The Gospel According to John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 35 of 37 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
20:17-21:6
[20:17] Jesus saith to her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.
[20:18] Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the disciples, I have seen the Lord; and that he had said these things unto her.
[20:19] When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
[20:20] And when he had said this, he showed unto them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord.
[20:21] Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
[20:22] And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit:
[20:23] whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
[20:24] But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
[20:25] The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
[20:26] And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
[20:27] Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
[20:28] Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
[20:29] Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
[20:30] Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book:
[20:31] but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.
[21:1] After these things Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and he manifested himself on this wise.
[21:2] There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
[21:3] Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also come with thee. They went forth, and entered into the boat; and that night they took nothing.
[21:4] But when day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach: yet the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
[21:5] Jesus therefore saith unto them, Children, have ye aught to eat? They answered him, No.
[21:6] And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
At the Sea of Tiberias, the disciples 'knew not that it was Jesus' despite his presence on the beach, illustrating the divine's capacity to be concealed even in direct physical proximity.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
The risen Jesus displays physical wounds ('he showed unto them his hands and his side') and invites Thomas to touch them, confirming that the divine took on a specific bounded bodily form that persists after resurrection.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
Jesus appears through shut doors and stands in the midst of a locked room, demonstrating a mode of presence that transcends physical barriers and suggests a reality interpenetrating the physical world.
Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.
Thomas's declaration 'My Lord and my God' and Mary's report function as acts of worshipful address to the divine, though the passage is more narrative than liturgical.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
Jesus's declaration 'I ascend unto my Father' names the soul's (or Christ's) return to the divine origin, though here it is a single eschatological ascent rather than a multi-staged process.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The statement 'I am not yet ascended unto the Father' implies a current state of being apart from the divine source, a temporary separation that will be reversed.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The passage explicitly names the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit (breathed upon the disciples), with the Father sending the Son who in turn sends the disciples and imparts the Spirit, mapping the three persons in functional relation.