeared to the other women, without reflecting that it was impossible such young men should have been in the sepulchre without being seen by John and Peter, and improbable that they should have entered into it after their departure,without having been observed by her. Intent upon what passed in her own bosom, she did not give herself time to consider and examine external objects; and, therefore, knew not even Christ himself, who appeared to her in the same miraculous manner; but, supposing him to be a gardener, begged him to tell her, if he had removed the body, where he had laid it, that she might take it away. By which question, and theanswer the made to the angels immediately before, we may perceive upon what her thoughts were so earnestly employed, and thence conclude still farther, that the angels were not the creatures of her imagination, since they were plainly not the objects of her attention. The appearances therefore of the angels were real.