Paragraph 20:14–16

Someone came up behind Mary and asked her why she was crying. Only when he said her name did she recognize that it was Jesus.

20:14a

When she had said this: The Greek phrase the Berean Standard Bible translates as When she had said this is more literally “Having said these things.” It refers back to what Mary had just said to the angels. For example:

At this (New International Version)
-or-
Then (Good News Translation)
-or-
As soon as Mary said this (Contemporary English Version)

she turned around: Mary had been facing the tomb, talking to the angels who were inside. Now she turned away from the angels and the tomb. John does not say what caused her to turn around. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

she turned away
-or-
she ⌊looked⌋ behind her

20:14b

and saw Jesus standing there: After Mary turned around, Jesus was in front of her. She did not recognize him. In some languages it is therefore more natural to say that she saw a man, or saw someone. For example:

she saw a man standing there
-or-
and saw someone standing there (New Living Translation (2004))

20:14c

but she did not recognize that it was Jesus: The figure standing there behind Mary was Jesus, but Mary did not recognize him. It is possible that he looked a little different or God prevented her from recognizing him. Others did not recognize him after the resurrection either (see Luke 24:16 and John 21:4). Here are other ways to translate this clause:

without realizing that it was Jesus (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
but without recognizing him

In some languages it may be natural to translate this as a complete sentence. For example:

But she did not know who he was. (Contemporary English Version)

General Comment on 20:14b–c

In some languages it may make the meaning clear to translate 20:14b–c as three separate clauses. The first clause could say that Mary saw someone. The second could say that this was Jesus. And the third could say that Mary did not recognize him. For example:

and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. (New Living Translation (2004))

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.