Then went in also that other disciple, who came first to the sepulcher, and he saw, and believed.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre.
Tropologically, Toletus says that by John are signified all Christians, but by Peter the Pontiffs, Vicars of Christ. Peter then entered the tomb first as the highest in dignity, as the Vicar of Christ; but John came last, because it is possible that he who is first in rank, is behind others in desert and holiness.
And he saw and believed. Both of them, that Isaiah , believed that what Mary Magdalene said was true, namely, that the Body of Christ had been taken away. So says S. Augustine, Theophylact, and Jansen. S. Cyril, Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Nyssen add that both believed that Christ had risen. But this word "believed" more clearly and correctly applies only to S. John , who remembered the words of Christ, that He would rise on the third day. But Peter, on account of the strangeness of a Resurrection, and from His earnest desire to see Him alive again, was more slow to believe that Christ had risen. Whenc...
He saw and believed. He did not yet believe that Jesus was risen from the dead, because he was still ignorant that he was to rise from the dead. For although the apostles had so often heard their divine Master speak in the most plain terms of his resurrection, still being so much accustomed to parables, they did not understand, and imagined something else was meant by these words. (St. Augustine, tract. 120. in Joan.)
