ACC ~ John 20 v5 - 7

NEATNESS OF LINENS PROVES NO THEFT

CHRYSOSTOM: When [Mary] came and said these things, the apostles heard them and drew near to the sepulcher with great eagerness. They see the linen clothes lying there, which was a sign of the resurrection. For if they had removed the body, they would not have stripped it first, 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 apart from the linens. They would have taken the body as it was. Therefore, John tells us by anticipation that it was buried with much myrrh, which glues linen to the body not less firmly than lead. He tells us this so that when you hear that the napkin lay apart from the linens, you may not endure those who say that he was stolen. For a thief would not have been so foolish as to expend so much effort on a trifling detail. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 85.4. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:320-21*.

PROOF NO THEFT OCCURRED

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: The cloths lying within seem to me at once to furnish also a proof that the body had not been taken away by people, as Mary supposed. For no one taking away the body would leave the linens, nor would the thief ever have stayed until he had undone the linens and so be caught. And at the same time they establish the resurrection of the body from the dead. For God, who transforms the bodies of our humiliation so as to be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory, changed the body as an organ [1] of the power that dwelt in it, changing it into something more divine. But he left the linen cloths as superfluous and foreign to the nature of the body. TO MARINUS, SUPPLEMENT 2. [2]

[1] Gk organon.

[2] AEG 6:122; PG 22:985-88.

Jn