WHO MOVED THE STONE?

By Ahmed Deedat
part 7

When Mary makes the effort, Jesus shies back a step or two, saying, "TOUCH me not," (John 20:17).

Q13: I SAY - WHY NOT?
Is he a current of electricity or a dynamo, that if she touches him, she will get electrocuted?
Ans: No! Don't touch me, because it will hurt. Though he had given no indication of any physical pain or injury he might have suffered, it would be excruciatingly painful if he now allowed her to touch him with love and affection. Can another reason be advanced for this "Touch me not"?
Jesus continues, "For I am not yet ASCENDED unto my Father;" (John 20:17).

Q14: IS SHE BLIND?
Could she not see that the man she was talking to all the time was standing before her? Does it make any sense when he (Jesus) says that - 'HE IS NOT GONE UP', when he is DOWN right here.
Ans: What Jesus is telling Mary in so many different words is that 'HE IS NOT RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD', for in the colloquial language and idiom of the Jew, the expression, "For I am not yet ASCENDED unto my Father" means - "I AM NOT DEAD YET'.

It is a sad fact of history that though the Christian Bible is an Eastern Book, full of eastern metaphors and similes, like - "Let the dead bury their dead" (Matthew 8:22) or "Seeing they see not and hearing they hear not" (Matthew 13:13), all the commentators of the Bible have come from the West. The Western World is made to see a Jewish Book, written by the Jews for a Jewish audience, through Greek and Western glasses. An Eastern book ought to be read as an Easterner would read and understand it. All the problems would then be solved.

The difficulty lies not only in apprehending the correct meaning of the Jewish expressions, but Christendom is so programmed that Christians of every race and language group are made to understand the passages differently or opposite to their literal connotations. I will give examples of this anomaly in Lesson No. 3 under the heading "RESURRECTION OR RESUSCITATION?" In that booklet, I will also endeavor to answer the problem as to why one woman - Mary Magdalene - was not AFRAID when she recognised the DISGUISED Jesus yet ten brave men (the Disciples of Jesus) were PETRIFIED on recognising their Master in that 'upper-room', after his alleged passion.