The Jews then who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goes unto the grave to weep there.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Followed her. The Providence of God ordained that very many Jews following Mary should see Jesus raising Lazarus, and should therefore be irrefragable witnesses of his being raised from the dead; and should thus believe in Jesus, and bring others to believe likewise.
Then when Mary was come, &c. She fell at His feet from reverence and gratitude, inasmuch as once bedewing them with her tears and drying them with her hair, she had heard Him say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace (S. Luke vii38). But she says the same thing as her sister Martha, because they had the same sense of grief, the same faith, and therefore the same words; yet she says less than Martha, who was not hindered by tears, had said. (Bede.)
The Jews therefore who were present, thinking she had run to the tomb to tear herself [in her grief], follow her; doing this by the will of God, in order that they might go in a body to see the marvellous deed, even without wishing to do so. For had this not taken place by the providence of God, the Evangelist would not have mentioned it; neither would he have written down the concurrent causes of each matter, had he not been everywhere very zealous for the truth. Therefore he stated the cause wherefore many ran to the tomb, and were found there, and became beholders of the marvellous deed, and reported it to others.
