Section 20:11–18

Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene

This section tells how Mary Magdalene remained at the tomb after the two disciples left. She was crying and saw two angels inside the tomb. They asked her why she was crying and she said that someone had taken Jesus’ body. Then she turned around and saw Jesus, but she did not recognize him until he said her name. He told her not to hold him, but to go tell his disciples what she had seen, which she did.

Here are other possible section headings:

Mary Magdalene saw Jesus at the tomb
-or-
Jesus’ first resurrection appearance
-or-
Mary from Magdala was the first to see Jesus

Paragraph 20:11–13

Mary apparently followed the two disciples to the tomb and was crying there. When she looked into the tomb, she saw two angels who asked her why she was crying. She told them it was because someone had removed Jesus’ body and she did not know where it was.

20:11a

But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping: By this time Mary had returned to the tomb. She did not understand that Jesus had risen. She still thought someone had moved Jesus’ dead body somewhere else. So she was crying. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

but Mary stood outside the tomb crying (New International Version)
-or-
But Mary wept as she stood outside the tomb.

The author does not mention Mary’s return to the tomb. He does not say if she came back to the tomb before or after the two disciples left. It some languages it may be necessary to make her return explicit. For example:

But Mary ⌊came and⌋ stood outside the tomb crying.
-or-
But Mary, ⌊returning,⌋ stood outside the tomb and wept.

Mary: This name refers to Mary Magdalene, which John makes explicit in 20:18a. You may want to make explicit here which Mary John refers to. For example:

Mary Magdalene (Contemporary English Version)

20:11b

And as she wept, she bent down to look into the tomb: Mary continued weeping as she stood at the open entrance to the tomb. While she was weeping, she stooped (bent down) to look inside the tomb. Connect the three actions of weeping, bending, and looking in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

While she was still crying, she bent over and looked into the tomb. (Good News Translation)
-or-
She was still weeping as she stooped and looked in.
-or-
Mary stooped to look inside the tomb, crying as she did.

she bent down to look into the tomb: The opening of the tomb was small, so Mary had to bend down to look in. See the note at 20:5a, where the same verb describes how “the other disciple” also bent over to look inside the tomb. See how you translated the idea there. Like the other disciple, Mary not only bent over in order to look inside but actually did look inside. So it may be natural to use two independent verbs. For example:

she stooped and looked in (New Living Translation (2004))

Another way to translate this is to make look the main verb. For example:

bending down, she looked into the tomb

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