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Joh_20:14-15. Her conversation with the angels is interrupted, as she turns round and—sees Jesus standing by, but unrecognised by her.
ἐστράφη εἰς τ . ὀπίσω ] Whether accidentally only, or as seeking after her Lord, or because she heard the rustle of some one present, is not clear. Unauthorized, however, is the view of the scene adopted by Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euth. Zigabenus, that the angels, on the sudden appearance of Jesus, had expressed their astonishment by their mien and gestures, by which Mary’s attention had been aroused.
καὶ οὐκ ᾔδει , κ . τ . λ .] The unfamiliar clothing, her own troubled and weeping glance, and, along with this, the entire remoteness from her mind of the thought of the accomplished resurrection—all this may have contributed to the non-recognition. The essential cause, however, is to be found in the mysterious alteration of the corporeity and of the appearance of Jesus, which manifests itself from His resurrection onwards, so that He comes and disappears in a marvellous way, the identity of His person is doubted and again recognised, etc. See on Mat_28:17. That John imagined a withholding of her vision, as in Luk_24:16 (Calvin, Grotius, comp. already Ammonius), is in nowise indicated. Again, the ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῄ , Mar_16:12, does not apply here.
ὁ κηπουρός ] Naturally, since this unknown individual was in the garden, and already so early. Quite unnecessary, however, is the trivial assumption that He had on the clothing of the gardener (Kuinoel, Paulus, Olshausen, and several others), or: He was clothed with the loin-cloth, a piece of raiment used for field and garden labour, in which He had been crucified (altogether without evidence, comp. on Joh_21:18) (Hug’s invention in the Freib. Zeitschr. VII. p. 162 ff., followed by Tholuck).
κύριε ] Address arising from her deeply prostrate, helpless grief.
σύ ] With emphasis, in retrospect of Joh_20:13.
αὐτόν ] She presumes that the supposed gardener has heard her words just spoken to the angels.
κἀγὼ αὐτ . ἀρῶ ] in order to inter Him elsewhere. Her overflowing love, in the midst of her grief, does not weigh her strength. “She forgets everything, her feminine habits and person,” etc., Luther.