cave into the inside of the sepulchre. Then he saw, as John had seen, that the body of our Lord was not there, and that the linen clothes in which the body had been wrapped were lying there, and had been removed in some way from the body. How much linen was used by Joseph and Nicodemus we can- not tell. But when we consider that one hundred pounds of aromatic powder had been used in wrapping up the body, it is not unreasonable to suppose that many yards of linen had been employed. The quantity of linen wrapped round the corpse of an Egyptian, we know from the mummies, was prodigious. It is probable that the linen wrapped round our Lord's body, which Peter saw " lying," was no small heap.
It is noteworthy that two different Greek words are used, in this and the preceding verse, to express seeing. St. John " saw" at a glance. St. Peter saw as a spectator, looking round and examining. The Gr reek word rendered "lying" in one verse and " lie " in the other, is pi-ecisely the same, and without rea- son our translation varies. In both it should be " lying."
l.—[And the napkin, etc., etc.] The object of this verse seems to be to show that Peter found in the empty tomb the clearest evidence of a deliberate, orderly, and calmly-done transaction. The linen clothes, in which our Lord's body had been wrapped, were lying by themselves. The napkin which had been tied round his head was rolled up by itself in another place, sepa- rate from the linen clothes. There were no symptoms of hurry, haste, or fear. All had been done decently and in order. Everything that Peter saw contradicted the idea that the body had been stolen. No thief would have taken so much trouble about the clothes and napkin. In fact the person who had re- moved the body, whoever it was, must have entailed on him- self needless labor, if he removed it as a dead corpse, by un- wrapping the linen clothes in which the corpse was buried. The easiest plan would have been to carry away the body just as he found it, wrapped up in linen. Why were the linen clothes taken off and left behind ? Why were the removers of the body so careful to take away nothing but the body ? Questions like these must have sorely perplexed Peter's mind. The body, he saw plainly, was gone. But there was some- thing in the whole appearance of things which he could not understand.
Chrysostom observes, " The linen cloths lying was a sign of the resurrection. For neither if any person had removed the body, would they, before doing so, have stripped it ; nor if any had stolen it, would they have taken the trouble to remove the napkin, and roll it up, and lay it in a place by itself. They would have taken the body as it was. On this account, John tells us, by anticipation, that it was buried with much myrrh, which glues linen to the body not less firmly than lead, in or- der that when thou hearest that the napkin lay apart, thou mayest not endure those who say He was stolen. A thief
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