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Joh_20:5-8. John is withheld by natural terror (not dread of pollution, as Wetstein, Ammon, and several others think) from going in at once; the bolder and older Peter, however, goes in, and then, encouraged by his example and presence, John also enters.
Note how earnestly the fourth Gospel also states the fact of the empty grave, which is by no means veiled in the darkness of an experience made in twilight, and of the reports of the women (Weizsäcker).
βλέπει , he sees; on the other hand, Joh_20:6, θεωρεῖ , he contemplates. See Tittmann, Synon. p. 111 f., 120 f.
τὰ ὀθόνια ] The handkerchief (Joh_20:7) must consequently have so lain, that it did not meet the eye of John, when he, standing before the grave, bent down ( παρακύψας ), i.e. bowed his head forwards through the low entrance in order to see within (Luk_24:12; Sir_21:23; Sir_14:23; Lucian, Paras. 42, et al., Aristoph., Theocr., Plutarch, etc.). Observe, further, that τὰ ὀθόν . here in Joh_20:6 is placed first (otherwise in Joh_20:5) in opposition to τὸ σουδάριον .
τὸ σουδάρ .] Joh_11:44; Luk_19:20.
χερίς ] used adverbially (separatim) only here in the N. T., very frequently in the Greek writers.
εἰς ἕνα τόπον ] belongs to ἐντετυλιγμ .: wrapped up (Aristoph. Plut. 692; Nub. 983) in one place apart, so that it was not, therefore, lying along with the bandages, but apart in a particular place, and was not spread out, but folded together. In so orderly a manner, not in precipitate confusion, did that take place which had been here done. In ἕνα is implied that the ὀθόνια and the handkerchief occupied two places. How thoroughly does this whole pictorial representation, comp. with Luk_24:12, reveal the eyewitness!
εἶδε ] Namely, the state of matters in the grave just related.
ἐπίστευσεν ] that Jesus was risen. Comp. Joh_20:25. This, the grand object of the history, taken as a matter of course, and, from these unmistakeable indicia, now bringing conviction to the disciples, and see Joh_20:9. Hence neither generally: he believed on Jesus as the Christ, as in Joh_19:35 (Hengstenberg, Godet), nor merely: he believed that which Mary, Joh_20:2, had said (Erasmus, Luther, Aretius, Jansen, Clarius, Grotius, Bengel, Ebrard, Baeumlein, and several others, following Augustine and Theophylact). The articles left behind in the grave and laid aside, as related, in so orderly a manner, testified, in truth, precisely against a removal of the corpse. See already Chrysostom, Euth. Zigabenus, Nonnus. The singular only satisfies the never-to-be-forgotten personal experience of that moment, but does not exclude the contemporaneous faith of Peter also (in answer to Hilgenfeld and others), as is, moreover, unmistakeable from the following plur. ᾔδεισαν , although even Hengstenberg makes Peter, in conformity with Luk_24:12, remain standing only in amazement (in which Godet also substantially follows him), but of which John says never a word.